PWB: What happened to April, is it really May already?

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After last month's indecision I installed Persona 4 on my Vita and then bought Darkest Dungeon on Steam. I have yet to boot up either one.

Animal Crossing - Still playing daily. It's great, but my enthusiasm is certainly less than it was. I am slightly limited in what I can do on Recursion Island since I am sharing it with an eight year old who has big plans.

D&D - Thanks to the lockdown I am now running three games a week. My Monday game is so close to the end that I'm getting impatient. My Wednesday game is the D&D 5e campaign Tomb of Annihilation, which is fine so far. Considering the size of it, the Roll 20 implementation makes it easy to run. My Saturday game for the teen-agers is going well too, they are exploring the Isle of Dread.

Want
Most of my day is taken up with convincing the kids to do school work. If I could have just one thing it would be the two of them just getting in with it for a couple hours and then we can all play games like we all want to!

Actually, Is quite like a house with a garden please.

Bin
Right now it's kind of hard to tell what's already in the bin. Possibly because we are all in the bin.

I'm slightly disappointed that this thread isn't also "PWB: Quarantine Edition", but I suppose it's better than we have some semblance of progress, even on something as ephemeral as an internet forum.

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It's pretty much All Animal Crossing, All The Time here at the moment. I'm within spitting distance of finishing off my current infrastructure aims – one house left to move and two bridges to demolish/replace, and finishing with steps down to my secret beach. Then I'll just need to decide what I'm doing with my own house and its grounds; I've seen some pretty palatial estates on other people's islands, but that feels really odd to me, so I suspect I'll go for something a little more modest. I need to dedicate some time to fishing and catching bugs as well, and my crafting materials stockpile could use some bolstering.

My 13th Age game continues apace, moved to last night from Tuesday thanks to some dreadful Zoom issues earlier in the week. I managed to pull off a plot twist that (the party claims) none of them saw coming, which I'm exceptionally pleased with as I assumed it was stupidly obvious. I am a little concerned that one of the players, whose character has been pretty roundly betrayed by an NPC they considered one of their only remaining friends, is taking it harder than he's letting on; this isn't the first time he's RP'd his character as having nothing to live for and I'm having trouble telling if they're maybe just wanting to roll a new character, or if they're genuinely upset. His generally deadpan tone and stubbornness around player vs. character knowledge doesn't especially help.

Want

To see and speak with someone in person.

Bin

Lockdown. It feels unexpectedly isolating despite never really feeling like I'm on my own.

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Final Fantasy VII Remake, mainly. I'm 30-something hours in, and have given up trying to guess how far through I am. I've just made it to Spoiler - click to showAerith's childhood room, so I've met Red XIII. He's got a nicely ambiguous introduction - if you don't already know who he is, I imagine.

Untitled Goose Game still gets a lot of play time, if only because E is obsessed with it in the way that only a 2-year-old can be. She insists on going to see the same two NPCs, both in the pub - the old man, and the delivery woman. I've only got one trophy left now for the platinum - the back gardens, quickly - but as I'm never allowed to play that level, I thick it'll be a while before I get it.

Want
They've announced a new release date for The Last of Us Part II, so I imagine the first one will be back on the go again shortly. I know that huge spoilers leaked for Part II last weekend, but I'd thus far avoided them, mainly because I've been avoiding everything about the game since the first teaser trailer.

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Teething problems. Sprog 2 has given us two weeks of all but sleepless nights, and it's really starting to take its toll. Hopefully he'll be through it soon; he's fine during the day, mainly, but screams like a banshee when we try to put him down at night.

There are Spoiler - click to show18 Chapters in FF7R.
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Tales of Graces F - Like night and day after slogging both Tales of Zestiria and Berseria in a row.

Various fighting games - I got Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, Blazblue: Central Fiction on sale and I own Granblue Fantasy Versus already which just got a new character DLC released so I'm playing that. Fighting games are fun even if just trying to master certain elements IMO, even if I don't properly play either of them I'm proud I managed to stick with both Dizzy's and Tsubaki's combo trials and did them.

Granblue Fantasy - I think I play this enough to count it tbh, it's fun but very grindy.

