Just picked up Xenoblade Chronicles Defeinitive Edition to play through, and Future Connected, before this comes out. Haven't played it since the Wii, it was one of my favourite RPG's.
Played this a few years ago, it’s a masterpiece of game design once again from Lucas Pope. Unique and never played a game that made me feel more like an actual detective, very little hand holding, it’s left up to you.
@Bunkerneath LOL Was about to post the same. I don't usually get motion sick in games but just watching that video made me queasy. I'm going to lie down
This is tough because Goldeneye (N64) was a 10/10 at the time, but it has aged woefully.
What I will say, it wasn't a great game, but I still enjoyed Blood Stone. The idea of a new James Bond adventure in the style of a movie with a great cast (Daniel Craig, Judy Dench, Bill Tanner, Joss Stone etc.) was really exciting, even had it's own theme tune and Bond intro.
A great idea that didn't quite hit home. Would love to see someone try this again now.
Generally don’t believe in pre-ordering but Monolithsoft haven’t let me down since Nintendo acquired them and it’s £39.85 at Shopto right now. Pre-ordered
Although Silksong was officially announced just over 3 years ago (Feb 2019) we’ve actually been waiting much much longer. Initially this was a Kickstarter tier reward to the original Kickstarter campaign way back in 2014 and was meant to be DLC.
It has been my most anticipated game for SO long now. Wishing Team Cherry well on getting over the line. Hopefully an update soon.
@Ryu_Niiyama No issue at all. I just thought it interesting you were saying Nintendo don't make mainstream games. When to my eyes games like Mario Kart. Mario and Animal Crossing are the definition of mainstream. But I guess that is subjective. Peace.
Mario Kart Tour at $4.99pm is definitely a live service and you can easily argue that Mario Kart 8 deluxe and Super Smash Bros Ultimate with all their staggered DLC packs are also live service games, depending on who's definition you use. One of the popular ones is:
"A live service game is a type of video game that’s designed to keep people engaged, so they play it for as long as possible. That means that instead of making one game and moving on to the next, companies create a game they can update for years to come."
Nintendo is missing out on a lot of money by ignoring the neutral PC market.
Perhaps. Though personally as someone who rarely uses the Switch's USP (portability) it is usually the worst place to play everything. If Nintendo's exclusives came out on PC I likely wouldn't buy their console which would also lose them out on console revenue, 3rd party store revenue and having to share the cut with Epic/Steam. The same isn't true for PlayStation/Xbox for me. YMMV but I expect there a enough gamers in my position for them to take a hit overall.
Considering that Nintendo isn’t making “mainstream “ games
I'd posit that Mario Kart and Animal Crossing's numbers certainly make them firmly "mainstream". But at the end of the day it's just subjective pigeonholing and unimportant.
After a year of being pretty idle (lockdown 3 was a killer) I recently got back into this and it was the starting domino that pushed me back into regular and more hardcore exercise. It really is a great fitness tool and game wrapped into one.
I'd love to see other games that use the Ring-con and as others have said multiplayer
I want them to take as long as needed to make Silksong a worthy successor to Hollow Knight.
At the same time the wait IS agonising.
It's been over 3 years since it was announced and in January last year it was the cover feature of EDGE magazine. Even then it seemed 'It can’t be too much longer, surely!', yet here we are almost a year and a half later with hardly a word on the game.
I'd be very dubious to take one man's word over another and base my viewpoint on it. Especially on that last quote which sounds pretty self indulgent, sounds like there is some bad blood and bias there.
@GsPandem Yes! the MUSIC is wonderful.
So much variety and every region has a different musical influence. 10/10. I deliberately take a long time on some bosses like Stormterror just to hear the crescendo. (Ganyu kills him in 10 seconds lol)
And you’re right it does SOME things better than BOTW even if it’s isn’t nearly as good a game imho
I seem to lose every 50:50 on the character banner.
That said I get very lucky on weapons. Redhorn for Itto, Primordial Jade Spear for Xiao, Engulfing Lightning for Raiden, Aquila Favonia for Bennett, and R2 Wolfs Gravestone for Diluc. (Last two were on standard banner)
@Kirgo in a very similar boat. Played since day 1. Ultra-low spend, I’ve spent less than the price of one game, but didn’t have to at all.
