Whatcha Been Playing?

[Suits]

Two attempts I made last night on the Robot Factory on Time Splitters 2.

This is the penultimate level, so I'll be back at it tonight.

Done it .

Managed to beat the robot factory on my first try (as it always goes when you're stuck on something) last night.

Then moved onto the final level and beat that after a few tries.

Got myself a nice new pink banner now on the home screen !!!

I also tweeted David Doak, saying that I really enjoyed going back through it and that it holds up really well - He kindly responded and said that he worked with some really talented people on it and that he just watched in awe .

Couldn't really guarantee Stephen Ellis so had to leave him off .

It's does hold up so well, with some really fun and clever designs that always feel fresh and engaging.

[stvnorman]

It's does hold up so well, with some really fun and clever designs that always feel fresh and engaging.

Nice work! Got this ordered and can’t wait to try it!

Doom 64 seems to be going on forever, but in a good way! 25 levels in and far more head-scratching and backtracking than I expected, but equally full of bonkers big scraps with huge guns! Great stuff.

Really thrilled with Perils of Willy finally being ported to the ZX Spectrum! And it’s perfect. This was my favourite VIC-20 game, and currently sits at number 17 in my top games of all time list. The port is a lovingly crafted recreation and it feels as good now as it did in 1984, meaning a tough as nails lesson in vintage platforming that I can’t stop playing all over again!

Also on the Spectrum, got to the end of Star Wars curio Death Star Interceptor for the first time ever, and have been enjoying a couple of cool old racers, Road Race by Ocean, given away with Your Sinclair in 1987, and Super Trux, which is Out Run in a lorry!

Started April PS+ offering Dirt 2.0. Do enjoy a rally game and it seems excellent! And more Demon’s Tilt, plus 65 hours into Animal Crossing and counting...

[DomsBeard]

Resident Evil 3

Continues to amaze and infuriate in equal measures, so much so I'm going to have to restart the game.

Had probably one of my favourite sections in Resident Evil ever with Carlos however the end again is a test of patience where you're placed in a horde situation where it's pure luck to get through, they've even introduced these little battery points to help you cheese it through. Playing it on hardcore and cannot dial it down. It's probably 50% git gud but all the playthroughs I've found have all been mouse and keyboard so it's probably my aiming.

[DomsBeard]

Final Fantasy VII Remake

Absolute joy, up to Chapter 3 and full on fun and giving me the feels already. Soundtrack already superb

[dezm0nd]

I've found a new satisfaction in animal crossing and that's redesigning my whole island.

Creating walls which flow onto bridges and having forests nearby etc is something which has captured my imagination. Its gonna take ages to be exactly how I want it to be but that's the point, right?

But all this comes at a cost so my hunt for bells has gotten more urgent.

Turnip day tomorrow!

[Flabyo]

I’m on the ff7 remake as well, and I’m finding myself stopping constantly to just pan the camera around and take in the view. I’m not even on the PS4 pro and the visuals are (mostly) gobsmacking.

As I said on Twitter when I posted a screenshot, this is how it always looked in my head.

(As for the ‘mostly’, there are a few odd extremely low res textures about the place, but that’s actually the kind of thing you probably patch at some point).

It also sounds right too, the music arrangements are great so far (and they’re approaching Crisis Core’s music already, which I consider the highest bar of Ff7 music arrangements), and I think all the voice acting choices so far have been pretty solid.

[OldBailey]

Still playing Doom Eternal. Man this game is good. Finished the campaign on Nightmare, going straight back in for an extra life mode playthrough in preparation for attempting an Ultra Nightmare run (One life, permadeath).

Also cleared the two master levels on Nightmare last night. Easily the most fun I've had with this game, they really push the combat system to it's limits. Really hope we see more of these soon. If you've finished the campaign, don't skip these!

[Stanshall]

FF7R for me, too, and I absolutely adore it so far. No spoilers to follow and I won't be discussing it really until I've finished.

I expected almost nothing of it beyond seeing some old locales in a current-gen engine but it's superb. Tonally, it's very similar to the original, goofy and earnest in a way that's no doubt off-putting to some but spot on for me. The music is outrageously good. I had worried it would all be quite bombastic orchestration but it's so much more than that.

