I've downloaded Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 but haven't played them yet as they only unlocked this morning. I'm really looking forward to revisiting them although I'm slightly concerned about the control schemes. The originals (especially 2) were so tied to the Wiimote and Nunchuk combo that I'm not convinced the Pro Controller or even split joycons will really manage to give the same level of control. We'll see.
I'm playing 2 with the split joycons, and it's basically the same. Slightly slower pointer.
I've got down to sub layer 1000, I don't know how far through that is but it's a reasonable way I think, and I'm pretty much done with it.
1100 is fun, at least. Worth making it there.
Play
AC Shadows. Not only is this great fun, I reckon it's the most graphically impressive game I've ever played. It feels like this generation's Red Dead 2 (without the attention to detail, perhaps). Same leap in quality from what came before, same 'just have to stop and look' moments. RTGI is a gamechanger.
Mario Galaxy 2. Nintendo's confusing Switch 1/2 game labelling is immediately undone with this game. I'm playing on Switch 2, in 4K, but it's not the 'Switch 2 version', which apparently doesn't exist. You just buy the Switch 1 version and it runs the Switch 2 version. I don't even know any more. It took a good 5 minutes of googling to figure out what to buy. Aside from that, this is still one of the best games ever made.
Hades 2. I've killed the final underworld boss once, and I'm stuck on a certain flying, arena-destroying bastard on Olympus. I'm enjoying this, but I'm not convinced it's the all-timer everyone else seems to think it is. There's only one weapon I actually enjoy using (the dual blades); the rest feel a bit naff. And it has the same problem as the first Hades, namely that for a game entirely focused on combat, the combat isn't very satisfying. There's no weight to anything, and it's laughably hard to read at times.
I also don't really get along with the repetitive nature of rogue-likes. I've already seen the first 4 areas about 30 times, I have zero desire to repeat them at this point. It's saved by the stunning art, good voice acting and interesting story, though.
Bin
Clair Obscur. I dropped off at the end of Act 1, haven't loaded it back up since. The combat started off great, but after 6 or 7 hours it had overstayed its welcome. Also, 'some stuff' happens at the end of Act 1 that apparently leaves people speechless, in awe, shouting GOTY and lots of other superlatives. It barely even registered that something important had happened for me, so I clearly wasn't that invested in the story. Banging soundtrack though.
Finally got started on Shadows, and it's great so far. It feels like the first time the series has tried to make things feel different since Origins. In fact, for the first couple of hours I actually forgot I was playing an AC game. Then when the world opened up, and I saw that familiar AC 'viewpoint' icon, it came as a bit of a surprise.
It's also the first time I've ever seen the point of ray tracing; the 60fps mode just looks so underwhelming by comparison. Turns out ray-traced puddle reflections = nonsense. Ray-traced lighting illuminating bamboo forests = beautiful. Thank god for the 40fps mode though, as 30 really does feel quite rough these days.
Oh, and yay for 'Canon' mode. This has to be enabled at the start, but removes any dialogue choices from cutscenes. I'm all for them telling a tightly crafted story, and dialogue trees always felt like needless faff in AC games.
Great month again for PS Plus. Alan Wake 2, Last of Us Part 2 PS5, Cocoon, Tomb Raider Anniversary (remaster?).
I will very much be playing Alan Wake 2 with the jumpscares off.
That's Hollow Knight done. 59% completion, 10hrs 30. I didn't have the foggiest idea what was happening at any point, and the credits rolled after some sort of exposition that meant nothing to me. But I killed some large bad guy, which I assume is good.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it, having said all that.
Additional play. The Messenger is fun; it's an 8-bit retro platformer (no wait!) that is tough, but it does the Celeste thing of liberally sprinkling checkpoints, so you never really mind when you die. Plus halfway through, A Cool Thing happens that flips everything on its head. But I won't spoil that.
It's 3 quid on Switch atm, give it a go!
Mr Party Hat