 Every gamer has a list of games they've been meaning to get to, and what better time than the spookiest time of year (and we're not talking about tax time) – Halloween. This is your call to stop putting it off and dive into something new, whether you have time to or not. Imagine if that game you've been making excuses about suddenly disappeared tomorrow…like a ghost? We've got a few suggestions, but there are no doubt countless more – 2023 has been very generous, as high a toll as it's taken on the developers, in some cases. Why not share your pick on our Discord?
Starlink: Battle for Atlas | Liam Andrews  My backlog comfortably extends into the previous generations of consoles (at least on Xbox and PS), but of all the titles I've been meaning to make time for it's Starlink on Switch. My Switch backlog isn't actually too bad. I've recently polished off Metroid Prime Remastered, finished Skyward Sword and Pokémon Legends Arceus, and I'm making good progress on Super Mario Wonder. Bought on a whim when the starter set was going for cheap (I think it cost me £11) back in 2019, the reason it's been neglected for so long is that I forget I own it. Because of the starter kit's size, there's no space for it with my other stack of Switch games, so I had to stick it up high on top of a bookshelf where I occasionally spot Fox McCloud's Arwing model peering out at me through the plastic packaging. Perhaps now I've put it in writing I'll finally remember to give the game a go sometime. DOOM Eternal | Chris Brand  Though it may not be a traditional horror game, DOOM Eternal still pushes my tolerance for anything vaguely scary to its limit. Something I often indulge in around this time of year.
During combat, I feel like an unstoppable killing machine, ripping and tearing through hordes of demons without flinching. The unwavering enemies and intense soundtrack work in tandem to assault multiple senses, instilling a need to keep moving, always moving, away from whatever the hell that big ugly thing is and towards the small area which appears to have the lowest concentration of passing bullets. No time to think and barely a moment to react, just keep moving and keep shooting, until everything has stopped. Breathe. It's in those quiet pauses between that the fear creeps in. Surrounded by unknown horrors, alone, low on shotgun shells and trapped in a nightmarish alien world, I suddenly feel very stoppable. Vulnerable, even. Every sound causes me to jump. I find myself walking slowly, as if my footsteps could alert something that was somehow unstirred by the cacophony of screams and gunfire that seems to follow me around. The brief respite somehow amplifies the tension and, eventually, the fear wins. I'd say I got roughly half way through on my first attempt, which is a testament to just how much fun DOOM Eternal is, other horror titles tend to scare me away long before I can make any real progress.  It's that time again. Just like with the PS3 before it, PlayStation has decided the PS5 could stand to lose a bit of weight (and some height) in preparation for the festive season. The new models hit a similar price point and come up 30% smaller than their parents, with the digital edition even having the option for a module upgrade to make it…no so digital. Are you tempted to pick up the new model? Which are you pondering? Let us know on our Discord.
Chris Brand  It was safe to assume that we'd have a slightly smaller, and slightly better, console before the inevitable mid-gen enhancements, but this seems solely intended for new customers, with very little reason for current owners to upgrade. Having more storage space is always welcome (or it would be, if external hard drives didn't provide more for less) though, in my opinion, this is cancelled out by having more real-estate to dust in the living room. Smaller isn't always better. I do like the choice of going all-digital and buying a disc drive later down the line and I'm expecting other companies (both of them) to start promoting a similar option. As so many are hesitant to make the transition to digital, and with valid reasons, this could become the default. Having fully, and surprisingly, embraced digital gaming, I rarely lament the lack of a disc drive. However, collectors of fancy special editions could be saved from buyer's remorse. For anyone who was just about to pull the trigger, it may be good timing, there's just not enough to entice me and I suspect many PS5 players may wait for the Pro version rather than forking out for a PlayStation 5.1. The cynic in me believes that Sony has found a legitimate way of avoiding the Christmas price cut everyone was expecting. For the cost of the digital edition, I could get almost 4,000 "Finest Quality" meatballs (I'm pretty sure that's the brand name because it's certainly not a description). If I'm paying 4,000 meatballs for a PS5, I want as much of it as possible. I'll think about buying 30% less of your console when you knock 1,200 meatballs off my bill. Liam Andrews  As much as I enjoy the convenience of a digital library, I would still opt for the PS5 bundle that includes the disc drive as it is cheaper than upgrading the all-digital console at a later date, which just seems unnecessarily unfair towards those who do initially go drive-less.
