I got it from https://www.keepretro.com/ which seemed like a better option than Ali Express but, to be honest, I think it would've been fine and a bit cheaper to go with a store on AE.
It came with a card in it with some stuff on it but there's a great guide on YouTube on setting up this Adam Image UI which puts a lovely skin on everything.
Damnit, I said I didn't want anything. And now…
Additional WANT:
Nobody Saves The World - The next game from Drinkbox, the Guacamelee guys. It had a demo during that Games Awards event that I enjoyed, and now it's apparently out in less than two weeks on Game Pass. Lovely.
Bomb Rush Cyberfunk - New trailer reminded me this exists, it looks great. Hope it can live up to the expectations.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Back to working on this now I'm back at work, back to being excited for it. Looks ace.
Tunic - Out this year, supposedly. Great.
Cult of the Lamb - Looks interesting. We'll see.
Nobody Saves The World - The next game from Drinkbox, the Guacamelee guys. It had a demo during that Games Awards event that I enjoyed, and now it's apparently out in less than two weeks on Game Pass. Lovely.
Big Guacamelee fan here but I absolutely hate the art style they've gone for in this one.
Based on the demo, I couldn't say that being a fan of Guacamelee will help. It's a sprawling top down adventure with randomly generated dungeons and fairly repetitive combat (though it opens up when you have multiple form options and quests to complete within those forms). It's definitely my bag, but I suspect it won't be yours.
Hmmm. I suspect we already have Minecraft Dungeons for that. But I'll take a look when it comes out, you never know.
I can't imagine Gar would ever play something sprawlingly large with repetitive combat.
Additional PLAY:
Lair of the Clockwork God - Was £3 and change in the eShop sale. Seems alright, though the point and click bits appear to be as fiddly and nonsensical as you might expect. Dunno if the comedy's going to click either (one of the characters has his bladder as an inventory item, sigh), but we'll see.
JUST FOR AN HOUR THO
Yep. Only spent 20 mins on it so far, so it might very well be deleted before the end of tonight.
Additional PLAY:
Lair of the Clockwork God - Was £3 and change in the eShop sale. Seems alright, though the point and click bits appear to be as fiddly and nonsensical as you might expect. Dunno if the comedy's going to click either (one of the characters has his bladder as an inventory item, sigh), but we'll see.
Additional BIN:
Lair of the Clockwork God - Nope.
Additional PLAY:
Dead Cells (with all the DLC) - Haven't played in a while, and annoyingly my Switch progress is far behind where I was on PS4. But even just a few plays in again with the latest DLC installed, I suspect this will be my new go-to quick fix (the other still being Isaac).
I got the DLC for Dead Cells too, I haven't really played that game nearly enough. Like you I was looking for something quick to jump into between longer games. I'm incredibly crap at it though.
I think I've got to the second boss once, and didn't get past it. The balance between having to go fast to get through the time doors between stages, killing enemies without getting hit to get through a different door, the various paths, the runes to find (I'm still missing two) and so much more… I genuinely love how you can approach each run in different ways. But yeah, damn, it's difficult. God knows how I'll fare once I start getting boss stem cells (read: difficulty increases for completing the game) and trying to unlock everything.
I never really had this down as an Isaac equivalent but thinking about it, it's incredibly similar (structurally, at least). Definitely one I'll be sticking with.
Taking the Mart approach, here are some additional Bins - games I've played for a short while and have decided are definitely not for me.
Superliminal revolves around perspective puzzles, it's a nice idea on paper but I found myself swearing at it within about half a dozen rooms as I knew the answer to a solution but couldn't quite manage to execute the maneouvre required to complete it. A whole game of this would wind me up enormously.
Surgeon Simulator 2 falls into the same kind of mould as Human Fall Flat - maybe there's a market for these games where you flail around uncontrollably with 'hilarious' consequences but they're really not for me.
The Pedestrian has lovely presentation but I found it a chore to play, even by the end of the first area my reaction to each new puzzle was "oh no, what now".
Taking the Mart approach, here are some additional Bins - games I've played for a short while and have decided are definitely not for me.
Good man, it's a good approach. Life is far too short and if you're not getting on with something, why continue just because someone else thinks you should?
Superliminal revolves around perspective puzzles, it's a nice idea on paper but I found myself swearing at it within about half a dozen rooms as I knew the answer to a solution but couldn't quite manage to execute the maneouvre required to complete it. A whole game of this would wind me up enormously.
