Whatcha Been Playing?

[Sinclair Gregstrum]

Gears Of War 4 (XO)

Playing through this in online co-op on Hardcore difficulty and really enjoying it! A long time since I’ve played a Gears game so yes gameplay-wise it’s not exactly doing anything revolutionary, but it’s such a rock solid experience that I can more than forgive its relative familiarity. I’m not sure how popular this opinion is amongst Gears fans, but I’m actually finding this new trio plus old-man-Phoenix far more fun to spend time with than the previous gang who were either pretty po-faced or simply not funny when trying to be. Annoyingly my buddy has now gone on holiday for 2 weeks so an August completion it will have to be. How dare he have a life…

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch)

Probably the best Mario Kart ever, and certainly the best looking. Wow this game is pretty. It has all the great and not so great things we know and love/hate about Mario Kart so you’ll already know if it’s your bag or not. My only criticism would be the new 200cc mode. It’s just too quick for MK’s gameplay and feels like it’s been tacked on just because they can do it thanks to the Switch’s extra horse power. The karts travel too fast around courses that simply weren’t designed for those speeds and all nuance in the gameplay is lost amid a blur of lurid insanity. Or maybe I’m just crap at it….which is entirely possible.

Forza Horizon 3 (XO)

Love this game! Such a complete package with so much content you could be bombing around Oz for months. The location itself is really the star of the show, offering such a diverse landscape of different terrain to race through. Plus with such a comprehensive roster of vehicles at your disposal there’s so much variety on offer that every play session is a new adventure. Oh and it’s absolutely stunning to look at and silky smooth to play. Horizon 3 definitely marks the moment this spin-off series becomes the main event vs Motorsport for me.

[mikeleddy83]

A game I'm in no hurry to finish (as I'm limiting myself to one credit runs) but currently playing is Snow Bros. I was the first arcade PCB I bought, and is perhaps the reason I travel down this dark path of tracking down old arcade games. I will die a very broke, though happy, man.

Great game, still have great memories of playing that as a kid in a Spanish arcade for a substantial amount of time considering the small quanitity of pesatas on hand. Oddly never played it since (in fact only just realised there were home ports) yet it still holds a special spot in the memory banks.

[Suits]

I've been playing Overcooked on the Switch, with the wife , it's quality and great fun.

Will be even better with more people round and a few drinks !!

Great party game I feel and very addictive Co-Op game.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch)

Probably the best Mario Kart ever, and certainly the best looking. Wow this game is pretty. It has all the great and not so great things we know and love/hate about Mario Kart so you’ll already know if it’s your bag or not. My only criticism would be the new 200cc mode. It’s just too quick for MK’s gameplay and feels like it’s been tacked on just because they can do it thanks to the Switch’s extra horse power. The karts travel too fast around courses that simply weren’t designed for those speeds and all nuance in the gameplay is lost amid a blur of lurid insanity. Or maybe I’m just crap at it….which is entirely possible.

200cc mode was in the Wii U version too mate, it's just unlocked from the start on the Switch.

Yeah, it's hard but it's got its place I think. Generally I think I prefer 150cc for online and general multiplayer but the 200cc is a great challenge and yes, as it even states in the menu screen description - breaking is essential !!

[ratsoalbion]

200cc wasn't originally in the WU version, it was added as part of a free update.

The Switch 200cc game feels far more controllable than the WU equivalent to me for some reason though.

[Sinclair Gregstrum]

200cc wasn't originally in the WU version, it was added as part of a free update.

The Switch 200cc game feels far more controllable than the WU equivalent to me for some reason though.

So I was kind of half right-ish! Knew it wasn't in the Wii U version originally but didn't know it had been added at a later date. Maybe it's frame rate that makes it feel better on Switch?

I wish I enjoyed it more as a mode because I love fast racers (big Wipeout fan, so speed isn't an issue for me), it just feels out of place and slightly out of step with the core gameplay. Still, as long as others are finding value in it I'm sure it's here to stay!

[KSubzero1000]

I've been slowly but surely solving my way through The Witness over the past few days. I think I'm about half / two-thirds of the way through now?

Overall, I'm very positively surprised. I totally dig the artstyle and the minimalistic design. The way the mechanics are introduced without a single tutorial is really ingenious.

