Fuck it, I'm up and I just beat a game, let's do this.
Chained Echoes
Starting off my 2023 gaming year really strong, really good game that I feel like I already have said enough about already but to summarize:
clears throat
'combat good' (that said one of the most bullshit bosses in any RPG near the end of this game imo)
However, I did say this would get a 10 if the ending was good and it stuck the landing and whilst it's not a bad ending per se I don't really like how it went down, it's like 'bad but not this game was a waste of time' bad, you know?. Still, 9/10 isn't bad and I doubt there'll be an RPG like this that is this solid for a while.
Chained Echoes
Sonic Frontiers
I really enjoyed this at first and it was starting to wear on me a bit, thankfully the devs seemed to run out of ideas at the same point (which is weird because they were just copy pasting the same ideas for every island so they could have done it again!) because after the third island they made it a bit of a quick sprint to the end and I think that worked to the games benefit because yeah that's enough of that.
The good stuff, I like the combat on any enemy that doesn't turn into a mini boss, the soundtrack kicks ass and is probably the best thing about the game. The writing surprised the hell out of me, the conversations with Amy and Tails were pretty interesting and show that Sonic's cast is good (Knuckles…poor Knuckles, this is like the least disrespected he's been in a while and he's still really boring imo).
Bad stuff, I have to agree with Beany, this isn't 'whole game' material. I think this needs to be stuff you go out of your way to do from A to B. Not b the A to B itself. Also, game is janky as fuck sometimes, controlling Sonic is not always a fun time, it has little to do with how fast he is too the physics just aren't great, you get a double jump and a weird dive in the air and the game thinks its given you 'tools' :s. special mention to the 'traditional' Sonic levels called 'Cyberspace' which are by FAR the worst parts of the game somehow. :s :s
The main area I think I disagree with Beany on is the stuff you do in the game is pretty fun, at least I think that's where we differ? I have zero reason to replay this until the Amy Rose dlc drops and I get to play as the best character again.
Chained Echoes -9/10
One of the best JRPGs I've played in years. I've posted quite a bit about this and I don't have too much to add, but definitely recommend. Super fast turn base combat with a lot of depth to it. Great game pass get.
Can you skip the story cutscenes? I'm playing through Xenoblade 3, and the ability to skip the story, which is absolute bobbins, has been a godsend. It's transformed the game from a slog to a joy.
You can skip a lot of them, but I found a few during my Act 1 replay that wouldn't let me.
I'm not sure myself. The thought of skipping cutscenes in games makes me feel nauseous. 😅 Credit to ya if you can still enjoy games this way though. That's a skill in on itself.
Norco
I didn't like this - I thought it was poorly written and confusing, despite its status as the current indie narrative darling of choice.
It's a game of two halves really. Half of this is a portrait of a Louisiana town that's been ravaged by a large corporation, and what that's done to the people there and their sense of community. This stuff is based on the childhood experiences of the game's author and it's melancholy and compelling.
The other half is, frankly, sci-fi bollocks, that completely undermines everything else the game is doing. There's some stuff about people uploading their consciousnesses to "head drives", a talking security robot, a sentient network, a glowing orb, and some cultists constructing a rocket ship, and it is without exception unmitigated bullshit. By the end it's not even trying to make sense.
Charitably I think they were trying to go for the same sort of freewheeling surrealism as Kentucky Route Zero, but it's nowhere near as coherent as that game and as the good stuff here gradually gets drowned out by more and more sixth-form sci-fi nonsense I was losing the will to live. In its defence it is pretty short and it has a great soundtrack. Other than that it's a definite "avoid" from me.
And I'm on the board…
JANUARY
Ori and the Blind Forest - Really lovely adventure, much shorter than I expected. I really didn't like how there was no warning of the end coming (there's no 'Last chance to go clean up!' warning) and I spent the entire game waiting to get one specific ability which never came. Why? Because it's hidden in an entirely optional area that looks like you need the said ability to explore it, but the ability is actually hidden within it the whole time. Very annoying. I saw the credits so it's done, but I've already gone back in to finish up getting everything before I move onto something new.
