Whatcha Been Playing?

[Alex79]

Xenoblade Chronicles - on my third attempt to play this. I played around 15/20 hours on the Wii original and the same again on the Switch remaster last year. Just came back to my save and decided to start again. I really want to like this game but I just find it so confusing and complicated. It throws so much at you right at the start, gems, combat, crafting, tutorial after tutorial, it's really overwhelming. I'll try to stick with it this time! I do like the game, the combat is a lot of fun, they just throw way too much info at you to get your head around I think. Don't think I've ever got too far in the story because I have spent most the time grinding levels in previous tries!

[Truk_Kurt]

Started a new game which was released last week for the deluxe edition but tomorrow for standard called Classified France 44. It's published by Team17 and is an XCOM like set in WW2 in the run up to D-Day. I've been enjoying it a lot. It introduces some cool new systems like a morality system whereby every unit (both your units and the enemy) have a morale bar, just like a health bar which gets depleted when they get shot at or explosions near them. When this depletes to zero that unit becomes 'broken' for one turn which just means they can't do anything, even move, for one turn. I really like it because it means that even those shots with have a 0% chance of hitting have some kind of impact to proceedings.

Then there is the overwatch system which has a neat feature whereby once an enemy enters your overwatch cone, you can decide to shoot them or ignore them in favour of the next enemy that might come within range. It's good if there's 2 or more enemies you know will be going through your radius but you know one is nearly dead whereas the other is full health, or maybe one of them needs to be prioritised over the other if they're more dangerous.

The base camp isn't as deep as XCOM 2 or Warhammer Dameonhunters but there is more depth to it than something like Mario Rabbids or Gears Tactics. Each unit has a skill tree but the real depth comes from the map where you have choices of which regions to target and which factions to partner with. Each decision you make has ramifications for your preparation to D-Day which the game is counting down the days to.

My only real slight issue is that graphically the game isn't great, it looks like a PS3 game, especially when it does the up close action shots. It's current gen only which surprises me as I don't see why this wouldn't work on Switch and last gen.

Well worth checking out though if you like XCOM style games.

[Alex79]

I got a new Evercade cartridge in the post this morning, the Tanglewood/Xeno Crisis double pack. So instead of writing a risk assessment for court like I'm supposed to be doing I obviously had a little go...

Xeno Crisis is a fantastic top down twin stick shooter, developed for the Sega Megadrive (and that's the version we have here) which uses the face buttons to shoot. You might think it would be a bit fiddly but you soon get the hang of it. It's a brilliant little arcade shooter. Tough, too. I only reached level 3 on my first go, and I think there's a rogue-like aspect to the game with randomly generated layouts of the stages. You can upgrade weapons and armour etc. between levels with currency you've collected, and it looks and sounds gorgeous, especially on the smaller Evercade handheld screen.

Tanglewood is another genuine Megadrive game. A mascot platformer where you play as a fox who can run, jump and use special abilities. More emphasis is put on puzzle solving as although there are occasional enemies that harm you, you cannot kill them (or at least not so far, anyway) as there is no combat in the game. With a minimal soundtrack and some sound effects the game has a lot of atmosphere. The closest game I think it really comes to is Ecco The Dolphin for how it plays. It's fun so far, look forward to playing more.

I really love the Evercade. It's got such a variety of games. Double packs like this one, the fantastic Alwa's Awakening and Cathedral pack, the Demons of Asteborg and Astebros pack, plus heaps of cartridges from arcade classics like Pacman and other Namco games to more obscure European software houses like Gaelco with World Rally etc. Then still, more stuff with old Amiga classics like Another World and some old point and click adventures, C64 compilations, a Dizzy compilation, Sensible Soccer, Cannon Fodder etc. I went away to London for a few days recently and didn't even take my Switch, just the Evercade. It's a great little system, and cheap too with carts only being £17.99 for up to 10/15/20 games in some cases.

