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

Ok so i finally beat Recore. Overall not a bad game but definitely could have done some things a bit better. I think I'll play some more if the DLC area and finish that off but I'll be getting started on Pshyconauts next. I finished the Victor battle on my phone via Xcloud so it's handy just being able to play on multiple devices.

@Krzzystuff nice one 👍, the DLC area is pretty short if I remember correctly so hopefully shouldn't take too long

Ive taken my time with this game but I am starting to get it now that I've progressed a bit. I think it was a bit slow to start, I did a lot of exploring in the hub world so I could get the dowsing rod and subsequently the cobweb hoover and mental items magnet.

I think I'm rank 30 and I'm just about to go see the person after you get the boating badge. That's after I go and pick up my next psi power from cruller.

But yeah, it took a little while for me to get into it but I think I'm in the swing of things now and am quite enjoying it. Especially now I can see how the progression works.

Aesthetically, it's reminding me of 3D versions of old LucasArts games mixed with a healthy dose of Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas/Corpse Bride/Frankenweenie. There seems to be a bit of an American McGee's Alice kick to it as well and in terms of gameplay and also design, it's somewhere between that game and it's sequel Alice: Madness Returns.

The 3D platforming is taking me back a bit to games like Toy Story 2 on the ps1. A lot of stuff to do and collect and it's a decent game to boot. There does seem to be a mild point and click element to proceedings which makes sense considering the heritage of the game designers.

Dr Nein's level had a real Mario Galaxy flair to it, only some years earlier than Galaxy did it! Raz's level is reminding me a lot of Sonic 2's Mystic Cave Zone for some reason as well! I think it's just the dull greens and creepy vibe. I used to love that level as a kid so I immediately took to the similarities that this Psychonauts level has.

Performance wise, the graphics look nice and sharp on the One X. I like the OG Xbox eras muddy textures, they are just of the time and I love them for it. They're muddy but they are sharp, if that makes sense 😅. The frame rate dips a bit on my console unfortunately which is a bit jarring for me.

Overall decent game so far, even with a difficult and less than fun first hour or two that took me a while to adjust to it. I'm beginning to like it and now I'm in the zone, I hope that I can fully appreciate it!!

@ralphdibny Yeah that's how I felt about the game as well, i.e. it started off rather slow but then the game will just feed you one level after the other. It's fine I think because exploring the hub world helps familiarise you with the controls. Not to mention getting to know the characters and there are seriously a lot of campers to get to know. Maybe a bit too many if you ask me.

I don't know if you've played the Kingdom Heart series, but the linear levels as well as the variety in themes heavily reminded me of that series. I think that becomes more apparent the further in you get. But yeah, the variety and creativity of the levels are so good!

@LtSarge I've only played most of the first game (could never beat Riku 😅). But yeah I suppose you're right in that sense. Except Kingdom hearts is massively RPG-heavy but yeah I suppose they are similar in the varied levels they have

Also, can I just say what a nightmare it must've been to play Psychonauts on the original Xbox. Having to use the black and white buttons to map PSI powers sounds annoying as heck. Thank goodness for the addition of bumpers, lol.

Goggalor!!!!

This level is reminding me of Eat Them! on PS3. Unfortunately it's not running too well, lots of frame rate dips. It's weird because I'd just think it would be a normal level with me being normal size and with everything else just being small but it's actually running like I'm a giant in a normal size world. Cool level though!! Despite it being a bit sluggish

I've 100%ed the Sasha Nein level, the hippy dancer lady level and the Raz level. I'm hoping I have enough of the abilities to just 100% levels as I go now without having to backtrack too much. I've still got to go and finish off the camp areas though.

It's always a thing with 3D platformers, there's always this small portion near the beginning of the game that you can't 100% until later in the game once you've unlocked more stuff but it always seems disproportionate to the amount of the game that you can just 100% the first time around.