I really liked the first Ori, one of my favourite Metroidvanias. I like the way it's as much about platforming skills (that tree escape!) as it is exploration, and you never get lost in the same way that you do in, say, Hollow Knight.
I only played the original version though, not the Definitive Edition, so it's ripe for a revisit - and I've not played much of the sequel either.
The three 'escapes' are great, if a little frustrating where you're looking for the way to proceed, but then get smushed by whatever is right behind you (the final fire one, I just couldn't work out the last part for ages). Exciting stuff nonetheless.
I played on Switch, so I think that's the definitive edition? I think. No idea what the changes are, I'll have to look into it.
EDIT: Turns out the entirely optional area IS the main addition for the Definitive Edition (plus some other improvements). No wonder it doesn't make you go there, it's not part of the story. Sigh.
Chained Echoes
Sonic Frontiers
Tactics Ogre: Reborn
Managed to beat it before Fire Emblem Engage came out! 
This is a good game and a good story, but it's insane how much this game insists on itself at times. For a game with such a limited variety of, and at times, awful map design (the ones that take place with you on the botton of a steep incline full of soldiers can die in a fucking fire) it really does bombard you with like, 5 when you could have got the point across with one or two, the final dungeon is TEN maps in a row, five if you follow a guide and take a certain route…then after that you get another four maps for no reason at all. And I've spoken at length at how long the combat is, mostly I can deal with it but with the fact that there's not much that happens in between map gauntlets means the effect gets magnified somewhat.
I was gonna' say this is the worst of Matsuno's 'Ivalice' style stories but maybe this is unfair, it's clearly a good story…but it went way over my head sometimes, the history and scope of the world of the Ogre series might just be up there with the likes of the Ivalice group of games it's just this game at least throws so much names and terms and regions and dates and blah blah that I got kinda' lost. There are several threads and I managed to cling on to a few like the shit the Dark Knights were up to which thankfully was an important part of the story anyway. Am I wrong? Someone call in and tell me if I'm stupid or not because I had no issue with FFXII or FFT and the former goes ultra heavy on the political drama too…
By the by the GBA Tactics Ogre game, 'Kights of Lodis' just so appears to be set in the region the Dark Knights come from, and towards the end of the game mentions the 'Ogre Battle' in the history of that world as a serious event. Now he didnt exactly say 'Have you read about the Ogre Battle 64, Denam?' but there IS a game on the N64 called just that and if that's not what he's referring to I'll be shocked, this kind of decades/century spanning long form storytelling really tickles my almonds so I'll be lying if I didn't say I want to at least try those games some time down the line!
Marvel’s Midnight Suns
And we’re off! Liked that. There’s an actual thread for it though, so if I’m going to elaborate more I’ll probably do it in there.
Rolled credits on Chained Echoes earlier, which is honestly a relief.
Partly that's my fault; I knocked the difficulty down quite early because I wanted to actually finish the story – meaning I never really got to experience the tactical elements of the Overdrive system properly.
And of course it also backfired because the story is absolute bobbins, with at least a couple of fakeout twists too many; the characters are unsympathetic jerks, all six hundred of them (the party gets far too big, too, with a couple of characters never even making it into my lineup); and the script is wildly uneven, swerving from conversational to stilted to weirdly profanity-laden with no warning.
I'm glad it's over.
JANUARY
Ori and the Blind Forest
Escape Academy: Escape from Anti-Escape Island (DLC) - Five puzzles in a side story wrapping, lasting approximately two hours, for €9. Worth it? Not really. At least one part of one puzzle is annoying as hell with a horribly fiddly solution, and it relies a lot more on things you might easily overlook if you're not scouring every inch of every area, rather than actual brain power. It's fine, but it should have been cheaper. There's another episode to come in the future, apparently, but right now I dunno if I'll bother.