If Visual Novels count I played a wee one called A Summer's End and it was lovely and nice.:3

Want

Can't really think of anything, my backlog is huge and full of really really good games. I'm so gutted TLOU2 got a release date since I was like 'ah no rush to play TLOU1 then' now I have a date, oh well. I've pretty much seen the whole game but it's not the same.

Bin

Well, I finished Final Fantasy VII: Remake and there's still stuff to do, but I'm good for now.

The Last of Us isn't hugely long, and you've got until mid-June to get through it; I don't think it'll be a sprint unless you put off starting until the end of May.

There are Spoiler - click to show18 Chapters in FF7R.

Okay, I just checked and I've just started chapter 17.

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Yakuza 4 - I think this has become my go-to series for comfort gaming, in the same way that Assassin's Creed always seems to hit the spot. The combat's engaging but not hard, the ongoing storyline is a gloriously insane soap opera, it's genuinely funny and it's got lots of distractions. I can always happily pass an hour in Kamurocho. I'm pleased to report that Y4 is a big step up from Y3, in fact it's clearly the point at which the series came together: the new characters are fun to play, the scope is bigger and the sub-stories are now multi-layered elaborate things rather than the simple side-quests of the earlier games. I'm wallowing in this one, doing as many side activities as I can, and lord only knows how long it will take me to finish it.

Super Mario 3D World - the boy has been on a real Mario binge lately and we've played most of the games in some capacity over the last few weeks. We've settled on this one, because it's multiplayer, even though it's comfortably the worst 3D Mario ever made. Levels are short and unsatisfying, controls are wonky (characters only run in eight directions, and the "run" button is the same as the "pick up other character" button which is the single biggest cause of death in our games so far) and there's no theming in the worlds at all so it's just basically a bunch of random levels then the game ends. It's still fun - it's Mario after all - but was clearly a Wii U stopgap and it's got nothing like the freewheeling ambition of the Galaxy games or the overabundance of ideas you find in Odyssey.

The Gardens Between - clever if limited little puzzler that's hopefully not going to outstay its welcome.

Want

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla - Odyssey plus beards and base-building? (Plus presumably next-gen shinies?) I'm in.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake - yes, very tempted indeed, but it's a Square Enix game so it'll be £20 in the sales within three months.

Bin

I'd say Lockdown but actually I'm more concerned now about what happens when all the idiots that desperately want the garden centres open get their way, and we're all sent back to work earlier than we should be. It feels like people are running out of patience already and there are noticeably more folk out and about, especially on sunny days: there's no way we are going to get out of this without some sort of catastrophic idiocy-fuelled second wave.

I think Florida might just show everyone exactly what an early exit from lockdown looks like, and I can't imagine our self-serving overlords will want to take the blame for the same thing happening here.

Boris has already claimed that the UK has avoided the disasters of other countries, despite our death rate being much higher than most (all?) other European countries.

They're going to just doublethink their way through this, and the media so far just hasn't been challenging their bullshit.

As someone pointed out, our media (Peston, Laura K et al) appear to use the videogame interview technique at the daily Coronavirus press conference e.g. "your videogame is awesome, how awesome is your videogame?"

Super Mario 3D World… it's comfortably the worst 3D Mario ever made.

Wait… what? You're crazy. It's not. It's really, really not.

It really is. I mean you’re only talking about, what, 6 games (64, Sunshine, Galaxy 1 & 2, 3D World, Odyssey) and it’s the only one that just doesn’t really work. I think it’s the insistence on digital controls that really kills it (8 way control plus a run button is ridiculous when you consider how manoeuvrable Mario is in every other game) plus that silly thing of making the pick up button the same as the run button. Like Metroid: Other M’s weird digital controls, it’s all been done to make the game playable with a sideways Wiimote, and it’s a terrible choice.

Maaaybeee they’ll change this for the Switch version and give Mario proper analogue control but I’m not holding my breath. If they do that then the short and forgettable levels and repeated bosses will still make it the worst 3D Mario, just slightly less so.

I'd put it over Sunshine at least.

The WiiU Mario is a bit shit. Though it pains me to say it, Gar is spot on.

