Whatcha Been Playing?

[ColinAlonso]

I'm looking forward to starting Live a Live once I'm finished with Danganronpa. I love the fact it's neatly chunked up into different character chapters. Some games you can play for hours and not feel like you've made much 'progress' at all.

I take it you're enjoying it?

I am somewhat. There are less surprises for me though since I played a fan translation 15-20 years ago so that this is basically a replay takes a wee bit of the sheen off it. Changing scenario every 1-3 hours is nice and some characters have their own unique quirks. It holds up better than I thought. Bit too easy mind.

Nice contrast after my last JRPG last year, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, though.

[dezm0nd]

Got a slew of games on the go already this year...

Dead Space Remake is great. Starts off slow (just like the original) but once the combat starts flowing with 4 weapons in your arsenal the game really starts to flourish.

The open world nature to the ship lends itself to something echoing the RE2 police station and the visuals are incredible now they've turned the VRS off. I thought the Series S was failing me but it turns out the game was a little bit under performing from a tech side. Phew.

Also playing Hi Fi Rush on the side and I'm enjoying it. Not much to say other than the visuals are absolutely staggering and I'm waiting for what ever Prodigy tune they've used for the boss encounter. Keeping it a secret for a surprise.

And I'm getting into Age of Empires 2 again thanks to the Xbox version. I've not played it since the original release and I don't remember it being so dense with information and story.... but as 14 year olds we just set up comp stomps LAN parties and had a blast.

Even hanging about with a Scotsman at the time, it didn't matter the story seemed to be about Scotland battering England with William Wallace.

[See Mi Yah]

I'd been playing DayZ on PC but after much stop/starting over the years, across multiple formats, I've now fully and finally decided never to play it again. There's just too much toxicity around the 'scene'. Yes, there's some beautiful stories to be told about benevolent strangers and random acts of kindness, but the underlying sadism and cruelty is almost ever present, especially if you're stupid or brave enough to enter the main servers.

I came across a YouTube video from one of the scene's most popular streamers and the degree of humiliation and cruelty he was inflicting on new players was disgusting, quite frankly. And yes, I know it's not real and nobody got hurt. But bullying is bullying and it can take many forms and take place in various forums, real or virtual.

So yeah, DayZ, a truly one-of-a-kind experience and still the standardbearer for unique PvP encounters both glorious and despicable.

[Alex79]

...And yes, I know it's not real and nobody got hurt. But bullying is bullying and it can take many forms and take place in various forums, real or virtual.

That's the thing; it is real. I sometimes stop my younger two from playing Fortnite because their friend group (mostly from school) can be really unkind and they've been in tears on more than one occasion because people are ganging up on them or kicking them from a group. Don't get me wrong, they're just as guilty, but if I hear them being nasty to or about people then I tell them to stop, and if they don't stop they have to stop playing for a while, and I'm not sure other parents are necessarily exercising much supervision over what the kids are doing.

[See Mi Yah]

Fortnite is something of a wolf in sheep's clothing. I see it with my niece and nephew all the time. My brother is actually very responsible in terms of age appropriate content so GTA and anything overtly violent or military-like is off limits. But Fortnite slides right under the radar because of how the game looks and all the branded duvet covers and plushies and other cultural paraphernalia that scream out "this is for children". So I have to remind him about toxicity and bullying and everything else that can happen inside that world.

[See Mi Yah]

And you're quite right. It is real. And I said nobody gets hurt when I should have said nobody gets physically hurt. The emotional damage is as real as it gets.

[See Mi Yah]

I'm coming close to flogging a dead horse but I have to highlight a specific instance of cruelty that I witnessed on a DayZ video on YouTube.

Two people ganged up on a solo player who was quite clearly new to the game and who was speaking in broken English. They tortured him, basically. And he was pleading for his life over the mic and because of the nature of the game and the struggle of learning it and making progress, he really did not want to have his character die. So the pleas were real and borne of something quite 'tangible' inside this world - progress. The combination of the obvious power and skill imbalance, the language barrier and the fact the solo player sounded quite vulnerable in his personal demeanour was sickening.

