Play
Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga (3DS)
I just remembered I have a hacked 3ds which I haven't touched since I got back from France. This game seems to still hold up, I'll let you know it I finish it this time.
FF VII (PSone, on my RG35XXH)
Very retro these days but I still love PSone polys over bitmap backgrounds.
Want
To plug in my Xbox SS and play some proper modern games. Like Crackdown…
Bin
Well, Trump hopefully.
Play
As predicted, I've started on Dragon Age: The Veilguard before finishing Star Wars Outlaws; I will go back and finish the heist, guv, I promise, but Veilguard is exactly what I want to play right now, in the same way that Dragon Age II was in 2011.
Want
…nothing? I mean, I have a wishlist a mile long of nice-to-haves, but I can't think of anything on the horizon right now that feels essential.
Still bouncing along on my playthrough of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, an excellent intro the series because it's not very hard at all and it's really good. I still prefer Advance Wars but the fact that I can play this a few times and have different characters and experiences because of how level ups work is why these games are so replayable. I mean I'm replaying it because I have it on a handheld but I didn't beat this too long ago, think it was my second to last beaten game, so it was clearly a fun experience.
Trying out the Monster Hunter Wilds beta these past few days, it really is MHW2 eh? It's both undeniably Monster Hunter but also I'm really having to readjust to the new flow this time, my first hunt took so long because of it. I still don't know all the new tricks you can do but monsters will still die when you hit them enough times so its not a massive departure or anything. I will say the new Focus Mode where you can now change the direction of your Hunter mid attacks with the right analogue is something I wish the game like, 3 generations ago, no more charging Greatsword in the wrong direction or unleashing the Charge Blade explosion and missing…and the new wound mechanic feels like the Clutch Claw weakening from Iceborne but not really fucking annoying.
Not so hidden elephant in the room though, it kinda looks and runs pretty rough, maybe not for PC Gigachads but on my Series S it doesn't look as nice as I remember World did and we all knew those herds and 'open world' effects would chomp at the fps. I do have faith thisi s mostly a beta thing, but it's quite weird to experience it in a MH game.
EDIT - There's an arachnophobia mode that turns all spiders into green/yellow jelly, what the fuck man
Not a huge amount of surprises here this month…
PLAY
A mixture of old games on my arcade machine and RG552, a bit of Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket when the timers finally roll round (goddamn, they're slow), Vampire Survivors because the new Ode to Castlevania DLC is wonderful, and Mario & Luigi: Brothership which is out next week.
WANT
Absolutely nothing that's vaguely close. I guess I'll go mad for Metroid Prime 4 when it finally arrives?
BIN
Everything's fucked anyway, but Tuesday will be especially awful. Then we can all just go back to killing each other like normal.
Playing a lot of Timberborn these days, I've realised I much prefer the early-days colony setup phase to that later optimisation bits. I've never gotten the hang of multiple districts, but that kind of resource and population management hews too close to tedious for my liking. Big construction projects are fun though, so there's a sweet spot between the tech tree and colony size where I have a lot of fun.
I do occasionally get a bit of time on Metaphor, but it's been less of a fixture in the last week or so – I need to get back to it before I completely forget what's going on.
Also nothing big – wouldn't mind some time off work to sink into Metaphor properly, but that seems overindulgent.
I'm heading to North Carolina next weekend, just in time for the Purge to begin. If America could just fuckin' chill out for that week, it would be great.
The Castlevania dlc for Vampire Survivors is fucking amazing, the Castlevania theme remixes (all bangers so far, not heard Bloody Tears yet) are good, the Castlevania stage being a big mega level as if it was a Castlevania game is genius but the real home run for me is they added 20 new characters from the series.
This includes almost every Belmont, from Simon to Trevor and even the dude from the N64 game no one apparently liked, and even more impressively the cancelled female Belmont, if that doesn't show a love for the source material I don't know what does.
There's apparently also a 100 extra weapons for you make even more funny screen filling mayhem builds. I really couldn't have imagined a better Castlevania dlc for this game.
Bin
I'm heading to North Carolina next weekend, just in time for the Purge to begin. If America could just fuckin' chill out for that week, it would be great.
You're going… where?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/03/trump-supporters-election-results
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/03/trump-supporters-election-results
The Trump is of human last hope..?
“I have kids, I can’t afford to go to prison. And I don’t like orange.”
…why's she voting for him, then?