(I do not work for Evercade )

[Alex79]

Started a new game which was released last week for the deluxe edition but tomorrow for standard called Classified France 44. It's published by Team17 and is an XCOM like set in WW2 in the run up to D-Day.

This sounds great! I'm in!

[Truk_Kurt]

Started a new game which was released last week for the deluxe edition but tomorrow for standard called Classified France 44. It's published by Team17 and is an XCOM like set in WW2 in the run up to D-Day.

This sounds great! I'm in!

Cool, it works well on a pad too. They have also already announced a roadmap for new content over the next year.

[Alex79]

Xeno Crisis is a fantastic top down twin stick shooter, developed for the Sega Megadrive (and that's the version we have here) which uses the face buttons to shoot. You might think it would be a bit fiddly but you soon get the hang of it. It's a brilliant little arcade shooter. Tough, too. I only reached level 3 on my first go, and I think there's a rogue-like aspect to the game with randomly generated layouts of the stages. You can upgrade weapons and armour etc. between levels with currency you've collected, and it looks and sounds gorgeous, especially on the smaller Evercade handheld screen.

Been playing more of this today, it's such a perfect little arcade game. Tough as nails, but such good fun and the controls translate to the Evercade buttons really well. I had a go on the Vita port recently which uses the right stick to shoot and of course it's a little easier, but the buttons on the Evercade do a great job. Would be nice if the next Evercade handheld had some sticks though, especially if they're moving in to some PS1 and N64 era games. I'd recommend anyone pick up Xeno Crisis, I think it's available on pretty much everything.

Also playing the completely unrelated but similarly named Xenoblade Chronicles still on Switch. I'm about 15 hours in and got about as far as I've got the other times I've played it, but it's clicking a lot more this time, getting my head round all the arts and skill trees etc. The story is surprisingly decent for a JRPG, too. Keeping me interested, anyway. I like the way the game handles side quests, too. Basically just accept every possible side quest (and there are hundreds) because most of them are just kill X amount of monsters or find something quests, and you rarely have to go back to the quest giver to complete them, so you just earn loads of XP by playing the game normally, it's good.

[Cornelius_Smiff]

For some reason I wasted (it feels like it anyway) £30.00 on Helldivers 2. Now I have nobody to play it with and it's very annoying.

Also hopped back into Elden Ring and trying to do a level 1 run, which is insanely difficult but super fun.

[Truk_Kurt]

A few days ago I started Lost Judgement. I have only played Zero, Like a Dragon and Judgement in the Yakuza series and perhaps controversially, Judgement was my favourite of the 3. The detective storyline just appealed to me more than the politics of the Yakuza games. I also really like Yagami as a main character so Lost Judgement was always a game I planned to get around to.
So far it's been great, it starts with a tailing mission which is the one thing I seriously hated from the first game, so that wasn't a great start but after that it's great. The story surrounding bullying in this high school and how it links to the murder of a student teacher has me hooked and it the combat feels better than it has ever been. It seems much easier to dodge and counter. It still has the great atmosphere and hilarious takedown moves you come to expect from the series too. Looking forward to playing more.

[Alex79]

I think a lot of people liked Judgement best. I really enjoyed it, it's probably my second favourite after Yakuza Kiwami 2. Still need to get round to playing the second Judgement game.

[Truk_Kurt]

I think I've come to peace with not going back to the previous Yakuza games and just see what happens with the Like a Dragon series. I am tempted by Infinite Wealth but the first game put me off a little due to the grind and difficulty spikes. Due to the voice actor issues it seems like we won't get another Judgement entry which is a huge shame, but I hope we still get a spin off with the brawler combat instead of turn based.

[DeadpoolNegative]

I've seen it theorized that the Judgment series will continue with the Kaito character in the lead, and the DLC in Judgment is a part of that.

I've been playing Judgment this month on the Series X (It was never made available for the One) to and while at first I thought it paled a bit in comparison to Lost Judgment, and it has a LOT of tailing missions, now that I'm nearly 20 hours in the story's gotten really absorbing, byzantine in the way Yakuza games are but feeling more impactful than they usually do. The series can expand to contain more social issues in an organic way than, say, the Like a Dragon series does.

