PWB April

I'm starting this early so that we don't double up with two PWBs

Play
Trails in the Sky - Nice relaxed JRPG, I'm only ten hours in though so I'm guessing very much early days. Combat is a little bit tactical, this corner of the setting it very twee european fantasy, but like I say, it's relaxing.

The Outer Worlds - Early days for this too, still in the first location. It is fun, I'm enjoying exploring and talking to the weirdos. Gunplay feels a little insubstantial though. I'm hoping there's a little more to the next areas, this one has felt quite small and predictable.

Want
I really do want to play Elden Ring, but I'm waiting till it's cheap.

Bin
Netflix, Tories, Capitalism, Climate Change, Cyclists

OK, not all cyclists, but just now there are so many roadworks in Edinburgh that the cyclists are being diverted odd places and some of them seem to think that this means people, children and particularly dogs just shouldn't be allowed. I have gotten into so many arguments recently.

Play
Tunic - though as mentioned in the main thread, I'm coming up on the end, and I'm not overly insistent on 100%-ing it. It's a fantastic game, though, even (especially?) with No Fail Mode on.

Sea of Thieves - still, occasionally, though a little less this last week, due to Tunic and re-watching Lord of the Rings (extended, one disc each evening). We still need to do the second Adventure, though, so it'll definitely be on the cards at the weekend.

D&D - my podcast game is going out weekly now, which has upped the creative pressure somewhat, but I thin I have enough sketched out to keep me going for a good while. The party is at a bit of a crossroads at the moment, so I'm having to prepare myself for a couple of different possibilities. Meanwhile, in my highly chaotic Curse of Strahd game, the one of the PCs died last week, so it'll be interesting to see what that player brings in next. The dead character was a bard who he basically played as Borat (voice and all), so I don't know if the new one is going to be something more normal, or way, way weirder.

Want
More hours in the day. More hours around work, at least. My commute is horrible, especially now that traffic has returned to pre-Covid levels; combined with a lot of road works, I'm spending altogether too long not at home, especially before the kids go to bed in the evening.

Bin
The commute, as above; also the world at large, present company and Volodomyr Zelenskiy excepted.

Trails in the Sky - Nice relaxed JRPG, I'm only ten hours in though so I'm guessing very much early days. Combat is a little bit tactical, this corner of the setting it very twee european fantasy, but like I say, it's relaxing.

WIN. It took me a while to get used to this, but by the end I was hooked. It might just be the slowest game in the entire series but I think when you realise Estelle and Joshua have travelled the Kingdom of Liberl and how fleshed out everything is I really appreciated it and a lot of it has a lasting presence.

Estelle is probably my favourite female protagonist in a JRPG, watching her literally grow and mature and learn about the world over the course of the entire series has been a real treat. (she still threatens to beat people with her 'really large stick' though)

Play

Kuro no Kiseki - 10 games after the game Brian is playing comes this, set in the region of Calvard which Brian will learn about when he meets people from there, but we've never actually been there until now and after four games of Erebonia/Crossbell I am SO ready for it. This is 'officially' (and by that I mean the stream overlay program that translates it, game has been out in Japan for ages) out on the 4th April but there's a hefty demo for this out now and they're releasing the portion for that tonight and I am going to rinse that to the last fucking pixel. Best RPG series.

Final Fantasy Origins: Strangers of Paradise - near the end and I've enjoyed it consistently except that difficulty curve near the end gets fucking obnoxious on Hard Mode and really detracts from the fun imo…or maybe I've just lost it.

Granblue Fantasy - Yeah this is just a browser game but I have put significant amount of time into it this week because the game gave me good Gacha rolls and now I am fucking ready to take on the Guild War in April.

Want
It to be April 4th, booked time off woo

Bin
April 1st (especially everyone's shit April Foo's Day announcements), April 2nd and April 3rd ASAP

Play

AI: The Somnium Files - ticks all the boxes for a visual novel. Starts off with what appears to be a straightforward murder mystery then immediately takes a sharp left turn into mad dream sequences, amnesia, Egyptian mythology, insane conspiracy theories and implausible sci-fi nonsense. Also everyone in it is a massive pervert. While it is obviously completely batshit, it's also very good fun and it has the whole flowchart/parallel timelines thing going on so you only piece together what's happening very slowly. I've got one of the endings so far and still have only the vaguest idea of what's really going on.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses - after a couple of false starts I am now really into this. It does a very poor job of explaining itself, both at a micro level (what does this number mean? how do I do this?) and at a macro level (what is the structure of this game?) but it does all settle into place eventually. It helps once you realise it's not a strategy game at all, it's a grooming simulator in which the idea is to decide which of your many students you intend to have sex with once they graduate. (I'm exaggerating, a little, but the character stuff really is 75% of the game; if you don't get on with that then you probably need to play something else).