Sonic Colours Ultimate -8.5/10
This has to be the most solid modern Sonic game to date. It doesn't hit the highs of Generations and the adventures games, but it never comes close to the lows of Frontier or Forces. I kinda love the take of not having a serious story and going more for a Saturday morning cartoon style. Even characters like Eggman being a lot more of a comedy goofy villain really fits into the theme of the game. It also allows for original stages based around a theme park, which works well for this type of game. There's a lot of creative ideas you can play with like one of the acts called Sweet Mountain being an over the top food court, or Aquarium Park act which takes advantage of underwater levels. Its just so refreshing to have fun original levels to play. The new power ups are a nice change of pace. I enjoyed these gimmicks as much as cappy from Mario Odyssey. They play to one of this game strengths, the replay value. Replaying stages to collect red rings or getting a higher rank has never been more fun out of all the modern Sonic games. A lot of the power ups gain access to more of the stages which all seem to have a good amount of paths and layers to them.
Vanquish -7.5/10
Everyone who says this is a gem are spot on. Fast pace third person shooter with unbelievable cool moments. As someone who loves the Gears series, this feels like Gears on crack. Its far from perfect and has a lot it can improve on like the weapons feels underwhelming. You face against the same enemies through the whole game and the levels look the same and dull. Even with all that the gameplay is so great and different it's easy to forgive all the negatives. I would highly recommend Returnal to anyone who's a fan of this game. It has a lot of similarities in my opinion.
JANUARY
Ori and the Blind Forest
Escape Academy: Escape from Anti-Escape Island (DLC)
Windosill - Heard good things about this, so wanted it on Switch when it came out. €9 for a fiddle toy is steep though, so I grabbed the Android version yesterday for A€3 instead. Finished it in 30 minutes, and now I realise I've already played and done it before on PC. Huh. Fine for what it is, but I don't think I can really recommend it.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns
Shadow of the Colossus
To my eternal shame, I had never finished this before. Everybody knows what it is, and how great it is, so I won’t go on too much, other than to say that I nearly fell off (again) because of the controls, but I’m glad I didn’t. The (PS4) remaster is a thing of beauty too; it’s obviously partially because the art direction of the original game was so strong anyway, but you can see why Bluepoint are held in such high regard.
Some minor frustrations aside, I now see what the fuss was all about, even though some of the rough patches (again, controls, frustrations surrounding them and some of the context sensitive stuff, and generally how fiddly it can be) have left me not wanting to try Last Guardian just yet.
JANUARY
Ori and the Blind Forest
Escape Academy: Escape from Anti-Escape Island (DLC)
Windosill
Tinykin - Okay, I apologise for snubbing this previously. Pikmin without the threat and enough collectibles to appeal to my OCD is right up my street, and it's great. All done, 1000 achievement points, so deleted with a great sense of satisfaction.
Hi-Fi Rush -9.5/10
This is the best Xbox game in years. The combat is a great balance for casual and hardcore gamers. You can still absolutely have fun without playing in time of the beat, but you'll be rewarded if you do. A few levels in it all just makes sense and the beat stuff comes naturally. Surprised how much I enjoyed the characters and story. Couldn't stand the main character for the first few hours but really came round to him once he opened up more. Really solid support teammates too. I think I was even more impressed with the bosses though. Kinda amazing gameplay wise and the character design is on the level of Viewtiful Joe. Also helps that the animation is incredible. Helps brings the personality of the game to life. By the end of the game it all just felt super polished and well made.
I think this brings a good argument to the whole "AAA games being too risky". Its something I hate to admit because I love AAA games, but the amount of devs and the time it took to make Hi-Fi Rush is something worth thinking about when compared to games like Forspoken or Callisto Protocol.
