Gran Turismo 2 got me into more "sim-like" driving games, and by the time I was interested in the genre again, there was no new Gran Turismo game, and Forza was praised as the better game at the time (around Forza 3). So I played a lot of Forza Motorsport, but never went back to Gran Turismo since.
Now, with this one, I think I'll go back into it when I am finished with my other games. I'm scared that they're gifting new cars left and right, I miss having to work to get new cars, and having a real sense of progession, but it sure seems better than Forza Horizon and more recents Forza Motorsports games in that manner. Also, as silly as the whole vibe is with Gran Turismo Café, I think I'm really into it. Seems like the kind of Japanese earnestness that I find charming.
It is only me or Jeff and Jan keep referring to the lore being in the item descriptions, and I know it's a Souls thing but in my experience... it's not in Elden Ring? Most item descriptions seems more functional than anything else. The lore is more in conversations with NPCs and visual storytelling in the world design.
I feel like people are doing a disservice to this game by saying "oh, it's one of THESE", be it as a disparaging comment or as praise from FromSoft fans. In my experience, this is only true at surface level. Sure, the combat system is very much the Souls system with extra features, and you still have ballbusting boss fights, but the open world design changes so much about how you play it vs. a Souls game. It makes exploration core to the gameplay, and as a viable (it'd even say better) alternative to just try, try, and retry to go through a difficult encounter. Instead of just being against a difficulty wall, you can either just completely go around an encounter, or if it's essential, just... leave, explore, and come back with better equipment, skills, higher level, etc. There's not one encounter yet where I felt I HAD to repeat it over and over again.
The best example of the choice and those two approaches is for Margit, the first true boss in the game.
I did it solo, and my approach was : I tried and died a few times, and I didn't have the mental energy to learn his patterns and try again. So I just left, explored for a good 5 hours, got some cool new summons, leveled up, etc. I died like maybe... 3 times in that 5 hours because you can always avoid dangerous situations in the open world, and normal enemies aren't very hard to beat. Then I came back to the boss, used my new summon and beat him first try.
I did it multiplayer with 2 other people that were a bit underleveled. We just decided to try, try, and retry until we've got it. It took about 20 tries, and 1-2 hours, it was very draining, but at the end, we felt like it was a massive accomplishment.
To me, the fact that they managed to make the game more accessible, supporting less experienced players better, without diluting the essence of the series for hardcore FromSoft fans, and actually IMPROVED the game for both by doing so is an achievement. That's why, while I didn't finish the game yet, I think it's the best game FromSoft has released, and is shaping up to me one of, if not my favorite game of all time.
Super fun feature! Great concept, great art that was done just for it, impressive stuff.
However, they should really check the input mappings, pre-show. On the two times this show ran on GB, players had weird mappings that cause issues in their run.
I think the theme has potential to be very good, and it is very good at the beginning, but around where it tries to include the original melody line, it's just WAAAAAAY too dissonant, and not in a great way. It switches up the bass/rhythm section in a way that just doesn't fit with the melody (on top of that, the melody is super pitchy), like it's all sour notes, and the resolve falls flat trying to be too jazzy in its chords.
But hey, if it's still WIP, then cool, I guess it still has time to be fixed ( not sure I would've shown it in this state but heyy, early access music, why not ;) ). If not, welp, I'll survive, and maybe I'll end up even enjoying it in all its sourness.
I didn't watch this episode yet, I will for sure, but! One question : is there any intention to have Jeff Gerstmann on for at least one episode? The ones with Jess and with Jeff B were great, but I really wanna see Gerstmann talking shit with the Albummer crew, it seems like it would be such a good fit!
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