Spoiler: show

The murder of Shintami was particularly shocking

When it's over I plan a replay of Lost Judgment and its DLC.

Dead Cells- this metrovidvania style rogue like has been in GamePass for a While, and I tried it out, got addicted to it for weeks, but then got really greedy in a run and lost a ton of stuff twice, and I was so embarrassed with myself I had to tap out for a while. The gameplay loop is addicting, but not as addicting as...

Brotato- holy crap, I do love this. every run is short and sweet, every run brings a new, crazy awesome item or weapon. the difficulty spikes don't help at the end of the run, but planning your specs and weapons and getting more powerful, it's the best Vampire Survivors clone yet. Speaking of:

Vampire Survivors- the new DLC is in no way sus- I've gotten more powerful than ever before doing the Among Us Planet. Wild! But I've also found it's best to do a bunch of runs, take a break, then start it up again after I've gotten to miss it. Keeps it fresh than if I was just playing all the time.

Call of the Wild: the Angler- thanks, Xbox GamePass! This game is a pretty decent fisihing simulator, if not a particularly deep one, but the open world is magificent to look at and it's worth it to drive around unlocking fast travel areas.

[Jobobonobo]

So finally got around to finishing Victory Road and am now facing the Elite Four in Pokemon Radical Red. And it plays a really mean trick on you. One of the (many) QOL improvements this ROM hack has is that you can access the PC at any time so you can swap Pokemon in and out on the go. I would usually grind my Pokemon until the level cap and swap them out for another monster. I foolishly thought this would be the case with the Elite Four. So unlike the base game the first Elite Four member Lorelei has only one ice type and all her other Pokemon are water types. So I packed my team full of Grass and Electric types and felt elated after I finally beat her. Now onto Bruno, better swap this team out for a new round of Pokemon. They disabled the PC function when you are facing the Elite Four! So you really have to make sure you have a well balanced team if you want to tackle these guys! This game loves throwing curve-balls like that. This will probably take a few tries...

If anyone tries a Nuzlocke of this and complete this ROM hack I will be seriously impressed.

[Caligulas Horse]

I'm trying to platinum Elden Ring in anticipation for the DLC. I could probably do it a lot quicker if I wasn't also challenging myself to beat the end game bosses without using a mimic tear or co-op. I'm not someone that looks down on people playing the game with Mimic tear or co-op (nor do I think it makes the game easy!), the extra challenge is just to make it a little more interesting.

Malenia is wiping the floor with me at the moment, though, so hopefully I will actually finish by June lol.

[Michiel K]

Erstwhile active forum member KSubzero1000 came over to my spot on Thursday and stayed for a few days and we got a good bit of gaming in!

Off the top, we played Schildmaid MX (PC), DariusBurst AC (on PC in ultra wide screen settings), Gradius Gaiden (PS1), Soukyugurentai (SAT), Super Puzzle Fighter II-X (SAT), The Last Blade 2 (on Dreamcast and I was just showing off how beautiful the game is while playing through the arcade ladder with Washizuka), The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (On Gamecube, this time just single player, but maybe next time we'll have the hardware required to play it coop), Mario Power Tennis (On Gamecube and we got way too much into this - sweaty and above all extra stressful stuff), Robotron 2084 and Smash TV (o.g. Xbox on Midway Arcade Treasures), Robotron 64 (N64), Nex Machina (PC) Super Castlevania IV (SNES), Dead or Alive 4 (on X360: it's the sole series of fighting games Ksub ever got into and I only ever played it very casually, so he took me to school on the game's systems), Windjammers and Windjammers 2 (both on Nintendo Switch).

