PWB April 2026

Play

Resident Evil 4 Remake - I haven't played Resi 4 since it originally came out on the GameCube. Despite the general reaction, I remember being really disappointed with it - I'd loved all the Resi games up to that point (the majestic Resi 1 remake most of all) and this linear action game with its constant shooting and crazy bosses wasn't at all what I wanted. Going back to it twenty years later and I feel… pretty much exactly the same. It's fine I guess but I don't like the setting much, gunning down peasants feels a bit unpleasant, I'm spending 75% of my time kicking barrels and the whole thing is browner than poo. I'll stick with it for a bit as I remember the castle section getting much more interesting in the original but on the whole this feels like a very faithful remake in that I didn't like it then and I don't like it now.

Mario & Rabbids: Sparks of Hope - I put about ten hours into this a while back but I've gone back to it this week and it's pretty great. The setting is as uninspired and generic as Mario spin-offs always seem to be (although the actual Rabbids themselves are hilarious, maybe I'm easily pleased) but the combat system is really decent in an XCOM-lite kind of way and hitting goombas in the face with rocket launchers never gets old. The Switch 2 tidies up its framerate and dramatically improves its loading times, too, which is great.

Want

I have… no idea. What's coming out this year anyway? I'm mostly going through my backlog at the moment, with the occasional dip into interesting-looking Game Pass titles.

EDIT: oh, 007: First Light of course.

Bin

There isn't a bin in the world big enough for Trump's bloated, festering corpse. Get a move on, cholesterol.

Play

Monster Train 2 - Getting closer to a clear, I can feel it. The nice thing is that I've never felt cheated out of a win when I lose, it's just helped me refine my strategy for the next round, so I've got a solid idea of what I'm doing with the Luna/Banished clan now I just need to make better decisions at each stop.

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound - I mostly do one level a night and it doesn't take up a lot of my time, got nothing bad to say about this game, it's great.

Still feel like I'm in between games at the moment, I'm still playing Requiem (Hopefully getting the Platinum Trophy today) and the odd side game here and there, if I want to focus on one game I might as well try to finish reading the Fate/Stay Night visual novel, then clear up Phoenix Wright.

Want
Mario Galaxy 2 - Fresh off the back of the movie, I haven't played it before so this seems like a perfect time? I slept on the idea to see if the want faded overnight after the hype from the movie died down, but I still kind of want it. The thing is that there's so much stuff on sale now and I don't really want to buy everything but I am going to keep on the lookout, Just don't wantto buy something then see something else I want more but didn't think about

Bin
I think I'm kind of over popcorn tbh, ignoring that somehow I got some under my coat and under my shirt(?) I left the cinema having ate a bucket of popcorn bigger than my head and I was still hungry, it's so expensive too. Drinking a litre of Coke or whatever it was in one sitting is kinda' nuts too but at least having a drink makes sense

Well I can put Resident Evil: Requiem in the bin for a good while, just hit the Platinum Trophy and also did the Final Puzzle and all challenges(which isn't mandatory for the Platinum, probably because it took the community days to even solve it). The one thing I have left to do is beat it properly on Insanity without the NG+ stuff, but after beating it like 7 times I'm going to cool off for a fair bit.

I've actually decided long ago that I will get the Switch 2 version at some point, so maybe when I'm up for it it'll be cheaper and then I can just do it on that whilst trying it in Handheld mode, sounds like a good time to me. Only issue is I think you need to beat ito nce to unlock Insanity, which sucks but what's 2 more playthroughs of this game at this point, final word on Requiem is that it's a great game and I hope it's looked back on as one of the top tier games in the series.

Hello all and Happy Easter!

Play -

State of Decay 2 - Become obsessed with this again. There is something about the creeping sense of dread and material and resources drain that I find mesmerising. Missed completing the game on two of the maps it seems to gone back to try and do that.

