PWB February

Play

Chrono Trigger - the standard issue for me playing an RPG on a handheld - that it runs the risk of getting forgotten about while I play games on a 'proper' console - threatens this, which is a shame, because it deserves better. I'm in Oslo for most of the next week, so will take the 3DS and try and give it (at least) a few hours, so that I don't completely forget what I'm doing. Hopefully I'll get it finished before I lose the plot (so to speak) altogether.

Yoku's Island Express - a charming, breezy, little mix of things I really like (pinball, Metroidvania, fun) that I'll go back to more now GoW isn't dominating my gaming time. Hopefully I'll even stop thinking it's called Yooka-Laylee before I get it finished.

Want

To try and stick to games that aren't too narrative-driven/all-consuming until I get a bit further in Chrono Trigger. This is partially because I have a bunch of RPGs I want to play sitting on my PS4 waiting, and I think starting those will probably lead to CT getting the same treatment as The World Ends With You (which I adored, but never finished) back in the days of the original DS.

Also still looking forward to Sekiro, and think I'll treat myself to REmake 2 shortly. I've also started being more hesitant about buying games on PS4 that I think I might prefer to play on the Switch. I do not actually own a Switch, but will be getting my bonus shortly, so make of that what you will.

Bin

GoW gets a temporary binning, but I can see myself going back and either finishing off the Valkyrie or going through on NG+, so the highlight here is…

Fallout 4 - I've finally accepted that I'm just not that interested in it, and have deleted it from the hard drive. I might yet give it another go somewhere down the line (my love for Fallout 3 (or the memory of playing it for the first time) is still strong), but the level of shonk, the lack of any compelling reason to play (YMMV, obviously), and the Fallout 76 fiasco making it somehow seem even worse by association, have just killed it dead for me, so I decided the time and disk space would be better allocated elsewhere.

Additional Play: Dishonored. Had this in my Steam library for a while. Yeesh, I think we are now at the point where PS3/360 gen games have aged poorly. This game looks hideous by current-day standards and its little boxy areas don't do it any favours. It's basically an updated Thief, isn't it? I'm fine with that and stealth games can be fun but the whole time I'm playing it I'm wishing I was playing Hitman instead. Not sure I'm going to last long with this one.

the whole time I'm playing it I'm wishing I was playing Hitman instead

This is basically how I feel about all games these days…

"Hideous"? give over.

It's still a decent game, and the smaller areas are actually fairly refreshing after sprawling 40 mile wide game worlds.

The individual rooms can be quite small, but the levels themselves are a decent size, as I recall. I replayed it not that long ago, and still thoroughly enjoyed it. Which reminds me, I really need to go back to the second one…

All I can remember about it is that it had pretty cool powers that made stealth fun but way too easy. And a really stupid morality 'check'.

There's always the option of a Mostly Blood and Steel run…

I played it on PS3 back in 2017 and thoroughly enjoyed it, I think the highly stylised character design prevents it from ageing as badly as other games of that era. I've got the other two games on PS4 waiting to be played.

Couple of late plays
Has anyone else here played Ys VIII on either Vita (I think) or Switch? It's very Xenoblade, but the combat is great. Really snappy, fizzy real time stuff that loops a really addictive gameplay loop. Really enjoying it so far. Looks good too - in a sort of hi-res PS3 sense.

RICO - mart, I really genuinely have questions. This seems like an incredibly odd game for Rising Star. It's also…. well, I'm not sure. Is it terrible? A bit like Crackdown 3 I found myself really enjoying it because of all the things it wasn't. But is it good? I….. mart, explain RICO to me. I just…. mart?

RICO - mart, I really genuinely have questions. This seems like an incredibly odd game for Rising Star. It's also…. well, I'm not sure. Is it terrible? A bit like Crackdown 3 I found myself really enjoying it because of all the things it wasn't. But is it good? I….. mart, explain RICO to me. I just…. mart?

I… wait. What? I genuinely don't know what to say here.

