The last time I touched Xbox was with the 360, and only because I needed to test used games to sell on eBay. But I've wanted to try out modern Xbox to see if things like GamePass and what exclusives they do have is worth it. Especially since on the used market, Xbox One games can be cheaper than PS4 games. With the loose justification of buying Conkers Bad Fur Day as my target price I bought Rare Replay and a Xbox One.

Console Hardware

The Xbox I got was the Original Xbox One, mostly because it was cheap, and because I got the Halo 5 version. I don't play Halo, but I love the aesthetics and blue accents. I wanted the Xbox One S since it's smaller and I like the design better. But I had a hard rule of "not buying white" and the color variants aren't as appealing.

From first boot to getting my games installed, I can tell a lot of care an attention went into the hardware and the UI. Might be my imagination, but the interface feels snappier than it does on PS4. And the store is actually usable and not bloated like Sony tends to do later into a console life cycle. I wish there was more customization to the menu, but there is a clear aesthetic which Xbox wanted to have for their console, and I can respect that.

The Xbox One controller has now become the "default" controller for me. Everything targets it, and since it now has a functional d-pad (looking at you 360), it's good. I prefer the musher feeling of a Nintendo D-Pad and shoulder buttons (or bumper as Xbox calls them). But it's a solid controller and with using AA batteries rather than LiPo, it'll last as long as I take care of it.

I really like the overall package. The only thing I wish I could do is test the HDMI In on the system. But I am pretty sure it's broken or defective. No a problem for a Games Box, but it is annoying.

Games

I got my Xbox One for one game, Rare Replay. And if I am honest, it plays fine. While I will praise Xbox for not mucking about with the interface there is no denying that this is a game box from 2013. Games play just as well as they do on PS4, and has the same level of support as the PS4 does.

I feel it's interesting that all games even disc ones install to the system. As I know not all games on PS4 like LittleBigPlanet 3 still run parts of the game from the disc itself.

Overall the quality of Xbox One was about as much as I expected it to be. No worse than PS4, and maybe better at times.

Game Pass

Nah the big draw for me was two thing, Game Pass and Backwards Compatibility (which is the next section).

Game Pass to me has always been the much needed revival of game rentals. For a modest fee, you get access to a treasure trove of games from just about everyone. And I got to try just about every game I wanted to try for my system. To build a list of games I wanted to play/try.

Unfortunately for Xbox, many of the Game Pass games I've played, like Nickelodeon All Stars 2, Physconaughts 2, and Persona 3 Reloaded, are games I feel I want to play on other consoles or PC's. I liked them, but I don't want them to be tied down to the system. While other times they offered me experiences to stay away from, or confirmed that they were games I wouldn't like.

But there are a few games which I honestly didn't think of or needed to play myself which I will be populating my Xbox with, and maybe even moving over to Xbox for. Like Sunset Overdrive, Halo 5, and Forza Horizons 5. Heck I tried Assassin's Creed Origin's and honestly I prefer to play it on Xbox rather than PS4. Plus the benefit I can have all the original games on one system is really tantalizing. Especially since the original 4 games can be found at bargain bin pricing at any good thrift store.

Backwards Compatibility

Which neatly brings me to Backwards compatibility. Like the native games, disc games are installed via the web rather than run off of disc. And I am fine with that. And it runs soooo well. Honestly I feel it's worth owning an Xbox One for the Backwards Compatibility alone.

Sure not every game works. But most of the ones you'll want to play are here. I've been replaying the crap out of Saints Row 2, and finally getting the chance to enjoy Saints Row 1. Or at least I was until the Xbox Servers went down.

Online

Now I've always known Xbox as the online gaming console. For the guys looking for achievements and playing Call of Duty with friends. But that's not me. I just want to play Rare Replay and other single player games.

But man has online gaming on consoles gotten bad since I last checked on PS3. I couldn't even start EA's Star Wars Battlefront II, with them demanding I make an account with them (or link my Xbox one to theirs). Most Xbox games I played almost expect you to be playing online and have that lobby menu thingy along side it. Guys I just want to play Halo, I don't even have the friends to even try co-op with.