While I recognise that the console is 30% smaller and modular, I still don’t think it’s the best redesign. Some of the previous PlayStation slim models were sleek looking pieces of tech (especially the PS2 and PS3 models) and it was a bit disappointing to see the overall PS5 design hasn’t changed that much, and the ungainly driver bulge is still very much present. I can appreciate that what a console looks like isn’t that important given its job is to sit under your TV and play games and play them well (and the PS5 does do that) but the whole thing seems like a bit of a missed opportunity. For example, I have no need for a Series S considering I already own the more powerful Series X, but I still really want one because of its sleek and compact form factor and pure novelty value. The same can’t be said for the PS5 slim.  While playing the new Forza Motorsport, I found myself pondering what the game says about the series, and gaming in general. So this isn’t quite a review of Forza Motorsport, but hear me out. You may already know the eighth game in the original Forza series takes things back-to-basics, rebooting the game for a new generation. In short, it’s an excellent racing experience filled with the best simulated vehicles and tracks you can find in the genre today, and yet something feels a little…off. The question is why.
Changing gear Forza Motorsport 4 is where the series first achieved that photo-real look Racing games as a genre haven’t always had to try so hard. Back in the day, we were happy with a sprite and the odd pixelated tree on the side of the track, now the push for photorealistic visuals, arguably achieved by Forza Motorsport 4 back in 2011, has led to players’ expectations soaring higher and higher. Like games as an industry, we keep wanting, nay demanding, more. Forza Motorsport 7, released back in 2017, hit a staggering 830 cars – once all the DLC was said and done – with 200 track configurations in 32 locations, so it’s no surprise it’s taken a while for developers Turn 10 to feel like they had something new to bring to the table. But where do you go? More fidelity? More tracks? More cars? The driving and handling experience itself was long-perfected by the time the Xbox One’s entry in the series, Forza Motorsport 5, rolled up in 2013, and you can only tie-in with so many TV shows and films before even that variety wears thin. You could argue that motorsport itself hasn’t changed in decades, giving the team an uphill climb from the starting line, but enthusiasm for the sport has never been higher. Slightly different, sure, but Formula 1, for example, passed an average of million viewers per race last year. Drift into a powerslide Forza Motorsport 5 ditched some of the Kinect gimmicks and re-focused the series on simulation There seems to be only one obvious solution – double down. The tuning and car customisation options in the latest game are incredible, and it would be ridiculous to expect even more in that department, but perhaps make more of a game of it? Not everyone has a detail-orientated approach to games, and introducing minigames which play on some of the extremes of what tuning is capable of, a cleverly disguised opportunity to educate, could bring the experience to life in a new way, and allow the player to bring the knowledge back into the main game’s driving journey. Next, leave the drivers out of it entirely. While it might seem like a bit of fun to watch them frantically change gear through the rear windscreen as you tear around the track, more than a cursory glance confirms that even in this latest instalment the animations are rigid and one-note. Far from adding to immersion it actually creates a distraction for those used to an exterior view of the car in their driving games.  The latest Forza Motorsport at time is indistinguishable from real footage Finally, a more clear line between the serious, buttoned-up sim experience and the more relaxed, even arcade-y side of the genre would avoid players who aren’t quite as into the realism angle have more fun with the game.
Introduce more extreme damage options as additional challenges, daring you to make it down the track with only a single hit or jolt between your car and a written-off mess. The tracks could stand to have a little more flexibility and customisation too, letting you customise environmental effects and add hazards to remix existing tracks in fun new ways. Or even leverage Xbox’s vast back catalogue of franchises to have you explore exciting, even out-of-this-world locations. There’s nothing wrong with Forza Motorsport, and the team at Turn 10 no doubt will have a lot of fun additions and improvements still to come after release, but if they want to really bring in new fans to this series, something has to change. Forza Motorsport (2023) is available now on Xbox Game Pass. Code provided by Microsoft. What’s the best PVE game? | Team Talk1/10/2023  With the PTC favourite Sea of Thieves getting a new PVE-only mode – Safer Seas – we’ve been thinking about our favourite PVE experiences of all time and the multiplayer titles that could be improved with such a feature. It might be competitive or cooperative, but any game where you’re playing with others and there’s some enemy AI involved is fair game. What would you choose?
