I'm kind of disappointed they didn't keep the original grinning cherub design for the clockwork soldiers.

Paper Mario Colour Splash and by extension, the WiiU

100% completion on Colour Splash which, let me tell you, is an absolute fud with the random roshambo temples. So much to admire with the game and some great fun puzzles, but completely done over with rotten combat. Yet it's so fucking funny that I want to forgive it for that. Infuriatingly fun. It's miles better than that Sticker Star pish so if that was in your way, give it a shot. Getting 100% colourization on every level is FUCKING CATHARTIC.

With that, it's time for the WiiU to move upstairs to the game room. About to pack the Wii away, and this shall take the place next to the PS3 at the HDTV. The crt always has Super Famicom and N64 hooked up, but rotates with others.

Cya WiiU

Firewatch. It was alright. Bit too depressing though.

Gears of War: Judgment

Epic Games' "Halo ODST"-style contractual obligation or not, rather good fun, all told. It was a bold decision to change up the control scheme, and I did like the 'declassified' extra mission objectives.

I probably enjoyed it more than Gears 3 (which I also completed recently thanks to codes that came with Gears 4), but only because I played G3 on Normal which turned out to be too easy.

[7] unsubtle references to the Soviet Union out of [10] moments when the changed up control scheme meant I threw a grenade rather than checking my objectives.

Shovel Knight
Really enjoyed this after taking a few levels to click. Super charming, plays great, tricky but not too difficult. Tearing my hair out a bit at the final boss encounters but got there after a few shots. Not sure if I feel compelled to go back through as Plague Knight. His controls felt a bit frustrating after the five mins I gave him. But all in all just a lovely game.

That does look good. Massive kudos to them for releasing free DLC. And pretty extensive DLC at that too. My next retro inspired adventure is set to be Axiom Verge.

An inspired choice.

I've never played it. Mrs. B picked it from Muzzy's list based purely on the title.

Finished off Gravity Rush 2 tonight.

Outside of that wonderful flying mechanic and some good writing (early on at least), there's some seriously bad game in there.

Based on the first 3rd or so when you're just tumbling around a beautiful sky city, this would have been a high 7 or 8 for me. But ludicrous combat camera controls, appalling stealth sections and some of the worst mission design I can remember have brought it down to a low 6.

It's a real shame, as much of it is lovely. I'd probably have a go at another sequel, but they seriously need to up their game.

Think I'll try Yakuza next.

doom

Yeah it's great. VISCERAL. driven. STOMPING. singular. PURE. honed.

RIPPED

and

TEARED

9/10

Playing on ultra-violence I felt some of the weapons fell on the way-side once I got most of the ammo upgrades for the suit. Both shotguns and the assault rifle felt underpowered for the amount of damage sponge creatures that were about. And I stopped glory killing as much in favour of just blowing shit away with the Gauss Cannon's Siege Mode.

Endorsement from Tempy?! I'm in. Might see of CEX have it tomorrow. I have credit to burn.

Stories: The Path of Destinies

Completely caned and rinsed this, got the platinum trophy. I actually completed it the other day, but was farming footage to compile a couple of videos. (Thanks to DS for sourcing the game's soundtrack to use on the montage video.)

This is by no means one of the best games I've played, but it got its hooks into me. Combat is Arkham-lite; one button combos, getting the timing right to counter enemy attacks, with unlockable skills like a risk/reward slo-mo when you counter as late as possible, and abilities to dash through enemies knocking them down, or skewering them and launching them at other enemies... so, although it's largely one-button combos, you can utilise your dash and hook-shot in combat too. Then, if you really want to mix it up, you can switch between four swords each with different properties; fire, ice, healing, and, uh, purple.

Plot-wise, the idea is that there a number of story paths you can take - 24 alternative endings, and one 'true hero' path (which has a couple of dead endings, but only kncks you back to the start of the level).  Each story takes you around a variety of four (out of six or seven) stylised worlds, and the all end in the same level.

The style is that slightly try-too-hard comedy you'll recognise from countless other Pratchett/Princess Bride wannabes, but it's by no means the worst, and raised a few smiles. The whole thing is narrated by one guy doing different voices. Sometimes that works well, other times not so much.

Somebody else here played it and found the levels a little empty. Although I often liked the tone that set (the plot has an end-of-the-world theme to it) at times it did feel like you were running through extremely pretty but ultimately uneventful scenery until you triggered a combat area.

Another issue would be that the skill tree was poorly balanced for the number of storylines. I'd completed all of the stories, and still had loads of (tbh, pointless) levels of the various skills to unlock. I dare not think how many more times I had to play through to get them all.  Also, the 'true hero' path can be found very, very early on, and finding every other story path is awkward, and each story something of an anticlimax when you've already found the main path. Also also, at some point after I'd found all the gems (which it also gave away too easily) treasure chests stopped dishing out the energy to power up my sword, and only dispensed health - combine that with the fact that various levels rewarded me with upgrades for things which were already fully upgraded, and not the things I needed to upgrade, and it all sounds a lot more frustrating than it actually was.

Hopefully, this montage video will help convey the fact that I did have fun with it:



On the off-chance that anyone is remotely interested, here's the 'true hero' story path:





Edit: I forgot, I did this video the other day, too:

BoxBoy! (3DS)

Really enjoyed it.  Some nice ideas, tightly executed, sensible amount of content, simple aesthetic.

Hard to quibble really - my main objection was it was all slightly too easy (I basically walked "perfects" (all crowns) on every single level).  But having now "completed" it, some more worlds have unlocked, which hopefully will be sterner, plus there are some challenge modes too.

All in all then, I'm in generous modes, so [9] nons from a gon.

Yeah will prob try some more. Didn't know about a sequel...

You can even get all three on a cart, with amiibo!