Nope, but what killed any recommendation for this system was when Xbox's servers went offline, and my Xbox immediately turned into a brick. Sure I could look at things. But no game I installed would boot, not even my disc games and the system won't work unless I am signed in. Even my backwards compatible games refused to load a save until I remounted the "cloud storage".

On PS4 or Switch this isn't an issue, but if it was, one could make a Guest account, or an offline account. But that's not possible on Xbox. It's required that any account on any Xbox has to have a Microsoft account attached with it. Even for kids.

This wasn't a requirement on 360, and I remember Microsoft being a laughing stock of E3 2013 with their whole, "online only thing" and "Discs being locked to a single console". And while we didn't get the latter, I am shocked that the Xbox community is OK with the former.

But I wouldn't blame Xbox for this, as this decision has corporate Microsoft's hand prints all over it. Mandatory log in are now apart of even Windows 11. Ads taking up the lower third of your screen is also being baked into other aspects of Microsoft's software too.

Conclusion

And what's tragic is that this strong arming is hurting the end user experience on their hardware. I can't in good faith recommend an Xbox to friends or family, especially since if they want their kids to play Minecraft, they have effectively two choices. Let Microsoft track their kids and their every movement, or give their kids access to daddy's credit card since they have to use his account.

But as I said, I don't blame the Xbox team for this, I blame corporate Microsoft.

And for the services and continuing support for what is a 10+ year old console at this point. I am extremely impressed. Xbox One is still an extremely viable system in 2024 and I don't feel it's been outright abandoned like other systems of it's age, like the Wii U.

Honestly who I would recommend an Xbox to is the same demographic I use to see playing Xbox, teenagers. It's cheaper than a PC, plays almost all of the same games, and if they want to play online they'll need to jump through the same hoops.

And unlike Sony or Nintendo, who've destroyed their previous game console's library during the transition to newer hardware. I feel I can at least trust that Microsoft will continue to bring forward their game library to whatever they do next.

Yes Sony has more exclusives. But that's quickly becoming a very short list, as they've languished in the years which the PS4 has had dominance.

So If you don't want a PC which is the only other hardware with a larger game catalogue, or don't want to deal with the shoehorned in third party drm for every publisher. Then the Xbox isn't a bad platform to invest into, especially if you want to explore new games you want to try that's available on Game Pass.

I have this loosely defined made-up genre I call "Summer Games".

It started a long time ago subconsciously. At some point I realized that during the hottest time of the year I gravitate to certain games that I mostly play on a small device (laptop/switch/steamdeck), laying in bed, late at night, when I have trouble sleeping because it's too hot. A friend of mine once said that the reason she loves super high temperatures so much, is that what you experience leaves more vivid, burned in, memories. I think she has a point.

The criteria aren't super rigid but I hope you get the "vibe" and might know some games that fit:

• Low-stakes/chill gameplay. I'm already sweating, I don't need sweaty gameplay right now

• a warm aesthetic/color palette and/or setting. My outside experience shouldn't feel too different to the games inside experience aesthetic-wise.

• It feels like a road trip, adventure or vacation. I want to get a summery memory out of this.

• the game leaves some kind of impact.

Games I played in the past that evoked that vibe perfectly:

• Kentucky road zero
• oxenfree
• road 96
• firewatch
• sable
• rime
• steins: gate
• life is strange

Games that have fit okay-ish

• tunic
• journey
• citizen sleeper
• nightcall
• no umbrellas allowed
• the talos principle
• the solus project
• the witness
• the vanishing of Ethan Carter

If anyone has a recommendation, I'd be thankful. This year I have started to play chants of Sennaar and it seems to fit the criteria so far.

Ever since it came out I have heard only good things about this game. And it sounds like a perfect fit for me. I enjoy figuring out puzzles, I enjoy figuring out lore and I love to explore.

I picked it up during a sale a while ago and since then I had 3 or 4 attempts of trying to get into the game but after a few hours I'm just too frustrated and give up.

