New video! A Review of Forspoken (ad-free!) (Patreon)

Hey patrons!

Just to let you know the new video is now available, ad-free! Forspoken has so, so many problems. For so, so many hours, its characterisation and dialogue seems downright irredeemable. Its combat systems feature so much extraneous fluff, all hampered by an unhelpful camera. Protagonist Frey is occasionally finicky to control, and her incessant banter with her travel "buddy" Cuff is unbelievably cringey. But just leaving it at that isn't what we do here on this channel—is there anything to like about Forspoken? Maybe? I think? Even if the answer is yes, you sure have to dig through a lot of unnecessary nonsense to get to it. And that's what I'm attempting to do in this review of Forspoken.

Phew, getting this out took a lot of late night work, but I'm glad it's out there. Interesting one to review—even more interesting to see the discourse surrounding Square Enix apparently not sending out review codes, when it seems like a ton of pieces went live at the embargo. I know one person at a big outlet who didn't get code which I was surprised by, but honestly this level of rollout doesn't seem that out of the ordinary. Was seeing some absolutely wild takes regarding the situation and thinking "uh... am I the only one who got sent review code?!" Clearly not. Yet another example of "state something confidently enough on the internet and it'll become established fact," I guess. 

Either way, hope you enjoy the video. Sorry I couldn't do early access for this one—embargos and all that. Not sure how strictly I'll adhere to embargos and the like going forward, as while I do enjoy the challenge and the pressure that comes with it (that notion of "you're hitting this date/time, no questions asked")... it can be a lot of pressure, and it's all self-imposed at the end of the day. Confident that, where it applies, I've been able to hit these embargo deadlines without feeling like the pieces themselves are rushed, but man I've not gotten a lot of sleep the last few nights, haha. 

Like I say though, I enjoy the frenzy to a certain extent and I'm happy people seem to enjoy the more balanced approach I took with this game than some might have been expecting. As stated at the start of the piece, I don't enjoy needlessly tearing into someone else's hard work. 

More videos coming very soon! The exclusive, film-focused piece (that's still related to games) I mentioned in the last couple of posts, as well as a potential ongoing project to do with that Last of Us show that I think could be fun. Plus a whole ton of other stuff beyond that. Ideas upon ideas upon ideas and various projects nearing completion. 

You make all of this possible with your continued support and I can never thank you enough for that. Channel wouldn't be here without you. You're the best!

Thanks,

Hamish

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