What You've Been Playing This Week

[Cassius_Smoke]

Returnal

Never played it. Give it a good 3 hours.
I don't get it. Why the praise? It's bland, dark and boring. It doesn't really reward your time and effort. I know rogue games are designed to kill you and you start again a little bit better each time, but this just doesn't feel like you achieved anything each time.
The level designs are soulless with nothing to look at. The weapons give little feedback. The enemies designs are seemingly out of a catalogue of 'monsters you've seen before' . The graphics are nothing to write home about for a goddamn ps5 exclusive! You could get this running on a PS4 easy, hell Horizon Zero Dawn on PS4 looks better.

Game deleted.

[Atticus]

but this just doesn't feel like you achieved anything each time.

This is my number one disappointment. Yes, could be argued that your own skill and knowledge develop/improve but that's only okay when the game isn't constantly changing. I actually thought the combat was really good fun but everything was hobbled by such an unrewarding set-up.

[Cassius_Smoke]

Yeah and I think it's one of game designers biggest pitfalls it has to avoid; How to value someones time.

Rogue games walk this line because while it has to punish you for failing, it also usually let's your character grow in some way each time so as a player you feel that at least you've achieved something for your time.
I think Returnal misses this mark. While you do get to keep SOME items, for the most part you lose everything. And this taught me only one thing, not to bother collecting anything. I don't think that's a lesson any game designer wants a player to learn.

[Neon Ignition]

Hence my disconnect. As some sort of kinetic third person action shooter I would probably have a lot of a fun with it. Dying loads though till you nudge a bit further... that's not a gameplay mechanic to me, it literally applies to every game ever made that has any difficulty to it no matter how flawed the gameplay is. With Souls games I enjoy modding them and just smashing my way through on god mode as the design of the world etc still holds an appeal, Returnal doesn't even have that.

[fuse]

Done with Rogue Legacy 2 now, so playing the odd little game of Vampire Survivors here and there on the Deck. It's nice; imagine a twinstick shooter where you only do the movement part, and instead of working on your aim, your offensive options are more about choosing the right optional power-ups to give your auto-attacks the most advantageous boost. Also had a very quick go on Ex-Zodiac too, which is in early access and is a modern indie take on Starfox.

Been at MH Rise again on the Switch now that Sunbreak's here. Coming back has been a little bumpy, and whereas when I first played Rise I was very ready for some new MH shenanigans following a pretty lengthy break after World, I'm not quite sure I'm quite so ready for the slog this time around. I'm pushing through with an aim to see the credits ASAP, whereas in reality I know that there's plenty of other stuff I'm ignoring. I'm sorry Monster Hunter; it's not you, it's me.

And have also started AI: The Somnium Files - The Nirvana Initiative. Really liked the first game and this one gets right back into the thick of things with a weird-ass murder very early on and loads of mystery right from the off. One thing I did forget though is that it is really sexually charged. I remember there was a mechanic involving the main character's obsession with porn mags in the first game, whereas now pretty much every character is having a crack at their own brand of smutty jokes. British English localisation, you've failed me!

[QualityChimp]

Gaming still taking a backseat to telly at the moment.

However, I played a good chunk of LEGO City Undercover together with my daughter, which plays like a cross between LEGO Marvel Superheroes and Grand Theft Auto as there's an island hub and story locations.

We broke into a prison and there was a whole homage to The Shawshank Redemption whilst joking about not infringing on copyright with the character Blue instead of Red, and when the soundalike is asked "are you free, man?" he says "NO! I'm not Freeman, do you want me to get sued?!"

[CMcK]

I’ve been getting funny looks on flights this last week when a middle age man pops a tate mode Switch onto the table then starts to play Crimzon Clover and Missile Dancer.

[wakka]

Haha, I had the same thing playing Ikaruga that way on a flight.

[Golgo]

Beat ElecHead on Switch then went back to root out the extra circuits for 'that' ending. A beautifully designed little puzzler, as @fuse has mentioned already. There was only one bit that bugged me and that I needed help in

->Open Spoiler<-

(the totally unfair, rule-breaking and badly-designed route to the rocket head)

but everything else was peachy.