Like you have about 40% of the 5 star character and (almost) all 4 stars. Not enough 5 star weapons though, that’s the main F2P difference, but I’ve got a few best in slot ones for my main DPS characters. Most decent 4 stars I have at C6 (C5 for Bennett!!!).
It’s a really good game at its core. But I don’t like the time sink it is, even just doing dailies. Love/hate but can’t escape 😂 core gameplay is just too good
@Kirgo 100% it’s clear reading many they haven’t played it, just being judgemental. That said if I didn’t play it I’d be bored of all the adverts, YouTube videos, coverage etc. that is still going after 18 months.
It’s a funny game parts of it are 10/10 other parts 6/10, plus there’s gacha. Despite putting far too many hours into it I flip flop on whether I’d actually recommend it to anyone. It IS a time sink by design which is the biggest problem.
IMO It’s a really good game but has some glaring flaws
Pros
The core gameplay is fantastic, else people wouldn’t keep coming back or spend. This is #1
It’s 100% a AAA game. Almost no expense spared. Great graphics, best voice actors (for all languages), fully orchestral score, etc.
The world is a delight to explore, that part is the closest to BOTW I have played
New characters change the gameplay and keep it fresh
Release cadence is fast
New regions bring new mechanics, keeping it fresh
it’s FREE and you don’t have to spend a penny. Can complete all content with the starting roster of characters, and you get a lot of free wishes just for playing
Cons
it’s a Gacha game. If you have ANY sort of addictive personality steer well clear
upgrades are time gated (resin) and slow
the grind is real once you hit a certain point, it’s a time-sink if it clicks
too much filler, release of new parts to explore is slow (understandably as they are large and very, very good)
writing is really inconsistent. Mostly not great but the occasional surprisingly deep quests
it’s not finished. Only 3 of the proposed 7 continents are released.
Parts of this are very close, or even over, the line between inspiration and rip-off, but as Konami aren't doing anything worthwhile with the Castlevania IP i'm all for this.
Honestly I felt embarrassed playing the last game in front of my family. Pyra/Mythra was just standing still but still bouncing up and down. It's just unnecessary. Feels like it's designed for horny teenagers/old men still in their parents basements. Aside from that and the horrible 'gacha-like' summoning mechanic it was a really good game. Bring on XC3
Wonderful news. Though kinda weird that this was announced as September just 2 months ago and now that date is pulled forward two months.
Optimistically I hope that's because they realise their are less bugs to fix than expected.
Pessimistically I hope it's not for the wrong reasons and won't release with bugs that will be patched later just to hit an arbitrary date they set themselves.
Gameboy (1989) and SNES (1990) were the same era and wins in a landslide for me. Famicon/NES was 1983.
Gameboy Colour was part of the Gameboy Line not a separate generation. Altering history to fit neat boxes.
@KateGray Great idea! But unfortunately I'm already doing one of these on the forums of PureXbox and struggle to get through one extra game a month as it stands. But i'll keep an eye out here and see when I can jump in. Best of luck with the backlogs!
They’re not great are they. Though I for one like the minimalism of some of these. Subtle enough that it looks kinda cool to the average punter yet those who know know, but not so in your face that you are walking talking garish billboard. Just a shame they aren’t better.
“It's got so bad that blue milk Luke is now going for higher prices than a copy of the game”
Sadly this isn’t that uncommon with these collectors edition extras. Plenty of people buy them and sell the models and other bits for large profits due to scarcity
Looks like they’ve mostly just put the backgrounds through AI upsampling. The trouble with updating the models and text is they no longer all sit so cohesively together. Seems nearer to a minimum possible effort.
Comments 528
Re: Watch: Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase
Not a bad showcase. But many games I can play elsewhere or don't interest me. And my heart years for Silksong...
Re: Watch: Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase
Being patent and not skipping through to see the Chapter titles
Re: Watch: Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase
Silksong date and i'll be happy
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Appears To Feature English & Japanese Lip-Syncs
I’m really feeling it!