So,

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Pistol Whip (VR) - I ABSOLUTELY FUCKING LOVE THIS. It's literally a John Wick simulator. Dual wielding in this is transcendental. The subtle autolock makes you feel like a god. I AM GOD. Seriously if you ever get a chance to play this (I assume it's on PSVR?) then do so.

Thrill of the Fight (VR) - This is amazing. Along with Blade and Sorcery (which I've started delving into) I think there's a good chance that in about a month I will be a trained, lethal killer.Talking of which….

Pavlov (VR) - Counterstrike, but in VR. And as good as that sounds. Some incredible game modes - including a hilarious one that's a bit like Werewolf - but the actual core combat is so…. worryingly…. good. I am embarrassed how quickly I've gone from looking at each type of weapon in a baffled way to ejecting a mag, slamming another in, arming it, then casually shooting someone in the legs then stabbing them in the head. The Quest release is only available via Sideloading at the moment (so you can play it standalone) - but the lobbies are busy. For extra graphical finery I might pick it up on PC. This, including Hyper Dash (a sort of VR Overwatch) are starting to convince me that while the tech isn't there yet, in 20 years time shooters could be worryingly visceral.

Divinity 2 - we're almost done but have hit a brutal difficulty spike on the last level. In fact, we haven't played for 2 or 3 days as people try to work out a plan of action to get to the end. Its been fun though. Looking forward to Larian's Baldur's Gate.

Apex Legends - still kronking the grind. Still not as good as my kids and getting shouted at.

Nine Parchments - has become out co-op relaxing game of choice. From the guys who brought us Trine, which was beautiful but shit, this is actually beautiful but good. A twin stick Harry Potter spell-em-up for four, it plays like a demented Gauntlet with player damage. Chaotic, frustrating, hilarious with 4. Genuinely the best 3 quid I've spent in a long time.

Want
A government that isn't a shower of cunts?

Bin
Fallout 4 VR - absolutely terrible VR port. I found it vaguely terrifying being stuck inside a Bethesda world of jank. Reasonable graphics are marred with terrible controls and UI and the haunting slick visages of the human people in it, who look like glistening dead eyed meatbags. I preferred Skyrim VR and even that wasn't good.

cavalcade is using quarantine and a VR headset to turn himself into a trained killer. God help us all.

Seriously guys. Guys. Pistol Whip. Oh god.

This is the best game I've played on VR. It's just so magnificently empowering. There's some brilliant design decisions in there: firstly it has auto aim (which can be switched off). That sounds terrible, but it's the greatest autoaim in gaming history. It shoots exactly where you imagine you'd shoot if you were John Wick. I don't even know how it does it. it's like magic. It's like it's reading your mind. Turn it off and the game feels insanely difficult, with it on, it's still difficult, but you're a superhero in it.

Secondly, it's a rhythm action game at its heart. You can go through the level just shooting your way through. But the discovery that points are tied to how close you time your shots to the beat means that you enter a higher state where you're performing these mad spiralling death ballets all while jiving with your hips like the cast of a 70s kids TV show. The track listing is quite hard EDM, but some of the levels are beautiful and they all pump with the beat - think Rez - so it has a massively synesthesic component.

Thirdly, while it is brilliantly satisfying with one pistol, I cannot overstress how two (which you can choose though your scoring takes a small percentage hit) make you feel like every John Woo movie is playing out with you in the middle of it. Shooting two bad guys coming from two sides as you duck under an obstacle, to the beat, and then crossing your arms and doing it again NEVER GETS OLD. Sideways aiming is also quite difficult, but YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO DO IT FROM TIME TO TIME.

Fourthly, as if the game didn't give enough, you can smash any enemy that gets too close with your pistol (hence the name) and doing so gives you a big points boost and your armour back. On the tougher difficulties it's a case of shooting bad guys at range then slapping the ones who get too close, all while watching for bullets. And slapping them IN TIME TO THE BEAT. Imagine all the other scenarios outlined above and then adding in the fact you can PISTOL WHIP ENEMIES TO DEATH IN TIME TO MUSIC and you might be getting close to how good this game is.

It's amazing, and you know what a moany twat I am about games.

PS4 soon but not yet, right? I think that's what I read.

Now that sounds like my sort of thing. Yep, it's on PSVR later this year.