I played a bit if the demo, always wanted the Vita one as it just seemed like a perfect handheld game.

I finally cracked and bought Trails in the Sky after being told by people it's excellent and a friend swears by it, the third in the series was announced recently and I was curious to try a more commute friendly game then Persona 4 (which is great but absolutely frustrating to play in such small chunks imo).

Less than an hour in but I already really like Estelle, cute as fuck graphic style, jrpg intro, I especially like the song that preview from highlighting it on your games list.

Sadly, because the game wasn't in the EU store lime it's sequel was, I had to jump through so many hoops to play it. And I can't play it on my Vita without some convoluted reformatting BS (which I can't do anyway because I want all the stuff on my EU profile) I am once again reviving the old trusty PSP. It's cool, played through all of Xenogears on it I'm sure I'll be able to do this.

Hmmm, I played a fair bit of Trails in the Sky a few years ago and it was good but also very very slow. I didn't finish it in the end and it's always been something I've meant to revisit. By all accounts the plot only kicks in right at the end (and then really picks up in the sequel) so it's worth persevering with but it's a plodder for sure.

RICO - mart, I really genuinely have questions. This seems like an incredibly odd game for Rising Star. It's also…. well, I'm not sure. Is it terrible? A bit like Crackdown 3 I found myself really enjoying it because of all the things it wasn't. But is it good? I….. mart, explain RICO to me. I just…. mart?

I… wait. What? I genuinely don't know what to say here.

It's good. But also awful. Just such an odd game…. It is self-aware about what it is right? I really like it. I think. mart? What?

It's good. But also awful. Just such an odd game…. It is self-aware about what it is right? I really like it. I think. mart? What?

Ah… okay.

No, it's not serious or intended to be anything but a ridiculous take on the 'kill all the baddies' part of buddy cop movies. You kick down doors (or even slide through them) and blow the shit out of anyone you see. Occasionally, there will be bombs. And bad Russian accents. And a little swearing. It's absolutely, definitely not anything but tongue-in-cheek nonsense. The developer definitely intended that.

It's very light in terms of content, certainly. It's meant to be replayed over and over for no other purpose but having a laugh at how quickly or stupidly you can complete the objectives. Throwing grenades into a room full of enemies, backing out and then shooting the grenade to make it explode early while in slow-motion is encouraged. It's action nonsense.

Does that make it better?

It does.

I approve this game.

That can go on the box then.

(It can't, there's no boxed version)

I thought it was obvious that it was all tongue-in-cheek. Pity there's no Hard Boiled trolley style action

Additional PLAY:

Rogue Aces - One of February's PS+ games, but I've known about it for ages because we nearly published it when I worked at RSG. It's a roguelike aerial combat game with a WW2 style, but it's all very silly with stupid British agents, stealing enemy planes in midair and generally causing as much mayhem as possible. I like it. It's quite challenging, especially the main campaign mode where you need to complete 100 randomly generated missions in one go. But it's still fun and once you get the hang of flying around in tight loops to get onto the tail of a bad guy, it's very solid and enjoyable. Unlikely I'll get the Platinum, since a few of the trophies are tricky as hell, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Wow, that was a “play for thirty seconds and decide it was shit” PS+ game for me. Maybe I need to go back to it. It did look absolutely dreadful though.

I doubt a revisit will change your mind, if you didn't go for it originally. I wouldn't say it looks dreadful by a long shot, that's a bit much.

I lied, I've finished it and got the Platinum. So, another one to add to the list.

Unlikely I'll get the Platinum, since a few of the trophies are tricky as hell, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

I'm totally stealing that.

I really liked it (having paid actual money for it), as I’m sure I said elsewhere. It was a great game to just dip in and out of, managing to create satisfying gameplay loops, and balance surprising depth with simplicity, whilst remaining challenging.

I should maybe go back and see about the trophies too - I unlocked everything, I just never bothered to look at/aim for the specific feats in the list, so the only ones I did were the ones that came naturally.

