Whatcha Been Playing?

[macstat]

I'm also dabbling in different games at the same time, but im struggling to get really hooked in one.

Im playing Mad Max (a little bit over the half), Gat out of hell (30%), Ori (still around 50%) and a little bit of LEGO pirates of the Caribbean with my niece.

[Flabyo]

All I seem to be doing at the moment is playing a couple of hours of Halo 5 multiplayer every night. Not feeling inspired to play anything else at the moment.

I still have Life is Strange, Her Story and Wolfenstein: The Old Blood to play, but none take my fancy right now.

I'm liking what I'm seeing of 'Pony Island' on Steam, that might be the next thing I try.

[Alex79]

I just started Assassins Creed III: Liberation on the Vita last night. I love my Vita, it's the console I play on most of all, but it's usually smaller indie type games - which I love - but I fancied blasting through something a little more 'blockbuster' so grabbed this in the Jan sale for a fiver. Only an hour in but it seems ok so far. I'm not expecting much to be honest, I really like the older games in the AC series but 3 is where it started getting a bit boring for me, but this looks very pretty on the Vita screen, and as long as the game isn't too lengthy I think I'll have fun playing through it. There don't seem to be any concessions for handheld ether, it's all there, a full Assassins Creed experience in the palm of your hand.

[MagicianArcana]

A friend got me a Steam gift card for Christmas. So I got Kentucky Route Zero and I've been playing that for the past few days. It's one of the most atmospheric games I've ever played. The eerie and mysterious atmosphere really pulls me in. So far it's a really great experience.

[gallo_pinto]

I've been playing Super Meat Boy and Nuclear Throne on my Vita this past week and those are two games that go great together. I had heard about Nuclear Throne on Early Access, but this is my first experience with it and it's been really fun so far. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to beat it, but for now it's super fun.

And speaking of games I'm not sure if I'll be able to beat, I'm really enjoying Super Meat Boy. It turns out that everyone who talked about it being an addictive, expertly-crafted, really hard platformer were right! I've beaten all of the light world levels and I've almost beaten Cotton Alley. I just looked up what you need to do to get the "true" ending and I can't decide if I want to go for it or not. But for now it's my podcast game and it is great!

[Beck]

I love the idea of a podcast game, I've tried to listen to a podcast and game at the same time but I suck at multitasking haha.

I'm very nearly finished my second playthrough of Persona 4, to be honest it has dragged for the last 5-10 hours, the combat is really dull by the final dungeons. I still really enjoye the story and I rate it highly, it's a little long but well worth experencing

[gallo_pinto]

I love the idea of a podcast game, I've tried to listen to a podcast and game at the same time but I suck at multitasking haha.

I'm very nearly finished my second playthrough of Persona 4, to be honest it has dragged for the last 5-10 hours, the combat is really dull by the final dungeons. I still really enjoye the story and I rate it highly, it's a little long but well worth experencing

Haha, but Persona 4 is the perfect podcast game! The music, style and voice acting are all so good, but things get repetitive in hour 70 of dungeon crawling and I found podcasting helped with those parts. Then when I got back to social links and story beats, I'd unplug my headphones and go back to the Persona 4 audio.

[KissMammal]

I've been dipping in and out of Yoshi's Island (SNES) for the last year or so, and really ploughed through it over Christmas (I'm probably 80% complete).

I've got to admit this game never really appealed to me before - I always found something about it a bit off-putting. In terms of gameplay it feels very distinct from Super Mario World - there's a lot less emphasis of navigating hazards (you're essentially invincible) and a lot more emphasis on exploration, puzzle solving and backtracking. At the time I found it all overly-complex, and the new elements really interrupted the kinetic, tightrope-walking flow of typical Mario gameplay, and I also thought that the egg-throwing mechanic and floaty jump were fiddly and further slowed down the pace. I didn't like how I could actually get stuck in a level and not know how to progress (almost unthinkable for a Mario game).

Strange as it seems, I actually thought it looked quite ugly and overcooked back then*, with all the stretchy, weird mode 7 effects, pastel colours and chunky pixels. I also disliked the lack of a proper over-world map. I now realise how wrong I was - it's a fantastically sumptous, inventive and envelope-pushing visual feast.

I think it finally started to click with me when I started thinking of it as less a sequel to SMW (which it really isn't imo) and more of a proto-Super Mario 64, or at least a missing link between those two games. Needless to say, I think its absolutely wonderful now and finally understand all the praise it gets.

It's so odd that unlike SMW it hasn't really had that many rereleases. Is there some legal issue as to why the Super FX games never seem to get much love from Nintendo? *drools at prospect of HD, 60fps remake of SNES Starfox*

*I also thought Donkey Kong Country looked amazing by comparison, which I think is a real 90s-overload eyesore now!

[Alex79]

I always listen to podcasts if I'm grinding in an RPG or grinding the depths rats for humanity in Dark Souls or something. I'd spend hours doing it

[Craig]

I think it finally started to click with me when I started thinking of it as less a sequel to SMW (which it really isn't imo) and more of a proto-Super Mario 64, or at least a missing link between those two games. Needless to say, I think its absolutely wonderful now and finally understand all the praise it gets.

