What You've Been Playing This Week

[fuse]

I've played the GBA ones again fairly recently because of the collection, and would bite their hand off if they did the same for the DS releases. My main memory of Portrait of Ruin was the button. You know the one.

JONATHAN.
CHARLOTTE.
JONATHAN.
CHARLOTTE.
JONATHAN.
CHARLOTTE.

[Golgo]

Started playing the Bluepoint remake of Demon's Souls PS5. It's everything I remember from 2009 only much, much shinier and after a couple of hours of good progress, and then getting clobbered, I thought "I honest cannot be bothered to do that again." So that's it, done. Same feeling I got when I got to Leyndell in Elden Ring after over a hundred hours wandering everywhere, and then I just downed tools and went on strike like the Onion Knight. Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 are among my favourite games of all time, but something's not clicking with me and this genre any more.

[Dogg Thang]

I had forgotten that Portrait of Ruin pulls a Silent Hill 4 towards the end. It's getting to be a bit of a chore.

[Dogg Thang]

I've played the GBA ones again fairly recently because of the collection, and would bite their hand off if they did the same for the DS releases.

Consider their hand bitten off: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/20...o-switch-today

[QualityChimp]

Uncharted 2 (PS4) as part of the remastered collection. I've found it okay but a bit of a chore, if I'm honest. It's pretty but not really a good shooter or a good platformer, but somewhere in between both. However, I got to the train level and it was just an absolute blast, like a top-tier action movie, in fact, climbing up a train hanging off a cliff was nicked in the latest Mission Impossible!



I'm really near the end now and there are some tough enemies.
I've been shooting most enemies in the face, but they take about 3 headshots to die. Some of the jumps are really fussy and the rest are telegraphed by the different coloured platforms and handgrips.

Still, it's been good fun towards the end, and who doesn't like massive secret temples opened by solving basic riddles?

Stuntman: Ignition (XBox One).
Working my way through this again. Must be my third time?
I'd unlocked all the levels, but I'm loving getting 5* for stringing all the stunts again, looking for ways to keep the combo going.
I've just done the "Bond" film and onto the final film, a Batman clone (Night Avenger).

I still think the first game has some better moments, but this is just peak Stuntman.

[fuse]

Did most of Orwell: Ignorance is Strength in one evening, and been doing a bit of achievement clean-up after too. It's controlled from a single GUI that is used for a range of surveillance tasks, but what's good about it is that you are pushed to do a bit of critical thinking yourself aside from basic "datachunks" that you gather, there are others that directly contradict each other, and it's up to you to reach a narrative that works for you. Part of me feels like it wants to make bigger, broader statements about a police state, or living in a "post-truth" world, and though it doesn't really get anywhere profound with these, it's still quite a fun little game.

And true to my word, I've dived straight into the Castlevania: Dominus Collection. It is everything I hoped for and more. Even the main menu got me excited; it has all of the options I could've wanted, presented fabulously and with loads of extras. So far I've only played Dawn of Sorrow (about 2/3 in) but it looks excellent and I love the screen presentation they've gone for with both the map and the status menu displayed as smaller screens alongside the main gameplay window.



Def going to play through each of the games on this, and also really excited to play M2's take on Haunted Castle. From what I'm hearing it's practically Castlevania Rebirth 2!

[hudson]

Loved the first game, but for some reason I have not been able to muster enough desire to progress through the sequels.

Whenever I see Uncharted 2, it's alway the dangling train. My friend tells me the whole game is based on that one carriage? Is this true?

[QualityChimp]

Whenever I see Uncharted 2, it's alway the dangling train. My friend tells me the whole game is based on that one carriage? Is this true?

Erm, what?

The game starts with it, then the plot rewinds and you play through how you got to that point (many hours later) and you then do it again, but leading up to the start section.
So, it does it twice, but your mate is spinning you a yarn if he says the whole game is only on one carriage.
Leading up to that is you fighting your way to the front of the train (across many carriages!).
There's a helicopter attacking you and Drake says "How am I supposed to fight a hellooo!" as he spots an antiaircraft turret!

There are loads of interesting locations from Borneo to a Tibetan village. It's better than the first game, for sure.

[Neon Ignition]

I could easily imagine UC1-3 will be next on the Sony remake train

[hudson]

So we will playing through the train 6 times in total?

[Dogg Thang]

Is Uncharted the best console train game then?

[fuse]

So we will playing through the train 6 times in total?

You'll probably want to undergo some training beforehand

[QualityChimp]

Is Uncharted the best console train game then?

Uncharted de Go!

[Atticus]

Got back into Pikmin 4 this week and having a great time with it. The new ideas work so well. Such a satisfying, chilled experience.

[Golgo]

Finished Astro's Playroom, got all the little collectibles and puzzle pieces and stuff. I felt the zones were uneven in quality, a couple being actually quite dull. Really ingenious use of the DualSense, especially rumble, and a great celebration of the brand history. In terms of how it felt to play, though, the whole thing felt like a tightened-up Little Big Planet, and I didn't finish it with any burning need to play more. Will definitely keep an eye out for the big release in Sept and see how that reviews, though.