Apex Legends | Liam Andrews  I enjoyed Apex Legends when it first came out, even managing a victory in which my team of randoms carried me to the win. But I didn’t stick with it and with five years of new features and a probably well-established community of players who know the game a lot better than I do, I’m afraid to jump back in. Which is a shame, because I like the setting and characters, and Respawn knows how to make a shooter that looks and plays great (Titanfall 2). A PvE mode would be the perfect way to be reintroduced to the game, a place where I could familiarise myself with years of new content and characters without the stress of worrying about real (and much better) players blasting me away. Apex Legends has had a PvE mode in the past, but it was a limited time event and I missed out on it. I would like to see a permanent PvE playlist added, even if it was just a simple wave defence mode where a team tries to defend a stronghold against enemy AI. There’s rumours Apex Legends could be getting a single player campaign spin-off, and while I’d be interested in such a product, I’d still like to see a PvE mode to scratch that multiplayer itch. Left 4 Dead 2 | James Parry  I think Left 4 Dead 2 was the first game I played where I thought of the AI in the game as a character. Since it was a while ago, let’s recap - Left 4 Dead is a zombie survival series from Valve, built on the engine that powered the gold-standard classic that is Half-Life 2.
For the second game especially, the game had an element which reacted to the player. If you were doing well then the AI would generate different barriers in the level to make it more difficult. If you stay still for too long, you’d find a horde of zombies would spawn to punish you. This variability made every playthrough of the game’s (originally) four campaigns more varied, unexpected and exciting. On top of that, the scavenge multiplayer game mode remains one of the most fun cooperative multiplayer experiences of all time, constantly replayable and fun, and the gameplay still holds up today. The variety of the enemy behaviour in the game also raised the bar. The special infected, now a trope shared by pretty much all zombie survival games, jump, explode and attack in unique and interesting ways – building on the blueprint set out by the first game. The development team found new types to introduce, which slot into the roster so effortlessly. An also-ran which shouldn’t be overlooked here is the original Halo, which had the earliest example I can remember of enemy AI avoiding grenades, something which to this day makes some of those encounters foundational experiences in gaming. The final one to mention is Titanfall 2, where there are AI grunts milling around, filling up the world, just to make your battles feel more epic.  With PC smash hit Baldur’s Gate 3 set for a PS5 release in the next few days, and Xbox Series X|S not far behind, we’re feeling like a bit of role-playing, losing ourselves in far-flung fantasy lands and bumping into outlandish characters. Enter our favourite ever RPGs, which span the edges to deliver some of the most diverse gaming experiences ever imagined. And, best of all, you’re always at the heart of the action. If you had to choose an RPG to fight for, what would it be? Let us know in our Discord.
Dragon Age: Inquisition | James Parry  While Mass Effect trilogy takes the top spot amongst my favourite games of all time, there’s always something a bit special about the more fantasy setting of the Dragon Age series when it comes to a pure RPG experience. The classes might be archetypes, but they are far from worn out, and the flexibility of the game shows off some impressive opportunities for customisation, depending on what takes your fancy. Just like in its sci-fi cousin’s universe, it’s the characters which grab you and pull you into the immersion. The inclusion of Dragon Age II’s champion Hawke (spoilers for an almost 10-year-old game) in a minor role was a great touch, but there’s a huge amount of joy in getting to know characters old and new here, and even taking control of them in combat for that extra chance to experiment. The beauty of the combat system as a whole is that you could play it however you wanted. As a straight action romp, diving into the fray with some handy quick buttons or spells and abilities, or, alternatively, dig into the detail and play almost turn by turn using a series of well thought-out options to micromanage you and your entire team to maximise damage and effectiveness. Better still, the turn after one of the early acts of the game upends the table and puts you in a totally new status quo, ready to build up your strength and build your world as you see fit. Move over Skyrim, BioWare is still here, jostling with you for the high fantasy crown – let’s hope Dragon Age: Dreadwolf does eventually come out and we actually get to play it… Kingdom Come Deliverance | Liam Andrews  The thing I enjoy most about Kingdom Come Deliverance is that you play as a regular person, Henry, rather than some super soldier or famous hero. Henry’s relatively low standing in medieval Bohemia is reflected in KCD’s gameplay and missions.