My problem is, that I am so horribly bad at moving around, it infuriates me like no other game ever has. Like, I want to go to that planet, I board my ship, I fly towards the planet. I either slow down too late and die crashing into the planet or I slow down too early and by the time I get to my destination the planet has already moved away too much. So I either wait until it comes back around or I try to follow it wich usually ends with me crashing into it. It's like slapstick comedy. The autopilot let me crash into stuff blocking its path so I gave up on that too.

The few times I managed to get to a planet, I couldn't enjoy exploring, knowing I will have to pilot this spaceship again. When I think about having to be at a specific location at a specific time, it fills me with horror. Moving in lower/zero gravity is also not enjoyable for me.

I want to love this game so bad but I just can't. I know this game is a one-time experience so I am torn on what to do.

Are my problems with this game so fundamental that I should just give up and watch someone else's playthrough on YouTube? Or are my experiences in a normal range and I should keep trying until the movement clicks with me?

I fear that the longer I wait the higher the chance that I randomly encounter a huge spoiler somewhere in the internet.

Thank you for reading and thanks in advance for any recommendations, advice or feedback

Edit: Thanks a lot everyone! I will give it another shot and use a combination of autopilot and manual movement. If that doesn't work I'll look at some mods. If that also doesn't work I'll give up and just watch someone else play it. I feel like I'm extra bad at this because my spacial awareness sucks in real life too. Can't tell if a car in the distance is moving or parked and if it's moving how fast. Don't worry I never even bothered to try to get a driving license lol

Jokes aside. I wanted to do a fun numbers game and see if I could get an Xbox One and Rare Replay for the price of the N64 copy of Conkers Bad Furday. And it turns out I can.

Conkers Bad Furday on N64 costs around $150-$175CAD (before tqx) given the condition and its shipping location.

Meanwhile I was able to pick up Rare Replay for $10CAD at my local EB Games, and I was able to find Xbox Ones for as low as $100CAD, but on average around $140CAD.

This particular Xbox One was $160 at the end of the day, a bit over budget, but I love the colors and design. Even if I don't play Halo.

Totals

Xbox One - $121.39 + $25 Shipping + 21.96 tax = $168.35

Rare Replay - $7.99 + $1.20 tax = $9.19

Total - $177.54 CAD

Things have sort of come full circle for me. When I was younger, I recall playing a copy of Super Mario Bros 3 on Game Boy Advance and never being able to complete it (in fairness I eventually got to the final world). This was the case for a lot of games for me; essentially they’d have infinite replayability.

As I got a bit older I was exposed to more games with linear single player campaigns. Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 spring to mind. At the time, I couldn’t afford to buy that many games so I’d find myself doing a mission here and there, and focusing most of my attention on the multiplayer. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to play the campaigns, but rather than I felt like I needed to savour them. Sure, I could just blast through it in the space of a weekend - but then it would feel like I’ve blown all that money on something short-lived.

This mindset stuck with me as single player games became longer and longer. GTA IV, Red Dead and Skyrim for example took me months to get through, as I’d just play the occasional mission as a treat.

But nowadays I don’t have as much spare time as I once did. And it feels like the number of games in my backlog is growing each day.

I actually replayed GTA IV and its DLCs last year, and really enjoyed the experience. But only recently did I work out why it was more enjoyable than my first playthrough all those years ago – and I think it’s because I didn’t eke out the missions. The story felt a lot more coherent because it was fresh in my mind. The characters that appeared at the start of the game no longer elicit that ‘wait who were they?’ response when they turn up in the second act. And I was able to better understand the ways in which the three stories cleverly intertwined.

Recently I got the gamepass-style subscription on Playstation (‘PS Plus Extra’) which includes a bunch of older games I’ve been meaning to get through. And the fact that there’s an artificial time limit to playing them (i.e. I don’t want to pay for this tier of subscription any longer than I need to) has helped me to avoid wasting time.

