Whatcha Been Playing?

[Jon Cheetham]

Very excited to sneak it up in Tamriel now, haha. I always end up as a master of all trades smashulon, looks like I have been missing out!

[Scrustle]

I've heard so much about how the sneaky archer is supposed to break Skyrim/TES so much, but honestly when I tried it I didn't like it at all. Sure you can get some crazy damage multipliers, but it's a very unfun way to play. It's so slow creeping around trying not to get seen, and just picking off enemies that can't get close to you most of the time. Waiting for them to give up searching for you between every arrow shot. I always find a melee character is much more engaging to play, and it's not like they ever felt like they were underpowered or anything.

[Stanshall]

I really love how Skyrim's systems basically allow you to crack it wide open. I mean, it's insane when I look back at how long I spent crafting daggers and tanning hides or whatever and enchanting rings but it was also a hell of a lot of fun to create some ludicrous gear which would blow enemies across the map. And that mechanical stuff isn't even in the top ten reasons it's one of my favourite games ever.

[Suits]

The most fun play through I’ve had was an all Mage not blade build.

No armour, no weapons (a dagger is absolute it) just full on Mage.

Very enjoyable. Highly recommended.

[Mr Ixolite]

Currently playing Wandersong.
This game is impossibly charming, and a nice pick-me-up at the end of a rough day, or after consuming less wholesome entertainment; I will go from murdering demons in Onimusha or watching the fever dream that is the Cool World movie to changing the colors of flowers with the power of song, and I love it.

[Combine Hunter]

Been playing Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions on my Vita. Had to do a full restart, as I had accidentally engineered a no win scenario for the last battle of chapter 1 and my rolling saves weren't going to change why. I was unaware that the enemies level with Ramza, and the rest of my army wasn't keeping pace. Started again, but used this knowledge to my advantage by having a small team and keeping Ramza's level down, and now I'm deep into chapter 2 and adoring it. I loved the job system in 5, but the game overall didn't stay with me. This is that system, applied to a game I'm enjoying much more overall.

[Jon Cheetham]

I would love to see how doing a playstyle-focused playthrough would recontextualise the places in Skyrim and Morrowind I am so familiar with. Oblivion I have only played for a few hours and honestly it is a good excuse to back to it as I'm all about stealth and assassin games at the moment.

Speaking of which, Thief II: The Metal Age

This game absolutely rules. It has basically the same controls and mechanics as Thief Gold, but with more of a focus on break-ins and looting than the previous game's monsters and supernatural elements.

I have just mainlined the first third of the game, and every one of these missions has an ingenious conceit that informs the play. I'm clearing a safe path through a ritzy estate so that my contact can run in and save his fiancee who has been imprisoned inside, I'm casing a shipping district and the win condition is that Garrett steals enough loot to be able to pay the rent, then I'm breaking into a city guard station building to find a way to frame the sheriff who is giving me grief. The latter mission fails if you kill or KO more than five guards, as the frame won't stick, and having this mission early really forced me to pick up my pace of play, dashing from shadow to shadow rather than slowly knocking everyone out. Very very good.

Playing on Steam and had to mod it using Tafferpatcher, as it was too dark to see anything in the first level and the gamma slider wasn't working. Also installed a subtitles mod as there is an eavesdropping objective in the fifth mission where you have to listen for the location of the key you need, and it is randomised every time. Really clever stuff but the audio is way too low, at least on my copy.

[Jobobonobo]

I think I was in the minority that wasn’t disappointed which is why it took me so long to mess with it, though I was given it as a gift knowing it had been bought in a period when it went very cheap. There was enough on there I adored and enough I’d never played but wanted to to make it worthwhile for me.

As I’ve delved a bit deeper into trying stuff from other systems, N64 is the only place where I’m having some difficulty. Some things work fine “out of the box” but both Mario Kart and Mario 64 aren’t taking directional inputs from the PS Classic controller. I’ve not spent that much time experimenting yet but I’ve seen a video of someone remapping the controls for Goldeneye so I know it’s possible. I’ve also been looking into an adapter from 8BitDo that seems to allow you to connect any wireless controller, so I think with a combination of both you can probably set up something that does a decent job.