Want

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is out in a few days - I'm hoping it's as good as it looks but it sounds like it's had a troubled development so I'm holding out for reviews before taking the plunge. They've stupidly (for a kids game) gone for a big monetised DLC strategy too so there are going to be a lot of disappointed kids out there finding they need to pay even more money if they want to play as their favourite characters.

I think I'm going to play Tunic next, and I'll blame Mart and Ninchilla if it's crap.

Bin

Just… everything. Literally everything. I don't remember ever feeling so hopeless, it's like everything's inexorably getting more and more shit. People have less money, worse jobs and fewer prospects than I can ever remember, everyone is just going to be ill repeatedly now with Covid, and there's absolutely no-one at any level that has any interest in or ability to change that. I'm not even mentioning the war.

And: lurgies. I still don't think I've caught Covid at any point yet but there is an absolute bastard of a cold going round that I've somehow managed to catch twice in three weeks. Knocked me flat for three days, then I was OK for about a week, then flat out for another three days. Just getting over the second dose now and just absolutely sick of being ill.

Also:

Cyclists

Our local council has a thing about cycle lanes and spent an absolute fortune a few years back sticking massive cycle lanes (with bollards to separate them out) on the main road running through this area. This has had several effects: firstly it turned a major two-lane road into a one-lane road, massively increasing traffic congestion and pollution; secondly it means buses can no longer pull into bus stops, and just have to stop in the middle of the road to pick up passengers, causing huge delays; thirdly, it hasn't increased the number of cyclists using this road in the slightest, which remains at or very close to zero. If you dare point this out to any member of the cycling lobby you get absolutely dogpiled on Twitter, as I have found to my cost. I'm 100% in support of green initiatives but this has been an absolute shambles.

AI: The Somnium Files

I've downloaded the demo to this, its by the guy who did the Nonary Games, which I love. But not got round to it yet, thanks to Tunic. Speaking of which…

Play - Tunic. Also started Telling Lies with my wife earlier in the week, it's intruiging. And restarted Uncharted 4 on PS4, which I never finished first time through. It's still an incredibly polished and impressive experience.

Want - a bit of of room to breathe. See below.

Bin - In the immediate family, we have had a death, rapidly accelerating dementia, covid, ongoing PTSD, bowel cancer and now double croup for the twins, all in the last two weeks. Plus all the external stuff that feels almost distressingly hopeless at the moment. Not sure how to cope with it all any more really.

@gar The problem with cycle lanes like that is that they are shit and useless unless they are actually networked so the first few bits are always underused and everyone complains and the network never gets to the point where it's useful.

I'm a big fan of active travel, but it is impossible to have a sensible conversation with the cycling lobby.

@Cheddarfrenzy That's a lot. As always, give us a shout if there's anything we can do.

@Cheddarfrenzy That's a lot. As always, give us a shout if there's anything we can do.

Thank you. I will. I'm not a natural sharer, but it's nice to have somewhere online where it feels safe to do so. Things are actually starting to get back to "normal" a bit now, but it's been a long, hard month.

Play -
A lot of my gaming is still revolving around gaming with my daughter, so whilst I love it it's very different to if it was just me.

Mario Kart 8 - Loving this still, having the new tracks (even though it's currently just the 8) does help, personally would be in favour of them doing more tracks and just adding more characters to this one than making a new one, just go games as service model almost.

Animal Crossing - This has only returned in the last few days but it's nice that this is single-player as all 3 of us just take little turns and mess about and it means you can avoid having to watch endless kids Netflix content if she plays this instead.

KOTOR - This is obviously just me but into this in a big way again, playing on the Switch and just exited Taris and completed the first couple of Jedi bits. I started a replay of this when it became backwards compatible but this is actually the furthest I have gotten on it since I guess one of my many playthroughs in 2003/04.

