dizzy_est_un_oeuf

PS Plus subscribers, Evil West (this month's free game) is worth a download. It's a double-A God of War (2018) rip off, full of vampires, werewolves and cowboys. It's exactly as schlocky as it sounds, but the moment-to-moment gameplay absolutely flies by.

I was really enjoying this but lost 2 hours of progress from it not saving and absolutely binned it off. The whole double A feel of it shouldn't extend to not saving.

Hello, how's it going? Well I hope. I've written a couple of these and read posts but keep not getting to the bit where it's done and posted. So, was sorry to hear about that thing that happened or, you know, silently cheered & congratulated more cheerful things but… kids and holidays, new job, school admin and then halloween… It all gets in the way of pissing about on forums.
Play
I joined PS+ a couple of weeks ago when my partner and kids started watching Strictly again. I'm not going to be one of those guys who's like "nah it's not for me" and then talks about how a tango is too conservative in week 8. So, PS5 in the office, I'll hole up on a Saturday night and enjoy games until Christmas. Or so I thought. The bastards have apparently gone off it this year. That first weekend though I got to play The Forgotten City: the Skyrim mod turned full game time loop mystery. Lovely. Very much enjoyed and listened to the soundtrack to the Outer Wilds again after finishing it.

Before that I was playing a lot of Grindstone. Bloody. Lovely. Before that I was playing Inscription. Really bounced off it hard and then… read something about the "surprise", didn't read more than that but started to engage more. Sort of glad I did but not sure the first surprise is for me. Played Teslagrad 2 before that. Didn't know it existed, sort of glad it does but not really sure why. I enjoyed Teslagrad but it's sort of unremarkable in a world where Celeste and Inside exist. I also got Wanted: Dead when it went on sale. It's not good. I realised a while ago that I don't find stuff that's deliberately shit fun (see: The Room, Neil Breen's output, Deadly Premonition) so don't know why this would have been different. It's a real throw back, reminded me of Oni and other shit 3rd person titles down the years. There's lineage but it's not a good one.

Currently playing Miles Morales off the back of Spiderman 2 hype and hearing on the Back Page Pod that it's a good holiday game. Cursed to Golf which I think Mart recommended at some point. Very frustrating but great for podcast listening. I'm playing Frostpunk again too, the real reason for resubscribing to PS+.

Cheers! Bye!

Play: Found a disc of Doom Eternal that I've had for ages. PS+ expired so I've been digging into stuff that's been hanging around found Doom 2, Elden Ring and Prey behind a bunch of books.
I played a fair bit of it in a lockdown I think… Mainly because I remember the kids screaming when the launch screen appeared on the tv when they were looking for Bluey.
I quite like it but struggling to recapture the magic of Doom 2016. I don't know if this one is less of a surprise or something else. Certainly the feel for me is that there are less of the set arenas that Doom had and these are siloed off into the challenges you need to find keys to unlock. The loop doesn't feel as fun and… Maybe I'm wrong but is there more platforming in this one? I can't tell any more if I've got a shit attention span or it's just diminishing returns so I need to look for things I'd not normally be interested in.
Speaking of which, I had A Short Hike hanging about thinking it might be one the kids would like and I poked about in it for most of a night having a really lovely time.
This weekend we had pals visiting and their eldest is a big Sonic fan largely based on his exposure because his dad still has a Megadrive kicking about and that's the only game he has left. In the car home we talked a lot about Sonic and I was surprised about the number of cheat codes burned into my brain! Anyway, this kicked off a weekend of Sonic Mania and a lot of Sonic geekery being rejuvenated. Asked if I'd completed it I had to admit that no, I'd never got very far. A 7 year old trying to comprehend why you would have access to this thing and not rinse it really brought the crushing reality of adulthood into focus for me. LOL etc. Anyway, I'm back on that now. It's a lovely thing. I love it.

Want: I have no idea what's coming or what I might want to play.

