Steam sale is on so I bought the Dark Forces remaster, because the only thing better than shooting Stormtroopers is doing it with 90s Soundblaster sound effects.
6 Likes
Controversy aside, Hogwarts Legacy is proving to be fun. Also, Mini Motorways - because I like me some town planning.
4 Likes
Finished with Indiana Jones. The relic puzzle at the final location took me a couple of hours of intermittent attempts to solve, and I did end up having to purchase all the guides to get everything, but got the platinum trophy on the PS5.
Now messing around with Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles, which has been remastered (for a PS1 game) for new consoles. Remember having fun with this after renting it way back when. Finished the game with Obi-Wan, now just trying to beat the survival mode level for kicks.
After that, moving on to a PS4 game called LEFT ALIVE, which I have heard mixed reviews on, but is generally considered to be in the vein of Metal Gear Solid, and after one glowing review I read, figured I wanted to try it out, so ordered it a while back. Finally getting to it.
3 Likes
have any of you seen this the Joy of Programming on Steam?!? A software engineering simulator… wtf?
2 Likes
I’m currently playing death stranding 2. It very much feels like a Kojima computer game. That sentence alone should place it as a sub 5 or over 9 rating.
Personally I’m loving it. Having enjoyed the first game and its direction but gave up due to its lack of gameplay. I’m feeling 13 hours in that the sequel is a more fully formed offering. A lot of what felt like shortcuts in the original game now feel like idiosyncratic elements of the game due to the constant feed of new gameplay(that I simply can’t keep up with, it’s all just more instantly accessible ) and I realise this might just be me romanticising but hey I’m now a fanboy.
5 Likes
I am slowly mulching my way through Horizon Forbidden West, the sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn.
As far as open-world games go, the original HZD was up there. I’m not 100% positive the sequel is better, but it is bigger. More robot-dinosaurs, which is good, although the plot is definitely less intelligent and less coherent than the original (but HZD had a fantastic plot for the most part).
Complaints… well, there’s too much to do. I know it’s kind of a silly thing to complain about, but it’s the Assassin’s Creed problem. There are a million places to go on the map, and they’re interesting and varied, but after you go to a few hundred and zoom back and realize “Oh gosh, I haven’t even put a dent in these” it can feel kinda frustrating. And sure, taking down a Thunderjaw (T-Rex) the first time is amazing, but then realizing that upgrading your best armour requires you to take down 4 or 5 of them? It can get a bit grindy.
That stated, I’m having fun, and I’m tackling it a few hours at a time, just loading it up and doing a mission or two while hunting whatever robots happen to wander nearby. The combat is still a bit of a mess (not bad, but fighting robots isn’t really satisfying once they realize where you are… again, the Assassin’s Creed problem that Stealth Combat is awesome, but once you’re out of Stealth Combat it’s unpolished). It was on sale a little while ago, and I’m glad it was because I’ve sunk a few dozen hours into it at this point.
3 Likes
So maybe 9 months ago I got an Ayn Odin 2. I haven’t played a real video game since I had kids (oldest currently 7). And not much before that due to the shadow of disapproval I’d get from my spouse. Just a thing for her. Which is funny because in college she would watch us play Final Fantasy but I guess times change.
It’s been nice to get back in. It’s been so long I can play old games as if they were new.
Super Mario 64 - still one of the best. I’m so smooth with the camera and control quirks that Mario is still an extension of my own body. And the controls in 64 are so much tighter than what you find elsewhere, especially the sluggish Galaxy games, that I just love it. And I love the open worlds and puzzle stars as opposed to the modern 3d pathways that pass for 3d platformers these days. For me, nothing does it better.
Duck Tales - Yes, NES. Shows its age but I can see why we loved it as kids. First time beating it, now.
Beyond Good and Evil - Oh wow, so much I didn’t remember. True classic.
Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter - You know, this is one of the reasons I bought this Odin in the first place. I never got to play this one. It’s fun. A nice in between between more arcadey shooters like Star Fox or full sims like XWing. Very satisfying combination of capital ships or other huge targets and tiny 1-4 hit fighters. And it’s hard, old style games where you have to do a mission at least twice if not more to beat.
But also janky. The special weapons / jedi powers are imbalanced so once you get Focus you never use anything else. And level design is often bad - a few missions too hard or too easy, and others that are repetitive. Not enough time spent there.
Glad to have finally played it. A lot of goodness, a lot of sharp edges, don’t need to do it again.
Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando: Man, I loved this one back when! And this time I stopped halfway out of boredom. Also annoying rendering bugs on the emulator.
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring - Another box to check, that I’d never gotten to. In a lot of ways, this game is laughably bad. You can tell it was only half done, along so many axes. But what it does it does well - primarily creating the environments of Middle Earth. Running around bag end and the shire is a real treat. The barrow downs are the barrow downs. The old forest. They did one thing really right- if you make a mediocre game, end early. The 5 hours this took was exactly right to enjoy what it was and not get mad at what it wasn’t.
Looking at Twilight Princess (replay), Everything or Nothing (net new), Jak and Daxter (replay the first, never got to the others), or Two Towers (continue with the EA games) next.
