What You've Been Playing This Week

[wakka]

Just picturing your sales executive lurking in his bedroom with a type writer, a green herb, and some relaxing music.

Actually that sounds a bit like my room in halls at uni. Except without the typewriter.

[Atticus]

^^^ ^^^

[Golgo]

Also started Bluepoint's Shadow of the Colossus remake. It looks gorgeous, but quite unsettlingly so - it's an odd thing to bemoan, but having such facial detail is throwing me off a bit? It's been so long since playing the original that I can't tell if these are new issues or total commitment to the original, but I'm finding the controls a bit janky, and the camera's a bit of a nightmare too. I've already got frustrated with and had to turn off the over-frequent hint system, which is not a great sign given I'm only three colossi in.

I too felt precisely this jank - controls and camera - in the remake, and I can't remember feeling that for the original although that may be due to having been more accepting in those days that 3D games were generally always a horrorshow to control. In that sense, the Blueprint remake is faithful indeed.

[Golgo]

Finished Death's Door and the bosses were actually quite fun. I wonder when this sub-genre of games themed around reflections on death and mourning became fashionable. This, I Am Dead, Spiritfarer, Flipping Death, etc. Guess it began with To The Lighthouse?

[Finsbury Girl]

I give FFVII Ps5 version a go this weekend (it was free why not!) I must say it looks freaking amazing!

I'm not entirely sure about the combat - I might give classic a try.

[fuse]

Dipped in and out of a lot of things this weekend.

Steel Assault - this is actually pretty great but is fairly short even by arcade game standards. Perhaps put it on with the wrong mindset, as after struggling through two stages on Normal I was already done with the number of resets I was churning through, came back out, and instead shot through the whole thing on Very Easy with absolutely no challenge whatsoever. Should probably come back to it and tough it out, as yeah, it's good - nice mechanics, good set pieces, looks the business.

Chicory - don't often play games where you're expected to be creative! It's a neat idea and it's all lovely and smooth, but I also feel like this is a game much better suited to a mouse than a controller. My painting skills are... not great. The first boss-type thing was kind of fun and I'm keen to see more of this, right now I don't feel like I've got a good handle on what the rest of it will be like.

Genesis Noir - only stuck this on for 15 minutes and it's pretty out there. Looks very stylish, and have got very little idea of what's going on and what I'm doing. Might end up hating this, but also might end up absolutely loving it.

Persona 5 Strikers - yeah, this is basically P5-2 isn't it? Lifting so much of the look and feel of the original game is an entirely sensible choice, because it's still brilliant to look at. The action is ultra-smooth and seems fun so far, but I'm assuming there's loads more still to see than what I got to in the first hour. Hope it stays snappy and doesn't draw itself out too much, though.

[MarioMark]

Finished Crash Bandicoot 4 - Off the bat you can tell that they've nailed the gameplay like the original Naughty Dog games to the point where you'd think the OG team made it themselves (hence me giving this one a go), but the games difficulty is at a point where it's too hard to enjoy, so it's flawed by design which is a huge shame because they got everything else right! If you like self harming yourself I'd definitely recommend giving this a try.

In between taking a break from the difficulty of Crash 4 it got me on a 90s nostalgia trip so I finially started and finished the single player adventure mode on Crash Team Racing Nitro Refueled. I'll admit I played it on easy mode becuse the rubber band AI ruins it for me. I just did a speed run basically as a break between playing Crash 4

Started Sonic Colours Ultimate - It's ok

Edit: I forgot to mention that I finished Bowsers Fury and Yoshi’s Crafted World from my backlog last week. Bowsers Fury is a treat and worth the purchase alone.

I'm playing a lot of "kid friendly" games at the moment because the seriousness of Last Of Us 2 burnt me out, great game though!

[wakka]

You’re right that they nailed the feel of Crash 4, but the problem was that it just reminded me of how Crash, well, isn’t that good. I did enjoy playing it through and liked the theming of some of the worlds, the bayou one in particular. The graphics are good, too. However like yourself I found the last few levels punishing to the point of irritation.