Just to be clear, I’m not advocating for speedrunning single player games and missing all the side content. On the contrary, I’ve just platinumed Ratchet and Clank: RA, but did so in half the time than it would have taken me before. Previously I might have thought ‘I’ll just do the one mission’, and this was often an excuse to get distracted by crap on my phone for the subsequent 30 minutes. I feel like I now have a reason to focus for games for a little longer instead of wasting time. And as a result, I’ve enjoyed my time with them so much more recently.

So perhaps if you’re struggling with your backlog, try to set yourself a realistic time limit for each game. And don’t treat games like a treat – if you have the time, play them now!

TLDR: I loved Borderlands two and I'm going to start a replay with a different character, which i almost never do.

I had fun with Borderlands 1, but was basically pushing through by the end trying not to fall asleep.

B2, on the other hand, I was very engaged in the entire ride through, although it seemed well balanced and the game ended when it should, even including the side quests.

Improvements -

The writing! I think I heard a reference to Anthony Burch writing in Borderlands 2 from hey ass. Whatcha playing episode, and he got some award?

Experience tiers, which I didn't initially like because it wasn't explained, but basically the quests are more important than farming enemies for experience, so you get much more engaged with the stories because you're following quests instead of trying to kill enough boring enemies in the same way to get high enough of a level to destroy future enemies.

In any case, the writing that I did like in Borderlands 1, was perfect in 2. Not too long, always funny, always engaging, every character very well defined, which brings me to my next point:

The voice acting was hilarious and perfect, again, very well defined and idiosyncratic for every character, just so much fun to listen to. Every time handsome Jack pops up. It's fun to listen to him be an a******.

The quests were so much more satisfying. At the end of the first game, I was basically just following marker to marker without caring what anybody said or what was written down just tapping through to the next wavepoint until the quest was finished.

In Borderlands 2, Even if I accidentally clicked through the introduction to the quest, I would go back and make sure to read because I know that the paragraph introducing and explaining the quest is funny and that the quest is going to be rescuing lab experiments and I have to find a particular valve or putting together a treasure map with a weird lure, rather than just find the bigger bad guy punch him to death.

Driving was huge - I was not into driving in Borderlands 1 and got really bored and irritated every time I had to drive. I felt like the aiming system was complete dog s***, and it was just not very fun to drive around in general, like the handling was terrible.

I loved driving around the Borderlands too and was actively bummed out whenever. I didn't get a car, but it made perfect sense and they used the car just enough so that the game wasn't too easy. But you could still boost and race around however you wanted, or chase down a beer van. So much fun driving, such a huge improvement from the first game.

Larger levels with more interesting landscapes in them, each level felt much more unique than the entire The first game to me, like each area had its own style to a degree I hadn't seen before.

I can't remember a single place from the first game, but I'm going to remember the different style of the underground bug. Bunker and the dust and all these other places that had an impact on the personality of the game.

Lastly, art is more efficient, not as many bold lines emphasizing the comic book quality, which is carried through more by the personality of the game instead of by the specific art.

Recently finally gotten around to playing Lies of P, and I've been enjoying my time a lot - I'd probably put it right between Sekiro and Bloodborne for my favourite Soulslikes. The boss fights have been pretty cool throughout the playthrough. However, the last few bosses, especially Laxasia and Simon, have been kicking my teeth in, so I used a summon to kill both easily.

Now, when people complain about players not playing "the right way" - aka bashing your head in for 10 days straight, using melee only, no summons, magic, cheese, whatever - I'm the first to say that it doesn't matter how people play the game as long as they enjoy it and that they don't have to prove they're "more" of a gamer than someone who did adhere to these self-imposed rules.

After finishing these two fights (I'm at the Nameless Puppet now🫠), however, I kind of feel like I've robbed myself of a "worthy" victory because it was soo much easier with the summons than without them. Like, 30+ tries without and basically first try with a summon. It kind of took away the whole challenge and doesn't feel like I've actually beaten them.

Ultimately, thinking that I've spent so much time learning their patterns and trying to kill them "the proper way", it doesn't feel as bad since I had grown frustrated quite a bit by the end, so I just wanted an easy out. Still nagging on my mind.