Play
Dragon Age: Origins - I'm fifteen years and 700 hours of gameplay behind the rest of the world but I'm actually really enjoying this. It's the most 2009 game in existence - it's browner than poo and it exists at that precise point in time just before developers realised that RPGs didn't need to have all their numbers and stats on display (see also Mass Effect 1 and the original Witcher game) - but in every other respect it is vintage BioWare and I am surprisingly invested in all the beardy shenanigans. I'm playing on Xbox (where the FPS boost and auto HDR make an appreciable difference) which means the combat is a bit Benny Hill rather than the strategic top-down approach that PC players get, but a combination of FF12-style gambits and some judicious pausing of the action actually makes it far more engaging than it initially appears. This is all good stuff.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - on the Steam Deck, where it runs surprisingly well with a few tweaks and is actually a pretty good handheld game, with lots of bite-size levels and great pacing throughout. This is just a really fun game, with lots of action and great characters and bright, colourful worlds. (I am less keen on the Ratchet and Glitch puzzle sub-levels, but even there they can be skipped entirely if you don't like them). They don't make them like this any more, apart from on the occasions when they do.
Want
Still very keen on Monster Hunter Wilds although I'm hearing worrisome things about performance, I hope we are not already at the stage of the generation where games are only really optimised for Pro consoles (which aren't even out yet). Also Yakuza Pirates or whatever it's called, that's just nailed on as a game I will enjoy.
Bin
Ditching Mario & Rabbids: Sparks of Hope - it's fine I guess but the battles are too simplistic and I'm basically just using the same characters and tactics over and over. Also where the first game had a fun hook - Rabbids invade the Mushroom Kingdom and cause chaos! - this is more "Mario and Rabbids go on an adventure to bizarro world for some reason" and the worlds and characters are all super-uninspired. I know, I know, it's a game for kids, what was I expecting etc, well, maybe a bit better than this but ah well.
I'm pre-emptively binning a couple of months of Trumpian shithousery which is really inevitable at this point, isn't it? Hope he gets soundly defeated and fucks off forever, hopefully straight into a cell.
I skipped all the puzzle levels and I'm not sorry about it. I do think it's a wonderful game though and I'd considered getting it on PC to replay it as I really enjoyed it for the most part…
Can we not have a full Sly Cooper I-IV remaster please?
Can we not have a full Sly Cooper I-IV remaster please?
I was just about to reply that they did this recently, with the Sly Collection on PS4.
Googled it. Nope, was PS3, 14 years ago. Jesus Christ.
Yeah, I still have the PS3 disk and it makes me sad whenever I look at it. I know you can play them via emulation pretty well on the PC, but I'm sure there'd be a market for a proper HD remaster?
I know Sucker Punch are all in on Ghosts now, but surely a 3rd party studio could have a crack at it.
I played them on my Vita and thought they held up pretty well. Ten years ago sure, but I think you'd still enjoy them on a handheld.
Every new Belmont I unlock in Vampire Survivors has me saying 'this is even more OP than the last one' and chuckling to myself as I'm 'boxed in' by a literal wave of enemies surrounding me with no gaps and dying as they enter the Whip threshold. The developer just put a ton of OP shit in the game and didn't give a fuck, I love it,
The problem I'm having is the 'Kill X with this person' unlocks. Of all the bosses, I only know Slogra (?) by name, he's the pointy nose guy with the spear. That the others have names is news to me, I'll have to go look them up to work out which is which.
I'm happy to go blind for now (although I was lucky in that Julius was super easy to unlock) but I have stumbled on to a map that details the Castle now so all I need to is follow the red skulls on the screen with the latest new character until that stops unlocking new ones.
Also, this reminds me of a Want: I think this dlc proves it is high time for a re-release on all stores of Castlevania: Harmony of Despair! I know this is hit and miss for some people but if you don't know what it is, it's like a regular Castelvania sidescroller/loot grinder featuring many stages and characters from the series. The Vampire Survivors DLC makes it look quite small time now as far as love letters to a series go but I got super addicted to it as Shanoa and Simon Belmont trying to speedrun their respective stages for their best gear.
I remember HoD. Never played enough of it to get a love for it, because it was quite multiplayer focused if I remember correctly? But it was decent enough. That said, I've now got a hankering to replay Symphony of the Night, so that'll happen. Also…
Additional PLAY:
Had planned to buy Metal Slug Tactics on Switch, but I see it's on Game Pass. I'll take that, thanks.
It was but it can be played solo, I imagine getting 6 players speeds things up considerably though. And Metal Slug Tactics looks CLEAN, I wish I had it on a handheld because of the type of game it is, but my PC will do I guess.
Okay so…I really like Metal Slug Tactics so far, the 'move as much as possible to gain armour' is a pretty odd mechanic for a grid based strategy game but so far it hasn't felt bad and I can see/respect what they were trying to do I think. I wasn't expecting to have some roguelike elements…and for it to be quite tough (but fair, so far) but assuming a successful run is short I don't mind this at all, I can see some people noping out at this point though.
There's actually a fair few mechanics to it that I haven't fully grasped yet, and also I need to learn good routes and upgrades to shoot for but I think they've nailed it.
