Topic: Pure Xbox Game Club Double Bill - Banjo-Kazooie / Solar Ash (Apr)

After finishing Cyberpunk 2077, I started Life is Strange: True Colors yesterday. I think I'm pretty much at the end of Chapter 1. So far I'm highly enjoying it as well, although that's not too surprising since I highly enjoyed both Life is Strange and Before the Storm (yes, I actually liked the Chloe character).

@themightyant Agreed. Almost right from the start you feel the sense of community in the town, which is great obviously since it's a small town. Definitely looking forward to playing more of it.

Hello all and welcome to Mass Effect month! Mass Effect is a space game. The end.

Only joking, I don't know a huge amount about the game, just that it comes highly recommended by those who have played it and that it is an RPG.

We are playing the Legendary Edition of the first game but you are more than welcome to play the original version and/or move on to ME2&3.

Please use spoiler tags when discussing spoilerish moments of the game. You do so by typing your spoiler between spoiler tags like this: [spoiler]insert message here[ /spoiler] and removing the space between [ and /

Some HLTB Stats:

Main Story - 17 Hours
Main + Extras - 28 Hours
Completionist -43 Hours
DLC - 2-3 Hours

I had to pull those stats from the HLTB page for the original version of Mass Effect as the Legendary Edition stats cover all three games.

Tag list, please tag me and let me know if you want to be added or removed

@Tothington91 @MAC26 @XBontendo @Justifier @LtSarge @Tjuz @nessisonett @crippyd @Krzzystuff @sib @Ryu_Niiyama @LeanerFasterStronger @cracked_seal @Mr-Fuggles777 @Mundaney @KilloWertz @Beagle @antifyre @Magabro @themightyant @ZeD @K1LLEGAL @Balta666 @Bmartin001 @Banjo- @R1spam @lookupmore @Dusk_Actual @Royalblues @Lavalera @frabbit @djshep1973 @FraserG @WCB @TooBarFoo @SeriousSatan @xMightyMatt14x @Clankylad @jarvismp @TuckNorris85 @Grail_Quest @Jsb5150 @Mamabear @liljazzy2 @Dydreamr @XFinest_KnightX @Elufachi

Ok so now, votes for next month. There is quite a lot of you now so please make it easy for me to administrate.

Tag me in a post with your vote(s). (Just hit reply on one of my posts or write @ralphdibny)

Write your votes in bold (put two asterisks around it) and try and keep it separate from any paragraphs.

One line will do, "My vote is such and such a game(s)"

Feel free to make the post longer but try and keep the actual vote separate from the main body of the text and at the top of the post next to my tag @ralphdibny

The votes reset every month and start from Zero. Feel free to suggest new games and I will add them to the list and count your vote toward it!

Brutal Legend -
Conker's Bad Fur Day/Live & Reloaded - 1 (Balta666,
Crysis -
Dead Space - 3 (WCB, lookupmore, Grail_Quest,
Fable Anniversary -
The Gunk -
Hades -
Halo Wars -
It takes two - 1 (WCB,
Kameo: Elements of Power -
Maneater - 1 (themightyant ,
Marvel Avengers -
Ninja Gaiden Sigma
One step closer to Eden -
Ori and the Will of the Wisps - 1 (Clankylad,
Perfect Dark -
Rage -
Sable -
Skul: The Hero Slayer -
Sniper Elite 5 - 2 (themightyant, Lavalera
Trek to Yomi - 2 (WCB, R1spam,
Tunic - 2 (TuckNorris85, xMightyMatt14x,
Undertale - 1 (Balta666,
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus -
Yoku's Island Express - 2 (Balta666, lookupmore,

I will link to this post in my signature so you can just click on my signature to get back to this post and see the list of games and current votes!

@ralphdibny can I vote for Tunic please?

Heard a lot about it, sounds like its fun.

@TuckNorris85 of course, added!

@ralphdibny my votes for next month are conker's, undertale and yoku's

@ralphdibny Thanks as ever.

We've chosen mostly story related games for a few months in a row so I fancy some action next month. I'm going to vote for Sniper Elite 5 and Maneater.

I originally proposed the following games Telling Lies & A Way Out they haven't gained any traction so feel free to remove these from the list.

I finished Life is Strange: True Colours last night. Just cogitating and will have my thoughts and review up soon.

@ralphdibny you can put me down for sniper elite 5 as well.