What are y'all thoughts on this subject? Is it warranted that I feel like I robbed myself of a proper victory? Should I just get over it? Anything similar happen to you?

Thanks!

Edit: Just remembered that I used summons quite a lot more often than initially thought. I used a summon for both Rabbit Gang fights as well as the Puppet King and the Green Swamp Monster too.

The Rabbit Gang fight felt quite cool like that, especially the first one, since it felt like a real brawl of two equal parties. I consistently got to phase 2 of both Puppet King and Swamp Monster easily but always ended up dying quickly, so the summons took the edge off quite a bit.

Edit 2: Beat Nameless Puppet, probably got a bad ending with Gepetto dying and calling me a useless puppet. But idgaf - I beat that fucker 😎

I don't really like roguelites. At least I always thought. The only one I really tried was the Binding of Isaac. I never progressed far, I never really got the hang of it and had a lot of unsuccessful runs. I finally gave up on it. So I went for years without trying new ones. Until Hades. I played it quite a lot and had a lot of successful runs, but never fully beat the game.

I returned to it with the recent launch of Hades II into Early Access and finished (except a few achievements) my save. The gameplay and difficulty is very well-balanced for my skill level and it managed to motivate for several weeks. Overall I put over 100h into it and the pull was so strong, I got Hades II right away. I know not very patient of me. Another 40h later and I finished the content that is available so far. I can see myself diving back in for the 1.0 release or a big update.

Afterwards I looked for other well-received roguelites and picked up Dead Cells and all the DLC in a sale. Similar story here. 80h in, I made it to 2 BC and unlocked a most weapons and quite a big chunk of the outfits. My playstyle is rather slow and deliberate, but I enjoy the challenge a lot. 2 BC is kicking my ass a bit and I'm thinking about moving on again.

I'm currently thinking about what comes next. With the steam sale going on, I am considering Hollow Knight, even though I have very little experience mit Metroidvanias. Also Sekiro is a possibility. I never played a From Software game or our souls-like before. (Mostly) fighting human-sized enemies and a focus on parrying suits my preferences well.

If anyone has recommendations for other roguelites or games to jump to, please leave a comment.

I'm glad I tried a genre I had written off before. It resulted in a lot of fun playing hours. I recommend stepping out of your gaming comfort zone once in a while.

I watched a YouTube video about this topic today and thought it was the perfect idea for a post here. It’s pretty straightforward, it’s games you played in the past that you’re still stuck thinking about, or games that taught you a lesson that you’ve held on to.

I’m going to start. For me, the two games that perfectly exemplify the idea of a game that sticks with you are Sekiro and BioShock. I have a feeling Dark Souls will be a popular choice but I think Sekiro did it more for me personally.

Starting with Sekiro, I honestly think it’s the closest to perfect I’ve ever seen in a video game, at least for a first playthrough. It’s fun, challenging, rewarding, thoughtfully made, beautiful to look at, it’s got great voice acting, memorable characters, and I honestly can only think of two mini bosses that bring the whole game very slightly down. Every other aspect is a 10/10 from me. Not to mention the combat is the best combat of any game I’ve ever played. Personally, this game is the purist example of a game that forces you to get good at it, and does the best job at teaching perseverance. In the rest of the Souls games, you can upgrade your weapon, get a new weapon, use buffs, summon NPCs or another player to help, if you’re getting stuck. With Sekiro on the other hand, you need to get good. Above any other game, this one showed me just how well hard work can pay off. I feel about this game the same way video essayists feel about Dark Souls. If you know, you know.

Moving on to BioShock, this one really taught me the value of a good story, and showed me that video games truly are art. It helped that the game itself is a ton of fun to play, but on top of that the writing is just phenomenal. I’m assuming most people on here have played this one so I won’t get too into it, and in case you haven’t, most of what I’d be gushing about would spoil the whole game anyway, so I’m just leaving it short, but yeah. This game is the finest example of video games being an art form.

What about you guys? What has stuck with you the hardest? I’ve got more games I could talk about but I’d love to see discussion from you.