I won't give any details of stuff I've enjoyed til I'm done butterflies I'm really enjoying it a lot. My favourite AAA game since RDR2, I'd say.

[Magical_Isopod]

I've been playing FF7R and... I just don't really like this one. It feels like a cheap imitation of the real thing. It's not a *bad* game by any means, but it's very different from the original. And more specifically... It's a lot dumber, and a lot louder.

In order to pad out the run time and justify cutting a relatively short JRPG - 30 hours is not bad compared to the excessive bloat of games like Persona 5 - into multiple full-priced games, they've added all kinds of fanfiction-tier new segments. There's a loud jackass original character with a mullet doing impossible flips on a motorcycle. There's MMO fetch quests. There's needless elaboration on minor characters. There's throwaway lines from the original dragged out into full scenes. There's hours-long new story beats that are neither interesting, nor necessary. There's new SpOoKy GhOsTs that are meant to represent a previously-unseen force from the original. Because apparently every subtle thing has to be blown up into a bombastic action setpiece now.

There's also all kinds of new "comedy" writing that is so painfully unfunny it made me want to shut the game off. The original had its funny moments, but there was a snappy wit to it. In FF7R, there are several "FAT MAN LIKE FOOD" jokes, and three-stooges bandits that can't say words good. Really juvenile nonsense.

There's two ways I can think to describe FF7R, and neither is "a remake worthy of the original's pedigree." It's either Final Fantasy 7 oversimplified into a Kingdom Hearts world, or a Yakuza game developed by teenaged fans. I am really unhappy with the way this game turned out, because they've turned a smart, spiritual, contemplative game into mindless shounen anime nonsense.

And on top of that... It sure looks like an Unreal Engine game. Lots of dull colours, lots of janky textures and pop-in, lots of character models and assets that look so low-res they could be from another console generation entirely.

It does have its occasional good moments - though those are exclusively found in homage to the original. The Turks are great. Aeris is still the best girl. The combat is fun (although weirdly sparse?).

But yeah. All in all, this one's a massive disappointment for me. It feels more Advent Children than FF7, and I genuinely feel like nobody who worked on this game really understood what made the original a masterpiece. It's well-made, sure, but it so drastically changes the tone, gameplay style, and visual direction that it's more of a total reimagining than a remake. It takes a few core elements from the original and jettisons the rest in favour of original content. And that's not what I wanted.

[Magical_Isopod]

Still playing Doom Eternal. Man this game is good. Finished the campaign on Nightmare, going straight back in for an extra life mode playthrough in preparation for attempting an Ultra Nightmare run (One life, permadeath).

Also cleared the two master levels on Nightmare last night. Easily the most fun I've had with this game, they really push the combat system to it's limits. Really hope we see more of these soon. If you've finished the campaign, don't skip these!

You are a special breed, I had a tough time finishing it on Hurt Me Plenty. I needed the Sentinel Armor for the last couple of major story boss fights. I can definitely see the appeal, because these modern DOOM games are amazing for encouraging you to get a little better each time. But anyone who can beat this game with permadeath enabled... Whew, master gamer.

[OldBailey]

...anyone who can beat this game with permadeath enabled... Whew, master gamer.

I'm not quite there yet! Back half of the game is fine once you have access to the full toolset but those first few levels before you get the super shotgun are the real challenge. That grappling hook really is a get out of jail free card, especially once you have the flame hook upgrade. Determined to do it though, I WILL BE MASTER GAMER!!!

[KSubzero1000]

I struggled a bit on UV (although to be fair, I did play with a controller which is certainly a sub-optimal input method for this type of game), and... yeah. Hats off to you and anybody else who can pull off Ultra Nightmare, because that's not happening for me any time soon.

Just out of curiosity, are you doing the Slayer Gates on your UN playthrough or is the eventual reward not worth the risk in your eyes?

[OldBailey]

Aside from a couple I know I can do without risk, no. The reward is cool but you're much better off saving ammo for the BFG, it's a great last resort panic button (and for immediately eliminating Arch-Viles before you get the crucible) and much more useful for the final boss too. If you go in with 2 bullets, there's 3 more to collect in the arena and each one will destroy a body part in a single shot; essential for clearing the first round quickly. The second stage is much easier, far more room to breathe.

