La5t Game You Fini5hed And Your Thought5

Shame, that one screenshot (of Maquette) looks nice.  I've not played many in the genre but Cassette Beasts feels like the first one I've tried that can measure up to Pokémon on its own terms, partly because I'm a little disillusioned with (some of) modern Pokémon and partly because it's genuinely good.  For free, you've got no excu... well, maybe you do.  It's very much a gameplay-first time.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I've added another game to my post above on the previous page.  It doesn't deserve one of its own.

Did say Venba was more of a VN than game, and at £12 might be a bit pricey due to length and you can get likes of A Space for the Unbound or Oxenfree II for not a lot more money for more game.

I guess that's the one thing missing from the end of your (very good ) new LGYFAYT post structure: a 'would you recommend it and who to' pointer at the end.  I couldn't quite tell if you liked it overall or not.  It gave me big Florence vibes so I thought you might.

I did like it but as game in a sub that paid for ages ago or maybe if like £4, feel Florence is a round that price when not on offer.

To add the Maquette hate I honestly think Mas is being kind there, describing the story as less good is very generous, describing the VO as good is madness, the characters are from believable and very irritating to listen to. I honestly must have been mad to play it to the Platinum Trophy, definitely my worst one of those.

I thought they were fine in it and was the best part of the game, hence why it went in good.


What was good? The Pew Pew with your magic hands in this FPS where you use magic (duh) instead of guns, which reminds me a tad of Hexen (Night Dive get on that). World building. Story. Aesthetics

What was less good? Tad long at almost 18hrs, which makes some of the chapters feel like filler and I'd sooner have 12hrs or so of just all top-tier combat

What was bobbins? Performance, not in terms of FPS as it seems to stick to 60fps but uses some sort of FSR or something for the resolution to get to output in my case 4K, and it just looks blurry because of it

Would I recommend it? Yes and No because it is a £70rrp game which I got from Game Collection for £59.95 and got £12.50 back in points, that I've used towards the Starfield physical upgrade. At the moment, I would say I'm going to be happy with the £81.31 I will have spent in cash on those two things, costing £104.98rrp. Yet I know £60 for IoA is still going to be a lot of money and it being a EA game will come to EA Play at some point (where's Wild Hearts) and much like gJones recent pick-ups post will be cheap like Need for Speed soonish as well. Basically, buy it at a price you feel comfortable at.

Played more games


What was good? Under the Wave is much like Firewatch you're a chap that that needs space so decides to take a job under the ocean, in this case instead of a park ranger. You talk to someone on a radio that helps you through the story, which starts out as simple tasks such as clean that generator, as the game goes on the story gets darker etc. It's not quite a walking sim or should that be a swimming sim as you're playing in third person makes it feel different, plus you've got your little one-man sub to use.

What was less good? Controls much like a lot of games with water levels, it never felt quite right to me and for a 8hr game that might put others off as well. Not French enough, being from a French team and published by Quantic Dream.

What was bobbins? Performance, worse than IoA as UTW has pretty bad screening tearing and I had a seal just swim into my life module which has no water and I managed to drive my sub through walls.

Would I recommend it? Yes and unlike IoA this is only £25, plus it has a physical a brand-new PS5 or Series X game for that price which is pretty decent I feel is well worth getting.

Not an edit this time but a Double Post as I finished


What was good? The story and how the main quest line can be interwoven with side quests. Such as I did some quests with the pirate faction and due to that in a main quest where a companion had been kidnapped by them, I could just ask to take the hostage instead as I was also a member of the pirate faction. Lots of cool things like that, then the combat is decent enough as it's not a proper FPS but an RPG where you put skill points into a levelling up grind thing. Graphically faces of NPCs aren't great, but things like clothes the detailing is top-notch, this feels like a now current gen game.

The mission Entangled

What was less good? It does take a little bit of time to get going, yet that is an RPG trait.

What was bobbins?  I had to reload one mission because something I had to shoot wasn't loading. Ohh, and I guess ship combat is a tad pants. Load times, for a current gen game they are a tad long though you are jumping to one solar system to the next and as I said above the detail is pretty good.

Would I recommend it? YES! this is now my GOTY and has moved into my Top 100 of all-time in at 66, though that's mostly due to it being better than Forza Horizon 5 on my Series X list now and I keep consistency. As I said in the September games thread, this game can be played via the cloud etc, sure it is the first system seller on Xbox, but it is still just one game that even a Series S might be too much for some.

If I hated all previous Bethesda games I've tried, does this do anything to change my mind? All signs point to "no" so far.