DMC -7/10
Good game and doesn't deserve all the negative talk around it. The problem is it's always gonna be compared to the original DMC series. I honestly think if this was a new original IP it would of done better. All my favorite parts of the game are the new stuff and all the stuff taken from the original DMC games are underwhelming. The combat isn't anywhere near the level of DMC 3, 4 or 5, but I really enjoyed how simple it was. Switching between weapons mid combo is easy and hella fun. The creativity from the boss fights and levels are brilliant. A lot of good ideas that's pulled back because it's a reboot of a successful series.
I feel like I don't complete any games anymore, but delighted to post my first in here of this year.
Cyberpunk 2077 - I have utterly loved this. I have loads to do still but decided I wanted to get through the final mission at least once before committing to finishing as much side stuff as I can as already close to 70hours total playtime.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns
Shadow of the Colossus
The Callisto Protocol
A weird one, this. Go in expecting the spiritual successor to Dead Space, and you’ll surely end up disappointed. By the time I got to it I’d had my expectations suitably managed though, and I rather enjoyed it, for all its myriad flaws and baffling design choices. It was clearly made by a talented team, and is very technologically impressive, but is missing any real spark of ingenuity or magic.
An alternately satisfying and frustrating 7/10-type game then, of the sort that you seemed to see a lot more of in years past, except that this was a lot better funded, and hotly anticipated. Probably could’ve done with a while longer in the oven, but if it takes your fancy, and pops up in a sale somewhere down the line, it’s actually pretty decent.
JANUARY
Ori and the Blind Forest
Escape Academy: Escape from Anti-Escape Island (DLC)
Windosill
Tinykin
FEBRUARY
RPG Time: The Legend of Wright - What a weird, weird game. There's so much creativity in here and some very clever ideas, but it's all just so relentless. I guess, in that way, it perfectly encapsulates playing a game with a young child (which is the premise, you're playing a hand-crafted RPG created and controlled by a young boy), because it's all so excitable and talkative and never shuts up for five minutes, please, Daddy's got a headache. The game swings wildly between genres constantly, has ever-changing controls which see you get confused and accidentally press the wrong thing (how can A, B AND the R button all be confirm action at different times?!), and is generally a bit of a mess to get your head round. But it's also eternally positive, has a bunch of lovely ideas and is very pretty in its own hand-drawn way. Wanted to finish it before moving on because I didn't want to drop it… glad it's done, but I won't go back to it.
Ah, I remember seeing this a while ago but it wasn't available for the UK for some reason. Just checked it out and it's out over here now. Think I'll get round to it now. The art style looks amazing.
Dishonored -8/10
I don't know what it is about the Dishonored games. I knew all about them but never felt like playing them. Just didn't seem worth trying. After completing the first one. I'm officially a Dishonored fanboy now. 😂 Its pretty much a Bethsaida Hitman RPG and it works well together. The amount of options to play or kill targets was impressive. The game is pretty old but it still holds up. Got Dishonored 2 downloaded and ready to go when I have time.
I would recommend playing the DLC for the first game if you haven't already (Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches). There's a major character in the second game who's introduced in the DLC, but gets nothing in the way of explanation in Dishonored 2. I was very confused right out of the gate.
I was just about to start the second one too. Thanks for the heads-up. I'll redownload the first one again before playing Dishonored 2. Its Dishonored definitive edition that's on game pass and it comes with that DLC which I had no idea was a thing until now. 👍
Cyberpunk 2077
BEN 10: Power Trip.
An odd admission but I actually enjoyed playing this with the little one as more than just the shared experience, it's easy enough she can run around and do stuff without me being fully invested or walking away for a couple of moments etc, and does build nicely with the way you unlock the characters. She has really gotten into finding the collectable and secrets too.
Neither of us has ever watched Ben 10 nor do we know anything about it, but that hasn't lessened the fun, we started this in the summer hols entirely due to it being in the kids or co-op section on Gamepass, so would recommend it in the Gaming with Kids thread.