Play: Gears Tactics

Now this is a nice surprise: XCOM with a Gears of War skin. PC only at the moment (and on GamePass) but pretty much certain to come to Xbox in due course I'd say. It's very slick, pretty fast-paced and very much in thrall to its inspiration - which is no bad thing.

PS4 soon but not yet, right? I think that's what I read.

My only concern might be the controllers - I think the Moves are better for Beat Saber, but the Occulus controllers are actually more pistol-esque. The harder vibrate on the Moves might make all the difference though and I can't imagine it'll be anything less than epic.

Pistol Whip does sound fantastic.

play Same sort of stuff as last month. Still quite enjoying Spider-Man, still really enjoying Call of Duty: Warzone when there's a chance to play with the regular group; we won a match of quads and then didn't pick it up again for a couple of weeks. Played again on Sunday there and had a great laugh.
Tetris Effect is fine for a quick go. The Wipeout Omega Collection is probably going to be played at some point but beyond having a look at the different games I'm not currently invested in it.
Streets of Rage 4 is cool, really enjoying it but haven't had a chance to play a huge amount. Looking at Parsec to see about playing Streets of Rage with the same group that plays CoD. Reports from others are that it works pretty well so that should be fun.
want going to have to stop buying all the mediocre games I can get my hands on at some point but I'd quite like to play Rage 2. Also… For reasons best known to tipsy me I ordered a copy of FarCry 2 for £3. It will sit next to Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, Viking and Bayonetta in the cupboard and rarely be played if at all.
bin I've developed a 'little but often' drinking habit at the moment i.e. every night. It's fine but I've noticed my tolerance for booze has rocketed up so need a break. All I've really been spending money on at the moment has been a twice monthly food shop, beer orders from small breweries and mediocre video games.

Incidentally I'd highly recommend Dog Falls Brewery from Inverness – they launched at the end of last year after winning a host of awards during their proof of concept phase. The guy's first commercial venture was a Christmas Market and he was selling to offies, pubs etc. up there so with this he's had to spin up an online shop quickly to try and keep afloat. My partner is from up that way and got me a selection for Christmas so I've been keeping an eye on when it'd be possible to get more. Anyway, here's a link to the shop: https://dogfallsbrewingcoltd.selz.com/ sells boxes of 12 but I don't think it says that anywhere on the site.

To the people playing Streets of Rage 4. Try hitting any arcade cabinets you see with a taser.

To the people playing Streets of Rage 4. Try hitting any arcade cabinets you see with a taser.

I'm disappointed there isn't more of that. Should have been every level, not just a few. :(

So aside from the usual (FFXIV, PSO2, MHW) I've added both Session and Skater XL to my regular plays.

I'm absolutely awful at both, can only ever seem to pull off the same flick tricks, and even getting on a ledge/rail feels impossible (though all the highlights on reddit for both games suggest its possible).

Skater XL is due out on consoles in July, but its controls feel confusing. I'll explain. Both games assign a foot to a stick, an evolution of EA's Skate Flickit system, but where as you can see exactly how Session works and can pull off tricks accordingly, Skater XL feels less refined, this isn't helped by the game not telling you what trick you've just pulled off.

Theres obviously a lot of work going on in the background on Skater XL as the footage they're showing is a world away from even the beta releases of the early access version on PC, and whilst both are pretty empty Session feels like its closer to a full release.

I think Skater XL is getting a release on all formats, Session was supposed to receive a PUBG style early access coughunfinishedcough release on XBox One in October last year, now they're just saying "Spring 2020"

Play: Gears Tactics

Now this is a nice surprise: XCOM with a Gears of War skin. PC only at the moment (and on GamePass) but pretty much certain to come to Xbox in due course I'd say. It's very slick, pretty fast-paced and very much in thrall to its inspiration - which is no bad thing.

Update on this: Gears Tactics is surprisingly great. I'm not much of a fan of Gears generally but as a setting for this kind of game it works really well. You can even turn off the gore and the swearing in the options menu which makes the whole thing a lot less embarrassing. The game plays really well, looks great, and offers up a nice mixture of scripted story missions and more procedural side-stuff. There's no strategy layer to speak of but plenty of opportunity to recruit grunts and upgrade your squad.

