Yeah I constantly changed builds, partially because it's fun to mix things up and partially because some parts of this game got pretty spicy, not exactly to a Soulslike level but enough to make me angry lol, they already had to nerf some bosses because they were walling new players. Also, I just loved building new things, it was like a toy, I am definitely not the only person to make a Gundam style Red/White/Yellow/Blue mech…or the Sazabi
My favourite was either the OP light AC with quad shotguns which made me feel like a sort of Mech based Mercenary boogeyman people tell horror stories about (I hear this got nerfed and honestly? Valid) or one where I got close enough to use a certain melee weapon you get later that does a lot of damage. Also a big fan of the Tank tread builds where you just ram people into walls. Can I suggest the very meme worthy MISSILE BOAT though?
Not guaranteeing it's GOOD but…missiles upon missilies up on missiles is pretty funny on certain enemies. 
I've been playing a bit of Doom: The Dark Ages which seemed to make almost zero impact this year but is actually pretty decent I think. It's not as difficult or as complex as Eternal and I seem to get lost a lot less than I did in Doom 2016 so I'm having a pretty good time with it.
I'm skipping every cutscene though and I don't feel like I'm missing anything at all. Who on earth thought Doom needed a plot? Just point me at the hellspawn and let me get started.
For reasons unknown even to me, and despite my complete inability to deal with horror as a genre, I am extremely tempted by Silent Hill f. If it wasn't £70 I might have cracked already.
I've missed talking about several games I've played recently, but just today I started Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 and so far it's really good. The first couple of hours are a roller-coaster, and much more entertaining than you'd expect from a game as detailed in it's systems as this is. Like, it has a potion crafting system which gives you written instructions in a book which is a physical object within the game and takes into account how far away from the flames the pot is. Also, sometimes you have to have a wash before talking to people.
The combat is brutal and satisfying. Every fight is a life-or-death struggle, and your opponents want to survive as much as you do. I have killed three people and each one felt significant. I even buried their bodies in shallow graves in the woods, like some kind of serial murderer.
If this all sounds a bit serious, this is undercut by the game's sense of humour. The stealth tutorial involves trying to sneak up on some women who are washing thier pants in a pond. The dialogue is lively, well-written, and well-acted.
How Long To Beat has it at 95 hours with all the sidequests, which is a real problem.
I'm seriously debating on whether to start with this or the first game, I heard the sequel is described as something of a modern Oblivion and is probably my last blind spot for GOTY this year. (also man I fell off hard on that Oblivion remaster)
If this all sounds a bit serious, this is undercut by the game's sense of humour.
I saw a clip where the player tried to steal something and got caaught, what followed was him trying to talk his way out of it and it felt like a Monty Python skit, really funny. I don't mind a game like this being as long as it is, but in the context of all these other games I want to play it does mean I'd need a good window to start it.
Anyway, I should be done with Trails 1st just in time for the Final Fantasy Tactics remake (although the devs apparently say it's not a remake or a remaster, it's just a new version of the game) which is probably cheating but it's GOTY assuming they haven't fucked up the balance with the changes or anything.
I didn't play the first game, although naturally for some reason I own it. Possibly as a giveaway through the Epic Games Store. KCD2 does a really nice job of recapping some of the salient points from the story and letting you know the main character Henry's motivation. I don't want to spoil it, but it's quite seamless.
Play
I'm closing in on about 200 hours in Monster Train 2 (though I suspect it sometimes logs time if I've left the Ally on suspend, so the real figure is probably half that). I'm quite close to having all the trophies and looking at the list they're all eminently doable so I might aim to 100 percent it. I think it's a great game (obviously) but there are a few things I'd like to see changed for MT3 or in some DLC (balancing and UI tweaks). That said it's my GOTY no contest.
As I'm heading off to Paris this week for the VCT finals (and thankfully my son and I's team Fnatic have made it to the final stages) I've been playing a lot of Valorant. Most other multiplayer games I'm definitely getting too old for, but still hanging in there just about.
Want
Post MT2 when it comes I need another portable title to sink my teeth into. I might give Baldur's Gate 3 a real go (though it is probably a bit involved), but a small part of me wonders if I could grow to love Balatro. Or maybe go back to Slay The Spire. Or maybe I need a break from that sort of game…
My partner and I have got quite into metal detecting. It's borderline illegal in the Republic and not much better in the North, but we've decided to do it anyway. So far - a lot of ring pulls/fishing hooks/nails. But… we're about to spend more on a good bit of kit so who knows? Maybe soon we'll find a Euro or an earring (the dream). And yes, The Detectorists was part of the inspiration. I fear this is my version of getting old and getting into coin collecting or bird watching, but I'm nearly 50. Time to lean into it.