I would recommend playing the DLC for the first game if you haven't already (Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches). There's a major character in the second game who's introduced in the DLC, but gets nothing in the way of explanation in Dishonored 2. I was very confused right out of the gate.
Knife of Dunwall
The Brigmore Witches
Completed both campaign DLC's now and thought it was brilliant to be honest. The new abilities was a welcome addition from the main game, and the character arc for Daud was surprisingly interesting. He goes through a quiet a bit before you meet him in the main game. Can't believe I almost missed this. When it said DLC in the menu. I thought it was just cosmetic and stuff like that. Finally ready for Dishonored 2 now.
I absolutely bloody love the first Dishonored, it's such a perfect mix of clockwork and improvisation. I don't think I've ever seen that balance so well held through a whole game before or since. The temptation of letting rip with all the death vs trying to make the world a better place is a constant tightrope, and the way the world changes adds a moral element to the game and avoids the sort of dissonance found in so many other games. The full no alarms/no deaths run I did was one of my favourite gaming experiences, really forces you to explore and improvise in a way that almost exactly matches what I want from a game. Level design is up there with the best, moment-to-moment play is a joy, and the world is such a well-thought-through and consistent thing.
For me, it's the peak of the series, and for Arkane in general - a real statement of intent, pretty much perfectly executed. Safely in my top ten for the generation, and, if I'd thought about it, probably in my all time list as well. I'll be interested to see what you make of the sequels as you go through them.
Loved Dishonored 1, could never get into the second. Have an on/off relationship with Deathloop.
I think Arkane put together good gamey games full of gamey game things with gamey game systems and gamey game stuff to do, but they also make them slightly hard to love. I don't know if it's just because the grinding gears of the game systems are always so exposed and obvious (even if elegantly done) that there's always a slight disconnect when you're playing that it feels a bit like you're doing QA/testing on a prototype. Poking and prodding things to see what works and what doesn't, without being swept away by the experience.
I'll be interested to see what you make of the sequels as you go through them.
Yeah, really looking forward to it.
Just had a look and Dishonored 2 is 30FPS on console. 🤦 Going from the first that was boosted to 60 on the Xbox. This is disappointing. It was the same thing with the rebooted Tomb Raider games when the first and third were running at 60 but the second was only 30 FPS. Ah, well. Just gonna have to deal with it I guess.
JANUARY
Ori and the Blind Forest
Escape Academy: Escape from Anti-Escape Island (DLC)
Windosill
Tinykin
FEBRUARY
RPG Time: The Legend of Wright
The Witness - I mean, does it count if I managed to remember that there's a legitimate hidden way of skipping right to the end of the game in the first five minutes? Because I did. Playing it properly now, but I'm still adding it to the list since the credits 'rolled'… 
Marvel's Midnight Suns
A good game, with a surprising amount of jank and the weirdest pacing I've ever seen in a game.
For most of its run it is incredibly leisurely, despite a looming end-of-the-world crisis you spend ages just pottering about collecting herbs or hanging out with your superhero buddies. It's probably got more dialogue than I've ever seen in a game before, literally everyone has something to say about everything that happens and you can spend ages just chatting in between missions. There's no pressure at all to progress the story, you can just do side missions and build up friendship meters and generally it's just incredibly laid back.
Then the final third of the game is absurdly rushed; likely the developers simply ran out of time. The plot wraps itself up very quickly (and doesn't really make much sense as a result), you get the final character literally two battles before the end of the game, and the ending is ridiculously abrupt. It's a shame because you spend all this time building up relationships with each of the characters and then you barely get any kind of pay-off at the end.
Still, it doesn't detract from the game itself, which has solid combat mechanics, surprisingly good writing and plenty to do. I've enjoyed it enough to buy the season pass - Deadpool was a great addition and I think Venom is due out in a few days, so I'll be popping into this regularly to check out the new characters and some of the post-game missions that have been unlocked. If they sort out all the bugged achievements, I might even be tempted to get a bit completionist.
