The Witcher 3. Is it possible for a game to be too big? I've been playing this for what seems like forever and it just… keeps… going. Not in a grindy, stringing-it-out kind of way either, it's still opening up side quests and areas and stories that are every bit as good as what I've seen already, there's just so much to it. Interesting playing this after having seen the Netflix show too - I did a quest the other day that was a direct follow-on from one of the stories filmed as part of the show, which was very strange but oddly satisfying.
Rune Factory 4 Special. Now I like Harvest Moon type games and I've bought a fair few of them over the years but there's no getting away from the fact that a lot of them are, well, a bit shit. There's a really fine balance to be struck with these games and far too many of them descend into mindless drudgery or a sense that you don't really know where to go or what to do. Rune Factory 4 isn't like that. It's a re-release of a 3DS game (so looks a bit ropey, to be honest) but it's an acknowledged classic of the genre, mixing up the farming and romancing with a whole load of dungeoneering and monster taming and what appears to be approaching a proper JRPG plot. I'm a few hours in and it's absolutely enthralling, there's a huge amount to see and do and it barrels along at quite a pace. Very good stuff indeed.
Super Mario Odyssey. Went back to this - well, started it from scratch - and it's better than I remember it. I still think it's a bit unfocused - each kingdom feels like it was made by a different development team - and a lot of moons are just awarded for trial and error, but as you really start to dig into it and try to complete each kingdom you realise there's a whole load of clever stuff in there. It'll never be my favourite Mario game, but I'm glad I've gone back to it.
Want
Not long now until Ori and the Will O' The Wisps, sadly not the Kenneth Williams crossover we deserve but as the sequel to the best Metroidvania game of recent years I am absolutely up for this one.
I've been eyeing up Doom Eternal but then the 2016 game is on GamePass and I'd probably get more or less the same amount of fun simply by playing that one through again.
Bin
Thanks Tories for 'cracking down on tax evasion' by picking on the easy target and absolutely annihilating the contractor market rather than going after the big corporations who are actually responsible for 99% of this stuff. Thanks guys, really appreciate it, it was only my livelihood after all.
Still we'll all be dead of coronavirus within six months, certainly going by the appalling standards of personal hygiene I witness on the Tube every morning, so I guess it's all a bit moot anyway.
Play
Bits and pieces on the Switch. Occasional Mario Kart.
D&D. I'm trying to wrap up my campaign. Another three months maybe? I can't wait to see how it all wraps up.
Want
Animal Crossing. The fact that four of us can potter around doing pointless busy work at the same time has me very excited.
No Man's Sky. I really want to go back to this. They have added so much stuff. I want to go explore space wrecks.
Another independence referendum please.
If that's not an option could the Coronavirus please kill all the elderly who refuse to listen to experts so that they don't fuck up the next election.
Darksiders Genesis - only an hour or two in, but I like it. As I've said elsewhere, it feels as much like a "proper" Darksiders game as the Diablo clone it resembles, and I've enjoyed what little I've played.
Borderlands 3 - I'll go through spells where I'll only play this for a week or more, then won't play it again for weeks. Thankfully it's Borderlands, so that doesn't really seem to matter, as the story is really basic, and not really the point. It is quite good, as long as you're in the mood for it, which is what I've always found with the series really, and this one does have a lot of QoL improvements that make it feel almost like a proper FPS, which the earlier games never quite managed.
Remnant: From the Ashes - AA post-apocalyptic horror-sci-fi Soulsborne with guns, and all the shonky goodness that implies (but better). I really need to get back into it properly.
Want
To continue to actually make progress through the backlog. It's been nice.
People like Airship Syndicate (Battle Chasers: Nightwar, Darksiders: Genesis) and Gunfire Games (Remnant, Darksiders 3) to keep AA alive.
Oh, and Slay the Spire (and Into the Breach) on the iPad, and Doom Eternal and Cyberpunk 2077 (in good working order) on the PS4, in that order.
Bin
Getting old, and the nagging feeling that life/society peaked ten or so years ago, and we've been on the downturn ever since.
Anyone here putting or planning to put New Horizons on this list this month: why on earth haven't you asked me to get you a code with my discount? It's €41.13, before anyone asks. No idea if that's worse than whatever Amazon et al are doing it for, but it's nearly 1/3 off the RRP.
The snazzy PS4 remake of Shadow of the Colossus is on PS Plus this month. I’ve done the first one, and I’m honestly not sure I can carry on. Not knowing. Not with hindsight. It’s all a bit much.
PLAY The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ - Pretty much all I'm playing right now, fallen back into this in a big way. Between watching YouTube videos of a guy doing endless Eden runs on Hard, meaning I'm learning tons of tips on better play and what all the items actually do, and then getting to effectively start over because I haven't made nearly as much progress on Switch as I have on PS4, I'm enjoying it immensely. The final DLC is supposed to be coming at some point, so that'll be nice. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Because SHHHHHHHHHH (three weeks in).
