Video Games

Dropping through a hole in the roof never felt so good.

Only done the prologue, but enjoying Mirage. They seem to have really refined and nailed the movement. Not had any of the frustrating movements / climb wrong stuff I had all the time in Valhalla, and that's in the much busier / closer building style of the opening area.

The whole game is a labour of love by a team that initially pitched it as a Valhalla DLC just to get attention, then fought to get it turned into a full game (which is really what they wanted) before development even started. They didn't receive the same investment as the big RPGs, but they did manage to make a very coherent set of choices on top of an engine designed for something else, which is an achievement only software engineers who have worked in the games industry could really appreciate. It's not the game they could have achieved with more investment, but it's still an amazing accomplishment. They built arguably the best stealth and notoriety mechanics the franchise has ever seen on an engine where those things were notoriously broken, just to mention one win. They even made picking pockets more interesting (and included the option to turn that off, for the haters).

Even if Ubisoft never make another AC game like this, it will be a remarkable balls-out monument to game dev conviction. Alhamdulilah.

We don't get to kill crusaders this time, but you can't have everythiung.

had to go full stun gun.

I ended up with a silenced gun in the end - it was the big robot that I couldnt get past. I got told off by the boss for it, but no-one seemed to mind that much at the end.

I'm quite far in - done the Freestar Rangers and the Ryujin quests , but I'm not 100% sure that I'm really fully enjoying the game - there seems to be so much other stuff around that's bypassing me but that also seems a bit fiddly to get into - the menus or interface seem slightly offputting to doing it.

I'm not really researching, or getting crewmates, or upgrading, or changing my ship.

Yeah, don't like the menus either. It's easy to get into the menu, but sometimes I feel like I need 4 clicks to get back out and not easy to switch between menu items.

I've done about 25% -40% through the main and each faction quests lines. I'm earning ships in quests and playing with them a bit, but still only have A class licence. Only have 1 base, but only been back once since I set it up.

Only have 1 base, but only been back once since I set it up.

I don't have a base, but I've got offices and rooms around the place. I don't know what they're really for and whenever I want to go back to somewhere I've been before I have to google it as the starmap doesn't exactly help you.
I know I want to go to the Den, for example, but I can't remember exactly what system it's in so you have to go look it up.

I started playing Sea of Stars on switch yesterday, done about 4 hours and really enjoying it.

Only done a couple of races on Forza so far but I've enjoyed them so looking forward to getting more into it over the rest of the week.

It's good, I'm not far in but will definitely get back to it.

I've been playing Red Redemption on my switch, only in handheld mode, and it holds up really well.

The driving is solid enough and - excusable AI weirdness aside - the racing is as well.

Unfortunately single player content is pathetically thin, worse that even GT7 was at launch. Pretty much limited to a small collection of themed race series with nothing to distinguish them other than the cars in each. Despite the car list containing plenty of actual racing cars, there are no races for them :/

Other than box-ticking each event, there's absolutely no sense of progression. Developers seem to have abandoned much of the 'game' from racing titles.

Oh that's a shame to hear. I'd hoped it would be quite fleshed out. Well maybe I'll just get through a bit of it and get bored until, hopefully, they release some extra stuff (unless it's paid addons).

I did wonder if that was it.

I got to the end of the tutorial cup last night and thought it looks pathetically light.

Surely there's all the content in place to do something like a career mode with contracts and teams, rivalries etc etc. Would be great to get proper series licensing and annual calendars, race weekends blah blah.

All feels like something made by someone who's never been to a race before.

It looks pretty and I much prefer the physics to GT7 but that's not enough to keep me engaged for more than a few hours.

Edit: I also wish something like this would seriously take on something like iRacing - not necessarily for realism but it wouldn't take much to add in weekly series, irating / safety rating equivalents and put more work into wheels working properly with it.

Whilst on wishes for Forza, I wish they'd stop using gamertags for the other drivers names and would return to having fake names that would go through the game. The amount I humanised the random fake AI drivers and the rivalries I ended up having with them on Forza 2 was so much more fun than going up against 'BillyBoy298' and 'IHazWinner' or whatever shit comes up.

Trying to work out how to install it here without my 6 yr old Zelda veteran son discovering it. Presuming there are user accounts to be made but seems a bit late and a faff for that.

If you are in London, I now have the screwdrivers and shortly will have some paste as I'm regreasing a few other laptop/computer cpu

That's very kind. Does the PS4 take special screw drivers?
Also, what paste did you go for, I still need some of that.

Yes security torx 9 screws.

I jusr got rs thermal compound.

Reached the credits of AC Mirage after 39 hours and 55 minutes of gameplay, which means I spent a little more time pickpocketing and exploring the map than most. Some people have finished the main story in as little as 12 hours, but they were a mixture of dedicated speedrunners and people who hated the game but just wanted to get it over and done.

Very much enjoyed it. Usual mix of great things and awkward flaws, really impressive what they built on an engine not designed for that (which doesn't console those who find the flaws to be gamebreakers for them), but c9 Baghdad is just stunning. Serious lack of replayability, though, meaning it's not just "I spent 2000 hours in Valhalla! Why can't I do that here?" people complaining.

Been following some of the reactions to the game on social media. The joy and jove for Mirage among Arab/Muslim AC players is quite something. AC 1 already held a special place in a lot of their hearts just for raising the ridiculously low bar for cultural representation in video games ,and AC revelations rewarded their commitment, but Mirage has delivered for them on an unprecedented scale. And there are also people from other rarely-represented cultures joining in the fun. Lots of "OMG, I've never heard Hebrew/Farsi/Hindi/Mandarin dialog in games before!" comments.

There's a speech heard in the streets of the Muslim cities in AC 1 that starts "Curse him! Curse the Christian king and his army of infidels!". Before Mirage came out, I was chatting to one OG fan from Pakistan who told me that, at every monthly family dinner, his uncle recites that whole thing. Waiting to hear what his uncle thinks about this one. We don't get to kill Crusaders this time, but you can't have everything.

Alien Isolation is on PSplus library now (whatever the streaming sub is, not a monthly game)

I had this BITD and shit myself when the alien appeared, then never played again
Been meaning to pick it up for ages.
Once I finish Bloodborne I'll fire this bad boy up (horror months for me)

Alien Isolation

One of my favourite games even if I've never completed it fully haha

I got Gamepass free for 6 months as part of my BT Broadband package. Spotted that MS Flight Simulator is included. Then saw that a Thrustmaster TCA Airbus edition was on Amazon for about £35 from it's £60 odd retail price and, hey hole, i've started on down the rabbit hole.

The flightstick will also be used for SW Squadrons, that I never really got to grips with on mouse and keyboard.

There's a VR mod but I'm unashamedly scared to go near it.

fuck that noise, it scared me enough on a telly, in a well lit room.

Went to cex on chapel market and bought doom, and a couple of the fallout games but not fallout new vegas