Blasphemous. Metrovania style game with some clear Dark Souls influences in the mix. I'll start with the bad first. I played it on the Switch, it stutters occasionally in docked mode while handheld seems to be much better. It is also a bit buggy, nothing that's so bad to the point of detracting from the experience but I got a freeze that forced me to restart the game (although I was purposely trying to see if I could break it by doing a very specific thing... I did.) And there are also some deaths that make the game nearly break but it ends up sorting things out by it self. Still annoying. What I really don't like about Blasphemous is that hit detection at times is very flawed and in general the game is far from being pixel perfect. Voice acting is not that good either, just competent with some characters worse than others. But I really enjoyed it despite it's flaws. Animation work is nice and detailed. Makes great use of religious iconography and the art direction suits the theme perfectly. Characters and narrative center around penitence and guilt. Me, being from a catholic country, it really made me appreciate their approach on the subject. Brutal, visceral and blasphemous in a way that's only possible on the indie space. While story isn't that great, the narrative is well structured enough to carry me through the game and item lore is interesting to read. Level design is not amazing but still good, and it does a great job at offering variety. Item interaction, be it with the player, other characters or the world, is rewarding enough to encourage exploration and experimentation. At least with me made me spend way more hours with the game then what was strictly needed to beat it. Soundtrack feels very metal without ever really being metal. Often it resembles something you would find in the intro or interlude of a Black Metal album. I really love it. Suits perfectly the theme but I wish they were a bit more daring with it. As for difficulty, it's on the easy side. I'm fine with that but I wish boss fights were more challenging because there's definitely a disconnect between how menacing they look and the actual challenge. I feel that after Hollow Knight I'm always expecting the next unexpected GOAT material game to come out of nowhere. Blasphemous is definitely not that, but maybe because of its iconography I would still recommend it.

Over the weekend, I watched Prince: Sign o' The Times twice. This movie is awesome. I quite liked Purple Rain, but it didn't funk and rock or have as much soul (I mean the genre) in its sound as this, as it was a story with musical numbers and not an eighty minute concert film. This has so much energy and the theatrics and seedy scenery set the tone so well. I dug the way his performers acted out the music being played. Separately recorded clips interspersed between the songs and wardrobe changes kept the pace smooth. I loved when Prince traded places with Sheila E., went up to do the drums while she got down on the stage and rapped in "It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night," because I forgot Prince drummed or don't remember if I've ever even seen him drum. It was only briefly, though, because he's no serious drummer. "Not bad," Prince comments earlier, as she's rocking up there. "For a girl." I laughed out loud when Prince, out of nowhere, slid under this dancer with his guitar and ripped off her skirt. The film was originally presented in six-track Dolby Stereo, but I think I honestly prefer the PCM stereo track with headphones over the DTS 5.1 track with speakers/sub. It had better clarity. Average video bitrate is 30 mbps, and it's a pretty good scan. There's one song in the middle with separately recorded footage that looks VHS quality, but I'm pretty happy with it overall, considering how poorly most older concert films have been treated. Sign o' the Times is my favorite Prince album and of all the concert films I've seen Prince is also my favorite musician. This movie still exceeded my expectations.

@FF7Cloud I think that changes the format of what we're going for. I think each person nominating one game within a time limit, making as good a case for that specific game as they can, and then the community voting on a consensus pick is the way to go. If you're making a multiple game list, you're going to have to come up with multiple arguments why someone should vote for each of your five games over any of the other games on your list.

@e_zed_eh_intern said in What did you just Buy/Receive?: @ezekiel Goldfinger is one of my faves. Looks like I won't be watching it for another week, because the first disc (Dr. No) is cracked. :( Edit: I know what I'm gonna watch tonight. Been waiting a month for this import, released in January.

Royal Rumble was pretty cool. At least the men's Rumble match itself! That whole Lesnar angle was kind of genius. At first I was like "oh no you didn't" when he threw guys out one after another, but pretty quickly I started to get excited for the whole shtick, like waiting to see if this would really go all the way like that. Luckily it didn't. And McIntyre was basically the perfect guy to knock him over: surprising, but he still made sense in that role, too. This'll be his biggest push now, and about time, too. The man's a great athlete in the ring and he's garnered support and charisma over time. This went right, I feel like. Edge's return was cool, too! I mean damn, it's been since 2011 when he left. And he looked great with that grey in his beard. Interesting to see what his role will be. The women's match was less exciting, I had hoped for a surprise winner but we got Charlotte. And Sasha wasn't even in it. I guess they'll keep us waiting for the rift between her and Bayley. And that's actually fine, this double-heel pair of theirs works well atm.

@DMCMaster it's insane that happened more than a month before release

Never mind it was a mistake

Thanks @tokeeffe9 for moving this!

Yup, seems like a good place for it!

Two new small videos related to Royal were released. https://personacentral.com/two-new-persona-5-royal-scenes-released-feature-shrine-visit-and-kasumi-yoshizawa/ The first one shows a very interesting detail, which confirms that there will be a significant change to the end of the game, this makes sense since they had mentioned how they will add a new semester at the end, but I do hope that whatever change they are making so that the protagonist is free in New Year's makes sense.

Feels good man!

@oscillator Thanks for sharing. I've just ordered it, gonna have my hands on it tomorrow!

@ffff0 @Axel Seconded, it might be a good opportunity for you to plug it for non-forum regulars, explain how it works in more detail and what you do to organise it, explain how you do 2 every year, one for the year past and a retro one. It's sort of what Community Showcase is for, I think :)

Really enjoy the games but have never submitted one myself. Maybe I should?