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I've actually been playing some games!
Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order is great. I'm trying to play it frequently so that I don't forget how to fight this time.
Thief Gold - I never did play much of this. It's great but the tech is very old and the stealth is erm, unforgiving. Saving every 30 seconds helps.
Gris - Bought this last night and lost a couple hours to it. It's really pretty and there is just enough gameplay for it to be called interactive. I'm enjoying it so far.
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Like a Dragon: Ishin! - a remake of a PS4 game (that also came out on the PS4), this occupies a slightly weird space in that it looks very nice in places and surprisingly dated in others. It sort of lands somewhere around Yakuza 0, maybe, in that you'd never mistake it for a modern game but it's still smart enough not to feel too old. It's also a Samurai-era spin-off that reuses all the character models from the main series, so it feels like the cast of the main games got together to do some amateur dramatics. I'm very much enjoying this in all its slightly daft glory.
Super Mario Bros: Wonder - it's fine. I pick it up every now and then, play a couple of levels and put it down again. I don't find it very compelling but it's fun enough.
Headbangers: Rhythm Royale - ridiculous battle royale game involving headbanging pigeons where every mini-game is some sort of simplified rhythm action game. Mart will like this one. It'll have zero players in about a week when the novelty wears off so get on it fast if you're planning on trying it.
Want
I'd like to get Assassin's Creed Mirage and Starfield has given me the urge to play Cyberpunk, I think the next decent sale on either of those and I'll be in. Two more Like a Dragon games on the way too - the Gaiden side-story this month, and the main series instalment Infinite Wealth in the New Year, both on Game Pass day one. That'll keep me plenty busy.
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My new role at work requires me to go into the office two days a week and let me tell you that is a major imposition. Not only does it seem completely pointless (I mostly spend my time at my desk having Teams calls with everyone who's working from home that day), I've been constantly ill ever since I started having to catch the Tube again. Not fun. But better than being unemployed.
But better than being unemployed.
Rub it in, why don't you.
Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. Thoughtless of me.
Headbangers: Rhythm Royale - Mart will like this one.
Nope. I've been seeing this constantly since we planned out the Indie World it first appeared in, and every time my response has been 'Why are we supporting this, it looks shit'. It's out and it still looks shit. Even as a freebie on Game Pass, it's never getting played. 
Anyway…
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Dave the Diver - A game that keeps on giving, in the way it's constantly throwing new ideas at you, even when you think you've got a handle on what's going on. I'm now having to juggle diving for ingredients, running the sushi restaurant, researching recipes, keeping a fish farm going, upgrading weapons, completing a Pokémon TGC-style card collection, AND doing the main story. It's fabulous and I'm loving it, though it does mean I'm playing absolutely nothing else right now. Oh, except…
Fashion Dreamer - My project at work, so I got a copy. Oh lordy. Consider this both played AND binned simultaneously.
WANT
Salt & Sacrifice got delayed by a few weeks on Switch, so that's still on the radar. After that though… I guess I want to play that new RoboCop game which got good reviews despite being a bit shonky? I also haven't found the motivation to play Mortal Kombat 1 yet, even though I bought it day one. Oh, and motivation to play more Sea of Thieves would be good - Season Ten came out recently and it's okay, but Guilds really aren't a thing I have much interest in, since I don't play with anyone bar my partner and don't engage with the SoT community. The idea of attending an actual real life event like SoTFest fills me with existential dread… I'd just be standing there with no-one to talk to. It's the middle school disco all over again.
BIN
Outside of the usual world awfulness… well. I finished Jusant, so that's binned since I can't be arsed replaying the whole thing just to get the collectibles I missed for achievements. Suika Game isn't binned, but it gets far less attention than I anticipated given how addictive it was meant to be. I deleted the new mobile Walking Dead match-3 game after a week because really, who has time for that kind of repetitive grind bullshit? I finished the new DLC for Vampire Survivors in about an hour, so that's back into statis for now. I finally completed the very last, super hard level of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, so that's 100% done and I'll never touch it again. That's about it, I think. Work's about to get quiet since all of my projects (Wonder, Mario Kart, Fashion Dreamer, WarioWare) are hitting an end point at the same time, although the likes of general evergreen support for Wonder, Pikmin and Mario Kart will keep trundling on. But yeah, looking forward to being able to divert attention to more mundane tasks like template updates and other boring planning things that have been on hold for the last six months. Can't believe I've become the process guy in my quest for a senior role, but here we are…
Play
Jusant is absolutely wonderful. Ico's atmosphere and sense of place combined with the very best moments of Tomb Raider. Those bits where you're staring up at some seemingly unscalable height, and know that in about half an hour you'll be stood at the top. There's a small amount of movement jank, but it's entirely forgivable in such a charming game.