WANT Doom Eternal - Nothing like a bit of mindless slaughter to clear the sinuses. Time to go faster for a few months - I'm at a very important tipping point: next month, I finally start seeing income from renting my flat again, which will dig me out of my overdraft at last. My partner also just got the job she went for out here, so now we just need to see how her son's exams go before she can arrange moving out here in June. Both combined mean finally, finally, for the first time in about 15 years, I won't be running on empty every month to pay bills and generally survive. I haven't shared bills and responsibilities in forever, the weight has always been solely on me. It's going to be quite refreshing.
BIN World stuff - Everywhere's fucked, right? Such a pity. What could have been, if only people weren't so goddamn awful.
Just want to say SOTC is probably only gotten better since I last played it and I thought it was a great game when I last played it. What an actually I have no fucking words good really spectacularly great fufjenWGBqg;iub; game. And the remaster in particular does it so many favours, I disagree hard with anyone who says the increased visual quality makes the Collosi in particularl ook outo f place or whatever and the arcitecture looks like it's best self.
It's so good I want to buy Last guardian right now.
I'm replaying it too, you might have seen my photo mode pics on Twitter, I've not played it since it's PS2 release and have to agree this remaster is stunning
I've only just played enough to get where I was in the PS3 re-release (so 2 colossi), but consider this a +1 to "looks real, real good". I do find the faux-olde, thou wilt bullshit dialogue fairly irritating, but at least it's sparse (after the interminable intro…).
I've never stared at the Colossus fur so much before, I wasn't even sure it was all fur on the PS2. I couldn't tell if them being some living monolith thing meant it was just grass over organic-ey rock.
Not that I recall, I didn't really have any issues with it just now but atm I'm in total fanboy mode. The only think I haven't liked so far is the Horse…..Colossus.
When I came to that area I thought "oh fuck not this one" as it took me ages to get everything right first time round but on this play through it was over and done with really quickly. I had some trouble with Beardy but, again, not too much bother.
I played the first hour or so of The Last of Us yesterday morning. First time I've booted it up since either of the kids were born, and the opening damn near fucking ruined me.
Not that I recall, I didn't really have any issues with it just now but atm I'm in total fanboy mode. The only think I haven't liked so far is the Horse…..Colossus.
Wait until you get to the final colossus. I never remembered him being the absolute weapons grade c-word he is this time around.
Wait… is the camera still dementedly wonky on the final colossus? Everything else in SotC was genius until I got to that toolbox, and the only reason it was a problem at all was because of the shit camera.
In all honesty, I don't know whether I'd really want to replay SotC again because it was so effective in making you question whether you should be doing this. If the camera on the final colossus is as bad as I remember it can fuck right off anyway. (I had similar issues with the camera in TLG. I was thrilled by Trico, but gave up in the end due to the broken camera.)
Probably exposing myself and that's fine but that bit where you jump onto the hand from the arm can fuck right off into space. I had some other minor issues too with his minor movements translating to getting pushed off in a far off direction.
Yep same here. The hand to arm bit was just so annoying its still sat in my pile of unifinished games. Which is a shame as I'd like to go back and do some of the speed runs to get the perk items.
I'm thinking of picking up Control this weekend. I loved Alan Wake, one of my all time favourites. Is Control worth a play?
Doom Eternal came out early here, and I think I have the Corona Virus to thank for it because apparently they wanted them shifted now before they might not be able to open the store anymore? I dunno if that's true..if it was why only Doom and not the other game out on March 20th that I've forgotten?
Anyway, I am grateful either way because I have had a pretty shit time recently (who hasn't right now honestly?), and what better way to vent then by gibbing demons left, right and centre?
Actually that's not much of an overexaggeration, the first level comes in fucking red HOT, throwing an amount of enemies at me that truly feels like the last ditch attempt of a demonic race to stop themselves being curb stomped to extinction one by one (I fucking love Doom Slayer/Doomguy dude). The level design is…well, I'll let you find out for yourselves but it's a big improvement already on what I remember to be a lot of Mars terrain and facilities, it feels like a level three or so away from the end already.
As for the gameplay? It's DOOM, you do DOOM things. It takes what you liked about DOOM and makes it slightly DOOM-IER. Demons will break and shatter themselves upon you, you will feel like they very incarnation of wrath of Mankind, quite possibly the most cathartic and empowering game I've ever played, at least most of the time.