Well I've not played one for what more than a decade, so maybe this is new and fresh to me but compared to a Morrwind and even other RPGs, it us get your quest of NPC then do a mission which is often clear out a base and go back to the NPC etc

Its more of the dialogue options etc that is great and now had me more excited for BGIII where things like that are even more part of the game.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Hot Baws wrote:

Just unlocked all the upgrades, raced all the tracks and finished the main campaign of Horizon Chase Turbo on Switch. The developer describes it on their website as being " a modern take on the 90s old-school racers that we loved the most". Of all the retro revival games to come out this decade, this is right up there with A Hat In Time as being one of my favourites. Horizon Chase Turbo is bloody outstanding. It's got the fun and exhilarating speed of OutRun, the strategic thinking-ahead of Top Gear, and it's as balls-hard as Lotus Turbo Challenge. With a surprising number of cars, tracks and modes, unique visuals and a quality soundtrack as well, this is the best arcade racer I've played in years. 9/10.

They’ve kept going with development on Horizon Chase Turbo over the last three years, adding a free Rookie Series mode and then a Summer Vibes expansion that could basically act as OutRun 3 if you squinted hard enough. Carrying on with this, Aquiris recently released their latest Horizon Chase Turbo DLC, Senna Forever.

Made with the cooperation of the Ayrton Senna charity institute, Senna Forever is a loving retelling of the F1 legend’s career, from forming his legacy to establishing himself and then, tragically, onto "seeking the victories he never achieved”. Other than to use Ayrton Senna’s likeness, this whole DLC lacks any official licenses. However, the inverted team colours, distinctive-ish sponsorship logos, clever mechanical set-ups, manufacturer-inspired car designs and evocative circuit layouts all help capture the feel of Formula One very successfully without risking goading Ross Brawn and his pals into slamming down lawsuits.

Sporting a meaty Career Mode as well as three Championship Grand Prix, I couldn’t put Senna Forever down until I finished it. The driving in Horizon Chase Turbo is simply superb, and the new cockpit views really help you feel the game’s speed. The excitement, exhilaration and challenge from the base game all remain, and are perhaps even enhanced and freshened up to feel new again. Really, all Senna Forever does from a gameplay perspective is simply add more fantastic stuff on top of an absolutely brilliant game. This new and full price DLC wasn’t even six quid either, and I’ve seen the base game for as cheap as £4.49. It’s outrageous value for money.

I might have changed my mind since I posted that first review back in February 2019. A game with no weaknesses, maybe, just maybe, Horizon Chase Turbo is the best retro revival, full stop. 10/10.

What the bloody hell has happened with Horizon Chase 2? When it was announced for an immediate eShop release during last week’s Nintendo Direct my walloper doubled in size and grew to thirty inches (I was very excited) (I got a boner) (I have a very big boabby). You can see above how highly I think of Horizon Chase Turbo and it seemed near-certain that the long-awaited sequel would build upon that truly excellent foundation. I had all the confidence in the world that it would – after all, it’s been out for a year on Apple Arcade and it’s reviewed very well on there. Yet if anything I think AQUIRIS have neutralised just about all of Horizon Chase Turbo’s best qualities. Like I’ve already said, what the bloody hell has happened with Horizon Chase 2?

“The fun and exhilarating speed of OutRun” is lost in too many short and unmemorable track designs and with regular and noticeable framerate stutters, while the “strategic thinking-ahead of Top Gear” is totally negated by the game’s lack of challenge. I won all but one of the World Tour races on my first go – an unimaginable scenario in Horizon Chase Turbo – and even then I only lost because one computer driver somehow managed to drive so fast that they broke the online Global record for that track by over four seconds. Also, Horizon Chase Turbo was indeed “balls-hard” yet immensely rewarding for being so; Horizon Chase 2 badly shows it’s mobile roots by feeling like the sort of game that controls itself for you. The AI seems to mostly stay out of your way and there’s bug-ger all reason to hit the brakes. You’re also overly-generously provided with nitro boosts to be used whenever, and they’ve removed the fuel system entirely. It’s just too easy altogether. It feels much more like those generic Asphalt games than it does Horizon Chase Turbo.

There’s issues galore here. The pop-up is surprising proof of poor programming, while there’s a truly strange glitch that sometimes changes all the button prompts to, of all things, the RB button you’d find on an Xbox controller. I say the new visual style fails as well. Blurry as well as indistinct, particularly in handheld mode it looks like you’re playing the game on a Wii U GamePad. Worst of all, the only crashes that happen in Horizon Chase 2 are to the system itself.

When Horizon Chase 2 performs well it can occasionally be thrilling, and the handling and music both remain excellent. Most of the time, it just about equates to an enjoyable albeit throwaway and inessential experience. Which itself would be fair enough but – GEE-ZUS! - what a disappointment this is in its current state and with regards to promise showed by its prequel. 6/10.