While you do end up working for/with the land’s nobility, you spend most of the time carrying out lesser tasks or doing smaller missions for them rather than making the big decisions. It’s quite a nice break from the high pressure, all-or-nothing stakes found in other RPGs. For example, towards the end of the campaign, while higher ranked characters planned a siege, I spent the days leading up to the battle gathering herbs and brewing potions to ensure the garrison fought hangover free. Did it really help the siege? Who’s to say, but it was a nice stress-free mission. I also enjoy KCD’s big battles, particularly when you’ve got friendly NPCs fighting with you, as it’s easy to bash distracted enemies over the head while they’re busy fighting your mates, or fire arrows at them from behind the cover of your allies. It’s not exactly heroic stuff, but your vulnerability/rubbishness at fighting (particularly in the early game) is in keeping with your character’s average status, and part of the game’s appeal.  There's a delicate art to the perfect kart racing game. When Mario Kart blazed onto the track back in 1992, little did it know the legacy it would create. Over the years we've had efforts from all over the place, from respectable spins on the concept that add fresh ideas like Diddy Kong Racing and Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fuelled, mid-level efforts like Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing, and utterly baffling outings like Mole Kart and even Garfield Kart. Now we have a new contender, Smurfs Kart, but what would you bring to the table? Is there a franchise that you think could make the perfect kart racer? Let us know on our Discord.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | James Parry The first thing you need for a kart racer is recognisable, beloved characters, and with the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film currently going down well at the box office, it's surprise this isn't already a thing. The turtles have gone for a spin before, in 2018's Nickelodeon Kart Racers, but if you take a hand-drawn animation approach to the visuals to tie into a new film I think there's already the ingredients for a really interesting game. Pizza would have to feature, of course, and the prospect of what other characters besides our fab four to bring in initially is a cause for concern, but the more you think about it the more characters there are to bring to life. Imagine Kang shouting manically as he speeds round the track in a custom roadster, or Splinter taking a very low-fi approach with a real bare-bones, speedy kart, using his patience and masters of the art of deception to snipe first from you on the finish line every time. Then there's the environments. Far from just having 'a sewer level', you could really go to town with it and really bring the city to life in fun ways. Plus there's plenty to explore overground as well, particularly with a cartoony approach you could come up with something unique to the turtles. So, if you're on board, who wants to go for a spin? Bagsy Michaelangelo! Metroid Prime | Liam Andrews I’ve recently started playing Metroid Prime Remastered on Switch, which is mostly why I’ve picked it for this week’s topic, but even so I think the game would work quite well as a kart racer.
First off, there’s plenty of locations for tracks to be based on. You’ve got the temple-like Chozo Ruins, the lava filled Magmoor Caverns, the snow covered Phendrana Drifts and a more industrial setting in Phazon Mines. The unique visual styles and environmental dangers found in each of these locations would make for some decent themed tracks. I would just have Samus as the only playable character, that way all players would have access to the same roster of weapons (Charge Beam, Wave Beam, rockets, etc.) but could also utilise Samus’s Morph Ball ability, which could be used for reaching secret short cuts or combined with the Joy-Cons’ gyroscope function for some bonus Super Monkey Ball inspired levels/mini games. The various power suits could also work well as temporary power ups for reaching restricted shortcuts in tracks, for example using the Phazon Suit to cut through a radioactive area or the Varia Suit for surviving high temperature areas.  With the sun scorching much of the world and being fairly absent in the UK, it must be the season known as summer, where Brits tend to go on holiday to find sunnier skies elsewhere. In gaming, we’ve seen so many stunning locations brought to life in recent years, we decided to pick somewhere we’d really like to visit, if Dodo Airlines could really fly you to any destination across the gamerverse. Will you opt for a sunny escape or a daring mountain adventure? A city break or a peaceful time on the beach? Let us know where your gaming summer holiday would be in our Discord.
Lental Region – New Pokémon Snap | Liam Andrews If the summer had continued to be blazing hot, I would have joined Chris in choosing a chillier location for my holidays, but there’s been enough rain and grey skies recently that I feel the urge to visit somewhere more tropical. The first place that popped into my head was Ancient Greece from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, but all the warring armies, legendary monsters, and the numerous map icons would probably ruin an otherwise lovely location. I’ll stick to modern-day Greece, which I’ve been to, and thought was excellent, and where the only dangers were low flying turkey’s that almost knock you off your rented scooter. Instead, I’m going with the Lental region from New Pokémon Snap. The game’s tropical islands would obviously make an excellent holiday destination, but the real draw is the NEO-ONE, the game’s hovercraft which slowly carries players around the beautiful scenery. As someone who enjoys doing as little as possible on holiday, I like the idea of being transported around lovely tropical vistas, casually lobbing fruit at various Pokémon as I pass by. It’s the perfect device for exploring any holiday destination, capable of going safely underwater, withstanding volcanic heat and, presumably, flying turkeys. Isle Delfino – Super Mario Sunshine | James Parry While my instinct would certainly be to hide in a cosy shelter within an iceworld like the Great Glacier from Final Fantasy VII or The Frozen Wilds from Horizon: Zero Dawn, I’ve decided to embrace the spirit of the season and head to the beautiful Isle Delfino, setting of Super Mario Sunshine.