Re: Random: Get A Glimpse At The Glory Days With This Retro SNES Video
I think I still have callouses on my fingers caused by getting one of those SF2 SNES packages.
Re: Gallery: Take A Closer Look At Xenoblade Chronicles 3's Characters And Combat
Didn’t watch the direct as I want to go in as blind as possible. But loving the look of some of some of those screenshots. Love this series.
Re: A Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Direct Will Be Airing This Wednesday
IT'S REYN TIME!
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Introduces Us To The Forest-Dwelling Archer Yuzuriha
Just picked up Xenoblade Chronicles Defeinitive Edition to play through, and Future Connected, before this comes out. Haven't played it since the Wii, it was one of my favourite RPG's.
Looking forward to this one.
Re: Backlog Club: Return Of The Obra Dinn Is A Masterpiece Of Deduction And Atmosphere
Played this a few years ago, it’s a masterpiece of game design once again from Lucas Pope. Unique and never played a game that made me feel more like an actual detective, very little hand holding, it’s left up to you.
Re: Intense FPS 'Severed Steel' Launches On Switch Next Month
@Bunkerneath LOL Was about to post the same. I don't usually get motion sick in games but just watching that video made me queasy. I'm going to lie down
Re: Poll: What's The Best James Bond Game?
@KindofaBigDeal Ah! never played that one. Now I want to
Needs more of this
Re: Poll: What's The Best James Bond Game?
This is tough because Goldeneye (N64) was a 10/10 at the time, but it has aged woefully.
What I will say, it wasn't a great game, but I still enjoyed Blood Stone. The idea of a new James Bond adventure in the style of a movie with a great cast (Daniel Craig, Judy Dench, Bill Tanner, Joss Stone etc.) was really exciting, even had it's own theme tune and Bond intro.
A great idea that didn't quite hit home. Would love to see someone try this again now.
Re: New Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Trailer Highlights The Gorgeous World Of Aionios
Generally don’t believe in pre-ordering but Monolithsoft haven’t let me down since Nintendo acquired them and it’s £39.85 at Shopto right now. Pre-ordered
Re: Feature: Will We Finally See These Games In The Not-E3 Nintendo Direct?
Although Silksong was officially announced just over 3 years ago (Feb 2019) we’ve actually been waiting much much longer. Initially this was a Kickstarter tier reward to the original Kickstarter campaign way back in 2014 and was meant to be DLC.
It has been my most anticipated game for SO long now. Wishing Team Cherry well on getting over the line. Hopefully an update soon.
Re: Meet Valdi, A War Medic Who Will Support You In Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Will be interesting to see how this fits in. Look like the Mechon from XC1 and the brief glimpse of the landscape looks very Mechonis/Bionis.
Re: Feature: The Saddest Games On Switch - Games To Make You Cry
The opening to Ori is up there with the opening to Up for most tear duct opening beginning in media
Re: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Artist Talks About "Frustrating" Zelda Rumours
"False expectations" this industry seems to run on them
Re: The Pokémon Company Delivers 'Staggering' Financial Results
Dilly-Mick wrote:
YAY! i'm younger than I thought.
Re: The Pokémon Company Delivers 'Staggering' Financial Results
Does this include the Cards? Loads of my friends kids are all obsessed with Pokemon cards again, it's like jumping back 30 years.
Re: Dragon Quest Creator Yuji Horii Shares Brief Update On Next Mainline Entry
DQ Builders 3?
Re: Random: University Student Makes Brilliant Zelda-Inspired Animation, Gets An A
That was excellent. Whimsical little fan project. Love it. Well deserved A
Re: Ubisoft Reportedly Wants Its Share Price To Improve Before It Sells
To do that they will have to significantly improve their output which will take a long time.
Re: Nintendo 8th Place In "Top 10" Game Revenues For 2021
@Ryu_Niiyama No issue at all. I just thought it interesting you were saying Nintendo don't make mainstream games. When to my eyes games like Mario Kart. Mario and Animal Crossing are the definition of mainstream. But I guess that is subjective. Peace.