JANUARY
Ori and the Blind Forest
Escape Academy: Escape from Anti-Escape Island (DLC)
Windosill
Tinykin
FEBRUARY
RPG Time: The Legend of Wright
The Witness (kind of)
A Little To The Left - Looked great, right up my street. Enjoyed it initially. Then the ridiculously obtuse solutions kicked in and I started hating it, to the point where I just wanted it to be over instead of hunting for the secret answers. Done, deleted, ugh.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns
Shadow of the Colossus
The Callisto Protocol[/b]
Observation
From No Code, the people behind Stories Untold, and represents a pretty natural evolution from that first game, with the narrative focus and contextual puzzling. In this one you play as the AI of a space station, as you and one of the crew attempt to work what the hell has happened, and where everybody else is. It’s sort of a walking simulator, except instead of walking you’re mainly flying around or moving from CCTV camera to CCTV camera.
The lo-fi sci-fi aesthetic really suits it, as at times you could almost believe everything was photorealistic, at least until someone takes off their helmet; I know the budgets were wildly different, but the slightly dodgy models were really shown up coming to this straight after The Callisto Protocol.
I enjoyed it, anyway; it has an interesting story, and good atmosphere, while not outstaying it’s welcome, so the odd mild goose chase wasn’t too bad.
Dishonored 2 -9/10
Fantastic sequel. Improved on every aspect from the first. I'm interested to know how big or small the differences for Emily and Corvo actually is. Ended up picking Emily for story reasons. Also the game says she's better for a more stealth style too. Convinced me to play without killing anyone this time around. The none lethal approach to eliminating the targets is definitely the way to go. They get pretty creative and seeing it unfold is satisfying. Solid story with a good old revenge plot with a great character ack for Emily. Cuts out a lot of the fluff with too many twist and turns the first game had.
Straight away you can see the amount of polish over the first game in the first level. The towns feel a lot more lively with lots of civilians walking around. I also found the collectables and side quest more enjoyable. The powers seemed better gameplay wise and the quality of life changes were very welcomed. Something that really bothered me from the first game was the power to see enimies through walls. Really good power to have (if not a bit too good) but you end up playing most of the game with a filter on and glowing yellow enimies. Kinda reminds me of Batman Arkham Asylum when you miss out on the level design because your always using that detective vision. In this it's nowhere near as strong, with it having a beating wave that scans rather than it just scanning everything with no downside to it. Still has a filter over the screen but not half as bad.
Once the credits roll I couldn't help but think this has to be one of my favorite "stealth" games of all time. Easy recommend.
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider -4.5/10
Ah man. This was a big disappointment unfortunately. The story is decent. Trying to kill the Outsider is pretty cool. He's one of the most interesting characters in the series so it's nice to see him as part of the story this time around. The levels are boring and dull. Thankfully the game is short but you mostly play on the same level but from a different time of day. Side quest were uninteresting and for the first time I didn't have the insensitive to complete them all. The rewards are just money to buy and upgrade gear with. No powers to unlock and upgrade. I think that's the worst part of the game. The powers aren't fun at all. The standard teleport jump feels slow and clunky. You now have to confirm first and press again to teleport. The scanning ability now stops time while you fly around in first person so you can mark the enimies and then you can see them through walls and stuff. Again, slows the game down too much. Taking people's faces was really cool, but breaks the game. Once you take a person face you can run through hostile sections without needing to stealth or fight. This game also drops any reason to play the game none lethal because it doesn't change anything at all, meh.
Below average with some good ideas that didn't work. Compared to the other 2 games it doesn't come close. The two DLC's from the first game were so much better.
Hot Wheels Unleashed -6.5/10
I enjoyed this. Fun arcade racer with awesome looking cars that I would of loved to have as a kid. Its things like the Road Runner looking and playing like you would expect. Beep Beep!
