Uncle Mike

Did anyone think a failure to acquire Activision would necessitate a shutdown of Xbox? It seems like a silly question.

You can normally use the Bungie site to claim items from the previous season pass, and there's a Chrome and Firefox extension that lets you go further back than that. It won't work for the next day or two, because the API always breaks around big expansions, but you should be good again at some point.

Thoughts and prayers. I don't know either way, actually.

I'm quite excited for today. A new campaign and so much change should give a few days of Different.

I've become somewhat addicted to watching people playing the demo/preview this week, so I rather suspect this is a must-have for me. Is the console release date the same as PC - end of March?

Yeah, other than the big float level where you have to figure out how far a float jump and what order you do it in, there's no trial and error once you've understood the rules. It's pure thought and execution.

I really enjoyed the demo. There's something very calm about it all.

I wonder if that's on purpose (to move the frame around you and maybe reduce travel sickness?) or just inadvertent.

@RubberJohnny I don't know that that's a particularly accurate take. I think the difference between Destiny and Anthem isn't the economics of the asset generation. I think it's having things to do that make you come back, and loot that rewards you for doing so.

I think with Avengers, Gotham Knights, Suicide Squad, looter shooter is a terribly-fitting template in the first place (no-one's fantasy of being King Shark includes picking up a +1 Shotgun) but if you're going to make them, you need to make something where all that loot, your build etc gets tested, and then the stuff it gives you is desirable (and then there's something to do with it.)

What does PSVR2 mean for me when I already have an expensive PC and a VR headset seems like a silly question, and I suppose I should be surprised that we wasted a page answering it.

I thought that Synapse game looked like it could be quite fun. Less so the cowboy roguelite, but I guess that could be decent.

The Dino end of the world game is 100% not for me, but the idea of it really intrigued me: I quite like the idea of setting that sort of high school drama in what's clearly an impending apocalypse that all the characters know is coming.

Baldur's Gate looked lame? Do we think that's a bad trailer?

Destiny was Destiny, so I didn't need to see that to be hyped, and then Suicide Squad's terrible showing.

The insistence on either other people or annoyingly chatty AI bots if you want to single player, and then the purple glowing weak spots on everything was a big worry. Plus everyone just uses all the same guns? And then loot boxes, battle passes and so on. It's maybe going to play better than Gotham Knights? But it's not the game anyone wanted from Rocksteady.

Suicide Squad was exactly as disappointing and annoying as I thought it was going to be, which is to say very. As you've all said, someone somewhere clearly pressed the "Do Destiny" button and then they've simultaneously taken too long and not done enough.

Humanity was interesting though? 

10 minutes ago, Alex W. said:

There are better ways to do that surely. I would probably own all 8 different “main” joy-con colours if they were remotely reliable just because they’re all nice to look at. You used to be able to get Dual Shocks in like 20 transparent shades.

And the basic cheap versions are so fucking expensive! A Dual Shock 4 is still £55 (although Amazon are selling one today for £45) and the Dual Sense is £65/55. And then it's going to become faulty, essentially by design, with 2 years' heavy usage? It's disgraceful. £200 for the new amazing elite one, and it's still got the crappy joystick design is somehow even more egregious.

Waving around the letter reminds me of Clint Eastwood's empty chair speech. You can see what they're doing, but it's a little lame.

Ooh, a State of Play. Now we've had a lot of Sony's cross-gen big hitters, perhaps there's a glimpse of what's next?

15 mins of Suicide Squad.

Fuck that then.

Unless it's somehow bottled lightning and surprisingly great (seems unlikely) I can't imagine anything more underwhelming to be teased.

22 minutes ago, Benny said:

I did try a daily challenge though before and it gave you a fully powered up gun to play with, so I have at least had a taste of what it will be like when you unlock a lot of weapon traits, which is encouraging.

The daily challenges are really fun, I found. As you said, the days when you've got a really powerful gun and you're steamrollering a level are pretty cool.

As it happens I did a Grand Prix or two this morning. It's still quite fun!

The route back to the third world boss is where my time with Returnal ended, interrupted by another game and waiting for a spurt of enthusiasm. It's like a Souls swamp level in that regard.

If you shop around and don't only look at the big brands, you can find them for <£100 per TB. There's a list of compatible ones on Eurogamer.

I've updated the OP with some pics and the link to the ViDoc etc.

On 16/02/2023 at 09:02, Stanley said:

That PC Gamer review is shocking, so much wrong in one set of words. 

On 16/02/2023 at 10:40, Fretnoise said:

It's basically the review I would have written if I'd only given it a couple of evening's of playtime.  Barely scraping through the first boss, getting my arse handed to me regularly.  It gets you down.  And then it kinda clicks and it's amazing and goes from a 7/10 to a 9/10 easily.  Maybe the reviewer will come back when he's played a bit more and seen the light.

I don't know about this. I don't agree wholeheartedly with the review's conclusion and sense of disappointment, but the general idea that it's a better arcade game than a narrative roguelike isn't especially controversial. Lots of reviews at the PS5 launch said that. And if you compare it to the arguably best-in-class for that genre (which I may have made up) Hades, it isn't as good, IMO, as giving you that sense that the run was worth it in itself. It's a deliberately harsher world with a clear design to make it feel that way, which suits everything about Returnal. But it is demoralising at times.

I hadn't noticed those. I guess GT7 would be a slightly different model, because it's something of a GaaS.

I'd be quite interested to download Forbidden West, but Destiny 2 Lightfall is two weeks away. No chance I'm gonna put time in FW. It'll have to wait.

Still, if the trend is that the big Sony titles wait a year then arrive in the subs package, that's not a bad model.

27 minutes ago, Alex W. said:

I have very fond memories of Crystal Summit from Burnout 2, which I could eventually do as an unbroken chain of drifts. Perfectly pitched track.

The reverse Airport track was a great one for that. (Airport 3?) Just one unbroken chain, amazing. I was coming in here to say that was an all-time fave.

At least we can all agree fuck the Eagles (except that time Foles won the Super Bowl.)

I don't think the Eagles have a lot of valid complaining. That fumble return being disallowed seemed questionable. The bobble catch being ruled in-bounds was generous and could easily have gone the other way. A bit of referee inconsistency the other way wasn't entirely unfair, and when your excuse for it not happening includes that it was clearly an actual technical foul, you've probably lost the debate. I think your main consolation has to be that you played in what was pretty clearly one of the more classic Super Bowls in recent years.