Re: Nintendo 8th Place In "Top 10" Game Revenues For 2021
Erigen wrote:
Mario Kart Tour at $4.99pm is definitely a live service and you can easily argue that Mario Kart 8 deluxe and Super Smash Bros Ultimate with all their staggered DLC packs are also live service games, depending on who's definition you use. One of the popular ones is:
Sound familiar?
Re: Nintendo 8th Place In "Top 10" Game Revenues For 2021
Ventilator wrote:
Perhaps. Though personally as someone who rarely uses the Switch's USP (portability) it is usually the worst place to play everything. If Nintendo's exclusives came out on PC I likely wouldn't buy their console which would also lose them out on console revenue, 3rd party store revenue and having to share the cut with Epic/Steam. The same isn't true for PlayStation/Xbox for me. YMMV but I expect there a enough gamers in my position for them to take a hit overall.
Re: Nintendo 8th Place In "Top 10" Game Revenues For 2021
Ryu_Niiyama wrote:
I'd posit that Mario Kart and Animal Crossing's numbers certainly make them firmly "mainstream". But at the end of the day it's just subjective pigeonholing and unimportant.
Re: Ring Fit Adventure Switch Sales Have Now Surpassed 14 Million
After a year of being pretty idle (lockdown 3 was a killer) I recently got back into this and it was the starting domino that pushed me back into regular and more hardcore exercise. It really is a great fitness tool and game wrapped into one.
I'd love to see other games that use the Ring-con and as others have said multiplayer
Re: Team Cherry (Kind Of) Shares Update About Development Status Of Hollow Knight: Silksong
I want them to take as long as needed to make Silksong a worthy successor to Hollow Knight.
At the same time the wait IS agonising.
It's been over 3 years since it was announced and in January last year it was the cover feature of EDGE magazine. Even then it seemed 'It can’t be too much longer, surely!', yet here we are almost a year and a half later with hardly a word on the game.
Re: Former Konami Staff Discuss Elusive Castlevania Creator's Work
I'd be very dubious to take one man's word over another and base my viewpoint on it. Especially on that last quote which sounds pretty self indulgent, sounds like there is some bad blood and bias there.
Re: Don't Worry, Genshin Impact Is "Still In Development" For Nintendo Switch
@GsPandem Yes! the MUSIC is wonderful.
So much variety and every region has a different musical influence. 10/10. I deliberately take a long time on some bosses like Stormterror just to hear the crescendo. (Ganyu kills him in 10 seconds lol)
And you’re right it does SOME things better than BOTW even if it’s isn’t nearly as good a game imho
Re: Don't Worry, Genshin Impact Is "Still In Development" For Nintendo Switch
@Kirgo Nice! Meanwhile I got C3 Qiqi 🤣😂😔😢😭
I seem to lose every 50:50 on the character banner.
That said I get very lucky on weapons. Redhorn for Itto, Primordial Jade Spear for Xiao, Engulfing Lightning for Raiden, Aquila Favonia for Bennett, and R2 Wolfs Gravestone for Diluc. (Last two were on standard banner)
Enjoy the game
Re: Don't Worry, Genshin Impact Is "Still In Development" For Nintendo Switch
@Kirgo in a very similar boat. Played since day 1. Ultra-low spend, I’ve spent less than the price of one game, but didn’t have to at all.
Like you have about 40% of the 5 star character and (almost) all 4 stars. Not enough 5 star weapons though, that’s the main F2P difference, but I’ve got a few best in slot ones for my main DPS characters. Most decent 4 stars I have at C6 (C5 for Bennett!!!).
It’s a really good game at its core. But I don’t like the time sink it is, even just doing dailies. Love/hate but can’t escape 😂 core gameplay is just too good
Re: Don't Worry, Genshin Impact Is "Still In Development" For Nintendo Switch
@Kirgo 100% it’s clear reading many they haven’t played it, just being judgemental. That said if I didn’t play it I’d be bored of all the adverts, YouTube videos, coverage etc. that is still going after 18 months.