Hit the credits on Metroid Prime last night, with a 74% complete stat. Enjoyed most of it, but some parts were pretty frustrating (that scavenger hunt for the artifacts, a few of the very videogamey bosses, finding my way around the map). It felt a lot longer than the 15 hours I took to complete it, though mostly in a good way.
Sonic 3D Blast -5/10
Not bad, not good. I had some enjoyment in the collection part of the game. I also liked how chilled the game was. That's all the positives I can say though. The movement feels way off like your running one ice. Easily the hardest part of the game for me. Most of the time you lose your rings because Sonic is sliding all over the place. The most interesting thing about this game is the mindset of how they imagined a 3D Sonic game back in the day. 🤔
Guardian Heroes -6/10
Never heard of this until a friend recommended it to me. He knows I love side scroller beat'em ups and it's a decent game to be honest. It feels a little short even for this type of game, but the replay value is fun. You make decisions that changes the story a bit and takes you to different stages. Its nothing groundbreaking but it worked pretty well. The art style and animation looks brilliant which helped the characters stand out more. They almost play like in a 90s fighting game. They have a move list with inputs attacks just like Street Fighter which I thought was a nice touch. I think compared to other great beat'em ups like Street of Rage, Final Fight and River City Girls it feels a little underwhelming. Saying that though I don't have any nostalgia for it and it is pretty old now. Only paid £3.40 for it on the Microsoft store. Felt like money well spent.
JANUARY
Ori and the Blind Forest
Escape Academy: Escape from Anti-Escape Island (DLC)
Windosill
Tinykin
FEBRUARY
RPG Time: The Legend of Wright
The Witness (kind of)
A Little To The Left
MARCH
Elechead - Nice little brain bending platform puzzler that seems simple, but ramps up the need to think outside the box to clear rooms. Has two endings, the 'best' of which isn't what you'd expect. Next!
Cyberpunk 2077
BEN 10: Power Trip.
Goat Simulator 3
We got this for Xmas and it's a decent update on the first, also the end "boss fight" and stage was frankly hilarious. Had so much fun playing through this and still seems like we have loads to do.
Mighty Final Fight -7.5/10
Over the moon about this game. Never knew it existed until a few month ago. Feels good to get a brand new game to one of my personal favorite series. More importantly its has Cody back! From the Final Fight series to the Street Fighter series, Cody is one of the best video game characters of all time (fingers crossed for him to be DLC for SF6 down the road 🤞). Plays a little different to the mainline titles. Cute cartoon style and more simple combat, but still really fun. It's even cool as a SF fan to see some cross overs. Like in SFV he has a projectile that I always thought was made up for that game, but it's actually taken from this small title. Love little things like that. Here's hoping for a Streets of Rage 4 level reboot!
Mirror's Edge Catalyst
A solid recommendation from cav and Bri, so thanks for that. This is a straight-down-the-line 7/10 game but we all know they are secretly the best ones. The plot is incomprehensible (not helped by the way the other characters, who are all hateful, deliver exposition by constantly jabbering in your ear while you're trying not to fall off a fucking building) but the actual free-running is great and there's all the usual open-world fun of trying to tick off a million icons and not being quite sure why. There are some seriously tough time trials in there and some side missions I genuinely want to go back and do so I'm not quite done with this one yet. It does sadly give me a touch of motion sickness so I have to limit how much I play.
One thing I found interesting is how accurately you can date this game from its online features. It's a 2015 game, so that means lots of asynchronous multiplayer stuff, lots of leaderboards and time trials you can create as well as locations you can check in and billboards you can hack to display your name. (Five years previously this game would have had some sort of shoehorned-in multiplayer mode, these days it would be a season pass and a million cosmetics). Of course no-one on my friends list has played Mirror's Edge Catalyst in years so it's like a digital ghost town now. Occasionally I'll come across some indication that cavalcade was once in the same spot, or sadly beat someone I know in a time trial safe in the knowledge that they will never ever return to find that out. Loading screens exhort me to log on to the game's website (which may or may not still be there) to update my "runner tag", which I know no-one will ever see. It's quite melancholy really, and it sort of works in the game's favour.