Also about to purchase a Mini 5 drone. Doing a lot of Whale watching off the coast and the range of my poor old Mini 2 is being a bit exposed. But have still managed a lot of video of minkie and humpback whales all the same. I did manage to put another of my drones into a river while filming salmon leaping a few weeks back, so it's an expensive hobby. (None of this is ever near people, I feel too much shame to send a drone up if there is anyone even within 5 miles of me).
Bin
Fascism is go!
Well, Final Fantasy Tactics for GOTY feels like pretty much a lock-in for me and I've only played a few hours. There's a baffling decision to lock the graphical style behind one of two versions the game presents you with, Enhanced with the good old faithful blurry, smudged pixels every pixel remaster uses or Classic, which is like a mix of PS1 graphics and the PSP version script, which in itself is quite weird because it means if you don't enjoy the faux Shakespeare WOTL script this option still isn't for you.
However, the multiple positives of Enhanced far outweigh that singular negative, as you get improved UI some QOL options with regards to gameplay (Inluding difficulty options now, which I think is great) and rebalanced job stuff. The biggest change of all is that alongside an apparently slightly modified script the game is now fully voiced acted and it's basically closer to Final Fantasy XII than ever. It's quality isn't quite as good as that games imo, but it definitely elevates the experience for me. They even voiced the spell and skill incantations too, which we didn't get on PSP and to boot there's no slowdown on casting animations.
Also, the base game is literally better than any numbered mainline Final Fantasy game and I think most people who haven't played it before might at least enjoy it enough to put it pretty high on the list. It can be pretty grindy but the flexibility of the job system on offer is really fun to play around with. The story speaks for itself, I think Ramza will end up many a player's favourite Final Fantasy protagonist after this game.
Best idea ever for me was buying it on the Switch 2, since now for the first time in my life I can play FFT on a screen bigger than the Vita's and also still play it in bed on handheld if I want, it's perfect. Shame about the visuals though.
It seems like a completely confused remake to me. So if you want the QOL improvements and the tweaked difficulty, you have to have the shit new graphics? And the classic mode uses the WOTL script but doesn't actually include any of that game's extra content? I have no idea what they were thinking.
I think I'll stick with the Tactics Ogre remake from a couple of years back, I always preferred that game anyway.
Yes, pretty much. I don't know if there's a technical reason for it but the Classic version feels weird because it feels like it's supposed to be the PS1 version but it isn't. I haven't played that version and the only time I ever hear people say the script is better is Delita's 'Blame yourself or God' line, but it should still use that script on Classic imo, not sure what it's even preserving at that point.
Also a quick check before making this post and MAN I wish I could just play Enhanced with classic pixel graphics, they look so much better in my opinion, these don't really do it justice either because even the facial portraits in dialogue bubbles look pretty rough when blown up in Enhanced.
At the end of the day, I still have the PSP version so no massive loss, it's literally my only issue (nitpick or nah?) with it so far.
It's the Steam Autumn Sale so I tried a few games out that I bought, one was Cuphead, a sidescrolling shooting game (Like Metal Slug) game I was told is pretty hard but fun. I only did a level and a boss and it was indeed pretty hard and pretty fun so far but the obvious takeaway is that visual style is amazing, if the game is as hard as people say then I wonder how many people were drawn in by the visuals only to crash against the rocks.
Second game I bought for like 3 pounds or whatever was Sonic Mania and BOY, this is the most I've enjoyed Sonic in ages, I've actually been on the 'Sonic games are good' train for a while now and I enjoyed Frontiers but this is clearly a more complete and polished game, it looks so damn colourful and is just a joy to play. And because it's a 2D Sonic, there's no janky platforming and there doesn't really seem to be a catch like Werehog levels or anything like that.
Third game I tried is something I already played the shit out of so I know it's good, Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove which is a Megaman inspired platformer and for my money the superior Knight based game that lets you pogo jump off enemies. I don't know what it is though but control wise it felt far smoother on the Vita Dpad vs the Steam Deck's, but I'll keep playing and see how it holds up on the harder platforming sections. But yeah, this is actually a collection of 4 'campaigns', the others being playable boss characters that sometimes radically change how you play the game and they are all amazing.
Also bought the DS collection of Castlevania games so I now own the Retro, GBA and DS collections of Castlevania, I'm sure they'll come in handy after I get round to Silksong and want to play a Metroidvania that is actually fun. I had to force myself to play these last night over just playing Final Fantasy Tactics in bed, so I don't know when I'll actually play these (said everyone buying games on a Steam Sale ever), especially with me planning to play some spooky games this month…
I'm glad to hear Sonic Mania is good as I found the cart somewhere but haven't actually tried it yet.
Actually, I haven't tried it so maybe it doesn't work and that why someone ditched it.
