What You've Been Playing This Week

[QualityChimp]

More EDF5.
Did a run of Hard difficulty levels and I'm up to a whopping 46.2% complete.

It's so miserly with its progression. I must be up to about 480 hours playtime now.

[importaku]

I was a weak willed bitch although my physical copy is sat in japan i couldn't wait the 2 weeks for it to get bundled up with my other stuff there so i picked up digital version of taiko no tatsujin donderful festival as it came out today in japan. My goodness it's amazing, thankfully you don't need the music pass subscription as you can actually buy song dlc like the previous version only 7 music packs been released so far added to the 70+ songs in the game that's already 133 songs plus whatever unlock for completing the various modes. You can access the full 583 tracks in the music pass sub & they give you a free week to trial if you want to give it a go. The song list is devastatingly good this time around combines with all the costumes & other things to unlock in the various modes this ones gonna keep me occupied for a long time.

Going to guess they will slowly release dlc music packs to buy so you eventually own all the music pass tracks without having to rely on the sub service. Uses a weird sustem this time as you have a song library cache so as you buy songs you need to download them in menu in the game only takes about 4-5 seconds to do and it's permanently in the after but still a bit weird how it works. Been playing 6 hours solid this evening had a total blast. Hoping i can get some matches online done if & when people pick up a copy to battle.

[QualityChimp]

I played some more EDF5 last night.

Gotta get through some missions as the Fencer to get my completion stats up, but I've never liked the class.
Even with the dash-cancel boost, you're still tromping around the place and I've no idea which ones add boosts and which ones don't.
You normally end up with some rubbish combo where you're wasting slots with some slow recharge axe because it lets you boost.

However, I've said it before, anyone who says EDF is mindless bug-blasting hasn't played the game properly.
Took my Air Raider on a beach invasion mission with a helicopter and a couple of bombing runs.
Bad move as you can't destroy the dropships as the weak spot is underneath and I had nothing to defend myself.
Restarted with turrets to defend me and a limpet sniper that took down all the ships and any ants that got too close to me.
It's really strategic and the right weapon loadout is the difference between success and failure.

[teddymeow]

Finished TLOU Part I on Wednesday. It utterly cemented in my mind that it is the greatest videogame I have ever played.

Stunning

[Dogg Thang]

I have been playing my Playdate and I love it. Causal Birder is superb and I’m enjoying the Time Travel one. Looking forward to whatever comes on Monday.

On my Steam Deck, I’m playing Outcast Second Contact. The name makes it sound like a sequel. It’s not. It’s a remake of the old PC game Outcast. Not sure when this remake was made but it works the same way as the original so is essentially the same game but the graphics are different. The original had quite a unique look, made from voxels. This is more what you’d expect a game to look like now, and overall it looks really nice. But old janky animations are still in place and it works just as it did, so you have to take that for what it is.

I loved the game back in the day. Playing it now, the dialogue is a bit much and so conversations take too long for my liking. The controls are fine but just functional - they work.

But overall, I’m loving it. It’s still a strong, beautiful game that feels quite unique. I’m really immersed in it now and enjoying it immensely.

[wakka]

Outcast sounds really interesting. I have read about that game before but didn't realise that it had received a makeover - sounds like a halfway house between a remaster and a full remake.

[Dogg Thang]

Outcast sounds really interesting. I have read about that game before but didn't realise that it had received a makeover - sounds like a halfway house between a remaster and a full remake.

Yes, visually it’s new but it’s built very much over the bones of the original game. I love the game.

[Travesty]

I'll have to check out Outcast Second Contact, I did not know that existed.

I started playing Return to Monkey Island and I'm liking it. The art style is not for me as far as the faces go, but I do like the artstyle on the background. Voice acting and dialogue are both great. If this gets a physical release on Switch, I will double dip, been playing on my PC.


A few friends came to play 3DS games with me. We started with Face Racers which is not a very good kart racer, but it's a little bit fun with friends. Next up was Skylanders Superchargers Racing, which is the worst Skylanders game on 3DS (Swap Force and Trap Team are actually really good games), Superchargers Racing is very flawed kart racing game, and multiplayer does save it a little bit but it still feels like the developers should have had more time to finish the game the game that came out feels like it has some good ideas that don't quite work.

We also played super Monkey Ball 3D, where there are 2 different multiplayer modes, one is a poor Smash Bros clone and another is a poor kart racing game. Had fun playing both multiplayer modes twice, on both modes the second time was pushing it whether or not it was fun. And then there was Cooking Mama Bon Appetit, that was mostly not fun. The most fun minigame was one that was very much a poorly disguised sexual innuendo, where on had to stroke a cob of corn and if one did it correctly the corn got peeled and a phallic piece of peeled corn came out.

We ended the gaming session on Mario Party: Star Rush that's actually a really good and fun game.