New consoles - Yesterday I picked up an Analogue Duo from the games place in Sheffield, and I already have a Retron 5 and a Evercade new and sealed up. So it's time to get them all opened, wired in and then played. I don't actually have an PCE or TGFX games currently though!

Want

To sell my father-in-laws house. He recently signed a 6 month term on a flat that is just shy of 15 minutes walk from us! He moved in on Wednesday and was here till yesterday. He is going to be moving between places as was looking to see how he coped leaving the house he lived in for 50 years with his wife, and I know he struggles with the fact he takes flowers to her grave every Sunday but would be 2 hours away from her if he moves full time. But it's been so nice having him here and seeing his enjoyment of being close to family. My kid has never lived near a grandparent so has been loving just walking over to see him. His house is in really poor condition and basically needs to be gutted and completely modernised, and he also has way too much stuff but has already come around to the idea of moving on or parting with some of his books. Which I didn't think he would, he did bring 4 laptops with him to Sheffield though! So god knows how many he has back at the house now.

Bin

Exam and coursework season - It's Easter Sunday but I need to dedicate part of today and tomorrow to marking students work. I shouldn't complain too much as it's nice some of them have actually finished this early for a change.

I'd be all in on State of Decay 2, but for the terrible 2 player implementation (it does the thing, or at least it did, where the other player is a visitor in your world and doesn't advance anything in theirs).

Play
Bit of an odd month as the focus became trying to actually get a single game in Apex Legends where I dealt enough damage to write it into my permanent stats on the game, win certain character badges and for me to be happy. As a bit of background, in every game of Apex you get given your kills, revives and the damage you've done. I've always, perpetually, been pretty poor at dealing damage in the game.

I'm sure it's partially because of my aging reflexes, but also I think my positioning and on the fly decision making is often bad (also a factor in having a slower, older brain + a literal stroke). I'd been playing Apex since 2020 (where I was already in my mid 40s) and I'd put maybe 500 hours into it across EA/Steam/consoles. For the last 3 or 4 weeks I simply mainly played it, over and over, focusing on taking fights and getting all up in people's business. And finally managed to get a few games where my damage output almost doubled on my previous best. It feels, weirdly, like a weight off my back. Like I've actually "completed" an aspect of a live service game, and as a result I've been a lot more relaxed playing it and having a lot more fun. I also took the confidence into Valorant (which I am pretty good at) and after weeks of not playing it I slapped it on for a few games and absolutely monstered the opponents. So, yes, sports psychology month here at cavalcade HQ.

I've also been (as seen in other thread) playing a lot of 3DS in calmer moments. I'm really all in on Mario Kart 7 at the moment. Just a lovely little pick up and play experience. And Super Mario Land 3D and the original Gameboy Tetris. But, I really do enjoy all of it. I was thinking about getting a 3DS XL/LL but I'm now pondering an Ayn Thor - as having a larger screen but the grunt to apply upscaling and mods might be quite interesting.

Oh, and I sort of rediscovered Ridge Racer Unbounded on the ROG Ally. It comes from the era where everything sort of looked like Ridge Racer Unbounded, but it's is a shame to see a lot of the creative stuff that was around back in that era (e.g. remember how Burnout, Splinter Cell, this game and others used the environment to overlay game information/text? Really cool, but nobody would bother these days). The game is really good - though a bit of a shameless Burnout 4 ripoff. Cars are weighty, courses are fine (if a little brutal and dark, with unclear lines at times) and the AI of the opponents is punishing. Like in the first couple of races until I'd tuned into the handling, I came last. I was shocked. Like the game gave not too fucks about onboarding me. It was like - "retry this event until you get better you dipshit". And that was actually fun, because it made me annoyed and I retried and then won the events out of spite.

Want
No idea, I guess the James Bond thing - though it looks dull AF

Bin
Slay 2. No, sorry. I just don't think Slay is that good. It's fiiiine, I guess. But so slow to get going. Boring fights, boring cards, boring game loop. Not a fan.