I've just gone through World 1 of Super Mario 3D World on the Switch. First time I've played it, and it's really fun, if a little easy. Handy though, being able to play whilst sat in meetings with your webcam turned off...

Like most Mario games, it gets a lot harder.

I started replaying Red Dead Redemption II again as I've gotten both a new TV and console since the last time I played this game. It's easy to forget how damned incredible the world in this game is and given that it's had no particular upgrading for the new generation of hardware, still looks utterly spectacular.

I'm currently playing Valkryia Chronicles for the first time, on the Switch. The art style is gorgeous but the overall graphics are a tad ropey, with lots of aliasing, juddery shadows and pop-in, but you soon forget that as the game draws you into what is quite a deep and complex strategy title.

I've also started Tokyo School Life, also on Switch, as I like to have a good VN on the go for when I'm too tired to play "proper" games, and just want to chill in bed.

Just finished the first Shovel Knight campaign, Shovel of Hope. Things got slightly brutal toward the end with the boss rush, but old-school platformers are my bread and butter. Enjoyed, but will hold off playing Plague of Shadows to avoid burn-out.

I decided to give Hellblade a go last night and gave it just over a couple of hours and came away disappointed. The sound design and atmosphere is superb but everything else I found to be quite dull. The puzzles seemed repetitive and the combat too was quite one not to me, which was surprising given the fantastic combat system in Ninja Theory's previous game DmC. I understand that it's a totally different game but I was still expecting something with a bit more variety. In the time I played I only came across one enemy type and just lots of puzzles about lining up logos. I asked on Twitter if things evolve much as the game goes on and it seems it doesn't so I don't think I will be returning to it.

I missed getting it. The PS+ games haven’t excited me recently. In was waiting for Death Stranding but the upcoming directors cut makes that unlikely.

Finished Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance care of Game Pass, and I’m still not sure what clicked, but for all its bugs, button mashing, general mediocrity and my lack of co-op partners, I really enjoyed it! Also beat the marvellous PC-Engine port of Out Run and Panzer Dragoon Mini on Game Gear, which isn’t saying a lot - even chucking in a cheap boss rush at the end didn’t make it very much of a challenge. And I got to the end of Madden NFL 21’s Franchise Mode care of EA on Game Pass, and a very fun time was had by all despite it not being especially groundbreaking.

I played a couple of hours of Psychonauts on Xbox, which was enough of a taster before giving the upcoming sequel a go, but I don’t need to play any more of this clunky mess! Played a bit more than that of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered, but I reckon I’ve seen everything now, and the lack of cockpit view and dreadful soundtrack were starting to annoy me! I played a lot less than that of Planet Alpha, which I think came with Games With Gold, but it was enough to know that this puzzle platformer wasn’t for me not matter how good it looks. And Conker: Live & Reloaded might have set a record for the least time I’ve ever spent with a game. Think Games With Gold is about done!

Otherwise, another attack on Super Turrican and loads of the wonderful Bubble Bobble-type NES hidden gem Ninja JaJaMaru-Kun on Switch, and I’m very hooked on Wonderboy on Astro City Mini - all those years I thought I’d never like it!

stvnorman wrote: ↑July 11th, 2021, 8:28 amI played a couple of hours of Psychonauts on Xbox, which was enough of a taster before giving the upcoming sequel a go, but I don’t need to play any more of this clunky mess!

Ha, yeah, I wish I'd finished this back when it first came out on PC, but I didn't, and have bought it another 3 times since then on various formats, most recently PS4. Each time I get about 2 hours in and decide its just not much fun. I like a lot of what it is doing, but the actual game is just clunky and quite dull I find these days. The original PC release is still the furthest I've got with it I think.

Alex79uk wrote: ↑July 11th, 2021, 10:01 am

stvnorman wrote: ↑July 11th, 2021, 8:28 amI played a couple of hours of Psychonauts on Xbox, which was enough of a taster before giving the upcoming sequel a go, but I don’t need to play any more of this clunky mess!

Ha, yeah, I wish I'd finished this back when it first came out on PC, but I didn't, and have bought it another 3 times since then on various formats, most recently PS4. Each time I get about 2 hours in and decide its just not much fun. I like a lot of what it is doing, but the actual game is just clunky and quite dull I find these days. The original PC release is still the furthest I've got with it I think.

There were a few moments where I thought I wish Mario Sunshine did this, but you’re right, it is mostly dull by today’s standards on top of the clunkiness. Glad I had a go though, and I’ll definitely be playing the new one on the back of it.

I noticed Sky: Children Of The Light , or whatever its called, finally came to Switch recently for free, so downloaded it to give it a try. I had high hopes, although I'm not sure why to be honest because although I loved Journey I never played Flow, didn't like Flower and thought Abzu was OK but dragged on too long. I know Abzu wasn't by 'thatgamecompany' but it was several of the original team I believe.

Anyway, Sky? Yeah, hated it. Boring, confusing, irritating. Deleted it after 30 minutes. Disappointing.

I've put a few hours into Romancing SaGa 3 on Switch. Its a port of a Square SNES RPG. The series (as far as I'm aware) builds and improves on the 'do things to get better at them' system from Final Fantasy II (booo! ). I dabbled with a fan translation of this a long time ago and wanted to go at it again.

So after the typical linear opening 2 hours, the world opens up and I can now travel to loads of towns and take on their quests like an open world game. And because I love the comfort of more linear structures, I'm now quite worried about doing it wrong. I'm enjoying exploring each of the towns though.