That's a shame. This getting announced at the Nintendo Direct was a pleasant surprise, and the first game is, as you say, excellent retro racing. I'm not even sure how you can mess it up, as it had such a winning template to just make more tracks with.

When I saw this in the Direct, I remembered Cappa's praise of the first and was pretty excited. As it happens, I guess I'm better off just downloading the first game on the cheap instead.

Quote :

When it was announced for an immediate eShop release during last week’s Nintendo Direct my walloper doubled in size and grew to thirty inches (I was very excited) (I got a boner) (I have a very big boabby).

All-timer.

Ooft, that's rough. I have no interest in driving games, but like Buska I saw HC2 announced in the Direct and was a little pleased - albeit for Cappa, not for myself.  To see it crash and burn like that is a darn shame.




You've probably never heard of Chants of Sennaar, or only know it as a game that got a 7/10 on Nintendo Life that you passed without a second thought.  Well, I'm here to tell you that Chants of Sennaar actually deserves... well, a 7/10.  But a good recommendation 7/10, not a Nintendo Life Damning With Faint Praise 7/10.

A lot of whether you like it will depend on how you get on with languages, because that's what CoS is: a language solving game.  In genre it's closer to a point-and-click than anything else, only most of the tools you pick up are words.  You'll speak to people, or read words on walls, or derive them through other context clues - and using these you'll guess at what they mean.  Every so often your journal will refresh and tell you whether you were right.  Using these you can progress further through the lovely stylised levels of what is a pretty obvious Tower of Babel analogue, and find out what's really going on.

It's a surprisingly well-told albeit light-touch story for a great language solving game.  Unfortunately it's stapled to a mediocre stealth experience, some more trad point-and-click bits or puzzles that just aren't as good as language solving, and a bit of slowness and/or confusion.  It could really have done with more maps, for example.  Nonetheless the core conceit, along with the story and trappings, really are very good; all of which adds up to a high 7/10 and a recommendation from me.  If you get on with languages, this is a flawed gem.

I've seen a few language games recently and one even coming soon, also think NLife gave 7 Days to End with You a decent review but might be a bit VN.

They didn't give it a review at all in fact!  They featured it in a video but in fact it was the only one of the games in the video not to be reviewed.  Unfortunately it goes all in on multiple playthroughs and multiple endings and multiple interpretations, which isn't so much my thing.  It sounds like Alex Olney's thing though...  

Anyway, Sennaar doesn't do that.  It's also more of a P&C game than a visual novel, and has a rather excellent aesthetic that does more for me than standard issue anime pixel art. Again: recommended.

7 Days to End with You on Opencritic only has three reviews all 6's so that be pass, anyway


That is my thoughts on the Crew Motorfest

Ah that's a bit of a stretch.

Eh? Eh!?!?!?

Balladeer wrote:

You've probably never heard of Chants of Sennaar, or only know it as a game that got a 7/10 on Nintendo Life that you passed without a second thought.  Well, I'm here to tell you that Chants of Sennaar actually deserves... well, a 7/10.  But a good recommendation 7/10, not a Nintendo Life Damning With Faint Praise 7/10.

I saw that Mark Brown fella give a big shout out for this game, and I'm very tempted I am. it's one of many several ideas I had myself for a game, except these peeps are actually capable of making a thing, so I won't be suing them of infringement of my IP that only exists in my head.

gjones wrote:

That's a shame. This getting announced at the Nintendo Direct was a pleasant surprise, and the first game is, as you say, excellent retro racing. I'm not even sure how you can mess it up, as it had such a winning template to just make more tracks with.

Buskalilly wrote:

When I saw this in the Direct, I remembered Cappa's praise of the first and was pretty excited. As it happens, I guess I'm better off just downloading the first game on the cheap instead.

Aye, the first one is often under a fiver and it’s definitely the game to get. It’s been a week since I finished Horizon Chase 2 and yet there’s not much I remember about it, it’s not left much of an impression. I trust it’ll be patched and improved in time though, all hope isn’t lost.

masofdas wrote:

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That is my thoughts on the Crew Motorfest

I’d be well up for a review system that rates games by comparison to a Premier League striker.

Super Mario Odyssey:

It's more that the Crew is a pale imitation of Forza Horizon.


What was good? The cinematic story mode, which ties all of MK11 together, even the character stories from Towers in MK11. Even now, the tower stories don't seem completely random, they make sense based on the events of the main game.

What was less good? Invasion Mode, is more Single Player content which is good, but I've not even got past the first realm and seems to drag plus it all change next month due to it being all seasonal content stuff.

