Old_Man_Harper

I expect she’s got her eye on his job! She’s 46, he’s 56 and at that age a fellow - especially a fellow who’s done well for himself - might well be thinking about downshifting or retirement. I know I would!

@abe_hikura - That actually did happen with Deathloop and Ghostwire…

But are people really going to complain about this when there’s already an S/X enhancement? I suppose it will probably wring a few quid out of PS5 owners who want the latest, greatest version.

@Elbow I should probably add that the voice acting is pretty ‘Allo ‘Allo! but it didn’t spoil my fun.

@Elbow it’s quite XCOM like, although there doesn’t appear to be permadeath, at least not in the difficulty I’m playing at - downed troops are timed out for three turns and if they are downed again they retreat. The missions are things like blow up a bridge or ambush a convoy. Your squad levels up with experience and you have to rotate them for wounds or fatigue or their action points are reduced. There’s a strategic level (again like XCOM) where you have to control areas of France and a German Partisan-hunter unit is also after you.

I wouldn’t describe it as being as polished as XCOM, but I found it engrossing and ended up playing it all weekend (and then bought it).

I ended up buying Classified: France ‘44 after the last free play day, I think I’ve got a few too many games on the go now, especially with some big releases coming in the near future!

I didn’t mind the timer but the psychopath fights were generally far too hard to be fun and I ended up ignoring the missions that involved them.

I have to say that when I played it I thought it was sailing very close to the wind! I wonder if now that the game is a success, this lawsuit will be more of a cash rinse than an attempt to stop it.

I think it’s good that someone is making games specifically for kids. There are hundreds of releases for older players every year.

It is possibly worth pointing out that the ‘game year’ tends to be backloaded and there may well be things coming in the next few months that change everyone’s mind!

Hellblade 2 is my favourite, really enjoyed that one. I found it totally immersive and the only game I’ve played on Series X or PS5 to date that lives up to the ‘next gen’ billing.

Perhaps someone could explain to him that countries other than Japan exist?

I’ve been playing Classified: France ‘44 on the Free Try Day. It’s basically a WW2 XCOM - you build a squad, do turn-based missions to do things like blow up bridges or raid supply dumps in the countdown to D-Day. There’s also a strategic level, where you have to gain strength in regions and grow relationships with other resistance factions. Pretty good I think!

I had a GameCube but I bought my mate’s Xbox plus games off him for £50 - he was raising funds for a 360. I traded most of the games in for GTA San Andreas (I can remember looking enviously at the PS2 owners queuing for it in Game while I looked at the sparse selection of ‘Cube games!) and played it and played it and played it…

@jesse_dylan I think I’ll try that one too. TBS + WW2! What’s not to like?

The civil service may be relatively dull, but at least they don’t lay us all off if we implement an unsuccessful policy…

Missing out on spending a lot of money? My PS5 hasn’t really done enough to justify what I paid for it yet, so I’m not inclined to buy a more expensive one.

I don’t mind ‘fail if you are caught’ missions, in fact I quite like them. I haven’t found the stealth missions I’ve played so far in Outlaws too challenging. It’s satisfying to get in and out of somewhere without firing a shot or being seen at all.

Some 7 Days to Die - did the day 105 blood moon and died. Need to improve the base I’ve been using for these levels.

Also had the chance to put some more time into Star Wars Outlaws, which I’m now enjoying a lot after the initial ‘what am I doing’ phase.

It’s a bit like Cyberpunk 2077 - they keep promising new features and I keep holding off from playing it until they arrive!

Heartbreaking for the developers. We all know what’s coming next for them. What a rotten industry it seems to be.

Bit disappointed to learn that the co-op is only 3 players. The group I play with is generally 4 or 5. ☹️

Sounds great, I hope I can persuade my Horde pals to get it too - after 750+ hours of playing Gears 5 Horde it is getting pretty stale!

I do enjoy the train sim games, they are oddly relaxing.

For all the negativity (to which I admit contributing a bit) I have a feeling that this might turn out to be a really good game.

I started Dustborn on Series X - it sounded like the sort of thing I might like and happily it is. I wasn’t keen on the characters at first - they seemed too ‘about what you’d expect’ in a game and the story throws you in at the deep end a bit, but they become more sympathetic once you learn their backstories and what is going on.

I’m also going to progress a bit in 7 Days to Die. My massacre of the day 56 blood moon horde from my ranger tower caused overconfidence on my part, demonstrated when the day 63 horde brought the tower crashing down on top of me.

I do hope that at some point they will announce something - anything - about this game that makes me want to play it.

Atomfall looks interesting!