More Scarlet Nexus. I was putting off talking about it until I finished it since it felt like I wasn't far off. Turns out I was wrong, and the game has kept going, and I think I've probably got another 10 hours or so to go yet. Still enjoying it a whole lot. Combat has reached a point where it's pretty much reached as far as it seems it's going to go. I've unlocked every ability that actually fleshes out the mechanics, and got all the party members too. It's still a fairly simple system when you break it down, but very enjoyable and feels great in the hands. Juggling all the party member's abilities is pretty cool as well. There is some overlap with some of them, but they all have unique use cases as well. The story has got pretty wild too. It keeps one-upping itself raising the stakes, to the point where there's so much up in the air I'm not really sure how I feel about it. I get the impression a lot of it isn't going to be resolved, because it's more interested in bigger and more pressing matters. But at the same time, the escalation is a fun ride, and the twists to get here were really intriguing.

As a side note though, there's something that dawned on me as I was playing some of the side-content. You get optional side-quests that usually have you taking down some enemy with a specific ability or such. One of these I had real trouble with, where the target was some floating balloon-like enemies that creep up behind you and explode. I managed to get it done after a lot of annoyance and failed attempts, but through that it dawned on me, has this enemy type ever been good in any game? You see it in a lot of games, and it's always a huge pain that does nothing but drag down the experience. I can't think of a single positive example. Why does it keep showing up everywhere? Does anyone actually like these enemies?

I played through Last Day of June yesterday. It's a nice, short puzzle story game with a slight time loop mechanic in that you have to replay the same sequence with different characters to get the desired outcome. The ending actual made me gasp, as I really didn't expect it.

The art style is unusual, but pleasing; it almost looks like a painting. And the music is supplied by Steven Wilson, as the game is said to be based on his song 'Drive Home' (though, bizarrely, that doesn't feature).

A recommendation for anyone who wants a brisk, but surprisingly deep, experience for a small cost.

True Achievements just finished their annual Bean Dive - the event where you are encouraged to play an as yet unplayed game until you unlock the first achievement then switch that off and move on to the next one.

Didn't actually find a lot of time to participate in this and some of what I did was nothing more than loading a game to customise a character (and add to my pile of shame!) but there were a couple of games I actually did play a little of:

Hotshot Racing - An ode to arcade races, this unashamedly takes all the tropes of racing games of that ilk. It does it with some polish and a decent take on the genre from the race I tried. One I will be coming back to for that 5 minute race itch

Haven - this one intrigued me once I came across it. You control a couple on an isolated planet as they explore it. It seems to be two parts simple RPG with one part relationship visual novel and a dashing of [Ji]ourney's[/i] movement mechanics. Graphics are a little uninspiring considering the setting is floating airbourne islands on a mystery planet but the day/night cycle provides a differing palette and I'm presuming that as I explore more, that more interesting landscapes will be revealed. It is not a fast paced game for sure, and the combat mechanic is pretty simplistic though there has been no tutorial for it so I'm hoping that'll get developed. The relationship between the two leads shows promise in that they are in love but not always in agreement. Of course, I'm a sucker for landscaping gliding movement so I've already come back to this one ...

Star Wars Battlefront 2 - I was on the closed beta testing for this and enjoyed the space combat (far more than the ground based combat) but hadn't returned to this on release. Having now played the first level of the campaign, I'm left thinking that it seems very similar to most over 3rd person shooters and that the controls are just a bit woolly- though to be fair, I have them just on the default currently and haven't yet done any tweaks to response times. I'm wanting those spaceship battles so will return to this at some point but considering I can already guess the broad outline of the story just from the opening chapter, it won't be for any narrative reasons!

I'm thinking I might start a Dark Souls 3 new game (or maybe NG+, not sure yet). Don't suppose anyone else is playing at the moment are they? (Seems unlikely, but thought I'd ask!)

Alex79uk wrote: ↑July 16th, 2021, 7:17 pm I'm thinking I might start a Dark Souls 3 new game (or maybe NG+, not sure yet). Don't suppose anyone else is playing at the moment are they? (Seems unlikely, but thought I'd ask!)

I’m sort of chipping away at dark souls 2. It’ll be a while before 3 I think. Give me a year and I’ll be all over it

Alex79uk wrote: ↑July 16th, 2021, 7:17 pm I'm thinking I might start a Dark Souls 3 new game (or maybe NG+, not sure yet). Don't suppose anyone else is playing at the moment are they? (Seems unlikely, but thought I'd ask!)

Not playing right now but finished a full playthrough a month or two ago. I'm tempted to do another run at some point and get the secret ending.

That ending seems extremely fiddly to get, good luck!

Simonsloth wrote: ↑July 16th, 2021, 9:57 pm

Alex79uk wrote: ↑July 16th, 2021, 7:17 pm I'm thinking I might start a Dark Souls 3 new game (or maybe NG+, not sure yet). Don't suppose anyone else is playing at the moment are they? (Seems unlikely, but thought I'd ask!)

I’m sort of chipping away at dark souls 2. It’ll be a while before 3 I think. Give me a year and I’ll be all over it

You reminded me I've still not actually finished my last playthrough of that. It was the first time I'd tried the DLC and did the main game up to the last boss before trying the DLC. I remember at the time it being praised as 'some of the best Dark Souls' but on the whole I didn't like it really. The stages felt very labyrinthine, which I didn't really get on with. I did a few of the bosses, but still some to do, plus the main game end.

Jon Cheetham wrote: ↑July 17th, 2021, 4:32 am That ending seems extremely fiddly to get, good luck!

Thanks! I'll definitely use a walkthrough