Whatcha Been Playing?

[Truk_Kurt]

I love that show but I can't remember ever liking a game they rave about. Their GOTYs are almost always games I can't bear, almost amusing now.

Yeah I know what you mean, I really liked Deaths Door when that won it but the only one I've fully agreed with was Breath of the Wild.

[ratsoalbion]

I love Luigi's Mansion 3.

But if you didn't like it, definitely don't bother with 2.

[Jobobonobo]

I thought I finished Kirby's Dreamland 2 but turns out I need seven Rainbow Drops. No clue I needed to obtain anything special to get the true ending. Might as well try and get them but heard they were pretty tricky to find. Actually housebound because of COVID so will most likely just check out a walkthrough. I just want to fight Dark Matter dammit!

On World 6 of Crash 4 and even though it is challenging, thankfully not enough to make me stop playing. Last level had me chasing Cortex with me riding on Polar the bear cub. Nice to see that cute little fella back! Also the pirate world has pirate enemies that are mostly consist of various sea creatures. My particular favourite is the moray eel pirate that lunges its "neck" out at you. Some very fun character designs in this game.

Also tried out Bangai-O Spirits for the DS. Have not played a Treasure game in a while and this is just as bonkers as their usual fare. Basic concept is simple: you are a mecha and you need to fly around an area blasting enemies away. The move set is wide and varied and the amount of destruction you can cause can make the DS slow to a crawl but in a way that is oddly satisfying and not in the "oh, it's just unplayable" way. You can launch a hundred missiles at once and decimate all around you and collecting fruit from your vanquished foes tops up your missiles allowing you to fight off the next barrage of enemy fire. Chaining these attacks together to clear the screen is so much fun to pull off. Game can also be hard as hell as well but in a way that you want to keep on playing to learn from your mistakes. Perfect game for short bouts of play on the go.

[Rhaegyr]

Adore Bangai-O Spirits - think it actually may be my favourite DS game.

[shadowless_kick]

I... don't like Metroid Prime.
to be fair, playing it on a smaller Switch Lite screen probably isn't doing it any favors, but after beating Dread twice (my first full Metroid game), I think I prefer this series in only two dimensions.

am I still allowed to be a member here?

[MattL]

Update on my progress in Returnal (PS5): I just beat Act 1 and my jaw was on the floor...

Spoiler: show

So Selene contacts Astra to escape Atropos, lives out the rest of her natural life and dies of old age on Earth, and then comes back to life again on Atropos! From a "this is all a video game" perspective, I knew I wasn't done with the game, but from a narrative perspective I was stunned. She lived probably 40 or 50 years thinking she was free from Atropos, only to get pulled back. So she's trapped in this loop no matter where she is or why she dies. Imagine how that would feel.

[Will Marley]

Update on my progress in Returnal (PS5): I just beat Act 1 and my jaw was on the floor...

Spoiler: show

So Selene contacts Astra to escape Atropos, lives out the rest of her natural life and dies of old age on Earth, and then comes back to life again on Atropos! From a "this is all a video game" perspective, I knew I wasn't done with the game, but from a narrative perspective I was stunned. She lived probably 40 or 50 years thinking she was free from Atropos, only to get pulled back. So she's trapped in this loop no matter where she is or why she dies. Imagine how that would feel.

And please keep going.

Chapter 4 spoiler:

Spoiler: show

The music swell as you approach the boss and then the actual boss fight is probably my favourite segment of this generation so far. I get oddly choked up just thinking about it. So intense, overwhelming and beautiful.

[Truk_Kurt]

Playing Hi Fi Rush and very much enjoying it. I have now ended up skipping the cut scenes but the real highlight is the combat anyway which is a delight. One minor complaint I have though is that there are some combat arenas where it will present you with only shielded enemies which require you to call in that dude who smashes through their shields before you can damage them yourself. Not massively a fan of this as it removes any flow from the combat as you simply have to run around whilst you wait for the guys energy to replenish before he can be summoned again. It just seems at odds with the combat in the rest of the game which is all about flow and rhythm but whenever this happens it is slowed right down to a crawl. It's not so bad if there are other non shielded enemies at the same time you can attack whilst the shield destroyer guy does his thing.

[Alex79]

Yeah I skipped all the cut scenes in that game too, found they got really irritating and happened too often to break up the gameplay. I know what you mean about the shield enemies, I found the parrying even more annoying though, it was just luck if you managed to parry first time on most enemies as you have no idea when they're going to attack unless you've fought them before.

[MattL]

And please keep going.

Chapter 4 spoiler:

Spoiler: show

The music swell as you approach the boss and then the actual boss fight is probably my favourite segment of this generation so far. I get oddly choked up just thinking about it. So intense, overwhelming and beautiful.

So, Chapter 4 and 5 are way more difficult than Chapters 1 through 3. Any advice? I've played a bunch of the Tower of Sisyphus to help unlock some weapon traits, but even with additional traits, I only really feel like I'm able to use the Hollow Seeker, Pylon Driver, and Thermo Launcher if it has Full Auto. Otherwise, everything else feels way underpowered or too slow. Any suggestions?

[Will Marley]

And please keep going.

Chapter 4 spoiler:

Spoiler: show

The music swell as you approach the boss and then the actual boss fight is probably my favourite segment of this generation so far. I get oddly choked up just thinking about it. So intense, overwhelming and beautiful.

