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    Pretty sure Todd Howard referred to bugs as 'Bethesda charm' in the official reveal trailer

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      Hahahaha you have to admire the gall.

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        More Silent Hill 2. It's no great revelation the game is unpleasant ... the light and shade ratio more one-sided than most ... but as it goes on it starts to feel like a punishing slog. It's a survival horror game, this is what I signed up for, but from what I gather the original PS2 game is around 10-12 hours in length and this remake is double that. That means there's padded gameplay sections with roughly the same amount of story ... and story is the best thing about the game. The puzzles are fun, and I'm happy to power through a few monsters, but the latter levels in the prison and labyrinth feel long and bloated. I just want to get it done now, get the story boxed off and complete. Then get back to the cheery colours of Astro Bot

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          Originally posted by Atticus View Post
          More Silent Hill 2. It's no great revelation the game is unpleasant ... the light and shade ratio more one-sided than most ... but as it goes on it starts to feel like a punishing slog. It's a survival horror game, this is what I signed up for, but from what I gather the original PS2 game is around 10-12 hours in length and this remake is double that. That means there's padded gameplay sections with roughly the same amount of story ... and story is the best thing about the game. The puzzles are fun, and I'm happy to power through a few monsters, but the latter levels in the prison and labyrinth feel long and bloated. I just want to get it done now, get the story boxed off and complete. Then get back to the cheery colours of Astro Bot
          Yeah, I didn't finish it.

          It's really good. Such a great remake in so many ways. It retains the spirit of the original, feeling very true to the soul, while adding improvements and some new surprises along the way. But yes, padded for sure. And more than that for me, and this should be a positive, I find it more tense than the original and I realised that I wasn't actually enjoying playing it. It was hard work. So I stopped. And yet I do think it's a great remake.

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            This week:

            PC - Avowed
            I'm barely past the character creator, it's next up though as Game Pass has been building quite a backlog for me. South of Midnight is done and it really was an enjoyable title, really good for breaking up how many RPG style releases there's been but 100% the weakest aspect is how you essentially do the same enclosed fight again and again throughout the whole game.

            PS5 - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
            Still early in this too, a few more missions in but the second island is still locked. It's been a long time since I played this one but people be damned, it's good but it's still the weakest of the three entries thanks to its feather light steering and largely flat city layout.

            Ally X - Saturn
            Focusing on a couple of old arcade titles just to break up some of the lengthier stuff this months time has gone into

            Additional - Until Dawn and Split Fiction
            Now into Chapter 2 on Until Dawn's remake, the missus never plays games so we're slow progressing in this. The jump scares get her every time though. My eldest is working through Split Fiction with me, we're in Chapter 4 now so close to halfway. It's good but Chapter 3 had several low points.

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              Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves (PS5) - Probably my fave SNK fighting game. The game is unapologetically old skool, but at the same time is mechanically rich. Takes some time to adjust and understand, but it's lots of fun. Enjoying being able to link EX (REV ACCEL) moves into Super.

              Street Fighter 6 (PS5/Steam) - I close approaching 1,500 hours on this. Not bad for a full-time working father of 3, right? *Social Services knock.

              Balatro (All formats) - I'm playing a few runs each day.

              Expedition 33 (Xbox Series S) - Good game, but probably going to drop it for now.

              Retro - Playing pinball games on my Miyoo Mini+. Great times!

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                I powered on and finished Silent Hill 2 last night. Turns out I was at the end of the endless, penultimate bit and on the cusp of a rather more enjoyable (enjoyable? not really) end chapter. It's a game about getting answers and truth. You have to go through hell to get them and when you do it's only bleak. A gruelling, miserable game, but also an effective horror experience with a bold story. Will I play it again? No. Even with the NG+ chainsaw? No. In the words of Captain Sensible, I'm glad it's all over.

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                  I finished Suikoden 2 last night. Much bigger and more ambitious than the first game and, in most ways, that makes it an incredible sequel that delivers much more than the first one. The story really builds beautifully and the characters are generally fantastic.

                  One thing that comes with the size and a story with more details is some game crimes that didn't seem to be apparent in the first one. The big one being that thing of being pretty sure you know where to go next but the game won't let you because you didn't yet visit some guy in some inn to trigger a scene you couldn't possibly know you needed. That sort of thing happens quite a few times in the game, which is unfortunate. It throws the game into being a little more of a mixed bag - higher highs but also some lows that weren't there in the first game.

                  Thankfully equipment management is way easier in this one.

                  The remaster looks absolutely gorgeous. They did stunning work. And the music is beautiful.

                  Overall, the remaster 1&2 package is fantastic and I'd recommend it for any RPG fan.

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                    This Week:


                    Avowed - I'm right at the back end, maybe 2 or so hours left to go through. It's a vast world but in essence a pocket sized Skyrim taking probably a quarter of the time to go through. It's decent, I've gotten more into it as its progressed but the locations lack a sense of place. It's solid building blocks to the genre but doesn't quite come together to achieve the bar possible.

                    Red Matter 2 - Very early but it's making a better impression on me than the original did and has some very impressive attention to detail effects such as the lighting and monitors actually having display glass etc.

                    Final Fantasy VII Remake - Opted for Head Start mode as this is a replay to brush up ahead of Rebirth, similarly very early

                    El Shaddai - Going to try this again having not previosuly been won over by it

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                      I reckon I'm done with Arkham City (PS4).

                      I've finished the main game a week back but been scooting around the map to solve the last few Riddler trophies. Some are really unintuitive and don't follow a theme, so for some you have to divebomb or grapple wire through a breakable board, then another time you'll have to deactivate the power first or zoom in to only do one explosive at a time, which you don't do in the whole game!

                      Grumbling aside, this was a lot of fun. They threw in every single Batvillain you could think of and had a fun story.
                      You feel like a boss as you mash up all the cronies with your kung-fu skills and gadgets.

                      Basically, if you like the other games, you'll like this too. The Metroidvania structure means that it drips the progress to you and it's nice fun.
                      Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill return for voiceover duties.
                      There's a load more content included like fighting or stealth challenges, but I think I'm done.

                      One final gripe that's a MASSIVE spoiler:

                      So, The Joker and the Batman are dying following an infection at the end of Arkham Asylum.
                      They're both fighting over the cure.

                      It leads to a showdown where Batman fights The Joker but loses. Batman's former lover, Talia al Ghul, tells The Joker she will give him eternal life if he spares Batman.

                      When Batman catches up to them (thanks to Talia's tracker), Talia apparently kills Joker, but he's tricked her and she's murdered by Joker instead.
                      Batman drinks half the potion that Talia stole for him, after convincing Joker to spare his life, turning her back on her father and the ninja cult thing she's in to save his life.

                      Batman finally beats Joker and after a minor faff, decides he should save The Joker with the antidote.
                      While he's faffing, Joker attacks, making Bats drop and smash the cure and thus Joker's life isn't saved and he dies.

                      Batman then reverentially caries Talia's lifeless body outside, overcome with emotion and respect for her and the sacrifices she made to save his life.

                      NO WAIT!

                      He actually leaves her body like a sack of spuds and carries the motherchuffin' JOKER'S corpse out like he's a valiant hero that's died in honourable battle!

                      I'd be finding a spade and liberating Joker's head from his body just to make sure he doesn't come back!

                      I was fuming, gang.




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