What You've Been Playing This Week

[prinnysquad]

Uncharted 4 is brilliant. Pure spectacle, and so captivating. I had avoided the games up to that point and never been a fan. U4 changed that. I enjoyed every second.

[Atticus]

MWIII. Same as it ever was. Always love indulging in the multi-player in the run up to Christmas though.

[Neon Ignition]

Xbox Series X - Jusant
PC - Alan Wake II
PlayStation 5 - Spider-Man 2
Deck - Sleeping Dogs
Quest 3 - Call of the Sea

Not 100% on how into Call of the Sea I am, still relatively early in SM2 as well. Jusant... I'm very mixed on

[wakka]

I finished Resi Zero so I moved onto my next PS Store bargain buy, Yakuza 6.

I space these games as out as a special treat for myself when I'm feeling a bit glum. Love them. This is an interesting one for me as it's the first I've played with the Dragon Engine. I've been blown away by being able to enter shops and restaurants without having to transition through a loading screen first, like some sort of luddite!

The graphics in general are great. So much rich environmental detail. For a series where the locations are characters in and of themselves, it's such a great improvement - and it also makes me reflect on how amazingly effective the developers were at building a sense of place and atmosphere with the limited resources of the PS2 back in the first two games.

I've just moved on from Kamurocho to the game's second location, a seaside town near Hiroshima. I've found myself drawn in immediately by the characters in this new place, and I feel that the dialogue and characters in this entry are better written than some of the other games in the series.

So far it feels Yakuza 3-2 - in a good way - with its emphasis on themes of children and family, and its use of a seaside location.

Plus a bloke accosted me in an alley and led me to an internet cafe where I could webcam with pornstars, so, there's also that.

EDIT: Oh I forgot to mention. I love the aspect of the food and restaurants in Yakuza games. It's so great how this one builds on that by giving you a hunger meter that you can keep topped up as a method of grinding your core stats. Really like that as I enjoy visiting all the different restaurants and bars.

[wakka]

Still plugging away on Yakuza 6. Damn this game is so much fun. I just love Yakuza. Honestly one of the most relaxing and enjoyable game franchises for me.

Steering clear of Man Who Erased His Name commentary/thoughts atm as I know that one follows on directly in terms of story.

[Dogg Thang]

I still working through Yakuza 0. No idea how many hours I have put in but it feels like a lot. There is so much to do in this game. I’m currently knee deep in the cabaret game. Lost all track of what’s happening in the main story!

[wakka]

That's OK! The cabaret requires full focus to get through!

[Finsbury Girl]

Still building away in Death Stranding - some of the road building costs are astronomical, it is going to take me a while to finish the central region. I reckon I've done may 60-70% though. And wow you can really lost time trying to build a zipline network. I have wasted many hours so far! One aspect I don't like is stuff you build eroding away ; it takes enough time to farm materials just to build, to add on more farming for maintenance seems very unfair to me. On chapter 8 not sure how much to go now.

[Atticus]

If you want a good night's sleep do not take the Switch to bed and load up Dave the Diver. It features one of the mose compulsive gameplay loops ever. The fishing feeds the restaurant stock, the restaurant makes the money, the money upgrades stuff like gear ... there are new recipes, deeper dives, demanding customers, things to craft ... the mental to-do list is perfectly judged. It also helps that the diving and restaurant management are eaqually enjoyable to play too. Great game.

[Wools]

Had a great run of playing, enjoying and completing games this year through the entire Mass Effect Trilogy and Ghost of Tsushima, but became unstuck on Death Stranding and Cyberpunk. I adored DS for 10 - 20 hours but the writing, story and some gameplay concepts bored me and moved onto CP2077, but got hit by a bug and after pushing on for around 5 hours with the screen shaking and the controller vibrating, I just stopped.

However, I picked up Resident Evil 2 and have been adoring it. I loved the PS1 original and picked up the remake on PC a year ago but stopped soon after the Tyrant showed up as not only did I slightly **** myself but just didn't know how to shake him off. Yes, I know you're supposed to walk, don't shoot him, run away when he shows up in a room with you but I just always got killed. However, I found myself wanting to play the OG again after getting a Jap import copy on PS1 so picked up the RE2 remake on my PS5 in the sale. I'm about 3 hours in now and adoring it again but the Tyran has just showed up, so we'll see how long I can endure him before he ****s off again! I think he's supposed to piss off when you get into the Sewers, and it's there he stops stalking you?

I needed calming down after RE2 yesterday so fired up the port of Shenmue on PS5 and played it till around midnight and fell in love again. I picked up the DC original on UK launch day after school back in December 2000 and thought it was my favourite game ever. Aside from occasional boot ups, I've not played Shenmue again for any length of time. I picked dit up on PC and played an hour wondering around Yamanose and Sakuragaoka but never got further! Last night, I got really engrossed in the reality of the game and mundane 80's Japan. Shenmue, much like most of Sega's output, is looked back under a sharper lens than most, which is such a shame as the characters and story are more relatable than super powers and anime love stories. Well, most of the time. It feels almost liberating playing a game where there's no ****ing in-game tutorials, a story point is marked in a book which is easily found if you listen and read but has no way points where you just run to blind. The voice acting is almost shockingly bad and the writing is the opposite of Kojima but the atmosphere, world design, characters and gameplay pull you in like no other game has. I've got a feeling a 1, 2 and 3 (own but never played more than an hour) play though is in order.

[wakka]

Mr X isn't all that hard to deal with once you get the hang of it. Basically hide from him in a safe room and wait till he audibly clomps off. Don't bother attacking him, he's invincible. Some people find him really annoying but I like the tension he introduces!

Shenmue is still such a brilliant game, I totally agree. I played 1 and 2 through again a couple of years ago on the DC, first time since the 2000s. My partner watched the whole thing and really enjoyed it too. It has a totally unique atmosphere. A very special game.

[Atticus]

Don't bother attacking him

Unless you want the trophy for shooting his hat off

[importaku]

Playing a mix of stuff at moment.

Dead cells i haven't played for a while but decided to go back to it as it's had a lot of updates, so much content it's still hard as ever but now they have added a lot of settings to make it easier if you really want to.

Muse dash also been getting a lot of new song content, recently passed level 1000 love how all the content has been totally free although i think that's changing soon with new content been paid but if you already got in before the change you keep everything for free.

Newest game is super crazy rhythm castle, it's officially the weirderst music game i have ever played. It's got a really odd sense of fun that oozes out the game. Some of the puzzles are really tricky and creative. One of them you have to break into a school in multiple stages and use the tools to break certain obstacles to get at art that you have to then destroy into the shredder. however you have to charge them up by plugging them into the rhythm belt & playing to charge then stop and continue making your way through. Certain tools have to be used in the correct order by the 3rd part of the stage you have a time limit counting down to add to the pressure. As you make your way through the madhouse you will unlock new abillities that will help you unblock parts of the castle. So far really enjoying it.

[Golgo]

Been slow, still playing final fantasy 7 remake. Scrappy as anything when it comes to combat and I don't really know what's going on, and I don't think it seems to matter that much, but it's spectacular fun.

[importaku]

Well i won't be playing anything else for a while as bakeru no mameda is incredible the presentation & levels are off the charts it really does feel like a Goemon game the levels are packed with Japanese culture plus a ton of things to find & secrets. The using the L & R to attack with taiko bachi takes a little getting used to but it's satisfying battling, the 3D rumble is really cool to finally a game that actually uses it you can feel every step & if seems like it changes depending on terrain as i could swear that the steps feel softer on the sand level than they did in the beginning forest stage need to confirm that though.

I can't wait to see what the large robot battles are like.