What was bobbins? Online, I could barely find a game maybe not a lot of people on Xbox playing it as not seen a cross-play option and then the ranking system is done in a weird way of 5 sets which the loser gets to choose to stay on or quit after each game, the time I made it 2-1 the other person just left even with them being 2-1 up.

Would I recommend it? Yes to Jay, Andy etc as it is a good fighting game and prefer the story mode in this to SF6 but the MP seems way better in SF6.

You know what they say about jokes you have to explain Mas.

Mortal Kombat. They're still making those huh. Even seeing it like this it feels like an uncomfortable throwback somehow.

Jimbob wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

Chants of Sennaar

I saw that Mark Brown fella give a big shout out for this game, and I'm very tempted I am. it's one of many several ideas I had myself for a game, except these peeps are actually capable of making a thing, so I won't be suing them of infringement of my IP that only exists in my head.

There's an xckd for everything.

Smurf would have got it, on the podacst I said Forza Horizon is Heinz Ketchup and Crew Motorfest is ASDA own brand.

Triple game finishing


What was good? Exploring the world as Rei which reminds me a tad of Journey as you're often floating through the world (this also reminds me a tad of Super Mario Galaxy) to get to your objectives which ends in a boss battle that the reminds me of Shadow of the Colossus, all in an aesthetically pleasing game.  

What was less good? The goals of each zone are pretty much the same of go find a giant eyes to take out with a heart beat thing around four times to then unlock the boss and move on.

What was bobbins? Not a lot, can be a sometimes fiddly to move around.

Would I recommend it? Yeah, I very much enjoyed playing Solar Ash.


What was good? Was in my Ubisoft+ sub.

What was less good? The mini-games seem to repeat often from playing the Adventure Mode.

What was bobbins? Not Mario Party.

Would I recommend it? If you're on that there Xbox or PlayStation, then this might be an okay Mario Party clone.


What was good? Cocoon is more than good, this is an excellent puzzle adventure where you play as beetle who hops between worlds inside orbs to solve puzzles.

What was less good? Can't think of much that isn't good.

What was bobbins? Boss fights aren't really anything to write to home about.

Would I recommend it? Yes, this is easily the indie of the year and one for a fan of Limbo or Inside which this the best of those three (or four if count Somerville).

Mmm.  I think Cocoon is probably a slightly worse time on Switch, but the big-ticket differences are going to be because of my and Mas' preferences I reckon.  (The bosses are actually bobbins though, I agree there.)

These are my thoughts on the Rabbids game.


Anyway, who wants some moderate recommendations?



It's Storyteller!  Which may confuse those of you with better memories.  But you see, Storyteller recently got a free update which basically doubled the size of the game.  For a title where my main criticism (and Mas') was how small and throwaway it felt, this is a big deal.  The new puzzles, especially the devil ones, are good - I didn't partake of the 'global puzzles' but they look good too.  Also the ambiguous ending page is now gone.  It's still on the smaller side, but there's enough content here now for me to give this a low 7/10.



I've never seen, or indeed heard of until this game, Record of Lodoss War.  It's an old manga, anime, and TTRPG campaign series that I continue to have no interest in, and that extends to the story in Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth.  Never mind though, because if you ignore the story this is a very solid Castlevania-like with the Ikaruga/Drainus colour-flipping mechanic.  It's a game that is just solid at what it does.  It feels good to play, there's decent enemy variety and fun bosses, the challenge is gauged right...  What it isn't is special, at all.  There's nothing in the gameplay, visuals, music, plot, level design, or exploration that will wow you.  You could play RoLWDiWL or not play it and your life story wouldn't change at all.  But it doesn't really drop the ball anywhere either, and if you have a gap in your schedule for a Metroidvania then you could do far worse than this.  Another low 7/10 here.

I watched footage of the Switch version of Cocoon as did think maybe load times between worlds etc but seemed fine from what I saw that I would still highly recommend it on Switch. Might even work as a good handheld game of drop in do a puzzle and move on, though may lose some of the atmosphere around the game.

I've actually been playing a lot of Ubisoft games due to Ubisoft+, like the Crew Motorfest above Rabbids and I missed Family Feud of this along with getting about halfway in Assassin's Creed Mirage before the sub ran out. I will renew in December as the Avatar game looks like it might be fun and I want to finsh Assassin's Creed Mirage but this is now I will play any of there games and if it's not on the sub I won't be buying.

Didn't know Storyteller got a update, saw something about a Netflix version which thought was getting exclusive content but now may have to redownload on my Switch.

Not a lot to say on Deedlit that I haven't before but have you checked out Ender Lilles or Afterimage?