[Lebowski]

Returnal

Never played it. Give it a good 3 hours.
I don't get it. Why the praise? It's bland, dark and boring. It doesn't really reward your time and effort. I know rogue games are designed to kill you and you start again a little bit better each time, but this just doesn't feel like you achieved anything each time.
The level designs are soulless with nothing to look at. The weapons give little feedback. The enemies designs are seemingly out of a catalogue of 'monsters you've seen before' . The graphics are nothing to write home about for a goddamn ps5 exclusive! You could get this running on a PS4 easy, hell Horizon Zero Dawn on PS4 looks better.

Game deleted.

i tried this again now its a ps plus essential game, i really wanted to like it but it gets too much wrong, a good rouge like will make you feel like your progressing with each death, Dead Cells, And Hades have their progression models extremely finely tuned, so that if you die you get to pump in a few more stats to things unlock a few extra bits and go back in stronger. Where this fails is in how messily it is with upgrades and progression. Hades even has an easy mode that gives you more and more health the more times you die to cater for all skill levels.

By comparison an evening in this feels like a waste of time, when you get to a boss are trying to learn his attacks and fail, you can search out the jump gates and shorten your run back to him but then your probably gonna be under-leveled, if you haven't spent time finding decent guns and the damage reduction stations your gonna take far morre damadge and do far less too. id agree with you on its looks to It hit me when i booted it up again how very last gen looking it is for a ps5 exclusive.

i played a load more of Stray last night and it really is special, a fantastic world, a great story a great script and a really cool world to explore that really opens up the more you play. Its added a fair few new mechanics as it ticks along too which have kept things interesting. its like a modern take on an oldschool point and click adventure in its humor and how you solve its puzzles.

[Travesty]

I got Triangle Strategy and Dead Cells from library and loved them both. Dead Cells was something I had heard about but never paid any attention to, saw it on the library shelves and decided to pick it up and it was a huge surprise for me. Triangle Strategy I was expecting to like, and my expectations were met very well in that regard, I'll have to loan them both from library at some point again.

[Golgo]

Arms on the Switch. Missed the boat here entirely and have had in on my shelf for 18+ months, even though I know it has a great reputation. Anyway, popped it in and was delighted at what a superb little game it is. Beautiful presentation and impeccable gameplay that rewards thoughtfulness and skill and timing. I've been collecting up my Arms and trying the various modes, and was blown away to find people still playing it online - got into a series of rumbles with no problem at all. Moreover they were not complete hardcore nuts as I managed to hold my own passably well. All in all, it's just wonderful, and a much-needed refresher away from the ludicrous vastness of Elden Ring.

[wheelaa]

PowerWash Simulator

Been a while since I've hated myself a little for enjoying / playing a game. I feel 1000G is inevitable.

[wakka]

Not been playing much lately. However I stuck on Mario Kart 8D the last couple of nights as I realised I hadn't actually, for whatever reason, bothered to properly play the first wave of DLC tracks.

Got the three stars on those in 150/Mirror/200 (for the most part - the second cup eludes me on the 200cc three stars right now but I'll lick it today I reckon), then moved onto online.

Ended up locked in an epic battle of wills with someone who, judging by their avatar and region, was a small Japanese boy was great actually. We were leading the pack every time for a good couple of hours and it was getting into a proper rivalry, he even copied my loadout at one point after I beat him a few times in a row (not sure why, maybe frustration).

Overall he was probably the better player however. Great fun though, and so many of those brilliant dramatic moments that Mario Kart does so well - last minute shell battles right on the line, mid-drift banana skirmishes, and the most evil of tactics, the tactical slowdown from first to kamikaze second place with an incoming blue shell.

Later a German guy joined and he was decent as well, which upped the ante with all three of us hell for leather at the front. By that point I was getting pretty tired so called it a night (at about 2.30am ).

What a frippin great game.

[QualityChimp]

Ha ha ha, look at Wakka pulling a late-nighter!

Bit more LEGO City Undercover (Switch) with my daughter, although she seems to be tiring of it.
Downloaded "Down In Bermuda" (Switch) for 99p and it seems to be a nice little puzzler that both my kids are enjoying.
Some lateral thinking is needed to find all the pearls on each map. Nice they both seem to be engaged with it.

Still not much for me, gaming-wise, but I did have a night on WWZ with a mate and it's still a great and thrilling game.
Took my "Dronemaster" class character up a couple of levels and unlocked a few perks.
Having a drone save your ass when you get pounced on it life-saving!