Whatcha Been Playing?

[stvnorman]

Succumbed to another Game Pass subscription so I could play retro arcade platformer Cyber Shadow - a second one for a month is way cheaper than getting it on Switch! Anyway, it’s wonderful! Little bit Metroid and a lot Ninja Gaiden - punishing but fair, controls like a dream, the levels are really well designed, and they even got the checkpointing just right. It’s also the best looking and sounding NES game you could ever imagine, oozing this oppressive atmosphere behind all that polish.

Finished Spyro 2 on PS4, and that was just a really nice time, even despite a few Mario Sunshine-esque camera and control issues!

Dead Cells has been free to try on Switch this week. Always knew it was my bag, but never got around to it. Every game gives you just enough progress to keep you starting again, and I had a few very late nights as a result! But it’s also on Game Pass...

Otherwise on there, got back into Lonely Mountains Downhill, I’ve also had a quick look at Forza Horizon 4 and did the first area on Tetris Effect Connected - longer than I’ve lasted before but still getting motion sickness! Also picked up Lotus Esprit 2 and my old Spectrum favourites BMX Simulator and Joe Blade on Atari ST this week, so been enjoying those too!

[DomsBeard]

We finished Mario Odyssey together with the assist mode on. He started at 3 with just being cappy.

He got 3d Allstars for Christmas and has played Sunshine the most, then 64 but hardly touched Galaxy. I think I mentioned it elsewhere but it isn't optimised well for the Switch Lite, keeps telling him to waggle joycons on the screen.

I'm picking up 3d World in a couple of weeks to play with too. I have another son who is now showing an interest so going to start that with him.

He used to play Mario Kart a lot but fell off it a bit, he mastered 100cc without any assists but 150cc is a bit much.

[Alex79]

He got 3d Allstars for Christmas and has played Sunshine the most, then 64 but hardly touched Galaxy.

Funny you say that, mine have spent way longer on Sunshine than the others, too. I wonder if it's just the bright colours or the novelty of the water Blaster, but yeah I thought it was interesting given its widely regarded as the weakest 3D Mario game.

[Magical_Isopod]

Been playing The Medium but haven't got too far because of some hellishly busy days at work (I do home security installs, which are more labour intensive than one might assume). If I haven't worked OT, I'm still too tired. finished at 2pm today though, so maybe I'll have a nap and go at it.

But I'm intensely bothered by a Polish game set in Poland with explicitly Polish characters and Polish mocap (people forget, body language is language too!) having ONLY English audio. And not even Polish actors speaking English, it's like meat and potatoes American accent.

Like I don't know what focus testing group caused this to happen, but for god sakes, add Polish audio!

[Feirsteax]

Yeah I felt exactly the same, went into the options looking for Polish audio with English subtitles, and was baffled that it wasn't there

[ratsoalbion]

That is a shame, though I suppose at least it's authentic to the games that inspired it in that respect (substitute Japanese for Polish)...

[Gadget8Bit]

Yeah but the games that inspired it were explicitly set in the US, so the American English dub wasn’t too unexpected

The Medium’s VA direction is just weird. American actors, no hint of Polishness bar the odd name being read out loud. It’s a bit clashing with the world building

[Alex79]

That is a shame, I always try to play games in the language that seems most fitting. For example, I'll play the Metro games in Russian with subs, and certain Assassin's Creed games like the Ezio trilogy in Italian or Unity in French. Conversely, I wouldn't play something like The Witcher 3 in Polish because despite being made by a Polish team, it doesn't seem to me to be an inherently Polish game, the setting and the characters etc. So it's very much on a case by case basis. For the Medium, a game by a Polish dev, set in Poland, not to have the option seems a glaring oversight to me.

[Jon Cheetham]

The Witcher is such a cultural touchstone now, and the VO for Geralt so excellent, that I'd feel odd experiencing it in another language. Although apparently the books draw on a lot of Polish/ Slavic folklore and heritage which gives the world its unique culture so in that way it has an inherent Polishness.

[ratsoalbion]

Yeah but the games that inspired it were explicitly set in the US, so the American English dub wasn’t too unexpected

The Medium’s VA direction is just weird. American actors, no hint of Polishness bar the odd name being read out loud. It’s a bit clashing with the world building

Very fair point.

[Miririn]

I still haven't progressed more than a few hours in "The Witcher 3" (I just can't get into it despite having a go three times now), so I am maybe not qualified to have an opinion, but the Ye Olde Britishe Fantasy Accents in it were driving me mad (I was very relieved to find out that time spent with child Ciri would be limited to flashback because her line delivery made me consider peeling my face off). I think I would have preferred Polish or Polish accents. (The setting also felt pretty Polish - don't they also sell pierogis at the taverns? I saw dumplings on the items list!)

Haven't bought "Ghost of Tsushima" yet but if I do I'll play in Japanese because I'm looking forward to the nostalgia-hit of Kazuya Nakai's voice.

[Feirsteax]

I've been really enjoying Cyber Shadow. Simple, polished, action platformer with really satisfying weapons and abilities and a brilliant soundtrack.

