What You've Been Playing This Week

[Neon Ignition]

I'm playing COD: Modern Warfare III

Jesus, Activisions desperation to never have a year without a new entry really screwed the pooch in this one. Before anything else the menu is horrific, burying the campaign under the assumption of prioritising the MP. The system a few games back was better where you could just pin the modes you wanted or set it to boot directly. Here selecting SP restarts the entire game, it takes far too long and frankly Warzone doesn't require a space on the menu at all let alone another menu for BO6 so that the actually game you're booting is the last thing you get to. I'd been initially interested in the MW2 maps returning but this is the first entry where I haven't picked it up around launch and the GP launch is my first time approaching it. The SP is frankly poor with linear levels that are functional but bland and open zone levels that are abysmal. Acti knocking out a half arsed entry isn't new, we've seen it before several times and most notably with BO4 which just skipped half the content wholesale to hit a deadline. Doing the same here by burning the revived good will around the MW name though - eesh. I'm just getting to the end stages of the campaign but my interest in delving into the MP is already very low thanks to the experience so I can't imagine sticking with it for long.

[Cepp]

There's a Facebook group I'm in, "Forever Arcade" that are going in September. I can't rally my mates here, so might just go solo to this one.
I've been trying to go for years now.

That sounds like a cool group. I'm up for going, just signed up. It's a great time, and they finally seem to have sorted out the excess heat in the candy cab room (or maybe it was just cooler since I went in the evening).

[fuse]

Finished Chained Echoes, which I ended enjoying quite a lot. While not insurmountable, there was a nice ramp up in difficulty for the last boss which actually made me have to go away and do a bit more prep before coming back for a second crack at it, which I didn't mind in the end. Happy enough with how it ended, still in two minds as to whether I go back for the post-game mop up. Will ramble more in the first play about this.

Then two short (4ish hour) ones:

Thank Goodness You're Here! is a charming, genuinely funny romp set in Barnsworth, a real town in a fictional place called Yorkshire, a county in a fictional place called England. I think I got that right. Imagine Untitled Goose Game, minus terrible waterfowls and instead a village dogsbody being tasked to do things by a cast of Viz-esque locals, and with Matt Berry doing voice work. Reet grand, this.

The Operator is a crime bureau procedural thing, with your man taking calls from field agents who need the back office work done. It's a bit sexier than it sounds, and while it's also a little bit hammy, I did enjoy it, and one thing I will absolutely give it credit for is an excellent bomb defusal sequence. I appreciate few are going to go away and play this, but I'm still marking VERY spoiler-heavy thoughts about the end below.

->Open Spoiler<-

There's only one ending, and it involves your character being shot dead, after finding out that he's been brainwashed by the people who burned his house down and killed his wife and unborn child, and also convinced him into thinking he's someone else entirely and that one of the people responsible is his best pal. The two agents who you got closest to are also killed off by the same group, and the other agent who tried to help uncover what's going on is imprisoned for life on espionage charges, with the one person who steered you on the path to the truth being left on the run fearing for their life. Went back to see if this was just the bad ending and if I screwed up somewhere, but nope, this it!

[Neon Ignition]

I finished up COD: MWIII last night, goinna try the MP tonight finally but yeah - the campaign is hella weak

[hudson]

Been playing Luck Be A Landlord on my phone. It's a rogue-lite, slot machine that you use to pay your rent (sounds like a recipe for disaster, I'm sure you will agree ). This game inspired Balatro, so I had to check it out. Very addictive. Nice to play a few (tens of thousands of) runs before bedtime

[Golgo]

Quake. Again. The excellent Nightdive remaster on Switch. Been through the two main expansion packs which were great, then tried the latest of the modern expansions, 'Dimension of the Past'. It's been criticized for cheap design (e.g. lots of high level enemies spawning literally behind you) and extreme stinginess of ammo and armour; meaning you (by which I mean, 'I') can only scrape through by save scumming and playing it like a survival horror - deciding which enemies I can afford to use ammo on. It's not very good. I hear the final expansion 'Dimension of the Machine' is much better, though. So I'll give that a whirl.

[huxley]

Clearing through some unplayed Steam Items this week, Metro Exodus Enhanced. Looks lovely in some sections with the ray tracing etc. Desert port section is kinda bland but the story line carries it well

[Neon Ignition]

"Completing Quantum Break again after over a decade is a lot like making love to a beautiful ex-lover.

First you anticipate the fond memories, admiring the things that you once found appealing and drew you in. Then you firmly grab your device and yank on your stick to make the action happen. A relatively short time later it's all over and the sheen is gone, the experience severely let down by performance issues"

[Atticus]

I was in the mood to dive back into DOOM + DOOM 2 last night with the recent rereleases landing. Absolutely love the original games. But 10 minutes of DOOM gave me motion sickness. First time that's happened in years. Had to turn it off

[QualityChimp]

Quantum Break

Classic.

[Atticus]

Always funny

[Golgo]

Finished Ocarina of Time 3DS again and I was astonished at how it still trivializes the ambition and accomplishments of every 3rd person adventure game since the time of its release (apart from the predictable bosses, which was a feature in those days). A truly epochal game. Have since gone back to complete multiple runs of Starfox 3DS to unlock all routes and just dusted off - for another couple of run throughs - Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin on GBA and DS respectively.

[Dogg Thang]

Finished Ocarina of Time 3DS again and I was astonished at how it still trivializes the ambition and accomplishments of every 3rd person adventure game since the time of its release (apart from the predictable bosses, which was a feature in those days). A truly epochal game. Have since gone back to complete multiple runs of Starfox 3DS to unlock all routes and just dusted off - for another couple of run throughs - Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin on GBA and DS respectively.

Oh interesting! I have been doing a Castlevania playthrough over the last while. I played through all the GBA entries one after another, then straight onto Dawn of Sorrow and now I’m on Portrait of Ruin.

The two Sorrows are fantastic. Got to admit, I’m finding Ruin a bit of a chore, probably my least favourite so far.

[Golgo]

They all tend to blur and merge a bit for me, lol! I do think that Aria of Sorrow is the best of the handhelds, for stylish atmosphere and story, and the Pokemon-esque collecting of monster souls that you can re-use. Love it. I also like Portrait's conceit of having two characters to control, and the barmy destinations via the portraits. Mind you I also really enjoyed Dawn of Sorrow on the DS as well, although some folk apparently think the turn to more anime style visuals/cutscenes in the DS games was a step back. Anyway, they're all great and we need Symphony of the Night reissued, ideally as a full-on Digital Eclipse edition!

[Dogg Thang]

Yes, Aria of Sorrow is superb. I do rate Dawn highly too and it’s gorgeous to look at, maybe the prettiest of the series. I’m not a big fan of the anime look either but it’s such a small part of the game.

Circle of the Moon is crude in terms of looks and rock hard but not bad. Harmony of Dissonance is messy and looks really weird, I think probably as a result of trying to make the colours pop on the non-backlit GBA, but pretty enjoyable once I really got into it. Aria really refined everything. It looks great and plays great.