@LtSarge not sure about the button thing really, the Duke and the revised "S" pad had the B/W buttons above and below the face buttons respectively so I imagine the experience would be different on each controller. It's definitely a weird design, not dissimilar to a Saturn controller but the way the buttons are almost vertically oriented seems pretty alien. Maybe not so good for a 3d platformer but decent for fighting games

I did the neighborhood level, I thought it was the best level so far!! I liked the added complexity and it definitely felt the most like a "point and click" style game out of the bunch. Just for it's random and obscure use of items/abilities. It was wicked!

I also went back and got the last few figments, cobwebs and the trunk from the basic braining level. So I've fully completed all the mental stages so far. Next up is the level for the actor lady.

I think it's quite hard to see the figments in some of the levels like the one with the dancing lady. Just because they are so faint and neon that it's really difficult to see them against certain backgrounds.

Ahhh what the hell?! I've just gone in to Psychonauts today and all that's there is an old save file. I think my last save was at around ten hours playtime but it's not showing up. All I've got is a 5 hour play time save.

Duno if the cloud syncing has overwritten it or something. Not sure what's gone wrong here or if I am going to have to do all of what I did yesterday again 😭😭😭😭

@ralphdibny That sucks man. So you think an old save file on the cloud overwrote your newer save file? Don't know how that's possible unless you were playing offline for a while and then synced up to the older file by connecting online. Question is if you can still access the new save file if you go offline again.

@LtSarge honestly no idea how the cloud syncing works. I never really had a problem with it before so I didn't look into it much. You would think that it would keep the more recent save file, whether that be local or cloud but God knows what happened.

As far as I am aware, I didn't go offline yesterday. I never do it on purpose so I don't know what's gone on really. I can't seem to find any info about it online.

But yeah, I deleted Psychonauts and reinstalled it, hoping it would sync up a more recent save. Just playing some Doom Eternal now and will go back to Psychonauts after I finish this level. I suppose I have the benefit of being able to skip the cutscenes, it's just the fact that I did all the collecting/100%ing that's annoying because it's kinda long

I played Psychonauts for the first time a couple months ago. I think you can guess from my avatar that I really loved it. Well except for the Meat Circus. That level can **** off!

Quite liking it so far. Only done Basic Braining and now I’m just wandering around the camp trying to grind for a dowsing rod!

@nessisonett nice one! Shouldn't take too long to get the dowsing rod. You can get the arrowheads from smashing environmental objects in the mental stages too.

Are you playing the PC version? I wonder how much better it is graphics wise

I'm nearly back at where I was before I lost my save file. Half way through The Neighborhood and then I have to do the Theatre to be back where I was. Luckily, I've remembered where all the tricky figments, psi cards, psi cores and scavenger hunt stuff is. I've gotta get the last scavenger hunt item from the asylum overworld and then I can go back and claim the reward to completely mop up the campground overworld

@ralphdibny The graphics are honestly pretty nice on PC. Resolution’s a nice 1080p and it’s fairly crisp. Got my dowsing rod so raking in the arrowheads now! Probably going to do Sasha’s level now though.

@nessisonett nice one, wide-screen aswell I'm guessing? It's 4:3 on Xbox. No Biggie really but some of these back-compat games expand out to wide-screen but this one doesn't

Finally got to the bit where I lost my save from, didn't take nearly as long because I skipped all the cutscenes and knew where everything was. Still though, probably going to stay up and finish it tonight so I don't lose my save again 😭

@ralphdibny Yeah, it launched in 4:3 but I was able to change it to widescreen in the options. Shame you can’t on Xbox!

Beaten Sasha’s level there which got dark very very fast. There’s a strange undercurrent of quite disturbing material in this game which I appreciate, similar to Tim Burton movies or Coraline.

@nessisonett I actually forgot to mention that in my posts. The amount of dark undertones is just crazy, you should just see the next level. All I'll say is, explore every nook and cranny of that level for some pretty crazy stuff.