The weapon points you get from the gates are nice to have but I only really use one upgrade path for each weapon aside from the minigun anyway.

I definitely wouldn't be attempting this using a controller. I've played a little with it and can do well enough but it's significantly easier on pc if you're proficient with a mouse and keyboard.

[Suits]

So years ago, I picked up a very lovely (brand new) version of 007 Goldeneye on the Wii.

It was the big box version that came with the gold Pro-Controller.

With the times being as they are, I've started to turn towards things I've meant to play and just not got around too.



So for the first four hours or so, I played with the Pro-Controller and it was fun, nice to pick up and play and do the levels.

Its taking me about 45 minutes to do a level, so it's nice to jump in, do a level and jump out again - it's well paced.

However, I was chatting to Sean Thomas on Twitter and he explained to me that the control scheme for the Wii Mote and Nunchuck was sort of broken on launch and players had come up with a much better control scheme messing with the settings in options.

Thankfully there's a pretty competent configuration suite, letting you alter vertical and horizontal dead zones, as well as turning boundaries, speed and lots of other settings that are hard to appreciate unless you can feel effect.

So I spent some time configuring what was described as a great starting point for players to fine tune the controls and I was swept away with how much better it was.

It's turned it into a much more engaging shooter with crouching, creeping around corners, leaning and shooting.

I instantly started using this as my control scheme and haven't looked back.

I'm about 7 levels in now and enjoying it very much.

It's not ground breaking but it's fun, especially with the Wii Mote and Nunchuck aim control scheme.

[Cass]

I have Temtem, Outward and Outer Wilds, all new, all fresh, all waiting to be enjoyed.

So of course I'm replaying Bioshock 1. That's still a very good game!

Now that my weekends are basically entirely homebound with very little interruption, I have also been playing a frankly unhealthy amount of Stellaris. Not that I'm sure there's a healthy amount of Stellaris to play. Not sure how much I should praise Stellaris - it's been out for four years and it only now feels like it's "done", the difficulty curve for getting into it is astronomical, and I've been playing the same save for a week and I'm only into the midgame. Still having fun though!

[ColinAlonso]

I spoiled myself on Friday morning and got Animal Crossing and Civ 6 on Switch. I knew I'd get hooked on one and right now its AC. Its only day 3 so it doesn't feel like its opened up yet but I have got a nice colourful Easter egg archway in front of my front door.

I haven't started this turnip business yet.

I'm also playing the second part of the Spider-Man DLC, Turf Wars. The main missions are good but the sidequests for this DLC are bases (meh) and challenges (ugh)

[Scrustle]

Been playing Fable Anniversary recently. I'm playing on the PC version this time, and it's a big improvement over the 360 version. Even though it's still not great on a technical level, the extra power does let it iron out a lot of the problems to make it a much smoother experience, with some tweaking anyway. So thanks to that I'm actually enjoying it. It still has a charming tone to it that I really like, with a sort of dark fairy tale feel. It balances that whimsy and darkness well, and it still stands the test of time better than I feared it might.

[KSubzero1000]

Looove the first Fable.

Been meaning to revisit it for a while, actually. One of my few classics that somehow slipped out of the rotation.

[Stanshall]

Aside from FF7R (and BotW and Taiko no Tatsujin and Groove Coaster and Hatsune Miku Project DIVA Mega Mix and Rez Infinite and GT Sport and Death Stranding and Nier: Automata and Forza Horizon 4) I'm playing the Panzer Dragoon remake on the Switch, and really enjoying it. I've barely touched any of the original games and I heard this had shoddy controls at launch, but after a couple of patches and updated positive impressions, I decided to take a punt and it's really good fun. I'm not big on rail shooters but I like the rotation and the world and enemy design and the controls feel pretty snappy me. Music is great. I'll definitely go back to the others now.

[andthenweplay]

I started replaying Astral Chain and Kirby Star Allies. Astral Chain is my favourite Platinum game. The side quests are weird but the moment to moment gameplay is masterful.

And as for Kirby Star Allies, it is a perfect pick me up game. To be honest I have not really stopped playing since I bought it. I have always come back to the game off and on