But it's weird how the game can make one feel really smart one minute and like a complete moron the next, isn't it? And looking around on the internet, it seems like everybody's just getting stuck in different places. Interesting how people's brains work!

[kintaris]

I was having a pretty bad day today, and feeling irritable. Yoshi's Wooly World in co-op with my wife cured all ills immediately. Such a lovely game. The new Yoshi on the Switch may well be the game that compels me to buy the console.

[ratsoalbion]

Good choice!

[Suits]

I was having a pretty bad day today, and feeling irritable. Yoshi's Wooly World in co-op with my wife cured all ills immediately. Such a lovely game. The new Yoshi on the Switch may well be the game that compels me to buy the console.

I honestly adore YWW on the Wii U.

The look the feel, the sound and the way the games challenge scales after you've completed it was a great fit for me.

Going back through the worlds and collecting everything soon became my wind down regime as I got in from work.

As it goes, my wife enjoyed it too, not so much playing it but watching me play it and enjoying the aesthetic of it. Guessing what the Yoshi would look like too became fun.

One of the best looking games, I think I've ever seen.

And yes, I did a little wee while watching E3 this year when the new Yoshi was shown, I doubt it'll be as impactful for me as YWW but it was one of my best announcements of this years show.

[Alex79]

People, you have to check out Buffalo Bison: Launcha Libre on Android and iOS. It's brilliant!

It's a free to play endless runner (in which you launch a Mexican wrestler at endless streams of gummy bears), and seems incredibly unfair and dull for about five minutes but keep playing and you gradually work out tactics and unlock more and more stuff to help you progress. Just when you think you've seen all the game has to offer it keeps giving more. More powerups, more modes, more ways to score. I've been playing it non stop for about two weeks and still not bored of it.

Haven't spent a penny but would have happily paid a tenner on Vita with trophy support for this. Just give it a try and stick with it for at least 20 minutes and I think you'll be hooked! Don't be put off by the low scores on your first few runs. My last run was over 12 million coins.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... on3.google

[kintaris]

People, you have to check out Buffalo Bison: Launcha Libre on Android and iOS. It's brilliant!

Well, that's my life ruined. Sank an hour into this already

12 million coins!? I can't get through the second cake wall yet...

I am enjoying it though. And I expect to see it on console at some point. If they can justify Baseball Riot/Tennis in the Face then they can justify this.

[Alex79]

Have you unlocked any new wrestlers yet? It just keeps getting better and better! Top tip - you get one free pinata every so many minutes. Watch the video and they give you three to open. Mine are upgraded to the point I get about 6 million coins from them!

[Scrustle]

Been playing Splatoon 2 lately, because of course I have. Absolutely loving it. I'm not entirely sold on some of the changes they've made compared to the first game, but others are great. They mostly make a subtle difference, but it makes for an overall more interesting and more competitive game I think. One thing I've been really liking is how you can jump through several ranks at a time in the Ranked modes if you're good enough. I've skipped through lots of ranks to get to A- in Rainmaker, and B mid in Splat Zones already. Not exactly loving Tower Control though. I have yet to win a single game on that mode. I always preferred the other modes anyway.

Today I also started Wolfenstein: The New Order. This has been one I've been wanting to get around to for a while. Not gotten far yet, but I'm already pretty impressed. The feel of shooting is amazing, and they do a fantastic job of making you really hate the Nazis. The game manages to hit this really odd but very well executed balance between pulpy cartoonishness, but also a kind of grounded, sympathetic feel. The Nazis are deliciously evil, but at the same time they still feel like a serious threat, and they really make you feel for the people they oppress and such. I suppose I'm not really saying anything new with that, but I like to also think of it in relation to The Darkness, since that's a game I love which has some of the same developer DNA. That also manages to strike that balance at making something cartoonishly evil, yet grounded and compelling, so I would expect no less from these developers.

Also been playing The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine. I've been enjoying it, but so far I don't think I like it as much as others seem too. It's visually stunning, and it's cool to go to a location that's so different from the rest of the game. But at the same time, I think that's kind of a weakness. What made the base game so great was that is had a bleak and complex world to it. It was full of characters that had multiple layers, flaws, and varied morality. Everyone who has played the game is familiar with that. The Red Baron quest line and such. I think Hearts of Stone also did that very well, with its character study of Olgierd. Here though, it's more traditional fairytale fantasy stuff. So far I haven't really come across any morally ambiguous characters. Not that they're bad characters, but none that you can really sink your teeth in to like you can in the original game. I get the feeling that might show up with deeper exploration in to Detlaff's character, but I feel like the story isn't really focusing on him in that way. Regis seems like a cool character, but he doesn't seem particularly conflicted.