Some of them are a real pain, because they're tricky. Getting 5x on Frontline isn't hard, you just stick to the left-hand islands to avoid the Baron reaching you. Getting 25x on Survival absolutely requires you to master the Aerial Steal move. Getting 65x on Bomber Defense just feels like luck if you get a run where you don't get hit too much in the early days.

Everything else is more than doable though, you just have to aim for it.

OK, so Dishonored is better than I initially gave it credit for. I've done the first full main mission now (after the deeply underwhelming introductory segments) and actually it's pretty open-ended, if quite simplistic. Putting a couple of Runes into the Dark Vision power helps enormously, allowing me to use it much like Hitman's Instict mode and plan my approaches much more carefully. And I've just gained the power to summon enormous swarms of rats, which is quite frankly something I could do with in real life. Looking forward now to seeing how it progresses.

It saddens me to do this, not so much because the game was so hyped but because I hate not finishing any game I started nevertheless I'm spiking Octopath Traveller into the Bin.

I tried so fucking hard to enjoy this game, but it's just really not that great. It feels like a failed experiment than a full blown RPG to me, the structure of 8 unique stories sounds interesting on paper, but the execution is flawed, outside of the characters individual chapters the party don't connect at all and there's no great overarching plot to bring them together, the disconnect was fucking huge for me at least.

The battle system is basically the one from Persona but executed badly because unlike Persona if you haven't broken the enemy you can barely scratch them so you feel completely useless. Eventually bosses will not only have like, 8 hits worth of armour they'll cover their weaknesses with plot armour or minion shields and it's such a fucking drag to do anything, every random battle is such a slog for me now.

I can't recommend this game at all. Such a disappointment.

I’m with Alastor on this. I’m about a third of the way through the game and the grind is just getting me down. I haven’t touched the game in ages now.

I was 40 or so hours in on half the cast being on their chapter 4, the rest on their respective first chapters or just not even recruited yet, that is insane considering every chapter is the same and there's very little payoff imo.

OK, so Dishonored is better than I initially gave it credit for. I've done the first full main mission now (after the deeply underwhelming introductory segments) and actually it's pretty open-ended, if quite simplistic. Putting a couple of Runes into the Dark Vision power helps enormously, allowing me to use it much like Hitman's Instict mode and plan my approaches much more carefully. And I've just gained the power to summon enormous swarms of rats, which is quite frankly something I could do with in real life. Looking forward now to seeing how it progresses.

A good way to appreciate the freedom Dishonored gives you is to watch a master playing it. After about a minute into this video they start doing things I hadn't even dreamed of.

This is the last level, so spoilers obviously.

https://tinyurl.com/nezskc6

I had no idea you could duck under enemy sword swings.

I had no idea you could force someone to fire at you, take control of their body, move them into the path of their own bullet then, when it takes their head off, pick their head up and throw it at their mate.

But then I'm a simple man.

EDIT - I'll give it more of a chance. Fuck it.

EDIT - I'll give it more of a chance. Fuck it.

DON'T DO IT, AL.

Okay, I'm giving it a lot of games but I'm definitely not having as much fun on Apex as literally everyone else in the world right now. I know it's a well designed game but I dunno man, I'm so bad and all I seem to do is wait over 20 minutes to kill one guy or be killed. And my kill usually doesn't matter because of the team revival thing. This is Solo though, and as good as the Ping system is there is no button to actually help you converse afaik, if someone pings a location to say 'lets check that out' in a group you are basically going there no matter what. That and not as fun without talking to friends.

EDIT - on the other hand, I traded in Octopath for Bayonetta 2 on the Switch and already got more fun out of it, despite it not being as good as the first game, this is still better than pretty much every other action game that isn't DMC3. Bayonetta (both the game and the character) have fun with such reckless abandon you can't help but enjoy yourself. I had actually forgotten how great a character Bayonetta was, she basically embodies everything about the 'we stan a legend' and 'queen' memes, the way she talks the talk and walks the walk, she knows she's all that and unlike Dante won't hold back.