PWB May

Play
Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
Turns out I last picked this up about the years ago so I restarted. I'm having a very relaxed time, erm except for one conversation which turned to shocking homophobia out of nowhere. I guess that was acceptable/expected in Japan twenty years ago?

The Messenger
I play a level of this every now and then. It has a great sense of humour.

Want
Really tempted by the Playdate. It just looks different. And the games are pretty cheap so even if half of them are just gimmicks that's ok.

Estelle is a bit of a sheltered idiot in Trails FC, not that it makes it okay of course, but she does learn.

Play
Gacha Gaming - Put a lot of time into Wuthering Waves recently, which just had a great patch released for it and I put so much time into it n one day the only reason I stopped is because it crashed on PS5, oops!

Want
Forza Motorsport 6 - I tried to get on with the other Forza series, the one where you can off-road and do challenges, but I am really bad at driving games and I wasn't sure about the stuff you do in between actual races. I think this is the actual racing series, like Horizon vs Motorsport? Though I have seen footage of you just driving around the map again so whatever, hopefully there's no influencer bullshit and what have you this time.

I'm sure this is going to sound very 'Thing, Japan' of me but it being set there is a big draw for me, I still want to go back there one day and this won't placate that feeling probably but it might make me feel better. Also I will actually engage hard with the driving now, my brother said just follow the racing lines so I'll keep them on for a bit I guess.

Bin
I don't really have anything currently going on TO bin, Xbox Live probably bought itself some more time, although I think I might just still prefer the money to be honest. I'm constantly teetering on the edge of the urge to buy an AYN Thor.

Play
Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
Turns out I last picked this up about the years ago so I restarted. I'm having a very relaxed time, erm except for one conversation which turned to shocking homophobia out of nowhere. I guess that was acceptable/expected in Japan twenty years ago?

The Messenger
I play a level of this every now and then. It has a great sense of humour.

Want
Really tempted by the Playdate. It just looks different. And the games are pretty cheap so even if half of them are just gimmicks that's ok.

I love mine dearly, but I could be tempted to sell, or lend it to you if you wanted to give it a go. Not sure when I'm next near Edinburgh tho….

@cavalcade good to know. I'm skint this month anyway, maybe I'll make you an offer next month before I go to France.

Play
I'm going through a bit of a Resident Evil binge at the moment. 6 is ridiculous, 4 Remake is still sublime, Zero lost me when I forgot to save and knackered an hour of progress.

I'd never played the 2 and 3 remakes (in fact I'd never played 3 OG either), so I picked up the double pack on PS5. (12 quid at the moment, bargain!) God these games are great. I don't have any real attachment to the originals, so I don't care about any missing content. They just feel so damn good to play. Capcom are essentially just a bunch of wizards right now, aren't they.

I'm getting slightly burned out on Leon B, so I might put this to one side for a while. (I'm in the sewers, Ada has a crap gadget, and I'm a little bored.) But it's been 8 or 9 hours of first-class gaming up to this point. And 3 is equally great for different reasons. I can see me going back to 3 every 12 months or so, just for another run (the first run only took me 3 hours something!). A wonderful rollercoaster of an action game.

Want
The current 'to buy' list is: the new Story of Seasons, Yooka Replaylee, Pragmata, Kirby Air Riders, DQ7, Octopath 2, Borderlands 4, Sonic Crossworlds, Ghost of Yotei.

If people could stop releasing games for a bit, that'd be grand.

Oh man, I went a good while without playing RE2 OG, I need to bo back to doing that!

6 is ridiculous, 4 Remake is still sublime, Zero lost me when I forgot to save and knackered an hour of progress.

I enjoyed my time with 6 overall more than 5, but I don't think I'd replay them anytime soon, 5 can fuck off on solo at least. Zero is QUITE difficult/mean, the only other classic Resi as mean as Zero is Code Veronica, which feels like you can soft lock yourself in. How about that train section in Zero though eh?

Honestly, if you're playing classic Resi, REmake is the way to go, the snake cutscene still makes my jaw drop

Anyway RE2 Remake is my favourite game in the series, but it's much easier to replay the PS1 original on my RP Mini on the go, also I got the HD mod on the PC version MPH, you're a Graphics Enjoyer are you not, what do you think? (Purists will kill me, but I've played this a million times I do not give a FUCK)

Even without the context of the cuts from Resident Evil 3 on PS1, I still think compared to RE2R, RE3R feels really rushed and on rails. Without THAT context and solely on its own, it's not a bad game, but I think it's fair to judge it as a remake still, it is presenting as one after all. I will say, you talk about replaying RE3, the PS1 version literally has different events and stuff depending on the way you go through it making different playthroughs feel fresh. (beating a dead horse with the RE3 OG vs Remake thing, but had to bring that up if we're talking replayability)

Though really, Resident Evil is timeless for a reason and I think you can feel it as you play the remakes

Capcom are essentially just a bunch of wizards right now, aren't they.

They've been on top form for a solid few years now and don't seem to be in danger of slowing down

I caught up to reading Shuukura so I'm playing FF7 again to cope with the grief 😔

Playing on the 405M and not RP Mini for the vibes ✊️😔

In preparation for Forza 6 I am trying and failing to turn corners in Gran Turismo 2, bodes well…

Apparently if you change your Xbox location to Kiribati, FH6 unlocks today at 10am.

Play

Persona 5 Strikers - I'd been told this was a surprisingly good and faithful sequel to the main game, but still wasn't prepared for just how much of a good and faithful sequel it really is - boil the social links down into one overarching Bond system, and replace the turn-based battles with a Musou-style fighting game, and you have Persona 5 Strikers. The overworld navigation, the soundtrack, the vibe… It's just more Persona 5.

