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

@AgentCooper cheers, I added your votes.

As for Plague Tale, I'm not sure tbh. Depends how they handle the recap if they even do one. I don't think I would play the second without playing the first personally.

I have read the second one is about 20 hours. I remember thinking the first one felt very long even if it was less than 20 hours.

Congrats on the incoming baby though! No worries, real life always comes first! Especially something like having a baby!

@AgentCooper Cheers for the incoming baby, mate!

@Clankylad cool yeah I thought it would be something to do with that scene

I've had a few nested alt scenes already. The interview was one I had last night and I just had one during the Satan ritual in Ambrosia

Finished up Ambrosio. Not collecting the clips, I'm on 96% according to the achievement and I counted that I have 74 clips of ambrosia so far. But I've finished doing my exam tactic on the clips that I do have. Now onto Minsky. Looks like I have 89% of the clips from Minsky so far to review and 80% of Two of Everything.

Does anyone remember that game Steven Spielberg's Directors Chair? I had it on PC when I was a kid. For some reason I keep getting reminded of it while playing this game even though it's not terribly similar.

Such a random game though, I remember you had to like choose what angles you want of different scenes. You had to send the film off to "processing" which would take like a real-time day or something stupid but in that time you could print off cinema tickets to give to your family before they come and sit around the PC monitor to watch the film 😂

I'm pretty sure the in-game film had Jim Carrey in it too and he was like in prison for something or other. (Edit: it was Quentin Tarantino, not Jim Carrey!)

It's one of those old games I've literally heard nothing about for 25 years or something so it would be interesting if someone else had it or played it. There's a few old PC games I remember that have fallen into total obscurity.

interesting how taste goes... two of everything was the only one I was quite enjoying, Minsky was okish and Ambrosio bored me to death and had to fast forward it

@ralphdibny you're talking about the Dig I am assuming. I never played it but saw a few YouTube videos on it

@Balta666 nah, just looked that up and that's a lucasarts game. The game I'm talking about was actually called Steven Spielberg's Directors Chair!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Spielberg's_Director's...

I think Ambrosio gets better toward the end. I think the problem with enjoying any of these films is that even if you try to avoid scenes later in the film so you can watch them in order, there was that initial wtf period of just watching whatever scenes come your way while you work out what's going on. So when you do watch them in order, you have to rewatch scenes which is tedious. I know you can fast forward but that defeats the idea of watching the film beginning to end. If you were so inclined that is. I ruthlessly fast forward through scenes I've seen!

I'm not 'officially' in the Monthly Game Club but I just wanted to hop on this thread and sing this game's praises.

If it wasn't for Elden Ring, it'd be my GOTY I think! But understand it's not everyone's cup of tea, it's always interesting to see different reactions – and that's part of the fun, eh? It really surprised me as I went in with no expectations. In fact, the prospect of clicking on things as the main gameplay loop didn't especially excite me... but in practice, it was very absorbing and grippingly eerie.

I think it's a great sign when a 5-7 hour game can have me watching hour-long plot/lore explanations on YouTube. Honestly, the story and the symbolism have been rattling around in my head ever since I finished – especially some of the social critique around those who make the media we love can be monsters, too.

It was my first FMV game and I def want to check out more of Sam Barlow's work now. Are his other games comparable?

Also Ambrosio got me more interested in the giallo genre – finally getting round to watching some Dario Argento...

Hope you're all enjoying it, or at least finding something thought-provoking in the experience.

Seems I am one of the only ones not really enjoying this. I played for like 4 -5 hours total and not one moment did it grab me. At first i had trouble understanding what i had to do, but even when i understood what i had to do with the rewind/fast forward stuff, it still didn't click with me. And generally i like playing narrative oriented games like the Life is Strange games and such, where there isn't much action. This game is basically like an Art house film, made for a specific audience and that audience is absolutely going to love it, but if you're not part of that audience it will not grab you at all. But that's fine not all games are for everyone.

@ralphdibny ok, the Dig is indeed from LucasArts but Spielberg was heavily involved as writter/producer

@Lavalera I just finished Immortals Fenyx Rising (almost 100%), one of the best games (and more gamey) I've ever played, so I haven't played Immortality yet. I know what you mean about those "games" that are not really games. The ones of that kind I've enjoyed the most are The Walking Dead. I didn't care enough to beat others like What Remains of Edith Finch. I beat a few that didn't do anything for me like Layers of Fear. The good thing is that they were either Gold or Game Pass games.

I got obsessed with that game, I've got all the achievements except for the one for watching all the reverse clips.

Is Telling Lies as riveting as Immortality?

@ralphdibny Struggling with too much work, and life commitments, and not finding much time to game recently. The down side of self employment sometimes... but I wouldn't change it!

Still hoping to get to Immortality this month, but we'll see. Will also vote for APT: Requiem for next month.

@Magabro Not played Immortality yet but according to everyone else no Telling Lies isn't as riveting, but still good if you like the style. But i'd recommend Her Story if you haven't played that one. It's still one of the best games i've ever played and I still think about it often. On PC (Game pass), tablet or phone (for very little). Definitely worth a play.

@Banjo- Yeah that, for me, is the biggest plus of gamepass/gwg/ps plus. Those subscriptions give me access to games i would never buy because i doubt if i like them. When i buy a game i feel way more forced to complete them and with a gamepass game, if i don't like it, then it's ok there are 400 other games on there i can play without feeling i wasted my money.

@Lavalera 100% it's the best feature of these subscription services, especially Game Pass. I've lost count of the number of games I played, and loved, that I probably never would have experienced otherwise. It simply makes gaming life so much richer and if you don't like it, move on.

@ralphdibny My vote for November: A Plague Tale Requiem.

@Lavalera @themightyant That's the great thing about Game Pass/Gold, to try games, not feeling forced to beat them, and to discover games that might be great. Regarding games that aren't games, I would like to play Tell Me Why as well.

@Banjo- Definitely and to discover games which we like individually. Some of my favourite games over the years are ones that critics scored around 6/7/8 out of 10 but I absolutely adored. It's great to find these and for them to find a larger audience.

I liked Tell Me Why but not as much as some of their other games (Life is Strange series), or similar fare like Telltale. I've only heard good things about As Dusk Falls so that is probably my next one in that sort of genre.

But i'm not convinced about calling them 'Games that aren't games' though. Who decides what is and isn't a game? Video games have always had a range of different styles and gameplay loops. Is Monkey Island not a video game? That's probably the closest thing to some of these. I just see them as games with a very different type of gameplay, play at your own speed and more about personal discovery than fast paced twitch based gameplay. Video games is a broad enough term to catch them all.

@themightyant It's just how I call games when you just follow a story, no big deal.

@Banjo- I have enjoyed tell me why however it is quite different from Immortality and the other 2 from the same creator. It is very similar in style to life is strange games.

@themightyant I do agree with you that games that are not games is not a fair naming. Even though it kind of has a poor connotation nowadays I still prefer the "walking simulator". Yes, it is not exactly true as there is allways some sort of puzzle solving involved but it is the closest imo.