acemuzzy wrote:

Interesting.  You totally sure there was no way out??

Yep. It was when you get the longer drone range. To the right were laser doors you could only unlock via the top route, to the left were those side to side enemies you can corrupt to create blocks. I corrupted them all but the jump required to exit was too high and i couldnt throw the drone up. To the right was one of the things you hit to open the laser doors but again the drone wouldn't reach.

Checking for hidden paths revealed nothing. Was there for about 15 minutes. Guessing I somehow got in without the larger jump arc needed to get out.

3.Halo Wars 2 - Spear breaker - 3 Hours - 6/10 - Xbox Series X

Really wanna polish of the rest of this so did the first DLC element today. It wasn’t bad by any means but the score reflects it just being ok. Not bad just ok.

No Spartans involved in these missions which always sucks a little but I just took my time and built a MASSIVE army then slowly destroyed EVERYTHING! Which I always find fun.

It is a banger and easily one of the better non-Nintendo Metroidvanias.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Nice, downloaded that last night.

Or not. I'm sure I clicked on everything but it's just installed the main game. 17gb update and 8gb dlc has put a stop to any Gearsing tonight.

Should’ve mentioned that as it did something like that to me. Damn it.

A full reboot worked.  Scottish GoW is go.

1. Gears of War: Hivebusters - Xbox One (4hrs)

Short, sharp, seat-of-the-pants mini campaign.  It's so much better than what' I've played of no.4 I'm considering giving 5 a proper look at some point.  It's weighty, visceral (is this word still allowed?) and less po-faced than what I remember from Gears campaigns of yore.  The roadie run, chainsaw attack and reload snap are still great, as is the arsenal of useful weapons (it's approaching Ratchet & Clank levels of options now, and none seemed totally redundant).  The main character looked a bit like a clutz and I expected him to accidentally drop things every second cut-scene, but it was played straighter than that in the end.  He's more appealing than most of the the stoic stalwart no-neckkers of the previous games though, which is a relief.  The graphics are excellent - as expected, but it's still pretty wow in places on the One S.  Does this really look much better on the next gen consoles?  Tip of the hat if so.  Most importantly, it's fun to pop up and down while shooting things, and crucially - again I'm going to compare it to what little I played of no.4 - the things you're shooting at are satisfying to take down.  Even the robots, and perhaps even more impressively, even the swarms of little scurrying things than run at you (which are historically never fun to take out in any game ever).  Special shout for the last boss, which looked incredible and was a blast to defeat. Definitely the most fun I've had with a proper Gears game since the second one; it's as solid as it ever was but just a little more playful. [8]

I think it's been long enough for visceral to come back!

Really should give those games a go, they look like good fun.  Never got into the series because the main guy used to have a bandanna and soul patch.

2. Super Punch-Out! - SNES (2hrs)

Ridiculously good boss rush that probably would've crushed me without save states, even as a kid.  I think I finished it on the Wii Virtual Console, but it may not have arrived until the Wii U era come to think of it, which had save states I believe.  I'm convinced Hoy Quarlow would've merked me forever without my relentless cheating for the home stretch of the game.  The whole thing is perfectly irritating though, with what felt like a reasonably well measured difficulty curve, albeit with necessary jumps and spikes to keep you on your toes.  I tend to enjoy pattern learning stuff, and this is up there with the best of them - it's a deft upgrade on the NES game for sure.  Just about my only complaint is that the music seemed unremarkable for a then flagship Nintendo title.  Brilliant fun anyway, all three home console Punch-Outs are in my top 5 for their host systens.  Would play again, and no doubt will at some stage. 93%

I can't unfortunately, even though I found the game in the loft last month I've got no Wii systems to play it on. It's a remaster I'd chuck £25 at.

I've got about three different Super-Punch out saves across different SNES emulators over the last few years. The patterns for the final circuit always break me.

In my head I finished it on GC, albeit with minimum shines, but now I'm not so sure.  If retro only got 87 shines I find it unlikely I got 80.  Unless you could get to bowser on 60?