It's not got the same sort of scope as XCOM - but I don't think it's aiming for that. It's very much the sort of AA game that we don't see very often any more, a side-project spun out of existing assets on a budget, that's actually really good at what it does. I can see this becoming a fairly big niche in its own right, if they decide to continue down this road.

Things that I'm playing currently:

Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Well, duh.
Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ - Forever and ever, amen. Still waiting for new DLC Repentance to appear.
Streets of Rage 4 - No chance of the platinum, it's got some silly-hard requirements. But I'll chip away at what I can.
Void Bastards - I enjoyed this on Game Pass, so grabbed it on PS4 and made a proper attempt. A bit silly in places, but it's scratching my roguelike shooter itch.
Reventure - About 25 endings down, 75 more to go.

I also bought Control since it was cheap(er than normal), but I haven't started it yet.

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Return of the Obra Dinn. This makes an incredible first impression. Those balletic moments of death, beautifully frozen, with that incredible soundtrack. I can't wait to get stuck into this. But first I need to finish…

Yakuza Kiwami 2. I bought 6 in the PS Sale, and I'm going to watch a Youtube recap for 3, 4 and 5. (Don't judge me, life's too short and I have too many games.)

Divinity 2: Original Sin. I started then abandoned this a couple years ago. Just getting back into it and it's as all-consuming as I remember. The level of stuff going on is pretty overwhelming, but it's great fun. The only disappointing this is the difficulty. 'Easy' is just too easy – it strips out any need to exploit the game's many mechanics, and you can win largely by auto-attacking. But normal. Jesus Christ normal is difficult. I gave it a good go, but after the fifth time of losing a 30+ minute battle I had to knock it down to easty. Again, life's too short.

FF14. I've bought Shadowbringers so I need to get back on this. But Divinity 2 is quite the time sink.

The latest in VR games nobody else will ever Play cavalcade updates:

VTOL VR. The highest ranked VR flight simulator on Steam. A one man project. Graphics that are very rudimentary (think almost F/A 18 Interceptor on the Amiga). Voice acting all done… by the guy who programmed it (and I suspect his girlfriend).

So why is it good? Because it's the only flight sim built from the ground up for VR controllers. In other words, you don't need a HOTAS (like you do in DCS if you're using VR). It's a semi complex simulation and the oversized cockpit controls allow you to flip and toggle switches and MFDs and then grab a virtual stick and throttle. Want to arm your missiles - flip the protective cover off the master arm switch and flip it. Want to change radar modes, touch the MFD control switches around the display. Want to drop your landing gear, pull the landing gear lever… etc…

It works AMAZINGLY well. Totally immersive. It's set in a near future so has fictitious next generation fighters in it (with VTOL capabilities) but the weapons themselves are based on real world ones. It has an amazing sense of place to it. Just flying is immensely rewarding, but combat takes things up a notch.

I also played a bit of Elite Dangerous to compare. It's fine, and many of the VR enhancements are cool - but ultimately you need a pad/HOTAS to play it properly and after VTOL VR it's hard to go back. Genuinely one of the most impressive VR games I've played (though I am a sucker for flight sims).

I like cav's VR stuff because it makes me think constantly of getting my VR stuff out of mothballls but then I think to myself 'oh god, so many fucking cables' and don't. What headset are you using, cav?

Have you played Ultrawings on PSVR? That's definitely designed primarily as a VR game and it works really well, though it's more Pilotwings than simulator. You need a strong stomach if you're flying with any of the safety settings off, though.

I use an Occulus Quest. Natively the games are entirely wireless and it uses inside out tracking. So you just put it on, and draw a safe space (lol snowflake) in a room once and it remembers it and you play in it with full roomscale. I connect to the PC wirelessly too, using a Virtual Desktop link over WiFi which works flawlessly (if I want to play Occulus Rift or SteamVR games). It's a great bit of tech, and the lack of wires and fucking about means you can literally pick it up and be playing virtual ping pong in about 10 seconds. It's amazing. But you also have the option of more hardcore PC gaming experiences if you like.

And VTOL VR is like Ultrawings, only a more fully featured and technical version. I do like Ultrawings, but that's more PilotWings and Nintendo-y, VTOL VR is a bit more serious.