I got quite far into this, but then discovered one of the levels was basically a bunch of jump scares waiting to happen. Dropped it and never went back. Considering the rest of the game is just generally nice and this was never conveyed (even in reviews), I actually felt a little… betrayed? Perhaps. But spending money on something I know I wouldn't want kind of sucked.
The Pedestrian has lovely presentation but I found it a chore to play, even by the end of the first area my reaction to each new puzzle was "oh no, what now".
Yeah I think I'm done with it too. There's no reward to it.
Additional PLAY:
Shadow Man Remastered - Fond memories of this game, though I fully expect the 'remaster' to be low effort and disappointing. Grabbed it on Xbox as I had credit there from Christmas, it's apparently got Series X/S enhancements and I actually fancy playing this one on the TV. Prepare to be thoroughly let down!
I had a quick look at a video and it looks exactly the same as the original but with garish lighting.
Apparently it's got a load of cut content restored though and some new music so it could well be interesting for that alone. I did really like the original.
Additional Want:
Museum of Mechanics: Lockpicking. An interactive museum consisting entirely of recreations of lockpicking minigames from a variety of games. For some reason, yes please.
Is that free and available now?
It's on Steam now for £Money, but there's an itch.io version that's pay-what-you-want.
The only reason it's not in the Play list already is that I'm not at home.
Additional PLAY:
Shadow Man Remastered - Fond memories of this game, though I fully expect the 'remaster' to be low effort and disappointing. Grabbed it on Xbox as I had credit there from Christmas, it's apparently got Series X/S enhancements and I actually fancy playing this one on the TV. Prepare to be thoroughly let down!
Okay, yeah, so this is janky as hell. That's mainly because the developer's idea of remastering the game means just making it work on a console other than the ones it originally came out on, and that's about it. Otherwise, it's basically the same game it always was.
That's not necessarily bad from a playability standpoint, although the combat and exploration are already suffering from being incredibly outdated - the shooting feels flimsy, and there's no map which is criminal when the game's environments are so windingly convoluted and all look the same thanks to each only using one wall texture. God knows how I managed to 100% it the first time, the amount of backtracking needed is insane.
I'm going to keep playing, because I am weirdly enjoying it. But lordy, this pushes the very limits of what should be allowed under the definition of 'remaster'. I hope Square Enix isn't watching, it'll give them ideas to make their efforts even more half-arsed. 
Play
My friends have got me into League of Legends and I really enjoy it a whole lot woooo. Leona Main, if you know what my most used class in FFXIV is you'll know why. c:
Persona 5 Strikers I'm on the 3rd Jail and unsure whether to drop it or not, I think I respect it more than I enjoy it? Other the story which so far feels like a complete rehash albeit with as much polish as the rest of the game they seemed to have put some effort into this, combat is unique and not just Hyrule Warriors:Persona, you have full voice acting and more anime FMV, a fucking awesome OST of remixes and I love the 'road trip' aspect of it because they could have easily cut and pasted the Tokyo from P5 and called it a day but here you go to places like Sapporo and Kyoto and what not.
So why do I kinda' want to drop it? I like that they made fun Musou combat but unique to other licensed musou games by infusing it with Persona 5 mechanics, but it is a strength and a weakness for me because I think…I honestly enjoy Hyrule Warriors more straightforward approach more? So far it's far too easy to run out of SP which is important to clean up mobs of enemies in this. You still have the standard Dynasty Warriors combo system but everyone has a unique gimmick which I really liked (Ryuji can charge his heavy attacks to do a powerful hit, Haru can hold her heavy attacks for a persistant hitbox and literally spin2win) but you will notice against bosses just how pathetically weak elemental damage these do and as a result I've got really frustrated fighting every boss so far. Not just that, in huge mobs you will get stunned, frozen or just ganked to death really fast if you don't grow eyes on the back of your head and it's really a bit unfun when it does that shit.
I might see how I feel after Jail 3. Also the first few hours were a fucking meme of intrusive tutorials and gameplay setions lasting 5 secs consisting of nothing sandwhiched in between two cutscenes. I have a clip of me getting bombarded by status effect tutorials as they happened in battle, one of them popping on screen as soon as a Goat rammed me, nice.
Endwalker - despite what I said about LoL Leona I think I'm a Dark Main now
Want
I got it into my head that Elden Ring was a PS5 exclusive somehow…it isn't, so I'll be getting that. Sigh of relief at not needing a PS5 yet again.