Despite playing the shit out of it on the OG Xbox back in the day I've forgotten everything about Jade Empire now…which is kinda sad. My Baldurs Gate 3 playthrough is approaching soon I feel, so I think maybe it would be unwise to start a Dragon Age: Origins playthrough and directly off the back off Metaphor but apparently this was relatively short and is martial arts based so I'm giving it a shot.
I can't tell if it's just old or how much is the 'unsupported on SD' part but its kiiiiiinda' janky, but nothing major. Only passed the first bandit attack so I can't tell if the combat system was actually good or not but I've enjoyed making people literally explode with Harmonic Combos…
Jade Empire's evil path seems like the worst Bioware ever did? I might have known this at the time but did it for the content, which honestly…fine tbh. It's a massive shame though, because the game mentions the two paths: Way of the closed Fist and Way of the Open Palm and the Open Palm is as you expect whereas Closed Fist is explicitly mentioned in a way that sounds mean but can also still be well intentioned but so far all responses are just you being an absolute dickhead and there's a character at the start who is basically that and no one likes him but you can end up being worse.
I mean, the Dark Side in KOTOR isn't really Bioware's creation sowhen you have Sith frazzling people for fun it's kinda' the setting, but in KOTOR2 Kreia is a fucking fantastic grey morality type of character who makes the Force really interesting. (wait wasn't the second game Obsidian anyway? lol)
Anyway, the game is still pretty janky but I'm liking it a lot.
Mass Effect was a bit like that too, though it improved as the series went on. ME1 renegade path is basically just you being a rude twat to people for no reason. By ME3 it’s more “I don’t have time for this shit” which is probably what they were going for in the first place, but it took them a while to get there.
In Jade Empire the npc also mentions how the open palm path can lead you to being a tyrant too, like you decide to clamp down on crime before it can begin by being super draconian. Man…
The two paths, arsehole and cop.
Great to read people are playing Dragon Age Origins. Loved that game.
I have mainly been messing about playing a lot of the Starship Troopers RTS from the other year whose full name I don't actually know. It's the perfect setting for an RTS and they have nailed the things they do and the universe of Troopers and the film really well.
It has 3 main ideas:
A) Being overwhelmed by bugs and having to hold out for a set time or evacuate a certain VIP.
B) Being a small team needing to sneak and get somewhere specific.
C) Building a force and going to the bug spawn locations and eliminating them, all whilst holding the main base.
Often, the game mixes up parts of them within each level too. It's decent design of how you don't need loads of gimmicks or ideas, if you really hone what you do have.
Also just started a playthrough of FIFA Soccer Manager. This is Windows 95 but playing on XP. Recently bought a 2003 Packard Bell iMedia desktop, that is virtually identical in design to the actual desktop I bought around then, just with a different colour case.
GAR THERE ARE ELVAAN IN EORZEA
Oh my, Mass Effect LE looks pretty damn good on SD. I'm not sure but could we always see fabric texture? 
I'm quite impressed that combat is still fun, the Sniper Rifle just ragdolling everything with that 'boom' sound effect is immensely satisfying. Also that bit on Eden Prime where you advance on that long walkway and that Big Geth charges towards you and if you use Throw his momentum makes him fall through the air on his arse.
Play
I have really been enjoying the Playdate. Two games in particular - Rensword, a Scrabble-style deckbuilder and Whitewater Wipeout which is a Lynx California Games surfing thing with CRANK action. Rensword is a really good idea, and I keep thinking it must've been done by someone else, as like Balatro appropriating poker, the idea of a word tile deck builder is a simple, but good one. The only small issue is (and I've read the devs talking about this) that the little Playdate can't parse a huge dictionary list of words at speed, so there are some slight compromises with word recognition, which can be frustrating. I think it should use a recognised dictionary, like Scrabble. Whitewater is a great game. It seems really simple at first and I was terrible at it. But then something clicked (you need to preload the jumps with a button and really be aggressive with positioning) and it has become a highly addictive score chaser that absolutely mugs you off if you get too overconfident. On a good run though, it's up there with the best sort of videogames where you think you're the coolest person alive.
After feltmonkey mentioning it I also got the Lucas Pope game for it. I haven't played it though. Which is on me.
Astro Bears (Switch) - I'm fairly sure Astro Bears might be the best videogame ever made. After hours of increasingly frantic competitive games with my kids, there started to be long chats about "the bear meta" and "sprint jump cancelling". Like Geoguesser suddenly becoming the best eSport in the world (it is, please watch it next year and follow Rainbolt on the socials) I'm fairly sure an Astro Bears World Cup could be bigger than League of Legends and Counterstrike combined.
Want
I do need a second PS5 (ridiculous as that sounds) as I'm currently carting my fat one to and from Wales and Ireland. Do I need a pro one? I mean…. the DF videos are almost ludicrous in the incremental improvements I'm supposed to be seeing. And the Pro has caused a flood of cheap original PS5s on rllmuk. But… I am also an idiot. So maybe I want this?
