What You've Been Playing This Week

[Golgo]

Been back to a couple of old perennials that never leave my Switch.

Grindstone, which has had some new-ish stuff (Carnival of Creeps), and Into the Breach, which has also had lots of new-ish stuff (new enemies, attack patterns, mech teams, etc.) . Fantastic, both of them. Practically perfect in what they do.

[QualityChimp]

Dipped into Double Dragon on the Miyoo Mini after enjoying playing the arcade last week at NQ64, but there's nothing quite like a joystick and I'm eyeing up that portable PowKiddy unit, but also my heating bill...

Couldn't get on a console with the kids around, so I carried on with Half-Life on my laptop.
I knew things were winding up when the scientists were telling me about going into the portal and showing me a room with ammo!
Remembered you don't need to be frugal with ammo as there's loads about, so just raced through the Xen bits, but that big stompy alien still kicked my ass.
Remembered the final boss needs the 3 crystals destroying before you can shoot his now open head, but struggled getting the kill shot. Apparently, those three crystals are supposed to be the same ones you push into the beam at at the start of the game, triggering the events at Black Mesa. G-Man can get screwed though. I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees!

Finally, I had some really good runs on EDF5, which seems to be really popular still.
I am pleased to announce two things:
1: I have hit 200 hours of gameplay
2: I have hit 50% completion
Holy smokes, I can't believe it's taking this long to finish the game!
I'm focusing on the Fencer class on Hard setting as each time you complete a level, you complete Easy and Normal settings, but Hardest and Inferno difficulties require a playthrough.

Some great players really embracing the team aspect of the game, which really makes the experience.
We did one mission where it just falls apart really fast.

First there are wasps protecting a nest. They keep spawning until you destroy the nest. Then a queen appears. Then frogs and UFOs. then 3 queens. It's insane. We were all dead apart from one Fencer, who you could see in the distance running away, chipping at the wasps whilst looking for health and you'd see his health bar yo-yoing up and down.
Eventually, he got the nest down and the rest of us up and finally, we won the day.

Seriously, I don't know any other game that has that "victory snatched from the jaws of defeat" feeling like EDF.
It's why I have "Remember the EDF's pride! The EDF never give up!" as a speed phrase because so often it can look like it's game over, but something tips the balance back in your favour.

I know I sound like a stuck record banging on about EDF all the time, but it really is a brilliant game!

[wakka]

After Yakuza Zero I was initially at a bit of a loss for what to play, but eventually settled on Planescape: Torment.

I've heard so much about this game over the years, but I've never gotten around to playing it. My interest in it was reignited when I played and loved Disco Elysium last year, for which it's cited as a key influence.

I'm only about three hours in so far, but can already see how that's the case - just like in Disco Elysium, you spend a lot of time reading, and the writing and characterisation is good enough to make that a pleasure.

I'm also intrigued by the world, which seems much darker than the usual D&D fare, with a sticky organic body horror vibe to it. I like that much better than the usual orcs 'n' elves action, which I find can be a bit boring.

So far, so good. Glad to be finally playing it. Plus, the 'Enhanced Edition' (that I snagged off Steam for £4.50) is very nicely optimised for modern computers and particularly for Mac trackpads, so I can slump on the sofa playing it instead of playing at my desk with a mouse.

[Atticus]

I picked up Shovel Knight Dig on the Switch. It's a great little game but I just can't seem to 'git' good enough. I can get so far and that's it. I've basically hit a skill plateau from the get-go.

Also been playing more Cyberpunk. I asked one of my sons (in a playful way) if he had a girlfriend in the game when he played it. He asked me how lonely I was.

[wakka]

Also been playing more Cyberpunk. I asked one of my sons (in a playful way) if he had a girlfriend in the game when he played it. He asked me how lonely I was.

[QualityChimp]

Brutal.

[nonny]

Totally hooked on Grounded right now. Think I'm about halfway through the campaign but I'm veering off the missions and just exploring...

[Cepp]

I thought I'd enjoy Cyberpunk but somethings not clicking. Bit bummed about that. Playing Castlevania IV instead.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

This week has only really been one game for me. Exist Archive on the PS4/Vita.

It's an RPG developed by Tri-Ace and published by Spike Chunsoft. Metroidvania platforming meets turn based battles. I started it around two and a half years ago and got sidetracked, but went back to it over the weekend and am really enjoying it. Unfortunately the Vita version is riddled with bad frame rates, laggy menus, glitching enemies and regular crashes, so I've done the majority of my gameplay on the PS4 version.

Pretty cheap to pick up on disc if you want a physical copy, but you'll have to import from the US as it's still £50 digitally over here.

[importaku]

Taiko donderful festival has now been fully maxed out, all 74 achievement trophies obtained, maxed out money & drum level, all costumes found. I think the only thing left to do is unlock stuff like titles by playing online now. There are secret titles hidden in the game though one of them unlocked because i played the same song 30 times and it gave me a title based on that song so i'm guessing you get one for any song you play 30 times.

[QualityChimp]

More EDF5.

