gcunit

After years of ownership, but on the fence about breaking open the seal on the Collector's edition, I've bought a second copy of Sakuna: Of Rice And Ruin and am finally playing it.

It's been so long since it came out that I'd kinda forgotten anything about it, other than I knew i loved the concept (whatever it was) and the promotional artwork (of which I've acquired two t-shirts recently too).

Seems quite cutscene-heavy so far, which I wasn't expecting, but it's pretty entertaining stuff, what with Sakuna being an alch-y, and accompanied by better-than-anticipated voice work. Couple that with the platforming, that I'd forgotten completely was an aspect of the game, and it's turning out to be the unique experience I always hoped it would be.

Rice is power!

Also playing the obligatory Animal Crossing, and wondering if I might find time for some Splatfest. And Slipstream, which I bought cheap recently to see if I wanted to buy the LRG physical or not. It's not as good as the marketing wants me to think it would be. It's ok, but it doesn't deserve an inflated physical purchase in my book.

Replace "...you love me" with "..you've held Switch 2":

My cousin was walking past his local recording studio yesterday and says he saw Reggie out back, rehearsing a recording of the 'Huh huh, huh huh, yeah' song.

I didn't want a bigger Switch. I'm beginning to think the sensible thing for me to do would be to await a smaller SKU.

But who said I'm sensible?

I didn't want a bigger Switch. I'm beginning to think the sensible thing for me to do would be to await a smaller SKU.

But who said I'm sensible?

@NinChocolate I'd love it if Nintendo ghosted the whole caboodle and doesn't say or show a thing. Then on April 1st the shops suddenly fill with Switch 2 and some stonking new Mario game, and Nintendo just says nothing.

When I can import the same games, or games I want that aren't stocked locally, from Canada while paying less, I'm going to buy from UK sellers less.

I haven't stopped buying physical games, but I've started buying them from different countries more.

But these figures aren't a surprise. The trend has been obvious for years. It makes sense for publishers to do whatever they can to kill the culture of consumers owning their games, especially physically. And it'll happen in the UK earlier than in many places, because the UK market is smaller, and the UK population is particularly willing to bend over for short-term, mis-perceived, gain. Which is why a few of us have been going nuts for physical on Switch - making hay while the sun shines (just before it disappears below the horizon).

I've read the full list now. I thought it was pretty decent overall and I don't recall seeing any that made me say 'Nah' (well, maybe Ms. Pac-Man. And Mario Kart 64 over 8D? Pah!).

It's not my Top 50, but it's got a good spread of the most significant franchises in modern gaming history. But yes, Ocarina of Time mustn't ever be omitted just because Breath of the Wild knocked it off its perch, and I'd to see Mario Galaxy in there too (despite the swimming controls). And I think I'd choose Goldeneye over Metal Gear Solid.

No arguments from me. It's not really comparable to a game like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which is why I tend to say MK8D is my favourite arcade-type game of all time, but Breath of the Wild is undoubtedly the best non-arcade-type game I've ever played.

Do I make myself play the Steam version I paid for years ago so that I can finally get into the series that I own most of the games of but have never played?

Or...

Do I wait another year (or more) for the Switch release and pay another £40+ for the privilege?

I think we all know the answer. I'm off to pre-order...

Do you wish Battlefront 3 made it to the Wii?

Does Yoda **** in the swamp?

Uh-oh. My annual 'I don't play even 10% of what I buy' self-reflection is upon me. I'll be in a dark room.

With my Switch!

88 games, but only 417 hours. I want and need to be at least doubling that. It has felt like a busy year, non-gaming-wise. I have also been on my Wii U and 3DS a bit too. Been playing Xenoblade Chronicles X recently, so my Switch hours for October and November are pretty paltry.

1. Animal Crossing (129 hrs)
2. Clannad (40 hrs)
3. (gulps) Fortnite (35 hrs)

For my favourite for 2024, it was a toss up, but I've gone with RiME. Didn't play it until this year, and after a suspect opening, I really grew to love it, so it stands out as a memory from this year. Haven't actually finished it yet, but that's just par for the course with me. I'll get to it, ok?

Thanks for 2024 y'all. Here's to a sweet, sweet 2025! Big love 💕😘

@DG_Cacique My first thought upon viewing the trailer was Oddworld.

I don't remember Lemmings having laser guns and boobies. Maybe I need to go back and look a little closer.

Buy in the dip. Buy in the dip.

Surely there's always a dip after Nintendo announces some brand new hardware that turns out to be using 10 year old tech.

The joycon designs all these mock-ups are based upon look fake to me.

Like the art; suspicious about the choppiness of the editing in that video - too much cutting away before enough time has passed to really judge what's going on, obviously done on purpose, so either they're teasing us because they want us to get a proper taste of its full majesty once we've bought it, or they're trying to cover deficiencies that exist because it's a kickstarter.

I can't remember: should I be celebrating this, or condemning the illegitimate proliferation of copyright property?

"It's the Wrong Tropius, Gromit!"

I'm yet to see everything that Aardman has created, but I've seen enough to be very keen to see the results of this partnership. Hope it results in a claymation style game and not just an animation.

Oh boy, the stories I could tell you lot about transmission line theory and how it constrains practical PCB design...