64. Mario Golf Super Rush - Switch (5hrs)

Disclaimer: The following is predominantly a review of the adventure mode, rather than the overall package.  While the full game has a few problems it plays an undeniably strong game of galf if you ignore the bullshit, and imo sits at a [7] with the potential to comfortably putt for an [8] if the free dlc comes good.

The RPG lite adventure mode is a staple of Mario Golf games, at least in the three that I've played (this and the two previous handheld efforts).  I believe people were underwhelmed by this mode in World Tour, given that it was pared back compared to Advance Tour, but I enjoyed it immensely.  Here it just feels cheap, lightweight and cobbled together as an afterthought.  I used the word complacent in the MG thread, but if you focus on the bigger picture it's also pretty cynical.  There seem to be two distinct versions of Nintendo in recent years, and this becomes more apparent as the Switch juggernaut rolls on.  One the one hand you've got the double-polished AAA games that glisten under layers of varnish, but then you've got the titles that feel like they're plugging gaps between major releases.  Which could be fine - who better than Nintendo to develop competent AA games anyway, on paper - but when these releases feel lazy you've got to wonder how much Partridge shrugging is going on behind the scenes.  I'm all for free post-launch additions but when the likes of ARMS, Mario Tennis Aces and now this arrive with what is essentially a 'roadmap' of upcoming content it all starts to feel a little bit Early Access.  

The adventure mode in this is a mess.  The whole experience feels like a game that's covertly visiting from a bygone era, like some sort of reverse Gary Sparrow.  The sparse map segments are knitted together by loading screens and it all feels like a resurrected Wii game.  There are characters to talk to, but the script is weak compared to most of these Nintendo spin-offs (the previous golf games, Superstar Sage etc), plus they don't seem to offer anything of useful, so why would you bother?  You're forced to take part in an abundance of undesirable play styles as you level up your Mii character like it's 2007.  The barebones golf is great, as I mentioned above, but the variations are a grab-bag of bollocks.  Cross country mode is an abomination, it should never have made it past the blue sky white board.  Speed golf is okay, but also a complete waste of time.  I assume it was decided that a modern game needs extra bells and whistles to release at £49.99, but I'd wager most series stalwarts would have preferred a more focused golfing experience at the near-mythical £34.99 pricepoint.  What if you take Tetris, right, but have a character that you have to move between puzzles?  Ooh, ooh - or Streetfighter 2, but you fly the plane to the USSR?  It's a money tennis approach to golf, and that's not cricket.  I'm not saying don't change things ever, but I am saying don't change them if the additions are only there to pad things out, rather than improve the experience.  If the speed golf had been binned in the early stages of development we might have had nine courses out the box, instead on a paltry (for a modern game) 6.  Even the visuals lie on the wrong side of rough - first party Switch games often look smashing; for the sake of hyperbole this looks like a Bleemcast PS1 game, or whatever the equivalent would be for running high res Wii games on a Wii U.      

I've shanked the review wide of the adventure mode here and I'm basically just venting now.  I'll mention for a third time that the golf is good, but some of the course design doesn't seem to be anything to write home about.  As usual it struggles to make the tougher courses enjoyable, imo, but that could be down to practice.  If you eschew everything other than standard golf mode it just drops in for a par, but everything else is a double bogey being flicked in your face. [5] for the adventure mode, fuck it. Tap/tap snap golf is still my gaming comfort blanket but Camelot have embroidered all sorts of embarrassing flourishes to it. And it smells of wee.

And because I'm never going to have the opportunity to post these anywhere else:

I probably did then.

Glad you enjoyed Slaps and Beans Moot!

Can't remember much about it except not liking it but being amused that it exists.

nick_md wrote:

Moot I know it's not SPO but you should watch the summoning salt Matt Turk vid, it's a cracker. Plus the blindfold punch out one.

Watched the summoning salt one this morning. Fackinell, I don't think I've been that locked into a Youtube vid since the impossible sudoku one from last year. Excellent stuff, mind boggling how Matt Turk did it without half a dozen twelfth men in his corner.