#(i had a BIG phase of listening to this in 2017 so its also nostalgic)

[fitzrove]

Me currently

blaming @emeraldskulblaka actually

[danisgotagun]

Yooka-Laylee

2017 was heralded as the return of the Collectathon sub-genre of 3D platformers. I would be inclined to agree. Hat in Time and Super Mario Odyssey are amazing games that use that formula. But the first big one we got in the year was... Not so great. 

Of course I’m talking about Playtonic Games’ “Yooka-Laylee”.

To preface my thoughts on this game, now that I have completed it 100%, I have never played Banjo-Kazooie. Or any of Rare’s classic 3D platformers, surprisingly. It’s definitely one of my favorite genre! But for this I see it as a positive as I wasn’t going in with any real expectations based on the names. Also, I own the PS4 version of the game, so I may have had a more buggy experience than PC/Switch players. 

The Collectathon sub-genre never truly died, I think. The core of what made those games what they were transferred to a lot of modern games. One of the big reasons that genre took off was the jump to 3D itself, and being able to explore a 3D space and discover its secrets was a novel concept. Trophies, achievements, open world games, etc. all pull from that to some degree. So for the Collectathon, as we know it, to come back (and man do I want it to come back) it has to present itself in a fresh form. We’re stripping a game to the core, and using basic gaming conventions and we have to make that enjoyable with new ideas. Super Mario Odyssey did this exceptionally well. This is a point I think Yooka-Laylee fell short on. 

Not only did Yooka-Laylee not bring something truly fresh to the genre, any real modernization for it to hold its own in the current market, it failed to do a lot of the things the Collectathon genre entails. Given the pedigree of the developers, this was the most shocking thing to me and most people who found themselves disappointed in the game. 

There are plenty of collectables. But finding them, especially the quills, feels awkward. Things seem to thrown around the level haphazardly. It’s not as bad as I anticipated; that one quill in the Tribalstack Tropics was definitely the worst offender, but it never really got better past there.  

Which brings me to the levels themselves. We have 5 big worlds that can be expanded once to make them even bigger. It’s a cool concept, in theory, but it doesn’t really mean much when the levels feel so barren. You’re running around huge levels with no real way to fast travel, finding paths that lead nowhere and getting tired of finding maybe a few quills in one entire section of the level. The characters that inhabit the levels don’t... really inhabit the levels. Nothing changes when you complete a task, characters don’t interact with you in any significant way really. I would’ve liked if they at least responded to you attacking them or jumping on them, something that even the early Collectathons like the original Spyro trilogy, had accomplished. It’s little things like that that truly tie a game like this together. But Yooka-Laylee is a very loose experience.

There’s no structure, is what I really want to say here. Most of the game doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The jokes, while some of them are good, are everywhere and usually shoehorned into dialogue. Hints and clues for completing certain tasks (and even move descriptions!) are obtuse at best. The Sonar Splosion says “Do not ussssse near glasssss.” The average player would think this means it would break open the cracked glass walls you run across. But no. What breaks those? The Spin Dash (which, coincidentally, feels like it should be the move to break the blocks Sonar Splosion breaks.) The huge levels are easy to get turned around in, landmarks and consistency in direction (especially when you’re going after quills off the beaten path) is a mess. The best level in the game, as far as structure goes, also feels like one of the emptiest ones to a degree, that being the final world, Galleon Galaxy (which personally I loved tbh but it was still large but not dense.)  

And then there’s “identity.” The game wants you to feel nostalgic for the genre, but it doesn’t seem all that concerned with making you feel attached to itself. Characters are generally bland, up to and including Yooka himself, and aren’t all that memorable. Laylee is fun with her wisecracks, but even those get annoying. (Ironically, one such joke is her talking to Rextro about “annoying character dialogue.” Hmm.) And despite this lack of personality, characters will drone on and on and on. You can skip through a lot of dialogue, but the transitions between speech bubbles is slow itself, and there’s no skipping that. There’s just no real charm, nothing to really let the game hold up. If it wanted me to think it was an old collectathon that hadn’t aged well, then it would have succeeded. It lacks a lot of polish. 