[QualityChimp]

Played a bit more Resident Evil 2 remake last night.
I had to have a cooldown before bed because it's so bloody tense.

Got to a new section (car park), but ammo is seriously low.
Just seen Mr. X's giant hand smash through a wall and crush a man's face like a melon.
Not faced him yet, but did battle some mutant guy.

It does make me laugh, though. "You have to find a way to escape! We're trapped in here with dozens of locked doors with specific playing card suit icons on them or key cards or roller shutters! It's impossible to escape unless we find these keys!"

*Walks out of room, walks back in, 4 zombies have appeared*

I swear, these zombies are like Jill, the master of lockpicking.

[wakka]

Just your typical police station design really. A labyrinth of esoteric puzzles and secret labs.

Man I really loved REmake 2. I'd actually kind of like to play it again but I only have it on Bone and I don't have that connected to my TV any more. Maybe one to pick up again in the future.

[fuse]

Feel like I'm misremembering things, because doesn't Mr X turn up pretty early on? I streamed my early play of Resi 2 remake for some friends, and it turns out I left a shotgun just sitting there in a room, which is now something that I'm never living down. To make matters better/worse (delete as appropriate) I've since bought a pay-to-win DLC thing when it was on discount that gives you something daft like an infinite rocket launcher, so if I do ever get back to it I'm torching the RPD to the ground.

Persona 5 Strikers - yeah, this is basically P5-2 isn't it? Lifting so much of the look and feel of the original game is an entirely sensible choice, because it's still brilliant to look at. The action is ultra-smooth and seems fun so far, but I'm assuming there's loads more still to see than what I got to in the first hour. Hope it stays snappy and doesn't draw itself out too much, though.

Opinion's shifting on this one a fair bit. It's taken me about 6 hours to reach the end of the first real dungeon and it has felt like a total slog and very drawn-out. I suspect I'm quite under-levelled as I'm scraping through the tougher encounters by the skin of my teeth a lot of times, but I'm also not finding them particularly enjoyable. Might try and stick it out a bit longer and see if it improves, but feeling quite tempted to just drop it.

[Cassius_Smoke]

Salt and sanctuary

Well I tried it for ten minutes. It can **** off.

Nier Automata

I'm on the second play through but I don't like 9S. I'll carry on slowly.

Control

My third play through. Easily in my top 10 games ever.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Started a new game +. I aim to get it completed before the next one.

[QualityChimp]

Feel like I'm misremembering things, because doesn't Mr X turn up pretty early on?

Depends on what you mean by "early". I've been on it a few hours already and I've only seen his arm.

I streamed my early play of Resi 2 remake for some friends, and it turns out I left a shotgun just sitting there in a room, which is now something that I'm never living down. To make matters better/worse (delete as appropriate) I've since bought a pay-to-win DLC thing when it was on discount that gives you something daft like an infinite rocket launcher, so if I do ever get back to it I'm torching the RPD to the ground.

Firstly, hilarious.

Secondly, I've just looked and that all unlock DLC is currently £1.59.

Now, I'm crazy-tempted by that as it's so cheap and I loved playing RE1 fast enough to unlock the quad-barrelled rocket launcher with infinite ammo. However, it totally changed the tempo of the game. I remember edging though the some-kind-of-mansion on first play, then with the rockets, just obliterating those licking bastards into oblivion. No tension, but the revenge felt good.

I think I'll buy it before the sale ends, but need to have some willpower not to tool up and slaughter all those bloody dogs in the car park.

[fuse]

Think it was his appearance in the demo that might've thrown my perception of timings off!

Definitely know what you mean, it'll totally change the feel of the game and I know it'll cheat myself out of the 'true experience', but I think I can deal with that. I want to turn it into a survival horror for Mr X!

I remember edging though the some-kind-of-mansion on first play

Do you now!

[wakka]

As opposed to blowing your load, as it were, with the rocket launcher.