3 Likes
I really enjoyed it. Although I agree the story has gotten a bit of a mess and felt very early assassins creed by the end.
Only bit of advice I would give (and everyone’s play style and mileage varies) is that the late game has some unlocks that for me made the side quests a lot more accessible and fun.
2 Likes
Hey Ross,
You know you bought that Star Trek game based on stellaris that immediately stopped getting updates?
The one where they didn’t even fix the two Rikers bug?
Technically there are supposed to be 2 Rikers in canon.
Well yes, but it wasn’t intentional.
Anyway. What about a Ftl style voyager game?
Oh I’d totally throw money at that.Can the ship be disabled with cheese?
Probably.
8 Likes
I’ve been working through Mario Kart Wii lately. They say it’s the cheapest iteration, regarding how badly you can get pummeled by things out of your control. Maybe? This is the one I played.
I tried Double Dash and it was just too different. Wacky. Different physics.
Anyway, it’s fun to work through the cups and get all the unlocks again.
However. HOWEVER. I can say that trying to unlock 150cc feels like a game from a past age (see: cheapness). Yesterday I’d placed 1st in the first three races and had a 14 point lead on the next racer. The only, the ONLY way I could lose would be to come in last and have that racer come in first.
Guess what happened.
GUESS WHAT HAPPENED.
6 Likes
You successfully unlocked the 150cc?
2 Likes
Wii was the first Mario Kart I really played, as while I may have had a quick rental of the original games, and bounced hard off Double Dash, I owned the Wii and therefore had that Mario Kart version. As such, I am familiar with your complaint, but still have a soft spot for it.
3 Likes
Kart64 was my first love, and back then we had the community to do a ton of split screen racing and battle. That is probably my best set of memories.
Wii was and is much better as a solo game, and that’s primarily how I’ve played it.
I think I like the brutality? It can be frustrating, obviously, but it also hooks me to keep coming back until I can execute well enough to get the odds in my favor, and the dice roll right. There’s a time for a game where you just pick it up, check a few boxes, and put it down, but those games turn into a grind (for me) in the long run. I much prefer Super Mario 64 with it’s puzzles and hidden stars and impossible timers to Jak Precursor Legacy, which was just time on the controller to work through all the objectives.
I’m always considering trying MK8 Deluxe on Eden emulator, but I worry that it’s pure skill and once you’re good (which I think I am, thank you hundreds of past hours) you just have to take the time to grind through 72 (!!) race courses to gold them all. At a certain point that grind will be worse than the frustration of unfair blue shells chaining into bullet bills and falling off the course.
Oh, and that POW block that shows up right as you enter the big turn…
3 Likes
Anno 1800 is currently £5 on Steam (instead of £50!) and oddly enough I remember the boardgame hype and I like PC game citybuilders, so decided to give it a try.
2 Likes
Several hours pass
Oh no it’s really good oh no
7 Likes
Also, No Man’s Sky just released another free update and this one… lets you build your own big ship with explorable interiors, a full editor, have other people walk around in it, freedive off it into space… this is RIDICULOUS for a free upgrade. It feels like a rude gesture at Starfield specifically.
5 Likes
I nabbed WH40K Rogue Trader, an RPG set in the WH40K universe.
It’s pretty gosh darn good. Combat is hard but not impossible, story thus far has been interesting (albeit a very… diagetic story).
Okay, so in Warhammer 40K, the Emperor may or may not be a god, but the denizens of Chaos that live in the Warp are baddies. Straight up, no moral grey area, baddies. So when a world is exposed to an apocalyptic event, you have a very limited amount of spare refugee space and are asked:
- Save the nobles (those who can best aid you and are most educated and trained),
- Save absolutely anyone, first come first served (to minimize risk to your shuttles)
- Save the most technological advanced people and a massive one-of-a-kind portable fusion generator capable of powering an entire planet (massive in output, still can be fit in a shuttle), or
- Nobody, and launch nukes at that same fusion plant so that everybody on the planet dies right now rather than in a few hours.
See if you can guess the correct answer!
Number 4, obviously. Number 1 and 2 have the same result of allowing Chaos cultists onto your ship, and Number 3 has no impact on the game whatsoever except to make Chaos stronger in the sector.
And, like, in WH40K… sure. I guess? But it’s tricky walking the line of “All heresy is immediately evil to the degree that the very-obviously-fascist State wants you to believe” with the reality that ANYthing against that state is immediately labelled as heresy? But then there are actual demons that are summoned by actual heresy?
It is a legit kinda interesting thought experiment, but I am not sure how much is intentional?
Anyone, one of my party is a Adeptus Sororitas, and they’re neat, but I haven’t been able to get her into heavy armour yet. And she can’t wield a flamer, a bolter, and a chainsword, although that would be the best.
3 Likes
I chose the correct answer!!!
2 Likes
I’m afraid choosing the correct answer is heresy.
Please report yourself to the nearest member of the Inquisition for mandatory incineration.
The Emperor protects!
5 Likes
Paranoia/Rogue Trader crossover
And yeah, having the not-only-fascist-but-also-genocidal choice being the only objectively correct one is not great. But then, having a save/reload system that makes you omniscient also isn’t great.
1 Like