Whatcha Been Playing?

[Stanshall]

I picked up a cheap XB1S in some great deal (including two free physical games which I'll trade in unopened and half the price of the console) so I've been playing my first ever Forza game, FH3.

Goodness me, this is quite something. I'm blown away by the rumble on the triggers. Even little things like the gear shifts, you can feel through the pad and the transition from sand to gravel to tarmac is insane. I didn't realise. This is much much more impressive than HD Rumble on the Switch.

It's also the best looking game I've ever played, it's basically Drive Club but open world, which feels better, looks better and sounds better. I loved Drive Club a lot, almost got the Platinum (only some MP trophies left) but this is a significant step up.

[Suits]

I picked up a cheap XB1S in some great deal (including two free physical games which I'll trade in unopened and half the price of the console) so I've been playing my first ever Forza game, FH3.

Goodness me, this is quite something. I'm blown away by the rumble on the triggers. Even little things like the gear shifts, you can feel through the pad and the transition from sand to gravel to tarmac is insane. I didn't realise. This is much much more impressive than HD Rumble on the Switch.

It's also the best looking game I've ever played, it's basically Drive Club but open world, which feels better, looks better and sounds better. I loved Drive Club a lot, almost got the Platinum (only some MP trophies left) but this is a significant step up.

It's can be hard to respect how impressive the Forza games really are if you play the new one every year.

I'm sure coming to any of these games for the first can be quite an experience.

I'm more of a motorsport fan myself, than the Horizon games, although I do admire them.

Having put in about 10 laps of the Nurburgring myself, in my own car - Forza (Project Cars close 2nd) still offers the closest representation to how truely mental that circuit actually is.

[Stanshall]

It's pretty amazing. I always most enjoyed GTA as an open world driving sim, and it can function that way but I never played Burnout or The Crew or anything else like that, so this is not just my first Forza but my first proper open world driving game. It's pretty mad, to be honest. I'm so used to being reset on the track that the first few times I literally went off road, I kept waiting for the reset to kick in, before I realised, holy shit, I'm just going to bomb it across this rainforest/beach/caravan site.

Dramatic stuff.

[Flabyo]

I'm one of those that prefer the open world, slightly more arcadey, 'festival' feel of Horizon to the more clinical, precise, circuit racing Motorsport, but the fact they do both means that whichever style you prefer they have a game for it.

[Alex79]

I must admit Forza is the only Xbox exclusive that I wish I could play - if I ever do pick up a cheap XB1 down the line, it'll be pretty much just for that. Depends how the next Gran Turismo turns out I suppose.

[seansthomas]

Made ARMS and Thumper my first two Switch purchases. Add in DKCTF which I'm still playing and, man... that's a challenging bunch of games.

[Chopper]

I was away from home for over a week so have been reduced to this on the laptop:

[ratsoalbion]

Ah, I find myself thinking of Level 9 adventures every now and then. Red Moon, Worm in Paradise, Scapeghost. Dripping with atmosphere.

[Combine Hunter]

Struggling to motivate myself to play any of my unfinished games, but REALLY enjoying re-playing Wolfenstein: The New Order. Starting to realise how much I love everything about this game. The sound design and music really work well together to give the game a sense of rhythm. It's not a soundtrack I'd listen to on its own, but it's very effective in context. Plus, it feels like a proper PC shooter. I can imagine for some, it controlling a bit like Half-Life 2 10 years on was a negative, but for me it's perfect. It's easily among my favourite shooters.

[stvnorman]

I have been sucked right back into No Man's Sky again though!

How is it now?

Sorry Alex, been mostly offline the last couple of days! I've still made no attempt at getting to the centre of the galaxy, but there's an awful lot more to it now. Base building and everything that opens up offers a lot of linear goals that encourage much more local(ish) exploration and interaction with other species - find this to build this to mine this, and so on. New vehicles have been added too, which take away a lot of the slow planetary grinding. There seems to be an end to each of these different goal arcs as I've reached the end of one of them, but with all the open world stuff going on at the same time, I'm probably still many hours away from starting on the original game's journey. Definitely worth a return visit.

Other than No Man's Sky, I finished Wolfenstein: The Old Blood. The last hour or so is loads of fun! Also gone back to Star Wars Battlefront - the Death Star DLC is great, but I still end up in the 40 player Hoth level before long every time. Up to date on PS+'games, which correctly implies I wasn't really into any of them over the last couple of months; no complaints, just nothing for me. But what that does mean is that I've finally got room to install Doom, and as soon as the medieval internet connection works it's way through the 30Gb update I'll be right onto that!