I'm glad and thankful that Nintendo goes to the measures that it does to protect its IP. Only wish George Lucas had applied a similar level of care when he sold off Star Wars.

The little melange of genres had me on board until I saw deck builder. I don't think I even have anything against deck building, but there's just this stigma in my mind for some reason. I'm intrigued, but what with the underslept mood I'm in today, my brain just doesn't want to entertain the idea of cards in an action game.

Pretty much ditto. The game looks to have plenty of potential, but the main character's visual and aural design is putting me off a bit. Not insurmountably, but my hype is tempered by it.

Bummer about those cons, but I think I'm going to be regrettably coerced by the attractive visuals and then curse the shortcomings about plot and extended combat later.

It's harder to justify manufacturing capacity for alarm clocks when you're MAKING A GAJILLION SWITCH SUCCESSORS!!! SHAMONE!

I found myself asking, "Why have they chosen to make these voices such a feature of their trailer, cos I'm not sure they're a selling point". Reassuring to see others had a similar reaction.

@PtM Thank you for attempting to set me straight, but are mammary glands not epidermal appendages?

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3706056/

Some women happen to have very large appendages on their chests. Are they not deserving of fair representation?

Our courage has pulled us through.

I'm fine with the use of 'boring' here, and feel it is only really a reflection on the game itself. I've not finished the game, so won't commit to final conclusions yet, but so far I wouldn't score it as highly as 9/10 and one of the reasons for that is that i have just found it a bit boring, repetitive, flat & monotonous. I don't dislike it, but it's the least interested I've been in a Zelda game so far, I think.

If I had bothered imagining what a Donkey Kong Country theme park entrance would look like, it would have been pretty much that.

I already have 1, 2 & 3 together on one cart, I ain't gonna be dropping £45 on a tarted-up version of just one of them. Not immediately, anyway.

Was just watching the trailer before seeing this review. Looks good enough to be worth a punt, if not quite standing out from the crowd.

I wonder if it covers Metroid Prime 2 Remastered and Metroid Prime 3 Remastered...

Poor Other M.

Ooo, looking at that tweet, the way they just state '...and Remastered' really leaves the door open... I was just joking initially, but now I'm unjustifiably hyped and expectant.

Saw these at No.1 in the UK eshop chart a day or so ago. I was a bit surprised.

At first I was taken by the art style, but as it went I was getting distracted by how all the characters in the game are bobbing up and down incessantly. I appreciate I've mentioned this before, and I appreciate animators have to do something that minimises resource use but shows the player that it is a character you can interact with rather than an inanimate piece of the background. But if they could do something other than the bobbing, that might be nice.

This seems very positive. I'm a fan of pretty much everything cited in this article under the Koei Tecmo publishing roof, so hopefully, with good management, this expansion will be good for all.

PS. I can think of a reason why they might ignore Xbox...

Was watching the trailer for this last night. Found it intriguing, but not quite fully appealing. I tend to like games that employ greyscale, but there was something about this that left me unconvinced. Ima wait for word-of-mouth.

If I was a 21st century snowflake, I might think it a bit misandric that 'dick move' is used pejoratively.

I'm not, so I don't, fyi. It does indeed seem like a bit of a dick move, but I'm not sure that going public with that opinion is going to help GSG going forward.

I really love RiME, had a great time. Haven't heard of the other one, I don't think, but wish everyone the best and will look that game up.

I'm both embarrassed and proud, in roughly equal measure, about the number of times basically the same game can be released over a 30+ year timespan and we just keep buying it up. Here's to the next 30 years of Tetris 🥳

I've never licked a cartridge, but I do find the bitter coating transfers to my fingers when handling a cartridge, so I have experienced the taste on more than one occasion.

Good job @Nintendolife - presenting survey results always feels like a ballache of a task to me, but you've done a good job with this.

I will feedback that I pulled out of completing the survey when being asked how many kids were in the household and what their ages were, kinda felt a bit too personal and that was just a few questions in, so I decided to cut my losses and bail, not knowing how the rest of the survey was going to turn out.

For the amount of difference this makes, and the amount I play handheld or tabletop, this isn't worth more than £10 to me. The people behind this were dreaming when they thought £100 was a realistic price point. You're selling to a very small number of people who would entertain the idea of this at full price. What do the parts cost? Take off that silly m and it would be even less.

Aww man, this is just plain teasing. Just injecting us with that little bit of hope to feed our addiction.

Coulda been worse, I guess... coulda been a Mother Trilogy...

Nearly everything about this game's ongoing existence makes me want to play it and love it. I bought it Day 1 digitally and also have it physically...

... But for the love of all that is pixelated, ERIC... PLEASE LET ME STAY UP AS LONG AS I WANT!

@Miss_Moon No offence taken; thanks for the reminder. I'm not particularly into episodic game releases, paid or otherwise, but I'll try to retain this useful info this time around.

There'll be a physical release of the whole thing eventually. I'll wait for that. I don't buy chapters.

^^^^ Edgelord in the house 😆

@cedarhyped With 5 separate paragraphs making reference to the game releasing later than originally expected, I suppose there's not much room for those trivial matters.

Does this game have any sound? If so, how is it?

Is it single player only?

What sort of longevity can I expect out of it?