I enjoy the characters all being intensely dislikeable, it feels like you're in a futuristic Kent.
If you want more motion sickness, I played through half of ME1 recently. It's still fantastic.
I think it's @Garwoofoo here who has a Quest 2 and uses AirLink? Have you had any joy with finding a cable that sends data to the helmet without compression? I've tried loads and they simply don't match the wireless. Which is weird, but the wireless AirLink for me has the occasional slight hitch and I just bought Kayak VR: Mirage and I think it's absolutely a game a load of family and my partner might like to try. But I need the experience not have lurching issues from time to time. Cable seems safest, but I'm getting a huge amount of image compression. Maybe I'll try it on Virtual Desktop.
Anyway, I love kayaking (there is one on my patio and I frequently take it out in summer for a tootle around the rivers here, and occasionally into the sea if I have a death wish. Mirage is a good approximation of the best bits of kayaking, and is arguably the best looking VR game I've seen (with everything cranked to the max). There's not really a huge point to it and it's a bit tech demoish, but just tootling around Antartica into ice caves, or through the craggy coastline of Australia is a joy.
I also picked up Enslaved for the Steam Deck, a game I actually finished when it originally came out and remember enjoying. Its aged really well, looks good, decent mocap, slightly quirky but solid traversal. Bit of a hidden gem, which I'm surprised they've never formally reissued or remastered.
Also picked up Star Renegades, which looks incredibly cool and seems really rich and deep and could be brilliant, but my brain may be too old, as halfway through the tutorial I just wanted to eat a scone and read an Adrian Chiles column in the Guardian to decompress.
Still hammering hours into Ring of Pain (lmao). I think it's the only post Monster Train game that has anywhere near the same appeal. It's quick, complex enough, ramps fast, and is infuriating enough to demand repeat plays when you die.
Enslaved it's such a good game. I'd really like to replay it. I probably still have it on disc somewhere.
I think it's @Garwoofoo here who has a Quest 2 and uses AirLink? Have you had any joy with finding a cable that sends data to the helmet without compression? I've tried loads and they simply don't match the wireless. Which is weird, but the wireless AirLink for me has the occasional slight hitch and I just bought Kayak VR: Mirage and I think it's absolutely a game a load of family and my partner might like to try. But I need the experience not have lurching issues from time to time. Cable seems safest, but I'm getting a huge amount of image compression. Maybe I'll try it on Virtual Desktop.
I've got a Quest 2 but my old gaming PC finally gave up the ghost and I've replaced it with a resolutely non-gaming laptop, sadly, so AirLink isn't of much use to me any more.
I always found it pretty flawless to be honest but then again my wifi setup was about as good as it could be (PC hardwired to the router, Wifi 6 mesh system with a wired satellite right in the room where I was playing) and I'm sure my experience wasn't necessarily typical. You can reduce the bandwidth used in the Airlink settings, I think - maybe that would help avoid occasional hitching? I never tried it with a cable so can't really help you there, sorry.
I've posted most of this in the wrong thread… But thanks. It's weird. AirLink is so much better than the cable I'm thinking something is wrong somewhere….
Cyberpunk 2077
BEN 10: Power Trip.
Goat Simulator 3
Dragon Age 2 (or is it Dragons Age, not actually sure)
Loved the first, potentially one of my fave games of that era and I hated Dragon Age 2 as a result when it came out. Gave up on it almost immediately. I started it years later on Xbox One when I got EA Access and again gave up, then after we moved last year I had a podcast that discussed it and so returned to it (this time on Series X) and have actually really enjoyed it despite its flaws.
I have now purchased Inquisition as despite getting it with Access/GP the game of the year edition with all DLC was 6 pound in the sale, so will move onto that once I return to and finish Shenmue 2 finally.