If you look at the names in Japanese it seems pretty clear that this was intended to be a spin off rather than proper sequel to Super Mario World. Mario Bros. 1-3 are the same (with the western Mario 2 being Super Mario USA) but then Super Mario World was subtitled "Super Mario Bros. 4".

Later in the west, yoshi's island was subtitled as super Mario world 2, but it was simply "Yoshi's island" in the Japanese release. It really is its own kind of thing with a focus on exploration more than the regular Mario games.

[ratsoalbion]

This is true, and I think (hope) we covered it even though we did decide to include YI in our Super Mario World podcast.

[KissMammal]

Yeah, I remember thinking that the 'SMW2' subtitle seemed a bit tacked-on even back when the game came out.

[Craig]

I love that the GBA port could be written as "Super Mario Advance 4; Super Mario World 2; Yoshi's Island."

[gallo_pinto]

I've been playing Super Time Force Ultra on my Vita. I think it's really funny and the concept seems really interesting. But something about it isn't clicking with me. I've put about two hours into it and it feels like I'm not playing it the right way. I wish there was either a longer tutorial or a better way to ramp you into the harder challenges because I really want to like this game, but I'm feeling myself bouncing off of it.

[Todinho]

I've been playing Super Time Force Ultra on my Vita. I think it's really funny and the concept seems really interesting. But something about it isn't clicking with me. I've put about two hours into it and it feels like I'm not playing it the right way. I wish there was either a longer tutorial or a better way to ramp you into the harder challenges because I really want to like this game, but I'm feeling myself bouncing off of it.

Same thing happened to me,it's really a weird game to wrap your head around it plays like metal slug but it's more of a puzzle game actually,if you havent already I recommend doing the puzzle challenges in the ship/hub,they dont have the pressure of the main levels and ramp up in difficulty slowly so you can wrap your head around all of the mechanics,other then that I say give it a little more time you`re not gonna ace the levels the first time through but that`s part of the game with time your head will adapt and you`ll start doing better.

[gallo_pinto]

Same thing happened to me,it's really a weird game to wrap your head around it plays like metal slug but it's more of a puzzle game actually,if you havent already I recommend doing the puzzle challenges in the ship/hub,they dont have the pressure of the main levels and ramp up in difficulty slowly so you can wrap your head around all of the mechanics,other then that I say give it a little more time you`re not gonna ace the levels the first time through but that`s part of the game with time your head will adapt and you`ll start doing better.

Ok, cool. I'll check out those puzzle challenges and see if that helps. I was reading online for some basic strategies and I'll give it another shot using some of those. Thanks!

[Flabyo]

Started playing 'Oxenfree' last night. Extremely impressed, it's pretty much the exact kind game I enjoy.

The basic setup is pretty cliche; 'group of teenagers partying on an island alone at night and strange things happen', but the similarities with slasher movies ends there. This is more a creeping dread, mind warping, kind of horror. It's genuinely unsettling, especially in it's use of audio (learning from Silent Hill that radio static is a great plot enabler, only taking it further by... actually, I won't spoil what it does with the radio)

There are five main characters, three girls and two dudes. You play as one of the girls, and initially you don't know what connections these people have with each other beyond the superficial (and they're definitely not all friends with each other), but... truths will out. There's a cheevo for getting everyone to outright hate each other, but at the moment I'm trying my best to keep everyone on side. It's not easy, they have some deep seated issues to work through.

I haven't finished yet, I'm about 4 hours in and it felt like it was winding up but then 'stuff happened' and now I'm not sure. There's still room for it to drop the ball of course, there always is with this kind of plotting, but I'm really liking it so far.

I doubt anyone else here was part of the Perplex City ARG back in the day, but the art style and general creeping vibe of this reminds me a LOT of some of the live events they did in that ARG. That sense of wrongness combined with the conflicting urge to find the truth yet get as far away as possible.

[fieldy]

Just finishing up on The Last of Us Remastered and the Left Behind DLC - Just as amazing as I remeber it being on the PS3 a few years ago. The DLC which I was new to filled the story gap nicely, even better was the section set before the main story with Ellie and Riley

[RobC]

I've been having fun with two PSN games this past week.

Amplitude was a bit of an impulse purchase, I've never been the best at rhythm action games but I find this one quite forgiving as (if I understand correctly?) it's completely binary whether you hit notes or not, there's no poor/ok/perfect etc. I'm not overly keen on the music though which is a shame, some of it I actively dislike. It has though got me completely excited for Thumper again which is much more up my alley musically ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfOwkFvumuk).

Also picked up the banner saga which is enjoyable so far but I have a a few niggles. The controls are really quirky on consoles, and it doesn't really explain somethings well, I bailed on a few battles after characters dies only to find out they just were debuffed if they die in battle.

[dezm0nd]

I've started playing Rainbow Six Siege. Oooh I love a bit of Rainbow Six, me.