It's such an easy one to pick up and play as well, which is nice because I've been playing a lot of games where I felt like sitting down to play them was a bit of a commitment. So playing something short, sweet and snazzy is just what the doctor ordered.

[Magical_Isopod]

I still haven't progressed more than a few hours in "The Witcher 3" (I just can't get into it despite having a go three times now), so I am maybe not qualified to have an opinion, but the Ye Olde Britishe Fantasy Accents in it were driving me mad (I was very relieved to find out that time spent with child Ciri would be limited to flashback because her line delivery made me consider peeling my face off). I think I would have preferred Polish or Polish accents. (The setting also felt pretty Polish - don't they also sell pierogis at the taverns? I saw dumplings on the items list!)

Haven't bought "Ghost of Tsushima" yet but if I do I'll play in Japanese because I'm looking forward to the nostalgia-hit of Kazuya Nakai's voice.

Witcher 3 has full Polish audio, you just have to download it (free) from the PSN Store or whatever your vendor of choice is. And you should - Polish Geralt is an entirely different character than English Geralt.

[Magical_Isopod]

That is a shame, I always try to play games in the language that seems most fitting. For example, I'll play the Metro games in Russian with subs, and certain Assassin's Creed games like the Ezio trilogy in Italian or Unity in French. Conversely, I wouldn't play something like The Witcher 3 in Polish because despite being made by a Polish team, it doesn't seem to me to be an inherently Polish game, the setting and the characters etc. So it's very much on a case by case basis. For the Medium, a game by a Polish dev, set in Poland, not to have the option seems a glaring oversight to me.

As someone whose grandparents emigrated from Greece to Canada, let me tell you, AC Odyssey's decision to not have Greek audio drove me bonkers. All while they're sitting there touting the Greek ethnicity of their English VO like... Bro, you're in Montreal, Greek diaspora isn't hard to find.

But what REALLY bothered me was some creative lead on the game actually responding to someone asking for Greek audio on Twitter something to the tune of, "Just use Italian, it's close enough."

And then the next game was set in England with the whitest of white Viking fantasy at the forefront... Yikes. You could tell any story, but you make a second game in England, in an era where white supremist are appropriating Nordic symbols. Even if not intentional, that comes off as a big "eff you" to people bothered by the lack of global diversity in these games.

[Miririn]

I still haven't progressed more than a few hours in "The Witcher 3" (I just can't get into it despite having a go three times now), so I am maybe not qualified to have an opinion, but the Ye Olde Britishe Fantasy Accents in it were driving me mad (I was very relieved to find out that time spent with child Ciri would be limited to flashback because her line delivery made me consider peeling my face off). I think I would have preferred Polish or Polish accents. (The setting also felt pretty Polish - don't they also sell pierogis at the taverns? I saw dumplings on the items list!)

Haven't bought "Ghost of Tsushima" yet but if I do I'll play in Japanese because I'm looking forward to the nostalgia-hit of Kazuya Nakai's voice.

Witcher 3 has full Polish audio, you just have to download it (free) from the PSN Store or whatever your vendor of choice is. And you should - Polish Geralt is an entirely different character than English Geralt.

Really!? Thank you! I had no idea! I'll download the Polish audio and try again to get into the game. I love how Polish sounds... even though the only Polish word I know is "ciasteczka" (biscuits)

[Alex79]

I ended up picking up quite a lot of Polish simply due to the amount of Polish children and families I worked with over the years, to the point I can have a very basic conversation, albeit at the level of a 4 year old

[ReprobateGamer]

Tried out the demo of Immortals: Fenyx Rising.

It's basically Assassin's Creed through a somewhat more family friendly filter. Or possibly Ubisoft try to widen the target audience for their open world format to more people.

The demo actually does a good attempt at giving people chance to try out the controls and get a feel for how to control Fenyx. But nothing in it particularly makes it stand out from the crowd ...

[Alex79]

I'm absolutely stuck on Horace...

Spoiler: show

There's a section where you play a few Spectrum style games in a row, in the crazy Wonderland stage. I've done the Skiing one, the Frogger one, a couple of others, but stuck on the adventure one where you pick up a lamp from a chest. I can't seem to progress. I get a sword, then go to the left, but the big enemy seems impossible to get past...? It moves too quick and you can't freeze it. I did actually manage to get past it once but a weight fell on my head and it was game over. Any ideas?

[DomsBeard]

That is a shame, though I suppose at least it's authentic to the games that inspired it in that respect (substitute Japanese for Polish)...

My only negative for Ghosts Of Tshushima was that with Japanese audio the lip syncing was still english.

Playing Paradise Killer and Shadow Of The Tomb Raider currently. Both are good, pleasantly surprised by how good the latter is.

[Truk_Kurt]

Started Luigi's Mansion 3 and was initially disappointed with the first couple of hours, mainly just finding it a bit boring having to just go in rooms and suck at anything and everything, I didn't find the enemies much fun either to defeat. I played a bit more and it's got a bit better now I have Gooigi and it's become more puzzle orientated, I hated the security guard boss though, really frustrating. It's doing enough now though for me to carry on with it as I am now having some fun with it.