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So, they ported the last piece of Redout DLC to the PS4 today - like I’m going to resist that.

When the game came to PS4, it included 2 of the DLC packs done:

• Neptune
• Vertex

This means the game started with 5 environments:

1. Cairo
2. Alasko
3. Abruzzo
4. Volcano
5. Europa

They had 8-10 types of events, with each environment having five tracks, plus a ‘boss’ track that combines the five into a super-bastard circuit that’ll make your eyes bleed and fry your brain. And this was the starting point! Each DLC added 1-2 new environments. So the PS4 edition had 7 environments, 35 tracks, 7 boss tracks and a ton of events.

Since then they have ported these:

• Mars DLC - 1 environment
• Space Exploration DLC - 2 environments
• Back to Earth DLC - 2 environments

So, relative to the base game, they have more than doubled the content. So why stop as it now appears they have? Probably because they’re out of ideas. These tracks are the most batcrap crazy and inventive circuits you’ve ever raced on - can they keep the quality consistently high after creating 60 tracks? They look to have concluded that they can’t. That’s a decision that ought to be respected.

If they bring out the Redout: Complete Edition (currently out for PC) to PS4 and you enjoyed Wipeout or F-Zero, you have to play this. Want to support a smaller developer? It does that too.

I tried the first track of each new set. The first was unbelievably brutal, the second was not as harsh and had some of the most stunning graphics going, even by this game’s standards.

This is a game I’m never going to be great at, but I love just bombing round the tracks in Time Attack - have loads of other craft to unlock, have done a bare fraction of the game, but it’s utterly superb - and it deserves a bigger audience.

Back to Monster Hunter World - I’ve started trying to work out the difference between blunt and severing damage, while equipping the Palico with paralysis weaponry! Took out 2 Barroth and 2 Jurydyctus, forged a pile of new weaponry and upgraded some armour. Next will be to try out the new weapons on suitable targets.

 

So.... the Carapace Buster lived up to its name - made decking Barroth a damn sight easier, it did one-hit kill on Gajau and Kestodon, plus hammered a Kalu-Ya-Ku into the ground.

Utter slaughter. It was glorious.

Now to upgrade it to the next tier.

 

Destiny 2 - Osiris DLC...it is great so far

 

So, managed to deck a couple of Paolomu today, who tends to be a flyin’ cheatin’ bastard, but is a damn sight easier with a greatsword.

Turns out you can’t focus on one weapon in Monster Hunter World, as I found when I used a long sword on Tzitiki-Ku-Ya. I was dodging and hitting far more easily than with the greatsword. Doing less damage in one hit, but dealing more accumulated damage. Did a quest that required two of the buggers to be taken out.

And so I came to Rotten Vale. At this point, there’s only one main location left to get but that’ll be ages away. Instead I have this new, lovingly designed total ****bag of an area to explore. I’m not kidding, decayed corpses, bones everywhere, fetid, acid gases from accumulated corpse decay. It is vile, but it looks amazing. Like the other locations it is also a full, multi-tiered environment - heading to the top is quite the trip.

To my surprise, I took on and took out a Radobaan - just. Having the greatsword really helped, smacked off loads of pieces of him. Then, seconds after I killed it, the game regenerated the ****er! Oh well, I was only being paid for one!

The one crappy bit was at the start, where I tried an egg quest. Turns out you can’t simply kill the creatures whose nest you raid, because however many you kill, the game throws more in! Once you have an egg, you can’t put it down, ever - it is as a crap as it sounds. So that’s one quest I’m not touching.

Overall though - I’ve four of five locations unlocked, duffed up two new monsters, sighted another, got a pile of new weapon and armour upgrades unlocked and have racked up just over 35 hours. I’m now feeling I’ve got my money’s worth out of it.

 

Turns out Guard is actually quite effective - if you can but see what's going on to use it! On the times I was able to put it to work, it did see a major damage reduction.

Had an incredibly irritating fight with an Anjanath, who decided to ignore the 30 extra defence points I had to hit as hard as the last fight, which I only just got through, which in turn rendered upgrading armour pointless. Also, the spaces this massive goddamn T-rex manages to get into, while retaining full 360-degree movement is utterly implausible. You think he can't do a 180-degree spin on the spot to hit while you're whacking his belly? Wrong.

After that it got better - though on that and this fight, the game played the 'will be leaving soon' card and it doesn't help you get back to where they are that much. In that respect Radobaan was easier - core rule, don't fight him at the top of Rotten Vale on the mesh, it won't go well. So, with a change of environment and some guarding, it got much better. What's fun about Radobaan is you can whack chunks off of him, so its a lucrative run no matter what. After it I was able to do 2 new pieces of Baan armour.

With Effluvium protection, due to Hornataur armour, I explored the rotten depths- quite literally - of the Rotten Vale and, to my surprise, took and decked a Great Girros and his friends. That opens up a host of new weapons and armour, with better paralysis protection.

The only total failure was the new camera settings - Target camera doesn't work either. Still, set it as an expedition and you have infinite lives to smash the crap out of them, and no, they don't get all their health back.

It's also still an audio-visual wonder - Radobaan is very well-designed and animated.

 

Went back to The Witcher 3. Still haven't finished my first playthrough, but it's time. No other game this gen has come close for me.

 

The end game is quite something....

Then you have Hearts of Stone...

Then Blood & Wine!

Over? Nowhere near.

 

Yep! I still haven't picked up Hearts of Stone yet. So much to play!

 

And each of the expansions adds a lot, even the smaller Hearts of Stone.

