[slab_happy]

Surprisingly, my reflexes turn out to be up to coping with Death Trash on its easiest combat difficulty setting. Mostly. Just about. I die a lot.

https://craftinglegends.itch.io/deathtrash

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/death-trash-early-access-review

Still Early Access, but I've managed to rack up 17 hours of playing time and not explored the full game yet.

Grungy pixelated meatpunk fun. Tackles important existential questions like "Can you solve this problem by sneaking up on it and then hitting it with a gigantic spiked hammer?"

[Fiend]

Tackles important existential questions like "Can you solve this problem by sneaking up on it and then hitting it with a gigantic spiked hammer?"

Generally my conclusion to many philosophical (and climbing ethics) debates.

I have just finished Ghostwire Tokyo which I did find rather fun and characterful after being initially a bit unimpressed. It's a fairly typical Ubi-franchise-style map-full-of-icons side-quest-munching semi-open-world FPS - not that inspiring in theory - but set in a paranormal-disaster-deserted rain-swept Tokyo full of souls in limbo and spooky Visitors from elsewhere. Along with an mildly entertaining dual-protagonist and plenty of Japanese ghost mythology, the distinctive setting gives it plenty of character than transcends the game structure. Quite pricey on Steam at the moment but I'd recommend it if you like the sound of it. 


(Disclaimer: the cool big shadow figures barely feature at all, alas. The rest is pretty accurate)

[Will Hunt]

I didn't really do any climbing training last week but I did complete Trial of the Sword in Breath of the Wild on Master Mode. Felt about F7c+. It was arduous and stressful but very satisfying. I haven't found anything in gaming as difficult as that in a long time/ever. I don't think we have any Zelda players here?

[yetix]

I find it more like 9D! Great game

[shark]

Never visited this thread before but thought this podcast on the psychology and philosophy of games was fascinating.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/best-of-a-life-changing-philosophy-of-games/id1548604447

Warning: includes climbing content too!

[JamieG]

Breath of the wild was amazing. Never did play any of the expansions though. Looking forward to the next one coming out. Next year I think.

[Will Hunt]

May 2023 currently. I'm psyched, but apprehensive. BotW is a huge act to follow. From the trailers it looks like it isn't a completely new world but a modified version of the BotW map with some floating islands. I wonder whether that will be as satisfying. There's a lot to love in BotW but the most captivating thing for me was the exploration.

[SA Chris]

Son and I have been been split between laughing and swearing at You Suck at Parking. Very basic but very tricky. I like it because it's one of the few games I am better than him at (that and Sonic All Stars Racing).

[JamieG]

You suck at parking looks really good fun. Reminds me of some of the older arcading racing games I used to play with my brother. Micro Machines being one in particular.

Do you and your son play any co-op games?

Both Overcooked and Octodad are great fun and will have you laughing/shouting at each other in no time. Getting up the escalator in Octodad almost caused my wife and I to get divorced. 

[SA Chris]

Micromachines on the PS was our standard come home from the pub and wait for curry to be delivered when i was sharing a house. Shame it's not on XBOX, i think Hot Wheels is the closest version.

Not tried any co-ops, apart from FIFA and Star Wars Battlefront, which I am terrible at.

[Will Hunt]

Loads of stuff on sale on the Nintendo Estore till 30th Nov. 55% off Disco Elysium. Mario and other things reduced to £33.

[dunnyg]

For steam people, stellaris was up for about 8 quid and is like space civ on steroids. Would recommend

[crzylgs]

For steam people, stellaris was up for about 8 quid and is like space civ on steroids. Would recommend

Stellaris is immense! Be warned the publisher really embraces the DLC sale model. You don't need any of them to have a lot of fun, definitely don't need them all, but a couple really do add a lot of flavour and different playstyles etc.

So, if you do pick up the base game and have fun and want to keep playing... Look out for some of the best DLC when they are also on sale - tends to happen regularly enough either on Steam, GOG, Humble Bundle or similar.

[slab_happy]

Played through "A Dark Room" on my phone and it's compelling and very addictive.

[Aussiegav]

Anyone on here play World of Tanks modern armour? Just started playing about 2 weeks ago.

[crzylgs]

Anyone on here play World of Tanks modern armour? Just started playing about 2 weeks ago.

I played it quite a while ago, maybe even when it was 'open beta' and in patches in its first year or so of release. Is a fun game but seemed to get increasingly 'pay to win' with the ammo and a few other upgrade mechanics I can't remember. Am sure you can still get a heck of a lot of casual fun out of it absolutely free though!

[Will Hunt]

I finished a game called Eastward last night. If you can get it on sale and you like the handheld Zelda games then it's worth a bash.

The gameplay is solid. You control a pair of protagonists in a Studio Ghibli-inspired environment. John can wield his trusty frying pan and a few other weapons to beat up monsters; Sam, a young girl he adopts after finding her in mysterious circumstances, can shoot pulses of energy to stun baddies and can unlock a few other psychic abilities. The tag team combat style works really well and there's plenty of puzzles involving splitting the pair up.

Considering that it was made by a team of some 20 people it's quite remarkable.

There are some shortcomings. For this type of game the story is really important (IMO). Eastward has a great story in there somewhere but it's confused, to the point where at the end I just accepted that it didn't actually make any sense at all. That's a shame, because it could have made sense if they didn't try and cram so much lore into it. Sometimes the plot is bent and broken to facilitate a gameplay device. For instance in the final city you get stuck in a Groundhog Day time loop and have to do a different thing in each loop to break the cycle. It works well for gameplay but, fucking hell, it makes no sense! And let's not even talk about what happens to the frying pan in the final boss fight.