Want - Trying to go completely game purchase free except for the Amiga Mini (Which was pre-ordered and part paid for already) as we are now in the process of buying a house. Moaned before about houses in here but we've finally begun the process having had an offer accepted. So it's a very exciting and scary time, but have way too much stuff already and so need to slim down, not add to.

Instead of bin going to pass my well wishes onto Cheddar.

Play
Sea of Thieves - still, occasionally, though a little less this last week, due to Tunic and re-watching Lord of the Rings (extended, one disc each evening). We still need to do the second Adventure, though, so it'll definitely be on the cards at the weekend.

We're also doing the adventure this weekend - plan was to do it Tuesday/Wednesday but Debs was ill so we've left it. Might see you on the seas, Ninchilla… setting sail in about an hour!

Our kids situation means we're usually a late-evening crew, unfortunately.

Ah, never mind. But we'll have to try and set up something at some point.

Instead of bin going to pass my well wishes onto Cheddar.

Thank you, very much appreciated. 🙂

Although I'm sure everyone else has plenty to bin at the moment too.

WANT WANT WANT

Yep, I'll have that thanks.

What the hell. Yes, definitely.

Ooo did not expect that! Yes want want wantity want.

I just got the Monkey Island 2 special edition from Amazon's Prime Gaming thing; maybe time to take a look…

You’ve never played them??

I’m not the biggest fan of the special editions but the underlying games are solid gold 100% masterpieces.

I've played the first one, but not the second.

I assume they’ll now be retconned, but the later games are worth playing too. Curse is great, Escape has its moments, and Tales is seriously underrated.

Play

Still popping into Tunic every so often, but I think I'm at that same loss-of-interest stage that eventually got me with AC Odyssey and Pokémon Arceus. There's a lot more to see, but I feel like it's scratched whatever itch I wanted it to scratch and I'm ready for something else.

My TTRPG games have been on hold for a few weeks for various reasons, so that's disappointing, but hopefully we'll be back in the swing of things shortly - the D&D5e game I'm playing in was just hitting its stride, though I still need to figure out the next inciting incident for Avatar.

It's not really a game, but there's a gamified element to it, so I'm gonna count it: I've been sinking a fair amount of time into a Duolingo Japanese course over the last couple weeks. I've finished the first "Unit", still far from being able to say anything meaningful, but I've wanted to learn Japanese for literally decades at this point, and it feels good to pick up something new.

はじめまして、「あにき」と言います。私は日本語が話せます。

Want

To get past whatever exhaustion/funk I've been wallowing in for the last couple of weeks.

Bin

Whatever is happening to my brain right now. I just can't seem to get into anything (except Duolingo?), can't focus properly, even stuff that's normally a reliable distraction. This might be a side effect of the new SSRI course I've started, and job anxiety stuff, but I'm ready for it to be over.

I assume they’ll now be retconned, but the later games are worth playing too. Curse is great, Escape has its moments, and Tales is seriously underrated.

The first one is an obvious classic, maybe the funniest graphic adventure ever made but surprisingly short. The "special edition" graphical makeover is a bit of a travesty but the added voice acting is great.

LeChuck's Revenge is an absolute monster. It's huge and incredibly difficult. It opens up so much stuff and so many possibilities all at once that you never really know how to get a handle on it, but it's always fair. Some of the most amazing music ever heard in a videogame, too. It's been long enough since I played this one that I've pretty much forgotten all of it so that might be worth a revisit before the new one comes out.

Curse of Monkey Island isn't Ron Gilbert but it's still an amazing-looking game that hits pretty much all the right notes. They've already said that they are expressly NOT writing this out of canon and are in fact including some things from this game in the new one - Murray the Skull for instance.

Escape from Monkey Island is an ugly, janky early-3D travesty that's best forgotten.

Tales from Monkey Island is "Telltale does MI", it's not bad but it suffers from following the episodic model which makes it rather easy and gives it a completely different feel from the "everything all at once" approach of MI2 and MI3. Worth a play but it's clearly not the real deal.

LeChuck's Revenge is an absolute monster. It's huge and incredibly difficult. It opens up so much stuff and so many possibilities all at once that you never really know how to get a handle on it, but it's always fair. Some of the most amazing music ever heard in a videogame, too. It's been long enough since I played this one that I've pretty much forgotten all of it so that might be worth a revisit before the new one comes out.