Play: Nobody Saves The World by the guys who did Guacamelee. I've only played the first dungeon but I like this already, I thought it was going to be yet another roguelike but it's actually a solid little Zelda clone and it's made me laugh out loud several times already. Not totally sold on the graphical style but it looks a lot nicer in motion than it does in screenshots. I expect Mart is playing this one too?
Play: Nobody Saves The World by the guys who did Guacamelee. I've only played the first dungeon but I like this already, I thought it was going to be yet another roguelike but it's actually a solid little Zelda clone and it's made me laugh out loud several times already. Not totally sold on the graphical style but it looks a lot nicer in motion than it does in screenshots. I expect Mart is playing this one too?
Yep, started it last night (mainly to earn a couple of achievements for my reward point streak, as I'm away this weekend). I already played the demo, which goes up to the first main boss, so I'm catching up on stuff I did before… shame the save data didn't carry over, but hey. I like it a lot, looking forward to digging into it properly when I'm back.
Oh hey I see Hitman's on Gamepass. Anyone tried it?
Never heard of it.
This Backward Compatibility sale on Xbox right now is stirring memories. I've bought Just Cause (which I loved the first one of, though I never finished it because a bug blocked my progress when a building I had to blow up basically existed in visual but not destructible form), Burnout Revenge and Asura's Wrath. I would get Bully as well, but the system seems to think I already own it… pretty sure I don't. Hmm.
I picked up Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, and both TimeSplitters games.
I genuinely use the backward compatibility feature on Xbox a lot, in a way I've never really done for any other console. The fact MS have put so much effort into making these older games not only run, but look and run better than they ever have before, makes a huge difference. The fact that 360 games have achievements helps too in terms of making them still feel quite modern.
I picked up Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, and both TimeSplitters games.
I genuinely use the backward compatibility feature on Xbox a lot, in a way I've never really done for any other console. The fact MS have put so much effort into making these older games not only run, but look and run better than they ever have before, makes a huge difference. The fact that 360 games have achievements helps too in terms of making them still feel quite modern.
The Series X/S enhancements on Racing Transformed are great. It looks a little fuzzy at times, but runs butter smooth and is fast as hell. Still a cracking game.
Thanks for the heads-up, I grabbed Mini Ninjas.
Pretty sure Spec Ops: The Line is in there for a pittance, Bri.
I’ve been playing Bravely Default 2 and have something like 80 hours clocked.
I reckon I’m about 2/3rds of the way through the game, always be grinding is my motto, struggled a little with the early bosses but got a handle on the later ones quite quickly.
I’ve unlocked so many jobs now, and some of the links between them are fantastic - one team member causes blindness with each strike the other does extra damage to blinded enemies - such interdependencies are great - except, I seemed to have missed a couple of jobs early on and now can’t get back to the characters who I can take them from.
I was a bit cool towards the game early on, felt it didn’t look as good as the 3DS games, but the story and the characters are engaging and the combos are great.
Help, getting addicted to Pokemon Unite, at my elo I think people know how to play even less than I do, where I'm at least applying any League knowledge where applicable. Main problem is people not knowing when to give up a fight to retreat and/or stop chasing into the enemy base but then again that cuts both ways so I pick people off as Wrigglytuff and laugh at my rollout fucking shit up.
One time someone instantly locked in Wrigglytuff so I had to play as Zeraora, I had no
idea what he was good at but looking at his skills I guess I was going to try out Jungling, I don't even know if Unite is supposed to HAVE Junglers but I guessed the wild Pokemon in the midl ane had to be killed by somthing, right? anyway he's very fun to level up asap and then gank things….still a Wrigglytuff main at the minute though.
It's like, barely a moba but it's really stress free and polished.
What the fuck is "Jungling"?
Booyaka booyaka.
What the fuck is "Jungling"?
I'm impressed you managed to pick just one thing out of that post to ask about.
What the fuck is "Jungling"?
Haven't played Pokémon Unite, but generally in MOBA games, there are main roads that the NPCs use to advance towards the enemy base/objectives, and smaller side paths that connect those, which allow players to get around between roads.
Jungling is when you hang out in that area (in the original DotA it was a jungle map) to intercept other players as they try and move between main roads to support the NPC push.
…I think?