And from all of that you might think this was some grubby video uploaded raw and direct. No, this is a well produced and well edited video by a very prominent, very articulate and, frankly, 'normal sounding' DayZ streamer and watched by tens of thousands of people.

And it's such a shame (for me, at least) because when DayZ is good it is so damn good. It's a hardcore survival game set it in a bleak, violent world. Violence and mistrust are baked into the experience. Seeing a player's silhouette approaching and the potential for either cooperation or a short burst of aggression is white knuckle stuff. It puts you in an post-apocalyptic world better than any game I've ever played and violence and death is central to it and it's as valid an exploration of those impulses as anything else.

But this is videogames and gamers be gamers. So real world ugliness is brought into the fold and somehow this bleak, zombie-infested wasteland feels more like Twitter than Dawn of the Dead.

[MattL]

So I just started Soulstice on PS5. I received it as an Xmas gift from a family member (who may or may not lurk here) who said it was a Souls-like, which he and I both love. I had never heard of Soulstice before that day, but I'm always willing to try a new Souls-like, so I was really quite happy. So I finally started it up this week. It's not a Souls-like. It's a character action game, like DMC/Ninja Gaiden/Bayonetta, so I'm guessing my family member was mislead by the title as to the game's genre. But since it was a gift, I tried to press on and I got through a few chapters. It was fine, but I just realized, I wasn't having fun. It's not the game. It's me.

I just don't enjoy character action games.

I find memorizing combos to be overly taxing for me. I normally learn two to three combos and stick with those and, thus, I hate getting C and D scores because I didn't use all 287 different combo strings from all 13 weapon types in a single encounter. Oh, sorry. I found something that worked for me and used it complete the fight. Pardon me, game.

I find the amount of enemies and particle effects on screen to mess with my eyes, such that I can't see what's going on in the battle. So me in a character action game basically consists of a short 4 - 6 hit combo on an enemy, followed by a dodge, and then repeat until finished. Mind you, I'm not dodging because I'm intentionally moving out of the way of an attack. I'm dodging because I know something somewhere is getting ready to strike and I know I'll never be able to see it coming to thoughtfully dodge at the right time because of all the garbage on screen.

This genre is just not for me. And if my family member who gave me the game does lurk here, I appreciate the thought. It's just not what you or I thought it was.

[Alex79]

I knocked Divinity Original Sin 2 down one difficulty level, and oh my god this game is good. I can't even really describe what I love about it so much, it's just everything. The sense of the world it's created, the writing and the characters who feel like real people. The consequences for your actions, the multiple solutions to quests, it's just amazing. I think the best thing I can say is when I'm playing it, I'm there. I'm not thinking about anything else, I'm in that world. It feels like a real place, and I'm exploring it. I'm about 15 hours in and only just escaped Fort Joy, but pretty much rinsed everything I could from that stage, and I bet there's stuff I've missed. Incredible game.

[See Mi Yah]

I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 (Early Access) and if Larian can stick the landing they may even eclipse what they achieved with Original Sin 2. There's improvements in combat including a shake up of the move order and other system-level changes, but going beyond those things what's impressed me most is the sheer AAA feel of it (and I mean that in the best possible light). Particularly the character animations and the way conversations play out face to face like more conventional RPGs. The whole thing feels bigger and, frankly, strikes me as a more inviting hook for those new to the genre. Original Sin 2 perfected a formula and in doing so rewrote the core rulebook for CRPGs. But if lightning strikes twice then Baldur's Gate 3 could turn the genre inside out and upside down. Apologies for the hyperbole but I'm simply loving what I'm seeing so far.

[Caligulas Horse]

I bought the Mr X DLC for Streets of Rage 4 and was pleasantly surprised to find they'd added a survival mode. I obviously didn't pay attention to the trailer I watched, as I was expecting only a few extra stages. I'd have been happy with that but a whole new mode is even better. Survival brawler makes for a good fit. It's easy to end up sinking a few hours into it. I like experimenting with different combinations of power-up. I'm finding it's probably better to stick with a few and boost them whenever you can over gaining a greater variety. Also, getting the buddy up to boss level is a huge help for some of the tougher tag team bosses.