It was hard. I was very proud that I got all the way to the Spoiler - click to show second voodoo doll without any help when it first came out. Could NOT figure out how to get all of the items needed for that though, had to use a guide (in a magazine I think) in the end. Am tempted to have another run through - I can remember some of it, but suspect I've forgotten a lot too. I quite fancy running through the Indiana Jones games again as well come to think of it. Maybe I'll have a play with SCUMMVM on my phone…

That Monkey Island looks great. I've just cancelled my Amiga Mini pre-order too as my frigging car MOT is going to cost me 600 quid I found out about an hour a go. I was only due to pay about £50 cash on top but that feels unwise given the news

I just got a bill from the government for £300 that they overpaid me in 2016. I wouldn't mind so much except they added a £50 charge just cos.

Anyway I've never played Monkey Island but I feel like I should. Is SCUMMVM and a rom the best way?

I just got a bill from the government for £300 that they overpaid me in 2016. I wouldn't mind so much except they added a £50 charge just cos.

I canceled my disability support well in advance of moving to Germany, they still overpaid me. I kept the money aside knowing they'd ask for it back. When they did, they claimed it was my fault and demanded £50 on top. I told them they could go jump for the extra. They backed down eventually, but only after about six months of repeatedly telling them and proving it was their fault.

Wankers.

Anyway I've never played Monkey Island but I feel like I should. Is SCUMMVM and a rom the best way?

You've got two choices. ScummVM and a ROM will give you the full unadulterated 1990 experience (although you may need to track down a ROM that has the original copy protection removed). Or you can go for the Special Editions, which were released on the 360 but will work fine on your Series S. They'll give you updated graphics and sound, full voice acting and the ability to switch to the original versions at the press of a button. I'm not a fan of the graphical makeover for MI1 - they did a much better job with the second game - but the voice acting adds a LOT, so it's not a straightforward choice.

I’d definitely recommend the remakes. Dominic Armato adds SO much.

Haven't done this yet, so besides the usual Sea of Thieves and Isaac nonsense…

PLAY
House of the Dead Remake - Right up my alley, but I'm surprised that it's actually quite good. Only tried it in handheld mode with a controlled cursor so far, need to throw it on the TV and try with gyro aiming at some point. It's stupid, because the original was too, but I love it in a kooky way.
Elden Ring - Back to this, I guess? Sadly, I'm back into the office now so my pre-work and lunchtime play sessions are pretty much gone. But I'll make time to go back to it.

WANT
LEGO Star Wars: Skywalker Saga - Primarily to play with the other half, but I don't know when we'd have time to do it.
Mario Strikers: Battle League Football - Not my project, so I'll have to buy it properly like the rest of the proles.

BIN
Tunic - Happy with finishing it the good way and no compulsion to go back for those last three achievements, especially now my time is much more limited. I need to throw this on the Completed list, actually…
My Bournemouth flat - Don't want to jinx it, but someone might actually be buying my flat in the UK, meaning my ties to that godawful plague island will be severed at last. Well, bar my kids but that doesn't count because they're neat and not costing me a fortune for no reason every month.

Kuro no Kiseki is everything I wanted it to be and more, I don't hate Cold Steel or anything but after 5 games of it and Rean's antics with Class 7 I am more than happy to leave Erebonia behind for a new setting and cast. Speaking of new cast, the new lead, Van Arkride is fucking awesome so far, he's not just another Estelle/Rean/Lloyd nor is he a Bracer or a Cop, he does things his way and has his own distinct personality, most noticably he's more willing to accept deaths than those three and he has a more pragmatic outlook to things.

Mario Strikers: Battle League Football - Not my project, so I'll have to buy it properly like the rest of the proles.

Eh? I don't even have one of those Nintendo thingies.

Play
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is brilliant, and the perfect palette cleanser in-between sessions of Elden Ring. There's a Mario-esque attention to detail; every single action has been meticulously thought through to make it as fun as possible. And it throws ideas away in a very Nintendo fashion – stuff that would support an entire game makes for 30 seconds of fun here, then onto the next thing. Currys have got the physical version for 35 quid (when you use code SWNEXTDAY) – I'd definitely recommend it.