I recently also used my birthday as an excuse to invite a bunch of video game loving friends over for a gaming night and we had about 14 people distributed over and rotating between a variety of screens and consoles, playing a bunch of stuff ranging from Street Fighter II Turbo and Super Street Fighter II on the SNES Classic and actual SNES to Ultra Street Fighter IV on PC, Tekken 8 on PS5, Samba de Amigo ver. 2000 on Dreamcast (thanks to Leon), Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus on Wii, Super Mario 3D World on Switch and Nintendo World Cup with the 4 player adapter on the NES.

[Jobobonobo]

Had a fair bit of new stuff that I played the last few weeks so I might as well talk about them now! So first off, I downloaded a few demos on my PS4 as there were a few titles I wanted to check out. First off was Prince of Persia the Lost Crown. Took me a while to get the hang of parrying but otherwise, pretty fun little metroidvania from the time I spent with it. Ironically, outside of Metroid I don’t play these games too often but I liked what I seen here enough that it might be a genre I should explore more. I do like that feeling when you get a new upgrade and your mind races to all the past occasions where this item/move could have come in handy so I might try out Lost Crown properly in the future.

The next game I tried was Cherry Tower. It is a 2D platformer where you are a cherry climbing a tower, so pretty self explanatory. It is one of those Super Meat Boy type games where one wrong move kills you and there are plenty of checkpoints dotted along the place so as to not be too frustrating. Very nitpicky but in the first tutorial screen, it tells you that how to jump but the ledge is too high to do a regular jump so you have to double jump. Then after you cleared that, then it teaches you how to double jump! Not the worst design sin but just making the ledge a little lower would have avoided this type of sloppiness. The music also loops for around 15 seconds so becomes monotonous quickly. I hope the soundtrack is a bit more varied in the full game! Other than that, this was just alright. I feel 2D platformers are so well represented these days with loads of top quality entries that standing out can be pretty hard to do. As a result Cherry Tower is OK but definitely not interesting enough to warrant a full purchase.

The last demo I tried was Star Ocean the Second Story R. So I never played the original Star Ocean 2 so all of this was new to me. I liked that it was in HD-2D but in a different way to how Square Enix did it before. Very lush visuals and overall presentation. The combat is nice and frantic and enemies being visible on screen before combat is always appreciated. It does tend to be a little overwhelming with how much it introduces new systems and concepts within such a short period of time though and I figured since I had a three hour limit that it did not make sense to fully read up and learn everything the game throws at you. Also the cutscenes drag on. I swear to god, I was holding the speed up button throughout these chatty parts and the speed of dialogue felt identical to normal speed. Every time that mayor appeared I was thinking “Oh god, not you again”. But I liked what I played so far despite those issues. Not something I am eager to jump into straight away but maybe could be something to try down the line when I need something with a Sci-fi flavour.

Finally, because it was on sale, I got myself Stray as this was always something I wanted to check out and the podcast doing an episode on it gave me the impetus to play it. Still early days but love the atmosphere of this and playing as a cat is delightful in general. Just hearing the purring and trilling sounds your cat makes reminded me of a pet cat I had when I was very small and brings up very pleasant memories to me. Excited to try more!

[Scrustle]

I've been playing a bit of TOCA Race Driver 3. A game I've long heard good things about but never played before now. I have wanted to, considering it's the predecessor to Race Driver: GRID, one of my favourite racing games of all time. Turns out this one is quite impressive too. It clearly shares a lot of similarities with GRID as well, but with a slightly different focus. The breadth of different racing disciplines is really impressive, and provides a very wide variety of racing styles that always have you doing something different as you make your way through the career. Each type of car does feel very different to drive as well, and most of them are pretty good. It's sort of familiar to GRID in that it's presented in a pretty authentic and serious way, and a lot of real racing concepts and techniques apply here, but in terms of how it actually feels in the hands, it's pretty arcadey and approachable. Cars are generally very grippy and intuitive. Although braking points and racing line do still matter a lot, and losing control with poor application of throttle is a risk in certain types of car. It's a really good handling model that isn't hard to get to grips with but still gets you invested in trying to get the most out of it.