I’m not going to do a detailed write up on this but I’ve always heard that The Force Unleashed was a really good set of Star Wars games that are still worth playing today, if not for the game at least for the story. That wasn’t my experience at all.

This is just my opinion and experience but the first game is awful to play in 2024. Most of your abilities miss the target every time. Picking up objects with the force has a 50% chance of picking up the wrong thing, sometimes from way off screen and often missing stuff in the foreground. Throwing them is also incredibly inaccurate, often times you’ll just throw things at walls or the sky. The combat isn’t balanced whatsoever and it’s basically unplayable at higher difficulties.

Your force grab and throw abilities make most enemies pointless and your light saber does surprisingly little damage even with upgrades. Far better to just bounce people off the wall. Then what’s worse is later on they introduce shields that stop you from using the force on some enemies. They do pretty much the same but with the lightsaber getting blocked. Rather than encouraging variety, they just leave a giant hole in the combat. It’s dreadful. The mechs are also ridiculous to engage and can’t be engaged in melee should they stomp you to death. The even worser part is, the story is 6/10 interesting and the boss battles are a mess.

Then the second game, oh boy. On PC it’s almost entirely broken. It crashes and most of the cutscenes don’t play unless you patch the game (I did) and even then, crashes happen often. I had about 10 over just 4-5 hours. Textures also glitch and slowdown is frequent. I played both games with a 60fps patch (necessary imo) and the performance issues exited with or without that patch. Awful.

The good news is the second game has a decent story and surprising visuals. The combat is much improved and a lot more balanced honestly. It’s just that the gameplay is incredibly dated. The whole game is mostly just go to room, door is locked, enemies appear, you kill them, door unlocks, repeat until boss fight. There’s also platforming here which is.. bad. Inaccurate controls and imprecise movement makes that hell. So the second game is much better even with the issues, but I still barely had fun with it.

Seems to me like these games rode by on the gimmick of the dark side and extreme power. In their time, both games were pretty good. All of my friends seemed to like them. But in this year? I don’t think there’s any reason to play the first, and only novelty in the second. Just watch the cutscenes are movies.

I’m sure many people have nostalgia for this though. These games used to be more unique and the story was unusual for the time. Sadly we aren’t likely to see a continuation and finish to this series. Thoughts?

Got the games years ago for the GBC, and I've always love it. But I always got stuck in a handful of dungeons. Level 3, level 4, level 6, and finally the black tower.

But I was finally able to solve it myself with no hints! This is in my view one of the best Zelda games.

We've got two big sales going on, and I'm currently deciding what I would like to pick up. I'm planning to get Expeditions: Rome since it's 60% off, and I'm trying to decide if I want to finally get Terra Invicta.

What patient games are the people here planning to pick up? Maybe I'll find a few that I "need" to try!

I've been playing dark souls lately and wanted to see what pegi wrote about it. It's mildly amusing

I grew up with goldeneye and perfect dark.

I decided to play the recompiled version of this game on my steam deck.

First of all, this game had some really big environments for n64. It’s surprising how much they fit in these old games.

Secondly, after you finish the main game, there are two bonus missions where you play as another character to see their side of the story.

Modern day these are called “dlc”.

The shooting range portion of the game is either too easy or impossibly difficult. I’ll try with mouse to kind of cheese it.

My understanding is that when you complete the shooting range and combat simulator there is another unlockable mission.

Now that I am typing this I wonder if there is another unlockable level for completing on the hardest difficulty like golden eye.

Anyway, if you have or have not played this game, it’s totally worth playing the recompiled version of the game.

https://github.com/fgsfdsfgs/perfect_dark

Works on Linux and Windows perfectly.

If you run it on the steamdeck, you can just download the Linux version, add it to Steam, then manually tell it to run with proton. I didn’t know this was possible until yesterday, but it will not run on steamdeck without proton due to missing dependencies that are included with proton.

Have fun.

I'm born in 1992 so this game is a bit before my time. I started playing it and got completely hooked. It's an absolutely fantastic game that would still hold up as a quality indie game today.