 

And that's ok with me! I'm going back through the books again now. I'm up for living with these characters for another year with new content, lol.

 

Would you believe they did an update for it a week or so back? No idea what, but I love that they still keep tweaking it a year after the last expansion.

 

Gran Turismo 6

 

Has anyone picked up Forgotton Anne yet? I stumbled across an article about it a couple weeks ago, and it piqued my interest. I've watched a couple short YouTube reviews and read some stuff online. Thinking about picking it up on Steam, or maybe PS4 if it looks better there.

 

I was thinking about that one. Looks interesting an unique.

Just an FYI, you can get a 20% discount on the PSN store just by watching a video of Detroit: Becoming Human.
http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2018/05/23/sony-offering-20-off-playstation-store-discount-code/

 

I have just started to play Assassin's Creed Revelations. So far so good, I like the setting this time, Istanbul is certainly interesting

 

Revelations gets a really bad rap. I thought it was a good entry in the series. Loved the soundtrack for it

 

I’m addicted to Friday the 13th. It’s a great game.

 

Detroit: Become Human
I downloaded and played the demo of the game tonight. It's pretty interesting. It's one of these types of games where you choices affect the flow of the game, for better or worse. I'm not going to buy it up front; but I could imagine in a year or so when the price has gone down substantially I'd get it. In the demo I played through the scene twice, and wound up with the same outcome. In a nutshell you're an android hostage negotiator and you're mission is to save a little girl from a rogue android threatening to jump off the edge of a high-rise building. I successfully talked the android to release the girl both times. There were other options where I just was reluctant to choose 'cause I didn't want to see the girl die. You know me.

 

I’m returning to the kingdom of Lordran with Dark Souls Remastered. It’s like an old comfortable pair of shoes at this point. You’ve worn them for so long that you’re familiar with everything they can do, but they can still mess you up if you don’t watch your step.

 

I thought Revelations was great, up to the standard of 2 and Brotherhood, and much better than 3!

I'm holding off for the Switch version, but I can't wait to play this again.

I returned Metroid Prime 2, which I started and abandoned back in 2005. The first Prime was one of my favorite games on the GameCube and it always bothered me that I never completed the trilogy. Time to fix that!

 

So, it's a pair of spiked shoes, with the spikes on the inside, right?

 

Well, I took the plunge and picked up Forgotton Anne on Steam.

So far, so good. Definitely gorgeous art style. While the art style itself is not the same as the Valkyria Chronicles series, it's the same concept in that it's like something that was hand-drawn.

The choice system is very hard to figure out so far. I'd seen in some reviews that you really don't know how your choices affect things until much later, and that definitely seems to be the case. Only a few times has it been fairly clear what the choices will do immediately.

The platforming aspect is a bit clunky with a keyboard, so I'll probably have to attach my PS4 controller to improve upon that.

 

Yes, but at least setting those spiked shoes at 60 FPS no longer doubles the rate at which your socks degrade, or something.

 

You know, Monster Hunter World would save itself a hell of a lot of aggro by having the backstory that Kitty Pryde shagged the monster creator, from whom all the breeds come from on a genetic basis because these things have one hell of a variability of solidity! I'll be stabbing a monster with a Katana and I will have walked through its physical body in the process! Then the game decides its back to being solid so it can whack you.

Thus the "challenge" of the game:

• You will not be able to observe the monster without also fighting the camera the entire time
• Everything your character it does manually and slowly, real slow.
• Health regain? Slow. Fix status? Slow. Sharpen sword? Slow.
• Be able to tell the direction of your characer relative to the monster before you commit to an attack? Good luck, you'll think its facing one way and it turns out to be entirely different.
  
• Going back to the wonky physics, you will fight a flying monster in a tight, enclosed space that will have no effect on your enemy's ability to fly and move. Bust its wings? Did that, the ****er still flies.
• You think that big attack you've finally got ti unleash will hit? Nope, monster roars, you freeze. Even with a greatsword, on a downward arc of such force you wouldn't be able to stop, freeze.

All of these aspects combined on two fights today - Legiana, a giant pain the arse, even when armed with a thunder sword and then, the King Mother****er, Ogdaron - cheatin' son of a bitch bastard hellspawn. The common factors in each, all of the above!

To be honest, given what I've since found out about this game - that some Dark Souls experts apparently found it too damn hard, I've clearly done far better than I ever expected in opening up the whole of Rotten Vale. Knowing the enemy pattern - he really doesn't have much beyond relying on camera blindspot, in the same way Koda-Kadachi does - will help, but the game will always be playing dirty pool. I took on a Barroth earlier, should have been an easy fight, except the game decided this one was a precision fighting machine - with every hit making it and practically ignoring the boosted armour I had. I'm damn certain the game boosted that bastard. The big problem is none of these aspects adds up to a fun time for me, I'm sure for some they do, probably the same bunch who play Bloodborne on the You-Will-****ing-Die-Fast setting.

I know with better armour and weapons I'll get by the bastard, somehow - probably with a Girros tailrider to paralyse the ****er. Which will probably be the next thing I start developing - paralysis weaponry. Combine that with bleed resistance and Ogdaron will be screwed.

I just end up thinking how much better this game could be, it could be absolutely fantastic. If they had done difficulty settings, it would be far better and that'd be easy to do. As you do the mandatory story, more tiers of upgrades become available. There's your answer - easy has everything open, you can take your time to develop superweapons and armour to match, super hard has you taking them practically buck naked!

 

Has anyone gotten to play that Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice game? It's currently on sale on the PS Plus for $20; and I have a $25 PSN giftcard along with a 20% coupon that I have to use before the 31st.