[Yakumo]

I've been into a lot of Neo Geo this week. Some classic 2D fun. Played Nija Master, Spin Master, Metal Slug 2 and X. Mainly just to see what the difference was between the two games.

[Dogg Thang]

I played so much Outcast at the weekend and I'm absolutely loving it. Yes, it has some jankiness that comes from when it came out originally and it has the odd gaming crime (the big one being that sometimes options or dialogues don't open up until you have talked to one specific character who is easily missed) but it's a wonderful world to be immersed in and still feels different all these years later. It's quite beautiful in ways. And it's meaty. There is a lot to do here.

[QualityChimp]

Just more EDF5, but the last few sessions were frustrating.
I think it must be in a sale because there are loads of n00bs playing it, thinking they can play on Hard/Hardest difficulty with armour as tough as tissue paper, rather than playing through the lower difficulties and earning some weapons and armour before upping the difficulty.

[wakka]

I played a somewhat unholy amount of the Modern Warfare II open beta at the weekend.

The headline is, it's good! I wanted an updated, lightly refined version of the Modern Warfare reboot from 2019, and that's exactly what this is. Gunplay feels tight and smooth, and a low time to kill makes things feels suitably twitchy and tense (I hate when everyone's bullet spongey in this type of game).

There were four maps in the beta and I only really clicked with one of them, a little Mexican village that's perfect for run 'n' gun, but we'll see how it goes. One in particular, an art gallery, is cool aesthetically but just felt too large with too many wide open spaces.

A very refined game overall in my opinion. I'm looking forward to the full release.

[fuse]

Finished Soul Hackers 2 on Friday. Did about everything I could've in one playthrough, and very glad to now put it back on the shelf and stop moaning about it. One last reminder: It's Shin Megami Tensei in its most watered down form, with mechanically weak demon recruitment and socialising of your party, and some of the most uninspired environments, level design and theming to come from this franchise that I can recall. Blah.

Then got through Mothmen 1966 in a couple of hours which I'd seen some friends talking about. Honestly, I was a little underwhelmed with some of the story-telling, and while not bad, its gameplay is very simple 'choose your own adventure' fare with a pretty heavy (yet snappy!) trial-and-error reliance. It does much better with its atmosphere and general vibe though, which is very consistent and spooky.

Been interested in We Are OFK ever since I first saw it, had been waiting for all episodes to be out and for the physical to land, and it absolutely lived up to the hype I'd internally built up for it. It's beautiful, charming, heartfelt, funny, and just... generally a very nice way to spend a few hours. You probably know from the offset whether a "music biopic game & EP" about a "virtual band in LA" is something you're interested in.

Also played the first hour or so of Return to Monkey Island. Immediate impressions are that any concerns I had about how it looked went right out of the window - I think it looks very nice, and it moves around very smoothly. Playing with a controller (using the right stick to cycle through interaction points) isn't perhaps my favourite thing, but I'm still keen to see how this plays out. There's a nice scrapbook to help remind you of what's come before (it has been a loooong time since I played any Monkey Island game beyond the first two), and given the option I went for the 'casual' mode so I can have a nice smooth journey through it all.

[randombs]

I’m suddenly finding myself bored to tears with Horizon FW. It’s not a bad game at all, but it’s getting frustratingly boring. These cauldrons(dungeons, basically) are mind-numbing chores. I’m on one right now and am just following the IGN walkthrough.

Part of the fun of the first one was the story. The story in this is nonsense. I don’t care about any of the characters or what’s going on and usually just skip through most of the dialogue. I’ve even skipped through entire cutscenes!

I’ve half a mind to leave the dungeon, drop the difficulty to story mode and just power on through until the end.

I realise I said it’s not a bad game and then just shat on it, but I wonder if most of my trouble comes from having played the first one recently and this is just more of the same.

But if I have to lug one more flipping battery across a room to a charger…

[Cassius_Smoke]

I’m suddenly finding myself bored to tears with Horizon FW. It’s not a bad game at all, but it’s getting frustratingly boring. These cauldrons(dungeons, basically) are mind-numbing chores. I’m on one right now and am just following the IGN walkthrough.

Part of the fun of the first one was the story. The story in this is nonsense. I don’t care about any of the characters or what’s going on and usually just skip through most of the dialogue. I’ve even skipped through entire cutscenes!

I’ve half a mind to leave the dungeon, drop the difficulty to story mode and just power on through until the end.

I realise I said it’s not a bad game and then just shat on it, but I wonder if most of my trouble comes from having played the first one recently and this is just more of the same.

But if I have to lug one more flipping battery across a room to a charger…

Definitely. The story is like a filler episode. It's not really about anything.
I did finish it, but I'm not sure I'd go back it to. Shame because I played through the first one a couple of times.