On Tuesday, we had a session where 4 of us were getting our arses kicked on a later mission.
You start on the beach, but the adjacent hills were all protected by shields.
We tried it over and over and over and kept failing, with one guy getting angry because we kept triggering a termite swarm.
So we all agreed to go on comms and started a party together and things went a LOT smoother because we were able to formulate a plan, only griefing the enemies we needed to.
Angry guy wasn't really angry, just frustrated at the restrictions of texting when you're running away from a zillion enemies!
He was from Carolina, another guy from Manchester (we both thought of the Shaggy song "Carolina") and another from Germany.
This international force teamed together and chipped away at the Ravager forces, slowly tipping the balance in our favour.
Amazing scenes.

Last night, I joined a session with a 100% host, with limits off, so we could all bring our best toys.
It was carnage!
Tougher missions are a cakewalk in the face of overwhelming firepower.
It was good to get through a few more missions to up my percentage, but if I'm truly honest, EDF shines best when your field tactics are put to the test. God mode takes the challenge away and although it was minimal progress, I got a better sense of achievement completing that one level the right way.

[wakka]

I have been playing a few more hours of Planescape: Torment.

I'm still in the very early stages, and it's that same feeling I had with Disco Elysium at the beginning, where you're still kind of getting to grips with stuff and don't feel like you're making too much progress. At the same time, I'm really enjoying the writing and the world. From the very beginning, the opening seconds, you're told to find a guy called Pharod, and I'm still hunting for him. I've got a couple of leads now though, and I've also got a couple of sidequests given to me, so I've got that nice feeling of having a few different paths at my disposal. My understanding of the world I'm in is being well fleshed out too, through chitchats with the people around me.

I think what I need at this stage is a really good multi-hour session on it, to break the back of this introductory stage and to get things properly underway. I won't have a chance this weekend but I think next weekend, I'm going to try to carve out some time to buckle down for a full afternoon at my desk with lots of cups of tea and biscuits.

[fuse]

Finished The Ascent. Liked it enough to chase down all my loose ends, and although I thought that the DLC was included in the physical version, that turns out to be just in the super-mega (£20 more) version. I bought it separately for £8 instead, and I liked that, too - not particularly big, but fleshed out and mostly in-keeping with the standards set by the main campaign. The 'Rock Crusher' melee weapon does kinda break the balance of things though, and switching to it was a bit of a lightbulb moment. Last two missing trophies for the whole thing were to die to a katana-wielding enemy and to die 100 times; was tempted to leave them undone as a badge of honour, but then did the sad completionist thing of stripping my armour and repeatedly throwing myself infront of the baying mob for the sake of a platinum trophy.

Then whizzed through Stray. Thought I wasn't going to like this at first, but it actually won me over in the end. I don't particularly like any of the action-oriented bits, and the length between some checkpoints can be a little tedious, but what I did like were some of the environments and particularly the more populous town-like areas; how they felt, but also how they looked and were lit. It's a really pretty game and quite charming, far beyond that central appeal of playing as a cat.

Then most recently, Inscryption, which has got plenty of weird, creepy found footage / trapped room mysteriousness going for it. I just... man I wish the thing underpinning it all wasn't a rogue-like card game. Also: the colour palette / visuals really messed with my eyes something rotten. One of those where if I do push on and finish it, it'll mainly be upon the positivity I've seen others share for it carrying me through.

Also still trying to dip in to Air Twister semi-regularly. I've made it to the last boss one time already, but given how boring the early stages are, trying to stay focused for the entire 13 stage run is tricky, and it's even harder to motivate yourself to do it all over again while it's still so fresh in your mind. Slowly building my health and item pool with daily logins though and hopefully have this finished soon so I can move on from it.

[wakka]

Still plugging away slightly intermittently on Planescape: Torment.

I played for around two and a half hours last night and it flew by - it's really starting to click for me now. The game begins when you wake up on a slab in a mortuary, with no idea who you are or where you are, and a floating skull with a wiseguy manner named Morte talking to you. It's apparent that you were dead but have spontaneously (and mysteriously) resurrected. You're given an initial task of finding someone called Pharod, who is the corpse collector who brought you in.

Your first job is to make your way out of the mortuary and into the city of Sigil. Job done, you find yourself in the Hive - basically the slums of the city - talking to people, learning about the world you're in, asking for info on where the mysterious Pharod might be, and sometimes getting attacked by groups of thugs.

I've got a lead on where Pharod is now, but I've spent my time so far exploring the Hive, beating up thugs, and doing side quests for people. It's really helped me get a grasp on how this type of game is played, which is pretty key since it's my first Infinity Engine RPG. I've got a decent handle on how the combat works now after some online research, and I've levelled up nicely, added someone to my party that I met in a pub, and gotten myself a pretty big sack of gold.

Got a few loose ends I still want to tie up in terms of sidequests, then I'm going to follow up on the leads I've got for Pharod and start the search for him in more earnest.

Finding myself thinking about it instead of working today - got a little to-do list in my head of things I want to do next, which for me is always the biggest sign that an RPG has got its hooks into me.

Looking forward to playing more.

[teddymeow]

Very little recently. I've been in one of those "lacking motivation to game" moods that I find myself in.

I finished TLOU Part I a few weeks ago and went back into Horizon FW for a bit as well as some shorter sessions on Olli Olli World.