Mario Wonder is the best 2D Mario game since the SNES. That's not exactly controversial. But it might just be the best one ever, too. I went back to Super Mario World yesterday, a game that has somehow held up perfectly through the years, and there's no denying Wonder's controls are tighter. Its levels more imaginative. Its sense of fun more joyful.
Dave the Diver. Yeahhhhhh. I'm playing this because everyone told me to, and it's alright. It certainly has a lot of stuff, but none of it is that fun in isolation. It's busy-work, the game.
Want
The Case of the Golden Idol. I'd never even heard of this, but it popped up in some Halloween sale and looks great. Anyone played it?
Jusant There's a small amount of movement jank, but it's entirely forgivable in such a charming game.
I think that's the one thing I didn't like about the game, perhaps? Not just a few too many instances of the physics going wonky or getting stuck in the scene-setting environment bits, but also the fact that if it didn't want you to go somewhere, you just can't. It's free climbing, but only where it wants you to… in fact, there's almost no danger because you can't just go climbing off ledges (it has invisible walls) and it's impossible to fall/die. I guess that's a nice thing? But still, when there are so many collectibles to find, it did feel a bit penned in. But only a little. I still loved it. 
To be honest I didn't even try looking for all the collectibles. One other slight criticism is it's not very good at highlighting which is the critical path. So when you come to a crossroads, you don't really know which route advances the story and which heads towards a collectible.
So I just gave up trying to find them and enjoyed the journey.
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Resident Evil 4 Remake - I'm done with my Resident Evil business but before I started that I had only played this once and I want to replay it because it's still very good. It feels like one of the first games in 2023's insane year long wave of back to back bangers that got swept away by all the other 10/10 GOTYs so people have forgot that this game was so good, but even a brief session in Mercenaries mode gets you back up to speed. It might be 'just' a remake but it WAS a remake of one of the most highly acclaimed games ever made so…
I will be playing Seperate Ways after this.
Metal Gear Solid 2 - I think this is finally the time I admit this is better than the first game, it has some cringe inducing dialogue at points but this is like Resident Evil 2 to me in that it's one of the best sequels of all time to the one of the best games of all time. I feel like deep down most people know this is true but they won't admit it because they hate Raiden and MGS1 is 'cooler'. Not only is it mechanically superior to MGS1 in every way (and no, I don't just mean the Tanker where you play as Snake which people would have you believe was the best part of the game back in the day???) but it's the only story in the series worth having a deep debate about (and no, I don't mean 'Does Raiden suck'* is a good debate :p) and feels like Kojima at his best for better or worse even though he tried to ruin everything worth talking about with MGS4.
Super Mario World - Won't get to Wonder for a long time so I've been playing this on the Miyoo Mini here and there and got stuck on Butter Bridge 1 for ages until recently, I forgot this game can actually have some difficulty to it. Nothing really to say other than this game hasn't really aged a day imo, though I'm a bit surprised they just let you skip entire levels with the cape? Think I understand why people say SMB3 has superior level design at least but I think there's somewhat of a different goal to each game though right? IIRC you can't even replay levels in 3 but can in World and World has much more loose expectations on platforming (besides the odd Butter Bridge level of course).
Want
Baldur's Gate 3 - Getting to this in 2023 probably isn't happening, but if it's as good as I'm expecting it to be I'll award it GOTY 2023 retroactively.
Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake/Remaster (no one can agree what it is lol) - I am super biased but I can't get my head around the backlash to the very short gameplay they showed recently, yes it's sorely lacking in the green filter but I want to see at least some cutscenes and stuff before I join in the crowd denouncing this as 'souless'. Some locations they showed, like the cave you fight The Pain in looked pretty atmospheric to me? Pretty awkward but I'm going to be careful here because I don't want to repeat myself with the garbage GTA remasters and stand up for another bad product, but I've rewatched what they put out several times now and I don't get it…but sure, add some filters and noise to the final product, whatever, I dunno, UE bad.