For the time being I’m pretty happy spending my time elsewhere on it, specifically Destruction Derby 2!

Due to life being crazy busy lately, this is the first time in ages since I logged on here so I missed that you answered me!
That wireless adaptor might do the trick alright, get a Dualshock 4 connected and job is a good one! Wonder how old FPS like Goldeneye fare? Remembered it worked out fairly well when Perfect Dark was remade for Xbox 360. Also stuff like Ape Escape will be possible to play as well if you get the N64 stuff sorted. Those control sticks really were an industry changer, eh? Hope emulation is working out a bit better for you now, this will be a pretty great gaming machine when all the kinks are ironed out.

[Jobobonobo]

Other than Yakuza Kiwami, I checked out the demo for the Final Fantasy VII remake. Wow, this has turned out nicer than I was expecting. While it was expected that the visuals and music were going to be gorgeous (the music especially had a great base to work from) but I was pleasantly surprised by the voice acting. Cloud and Barret pretty much sound like I was expecting them to sound like so pretty chuffed with that. The more active battle system is quite fun but I really missed the classic jingle when you level up. But my interest for this has definitely gone up considerably from what it was initially. Curious to see how this one ends up, guess we will know later this year. But overall, yeah, I dug it.

[Alex79]

Ellis, age 4, is currently (as like many kids up and down the country) Sonic mad, despite having never played one of the games. He wanted to play one so I looked on PS Now and there are loads. They're all shite but that wouldn't bother him. He started playing one and said 'dad, I can't control him properly. He's not moving properly', at which point I had to try to explain input lag on streaming games...

[DomsBeard]

Ellis, age 4, is currently (as like many kids up and down the country) Sonic mad, despite having never played one of the games. He wanted to play one so I looked on PS Now and there are loads. They're all shite but that wouldn't bother him. He started playing one and said 'dad, I can't control him properly. He's not moving properly', at which point I had to try to explain input lag on streaming games...

Sonic 2 is good. My 3 year old cleared Green Hill Zone on his own. Mania is a bit too difficult

[Alex79]

Oh I didn't notice that one, he ended up playing Sonic Unleashed. I've got 1 and 2 on the Megadrive collection, thinking about it.

[FemalePheromones]

Jedi: Fallen Order.

I'm not sure if it's just me but I'm really struggling to feel pulled in by it.

[dezm0nd]

Not all Sonic games are rubbish. Basically the 2d ones are good and generations and forces are above average

[Flabyo]

If they’re sonic mad, maybe try one of the karting games by Sumo? They have an easy mode that’s pretty forgiving. (I adore Racing Transformed, admittedly mostly for the music remixes of classic SEGA tunes)

[Alex79]

Not all Sonic games are rubbish. Basically the 2d ones are good and generations and forces are above average

Hmm... I can't say I'm a fan of even the 2D ones to be honest.

That's a good idea, Flabyo. Forgot about those, I even own Transformed on a couple of different systems.

[chase210]

I have been playing....

Spider-Man Edge of Time - bad. Clunky, looks bad, plays bad.
Ratchet & Clank Crack in Time - amazing. My favourite game in one of my favourite game series.
God of War (2005) - the PS3 remaster. Still very fun. Jarring though, since the actual game has been remastered, but the cinematic cutscenes haven't.

[dezm0nd]

Jedi: Fallen Order.

I'm not sure if it's just me but I'm really struggling to feel pulled in by it.

Yeah I was the same. Up and down all the way to the end

[FemalePheromones]

Yeah I was the same. Up and down all the way to the end

Honestly I'm not sure I will even make it to the end. Especially with Ori releasing this week, then Doom Eternal releasing a couple of weeks later and then RE3 releasing a couple of weeks after that.

I've got a feeling Jedi: Fallen Order will be sitting on the back burner for a while.

[dezm0nd]

Its got a real good finale if you like star wars stuff but if the franchise isn't enough to (force) pull you through it then yeah, I can see other games taking over quite easily.