4232

Lots of indies on the way including Slay the Spire.

4233

Okay so I don’t feel like it needs a fast forward button yet but I would like a simpler way of accessing my commanders’ items, upgrades and skills without having to cycle down the map each time to get to the footer bar! That’s a weird UI quirk in an otherwise tidy little title. Keen to see where the campaign goes…

4234

Outstanding. I was just wishing I had a card game on my Switch.

4235

Has anyone else been playing the Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate demo? The only Monster Hunter game I played - very briefly - was the one on the PSP many years ago. I can’t even remember what it was called, although I’m sure it had “Monster Hunter” in the title. Anyway, MHGU is a blast so far, although I haven’t the faintest idea what I’m doing. Seriously, just no idea. I kinda figured out most of the controls, although clearly not all of them, and I’ve failed spectacularly to kill the easiest monster three times in a row now. I do seem to be getting better at it, which means I’m taking longer to die each time, but I’m sufficiently curious about the full game now. Fortunately at this rate the demo will keep me going for months until the price of the full game drops in a sale, because $100 is a bit much.

4236

Prison Architect!

https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/prison-architect-nintendo-switch-edition

4237

Here’s way more of a response than you probably wanted:

World was my first Monster Hunter game earlier this year when it came out on consoles and I played a ton of it. Then I kinda figured I was done with it but man all of the recent posts from PC players has me interested in more monsters, and a portable one would be pretty sweet. So I played that Switch demo and I was like cool, yes, I will play this.

But there’s a problem. It’s not out for another ten days (this was last Friday). Sad face.

So then I did some research and found out (follow me here, it’s all very simple) that this is the North American release of the Japanese game Monster Hunter XX: Nintendo Switch Version, which itself was an HD port of the 3DS game Monster Hunter XX, which in turn was an expansion of Monster Hunter X that contained all of the content of the that game and added much more, including DLC of Zelda characters and Japanese singer Daigo (I have no idea). Monster Hunter XX was never released in the West, but Monster Hunter X had been under the title Monster Hunter Generations. So we’re just skipping XX for the 3DS entirely and going right to the Switch release. The XX/Generations games are basically a greatest hits of Monster Hunter, containing most of the maps and monsters (there are 93 big monsters in this game!) from the previous games along with a few more that were added just for XX. It is packed full of content.

Ok, so here’s the cool part. If you have Monster Hunter Generations on your 3DS you will actually be able to transfer your save file to the Switch version. So, if I just buy the 3DS game now I can start hunting stuff today instead of waiting all this crazy time and then just upload to the Switch to continue on next week. So I did that, because I’m not as smart about my money as you are.

So I guess what I’m saying is, yes. And it’s good. And now I’m very excited about not having to play on a 3DS anymore because that stupid nub thing that’s supposed to be a camera stick on the New Nintendo 3DS is a crime against humanity.

By the way, the full game does contain a series of tutorials to explain the basics, but this game really does not try very hard to bring new players up to speed. If you’re interested at all I super duper extra triple recommend you take a look at Gaijin Hunter’s YouTube channel. That dude is the best. After you’ve played a bit and found one or two weapons that seem interesting to you, check out his tutorials for each weapon. You will probably be surprised about how much you didn’t know. I go back and rewatch those videos every once in a while because I’m still picking up little subtleties that just went over my head when I started playing.

Oh right, edit: Not only does Generations not do an amazing job at explaining everything to you, at one point the quest lady actually tells you to go check Gaijin Hunter’s channel if you want to understand it. Which is amazing for that guy but also hilarious.

4238

Nice, now I can ignore this game until I get a Switch. I’d rather have it on iOS (assuming they can make it work) but I’ll take this instead.

4239

Thanks Mike, that’s more than I expected but not more than I wanted! Sounds extremely promising, and perhaps my financial common sense will fail me briefly shortly after the full version is released (“93 Monsters! That’s only about a dollar per monster!”).

I did find someone who’d typed out an online guide which has helped a lot, but I’ll check out the channel you recommend too. I did somewhat bounce of the PSP version, but this one feels right.

4240

The nice thing is that there is already a ton of content out there for English speakers. Most Monster Hunter players seemed to assume that XX was never going to get localized so a lot of them just bought the Japanese version from the eshop, which has been out for about a year now. So there are plenty of videos and guides already.

4241

My kids murdered the monsters countless times in Generations on 3DS. It’s a fantastic game. They loved all the weapon styles and crafting and would play together often. This is the real deal.

4242

I ended up preordering the cart from Amazon Au for $70. $100 for the download version was a bit much…

4243

I just tried the demo after reading your post. It isn’t at all my kind of game, and it certainly didn’t convince me otherwise. Much more difficult than I expected. I picked a spear and shield, and could barely figure out the controls, other than lunge with X. The monster was moving so quickly, and I felt so slow. Line up a shot and then I get pounded. I didn’t last long.

I was playing on mobile and I think I need to try on the TV with the Pro controller. Mobile I felt like I couldn’t see enough.

And geez, those cat side kicks are annoying.

4244

Expensive instead of daylight robbery, but yes that’s a much better deal.

That was my first game too (including my feeling about the annoying cat sidekicks), but then I tried again the following night and it clicked a little better - I spent a good 5 minutes trying to figure out all the controls while I was still in the camp, and it helped a lot. The cat sidekicks also started casting buffs and saving my skin, so I warmed to them more quickly. On my third attempt I was staggering the monster and at one point even got it to limp off the map, but when I found it again it seemed to be back to its usual self. Because I had no idea at all how much health it had left (if it tells you, I couldn’t figure it out) I wasn’t sure how much progress I was actually making with it, but I was starting to feel slightly less useless. Where’s the roll / dodge button though!

I’m curious enough to look at the videos and see what I might be missing.

4245

Dave, we may have our differences, but I love you right now.

@Chappers @tomchick EVERSPACE! Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!

4246

There’s no monster health bar. You just have to look for signs like running away or limping. If they get desperate they’ll run back to their nest/cave/whatever and go to sleep, where they can recover a little bit of health. It’s not very much though so if you catch them sleeping it’s a good time to set up a super move or something.

R button runs, B is for dodge/roll.

4247

Looking smooth

4248

Use the touchscreen!

Got 70% through on hard (there’s a death spiral on hard once certain types of enemies start appearing unless you are built for that).

So far I like the concept a lot, but it feels like it needs way more content (I think there are about 4 different items and 3 classes of troops. 6 enemies so far, whihc are just different levels of the same basic type).

I think the FTL-like structure does it a disservice. Allow me to use 8 squads on a battle and add much more configuration/level up options and it would be a great fully fledged strategy game. It has the snapiness and ease to read of a Fire Emblem. It would have worked great.

I’m going to switch to normal difficulty to try to beat it and see if there’s something interesting at the end of the campaign.

4249

From Aoife’s hands-on at Eurogamer:

4250

To be fair, Diablo 3 is like 20 years old at this point.

4251

LOL! It’s only six!