The addition of alternative moves is cool, too. I usually prefer the originals, but that's down to my being used to them and already having some combos built around them.

I feel similar about the new characters: nobody is really challenging Axel/Blaze for my favs, but it is a good laugh to spam Max's slide move.

[Jobobonobo]

Finished the main game of BOXBOY! and are now onto the bonus levels. These are considerably harder to get through. Will see how I get on during the next few playthroughs. Nice little game to play if you are bored for a bit.

Also started up Metroid: Zero Mission. I bounced off Metroid: Samus Returns pretty hard so I am pleased to report that I am bloody loving this. It looks and sounds amazing and you just get into the swing of things super quick. Power-ups get discovered at a nice constant rate that you are constantly rewarded and the light-bulb feeling of "Oh, THAT is how I get past that obstacle!" hits particularly hard here. The little indicator of where you need to go next is a welcome addition. You will not spend ages faffing around getting lost but you are also not told directly how to get there. Figuring that out is up to you. It simultaneously respects your time and intelligence. It has been a while since I played a Nintendo title* and has made me appreciate just how incredibly polished they can be. Great so far, definitely sticking with this one!

*Mainstream Nintendo series I mean, BOXBOY and the Starfy game I played earlier this year are both Nintendo published.

[Magical_Isopod]

I played an hour or so of Hi-Fi Rush, and honestly... I'm not really a fan. I see that it's a well-made game, and I'm glad it's a showcase of how single player games with no tacked on monetization can still kick ass and do really well.

But it's a game where the music is centre stage... And I kinda hate the music. The indie rock OST is incredibly grating and annoying to me. I have seen people compare this game to Jet Set Radio, but that game had far more variety in its music - even if some tracks were similarly irritating.

If you LIKE indie rock that hearkens back to the early 00s, you will probably love Hi-Fi Rush, and I recommend it. But as someone who DOES NOT like that kind of music, I could not get on with it.

[Seph]

I'm currently working my way through Little Nightmares 2. I just finished the school area, so I have no idea how far I am through. I'm not sure if I prefer it to the first, as that game was surprising and the world more grotesque. But there might be twists waiting in store for me, which is what I want from a game like this. I'm liking it so far.

I'm getting very strong Inside feelings from this one, which I didn't get in the first game. This isn't a bad thing, as Inside is one of the best games of its generation, but I feel like there are faults when a game design makes me think of another that I would rather be playing.

[Truk_Kurt]

Dead Space remake continues to astound me with it's brilliance. I'm honestly struggling to criticise any aspect of it, again I never played the original so don't know how it compares, but from what I've been told there is quite a lot of improvements, including huge changes to duff sections in the original. The end of chapter 6 was an incredible boss battle which will go down as one of my favourite ever. Maybe not in terms of the gameplay mechanics used to defeat the boss, but the sheer spectacle of it was incredible.

[FrittteShopClerk]

They seem to have updated Hitman 3 to include the entire trilogy so I'm starting from Paris and going through thre whole thing.

Mostly great but I'll have to get through Colorado at some point.

[Will Marley]

I'm playing the Metroid Prime remaster, and quite enjoying it. I don't think I ever did finish it when it was last released with the Wii controls but I played through 3 a couple of times and loved it.

All the praise is deserved for how they've updated it, both with the standardised twin-stick controls and the graphical tweaks. As for the game itself, it's still very atmospheric and even with the QoL changes, it feels distinctive to play. Stuff like the lock-on and the visors are pleasant anachronisms, when more games were defined by their control quirks.

If I have any particular criticism, it's perhaps an unfair one. The structural template is now so over-familiar - as well as the power-ups themselves - that it feels a bit...predictable. It's not just a familiarity with Metroid Prime itself, but the complete over-saturation of the form. By the time it moves through the gears and I get to the midgame, I expect that the quality and invention will shine through but for the moment, I'm just keen to get past the ponderous trappings of the genre.