As you might've guessed, felt and I met up. Which did kindle the idea of maybe some sort of Soc meet at some point. Maybe.
Bin
Internet dating! But, not so much because it didn't work, but because I think it has. Firstly, after the stories I've heard guys, it's a bleak world out there for women in their late 40s and early 50s. Men are awful. Middle aged men doubly so. I always suspected it, but the stories. My god. This means as a relatively sane, solvent, non-MRA person its been…. quite an experience. I have dated some lovely people, but I think I have found someone I'll give it a more committed shot with. And she's from Essex (and sounds it, even after 30 years in Ireland), so stick with what you know I guess. I think I have a type.
I am also pondering what to do in Ireland. In 4 months I need to make a decision. I could continue renting (expensive), buy in NI (maybe Belfast, though I don't like Belfast much), buy in the Republic (and aim for Irish citizenship in a few years), or just get a nice camper van and tootle all over the place (as I still have a place in Wales). Kinda fancy the last option to do the full digital nomad thing.
Still playing Soul Calibur 2 on and off and the Weapon Master mode is actually pretty fun, single player wise I'm really enjoying this in general. It's the one that held up competitively in the community (although SC6 is still going of course) but right now I'm just having fun unlocking stuff. Also the PS2 version because I wanted to see Heihachi for once, and I was a bit tired of people acting like Link was the best thing in the game…but he probably was the best guest. (Funny that Spawn is the Xbox version and Kratos is in the PSP game but both ended up in Mortal Kombat…there's a pipeline there or something???)
The real tragedy here is that apparently Soul Calibur 1 and 2 HD remasters have been delisted since…errr ages ago, which still sucks because I'd have bought both, but I guess that what happens when you have so many guest characters. (Including Darth Bloody Vader and Yoda in SC4)
Looking forward to SC3 a lot, I know it's glitches made it basically a no go for competitive play and people prefer the system of SC2 generally buti t had another fantastic single player mode which is what I'm looking for.
felt and I met up…
Bin
Internet dating!
😐
Dragon Age: The Veilguard just keeps going. I'm on chapter 10 (of 13?), avoiding main plot quests like the plague in favour of side quests and companion stuff, and really enjoying it.
I'm not sure what my play time is, but maybe the most impressive thing about it is the almost complete lack of padding - every quest is a story, and relates either to the main threat(s), or one of the party members. It's thrown into particularly sharp relief, I think, given that I came to this almost straight off the back of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which has to be one of the most padded games in recent memory.
felt and I met up…
Bin
Internet dating!😐
Always knew the Soc had a Tinder vibe.
Had another go at Lamp Lighters League last night and it finally clicked with me this time after about 3 or 4 missions. Once I finally accepted it's not Xcom and I should be constantly trying to overwatch and incremental inch, but that I should be trying to set up lots of chances for the OP super agent team I finally started to enjoy it.
Ah great, I love that game. It needed a couple more patches and could have supported years of DLC, it’s a shame it got dropped so quickly, but what’s there is superb.
felt and I met up…
Bin
Internet dating!😐
felt and I have a big announcement for the Soc.
Bagsie chief bridesmaid.
Shotgun drunk uncle.
I swear Wrex is one of the best companions Bioware ever did, I like that he's both typically Krogan and yet he's actually pretty smart and forward thinking. Seemingly one of the only Krogan in the game to be thinking about the future of his race and still somehow locked in to the cycle of violence most of them are found in. That and he's pretty funny.
Sorry, after Jade Empire I'm just enjoying having companions that are actually worth exploring dialogue with again. 
Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge is a good Castlevania game and a great Game Boy game. It's like the first NES game but not as harsh making it an actually decent intro to the series, this is on the Anniversary Collection too so that collection has only gone up in value in my eyes, awesome ost too.
A couple of additional Plays:
Inscryption which is like a perfect 50/50 mashup of Hand of Fate and Slay the Spire with a creepier atmosphere than both of them put together. It's a slippery little thing, this, constantly changing under you and wrong-footing you when you think you've got a handle on it. I've nearly "beaten" it and I have a feeling it's going to whip everything out from under me when I do, I don't think I'm even remotely near the end yet.
Assassin's Creed: Mirage - in search of some comfort gaming I've drifted back to this series, it's been a surprisingly long time since Valhalla. This is is a smaller entry that harks back to the more traditional entries rather than being a massive RPG like the last three games. It's very familiar, with the emphasis on stealth and parkour, and I'm enjoying it a lot even if I can't quite shake the feeling that I've played this exact game about ten times before.
Inscryption… I've nearly "beaten" it
The old weird man in the cabin? Pffftt… yeah, not quite. 
Pretty sure I can beat Mass Effect tonight if I wanted to, almost as short as Jade Empire D: (not a bad thing I'm just surprised)