ilserpente

Huh. I wonder why they took it down?

I remember GamePro ran a big feature on Garfield: Caught in the Act for Genesis when it first came out. They hyped the hell out of the game, and talked about how Jim Davis's personal involvement set it apart from other licensed games. I don't recall what they ultimately scored the game in their review, but the big preview spread felt like it was written by SEGA marketing. I read the feature as a 10 year-old who enjoyed Garfield quite a bit, and I was hyped as hell. I wanted the game from my parents for Christmas, but then I played the game at a kiosk at Incredible Universe and was shocked at how bad it was compared to how good the review made it sound. The game was surprisingly difficult for a platformer based on a child-friendly property, most likely to make up for its lack of content.

It was a live stream, and I'm guessing Jeff didn't realize what he'd done until maybe someone called him? I remember from previous Bombcasts and whatnot that Jeff has had the same number since he was a teenager, so hopefully he doesn't have to get a new one.

I am watching it now, and it appears that Jeff accidentally gave out his own phone number.

Oh, and Furi is dope! It was one of my favorite games of 2016.

The Last Guardian is worth checking out, but if you do, make sure you change your PS4's output resolution to 1080p in the system's display settings. It's the only way to play it at an acceptable framerate, and the game doesn't allow you to change the settings in-game.

I liked Nioh but it gets a little repetitive. It's still worth playing if you like the souls series.

@jonrambo: if you liked Dark Souls 3 and the world of Bloodborne looks interesting to you, I'd be willing to bet you'll like Bloodborne a whole lot. It's my favorite PS4 exclusive, and it's DLC is great as well.

Horizon is probably my second-favorite exclusive on the system.

Wipeout is a wonderful Probably showcase and a very good racing game.

Don't sleep on all the great indie titles, either. Salt and Sanctuary and Axiom Verge are two of my favs.

@brunothethird: I agree that HK shares a good deal of its world building philosophy with the Souls series, but I was speaking directly to their mechanical similarities, and I just don't think they are very mechanically similar. HK is a much faster-paced game. Attacks comes out almost instantly, there is no stamina to worry about, there is no way to block attacks, there is only one melee weapon in the entire game (though you can slightly change its properties), you can continuously recharging your ability to heal by hitting enemies, there is no equip load to worry about, and you can even cancel your healing animation in the middle of it to avoid attacks. HK is a very snappy game--you immediately accelerate to full speed when you start moving, and your air controls are unlimited. Its combat is very action-oriented.

Compare this to Salt and Sanctuary, which went out of it's way to emulate DS in a 2D style. S&S has an stamina meter that drains as you dodge and attack, it has a ton of different weapons with different attack speeds and properties, it has equipment load that affects your movement, it has shields that work exactly the same as they do in DS (with separate damage reduction and stagger reduction percentages), it has a parry that is functionally the same as DS, and you get a fixed number of healing charges every time you rest.

It's my GOTY, and I was a little bummed that the only person on staff that gave it much attention is the person who doesn't like metroivania games. It was good to hear that Abby was playing and enjoying it later on in the year, but I can't imagine it'll get much love for the GOTY discussions. Seeing as how none of the souls games or bloodborne made a GB top-10 GOTY list in their respective release years, I guess I've just accepted that my tastes are quite different than the staff of GB's.

I don't think HK is revolutionary. I do think that it is an incredibly well-made, thoughtfully designed Metroivania-style game. It nails the platforming, combat, and explorations components of the genre so well. The atmosphere and world building are also top-notch and I think the setting is quite creative. I love the lore, the music, the characters, and all of the thoughtful little details the designers put in.

I think Rorie and some of the other staff members complained about the map system, but I thought it was implemented quite well. When you get to a new area, the exploration feels more rewarding and daring as you veer further off your map and deeper into an uncharted area. You're focusing on the area itself rather than hitting select every 15 seconds to see where you are, which helps you internalize an area. When you finally hear the familiar sound of the map-marker close by, a sense of relief and accomplishment washes over you. In a genre where exploration is one of the key tenants, it makes sense to give it more emphasis. It gives you a little taste of the danger and alien nature of the original metroid. Maps are an important tool in these games, and treating them as rewards for exploration makes sense.

In all, HK is my favorite Metroidvania I've played, and I've played a lot of them. Of all the great games I've played this year, HK is the only one that I feel didn't have any major problems.

Joseph Anderson's youtube review of this is quite good and thorough, and I would recommend checking it out.

The game is a stunning achievement considering a team or 3-4 people developed it, and it's an incredible value at its MSRP of $15. I'll probably buy the Switch version just to support the team.

EDIT: Also, I think people are too quick to lump this in and compare it with Dark Souls. The only major shared mechanic between the two games is that you need to complete a corpse run when you die in order to recover lost currency. FWIW, I spent nearly 40 hours with HK and finished it to 106%, and I was able to successfully recover my corpse every single time I died. The mechanic is not overbearing at all. Salt and Sanctuary went much further to try to emulate Dark Souls, including a much more animation-priority heavy combat system. Hollow Knight feels like it combines SOTN's combat / feel and fast travel, Super Metroid's exploration and upgrade system, and Ori's movement / platforming.

@bdead: Nope, the PS3 version ran at 30, as well. Much like Dark Souls, the frame rate is tied to the game logic, and turning it up will break things. It'll be interesting to see what modders do with it. Depending on how the game is coded, turning it up to 60 may only result in minor instabilities, or it could completely break the game.

Regardless, I'm glad Japanese devs finally seem to out of the habit of tying frame rate to important game logic. Obviously it didn't matter if you didn't plan on porting to PC, but nowadays it's a really bad idea.

I think it's been heavily featured at press conference because it plays well in trailers. Conceptually and visually, it's still super impressive.