The one issue here, of course, is that I've rarely found Musou games enormously engaging for any length of time, so while this is very good, it doesn't hold my full attention in the same way as persona 5 itself did, and I suspect I will be playing it for some time.

Returnal - I have finally gone back. Again. I am so close to getting to the end of the second world, where I am certain I will get a grappling hook-type arrangement that will open the game up further. Unfortunately I am still not quite over my mental block, and will randomly bottle runs for no good reason. I am so close. I will get there. It is so good.

Sektori - I have a nasty habit of double-dipping on shmups and arcade-style games, so the Switch 2 release of this triggered a bit of a renaissance for me. As with most games of this ilk, I am not very good at it, but it is a fabulous game nonetheless, and I hope to continue to improve.

The aforementioned shmups - my bonus came, and much of it went into savings (boring), but I then also spent a fair bit feeding my burgeoning shmup (and other assorted arcade-style game) habit, partially enabled by sales that meant a lot of them were priced a lot more palatably than normal. Add in that you can get millions of the buggers downloaded at once, thanks to the meagre file sizes, and I was away…

On that basis I have been dabbling with Mushihimesama, Dodonpachi, Akai Katana Shin, Sophstar, several Cotton and Darius games, and so many more. I'm also still playing Crimzon Clover World EXplosion, which has been a favourite since becoming one of my first Switch purchases many years ago, and ESP Ra. De., which I picked up in Japan last year. I even loaded up Ikaruga for the first time in years.

I'm still terrible at all of these, of course, but I really enjoy them.

I've also tried to start Pokemon FireRed, but only managed a couple of hours in the last month, and am in a similar position with Advance Wars Reloaded. They haven't really fit into my gaming schedule properly yet, as much as I'm enjoying what little I've played, but they've been sidelined a bit by the above, and my ongoing Picross addiction.

Basically, I may be spreading myself a bit too thin at the moment, gaming-wise, but I am enjoying myself, so fuck it.

Want

There are a few things I could mention here - GTAVI (because I won't be able to resist the hype), 007 First Light (because IOI), Saros (because Housemarque) and Forza Horizon 6 (because Japan), but I'm not really desperate for any of them. A sentiment that is I suppose lent credibility by the fact one is already out, and I haven't bought it/finished it's predecessor, I suppose. Another doesn't have a release date on my platform of choice, so I won't be swept away by the hype there either.

My issue with most of the above is that I'm not really vibing with many (non-indie) Western games these days. I'm sure I'll enjoy some of them, but I'm more interested in my backlog than most of the Western releases I've seen announced.

On which note, I do think Adventures of Elliot and Onimusha look really good, and I'm also seemingly less down on the "new" Star Fox game than most, so I'm looking forward to that. Really looking forward to Rhythmn Paradise Groove too. Oh! Stranger Than Heaven! I really need to get back on the Yakuza/Like a Dragon train…

Bin

There to be less real-life stuff to reference here every month, or at least there to be a light at the end of the tunnel, please.

Finally someone else playing Sektori

I haven't played it in a while but when I do it's a few runs of the campaign (that was only supposed to one go) and then I try that mode where you're weak until you get a power up and then immediately get speed, missilies and blaster upgrades. It's the only mode I try to keep the score multipler up for too, not because I don't care about it in Campaign but because in Campaign I just want to beat it first before adding on to my mental stack, this mode is fast and short so that's not a problem. It really makes you get used to Striking into powerups because if you don't, you're going to die

Play
Final Fantasy VII (PS1) - this is so comforting to play man, and based on my last saves on here, not even that much longer than any non RPG game that comes out nowadays. I'm playing it with CRT shadersand low res this time and I am liking it SO much more than I thought I would, I'm even trying to not use save states (well I use them when I need to suspend my game on the go and there's no save nearby and stuff). I think I really should just get a PS One at this point and play it through that.

Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society - Sequel to Labyrinth of Refrain, the last game in the series made by Disgaea developers Nippon Ichi, and for my money, the best story they've ever written. Unfortunately not many people will discover it because that game, much like the sequel is a dungeon crawler, so FPV, tile based dungeon exploration until you get into a battle.

Gran Turismo 2 - I didn't know this had an arcade and an simulation mode on seperate discs, that's pretty cool. I don't usually gel with simulation racers, I'd pick Ridge Racer over this every time but I am trying to dabble in this in the run up to Forza 6 and to my surprise I'm really enjoying it. I can't drive for shit though, I've been using Arcade mode but I hear Simulation will ease you into it and let you build up your car yourself so might do that. I can't say I'm fully into it but I can kind of see already why it's so big.

Want
Well I'd say Forza 6 but that's going to be in Play in a matter of hours so seems a bit silly really.

Bin - I dunno if this counts but I lost my ID card at work and the Rochdale line on the Tram is doing yet more railwork that will undoubtedly not improve it any measurable way, so getting to work takes even longer and when I do I have to go through several doors that require an ID card despite not having one, I have to ask someone to let me out of the damn building at the end of the shift. This has put me in a foul mood, because both issues are going to take weeks to resolve apparently, and day to day it feels like I'm being trolled.

Apparently if you change your Xbox location to Kiribati, FH6 unlocks today at 10am.

I can't find this on my Series S, it's not in my list

EDIT: NVM I guess New Zealand works now

Apparently if you change your Xbox location to Kiribati, FH6 unlocks today at 10am.

@MPH

I shipped my Xbox to Kiribati as requested (I just sent it to the British Consulate). I think it turned up today. What's the next step?