Let's hope next month will be a game I haven't played yet haha. Skipping this month since I already played the legendary trilogy on release. And even though I loved it still is fesh in my brain so I'll probably just discuss it

@ralphdibny my votes for next month go to
DEAD SPACE
IT TAKES TWO
or
TREK TO YOMI

I finished True Colours over the weekend, didn’t get a chance to post until now.
Overall I massively enjoyed it. The sense of place, the characters and the music is fantastic, I especially enjoyed the times of reflection and just listening. Someone here said they felt the developers were almost trying too hard to be cool with the music, I understand but I don’t feel the same way.
All that said, they last chapter was slightly anticlimactic. Although I don’t know what else I would have expected. But stories are not just about the destination, they’re also about the journey. Like a lot of these style games, I want to see what the other endings would be. I think I got a “good” ending.
Unfortunately a major plot point of the story got spoilt for me. I had saved the game on the Xbox home for easy access and on the right there was a screenshot of Jed pointing a gun. So when he brought Alex out to mine I knew what was going to happen
All in all a solid 8/10 game.
Having played the first game, I might give Before the Story a go seeing as @themightyant had a good experience.

Looking forward to playing more Mass Effect. I’m about to 10hrs in having started a few months ago and taking a break. I kinda wish I chose fem shep due to everyone’s comments here but I’m not going to start again 😆

@lookupmore Great write up. You've said almost everything I feel but FAR more succinctly. Perhaps I won't write my customary longer review and just countersign, or piggyback, your post... adding my Duckie-like ramblings

Sense of place - Haven Springs and it residents really felt like a community. I was thinking about this some more and while many places within games are memorable how many actually get this aspect right, not many i'd wager. The actual footprint of the game, the area you can walk around, is tiny. Mostly half a high street with a couple of buildings and alleys you can go into, plus a couple of mostly unimportant areas you visit once as a plot device. However visiting them and their residents repeatedly really built up that sense of place and community through simple game design. It reminds me of Yakuza's Kamurocho or even, to a lesser extent, earlier GTA's like 3 and Vice City before world size became the defining factor and we hardly returned to the same place twice, Grove Street excepted. Often less is more and density of the world over expansiveness can be a good thing. Smaller developers in particular can leverage this to their advantage in some games.

Backing this up the writing was absolutely fantastic and pulled you into each character. E.g. It made me chuckle every time Duckie stopped to have a little word, you sat back and thought here we go again with a smile. Better pour myself a drink.

Graphics - I would have though this was unimportant in a game like this but it was a massive step up from previous games. The way they managed to get across a whole range of emotion in the characters through tiny things like a slight curling of the lips, a crinkle on the nose, or making the eyes smile really helped make the characters work. Wonderful use of technology that managed to sidestep the uncanny valley by having a stylised look. For comparison I started Mass Effect 1 and by comparison everyone human looks wooden and not quite right. (still some of my favourite characters of all time, but we'll see how that plays out on replay)

Music - Agreed the use of music is wonderful. It was me that said they were 'trying too hard to be cool' with it but honestly that faded once I got into it, it was only in a couple of early scenes and it was never a big deal. Probably says more about me and MY relationship with music than anything else. And like you I really liked the moments of reflection, how often do we do that in games? A lovely moment of stillness to think, be present and reflect. The use of music in many of these scenes was great. Loved the use of Dido's Thank You which was especially memorable fitting that scene so well. The use of music reminded me a little of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and the legendary 2 minute ladder climb after the lengthy and poignant battle with The End (unless you knew the shortcut), it just gave you time to reflect about what had just happened and what was upcoming. Wonderful.

Ending - Was also disappointed with the the final chapter in general but as you brilliantly said it's often about the journey not just the destination. Though I know some people feel differently about this, it's why I liked LOST the TV show (the journey and characters were great) whereas other couldn't stand it (all the ongoing story payoffs were awful).

Sorry to hear that the cliffhanger with Jed was spoiled for you, that really sucks. Honestly this was one of my biggest disappointments with the game and felt forced rather than natural. It seemed to be Jed was a generally good man that had made a grave mistake, and was trying to atone, him trying to kill you felt shoehorned in and out of character, but I guess we don't often really know people either. Though it made sense to have, in many ways the final boss, to be part of the community that is so central to this game.

Choices - For my major choices and ending I chose Steph, it just seemed like the better fit for Alex. Despite thinking I had helped most people, very few actually sided with me in the meeting: just Steph and Pike. On doing a little research I loved that taking Charlotte's pain and anger away, as I did, was ultimately a bad thing and made her feel 'empty'/detached. Enduring pain and hardship is part of what makes us stronger and human, taking it away may seem like compassion but it is folly. It was a similar story with Eleanor, telling her the truth about Gabe's death, which she had forgotten, was seen as a bad thing. I didn't tell her, as I didn't want to add to her misery. This one is more marginal but it's these tough little moral decisions that I love in these games. Charlotte taking the money or not was another borderline decision, being Gabe's sister naturally I didn't want her to. My biggest disappointment at the end was Ryan. Although to be fair it makes complete sense he would side with his dad, in my playthrough we never spoke again. Genuinely felt sad about that, like losing a friend. What a wonderful game to do that!

Finally I decided to stay in Haven Springs with Steph this felt like most natural ending considering the game's heavy subplot of community and place. Really enjoyed this one.

Score: 8.5/10

@lookupmore @themightyant Great reviews guys. Without going into to much details i agree with your assessments of the game. It was my first ever LiS strange and i had a blast with it.