Bin: Fucking hell… As above we were in Coronation hell. The kids at school are having a picnic in celebration. The nursery are involved and created a Union Jack invitation. It's pretty much a rerun of the Jubilee, the forelocks tugging was all A Bit Much.

Played both Tomb Raider and Mighty Doom. Bit cold on both because they are, as Mart says, the same game. It's a bit of a downer that these aren't more inventive like the Go series.

Found myself having a hard time for one reason or another so took a measure to be in bed by 10 last week to see if sleep improved the situation (generally speaking: yes). One of these evenings I loaded Netflix on my phone and noticed 12 Minutes is a title they offer now (along with Into the Breach, Shredders Revenge and Oxenfree). The trailer for that game really excited me so I gave it a go. It's a thing isn't it… I don't want to spoil the story for anyone who wants to play it. The game itself is as frustrating as I usually find point and clikers and more so on the phone because I'm a fat handed twat.

The conceit of the 12 minute time loop can also become frustrating in the middle section of the game. You can get to various points where one incorrect action causes the loop end to trigger. This bit was tedious; knowing the steps to take to get to where you wanted and having to repeat multiple times because of stray clicks or – most frustrating – getting stuck in a loop of locking and unlocking the bathroom door rather than opening it.

All of this is to say that despite being in bed at 10 I didn't go to sleep until well after midnight. I ended up using a guide to finish the last couple of steps to see an ending. Felt at the end that the actual story got swamped by the mechanics a bit. I didn't really care what the plot was by the end. It's only thinking about it a week later that I'm getting any appreciation of that part of the experience.

Play: Urg, the Last of Us on TV sent me back to the game. The games really because the digital version of part 2 was on sale for £8 and I'd played a borrowed copy on my launch ps4 so it seemed like a thing I wanted to go back to. TLOU was kind of fine - the PS4 remaster not "Part 1" - it was much shorter than I remembered but that is possibly because there were no surprises and I played as violently as possible because, let's face it, Joel is a prick in the games and sparing no one and nothing makes the whole thing a lot easier. There was still the occasional section where I tried to perfectly stealth an encounter only to fail that approach and make it out by the skin of my teeth but by and large I avoided the repetition by just trying to fuck things up immediately and the game seemed to respond to this approach by allowing me to progress very quickly. Winter is still the only real stand out section which is fine and makes the direction of Part 2 seem like the least controversial decision made by any video game creative ever. For that short section where you control Ellie in the first game it feels novel and fun and interesting. I've started Part 2 and so far it's quite nice. I'd be delighted if Naughty Dog would put in an accessibility option that lets the player skip all their Yak Patting characterisation bullshit and let you get to the game. It feels like since they let Drake pat the yak in Uncharted 2 they've just kept leaning into the gated 'no danger' sections in their games and it's getting pretty tired. I have, however, downloaded UC4 & the Thieves follow on I bought but didn't play to continue my season of Naughty Dog when the ps+ sub runs out this month.

Also playing Mafia Definitive Edition. Surprised how fun it is to be in an open world that isn't really open at all. Reminds me of LA Noir where the whole thing just sits around you to serve a very specific story and there's no pissing about. Shows its age a fair bit but really having a good time with it.

Want: Maybe a switch to play more games with the kids. I got them going with Paw Patrol on ps5 bit its so shit. I'm struggling to find something in the vein of games I played when I was 6 like Chuckie Egg, retro stuff to get the basics down. Paw Patrol is - hear me out - a good introduction because it looks okay and has a few video games basics bundled into it like the jump is fine and transferrable to other games. The rest of it is absolute garbage though.

Bin:Valkyria Chronicles 4? Loved VC1 which I played back in 2009 and have bought No Games since signing up to the PS+ pass but this was cheapest its been and I though I'd love it. I really don't or don't have the patience for it. It just seems much more complex than the first game - I'm fully prepared to accept that having missed most of 2 when my psp got burgled and no sniff of 3 that I'm out of touch with the series but it seems very hard very early on and I've not truck with that.