One of the reasons I couldn't be arsed with PSVR a lot of the time was fucking about with the wires and camera, and initially I didn't think Quest would make that much of a difference. But I think it's another critical step towards mass market acceptance of the tech. Literally lifting the headset up, putting over your head and firing up a game makes a huge difference to the "can't be arsed" threshold. I've been playing a lot of Eleven Table Tennis - a native Quest app. And it's perfect. The game is also designed to load and get you into a game quickly. Quite often when I fancy a quick break from sitting at the desk I'll just boot my chair out of the way and play a game or two. Gets the blood pumping, feels startlingly real and is just so trivial to do. Then, heaset off, and on with something else.

Also, it's completely portable. Take it on a business trip, or round to a mate's house. It fits in a small plastic bag. The inside out tracking and roomscale is amazing tech. I can't even fathom how it works. Once Occulus put in the ability to link with a PC (via the official Occulus link tech or less officially via Virtual Desktop) then the headset became probably the strongest budget PC VR choice at the moment. Yes, the Index is better tech, but it's 3 times the price. One other huge benefit to Quest is that you can sideload games onto it - avoiding the official store. This isn't for piracy, but there's a huge sort of indie community on it, with free early access games and games that didn't quite make it to the official store. Pavlov VR, for example, is essentially in beta for free on the Quest sideloading platform.

Downsides are 1) it's made by fucking Facebook and 2) technically it has a fairly low FOV and refresh rate compared to its competitors. But I can't say the latter has bugged me much, and I bought it second hand so at least Zuckerberg only gets my money from store purchases….

That's really interesting, actually. I love the experience of PSVR but like you say the whole hassle of setting it up, propping up the camera, having to make sure you don't move out of range of the camera and trying to find the one charging cable you've got that actually fits the Move controllers is a real bind.

How does the FOV and refresh rate compare to PSVR? Comparable, or worse?

I had no idea you could connect it to the PC until you mentioned you were playing Elite Dangerous on it. That's a killer app for me, right there.

Oh, and a weird question: how does it handle audio? The PSVR uses earbuds by default but I've got weird-shaped ears and earbuds just fall straight out; so I have to use a massive pair of over-head headphones with the thing (the biggest pair I have, as they need to get over the headset itself) which is yet another major bind every time I want to put it on or take it off. I'd love a VR headset that has over-ear headphones built it, if such a thing exists.

Basically I just want to have a quick game of Beat Saber any time the fancy takes me, without feeling like I'm rewiring a house.

Refresh rate is lower than the PSVR (72hz vs 90/120hz I think) and FOV slightly narrower (100 vs 110 degrees). However the screendoor effect is significantly less due to Occulus' better screen tech (538ppi vs 386ppi). I would say there isn't a world of difference between the two in terms of quality - the refresh rate has never bothered me and I think the reduced screendoor effect is worth it. One area the PSVR is significantly better is in comfort - the headset on the Quest is not that comfortable and can have light bleed around the nose. There are plenty of solutions, but out of the box the PSVR is miles ahead.

One other thing worth noting is that multiuser support on Quest is poor. it can be sideloaded on, and it should be coming soon officially, but you're reliant on the games having individual profiles at the moment for family members. Apart from that everything else about the Occulus is very slick - the controllers miles better than the moves, the OS friendly and easy to navigate and everything just looks and feels a little less toy -like than the PSVR.

Playing Beat Saber on the Quest is a case of lifting the headset off the charging cable (it lasts about 3 hours per charge) and putting it on your head. And playing. And that's it. In any room you have enough space. Or outside if you want people to stare at you. Both controllers take a single AA battery which lasts ages. No cameras, no wires. I'd say the controllers in PSVR Beat Saber feel a little more chunky and vibratey, but apart from that there's not a lot between them. And which version is the one you'll play: the one that you're playing in 10 seconds, or the one that involves dragging cables around and getting the fucking Moves to pair up? Exactly. Plus, as I say Pistol Whip is what you should be playing anyway.

Audio on the Quest has two options, it has two headphone jacks. Or you can use the inbuilt…. I'd say they were speakers. Or speakers crossed with headphones (so little speakers that sit next to your ear). So, you will hear audio once you put the headset on. It's fine. I use it most of the time, but if you want to really feel the music in something it's best to add headphones for bass. The inbuilt speakerphones aren't brilliant, but they're good enough.

