Alastor

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance
Azure Striker Gunvolt
Trails beyond the Horizon
We Love Katamari
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Resident Evil: Requiem
Resident Evil (1998)
Final Fantasy X
Space Marine
Pragmata
Final Fantasy VII
Streets of Rage 4

Onimusha Warlords
A game I haven't played in well over 20 years, if nothing else it's good to see if the game I remembered in my head is what the game actually was…it kinda was and it wasn't.

It's a good game, it's structured basically like a PS1 era Resident Evil game set in feudal Japan with demons and magical swords. I do think that description oversells it a bit though, you do run around a building doing puzzles and unlocking doors but it's not survival horror and you never really feel like you're exploring the main area, I never looked at a map once for example. In a genre filled with soulslikes these days though, it's somehow still a breath of fresh air pacing and design wise so I don't really have a problem with it, just setting expectations: this is an action game IMO, not RE2 with a fire sword.

It's hard for me to talk about the combat without thinking how the demo for the new Onimusha game got dragged by both modern and classic Onimusha fans alike for being too easy and somehow 'Onimusha for babies'. I DO think that demo made me wish the full game was much harder (same with Pragmata's demo, which I kiiiinda got) but now I've replayed this game…it's easy as fuck. I don't think combat sucks by any means and you can die, but your character has so much power and movement that the enemies really can't do shit to you, it feels satisfying to lay into everything or kick them the ground and ground stab them but there's no intricate dance to combat here, I approached almost every enemy the same way.

In all, this is a 5 hour ish game that I think action game and Resi fans might enjoy, but I'm hoping that my replay of Onimusha Warlords 2 is as good as I remember (It was always my favourite) and it is all the potential of this game fully realized like I'm suspecting.

It's Jordan isn't it? 'Have you heard of drifting m8?', fuck off.

I'm still playing Forza 6 but getting a wristband just peppers the map with an increasingly intimidating amount of Stuff, and there's only so many times you can drive off a ramp in slow motion under a plane. Still really enjoy driving around in some of the cars I have though.

The difficulty settings are so granular that you can adjust it so that every race results in a close victory for yourself, so you do that, and then every race is the same. If you put it up a few notches so you're not winning every time then you never win any races, as there is no variety in how the races play out, how the AI behaves, or how fast the cars are. Personally I have played enough of these games that my skill level is what it is and what it always will be. I'm not going to improve by playing the tougher difficulty, I'm just going to finish third every time. Every single time. It's extremely weird.

Personally I've just about McFucking had it with the AI drivers, who on my difficulty config are either a way for me to cheat bends by using them as a corner cushion (I don't want to do it but I have to turn a corner and they all over them when I do), or they'll hit me out of nowhere until I go back in time and fuck them over with my clairvoyance.

Off Road stuff is fantastic I think

+3 on read all of it, as someone who is somewhat out of the whole handheld cycle loop, I still watch stuff from the usual CCers like Retro Games Corp every day like it's window shopping through the internet almost. I'm quite happy with my Steam Deck but I've definitely entertained a few what ifs over the last year or so (one 'what if' was what if I got a Legion Go 2 ha ha ) so it's interesting to hear about some of these being a fair bit more powerful.

The GPD Win 5 absolutely screams to me, albeit it's not saying very money friendly things, but I think every handheld should just copy the Vita right?

The main issue beyond a Steam Deck to me, is, I get that positives of Windows but I do not understand PC spec style information, I don't get what the selling point of Intel is, I don't know my Ryzen from my Nvidias.

This is why I'm glad I never got into Forza 5, I know it would have made Forza 6 less impactful

Oh my, tried out the other Vanillaware games I have on Vita and Dragon's Crown seems fun as I remember as long as the Amazoness gets a fun moveset, I can see where the addictive 'loot and gear' aspect comes into it, but Odin Sphere Leifthrasir is the real stand out here, maybe even better than Muramasa…but regardless of what you prefer, between the two you got a real double whammy of action RPG (adjacent, whatever) on the handheld there, I'm definitely going to try beat both.