I’m pretty strict with myself these days, I need an hour or so to “unwind” or I’ll never get to sleep - I knocked it off by 10pm. But yes, good god this game is pretty… Taxing though; at 1440p highest settings I had to apply the “Quality” DLSS preset to bring the frame rates back up. This game doesn’t need 165fps, I’m happy with lower frame rates, but my 3070Ti is indeed starting to look a bit weak for modern games - I’m having to make more and more compromises to keep framerates out of “seriously choppy” territory. The landscapes very much reminded me of Death Stranding at times, but that’s because both games extensively used Iceland for reference scans, materials, photographs, etc. Character and facial animations are some of the best I’ve ever seen, they’re really putting UE5 to good use. Funny to think that Melina Juergens was originally only a stand-in for some motion capture sessions; she was brought in to Ninja Theory as a video editor, but now she is Senua. I expected a lot from the soundtrack and in the couple of hours I’ve played so far it absolutely has not disappointed. At first it was kinda weird to hear Kai Uwe Faust’s distinctive throat singing or Maria Franz’s beautiful and ethereal vocals coming in now and then, but Heilung were the absolute perfect choice for this game.
I'm cheating and playing it on an Xbox Series X, which has the added advantage of being connected to my old Samsung 1080p TV. Very pretty, no noticeable framerate drops (though some juddering when the camera gets stuck on a bit of scenery and then frees itself, but you can't blame the hardware for that!)
It’s not cheating if you don’t want to stay on the “constant hardware upgrade cycle” that engulfs PC gaming
I'm debating whether to play it on PC (it'll look better) or Series S (convenience) though will probably end up jumping between both seeing as it's Play Anywhere. Need to finish Jedi:Survivor first, or I'll forget the controls.
6-7 hours long apparently. https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/senuas-saga-hellblade-2-review-hell-and-high-water/1900-6418229/
Oh... . Those are not glowing reviews, but not a complete surprise - reminiscent of the old Dragon's Lair games on the Amiga, but updated for today's GPUs. Still, free on Game Pass.
Reviews were also somewhat "meh" for the first game, which was also short. Didn't bother me then and it doesn't bother me now.
Finished it. Didn't find all the stone heads, and barely found any of Druth's story runes, so there's scope for a replay (maybe following a guide, make it easier on myself) with the extra narration options. Thoroughly enjoyed that. It's worth watching the mini-doc in the extras menu, too, it's only about 25 minutes long.
Whilst you're waiting, you could do worse than install Duet or Lonely Mountains Downhill as harmless diversions. Then Tunic if you want a Zelda-like, or Alien Swarm/Helldivers for a cheeky blast. Darktide is also fairly decent but online co-op only (although you get matched up quite easily) and Superliminal/Gorogoa/Cocoon are good puzzlers. I'm in the middle of Titanfall 2 and Control, amongst a few others that I've half-started.
Far Cry 5. Got to say, having a lot of fun. Looks great, plays great and there s so much to distract yourself with.
Finally beaten Spoiler Vader (well, might not be much of a spoiler to assume he's in it given it's Star Wars) in Jedi:Survivor. Only took 2.5 hours! Not had anything like that much issue getting through any bosses up to now. I assume I'm not far from the end. Edit: wrong game!
Surprisingly, 2 weeks after first firing it up, I am still playing Hellblade II. I am enjoying it, but... I do have some complaints/whinges. I'm finding the combat the most frustrating thing of all. There isn't much variation beyond 'dodge attacks, get in the occasional counter, wait for "limit break" to charge, unleash powerful attack'. It's quite sluggish, I get hit by attacks that I feel like I dodged with plenty of time. There are too many scripted sequences interrupting the flow. The camera is pretty dire; you can't see anything besides the dude attacking you, I've found myself trying to dodge into scenery because I just couldn't see behind me, and on more than one occasion I've had the camera whip around behind some piece of scenery that totally blocks my view. Enemies attack one-by-one, even when there's a large group standing in the background. Combat was never particularly nuanced in the original game, but it definitely felt a lot more enjoyable. EDIT: Also, it doesn't feel like there's any consequence for failing - in the first game you had the whole "spreading darkness" thing and the threat of having to start again, it really felt like there were consequences for being defeated. Not in this game, if I f' up and die then I just go back to the start of the fight sequence. The other main thing that bugs me is the "puzzles". They're not particularly difficult, they never were in the first game, but even with a few new mechanics it's getting a bit repetitive. I, too, have barely found any of the stone heads or Druth's story runes, and I'm actually a little annoyed that they're harder to find now. I liked in the original that they were very easy to find, it gave a lot more colour and character to the world without making you feel like you had to work particularly hard for it. Tucking them out of the way and making you hunt for it kinda makes it feel like so many other cheap "gotta catch 'em all" mechanics used to artificially elongate gameplay (find all the plants, collect all the widgets, unlock all the towers - that sort of thing). This is a relatively slow-paced game, so taking time to go off exploring to find "secrets" feels like it's verging on disrespecting your time. I'd agree with @Gareth Halfacree here - if I do go back to hunt all that stuff down I'll definitely be using a guide. In terms of look & feel, voice acting, atmosphere, sound design, story, and so on... still absolutely brilliant. And that's why it feels like all these things I'm criticising are big issues - everything else is so good that these actually relatively mundane flaws are magnified.
Currently 3 hours in, and haven't yet reached that level of frustration, but I can see where you're coming from. I'm just enjoying walking around looking at everything, interspersed with a bit of combat. Still found bugger all of the story runes, but seem to be doing better with the heads. No way I'll be finished in 6-7 hours if the achievements are an indication of story progress.
Nothing for a while now. Several months in fact. I've just picked up Mirage that I'll boot up soonish but my last game, Metro Exodus, I got about half way through. I always finish games. Always. Until now. Metro Exodus has been uninstalled unfinished. I just couldn't carry on. It was dull as dishwater. This has annoyed me on many levels but mainly because I don't like the idea of not finishing a game. Anyhoo, hopefully Mirage can rekindle a spark if not I'll boot up an oldie.
And I am LOVING it. The developers really know their cat stuff. It's easy, fun, no risk, and all the cute - which is sometimes much needed.
Fallout 4 again. On survival. With a One Punch Man build. Needed something different after completing Breath of The Wild main quest and before I go back to clear up some side quests. I have Tears of the Kingdom to play but I need a different control method break!
Stellar Blade, what a cracking game. Completed a 100% run at the weekend, and followed up with a story only speedrun in NG+ for an alternate ending, and about to start a NNG+ on hard difficulty. Super-satisfying combat, whether I still find it satisfying on hard remains to be seen. Very impressive effort as a new franchise from a novice studio, and remarkable that it didn't break once during either playthrough, much of which was on release day code. I hope the big studios are taking notes.