Connecting to the PC came a bit late officially as Occulus released Occulus link months after release as a surprise, letting the helmet connect to PCs via a link cable and a USB3 port. It then acts as a Rift, giving you access to the Rift store and Steam VR titles. As the Quest is essentially powered by a mobile processor it is limited by the fidelity of what it can produce. Stuff like Beat Saber and Pistol Whip, fine. More complex stuff like The Room VR is also possible, but Elite Dangerous isn't. A program called Virtual Desktop allowed a wifi connection to PCs via the official app, but then Occulus got annoyed and now you have to download the official version then sideload a version with the feature in.

This lets you then connect to your PC wirelessly (and do anything you want to do on the PC - like write a word doc if you were feeling weird about it) but also kick off native Occulus apps and Steam VR apps like Alyx (which I haven't bought yet as it's 46 quid, but I have wandered around the free virtual environments and the Quest copes admirably with them over Wifi and Virtual Desktop and they look stunning). Your PC really needs to be hardwired into the router and you need 5Ghz or it will stutter though. I prefer it to the cable connection method as it makes roomscale games a lot more fun.

Anyway, once connected it acts like any connected headset and you can trigger titles via Steam VR, or directly (like VR Minecraft). Here you get the fidelity of a full PC game release and can play stuff like Boneworks or Fallout VR which push the fidelity envelope a bit more (don't play Fallout 4 VR - its' shit). .

So, it's a great mix of both worlds. I have been very impressed with most of it - I just wish it was a bit more comfortable to wear.

Been playing a fair bit of The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game which I played before Christmas but have found myself going back to lately. It's a curious thing, an adaptation of the ever-expanding tabletop game that's actually made quite a lot of changes to the way the game works. (I've played both, and in many ways I prefer this version). But although it was designed as a similarly long-term expanding project, the publishers Fantasy Flight Interactive shut down within weeks of it being released and as such it's never going to get any more content than it has already. Fair play to the devs, they've released all the available content for free as well as some stuff that was clearly in the pipeline so there IS a fair amount to do here still. But it'll never be what it was intended to be.

But, no matter. The main issue here is it's really quite extraordinarily difficult. So actually not having much content as planned may not be an issue, because I'm never going to see any of it! Every battle is a scrabble for survival as Sauron plays about three times as many cards as you do and it's almost impossible to gain any kind of foothold. Now maybe I'm just terrible at building the right decks but with hundreds of cards to choose from it's kind of hard to even get started and I'm not really making any inroads at all. Somehow it keeps me coming back though. I'm just a sucker for punishment (and deck-building card games, it transpires).

I've played this co-op with a guy who is the local genius at Magic the Gathering and he really rated it. We played through one campaign as he zeroed in on the archetypes and then he began to build decks and drive our strategies in combat and after that we began to breeze through it. So I think, like Slay the Spire it certainly does have a fairly decent skill component. But as you say, shame it'll never get any more content - though perhaps the PC modding community will flesh it out.

For what it's worth, the original card game seems hard as nails as well, so it's true to form.

I think maybe it's just that expectations are different - the card game feels like an intricate little puzzle, where every scenario gives you something to solve, and playing each one several times over feels like good value. Whereas for videogames we're all accustomed to making steady progress and it's easy to get disheartened if you lose over and over on what's perceived to be the "easy" levels. Having a much wider pool of cards to choose from initially does increase the learning curve somewhat.

But - that said - I just made one fundamental change to the way I was playing and it had an immediate effect, I'm doing a bit better now (though still losing). I'm definitely going to persevere.

Additional Play: with my Animal Crossing island teaching its "maintenance" stage – there's not much major redevelopment left to do at the moment, though future additions may require shuffling things around – I've taken to hopping into Slay the Spire for a couple of runs a day.

As with Netrunner, my previous deck-building obsession, I am terrible at it; the farthest I've gone so far has been the second or third floor of the third stage, but I do feel like I'm making some kind of progress. My last couple of runs, with the Silent and heavy defence/poison decks, definitely felt more controlled and deliberately tactical, though the randomness does limit how much any lessons learned can be applied.