This game is significantly more serious and technical than the follow-up though. It doesn't have the stylistic flair of that game and has a pretty straightforward and basic presentation. It has some personality with the occasional CG cutscene that plays when you do certain things though. You can tweak the settings of your car like in the majority of more serious sims out there, to quite an intricate level. There's also the option to qualify before a race that decides your placing on the starting grid. I found doing so is pretty much mandatory though, as skipping that and starting from the back basically makes it impossible to win. The game also gets increasingly more difficult as you go through it, to honestly an exhausting degree. At around the halfway point of the game I found it to reach an unreasonable level that just sapped all the fun out of the game to be honest. It starts demanding more or less absolute perfection, making it that any single tiny error can ruin and entire race and just make it pointless to continue.

There also seems to be a quirk with the physics that seems pretty unfair. If an opponent car brushes you slightly from behind, that's enough to spin you out and ruin your entire race. But the opponents themselves are rock solid and don't suffer the same disruption from you. It also has an issue that seems to come up fairly often in other racing games too, where if you keep in front of AI racers they tend to drive more slowly, but once they get in front of you they just rocket off never to be seen again. As if they get a speed boost from being in front of you somehow. Again making any minor slip-up in a race result in the entire thing being rendered hopeless.

[Truk_Kurt]

I've been playing a bit of TOCA Race Driver 3. A game I've long heard good things about but never played before now. I have wanted to, considering it's the predecessor to Race Driver: GRID, one of my favourite racing games of all time. Turns out this one is quite impressive too. It clearly shares a lot of similarities with GRID as well, but with a slightly different focus. The breadth of different racing disciplines is really impressive, and provides a very wide variety of racing styles that always have you doing something different as you make your way through the career. Each type of car does feel very different to drive as well, and most of them are pretty good. It's sort of familiar to GRID in that it's presented in a pretty authentic and serious way, and a lot of real racing concepts and techniques apply here, but in terms of how it actually feels in the hands, it's pretty arcadey and approachable. Cars are generally very grippy and intuitive. Although braking points and racing line do still matter a lot, and losing control with poor application of throttle is a risk in certain types of car. It's a really good handling model that isn't hard to get to grips with but still gets you invested in trying to get the most out of it.

This game is significantly more serious and technical than the follow-up though. It doesn't have the stylistic flair of that game and has a pretty straightforward and basic presentation. It has some personality with the occasional CG cutscene that plays when you do certain things though. You can tweak the settings of your car like in the majority of more serious sims out there, to quite an intricate level. There's also the option to qualify before a race that decides your placing on the starting grid. I found doing so is pretty much mandatory though, as skipping that and starting from the back basically makes it impossible to win. The game also gets increasingly more difficult as you go through it, to honestly an exhausting degree. At around the halfway point of the game I found it to reach an unreasonable level that just sapped all the fun out of the game to be honest. It starts demanding more or less absolute perfection, making it that any single tiny error can ruin and entire race and just make it pointless to continue.

There also seems to be a quirk with the physics that seems pretty unfair. If an opponent car brushes you slightly from behind, that's enough to spin you out and ruin your entire race. But the opponents themselves are rock solid and don't suffer the same disruption from you. It also has an issue that seems to come up fairly often in other racing games too, where if you keep in front of AI racers they tend to drive more slowly, but once they get in front of you they just rocket off never to be seen again. As if they get a speed boost from being in front of you somehow. Again making any minor slip-up in a race result in the entire thing being rendered hopeless.

As a GRID fan, have you played Grid Legends? I really enjoyed that. One of, if not my favourite game released in the year it came out.

[Truk_Kurt]

I picked up Princess Peach Showtime, and you know what, it's alright. It is very easy, even more so than the recent Yoshi games (apart from the darn Cake decorating levels which are very frustrating) but I am getting a kick from something more chilled. The main highlight for me though is the boss battles which even though are still easy, are both really fun and really well done. It has some great set pieces too. I can imagine it being a great game to give your kid to play as a first venture into gaming.

[Alex79]

Anyone here played Moonlighter? I bought it for Switch because it was about £2 and had been on my watch list for ages.