It’s a funny game parts of it are 10/10 other parts 6/10, plus there’s gacha. Despite putting far too many hours into it I flip flop on whether I’d actually recommend it to anyone. It IS a time sink by design which is the biggest problem.
Re: Don't Worry, Genshin Impact Is "Still In Development" For Nintendo Switch
So much SALT on this comment thread. Lol
IMO It’s a really good game but has some glaring flaws
Pros
Cons
Re: Random: Of Course Someone Has Already Smashed Their TV Playing Switch Sports
Plot twist: They haven't they're just chasing after attention on an already broken TV.
Re: Koumajou Densetsu: Scarlet Symphony Is The Castlevania You've Been Waiting For
@TechaNinja I own it.... but it's on my list of shame
Re: Koumajou Densetsu: Scarlet Symphony Is The Castlevania You've Been Waiting For
Parts of this are very close, or even over, the line between inspiration and rip-off, but as Konami aren't doing anything worthwhile with the Castlevania IP i'm all for this.
Re: Reggie Fils-Aimé Talks Re-Evaluating His Life After Iwata's Death
Smart words as ever from Reggie.
More cynically does he have a book out or something? Seems to be doing the press rounds a lot right now /jk
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Will Reveal Some Skin, Unsurprisingly
Honestly I felt embarrassed playing the last game in front of my family. Pyra/Mythra was just standing still but still bouncing up and down. It's just unnecessary. Feels like it's designed for horny teenagers/old men still in their parents basements. Aside from that and the horrible 'gacha-like' summoning mechanic it was a really good game. Bring on XC3
Re: New Genesis / Mega Drive Games Could Be Coming To Switch Online This Week
So many good games to choose from... please don't be dross.
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Gets A Release Date, And It's Sooner Than You Think
Wonderful news. Though kinda weird that this was announced as September just 2 months ago and now that date is pulled forward two months.
Optimistically I hope that's because they realise their are less bugs to fix than expected.
Pessimistically I hope it's not for the wrong reasons and won't release with bugs that will be patched later just to hit an arbitrary date they set themselves.
Re: Feature: Which Is The Absolute Best Nintendo Console Generation?
Gameboy (1989) and SNES (1990) were the same era and wins in a landslide for me. Famicon/NES was 1983.
Gameboy Colour was part of the Gameboy Line not a separate generation. Altering history to fit neat boxes.
Re: Backlog Club: Week Zero - Hello (Again), And Welcome (Again) To Backlog Club
@KateGray Great idea! But unfortunately I'm already doing one of these on the forums of PureXbox and struggle to get through one extra game a month as it stands. But i'll keep an eye out here and see when I can jump in. Best of luck with the backlogs!
Re: Final Fantasy Uniqlo Range Accidentally Revealed Early
They’re not great are they. Though I for one like the minimalism of some of these. Subtle enough that it looks kinda cool to the average punter yet those who know know, but not so in your face that you are walking talking garish billboard. Just a shame they aren’t better.
Re: Scalpers Set Their Sights On LEGO Star Wars Deluxe Edition 'Blue Milk Luke' Minifigure
“It's got so bad that blue milk Luke is now going for higher prices than a copy of the game”
Sadly this isn’t that uncommon with these collectors edition extras. Plenty of people buy them and sell the models and other bits for large profits due to scarcity
Re: Back Page: Which Is The Best Controller Button, And What Does Your Pick Say About You?
X it's on all major consoles and PC.
Re: Square Enix Shows Off Chrono Cross Remaster Comparison Screenshots
@Daniel36 there was an article just the other day saying you couldn’t sadly.
Re: Square Enix Shows Off Chrono Cross Remaster Comparison Screenshots
Looks like they’ve mostly just put the backgrounds through AI upsampling. The trouble with updating the models and text is they no longer all sit so cohesively together. Seems nearer to a minimum possible effort.
Honestly don’t have high hopes
Re: Rumour: A New Zelda: BOTW 2 Name Is Gaining Traction Online...
Sounds like a placeholder
Re: Zelda: Breath Of The Wild 2: Everything We Know So Far
They were always going to have to nerf the Master Sword in some way