I hadn't played the previous game so when Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor came out early this year I don't think I even noticed it. It appeared in a couple of GOTY lists though and it sounded good, I'm pleased to confirm that actually it is. It's basically Vampire Survivors with a more traditional game structure wrapped around it: lots of unlocking stuff and levelling up and playing through different modes here, which gives context to the various auto-shooter runs you'll be doing. It looks and sounds pretty good and there seems to be masses to do. I'm really enjoying it for a bit of brains-off Christmas blasting fun.
It's a shame it's only the Timesplitters 1 campaign….but there's some extras it seems, and one of them has the very first area of the Soviet map in Timesplitter's 2, making for a nice teaser.
Timesplitters 1 was the first game I had on my PS2 and a few of us played an absolute shitload of the split-screen multiplayer back in the day. The single-player campaign was pretty basic, really just a series of time-based and other challenges, but it did have an absolute ton of unlocks so I'd play that during the week and then at the weekends when my mates came over we always had new characters and stages to play. I never really gelled with the second one the same way (but it was a different time) and skipped the third one completely.
Banjo Tooie, on Switch 2. I'd forgotten how mental this game is. It's fun, but it's massively overcomplicated. It can take hours to earn a single jiggy, as you trek across four different levels and multiple characters. Definitely peak N64 collectathon, but I'm having fun regardless.
I love this, it's just so mad and ambitious for an N64 game. I think DK64 is probably peak collectathon (all those different coloured bananas!) but this was probably my favourite of the Rare platformers.
I still think I like the RE2 Remake best in the series
I liked the RE3 remake a lot (it was a fun, replayable action game) and I've got the RE4 remake still to play. But I'm kind of fascinated now to revisit the RE1 remake, something tells me it'll hold up pretty well for a 23-year-old game, and bizarrely I wonder how RE6 is these days.
There must be some difference though because you can still play Leon/Claire or Claire/Leon - doing the second run is a different option from just starting a new game with the other character. I'm not sure what the difference is though. I'm sure @Alastor will know.
I've been revisiting Resident Evil 2 Remake for no particular reason this week, and it really is excellent. The first third of this in particular is as good as the series ever got - the design of the police station really is impeccable and the way it keeps you criss-crossing the same spaces in different ways really makes it feel like a proper place rather than a game level. It has the good sense to hold back on Mr X for a good couple of hours too, he gets introduced just as you're starting to feel comfortable with the layout and it really does shake it up well.
It's my first time playing with the ray tracing update and Dolby Atmos audio too and it's really impressive. The 3D audio is the best I've ever heard. At one point last night I could hear Mr X walking around on the floor above me - and then the difference as he descended and walked right past the door of the room I was in. Absolutely convincing it was too.
It's a shame they dropped the ball on the second story though - from what I understand it's basically just the same thing with the other character, not at all the "other half of the story" as it was in the PS1 version - but I don't think I ever did a both-characters run originally so I'll try and see it through this time.
There are very few games from the early 90s that stand up today to the extent that they can be enjoyed "as is" without any sort of nostalgia attached or allowances being made - I think for me it's probably the three you mentioned, plus Doom and some of the LucasArts adventures - but Super Metroid absolutely tops the list. It's just an amazing piece of work, and incredibly atmospheric given (or perhaps because of) the limitations it was working with.
You've successfully put me off buying Prime 4, but now I want to go and play through Super Metroid again.
Garwoofoo