But here’s the thing. I could continue complaining about the game, and saying things that have probably been said a million times before against it. But the most frustrating thing about the entire game is that you can see the potential. To me, that is the worst type of bad game: One where the potential is right in front of your face. You can’t just simply dismiss it as garbage, and it’s a strange and terrible feeling when you play a game and think to yourself “this could have been great!” 

The designs are cute, and the worlds, while empty, are beautiful to look at. Some of the challenges to get pagies were clever; and there’s neat areas like the Icymetric Palace. The music is fantastic and whimsical. 

On the note of good traits, I want to talk about perhaps the best part of the game: Capital B. A great villain design, has the most personality of anyone in the game, and the final boss fight is genuinely fun. Albeit, it’s a long fight with unskippable transitions between and even within each of its 4 phases with no chance of healing anywhere. It would have been a perfect final boss if the second phase was maybe a little shorter, and butterflies appeared occasionally (especially in the 4th phase, where stamina recovery is almost necessary.) But overall, Capital B is an excellent, cleverly designed antagonist.

The game has so much quality in it that the overwhelming lack thereof that is also there feels all the worse. I spent about 3 days doing a 100% run, and I genuinely had fun. I don’t regret buying this game. 

Now, what exactly do I want to take away from this experience? I want to hold out some hope for Playtonic Games. Yooka-Laylee teases (in more than a few ways) that it will get a sequel. While I hope this isn’t Playtonic’s only IP over the course of its (hopefully) long life, I do want them to perfect Yooka-Laylee before they move on. I hope that they listened to all the criticisms people made of this game, and polish a sequel to be up there with the great collectathons of yesteryear and the ones that are reviving the genre today. If a Tooka-Laylee comes out, I am definitely picking it up, and I sincerely hope that it is a huge success and Playtonic can become a renowned developer that helped save collectathon platformers. 

I feel like Yooka-Laylee was a labor of love from the Rare alums, and their ambition and creative freedom may have got the better of them. I genuinely believe their next project will be an improvement, and I look forward to seeing what they have in store for us.

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Vehicle Magazine Test: BMW 340i vs Nissan Maxima SR

If you have been to ask any BMW fan how they felt about a Nissan Maxima, you’d get responses various among sneering to downright laughing. At the same time as Nissan used to boast true overall performance vehicle chops at some point of its lineup, and nevertheless does with the GT-R, the majority of Nissan’s cars inside the beyond a decade or so were indescribably dull. However, the famous Japanese emblem feels as if it’s come up with a sports sedan which could honestly rival the BMW three Collection and its different German competition — the Nissan Maxima SR. Does that declare warrant laughter? Automobile Magazine finds out.

In this modern song Check, Car Mag pits their 4-Seasons Nissan Maxima SR against a BMW 340i to the peer that is better. On paper, the BMW has advantages everywhere in the place. It’s rear-wheel force in comparison to the Maxima’s front-wheel power, it has a manual gearbox compared to the Maxima’s CVT and it’s greater powerful. The BMW 340i packs a three.0 liter turbocharged I6 engine that makes 320 hp and 330 lb-ft of torque. Through evaluation, the Maxima’s certainly-aspirated three.five liter V6 makes simplest 300 hp and 261 lb-toes of torque. So the Bimmer is notably faster, getting from zero-60 mph in four.9 seconds, in comparison to the Maxima’s relatively lazy 6.zero seconds.

However, does that make it higher at the tune? It actually makes it quicker, as the BMW 340i turned into three full seconds faster than the Maxima on the Streets of Willow’s Massive Willow circuit. But, Vehicle claims that the BMW 340i made up most of its time at the straights and with its greater torque coming out of corners. Reputedly, the Maxima hangs right with it through corners and may deal with simply as well, with a few staffers claiming to have desired the Maxima.

That does seem tough to trust, as all of Nissan’s current merchandise, apart from the excellent GT-R, have the athleticism of a sloth. Perhaps the Maxima SR is reduced from the identical material the GT-R is. We’re not pronouncing that we doubt the oldsters at Automobile, it’s just that the idea of a current Nissan Maxima being as amusing to drive as the BMW 340i is something we’d pressure and feel to truly trust.