Last point, in what should be the very antithesis of DOOM. The codex, as it did in the last game do a good job building a lore up for a game that was about killing demons incredibly quickly. The ones in the first game that described how fucking terrified they are of you, were fucking great. And I highly recommend taking a wee breather to read any Codex you pick up….or not, it's your life.
Updated impressions: this is kicking my ass! I don't remember Doom 2016 being this brutal, at least so early. If I picked Ultraviolence instead of Hurt Me Plenty I might not even have beat the first combat trial (which was Doom heaven…er..Hell?)
Game is still fun to play, but after hyping up the Codex so much the lore in this seems really overdone, and I'm in an area I'm not sure would feel out of place in the new GoW, which makes me feel slightly out of place as a result, return to Mars/Earth/Hell when tbh? Were we always able to double jump, double dash? Because we can and you're gonna' fucking need it, they want you dead as FUCK.
ANYWAY, I finally downloaded the Resident Evil 3: Nemesis Remake demo, I'm really excited and it's weird that I'm excited a bit because the reason I'm so excited is that I think Resident Evil 2 Remake is one of the best games I've ever played (I just feel in every aspect of the game, it excels, as a Remake it's the Gold standard).
But as far Resident Evil 3 goes the original isn't really that good but if you played it you' like it. Nemesis obviously carried that game hard, funnily enough he was an upgrade in every way from Mr X on the PS2 version ofResident Evil 2, now Mr X is the PS1 Nemesis concept realised without any limitations, Nemesis now finds himself trying to outdo something that perfected a concept he himself created (and I hope it's more than just him using a rocket launcher).
Honestly, the demo was shorter than I thought so I need to try it again, it seems solid but the atmosphere of the Police Station isn't there, the best part was seeing Nemesis fucking peg it after you, he's going to be a much bigger nuisance than Mr X ever was.
Mechanically the RE2 remake was very sound and it looked amazing but I never really forgave it for messing up the best bit of the original game, the overlapping A/B stories. In the original you really felt like you were playing two halves of the same story, and things you did in A affected what happened in B. Also Mr X only appeared in B. In the remake the B story was… kind of the same as A? You fought the same bosses in the same locations which made no sense given the two stories were supposed to be happening simultaneously.
Anyway, I’m sure RE3 will be great but I’m not sure I trust them so much now, I’ll wait for reviews.
Played a bit of Sonic Generations as it was on this month's Games With Gold list, it's actually quite good I think? For a latter-day Sonic game anyway. You can play each level as either short fat classic Sonic in 2D, or as gangly modern Sonic in a kind of 3D/2D hybrid, and it's fast and chaotic and generally quite good fun. There's limited involvement from Sonic's ever-expanding band of shitty friends and the whole thing's one of those Xbox 360 games that got up-rezzed to 4K as part of the backward compatibility programme so it looks remarkably good too. It's no classic but it's pretty enjoyable all told.
My slow crawl through The Last of Us continues - I've reached Bill's Town, and gotten geared up at the church.
Maybe it's because I'm only playing on Easy (it's mainly a story refresher, but I also don't have the free time to deal with repeated restarts) and have some sense of what's coming, but it's been oddly un-tense so far - up until the point that I ran out of both ammo and shivs as a pair of clickers closed in on me, bringing a sense of renewed peril with them.
For a game that came out nearly 7 years ago on a previous generation of hardware, it still looks spectacular - I'd probably be much further along were it not for photo mode - and the performances and wiring are still maybe the best a game's ever had.
One possible concern, though, is that I still remember the end very clearly; I don't know if I'll feel any different about it this time, but I wasn't on board with Joel at all back in 2013…
One possible concern, though, is that I still remember the end very clearly; I don't know if I'll feel any different about it this time, but I wasn't on board with Joel at all back in 2013…
I wouldn't be surprised if, in the current climate, you felt even more strongly about that second time around.
Might be worth a replay sometime soon. I still can't believe they're seriously still considering releasing the sequel in a couple of months' time though. That's going to seem seriously distasteful, given the subject matter.
It's hamstrung a little by Naughty Dog's unwillingness or inability to commit to the tone of the thing, with their usual reliance on unnecessary, over-long combat sections to pad out the length, but it's definitely worth playing if you're into the story, characters or world of The Last of Us.
Last night I had a moment of thinking "time for a bit of escapism". I don't use the VR much these days. As I think I've mentioned before, the sense of presence seemed to have faded and it all felt rather meh. But I updated and loaded up No Man's Sky and wow. I'd heard bits and bobs about it being "fuzzy" in VR and not all that engaging. But the controls with the two Moves are BRILLIANT. And I was giggling like 9 year old me would be as I took the controls of my spaceship and flew up and out into space in realtime. The sounds, visuals and tactile nature of the controls are first rate. Very impressed.
Now I'm googling PC headsets and want to get Alyx. Good work PS4 VR.