Elden Ring – I got the itch after a week away and came back to this. Just beaten big man on tiny horse in desert, and now I'm fannying about in Nokron. I wish smithing stones upgraded all of your weapons at once, so they were all viable from the moment you found them. I've got so many great-looking weapons, but there's no point even trying them because I can't be arsed levelling them up to +20 like my katana. That disrespect for the player's time runs through the whole game. And yet I can't stop playing. It's sort of a weird, abusive relationship.

Want
Monkey Island. On console please, because I don't have a PC.

Bin
Tax stuff. Does anyone who has to do their own taxes actually understand… any of it? It might as well be in Japanese.

Additional WANT - 13 Sentinels is out on Switch this week. I'm resisting the £50 price tag, but I still want it.

Additional WANT - 13 Sentinels

I beat it on PS4, but I've been thinking about a replay for long enough that the Switch version was a no-brainer. It's preloaded already, the icon tempting me on the home screen.

Additional PLAY - I started Weird West this morning, since I'm working from home today/tomorrow and have my pre-work and lunchtime gaming time back. I like it so far… seems dark and wild west-y, which is my thing.

How do you feel about giant mechanical spiders? Because I might have a film recommendation for you.

I believe I'm only one of six people in the world that really enjoyed Wild Wild West. Can't decide if it's Salma's bum or Kenneth's moustache that did it for me, but I'm in for Jim West adventures.

If you like Kenny's moustache in Wild Wild West, I'd like to recommend his Poirot films.

I'd like to recommend them, but I can't. Because (moustache apart) they're pretty awful.

There are no cowboys, let alone rootin' and/or rootin', so I'll pass.

Weird West is ace!

Additional PLAY - I started Weird West this morning, since I'm working from home today/tomorrow and have my pre-work and lunchtime gaming time back. I like it so far… seems dark and wild west-y, which is my thing.

Just watched some clips of that, that looks really good.

Weird West keeps crashing on me. Three times in the last two hours. That's weird, but not in the way the game intends I suspect. Hmm.

Additional WANT - 13 Sentinels

I beat it on PS4, but I've been thinking about a replay for long enough that the Switch version was a no-brainer. It's preloaded already, the icon tempting me on the home screen.

What is this game? I keep seeing people talking about it, is it a visual novel or a point-and-click or a side-scroller or an RPG or what?

It's mostly a visual novel/point-and-click hybrid. The plot is… complicated, but broadly concerns a group of teenagers across multiple time periods who have the ability to summon giant robots, which they pilot against alien kaiju. Some of them can travel between those time periods as well.

There's also a battle mode, which pops up intermittently throughout the story (and isn't as tactical as it would like you to think), but mostly you'll be moving Japanese high-schoolers around gorgeous watercolour environments finding things to click on and/or think about.

I think of it as Danganronpa through the lens of Vanillaware. So I'm definitely in.

Additional PLAY

Life is Strange: True Colours.

Loved the first one of these, but never really got into the second one - I think the road trip in Two didn't really work in quite the same way as the single location in One. The first one had such a sense of place, I really formed a connection to the town as well as the protagonist, it was very well put together.

This latest one popped up on GP this week, we've played a couple of hours, and it's exactly what I wanted it to be so far. Excellent protagonist, soft acoustic soundtrack, golden hour cinematography, interesting set up of characters/mystical blah, and a location I would move to in a heartbeat (if reality didn't exist). Looking forward to getting properly stuck into an escapist game that doesn't actively want me dead of an evening.

I really liked Life is Strange: True Colours - in fact my only complaint when it was done was that I wanted more of it, it felt like there were gaps it could have filled in and more stories it could have told. Not a bad complaint to have at the end of a good game though.

Shame you didn't like LiS 2 though, I think it's my favourite of the lot. Did you play Before the Storm? It's like a continuation of 1, no superpowers at all, and one of the characters in it is a big player in True Colours.

No never did play bts, I've got it on an account somewhere I'm sure. Maybe do that next. Or might give 2 another go, see if it clicks this time. I did try the (similar but not LiS) one with the twins in as well, but that didn't have quite the same pull.

I know it's not necessary but I'm replaying Chrono Trigger in preparation for me eventually maybe getting Chrono Cross and to the surprise of no one this game is absolutely timeless, practically perfect and puts some modern RPGs to shame with how fresh it feels even now.

I'll maybe give it another play after I'm finished Secret of Mana. Are you playing the SNES version?