I want a Samsung S23 Ultra and I'm pretty sure it'll cost me nearly or about as much as my first trip to Japan did, I dunno' how anyone can justify that much for a phone but I really want one even if it takes literal months of saving. 😭
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EDIT - I forgot if I said this last month but I never went back to Starfield after all, uninstalled it and don't even feel like I was a bit hasty or regret it. I thought just being a space bounty hunter for a bit would at least be pretty 8/10 levels of fun but the menu hopping killed any sense of the 'Space' part for me and the shooting part isn't even as fun as I remember in Fallout without VATS. Everyone reviewing this game reccomeded beating the MSQ first before doing side stuff which I was doing for a little while and honestly felt pretty shitty but looking ahead I can why they recommend doing that and man
Spoiler - click to showdo I feel bad for some people who put the time in side content before doing it, basically nothing exept your character carries over so I feel like anyone who grinded(?) a big Ship Collection or spread out a vast web of outposts (there has to be at least one person who bothered with this shit mechanic, right?) got a smidge screwed over. Also apparently each loop you do is slightly different so if you want to see that you are just speed running what sounds like yet another fucking boring Bethesda MSQ again, over and over, there are people on reddit who say stuff like 'I got my MSQ run to like 40 mins to an hour now, only 10 more to go before I capped my Powers!' I don't think I like the sound of scanning aliens and minerals again for Research, so NG+ is prob something I wouldn't touch
Start with a Bin An absolutely crazy month has meant I've not played a lot, I've got to go to San Francisco this weekend, then Ireland and then Chicago in quick succession. I hate flying (I used to fly a lot for jobs, and on one flight to Hong Kong was involved in a proper storm/aircraft falling out of the sky/flickering lights/air hostesses screaming incident which meant I have done it sparingly since). I also have literally just almost died because of a clot in my leg being pumped into my brain, so sitting down for 12 hours could be considered high risk. But hey ho.
Also, I'm not enjoying Baldur's Gate 3. I've tried to play it a few times but it's so similar to Divinity I just can't face it. Reminds me of the pandemic (when me and 2 mates played through it) and is just too similar.
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As the man said, Super Mario Bros: Wonder - it's fine. I pick it up every now and then, play a couple of levels and put it down again. I don't find it very compelling but it's fun enough.
Apex New Season, and I've been enjoying just playing the non Battle Royale modes as a quick 20 minute filler. They've made a few decent changes to the maps and the new character is absolutely made for me (follow around more skilled players making sure they live).
Valorant Used the return of my K/D to above 1 in Valorant as part of our quarterly board meeting to prove to our investors I was feeling better. A bold strategy that paid off (I found out one of our investors used to play Counter Strike).
Want
We're about to give Darksiders Genesis a go - seems like it could be a decent online co-op, brainless arcade game.
Jusant is absolutely wonderful. Ico's atmosphere and sense of place combined with the very best moments of Tomb Raider. Those bits where you're staring up at some seemingly unscalable height, and know that in about half an hour you'll be stood at the top. There's a small amount of movement jank, but it's entirely forgivable in such a charming game.
Hmmm. I started playing this and about 5 minutes in I missed a handhold and my guy just sort of swung about on a little rope. Wouldn't go up, wouldn't go down, wouldn't do anything at all in fact. In the end I selected "go back to checkpoint" from the main menu and it put me right back at the bottom of the mountain. What did I miss?
RB. It's the button for climbing the rope!
Thanks. I’m pretty sure it never actually explained that. Maybe my hamfistedness caused the rope to appear before I got a tutorial for it.
And LB is for going down. Weirdly, it usually shows this as an on-screen prompt when you're just hanging, so no idea what you did. Could've been the physics going bad, I had more than enough times when the character got 'stuck' on scenery and only jumping would help free them. But lengthening the rope is vital when you want to swing or do wall-running to reach distant handholds.
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A brief jaunt to Ireland last week meant I'd had to save Baldur's Gate III mid-boss fight, but I picked it up again last night and got through the rest without much trouble. I'm onto act 3 now, I think, but I have little too no idea what's in store, having successfully avoided spoilers despite my snail-like progress.
Need to get back to Spider-Man 2, as well, which I'm still only a handful of hours into.
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Idly eyeing Assassin's Creed Mirage, though more than happy to wait for a sale (I fairly confidently expect a discount by the end of January). The next thing I think I'm really looking forward to, though, is FFVII Rebirth.
Suika Game is so cheap I got it with some leftover points on the Switch, probably the only time that will be relevant for me. It's a fun game thanks to the physics of the fruit, it starts off slow but the more fruit combine the bigger they get and take up more space. Soon you get a pretty full screen and you start to sweat a little, and the surprise chain reaction you get when you pop one fruit and the entire formation slides down and everything comes into contact with each other and you get a Watermelon out of nowhere is pretty satisfying. You'll almost get two Watermelon's and then lose and decide you will neer get a run that clean again so there's no point in playing again, then you'll play it again 5 minutes later.