Music is amazing. Characters and character development is amazing. Story is very good. Combat is genuinely fun instead of feeling like a chore that cuts you off from the game. Art style is amazing.

I was surprised how much quality they could fit onto the SNES back it the day, it's a really good game and everyone with a potato can ploy it.

Pro tip: Remasters have some UI unpleasantness so it's best to stick to SNES emu version. I tried the Android and they used some native android font that ruined the immersion a bit. There's also a tight running section that's particularly unsuited for the mobile version. SNES is best, as originally intended.

What’s the rush?

Hi-Fi Rush is a rhythm based third-person melee combat game that rewards you by landing your hits on the beat. From a list of flowing combos comes a catchy beat, skilled moves, and rocking visual effects. This is a masterpiece of a game and its stylistic characters banter in hilarious ways, its world comes together to feel alive, and its art style just never stops hitting those notes. If you want to know about the hype, let’s get into it.

Music make you lose control

This is what keeps the game together in a rhythm-based fighter, it’s the peanut butter that glues the bread into a sandwich. The music is phenomenal, I just need you to listen to it.This is what I’m talkin’ about. What’s missing from this though is the kicking beat that you make with your moves as you play. The game rewards you as you hit your combos by adding to the soundtrack, and it all works so so so well.

Never stop fighting, rockstar

Combat is the actual bread that makes our sandwich and this is what you spend most of the game doing. Each time you get locked in an arena, it’s intense and thrilling as you dodge enemy attacks, time your parries, and plan out elaborate combos to maximize your score.

I can’t emphasize this enough though: you can be bad at this and still have an incredible amount of fun. I’ve always stayed away from games like DMC that require you learn combos but the list here is roughly 20 moves long at most and you learn them intuitively as you experiment.

Enemies have legs or wheels or fire or..

One of the highlights of this game is the enemy design. Each enemy is distinct and it’s rare to see a game have this many types without feeling repetitive or copied. We’re talking shields, robo-bikes, owls, fire using boxer robots, samurai, fire owls?!, and many many more. Each feeling unique and requiring a different approach and more importantly, blending fantastically. The enemy variety in each arena gets really creative by the end and you really never stop adapting.

Art so good, it gave me nostalgia

That’s serious by the way, I got nostalgia for this game thinking about how amazing the art is. It feels like it’s from a past era and yet I also can’t think of anything like it. It’s so stylized but also never gets in the way of the gameplay. It will constantly add to your experience and honestly it’s just perfect, I need the merch.

Video game stories are bad, this isn’t

What you’ll notice about this story is that it’s both very simple and very effective. A good mark of storytelling is sometimes how complex a story can be while still having you follow along, this isn’t that. Instead it’s so good that the story is very simple and yet keeps you entertained and gives context and detail to everything you’re doing.

The way they seem to have achieved this is by adding a lot of depth to their characters and giving them real personality. So even though the story is very simple in essence, you enjoy seeing what characters are going to say even in highly predictable moments. You know something is a trap, but the reactions to it are what you’re there for, not the plot point. It’s great.

And the masterpiece award goes to..

I truly believe this game is a masterclass in game design in so many ways. Everything it attempts works really well and the only complaints I can even come up with is that I could’ve used just a couple more combos and the readability in combat suffers due to some of the effects and camera. Other than that this game is perfect in my eyes.

It’s rare that I mark a game down as masterpiece but you absolutely should try this game. If you don’t, you’re missing out on something amazing that doesn’t come around very often. It’s also rare that I ever plan on replaying a game in the future, but I can already imagine rediscovering this game 5 years from now and picking it up for another playthrough.

Addressing the coffin in the room

Last things last, Tango Gameworks was shut down by Microsoft in May. This game is the last thing they produced and it really is a pity. They went out on one of the best games I’ve ever played and I was baffled to hear about their closure Please go play this game in honor of the loss of the studio, maybe then you can be as angry as I am at Microsoft if you aren’t already.

