Jamie John

Anyone else here reading via Amazon Newstand? For the last few issues I've noticed some nasty artefacting and pixellation, visible even when you're not especially zoomed in: Anyone else having this issue? It's like it on both my phone and tablet. Normally it's a lot crisper with no distortion at all. I contacted Amazon about it and they claim it's out of their hands and it's just the file that the publishers have sent them, although I'm a bit dubious about that. For this and other reasons, I really regret cancelling my print sub to go digital. Trying to read it on Google Newstand was bad enough which was why I switched to Amazon, but it just looks horrible. I've paid for a year's worth of digital issues now, though, so I doubt I'll get a refund. Sigh. Edit: Never mind - just managed to wangle a refund from Amazon so have renewed my print sub. I feel bad for not saving the trees, though.

I've just preordered the second game so I'm also going to start a new game of this later to recap everything. I reckon I'll go straight in on hard but I'm going to use a guide as I don't want to miss any collectibles. Anyone know of a spoiler-free one?

Enjoying this a lot (playing on PC). It's by turns very chill but also very wince-inducing. The checkpoints seem very spaced out. I'm not sure that I'd ever be able to commit the shortcuts to memory enough to get decent times on any of the trails. It looks very pretty, though.

The bee definitely wasn't as bad as the robot. I seem to remember having lots of trouble with the genie as well. The plane levels, in general, I tended to find harder than the regular ones.

Stick with it. I felt exactly the same as you - played it for about 45 mins on PS4 and found that the controls were too much and left it, then went back a few months later and absolutely loved it. The best advice I can give is to simply not touch the right stick at all. The game was designed with the Gamecube's ubercrap C stick and it doesn't use it. Practise centring the camera behind Leon using the shoulder buttons instead.

11. Half Life 2: Episode 1 (PC) I think this was about my third time through this, but I'd forgotten enough of it for it to be fresh again. It's more Half Life 2, so that's never going to be a bad thing, but playing it so soon after the main game, the reused settings and assets did make it feel a little bit like a remix of 2's third act. Apart from the 'Zombine' enemies, there's nothing here that you haven't seen before already, and the bigger focus on frenetic action over quiet exploration makes it feel like a string of set pieces instead of being a more cohesive experience. It's still great to blast through in a few hours, however. I'm looking forward to replaying Episode 2 now, which I remember being properly fantastic. 7/10 Previous:

I used the lobber, the invincibility ultra and the perk that gives you extra HP. Good luck! He's probably the hardest boss in the game, or at least that's what I found. It's not plain sailing once you beat him, by any means, but you do feel a sort of boosted confidence upon beating him that helps a lot with later encounters.

How do you do it? Just sit and listen through headphones? Read along with the lyrics? Turn your phone off? I need to know your process, man.

10. A Plague Tale: Innocence (PC) This started off well but got a bit tiresome towards the end. It’s definitely a handsome game (most of the time) with some striking (not to mention grisly) imagery, and I thought the medieval score was excellent throughout, swelling and lulling at the right times and generally contributing to the tone of the scenes very well. The voice acting, once I switched the language from John Cleese-style French-accented English to just plain French, also sounded authentic, even if keeping track of the subtitles as well as the action on screen was tricky in some of the more hectic moments. The central relationship between the protagonists, Amicia and her younger brother, Hugo, was also well-realised and quite touching at times, putting me in mind of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, as well as the God of War reboot. The biggest problem I had with it, however, was that the narrative often got in the way of the gameplay, which for the most part is quite thin and doesn’t give the player much agency: levels are extremely linear, combat is simplistic and repetitive, and the infrequent puzzles are ruined by the characters telling you what to do and how to do it if you can’t figure it out for yourself within 10 seconds, something I abhorred in the recent Tomb Raider games, but which you could at least turn off, whereas here you don’t get the option. In truth, most of the time I felt like I was playing a walking simulator with some stealth and scripted set pieces tacked on; I got the impression that the developers were much more interested in the story they were trying to tell and had added the ‘gamey’ bits only reluctantly. As for the story itself, I thought it was engaging but it definitely suffered from some pacing issues in the second half. The way that the developers took a historical setting and event (the Black Plague of the 14th century) and added fantasy elements to it was interesting, but certain bits, such as the felt very out of place and quite jarring. All the same, I think it’s good that the developers have tried something different, especially when you consider that their past credits consist mainly of various Disney Pixar adaptations, as well as The Crew games. (They’re also developing the upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator, oddly, so they certainly don’t seem to be afraid to mix up their genres.) Overall, I’d say it’s definitely worth playing if you’re after a somewhat clunky but nonetheless interesting not-quite-indie game to while away 8 hours or so. Plus, it’s currently free on Game Pass. 7/10 Previous:

I used to do this a lot as well, but (stupidly) not just with Fifa or other games with throwaway music, but stuff with proper soundtracks, like lots of the JRPGs I used to play. Whenever I listen to Franz Ferdinand's debut I'm immediately reminded of Skies of Arcadia on the Gamecube as I listened to that on repeat while playing it, and the music's supposed to be one of the best parts of the game

When I was a teenager I used to spend a lot of time listening to music in the dark with my headphones on, not really doing anything else, just focusing on the music and playing albums that I liked over and over, or making genre/mood playlists on my iPod. Nowadays, I don't really do this at all, and although I have music playing a lot throughout the day, whether I'm just pottering about the house, in the car or doing exercise, it's always when I'm doing something else - I don't just sit and listen to it like I used to - and I rarely listen to a single album; most of the time I have a playlist or my entire collection on shuffle. There are probably lots of reasons why I don't listen actively anymore, like I used to - less free time, more distractions, having kids, etc. - but it's something that I want to start doing again as, obviously, it allows you to appreciate the music you're listening to a lot more. My old man has always done this - he's got a 'music room' at the bottom of the garden where he just goes and listens to his vinyl with his feet up, with nothing else to distract him (apart from his beer) and I'd say that he does this four or five times each week, and has done for as long as I can remember. It seems like a nice way to spend an evening, although I think part of me would always be thinking "I could be playing a game/watching a film/TV show/reading a book right now", but I guess that's something you just have to suppress. Something else I don't bother with nowadays is reading lyrics as I'm listening. Part of this has come from not having access to the CD inserts as everything's gone digital, but obviously the lyrics to pretty much any song can be found in seconds on Google. Again, reading along allows you to appreciate the music a lot more, and certainly when I read music reviews it's evident that the reviewer has done this and spent time really thinking about what's actually being said in the album they're reviewing. Anyway, a bit of a rambling post, but I'm just interested in everyone else's listening process. What do you do?

Complete works of HP Lovecraft free, once again.

Decent sale on GOG at the moment, especially for older games (as you might expect). I got FAR: Lone Sails for about £4.50 and Stories: Untold for £1.74. I'm tempted by Sunless Seas for less than a fiver, too, but can't figure out if it's right for me or not. Edit: Tell a lie - I got Stories Untold from Humble Bundle for that price, not GOG. Decent sale over there, as well!

According to another hastily-deleted Tweet on Epic's account (anyone would think they did this on purpose...) Borderlands: The Handsome Collection (which comprises Borderlands 2 and the Pre-Sequel, but not 1 or 3) is this week's free game. Unlocks around 4pm.

This was my experience of the 3DS version. I remember the voice acting being particularly heinous. I put about 80 hours into X as well before giving up. All of which won't prevent me from getting it for Switch at some point, of course.