@themightyant regarding the last chapter confrontation I had quite a different outcome. Everybody backed me up apart from Eleanor (I believe it was because I alerted her daughter to the mother's decease) and even Charlote that I thought in no way would back me as I told her to not get the money and decided to not remove her anger as I thought it was wrong and therefore that she was still pissed with me. Ryan I was not sure on which side he was going to be but as I was very friendly to both him and steph (I hearted Steph) he backed me too.

@themightyant please continue with your Duckie reviews, I particularly like them.
I agree about the graphics, definitely a step up from the 1st one at least and the little facial emotions were great.
For my choices, I had a slight look at a guide to see if I should take Charlotte's anger away. I didn't as it said the result isn't good. Genuinely difficult choices to make. I made the same choice with staying in Haven Springs with Steph. With Ryan he also sided with his father initially on my play through but Alex gets a text from him afterwards apologising and asking for forgiveness if I remember correctly. If you get everyone on your side there is an ending where Ryan confronts his father in front of everyone. I know thanks to YouTube.
@Balta666 is so interesting to hear you had another different ending. I had Pike, Charlotte, Steph stand up for me and I think Elenore just told Duckie to back off a bit.

@Lavalera @Balta666 @lookupmore Thanks for the kind words. And really interesting to hear other endings and experiences.

@Lavalera Glad you enjoyed this too. As you liked this game I can also thoroughly recommend Life is Strange & Life is Strange: Before the Storm. I enjoyed Life is Strange 2 as well but it was a slower burn at times, though I was fully invested in the characters and had shed a tear or two by the end. Tell me Why was my least favourite of these games, but still worthwhile, it's also currently 100% Free on the Xbox store, worth adding to your library if you haven't already.

@lookupmore I did go back and and do another ending but it was only leaving Haven Springs with Steph not a huge change at all. I also checked messages but none from Ryan, not sure what I did, or more likely what I didn't do (they're all so needy. lol), to get him so offside... ya know other than accuse his father of murder, attempted murder, coverup and get him banged up. He'll be back

I am tempted to do a replay at some point and see how it plays out differently if I chose Ryan and get everyone on side, but time is always tight and backlogs are long. Might just do a YouTube video of that... but honestly I wouldn't mind spending a bit more time in Haven Springs.

@themightyant tell me why was free last year as well I think I'm pretty sure I picked it up then.
Considering Lis, true colors I first played last year got it on the black Friday sale. Since I loved that one so much I got 2 later on in a sale and played that one as well. So only have 1 and bts to go. Waiting for a good sale on that to put it in my already huge backlog to play when I want a more relaxing story focused game. But I'll pick it up eventually for sure

@ralphdibny my vote for next month is Tunic

I’ve been busy this spring but am wanting to try it out this summer!

Regarding Mass Effect 1. It’s one of my favorite games of all time so I’m excited to see what you guys think of it. I will say the mission structure and exploration (and frankly, side mission set pieces) by modern standards can be repetitive, and it’s not as complex in its branches as more recent RPGs, but it is easily, on its own, one of the best sci-fi narratives in gaming history imho.

I’ve probably played through it at least ten times (and will again) so if anyone has any questions before making a key choice let me know!! I’ll keep my posts spoiler free when possible or put a spoiler banner on.

Also we should do a poll for how many go with femshep versus maleshep!! Or at least tell each other. What do you think @ralphdibny ?

Keep me added please mate. @ralphdibny

Hi all, sorry I will tally up votes at/toward the weekend. Apologies if you see me posting elsewhere but not in this thread. Sometimes I still want to post in other threads or post comments on articles but don't necessarily have the time to go through all of the replies in this thread. It's not a slight on anyone and I will reply to everybody eventually 😃. Normally with a quote of your original message so you can actually remember what 3 week old post I am replying to 😅. I hope that's ok with everyone!

Oh yeah absolutely, at least tell people who you are playing as! Who do you recommend? I am on the fence, especially as I will potentially be taking this character through three games! I probably won't have time in my life to play them all for a second time unfortunately.

@Kooky_Daisuke not at all too long and certainly not boring! Thanks for all the tips! Do you want to be added to the tag list for this thread? It just means you'll get a notification each month when I do the update post. I rarely use the tag list more than once a month so I can avoid spamming people, I'd only ever use it a second or third time if the votes for a game were tied or if there is something else that is important to vote on.

@jarvismp yes of course mate, no worries 👍. I keep everyone added to the tag list unless they say they want to be removed.

@ralphdibny I ended up going maleshep again for head canon reasons as discussed, he’ll be a people pleasing, do gooding, paragon and a mirror of my original play through as much as possible. Almost a pilgrimage for me.

But my general recommendation for anyone that didn’t lock themselves into a path 15 years ago would be femshep. I have played both and much prefer the actress, but my head canon and original version is maleshep.