[nickturner13]

I’ve been playing a lot of Player Unknowns Battlegrounds on Steam the past few weeks, with various mates.

It’s ok as a single-player game but really comes to the fore when there’s a team of you on voice chat.

Presume you’ve all heard of it by now as it’s really taken off but if not, basically 100 people get dropped from a plane onto an island and then it’s a fight to the death, you grab whatever weapons and armour you can as the map slowly shrinks, forcing you all to a random point on the map each game.

Last person alive wins.

So many nice little touches in there, as you’re up against other players… do you hide in a room, close the door, and wait? Or run around all guns blazing, which will probably draw attention to yourself? Or try and grab a vehicle and run people over?

Great game!

[Alex79]

I've heard about it loads but never really knew anything about it - sounds great! Are there other game modes too? Is it everyone v everyone or do people team up and stuff? It sounds genuinely fascinating.

[Flabyo]

It has solo play, teams of 2 and teams of 4 as game modes.

It's actually one of the few games where I don't think I'd enjoy playing it much myself, but where it's really fun to watch other people play it on twitch.

[Chopper]

Ah, I find myself thinking of Level 9 adventures every now and then. Red Moon, Worm in Paradise, Scapeghost. Dripping with atmosphere.

It's surprising how atmospheric they can be; I don't know if it is the short and sweet writing, or the nostalgia kicking in.

Some of the graphics made me laugh too - this is a very economical picture of the Police Station:

Spoiler: show

[Alex79]

I have been sucked right back into No Man's Sky again though!

How is it now?

...stuff about No Mans Sky...

Cool thanks, I hear there's another update incoming soon involving portals which sounds good, so I'll definitely be diving back in. Just as soon as I've finished GTA. And Fallout 4. And Until Dawn. And....etc. >_<

[Flabyo]

Something I've not really seen anyone say about Horizon Zero Dawn is that it's not a 'save anywhere' game, you have to find a save point (although there are checkpoints in missions too).

Normally that kind of save system, especially in an open world game, doesn't work. But here it does, mainly because there's loads of them and they're not that far apart.

But the interesting thing is that it adds a completely different cadence to the way I play it versus, say, a skyrim or a fallout. Everything in this game feels like it has a definite 'end', even the times I'm just interacting with the sim. I.e., hunt a bunch of mech animals, heal up, find a save point. It puts a full stop on each thing I do, and that makes it much easier to say 'ok, I've done some of this today, I can stop cause this is a good point to do so'.

With free form saving I tend to only stop after completing something major, like a full story mission. My session length is much longer than it is here.

Probably just me, but it felt interesting enough to mention.

[Joshihatsumitsu]

I'm going to spin it, and say that I'm on a hiatus from playing Metal Gear: Ghost Babel (GBC). I get the feeling I'm going to have to replay an earlier mission in order to get a particular item, to make it a little more possible to finish a later mission, which has been annoying me. Kinda not in the mood for doing that.

And at 72 hours in, Persona 5 is the place I'd rather be. Even though I haven't finished the game yet, I can easily say: if you've played and loved previous entries, this is a no-brainer - you've probably already got it. And if previous Persona's were not your cup of tea, this probably won't do anything for you.

I am very much in the loving it column.

[Chopper]

I was on what I thought was the final chapter of Deus Ex Human Revolution, but of course it's the Director's Cut, and they have integrated a 4-6 hour piece of DLC into the middle of the game as an extra level, rather than accessible from a separate menu. Bit of a shock to the system. The level itself is fine, probably an excellent piece of DLC, though it does have a slight 'obstacle course' feel. Enough to make me look it up and find out it was originally DLC.

The game's pacing has been great overall, and it hasn't overstayed its welcome for a 30-hr stealth game, but I was just approaching the point where I was ready for it to end.

[ThirdDrawing]

A lot of people have been talking about FMV games lately, so I dug out my copy of Psychic Detective for the PS1.

It's *really* bad, but in a fun way. But the lead girl is really distracting because all I can think of her as is the President of Earth from Babylon 5.

[Flabyo]

There's a re-release of Night Trap on the way. Do not be fooled by nostalgia, that game was, is, and always will be awful.