While Mario came across the island in a sorry state, after being safe for over 20 years it’s high time we give this holiday destination a visit. What could go wrong? The constant music could be enough to drive me insane eventually, but I feel like for a couple of weeks I could put up with it if absolutely necessary, and the island offers so much to explore besides the main plaza area too. You can pop over to the windmill formerly occupied by Petey Piranha, take a spin on the big wheel at Pinna Park or put your feet up on Gelato Beach – and there’s not a splurge of paint or a Shadow Mario in sight. Need souvenirs to take home to the family? Grab a piece of fruit or two from the charming locals, there’s plenty to choose from. If getting your five-a-day isn’t a priority for them then they might enjoy a trinket from the bustling Ricco Harbor, or maybe catch a Squidling if you’re lucky. In all, with its bright colours, blazing sunshine and lovely locations, Isle Delfino has it all. Now, where did I put my beach umbrella?  While Nintendo hardware rumours are nothing new, the latest run of the rumour mill has brought the prospect of a new, more powerful Nintendo Switch or a new console altogether closer than ever before, with word that developers are being given dev kits – the technology used to develop games for the new system. With our extensive knowledge of the industry (read: many wasted hours gaming over the years and decades), we’ve taken it upon ourselves to come up with the most important features and improvements Nintendo should bring to the table to ensure being a smash hit with audiences. What would you like to see in a new Nintendo? More motion control? Less motion control? Something totally off the wall? Let us know in our Discord.
Communication | Liam Andrews The thing I’d like to see most in any Switch successor (I’m backing Chris’ suggestion that it be called the Switcheroo) is better communication/audio capabilities. The current setup, which includes using an app on your phone, is rubbish, and needs improving in the next console. This could be done by simply integrating the chat app into the new console so it’s easier to chat with friends and hear the game at the same time. I only tried the NSO app a couple of times, but it was unwieldy enough to put me off online multiplayer sessions on the Switch. Another issue that needs remedying is the lack of a headphone jack on the Switch’s pro controller/Joy-Con cradle. Not only would one of these make it easier to chat with friends, but it would also give players the option of using headphones to listen to game audio when the console is docked (I’m just assuming the new machine will be a hybrid one), especially useful if you’re playing in a noisy environment or just wanted to better appreciate a top-tier soundtrack. While I do also want improved performance capabilities and fancier visuals, these simple quality of life features are just as important. Online | James PArry Nintendo might still not be ready to face it, but the future, and, in fact, the present, is digital. While I don’t want to see physical media die out – the fact that the current Switch carts taste bad so kids don’t eat them is genius – Nintendo needs to put more effort in to bring their digital and online services up to even the basic standards everyone else smashed past years ago.
The eShop is a mess, which is difficult to navigate and clunky to use when you do find what you want. On top of that, it’s poorly curated, leading to tons of shovelware hiding some of the best gems on there. At this point, Nintendo needs to recognise that both adults and youngsters use their consoles. You should be able to do everyday activities, like add and communicate with friends, easily as an adult and the proper safeguards in place to protect children trying to do the same. In short – we don’t need friend codes Nintendo, we’re all grown up now. In terms of form factor, the current unit isn’t pocked-sized anyway, so either make it smaller and folded in half (but that feels like a step back to the 3DS days), or punch it up to small bag size, like a 16:9 iPad. Anything more than that is a waste. The main thing I really want from Nintendo though, is for them to keep throwing in one or two random ideas which don’t make any sense just to see what works – that’s the beauty of a Nintendo console. We’ll have to wait until at least 2024 to find out how many of our wishes came true.  We knew it was too good to be true. Change is coming for Xbox and PC Game Pass subscribers, as the service is due its first big price increase next month – jumping up from £10.99 to £12.99 in the UK – and leading some gamers to wonder, is it all worth it? To soften the blow, Microsoft has just announced a new, Core tier, which replaces Xbox Live Gold and grants access to multiplayer experiences, as well as a list of 25 Game Pass titles to get stuck into, all for $9.99 a month, which we can probably expect for around £6.99. The service has nearly 500 games available across Xbox, PC and Cloud, including most first party titles, so what is there to complain about in terms of value for money? We put the service to the test and see if it’s still the best deal in gaming. You can share your own musings on our Discord.