That’s it for me though, I feel like I’ve really experienced something here and if you haven’t played this game, I want you to give it a shot. It’s charming, it’s fun, it’s thrilling, and a good listen always.

If you played this, drop me a comment and share your thoughts. I’d love to hear what your experience is with rhythm games in general too. What else is good in the genre?

Until next time.

A bit of a weird title, but basically what’s a game that’s more than a year old but still considered “modern” that you love? There’s no real strict definition for modern, I’d just like to see some discussion around great games that aren’t quite classics yet (but probably will be one day).

The nature of this community typically attracts discussion around decade-old games (which is what I mostly play too), but I’d like to see some newer (but not too new) games on this post.

I feel like that game literally changed my life in the 2 hours or whatever it took me to play it.

That game is so beautiful. It made me a better person.

I was absolutely entranced.

TL;DR: probably among my favourites in the action-JRPG genre, just for how consistently good everything is. None of the systems in isolation are "the best I've ever seen", but for a 35+ hour game, it's nice when everything is smooth and enjoyable.

For context, I have played a decent handful of JRPGs, with my favourites being probably Skies of Arcadia Legends, and Tales of Symphonia. In the Tales series, I've played Symphonia, Symphonia 2, Graces f, (never finished) Phantasia, and (never finished) Vesperia.

Story

The game begins by letting you choose which of 2 protagonists to follow. The game's story is broadly the same, regardless who you choose, but certain scenes are seen from different perspectives, and certain moments are missed if your chosen character is absent. I have opted not to replay with the other character at this time, but the game is good enough that I would if I had more time. I chose the female lead, Milla.

The story itself is...fine. The setup is pretty good, with Milla being an literal avatar of the world's god, whose powers are stripped by an unknown dark force early on. The story then shifts to a fish-out-of-water story for Milla, and a quest to regain her powers and destroy the dark forces. She is joined by Jude (the other - male - protagonist), who initially has no quest, but does want to be helpful to those in trouble.

This brings us to a major highlight of the game - the characters themselves. The story feels more like background dressing for the cast to play off one another in. The skits - a Tales staple - are here, and they are predominantly well-written and performed. And the cast is wholly likeable, and have decent arcs throughout - though there are a couple of head-scratching moments regarding character motivation. I was fond of basically every character by the end, even in the extended cast and bad-guys.

One sticking point I should mention though is, because there are scenes absent from certain protagonist play-throughs, be prepared for a couple of deus ex machina moments, where ostensibly the other protagonist has been busy in the background, but you will not know exactly how or why certain story beats happen unless you replay the other story. It's made doubly-weird where, despite having the skit system for optional additional dialogue, the POV character is never made aware of what happened during certain background story moments. From what I have read online, it seems that the better way to play story-pacing-wise, is to do Jude's story first, then Milla.

Gameplay

The combat is fun and really well balanced. The difficulty curve was almost perfect the entire game. I did a little bit of grinding every now and again, but honestly, every time I did, it made the next boss quite easy. I like the "partner system", which allows 2 characters in battle to buff each other, and I liked how your MP is refilled just by doing normal attacks, which meant I never really ran out of magic - this is particularly nice, as the healers are also more-or-less always healing and being useful. The party AI is also pretty good, especially if you spend a moment to fiddle with the strategy and auto-item settings.

There is a very extensive level-up system, split across a skill-tree and buff-pool. I...can't speak much on it, as there is also an auto-level button, which auto-applies nodes on the skill tree, and I used that almost exclusively. However, it's there if you wanted some good character building options. The shop system is also pretty good, and made it perpetually feel like I was accomplishing things and getting stronger.

There are a smattering of side-quests per town. Some were bog-standard "kill this thing, get this item", but there were also several that were self-contained stories and world-building. There isn't a quest marker, so some quests did require me to look up where to go, but I don't consider that a bad thing - more an "I'm impatient"-thing.

Probably more that I forgot to cover, but this is getting long for a first "patient gamer" review, so I'll stop here. This game and Tales of Symphonia are now in contention for my favourite Tales game, so make of that what you will.

Basically, title