[Alex79]

Talking of The Witcher I've put about 14 hours in so far. It's so good. Been in Velen for a little while and was sailing around exploring and came across this island. I was drawn to it because of a tower, well, towering above everything else I could see.

Spoiler: show

I sailed over and had a look around. It was HORRIBLE! Scary whispers, weird glowing areas that looked all ghostly and the more I climbed the tower the creepier it got until I reached the top and found all these people cages where they'd been doing experiments or something. I took up almost an hour of time, and I could have sailed straight past It!

[KSubzero1000]

Is this your first time playing through The Witcher 3, Alex?

[Scrustle]

Talking of The Witcher I've put about 14 hours in so far. It's so good. Been in Velen for a little while and was sailing around exploring and came across this island. I was drawn to it because of a tower, well, towering above everything else I could see.

That place is actually part of one of the bigger sidequest lines in the game. Some good stuff there. Try following the quests involving Keira Metz if you want to find out more about that place. If you haven't come across her yet, she shows up in the main quest line, so don't worry about missing her.

[Todinho]

So I got the Shovel Knight ich so I went and started up the new campaign, Specter of torment! It's a prequel starring my favorite boss Specter Knight, like plague of Shadows the biggest change is the movement, specter knight is kinda of slow and doesnt jump that high or far but he can wall run for a while and you can also slash through enemies and landmarks in other to do plataforming, it's a bit dificullt to explain without showing footage but once you start to play it's easy to understand.

This campaign structure is more like mega man where you can chose any stage at the start and unlike plague of shadows the levels here seem to be almost entirelly reworked to fit Specter Knights abilities you can even grind on rails and stuff, on the difficulty Im finding it harder then the base game but easier then Plague of shadows also I dont know if I ever said this about Shovel Knight but especially here the spritework is incredible, the game is going for the 8-bit look but it's gorgeous at times. I have to give big ups to yatch club they are the mark every kickstarter should aim to be they not only delivered on the main game but with this,plague of shadows and the upcoming King Knight campaign they essentially made 4 games and it makes fiascos like Mighty number 9 and Broken Age look even worse by comparison that they raised so much more money and yet failed to deliver even the basic.

[kintaris]

Also been playing The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine. I've been enjoying it, but so far I don't think I like it as much as others seem too. It's visually stunning, and it's cool to go to a location that's so different from the rest of the game. But at the same time, I think that's kind of a weakness. What made the base game so great was that is had a bleak and complex world to it. It was full of characters that had multiple layers, flaws, and varied morality. Everyone who has played the game is familiar with that. The Red Baron quest line and such. I think Hearts of Stone also did that very well, with its character study of Olgierd. Here though, it's more traditional fairytale fantasy stuff. So far I haven't really come across any morally ambiguous characters. Not that they're bad characters, but none that you can really sink your teeth in to like you can in the original game. I get the feeling that might show up with deeper exploration in to Detlaff's character, but I feel like the story isn't really focusing on him in that way. Regis seems like a cool character, but he doesn't seem particularly conflicted.

It's interesting, because a lot of the elements that put you off Blood and Wine are the reasons I prefer it! I like the bright opulence and the fairytale elements. I'll save further thoughts for the podcast thread, but it's worth noting that there's a lot of fan service going on with Blood & Wine too for fans of the books, both in terms of the characters employed (audible gasp from me when Regis appeared) and the tonal shift. I'll be interested to hear how you feel at the end of the story.

[dezm0nd]

I've gone from 0 games to 3 games!

Halo Wars (with the sequel in waiting)
Splatoon 2 (perfect for drop in and out sessions)
Fortnite (A serious commitment, this one. Gonna take it so and steady)

But the main thing is I'm enjoying them a lot! Should keep me going until Mario & Rabbids at the end of August.

[Craig]

Picked up Kamiko and beat it in under an hour - which sounds bad but it was a really nice little experience and cheap enough. Great soundtrack.

Never found use for the charge shot, but hey ho. Going to try a different character - started with the sword!