I think I'm enjoying it. It's a mixture of lots of different types of games - a little bit Stardew, a bit Animal Crossing, touches of early Zelda. You run a shop, but get the things to sell in your shop by crawling randomly generated dungeons on the side.

There are some interesting mechanics around setting prices in your shop. Set them too high and people won't buy the things. Set them too low and customers can't believe their luck, and are visibly excited to be getting a bargain.

The gameplay loop is very much sell, kill, sell, kill etc. but you can also build up your town around you, upgrade the shop as well as armour and weapons etc. It's interesting but I can't help feeling I'm not getting the most out of it at the moment, something around not fully understanding the shop mechanics, what I should be selling, what I should be saving for upgrades etc. and the whole supply and demand system where you can flood the market driving price down, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to recognise when this is happening.

I'll keep at it though, fun so far.

[Scrustle]

With today being the last day of the Wii U online servers, I've been continuing to play more of Splatoon 1 and saying my last goodbyes to it. It's been great to come back and revisit that experience again for one last time. The series has come a very long way since this game, but it's still a lot of fun in its own right and has certain quirks missing from the sequels.

I've mentioned before how the map design in this game is drastically different to what came later, especially in S3. There's a lot more verticality and way more access to flank routes and climbable walls and such. It gives the levels more of an exploratory feel to them that is a lot of fun. That said, as I've played more and refamiliarized myself with them, some of them also do feel a little awkward and pokey. They can be difficult to navigate at times, and have narrow areas that can be very fiddly to play around. Swimming up walls can also cause some issues as well. Later games feel much better suited to actual open encounters with opponents, and feel fairer as a result, but at the same time they so also lose a lot bit of the personality these maps had.

This game has a certain charm to its visuals and atmosphere, which come from it being not as fully formed as later games. Everything is a bit basic, a bit rough around the edges, not quite as confident in itself. But still bursting with the attitude and fun that defines the series and that was first realised here. There are some little touches that I really appreciate too, like specific lighting choices on certain maps. Like the warm evening glow on Flounder Heights accompanied by the cries of cicadas, or the overpowering sunshine of Mahi-Mahi Resort.

I also had a good time scraping off some of the rust on my skills too. When I left off with this game I had reached A+ rank, but I found as I came back I couldn't maintain that and dropped quite quickly down to A-. But since then I've been learning the ins and outs again and started to climb back up. I managed to make it back up to mid A rank. I got close to A+ again once or twice, but I couldn't reach it. Maybe if I played more on rotations that were going well I could've managed it. Ah well. It was a good feeling to have things click again just like they did way back in the day though.

Playing this game does make you appreciate the changes to how map rotations work in the later games too. Only having one Turf War and one Ranked playlist available at any time, with rotations each lasting four whole hours does get rather monotonous. The smaller map list in this game also doesn't help. It makes me glad to have access to Salmon Run and the two ranked playlists in S3.

But still, I love this game a whole lot. It means a great deal to me. It spawned something that has been a huge part of my life for almost the past decade now, and has managed to maintain a sense of freshness and unadulterated joy that is so hard to find in games these days as someone who has been playing them a long time. The gameplay, the aesthetic, the music, the community, and the sense of uniqueness and novelty were all just so engrossing and enjoyable. Despite not being in to competitive games much at all, this one really struck a chord with me in a way that very few games of any kind ever do. So thanks, and farewell to this silly little squid game.

Although... this doesn't have to be the end. I have been keeping an eye on Pretendo, the community run replacement for the Wii U and 3DS online services. I haven't tried it out yet, and it seems like a lot of it is still a work-in-progress, but it looks very promising. They already have private battles for Splatoon set up, and are apparently planning to get public matches working at some point in the future. I do intend to give it a go at some point, especially if they do manage to get general matchmaking to work. PBs are good and all, but that does require going out of your way to organise with people who are likely not on the same skill level. It would be cool to be able to queue up like normal and easily get a good fair game.