Oof, first Perfect Dark lost its Design Director but now the actual Game Director is gone. Apparently left The Initiative last month.

Last game I saw lose this much creative leadership during development was Halo Infinite…..

If Perfect Dark does release in 2023, then it definitely will take the episodic route because that will have been very little development time on a game being advertised as AAAA. During the developer deep dive at the reveal trailer at the game awards in December 2020, they clearly stated the game was early in development, and it’s only been like 6 months since they partnered with Crystal Dynamics to do the brunt work of development.

It was rumored that the game would be episodic and a GaaS due to that aspect. Not sure how I feel about that tbh

Noooooooo way lmao that’s hilarious! I was wondering what on earth that term even meant. Gamespot and IGN definitely ran with it though when it came to overview videos of upcoming Xbox exclusives lol

This was one of the most refreshing gaming experiences I've had in a long time. I will preface to say that I never got into a Souls game, (rage quit like 15 minutes into bloodborne). I had no real intention of playing this game, but the reviews, the enemy designs, and world itself drew me in. Started off not really enjoying my time, kept getting fucked up, chose the wrong build for my play style which is more casual. Went with Confessor and it just wasn't for me. So I switched to Astrologer for a more n00b friendly play through. Another massive issue was the frame rate... I went like 10 hours not even realizing that my VRR was turned off. If you have VRR, turn it on.. it's a game changer. 

Once I started leveling up a little more and understanding the mechanics. I could slowly see myself getting better, SLOWLY.. and by all means I'm not a pro. Instead of spamming dodge which I still sometimes did after 100 hours in. I was way more patient with how I avoided attacks. First boss before the castle was a good test of how I would go about handling bosses. Go in the first time, not expecting to beat it, but to see the patterns, see the attacks, and plan ahead. 

The legacy dungeons I thought were really well created. Definitely a lot more trolling though.. my god, you have so many enemies hiding and attacking as soon as you walk into a door. If you get ganged up it's so hard to survive, making almost every encounter intense and purposeful. I have to say these are some of the best bosses and enemy designs I've ever seen in a video game. The world itself is one of the best open worlds I've played. So much variety and verticality. Walking on chains across huge environments (won't spoil anything else). Everything feels so varied and seamless. I loved going into dungeons and exploring off the beaten track and seeing what was at the end. Game does a fantastic job at rewarding players for doing their own thing. While some of them did blend in with similar themes, nothing really got too samesy overall. Reminds me a lot of Skyrim in that regards.

Traversal is fantastic as well, although the gap between fall damage and death is very little and could have used more jump winds or whatever they are called. At first I was not sure what to do in terms of progression. First real game I've played that was open world and did not have a cluttered UI, or lack of quest log. At first I did not like that, but I got used to it actually. 

Some of the big sidequests do feel very meaningful as well, but I did have to look up where to find things and where to go next on some of them I have to admit. As well as doing a little bit of grinding as well. Especially towards that real final boss... 

In terms of negatives, I really did not understand the story at all. I don't think I'm the only one, I'm guessing these games are played more for the gameplay and the world itself though. Some of the bosses I did feel were extremely cheap. The mountain big boi with the incredible reach, some massive bosses in closed areas with sweeping attacks, and that last boss... Literally had to rebuild my character to win that fight after like 2 hours. Bleed is pretty broken tbh. Oh and F whomever designed that frenzy sewer shit, my lord that was hard to navigate. Also big desert boi was not easy, but pretty rewarding once beaten. 

Overall, one of the best games I've played in recent memory and I think you owe it to yourself to at least try it. If someone as bad as me at games can beat it, I'm sure most of you can as well. I now see why people say you don't need an easy mode as you can pretty much make it yourself; youtube gives rune farming videos, best equipment for late games, boss tips. 

Playthrough one was about 16 hours before I quit. Second playthrough was about 99, so the hours are about right. Explored most of the map and did the majority of the optional bosses too. Maybe missed a few overall, but did the absolute hardest one. Tried using the cloud trick and messed up the first time, so I had to play the game again on NG+ which apparently is harder.. Only really felt the difficulty by the 3rd last boss. Level was around 167 I believe as well, mostly for the ho bag at the end. You really can skip a lot if you only want to do the main stuff. 

I'll definitely remember the combat and how it really made me think about positioning, movements, dodging, openings, and patterns. The world itself sets the bar for so many open worlds going forward that I hope more devs take into consideration going forward. 

9.5/10

Don't bother looking it up on Amazon yet.

This makes me really excited for what Turn 10 will be able to do with a new Forza Motorsport exclusively for Xbox Series consoles. 

FM7 is aging incredibly well! 

The Crew 2 to get 60fps update for Xbox Series X with Year 5

"Then there's Year 5 which starts in July. According to Ubisoft, Year 5 will bring three new free Seasons (the first being American Legends) with new vehicles, challenges, competitions, and rewards, "as well as new ways to explore the open world of The Crew 2." Most notably, it's also with Year 5 that we get the 60fps update for Xbox Series X, along with improvements to weather and colour-grading and "handling modifications for some vehicles."

https://www.trueachievements.com/n48964/the-crew-2-60fps

So glad I waited :)

I'm not surprised as GT7 looks incredibly underwhelming graphically IMO.

FM7 wins in almost every category. GT7 only has the edge on character models and vegetation.

I expect a lot more from Forza Motorsport.

One of the things I always felt that GT7 has had over Forza in the graphics department is the lighting.  It still shows in this comparisons but the gap has closed alot.  I am very interested to see what Turn 10 does in their next installment.  I think we have reached the point where textures and car detail are pretty much top notch and its going to be the lighting that really separate these games at least on the graphics end.

Very impressive that FM7 has the edge in most of these comparisons. When it comes to environment (besides grass), audience (not nearly as pixelated), car interior, car damage, reflections, weather, cloud box, tire smoke, track detail, and certain vehicle aspects, FM7 looks better. GT7 has the edge with grass, headlights (look way better), lighting on the car(but not headlights reflecting on environmental surfaces). Vehicle models are really close and both have disadvantages and advantages, but GT7 has the slight edge. 

Of course driving and mechanics are a different comparison that GT7 typically best FM in, but the fact a nearly 5 year old game can best a brand new game on next-gen hardware in many visual comparisons is impressive. 

Gives me high hopes for the next FM. 

I dare someone to make a thread about it.