What You've Been Playing This Week

[dataDave]

The only criticism I have with Pikmin 4 is the amount of dialogue I’m required to narrate for my son. I’ve got a bloody sore throat because of it.

It’s so lush, though. I really want to burst ahead with it but can’t.

[prinnysquad]

The Wandering Village.

Love it.
UI is decent.
Love it.
It’s accessible.
Love it.
Concept and visuals are canny.
Love it.
Love it.
Everyone starves, seemingly without warning, and without the ability to resolve.
Hate it.

Stupid game.

[Neon Ignition]

The revival of old CODs on Xbox got me nostalgic but I'm not paying the money for them when they'll be on Game Pass in time.
Side note - If MS gets them on there they need to make the DLC free, too many dead maps atm


I'm sating it by revisiting what I do already own mostly via PS5. DLC is likewise dead there but games remain easy enough to find. Tried out WWII first and you know what? It was pretty decent. Infinite Warfare's MP was next and a reminder as to why I wobbled at this point. The Titanfall-lite gameplay was a real low point for the franchise (as great as the single player is on this one) and the maps are spamfest blandness experiences. Tonight onto the next revisit - Modern Warfare Remastered


With Jr1, we're currently picking our way through the next Youtuber endorsed cheap horror game - Choo Choo Charles.
It's pretty basic, riding a train around a map and helping NPC's to upgrade your train in order to fend off the spider-train when it attacks. It's pretty easy though and to be honest, one of the better titles of this ilk he's wanted to try out. Not far off complete now.

[fuse]

Haven't gone back to Rain Code since the first day or so of playing it, but do still plan to.

Had a quick dabble with the Tekken 8 CNT (as they insist on labelling it) but aside from a quick look for curiosity's sake it just prompted me to dive further into Street Fighter 6. I'm so impressed with it, and it feels really good to feel that way about a fighting game. I've not gotten into a new one for so long, so while this high lasts I'm gonna enjoy it.

[importaku]

More pikmin 4 for me, now completed it during lunchbreak at work however there's a load of content after the credits as the story is not fully done and there's several quite substantial bits that appear once you get back into the game. For those disappointed that there's no time limit will be pleased to know there's a side story that has a time limit and if you complete that task something else fun unlocks that will let you plough lots of hours into it. Suffice to say they packed the game with lots to do.

So far only 100 percented the first 4 levels but now i'm slowing down a bit as i don't want to fully max it all out too soon.

[fuse]

After the disappointment of the last Annapurna joint I played - A Memoire Blue - I tried out Hindsight, which treads some similar ground but is far more successful in terms of both how it plays, but also how it connected with me. All you're really doing is rotating a camera and clicking points of interest, but aside from the slow, more abstract introduction section, how this is used to unfold the narrative worked quite well for me, and I ended up with involuntary face leaking towards the end.

Also tried the Sea of Stars demo, which went online today. I still haven't played The Messenger, but this is from the same team and is supposedly set in the same world? I'm basically interested because the JRPG inspiration seems to run deep, and they even got Yasunori Mitsua to do some music for it. If that doesn't tell you there's some heavy Chrono-inspiration happening, just wait till you see how monsters approach you as you run around, battles and combination skills take place, or heck, how about I just show you this map screen?



It is stuffed with lush, detailed 2D environments and animation, which is very nice! However it also very busy; almost over-designed (I couldn't find my way out of the starter village for 5 minutes), which is something that I also felt in the dialogue and the battle systems. I'm still going to keep an eye out for the full game, but this went from very impressive to less impressive fairly fast. Reminded me a lot of CrossCode, in terms of it trying to do perhaps a bit too much.

Also: Street Fighter 6.

[dataDave]

I’m spending an hour each evening on Pikmin 4 just casually passing a couple of days in-game. They went a bit overboard with the multi-tasking on Pikmin 3 I thought, and that seems to be toned down a bit with this one, so I’m happy. I was a bit unsure about the dog at first but it’s a great addition.

[Neon Ignition]

I'm going to take a moment to consider what to work through next having last night closed off my PS+ subscription

On Deck I've started Woolfe

[fuse]

Have been playing a looooot of Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line. Rambled a bit back in the first play about it, but swung from "here's why I don't like it as a rhythm game" to then getting that the rhythm game co-exists in parallel to a strategic RPG party building game and that the two should be seen as separate entities, which helped it sit better with me. Loads of good music, even though plenty of it is not suited to rhythm action gameplay, but I still had a decent amount of fun grinding out the last few trophies. Could possibly be tempted to go back when some of the DLC (NieR, Live a Live, Chrono etc) gets discounted on the store.

Then a big congratulations go to Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, which wins the dubious honour of being the first game in a while to get on my nerves sufficiently to make me turn just quit out and play something else. I seem to remember liking a lot of the first game, but that when it went in... directions... it's later on into the game, after it's done most of its scene-setting, and to the player's surprise. This does not apply the same courtesy, and expects you to be fine with it chaotically bouncing about in time/space before one character goes heavy on the exposition and tries to recap the events of the first game. I've not found it scary, just annoying so far.

Also Street Fighter 6. Ran through Manon's combo trials today and can see her being a fun second character to learn.

[briareos_kerensky]

A quick session with the recent port of Yggdra Union on PC, some Atelier Ryza 2 on Switch, but mostly Flight Simulator.

[importaku]

Currently escaping inside the beautiful town of Yomogi in natsumon, it's so much like boku no natsuyasumi however the town is one massive open world no fixed camera viewpoints this time there's so much i have found so far, just exploring while fishing & bug catching and finding little secrets all over the island as i explore. Managed to find 3 of the rainbow diamonds hidden in various spots in the island, as you complete quests you get stickers that enhance your stamina bar in this game you can climb everything zelda style as long as your stamina holds out.

Totally worth the wait, sadly no furigana on the kanji so a little hard to play but i'm managing to pick up parts of the story. Just look at it, the pics dont so it justice when it's all moving it's gorgeous along with the nature soundscape.

[Finsbury Girl]

Since playing FFVII remake I've refound my love for jrpgs. I've been sitting on FFXV for a while now as it was a free ps plus game so I thought I'd give it a go.

Enjoying it so far, I'm not convinced re: combat it seems very random but then again I'm probably just crap at the game. I'm most likely over levelled as soon as I got freedom in Chapter 3 I've been pretty much exploring and doing side quests so just started Chapter 4 at level 45. Got the Ultima weapon early on so that definitely helps and managed to find an item in a dungeon before the story wanted me to

Monster design is cool and I do like the bros vibe. Story wise I am very early but I am interested in where it is going. It is not as enjoyable as XVII remake but that bar is set very high

[Atticus]

Dead Space NG+. Enjoying this way more than my initial playthrough. Far more immersed this time for some reason (either more in the mood or playing with headphones this time has made a bit of difference). Or maybe I just enjoy being a little tougher and more powerful. It's great though.

[Dogg Thang]

I've been sucked into Stardew Valley for the last couple of months. I took a wife.

I've also recently been playing Quake 2. Aside from multiplayer, I only ever played the N64 version of this so it actually feels almost all new to me. It's good! I'm really not a fan of the generic guitar shred soundtrack after how great the first Quake soundtrack was but it's a great game.

I also bought REVII for almost nothing in a Steam sale. So far, it's way better than I expected. Genuinely scary in places and the location is great. The big tar monsters take away from that a little but overall it's very strong. Can't imagine how scary this was in VR. Maybe I'll get to try it some day.

[Brad]

REVII is amazing in VR. I had many failed attempts at playing in this mode though. I'd but the VR on, load the game and... Nope.