It's quite linear; you always know where you're going and what you're doing. There's very little risk of leaving an important stone unturned. So if you're used to Zelda handheld games where you have the option to roam around doing side quests then put that expectation aside.

None of the puzzles are very difficult.

6.5 out of 10. It could be a solid 7 or even 8 if I wasn't so irked by the storyline.

[Will Hunt]

Shit, actually, if you like this type of game then play Death's Door before Eastward. Now THAT is a great game.

[Stuart Anderson]

One for the experts.

Looking to get a console for my 12 year old son for Christmas. Veering towards Xbox either Series S or X. I'm aware of the physical differences between the two and the lower price of the S is an obvious draw (i.e. the cost of physical games vs subscription to the Pass options plus the initial saving).

Will we be left wanting if we go down the digital download route though (we don't need a drive for DVD etc)?

Thanks, Stuart.

[JamieG]

I pretty much exclusively download games now. That does mean you have to use the official digital store but usually they’re pretty good with regular sales. The only thing I can see being annoying is you can’t just swap games with friends.

[Stuart Anderson]

I pretty much exclusively download games now. That does mean you have to use the official digital store but usually they’re pretty good with regular sales. The only thing I can see being annoying is you can’t just swap games with friends.

I'd not thought of that. Possibly not a problem but I need to think of eventualities and future proofing (as much as you can with tech.) before I put myself in a cul-de-sac. Cheers.

[Catcheemonkey]

For a (pre) teen, definitely get one with a disk drive: his friends will be able to bring their games over and he’ll have access to pre-owned games on eBay etc that will be much cheaper than even discounted versions on the official e-store.

[T Loughlin]

Hi Stuart, I'm a long time lurker on here but never post. However, I thought I'd chip in my tuppence worth as I've recently thought about exactly this issue for my kids (7 and 10)!

For the money, I think the Xbox S is hard to beat - okay, it's not as powerful as the Xbox X, but in all practical senses it allows access to next-gen games for a fraction of the cost (£190 v. £450 - it's a huge saving). Load times are really quick, it handles graphics on next gen games just fine and I've not noticed any issues in terms of frame rate etc. Great console imo.

The downsides of the S are:
1. the lack of disk drive, but honestly, I've barely noticed: if you get Gamepass for £7 a month you have access to a huge digital library of games that you can download and the unless you have a big library of old 360 or xbox one games on disk that your kid is keen to play then I can't see it being an issue. Depending on the games they like they'll either be free to download (e.g. fortnite), on Gamepass (e.g Minecraft) or available on digital store anyway (e.g. CoD)/ Gamepass ultimate @ £11 a month gives you access to EA games and stuff on your PC (e.g. Fifa, Battlefield etc.)

2. the storage capacity - it's about 400gb of usable space, as opposed to double that on an x. Again, depending on game type this could be a problem (e.g. MS Flight Sim = 190GB!) but most are far smaller than this (indie games - sub 10GB, most bigger games around 30-40GB). If you delete them to clear disk space all your saves etc. are stored on the cloud so you can download later no problem.

Sorry for the ramble, but in conclusion - the S is a great console for most requirements and at a cheap price for what it is. I'd probably look at the Gamepass library and check with your son if there's stuff on there he wants to play. The X obviously has better specs and I thought about investing in it,but decided the huge price increase wasn't worth it for my kids' requirements.

[Stuart Anderson]

For a (pre) teen, definitely get one with a disk drive: his friends will be able to bring their games over and he’ll have access to pre-owned games on eBay etc that will be much cheaper than even discounted versions on the official e-store.

I'd not considered second hand games  as part of this conundrum. Cheers.

[Stuart Anderson]

Hi Stuart, I'm a long time lurker on here but never post. However, I thought I'd chip in my tuppence worth as I've recently thought about exactly this issue for my kids (7 and 10)!

For the money, I think the Xbox S is hard to beat - okay, it's not as powerful as the Xbox X, but in all practical senses it allows access to next-gen games for a fraction of the cost (£190 v. £450 - it's a huge saving). Load times are really quick, it handles graphics on next gen games just fine and I've not noticed any issues in terms of frame rate etc. Great console imo.

The downsides of the S are:
1. the lack of disk drive, but honestly, I've barely noticed: if you get Gamepass for £7 a month you have access to a huge digital library of games that you can download and the unless you have a big library of old 360 or xbox one games on disk that your kid is keen to play then I can't see it being an issue. Depending on the games they like they'll either be free to download (e.g. fortnite), on Gamepass (e.g Minecraft) or available on digital store anyway (e.g. CoD)/ Gamepass ultimate @ £11 a month gives you access to EA games and stuff on your PC (e.g. Fifa, Battlefield etc.)

2. the storage capacity - it's about 400gb of usable space, as opposed to double that on an x. Again, depending on game type this could be a problem (e.g. MS Flight Sim = 190GB!) but most are far smaller than this (indie games - sub 10GB, most bigger games around 30-40GB). If you delete them to clear disk space all your saves etc. are stored on the cloud so you can download later no problem.

Sorry for the ramble, but in conclusion - the S is a great console for most requirements and at a cheap price for what it is. I'd probably look at the Gamepass library and check with your son if there's stuff on there he wants to play. The X obviously has better specs and I thought about investing in it,but decided the huge price increase wasn't worth it for my kids' requirements.

Thanks T.

I think having a chat with him might be the way to go. In my mind I was thinking: kid = Xmas = surprise, but he's 12 and definitely not wowwed by the tinsle and bright lights anymore. Getting it right is probably a bigger priority.