Yesterday I discovered that Mario Kart is available on the iPad and I don’t foresee ever having any free time again.
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Last week I discovered Slay the Spire is available on the Switch and I forgot how lovely it is to play an actual video game in bed.
It’s lovely. Highly recommend, 9.5 out of 10, would Slay more spires.
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Took advantage of the free time I have thanks to covid and played some stuff with my partner for the first time in ages.
We started off by going through the various fighting games we have, which mostly involved me losing (I obviously blame being ill).
Mortal Kombat XL - First time we’ve ever actually played this. I was all right at it and managed to win a couple of fights. Interesting that my knowledge of special moves - earned by spending a whole week experimenting with the original game on the Master System - still has some value.
BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Extend - I’ve played this a decent amount 1p, so I’m not as terrible at it - at least when using characters I’m used to. My favourite of the three.
Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite - My least favourite. Mainly because I lost every match, but also because of the crap character selection.
Finished up with a run through Monster Prom, which is a competitive dating sim where you play monsters working out who to take to prom. The gameplay is pretty simple, but it’s very funny and a lot of fun to play with someone else.
Also, late to the party as always, I bought Hades the other day and have had one playthrough of that. Obviously, I’ve got “God Mode” on, because I’m rubbish at games. Lots of fun, considering I’m usually not a fan of particularly hard games.
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I finished horizon forbidden west at the weekend. My wife’s doing a uni course so my board gaming is taking a hit but my ps5 is getting well loved.
So anyway forbidden west. I’ve got opinions. It’s a good game. I mainlined the story as it definitely suffers from a lot of side quests and distractions which would normally distract me. It’s a good game with some strong mass effect 2 vibes.
The new mechanics are a mixed bag. There is a lot of bloat there that I simply ignored, valour surge… meh. The new parachute/kite is a welcome addition and the grapple hook is good if a bit underused. The combat is still the main attraction and I don’t think it added much that’s new in that regard.
Although if they add anything else that’s not a robot dinosaur in the inevitable sequel I’m going to cry.
So onto Elden ring, what can go wrong.
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Played a few hours of Elden Ring. I’ve not played a souls- game before.
I can just about handle the smaller enemies, but (even after collecting a lot of items and levelling a bit) the first boss absolutely smacked me into the ground 10 times. So that’s how it is, eh?
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Yes but so far Elden ring gives me the well I’ll run away and do something else option.
Rather than take on the first boss (who I lasted seconds against) I went for the beast dude in the cave as a warm up. Still took me about 10 try’s but I got there.
The only awful design choice I’ve found so far is returning from the round table via the map. That took me 20 minutes and a google search to figure out.
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I think the “first boss” is meant to be an introduction to the idea that you don’t have to do things linearly.
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Finally finished my 20 hour game of Stellaris and looked forward to playing something different for a change. Sat down last night to try something and found myself starting a new game of Stellaris.
Sometimes the first step to fixing yourself is admitting that you have a problem.
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I’m assuming the almost here is for The Outer Wilds, which had an ending so beautiful I immediately forgave all it’s flaws.
All I’ve been playing is Elden Ring. Over 100 hours now, not bad for a game that came out 5 weeks ago. Or very bad, not sure which. Absolutely phenomenal game which deserves all its platitudes.
I have so many people tell me how wonderful The Outer Wilds is, I really want to love it and feel I could but… but I’ve bounced off it three times now. I just struggle with the control system, I simply can’t get to where I want to go and I find it hugely frustrating and at odds with the peaceful vibe I feel I’m supposed to be experiencing.
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If you ever give it a fourth go just use autopilot. Until the endgame it’s all I ever used.
First time I tried it the autopilot flew me directly into the sun. But I have similar problems with the jet pack and just general terrain traversal. For some reason the controls are not intuitive in a way that I find frustrating. I’m sad because I know there’s an amazing story that I’m missing. Maybe I’d be better watching a play though of it.
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Some may regard that as an undesirable feature in an autopilot. Was it a Tesla, by any chance?
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In the autopilot’s defence, it was moving in a direct line to where I wanted to go. It just didn’t take account of the star between me and my destination; this is very nearly an Alfred Bester novel ‘The Stars not My Destination but they sort of got in the way’.
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Tiger, tiger, burning very bright indeed.
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Hero: “Get me to Earth as quickly as possible.”
Spaceship computer: “Would you rather arrive dead in 18.2 days or alive in 31?”
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Oh my gosh me too! I’ve tried three different times, and each of the three times I just hate everything about it.
The time crunch is awful. The controls are awful. The jump-puzzles are awful. The having to go back to a planet for the FOURTH TIME because I didn’t arrive early enough and everything exploded while I was inside the stupid tower that took me two tries to get into is awful. The “randomly appear here and then randomly appear there” black hole thing? AWFUL. Gods, I hate everything about that stupid game!
… except the music. And the story. And the little fragments of what might be going on with the mystery. I really want to like the game, but gods I hate the game and that frustrates me because gosh is it ever beautiful.
(EDIT: AND THE AUTOPILOT IS AWFUL! The number of times it has sent me crashing into a moon, or another planet, or the sun… gah!)
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Oh my goodness I thought I was the only one who struggled with this. It’s frustrating because I can see the genius and I -really- want to love it.
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Yes, @MarkSP Outer Wilds is a game which does the time travel aspect really well. It doesn’t force you to go through stuff again and again just because you need to progress the story in the latest run.
Every run starts at the same point. Only your knowledge is the limiting factor.
The controls with both the space ship and jet pack need some time to learn though. But this is fitting thematically, you are a rookie pilot at the beginning too and all your astronaut buddies are as bad as you at flying.
There is always some gravity pulling at you and because the planets are pretty small and you change locations quickly, it also changes how the controls behave a lot.
I remember how often I crashed in the beginning because I didn’t really know how to control the ship. But after some hours I got good at it. I learnt how to adapt to the different gravities and environment. It is a question of practice.
Flying into the sun with the autopilot is a classic. That thing just goes a straight line not caring whatever is in between.
Not sure what’s random about that though. It has two fixed points (black hole and white hole). You fall into it a lot of course and that’s annoying, but it is not random.
Edit: The Nomai also fell into it all the time, that’s why they (small spoiler) built the white hole station to quickly teleport back to the planet 
It was a very satisfying and amazing feeling to solve the puzzles the game put in front of me without really telling me there are puzzles. It was just, I want to get to certain things and I am sure it has to work somehow.
I also loved learning about the ancient civilization of the Nomai and their doing.
And whenever I got frustrated at one place, I just went to a different one, the whole universe was open to me and there was always a ton to discover and find out
But this game wants you to learn through failing and dying. You have to be fine with that. It has a roguelike / Dark Souls like aspect if you want to call it that.
And the tutorial is very bad. A lot of important stuff is taught there at the start but it is overwhelming and you don’t use it for a while and then forgot about it when you need it.
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Just started Weird West and very much enjoying it.
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