That's about right. The Jungle is normally a portion of a MOBA map with uncontested objectives which sits between the bottom, middle and top lanes. In League a team will have 5 players, normally two bottom lane: a support (the player who focuses on healing/control/placing wards to get vision in the fog of war on the map), an ADC (attack, damage, carry player, normally a glass cannon capable of high damage), mid (covering the middle lane and top (top lane). The remaining player is the "jungler" and does a mixture of farming the neutral objectives, but at certain points "ganking" the lanes to provide support to the other players when they contest a fight. One of the reasons League (and DOTA) are the most popular esports is the endless drama that results from this ebb and flow across lanes, and the tactical play between ganking, team fighting, contesting objectives etc. I'd recommend watching and getting into the LEC - miles more interesting than a football or rugby match.
May not relate to what Alastor is talking about though, of course.
That is pretty much it, except in Unite it's a lot less scary and there are no minions, wardings or fog. Nothing in League so far is as scary as trying to leave the Jungle and Mordekai comes out of nowhere and traps you in his fucking nightmare realm 😨
New Want
Pokemon Legends: Arceus
I thought the concept sounded interesting but I didn't follow this at all, now two days from release I hear it's actually supposed to be good and I crammed in some videos on it and now I am kinda' sorta' nuclear hype about this?
It looks like a decent take on an open world-ish Pokemon game with a little spiced up combat. And to boot there's the stuff surrounding this, like the researching and crafting stuff.
/checks work staff shop
Well.
Has anyone been bitten by this Vampire Survivors game: https://poncle.itch.io/vampire-survivors
It has Castlevania flavour, rogue-like elements but it has this reverse bullet hell thing going for it. I've been playing the itch version via browser on my phone this week and it is tracking progress etc well. Generally it performs well on the phone but I "finished" it last night (there's a 30 min timer by the looks of things) though by the end the screen was swarmed, it was barely running 1 fps and my phone was getting warm. I've seen a few articles about how it's a 'pure dopamine hit' and… It really is. It would be a brilliant mobile game, it has been sucking the life out of my battery this week.
I saw an article about it, but didn't investigate further. You've piqued my interest. I'll have a look.
Play: Nobody Saves The World
I already played the demo, which goes up to the first main boss, so I'm catching up on stuff I did before… shame the save data didn't carry over, but hey.
Caught up, got past where the demo ends and now I'm ploughing through the western side of the map. Found love as a horse. Had all my stars stolen by the Thieves Guild. Discovered how to turn into an egg (and remembered there's a nest I found by the first area that I should revisit). Really enjoying it.
I'm a bit further than you and absolutely loving it. It just keeps opening up more and more, it's far deeper and more interesting than I thought it would be initially. Seems absolutely huge too. Playing as the Magician and spawning an army of killer bunny rabbits never gets old.
Good thing you gave it an hour.
Has anyone been bitten by this Vampire Survivors game: https://poncle.itch.io/vampire-survivors
It has Castlevania flavour, rogue-like elements but it has this reverse bullet hell thing going for it. I've been playing the itch version via browser on my phone this week and it is tracking progress etc well. Generally it performs well on the phone but I "finished" it last night (there's a 30 min timer by the looks of things) though by the end the screen was swarmed, it was barely running 1 fps and my phone was getting warm. I've seen a few articles about how it's a 'pure dopamine hit' and… It really is. It would be a brilliant mobile game, it has been sucking the life out of my battery this week.
I am so mad about this game. I'm working on a 2D game app at the moment and we're putting out so many cool features about shaders and networking and randomisation and all that jazz and this game comes along lookin' like a 30 minute test project and sells a hundred thousand copies.
It's a great game.
Finally started Death Stranding last night and…I think I actually might love it? I thought the premise sounded so boring but in actuality there's something really nice about the whole thing (until the BTs show up). I think it helps that the concept of reconnecting people in a fucked up, fractured world really hits home right now.
I know the big money shot of the open world vista has been done to death now, but something about looking at DS's landscape and while it is beautiful, understanding the absence of people there is no coincidence and working to fix that just feels so nice.
The story is bonkers, I know what happens unfortunately but I'm missing a lot of context I'm excited to finally get. I was pretty down on Kojima's work but so far everything I've seen just kinda' proves moving on was a good thing for him, I like how unapologetically he just straight up makes super serious games/scenes and then makes a guy called 'Die Hardman' lol.
The opening trek and part where you see that huge BT nuke that town was so sick.
The first marthour of it has some quite startling, memorable imagery in it. The rest of it (and I've only played 3 or 4 hours) is a bit wearing and I'm not sure I can be arsed. But I'm glad it exists.
I'll build a bridge for you, for us.
👐