So, Chapter 4 and 5 are way more difficult than Chapters 1 through 3. Any advice? I've played a bunch of the Tower of Sisyphus to help unlock some weapon traits, but even with additional traits, I only really feel like I'm able to use the Hollow Seeker, Pylon Driver, and Thermo Launcher if it has Full Auto. Otherwise, everything else feels way underpowered or too slow. Any suggestions?

I can't remember the name of either the weapon or the perk (helpful start) but the assault rifle (carbine?) has a perk which refills your health for damage dealt. That got me through. I feel like redownloading it now. Amazing game.

[Magical_Isopod]

Been working lots of OT this week, but I have put some time into Mega Man X Command Mission and Cruis'n Blast.

Command Mission is a surprisingly well-designed JRPG, and while the story is not overly exceptional, the Mega Man setting does a lot of heavy lifting here, pulling weight an original IP most certainly could not. Extremely well-designed battle system too!

Cruis'n is just a really good game to kick back on the couch with and hammer out a few tour cups. The realistic car physics are a major draw, and the devotion to realism in all aspects is a strong selling point. The triceratops physics are a standout.

[MattL]

I can't remember the name of either the weapon or the perk (helpful start) but the assault rifle (carbine?) has a perk which refills your health for damage dealt. That got me through. I feel like redownloading it now. Amazing game.

Carbine with Leech Rounds. I tried it a bunch. Leech rounds are nice, but the Carbine's damage output feels underpowered to me. It's a trade off between (a) a longer fight, meaning I get hit more, but I have a chance to recover some of my damage or (b) a shorter fight, meaning I get hit less, thus health recovery is not as imperative. So Leech Carbine worked okay in Chapters 1 through 3, where enemy damage was not as bad, but in Chapters 4 and 5, a single hit can be 40% to 80% of my health bar and Leech doesn't recover enough health fast enough to make up the difference.

[Will Marley]

I can't remember the name of either the weapon or the perk (helpful start) but the assault rifle (carbine?) has a perk which refills your health for damage dealt. That got me through. I feel like redownloading it now. Amazing game.

Carbine with Leech Rounds. I tried it a bunch. Leech rounds are nice, but the Carbine's damage output feels underpowered to me. It's a trade off between (a) a longer fight, meaning I get hit more, but I have a chance to recover some of my damage or (b) a shorter fight, meaning I get hit less, thus health recovery is not as imperative. So Leech Carbine worked okay in Chapters 1 through 3, where enemy damage was not as bad, but in Chapters 4 and 5, a single hit can be 40% to 80% of my health bar and Leech doesn't recover enough health fast enough to make up the difference.

That's it. I seem to recall that once you get your adrenaline up, it's like hoovering health back up. You're right, though, that avoiding damage is absolutely key. Ch. 5 was probably the hardest in the game. Those teleporting pricks. It's well worth pushing through, though, if you can. Ch. 6 is magnificent, potentially my favourite in the whole game. The enemies, areas and gameplay tweaks are such a buzz.

[CormoranStrike]

I have been playing

Resident Evil 4 remake - I was really enjoying this, despite putting it on a too high difficulty. Until I got to one stupid puzzle that I can't solve (maybe I'm stupid) and its ground my progress to a halt. Very annoying.

Dead Space remake - I'd started this and got about half way, then gave up at a difficulty spike. I watched a really good stream of it and got motivated enough to go back to it. Lot of fun.

Mario Galaxy - replaying it after seeing the Mario movie. The game is a lot better.

[Alex79]

Mario Galaxy - replaying it after seeing the Mario movie. The game is a lot better.

Keep meaning to go back to this. I was really enjoying it on Switch until I got to a stage that was impossible to do with the Hori Split Pad because it forced you to use the gyro on the joycons, and it pissed me off that they'd not made allowances for players not using joycons.

[Alex79]

Quake on Switch. Picked this up recently in a sale for about £3. I've only ever played Quake 2 before on the PS1, but this is an amazing package, especially for such a low price. I was also delighted by the fact gyro aiming still works when using my Hori Split Pad in handheld, which does not have gyro. It must be using the gyro in the screen itself which begs the question, why don't the likes of Zelda and Mario support this too instead of locking all the gyro use to the joycons.

[CormoranStrike]

Mario Galaxy - replaying it after seeing the Mario movie. The game is a lot better.

Keep meaning to go back to this. I was really enjoying it on Switch until I got to a stage that was impossible to do with the Hori Split Pad because it forced you to use the gyro on the joycons, and it pissed me off that they'd not made allowances for players not using joycons.

You're right, it's annoying playing it with the pro controller for similar reasons.

[SludgeWizard]

Somebody recently got me Elden Ring for my birthday.
Hot take, but this game is pretty good so far.

[Alex79]

I'm enjoying being back in Skyrim, but I'm still very early game (not even been up to meet the monk people at the top of the mountain yet) and did a quest that's been added in the Anniversary Edition of the game. It rewarded me with a bow so overpowered it will ruin most of the first half of the game. Not sure why games do this, it's bizarre. At least hold off until I'm a much higher level. But now I'm going to load a save and not do that quest because I hate it when you are too overpowered, it takes any fun away.