So it’s out on PS5 for £70 in April? Whatever. 🤷‍♂️ I’ll have finished it on Game Pass in December. In six months’ time it’ll be old news, chip wrapping.

Dustborn looks alright, might check it out. Quantic Dream games tend to get ‘Marmite’ reviews, but I’ve enjoyed the ones I’ve played.

I’ve been getting on with 7 Days to Die. I finally acquired the ability to craft a mini motorcycle! On the downside, I managed to spoil a long run of staying alive by accidentally falling off the ranger tower I was defending on a blood moon night.☹️

Get rid of the reviews for Game Pass games or require a minimum play-time or a purchase before allowing them. That would hopefully get rid of the idiot toddlers telling us that a game they haven’t played is ‘woke DEI trash’.

Metro had an interesting point about FH5 - it has a finite lifespan due to the licensed properties in it (see FH4) so why not cash in?

I wonder if all these new delays are because the games aren’t finished or because the developers don’t want to release into a crowded marketplace? Either way, I’ll still get to play them in the end so I’m not too fussed.

Playing This Bed We Made, which I picked up after reading the story on this site the other day. So far so good, as it’s set in Montreal I chose French dialogue with English subtitles.

I’ll also probably do some more on 7 Days to Die, I’m on day 32 now, a lot better armed and equipped and now starting to take on some more challenging places.

If I have time, I may also take a look at the remastered Dooms.

I hadn’t heard of this, but it sounds like my sort of thing, so I bought it.

@GeeEssEff I thought the landing training was pretty good, but it’s still the hardest thing about flying! I often seem to run out of runway…

I bought the new 1.0 version and am loving it. If you enjoyed Grounded or The Long Dark you will certainly enjoy it. I’m just coming up to 28 days and have come to the conclusion that it’s better to have a separate base for the Blood Moon nights - I don’t want my nice home base getting trashed!

A pretty strong month with something for everyone. Case of the Golden Idol was my favourite, I really enjoyed solving the scenarios and the story is terrific. I ended up buying both the DLC levels too, which are also great and are a prequel to the main game.

7 Days to Die 1.0 on Series X. Addicted to the gameplay loop now and have acquired a bicycle which makes getting round the map a lot easier. This gives me more time to make some steps towards self-sufficiency in food and water.

Having picked up a bit of a buzz about the 1.0 version, I bought 7 Days to Die. Really enjoying it! I can see myself sinking hours into this one. I did my usual thing for this sort of game - played until I knew what I was doing and then restarted for a proper run. Great fun if you enjoyed things like Grounded or The Long Dark.

I finished Tchia on Game Pass. I enjoyed playing it, but I thought the ending was a bit abrupt and I was expecting more story. I’d say it was worth a look if you want a Zelda-ish game.

There’s always a new game drought over summer, it’s nothing new. It gives you a chance to clear some of the previous winter’s backlog!

176GB! It’ll probably take longer to download it than it will to play the campaign.

Having really enjoyed Case of the Golden Idol last weekend, I’m playing the two dlc’s this weekend, ‘Spider of Lanka’ and ‘Lemurian Vampire’. They each have three scenarios, set at the more challenging end of those in the main game, again with an interesting and clever overarching story. Very pleased to hear that a sequel is coming out this year.

I’m also chilling out with a bit of ‘Humanity’ when my brain starts to hurt too much.

I downloaded it, but I notice that it doesn’t appear to have any achievements. 🤷‍♂️

I’ve got it on PS5, I just haven’t got around to playing it. I think the prospect of getting some achievements might motivate me to do so on Xbox.

Back in the 360 days I can remember a copy of Avatar: Burning Earth going around my friend group so we could all get the 1,000 points. It took about 2 minutes and if anything, made the resale value of the game hold up!

@adderblack39 Not as hard as Obra Dinn, but there are some challenging scenarios. In a couple of cases I simply couldn’t understand how they could be solved with the limited amount of clues provided, but everything needed is there and I did! In some cases the clues you need are contained in earlier scenarios and you have to revisit them. Also, like Obra Dinn, the overarching story is a good one.

Today, I’ll be finishing off the Case of the Golden Idol, which I started yesterday. Really enjoying this one, the same sort of deductive, thinky game as Return of the Obra Dinn or Botany Manor. I’ve seen some criticism of the visual style, but it has grown on me. I’m down to the last few chapters, but I think I’ll buy the dlc as well.

I downloaded Golden Idol, which looks like an engrossing game for my upcoming day off. I might try the cricket one (let’s see if we get a summer at some point!) but it’s quite a tricky sport to make a decent game of.