Game Over: It’s not worth it | James Parry While I’m not personally about to cancel Game Pass anytime soon – though I really thought twice when it came around for annual renewal last month and found that there was basically no way to pay for anything less than Ultimate if you want to use it on Xbox – I’m not sure this new offer is giving you the same level of value for money, making it increasingly hard to recommend as a service.
Subscription services make money, and everyone knows it. Getting people to forget they need to cancel is how they keep your money, and sending emails talking about how prices are “updating” rather than “increasing” and don’t remind you just how much you are paying today make it all sound a bit too reasonable. It’s not a huge increase, and if you are paying annually it might save you a bit of course, but if you are paying monthly that’s now about £156 a year instead of £132, so even with increasing prices of games, you might expect another mid-sized game (like the underrated Hi-Fi Rush) or reasonable expansion to one of Xbox’s on-going experiences, like Sea of Thieves – which happens to have a Legend of Monkey Island-themed update on the way. Whether Xbox can keep up the momentum of “newness” though, seems unlikely given the form they’ve been having recently. Even with an eye-watering 23 studios under their belt, and potentially more to come if the Activision Blizzard merger goes through, you’d think they could manage a first party game every couple of months, but in fact it’s more like one every six months, as gamers demand more complexity and fidelity from their games and development times increase to follow suit. Xbox really needs Starfield to knock it into another galaxy, as they have little else to write home about on the slate for the rest of this year, though 2024 has plenty up its sleeve as some of the bigger studio acquisitions start to bear fruit. There’s still hope for this price hike to prove it’s worth its salt, but for now an increase just before Starfield means they are definitely expecting a subscriber boost. Time will tell whether they stick around. Game of the Half Year 2023 | Team Talk10/7/2023  Whenever we ponder our favourite games of the year so far it's always amazing not only how fast the year has gone, but how many great titles there are to choose from, and 2023 is no exception. We've seen some best-in-class remakes, the return of fan-favourite franchises, as well as more sequels than you can shake a controller at. What’s been your highlight so far? If, like Liam, you haven’t played a lot of new games, it’s perfectly acceptable to choose a classic you’re just discovering, or rediscovering. Read on for our picks and share your own on our Discord.
 Much like Liam, the list of new titles I've played in 2023 is shorter than I would've thought. After extensively searching and checking the release dates of everything I have even the vaguest memory of downloading, I finally settled on the very first game that jumped out at me, days prior. Loop Hero is one of the indie-est indies I've stumbled across, merging different elements to create something that should be a mess, but makes perfect sense as a package. It's a roguelike auto-battler in which the hero wanders a (potentially) endless, randomly-generated loop, defeating enemies and acquiring loot, gearing up for the eventual boss fight. Though player agency is absent during combat, you are in control of how the loop evolves, as you build the world around it. Cards gained from battles can be placed on, or around, the loop, granting passive stat boosts or buffs and, usually, spawning a different enemy type. After you've filled a set number of empty tiles, the boss spawns in at the end of the current loop. As expeditions can be over fairly quickly if you allow the hero to traverse the loop without too much intervention, it can be a relaxed, easy-going, adventure. Or, you can choose to micro-manage every part of your hero's loadout and design the world with precision, to provide as many benefits as possible whilst minimising risk. I found myself walking the latter path more often, as the narrative slowly pulled me in with its genuinely enthralling, sci-fi, nonsense. I'm yet to see how the entire story unfolds, but the bitesize nature of Loop Hero means I'll probably return here and there, maybe in between not playing some of the bigger releases this year.  Taking it right back to the beginning of the year, I was all ready to dive into Forespoken and love it, but unfortunately the demo left me cold – meaning an early contender for GOTHY was immediately out.
Redfall too was a disappointment, though far from the complete technical and narrative that was reported (and expect a review of it in the not-so-distant future), which left me zero for two – or perhaps a half – for the year, but surely there’d be a game coming along which could really knock my socks off eventually, right? I’m hoping that game will be Pikmin 4, due this month, but in the meantime there was one last contender for the first half – Planet of Lana. I played a bit of the game back at EGX 2022 and the end result was a beautiful example of a handful of simple mechanics executed extremely well and is generally a really well thought out experience. Special mention should go to Hi-Fi Rush which came out of nowhere and contrary to Liam's experience, really impressed on all fronts, from the vivid and exciting art style to the execution of its music-inspired mechanics. It’s one you should absolutely not pass up. You might think The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is conspicuous by its absence, and in fact if I had played more of the game it may well be here, but so far I’m still collecting my thoughts for the review, that you’ll have to wait a bit longer for. |
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