[Alex79]

I bought the Mafia trilogy a while back and played through the first two games, and just started Mafia 3 tonight. I played it back around release on PS4 and thought it was a bit of a flawed gem, and really enjoyed it.

God knows what they've added to these remasters for current gen though because this is still 30fps and looks blurry as shit. I was also really disappointed with how the first game in the trilogy looked and that was a full on remake. It's very difficult to describe but 1 and 3 have a really irritating trail/noise coming off moving objects. It was worse in the first game, but the second game looked pretty decent, easily the best of the three to me.

[Magical_Isopod]

Played a bunch of random stuff this weekend, which is nice, because I have a bunch of new games for the sell pile now.

Blinx the Time Sweeper - Most certainly from the era of, "wacky =innovative", I found this game to be way too mechanically dense for what should be a 3D platformer. Not really sure why this one is beloved, aside from those pining for 3D platformer on Xbox.

R-Type Final 2 - I love this game to bits, but I'm going to have to shelve it for now... The XB1 VCR is really struggling to run this one at a reasonable level of performance, sadly. It's fine for the first 3 levels, despite some uneven frame pacing, but level 4 really amps up the enemy spam and particle effects, making the performance issues too severe for a game requiring fast reflexes. I intend to buy a Series X this year, so I'll wait til then.

Back 4 Blood - I picked up the Ultimate Edition of this one physical for $20, not knowing it was on Game Pass. So I'm gonna sell the physical copy. This game is pretty dead though... On a Sunday afternoon, with cross play enabled, I could not find a single player to join my match. Even Left 4 Dead 2, approaching 15 years old, has a fairly active user base. And overall, in the limited time I have had with Back 4 Blood, I find this is a game that is too dense in its own mechanics to be enjoyable. It wants to be a more complicated L4D, and it is... But the simplicity of L4D is what makes it so enjoyable and easy to pick up. Just lots of odd choices here.

I Am Alive - This is some aggressively gen 7 game design, good lord. I LOVE the premise - navigating a ruined city while foraging supplies and fending off the locals. In a lot of ways, The Last Of Us cribs heavily from this one. But while the climbing and navigation is fun, the combat is garbage. I was unable to get past the first encounter after multiple attempts, and that killed my interest right there.

Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs - I have been told this is an explicitly anticapitalist work, and I'm excited to see where it goes. I only played about 15 minutes before I was hungry and tired, but I'll try to knock this one off before Atomic Heart and Scars Above drop on the 21st and 28th respectively.

[Scrustle]

I bought the Mafia trilogy a while back and played through the first two games, and just started Mafia 3 tonight. I played it back around release on PS4 and thought it was a bit of a flawed gem, and really enjoyed it.

The Definitive Edition for Mafia 3 isn't actually a remaster. It's just a bundle with all the DLC that they put together for the trilogy release. That noise you're talking about sounds like temporal anti-aliasing artefacts. A lot of games that don't implement TAA very well suffer from that. I recall noticing something similar playing it myself. But the game has an intentionally soft look to it though, which I think fits with the period setting in that muggy New Orleans style city. But yeah, the game does have a bunch of visual glitches and roughness to it.

Blinx the Time Sweeper - Most certainly from the era of, "wacky =innovative", I found this game to be way too mechanically dense for what should be a 3D platformer. Not really sure why this one is beloved, aside from those pining for 3D platformer on Xbox.

I don't think that game was ever really genuinely beloved. The affection for it now seems to be more of an ironic joke steeped in nostalgia for a time when devs were still making weird games like that trying to stand out in a sea of similar competing mascot platformers.

Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs - I have been told this is an explicitly anticapitalist work, and I'm excited to see where it goes. I only played about 15 minutes before I was hungry and tired, but I'll try to knock this one off before Atomic Heart and Scars Above drop on the 21st and 28th respectively.

I really enjoyed that one myself. Less as a game but more as a thought experiment wrapped around a compelling narrative, with some really great worldbuilding and aesthetics to sell it. There's a really great video I saw about it that is definitely worth checking out. It does spoil the whole game, including the dramatic climax, but seeing it is what got me to actually play it in the first place. (vid link)