Bin

Middle Earth: Shadow of War - I just can’t be arsed. I thought an open-world game would be good at the moment, and I’d meant to try this (cheap) ever since they dropped the IAP bullshit, but it would seem I wasn’t quite right (or just didn’t pick the right game). I played a good amount of it, and largely enjoyed it, but just don’t think I’ve got the patience for the amount of padding this kind of thing has now - I also gave up on Just Cause 3 halfway through, and Assassin’s Creed as a series after Black Flag.

It’s not just the time investment - I happily did most of what you can do in Dragon Age Inquisition, for example - I just can’t be bothered with the Ubisoft-style shallow checklist style of open world game anymore.

Oh, and the story is garbage.

The Nemesis system is still great, of course, and there’s fun to be had here if it’s your bag, it’s just that I grew tired of the whole thing shortly after I realised there wasn’t much else about it that was of interest.

If you're looking for an open-world game (and you haven't already tried it) then I highly recommend Marvel's Spider-Man. Yes there are collectables and lots and lots of icons popping up on the map, but getting around Manhattan is such a joy that tidying the map up never feels like a chore. Honestly, you get that 'just one more' feeling when you're looking for backpacks. Or taking pictures of landmarks. Or, well, anything really.

I was in a party last night and when we finally settled on Rocket League as a game we could all play together, I was a bit disappointed instead of slightly relieved that I could take a break from whatever collectathon was in front of me. It really is very good.

I've been thinking again about plugging in my 360 and finding out if Crackdown is still as much fun as I remember.

I mean, it's basically, "Jump, shoot, jump, shoot, jump, ORB!" but it could still be fun.

Maybe I just want to shoot sniper rifles from the hip again?

I've been thinking again about plugging in my 360 and finding out if Crackdown is still as much fun as I remember.

It definitely is. And on the One X, it runs in 4K at a completely smooth 30fps. It's heavenly.

(Also, not to start banging this drum again, but Crackdown 3 is objectively even better.)

Crackdown 3 is a f–king miracle. It completely recaptures the feeling of the original without feeling like a pointless sequel - helped, perhaps, by the lengthy gap between it and its predecessors, and the generally over-designed and over-burdened approach open-world games have been taking in the interim.

and the generally over-designed and over-burdened approach open-world games have been taking in the interim.

Speaking of which, additional play.

I downloaded the trial of The Crew 2, because I was curious about the 'whole of America' thing. And Jesus it's bad.

The story (I don't know why there's a story) is that you're a social media influencer, and you have to get as many likes as you can. The game then does the Ubisoft Icon Shuffle, throwing an obscene amount of (boring) stuff at you. The handling is shit, and the locations all look identical. I drove from San Francisco to Seattle, and both cities looked the same.

It's just awful.

and the generally over-designed and over-burdened approach open-world games have been taking in the interim.

Speaking of which, additional play.

I downloaded the trial of The Crew 2, because I was curious about the 'whole of America' thing. And Jesus it's bad.

The story (I don't know why there's a story) is that you're a social media influencer, and you have to get as many likes as you can. The game then does the Ubisoft Icon Shuffle, throwing an obscene amount of (boring) stuff at you. The handling is shit, and the locations all look identical. I drove from San Francisco to Seattle, and both cities looked the same.

It's just awful.

Doesn't cavalcade love The Crew 2?

cavalcade does not.

Doesn't cavalcade love The Crew 2?

Sick burn.

If you're looking for an open-world game (and you haven't already tried it) then I highly recommend Marvel's Spider-Man. Yes there are collectables and lots and lots of icons popping up on the map, but getting around Manhattan is such a joy that tidying the map up never feels like a chore. Honestly, you get that 'just one more' feeling when you're looking for backpacks. Or taking pictures of landmarks. Or, well, anything really.

Yup, played it, platinum’d it, really enjoyed it. Traditionally I do quite like open world games, but there seems to be a busywork/world size ratio that can’t be exceeded, or else I lose interest (though it can be mitigated by the busywork being vaguely entertaining, or traversal being fun, as with Spidey).

Doesn't cavalcade love The Crew 2?

Sick burn.

Wat