Music is pretty ass though, Muted that shit. Oh and there's a free version you can try here if you want to see what all the fuss is about, it's basically the same game.
Did a couple more hours of Spider-Man 2 last night, actually working on story missions instead of just swinging/gliding about looking for side quests and collectibles.
Spoiler - click to showVenom has shown up now - well, the symbiote, anyway. I find it interesting how subtly they're playing it - obviously most of the audience are likely to know what the symbiote is, but the game's treating it as though it's a total mystery, which is strange but kind of cool? I do wonder how long they're going to stretch it out before Peter actually gets his hands on it (or it gets its tentacles on him, I suppose?).
There's also a lot of down-time between all the Spidey stuff - wandering around Coney Island, testing electric bikes, cleaning Peter's house… it's swinging hard for the Naughty Dog seats, and while I think the writing is excellent, the tech doesn't quite hold up - there's a noticeable quality gap between cutscenes and (still excellent) gameplay, especially in terms of lighting.
I also hope I eventually get some way to just mark all the side stuff on the map - there's quite a lot of stuff, and you basically have to stumble onto everything that's not an actual mission.
Those are pretty minor issues, though. I'm having a great time.
Risk of Rain Returns is my game of the year right now. I'm in the vast minority who despised Risk of Rain 2. Hated the 3d, hated the controls, hated the gameplay, hated the overall cheapness of the entire thing. The original was far and away better and Returns is more of that.
Having finished the MGS trilogy on the Master Collection, I've elected to not play Metal Gear 1 and 2 just yet because I want a break and/or rather I had to come back to Genshin Impact and roll for the Hydro Archo, Furina before her banner ended (and got her in two single rolls lol). This is still one of the most beautiful open world games I've ever played 
I'm just into the last act of Spider-Man 2, and boy does it Get Going in a big way…
Spoiler - click to showPlaying as Venom was not on my list of expectations. Crikey.
More Plays
The Case of the Golden Idol is brilliant, everyone go buy it. The devs have clearly been playing Return of the Obra Dinn. It's a lo-fi detective-em-up full of murder, intrigue and a cracking soundtrack. It's the most unique thing I've played this year; can't recommend it highly enough.
AC: Rogue on Series X. If Golden Idol is the most unique thing I've played, this is the least. I was craving a bit of Black Flag, and noticed this has had the full 4K60 glow-up on Xbox. It's all very 2013, but in a comfortable, mindlessly entertaining sort of way.
Want
The next 3(!) expansions for World of Warcraft have been announced, and it sounds like they're finally committing to telling a coherent, interesting story. Time will tell.
Hello, how's it going? Well I hope. I've written a couple of these and read posts but keep not getting to the bit where it's done and posted. So, was sorry to hear about that thing that happened or, you know, silently cheered & congratulated more cheerful things but… kids and holidays, new job, school admin and then halloween… It all gets in the way of pissing about on forums.
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I joined PS+ a couple of weeks ago when my partner and kids started watching Strictly again. I'm not going to be one of those guys who's like "nah it's not for me" and then talks about how a tango is too conservative in week 8. So, PS5 in the office, I'll hole up on a Saturday night and enjoy games until Christmas. Or so I thought. The bastards have apparently gone off it this year. That first weekend though I got to play The Forgotten City: the Skyrim mod turned full game time loop mystery. Lovely. Very much enjoyed and listened to the soundtrack to the Outer Wilds again after finishing it.
Before that I was playing a lot of Grindstone. Bloody. Lovely. Before that I was playing Inscription. Really bounced off it hard and then… read something about the "surprise", didn't read more than that but started to engage more. Sort of glad I did but not sure the first surprise is for me. Played Teslagrad 2 before that. Didn't know it existed, sort of glad it does but not really sure why. I enjoyed Teslagrad but it's sort of unremarkable in a world where Celeste and Inside exist. I also got Wanted: Dead when it went on sale. It's not good. I realised a while ago that I don't find stuff that's deliberately shit fun (see: The Room, Neil Breen's output, Deadly Premonition) so don't know why this would have been different. It's a real throw back, reminded me of Oni and other shit 3rd person titles down the years. There's lineage but it's not a good one.
Currently playing Miles Morales off the back of Spiderman 2 hype and hearing on the Back Page Pod that it's a good holiday game. Cursed to Golf which I think Mart recommended at some point. Very frustrating but great for podcast listening. I'm playing Frostpunk again too, the real reason for resubscribing to PS+.
Cheers! Bye!