However, Car claims that the Maxima’s guidance feel is not best on par, However leading to the BMW 340i’s and that it turned into less complicated to toss around on a track. I should admit, the last contemporary Nissan product I drove had some of the worst steerage feel I’d ever encountered, main me to impeach if there has been something wrong with it. It felt as though the wheel wasn’t surely related to whatever, nearly as if steerage rack snapped in two. So it’s surprising to listen the Maxima putting out correct guidance feel.

2017 Nissan maxima 01 750×441

There were some regions wherein the BMW turned into still better. Its manual gearbox is far superior to the CVT within the Maxima. The Nissan’s continuously variable transmission was lazy and slow to respond, even in “manual mode”, making it difficult to force quickly at a few points. The Bimmer also had a good deal higher brakes, which helped it to the tune. The 340i also has the lots higher engine, as there are few engines of any type available on the market better than BMW’s B58 I6.

Average, Car found the Maxima to be proper up there with the BMW 340i, in phrases of sporty dynamics. which is sudden. Although, it’s also encouraging. A primary couple of Maxima generations has been simply quite a laugh to force and had been exceptional overall performance values. But Nissan has regarded to have lost its way in latest years in dramatic fashion, becoming every other vanilla economic system logo. So it’d be great to peer the well-known Jap brand to start placing out a few well correct using vehicles. Hopefully, that is a trend that keeps.

The Race To Primary

Does your coronary heart get speedy and furious with the smell of NOS? Do your palms get sweaty with the notion of lifted Jeep rock crawling? Perhaps you are the subtle kind and like the push of a smooth trip in a new 2007 Lincoln Metropolis car.

Regardless of which institution of those you may fall into, you can sleep smooth understanding you are not the simplest one. Humans love their automobiles and vehicles. Fortuitously for us that do, there may be no scarcity on Television suggests websites and cheap magazines devoted to the problem.

Sure, I did say magazines, as in print magazines. The print isn’t pretty useless yet and car magazines are nonetheless very famous. Bookstores frequently stock complete racks with a variety of various magazines all with one of a kind special topics.

In accordance to research the top 5 promoting automotive magazines By way of subscription are:

automobile and Driver – This Mag is for Automobile fans interested by domestic and imported vehicles. Every problem carries street checks and functions on performance, sports activities, global coverage of avenue race, inventory and championship car occasions, technical reports, personalities, and products. road tests are conducted with electronic gadget Through engineers and journalists and the results are a vital a part of the Magazine’s evaluation segment.

street & music – This Mag is written for car enthusiasts and emphasizes motors and driving mixed with huge-ranging feature stories, enjoyment and occasion coverage. Its street exams run the gamut of home and imported sports activities automobiles and sports activities sedans. Moreover, it capabilities technical articles on car topics, nostalgic characteristic articles, humor and fiction and evaluation of enterprise trends in conjunction with travel stories, e-book critiques, and coverage of global racing activities.

Motor fashion – Motor fashion Mag is an automotive guide committed to home and foreign automobiles with an emphasis on performance, contrast checks, interviews, race insurance, new vehicle previews and technical capabilities, collectively with articles on the issues affecting the auto in society.

Autoweek – For the automobile and truck enthusiast who just can’t wait to learn the trendy vehicle information. This Mag capabilities memory on the most modern fashions, product Takes a look at critiques, enterprise developments, and automobile racing reports. It is also spotlight stories on thrilling Humans within the auto enterprise. The Magazine additionally includes a big classified phase selling automobiles and elements.

Warm Rod – This Mag is oriented to high overall performance and personalized automobiles and the sport of Warm-rodding. It covers overall performance information, trends, technologies and automobile occasions. It showcases a ramification of various vehicles from custom constructed street machines to restored muscle motors. In addition, articles provide insight into the human aspect of the game. Searching for this listing, you may see the variety within the challenge depend simply on motors by myself. Regardless of what your choice of experience is, a lifted pickup to an old Pontiac GTO, you can discover a Mag overlaying it. Magsforless gives a diverse preference of Mag subscriptions to select from.

Joel Simkhai has posted several articles on a huge variety of topics associated with Mag journalism. He’s currently the owner of MagsForLess – a business enterprise that provides reasonably-priced magazines and focuses on customer satisfaction.

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