What You've Been Playing This Week

[Finsbury Girl]

Elden Ring - I am scared to look at how many hours I've ploughed into this! It's holding me back from so many other games

[fuse]

I... think it was last week that I played BZZZT! It is a very impressive little indie platform game giving you a series of single-chamber environments to work your way through one-by-one. If you're wanting to push yourself, you can try for all collectables in a given room, and additionally speed through in an attempt to make the target time. Think somewhere between Super Meat Boy and Celeste. It's beautifully animated, looks and sounds great, and plays very well. It's not super long - I finished it in my first session - but I went back over the next day or so cleaning up secrets, collectables and so on, and had a great time doing it. Comes recommended!

Have also just started playing American Arcadia, which is a platformer more in the vein of Limbo / Inside, with the secondary remote support character element from République, and a story that's easiest likened to The Truman Show. It's pretty fun, and the bits where you do go off and do things with the second character are a good deviation from the more straightforward running and jumping of the other bits. Unfortunately it's not all glowing though - I've been playing this on the Deck and annoyingly my biggest issue by far is that it's bugged out on me and flat out crashed a number of times now.

[hudson]

The First Descendant (PS5) - Maybe there is something "wrong" with me, but I love the absolute raw dog grind in these games. Still enjoying it!
Alaskan Road Trucker (PS5) - I do like a truck sim (nothing beats ATS/ETS), but on console there's only a handful of truck sim games and they're mostly poor. This isn't perfect (30 FPS - but improves over any other console truck sim). Regardless, I am very much enjoying buying noodles/pizza from a fuel stop and cooking them in the microwave in my truck's cabin. Can you do that in Elden Ring? Huh?
Street Fighter 6 (PS5) - I try to play everyday, just to keep me nimble and salty.
Balatro (PS5/Switch/Steam Deck) - Well, this is just the best game ever made. Best game to play in between games.
Parkitect (PS5) - It's a theme park builder sim. This got released in a fairly buggy state. It's slowly but surely being patched. Have a butchers at it as it has a nice simplistic art style. The game is actually really good too. Nothing too difficult, mainly focusing on building and decorating and ultimately making money.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Super Mario Bros. Wonder (NSW) - Started playing this a week or two ago in short bursts. Currently starting World 5. A fresh change-up and fine return to form for 2D Mario after the bland and stale identikit repetitiveness of the NSMB era...but Super Mario World still remains the greatest 2D Mario of all-time IMO.

Balatro (NSW) - My standard go-to for quick gaming on-the-go, surpassing even the mighty Tetris 99 (don't currently have a NSO subscription, tbf). Strong GOTY material as far as I'm concerned. Greatest rogue-like ever made - Don't @ Me.

[Neon Ignition]

"Yeah, I've been working my way through Kena on the PS5, very early on in it. I've been chipping away on the PC too... I've been playin' Gotham Knights..."

[QualityChimp]

Balatro (NSW) - My standard go-to for quick gaming on-the-go, surpassing even the mighty Tetris 99 (don't currently have a NSO subscription, tbf). Strong GOTY material as far as I'm concerned. Greatest rogue-like ever made - Don't @ Me.

I don't even want to download this game. It sounds like it's a total time-sink.
Just one sniff of this digital cocaine would be enough to make me an addict!

[Nu-Eclipse]

I don't even want to download this game. It sounds like it's a total time-sink.
Just one sniff of this digital cocaine would be enough to make me an addict!

No need to download - the physical version is coming out in September, at a wallet-friendly price too.

Go on. Do it. Place that pre-order. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO.

[QualityChimp]

You're like Nick-O-Teen, trying to get me hooked!

[hudson]

Worst thing is, it's coming to mobile phone and I fear my productivity will decrease so much that I will become a slug.

[QualityChimp]

Worst thing is, it's coming to mobile phone and I fear my productivity will decrease so much that I will become a slug.

Nice knowing you, Slugson!

[hudson]

Nice knowing you, Slugson!

"Shlurp"

[Briareos]

Worst thing is, it's coming to mobile phone and I fear my productivity will decrease so much that I will become a slug.

Yikes! The only thing saving me from playing this all the time is the fact I'm not always near my switch, I am however, always near my phone

[hudson]

Yikes! The only thing saving me from playing this all the time is the fact I'm not always near my switch, I am however, always near my phone

Pasta & pizza, BAY BEE!

[QualityChimp]

Little bit more Uncharted 2 (PS4) and I've got to a really good bit where you're platforming in a war-ravaged town, so the setting is different from another tomb, but the wrecked buildings means it makes sense to be jumping from lampposts to awnings to shop signs and down holes in the floor.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Little bit more Uncharted 2 (PS4) and I've got to a really good bit where you're platforming in a war-ravaged town, so the setting is different from another tomb, but the wrecked buildings means it makes sense to be jumping from lampposts to awnings to shop signs and down holes in the floor.

That's a lot of words for "I'm desperately trying to avoid pre-ordering a physical copy of Balatro."