Additional PLAY:
Lorcana - Bought the first three starter decks a while back, but didn't get around to playing it until this weekend when, during a trip away to Nuremberg, I grabbed the two new Rise of the Floodborne decks. It's fun. Basically very Magic The Gathering with Disney, and messy if you don't know how each deck synergises. We didn't, which caused my partner to lose spectacularly after she inked (read: threw away) half the cards needed to get the deck going. Oh well. We'll try again!
Additional Play:
I'm getting married. Thus completing a standard achievement for the Game of Life.
I know a lot of you thought the simmering sexual tension between me and Garwoofoo would eventually overspill and result in us settling down together, but I can confirm (to the best of my knowledge) that the lucky lady taking my hand in holy matrimony is not named Gareth.
If she was, though, surely you would be the last to know?
Congratulations anyway, you've had quite the rollercoaster year what with one thing and another. Do we all get invites?
Congrats cav!
Congratulations cav!
Congratulations to you both, Cav! Well, slightly less to your good lady future wife, obviously. I'm sure she knows what she's doing.
Hypothetically, if you and Gar had got married, could Brian and I have been bridesmaids?
Congratulations cav! 🎉
Ilweran says congratulations, Cav!
And commiserations Gar.
Let's gooooo
If she was, though, surely you would be the last to know?
Congratulations anyway, you've had quite the rollercoaster year what with one thing and another. Do we all get invites?
We're having a Calipo on the beach where we met (Aberaeron) and going to a registry office. If you're in the area next September then anyone is welcome to pop along for a swim and a bout of hypothermia.
Congratulations man. My wedding day was one of the best days of my life. My wife, family, my 2 week old son and my best friends that I never get to see as often as I would like. Altogether for one day. Wish you all the best going forward Cav.
Congrats, cav!
If my partner's parents turn up for the wedding I'm almost 100% sure it won't be the best day of my life.
Additional PLAY - Metroid Prime Remastered is a bit good, innit.
Yes and the dual analogue controls work frightfully well, certainly opened my eyes. I can only imagine how good Metroid Prime 2 Remastered will be if it happens, that game had some real nice level design.
Additional PLAY - Metroid Prime Remastered is a bit good, innit.
It's flipping amazing. My game of the year, I reckon, in what has been a very strong year.
Yes and the dual analogue controls work frightfully well, certainly opened my eyes. I can only imagine how good Metroid Prime 2 Remastered will be if it happens, that game had some real nice level design.
I loved, loved, loved the Wii remote controls on the Trilogy re-release, to the extent that I'm pretty sure the Switch version would be a downgrade for me personally. It's an incredible game though for sure, one of the all-time classics in a series that seemingly produces nothing but all-time classics.
Oh true I never got to try that and still haven't played MP3 as a result. T_T
As for MP Remastered, it's not super huge as the Gamecube version to this day still looks great but they made some upgrades to the visuals that I think surprised everyone on release, Tallon IV has never looked so good.
I have Trilogy, and my Wii U is set up… I did start playing MP on it a while back but never finished it (though it did remind me that the game world is much smaller than you'd think). Quite tempted to do Remastered, then hop into 2 after that. I do remember Echoes being a bit annoying though, but maybe that's just my memory…
A lot of people probably think that, backtracking is doubled due to their being two worlds overlaid on each other, the Dark World killed you slowly just for being in it until you found the pockets of light, but exploring that area feels rough. It was also harder, there was the toxic dark world I just mentioned but enemies and especially bosses were tougher with one infamous boss you had to fight whilst being drained of health in the dark world getting nerfed in the Wii version. Also Dark and Light ammo is finite (which has the exact effect you imagine it does in the opposite world) and this isn't hard to replenish…but people are gonna' get anxiety anyway. 
I like it better because maybe I've played Prime a lot but the world just feels more interesting to me, less 'ice world, lava world'. And the dark world is great and reminds you that sometimes, the planets Samus goes to are actually dangerous as fuck, I really appreciate being taken out of my comfort zone a bit. You DO fairly early get the Dark Suit that significantly slows down the health drain in there…but it still drains nonetheless so people are still going to get anxiety
And the bosses are way better, both as a result of being harder but also just on a pure fight design level.
Been busy lately as been birthday month and our bloody school had it's Ofsted inspection, however got the new FC24 and really enjoying it.
Also got my new desk and retro stuff set back up finally.
Additional PLAY:
Storyteller - Had this on my Switch wishlist since it was announced, but didn't pull the trigger with the recent discount. Glad about that though, as I just discovered the mobile version is free with Netflix Gaming - it's not bad. Quite limited, since the differences you can create within each story successfully aren't exactly mind-blowing, but not bad.