What You've Been Playing This Week

[Neon Ignition]

Headed closer to the weekend and I've been focused solely on Psychonauts 2. It's a little make or break, it feels like it would be a shame to drop it but at the same time it's hugely mediocre.

[wakka]

I became part of the problem and picked up a brand new copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

My history with this game is that I picked it up on release on WiiU and absolutely loved it. Played it to death, did everything you could do on single player, got tons of online points, played loads of splitscreen with friends, etc etc.

Consequently when the Switch version launched I never picked it up because as much as I loved it, I had kinda done it.

Anyway - recently got a hankering to play again, and since a Mario Kart 9 is coming sometime on the first of Never, I thought I'd pick this up.

I've now 3 starred all of 150cc and I'm working my way through Mirror, with a bit of dabbling in online. It plays absolutely beautifully, and the old muscle memory kicked in immediately (although I'm a bit rusty on the finer points of some of the tracks). It looks fantastic too. It's an excellent game.

But as much as I'm enjoying revisiting it, it makes me yearn for a new title all the more. The online, in particular, could benefit from significant expansion in modes, rewards, rankings and incentives. And as generous as this game is with the tracks (and how consistently good they are), it would be great after eight years to play some new ones.

Still. Great game.

[randombs]

I’d been thoroughly enjoying Battlefield Hardline until I hit a nasty bug on the eighth chapter which apparently affect all versions of the game. If you die in a particular section 3/4 into the chapter it’ll get stuck while reloading the latest checkpoint. It’ll even get stuck if you restart the game and continue from that checkpoint. The only way around it is to restart the entire chapter from the beginning. Couple that with unskippable cutscenes and I was well and truly riled up.

The good news is I managed to redo the chapter without dying, so I’m back to thoroughly enjoying the game. Two left until it’s finished, then I’ll probably get stuck into Star Wars Battlefront II.

[Tobal]

BreathsEdge on gamepass, it's spacesuit survival with that ironic satire writing indie dev's love using or the crappers at gearbox. I stuck through the chattering spacesuit A.I. to find a decent game, go out into space find new tools/upgrade plans and materials to make them in the wreckage scattered around you while battling oxygen, cold, radiation, hunger and thirst. Once you feel confident enough you can aim for a distance waypoint to advance the story. It did make me laugh once for the cutscene introducing chapter 2.

Doesn't hold your hand at all in how to find materials, you'll need to explore all around, getting close to dead ship crew causing the A.I. chip in. Gameplay main problem is how annoying it is to equip tools and little idea how you use at first, so a lot of trail and error so save often.

[Brad]

Resident Evil Village

I only picked this up to try out my new 6800XT gpu as it has ray tracing and the AMD super resolution thing (AMD’s answer to DLSS) but I’m actually really enjoying it. The gameplay is decades old and I even managed to cause Goldeneye style enemies running on the spot, but the atmosphere is great. I’m
Playing it with a dual shock 4 and it feels really good during the action parts. I’ve really pissed off the big lady so not looking forward to meeting her again!

It looks amazing in 4K HDR and all that gubbins but I’ve gone back to 1080p on the monitor with the high refresh rate (which it limited to 120fps for some reason) as I think the colours look better and I like the super smoothness vs the high resolution.

[Deuteros]

Been enjoying some video game pinball. Firstly The Pinball Arcade both on PS4/5 and iPad too. These are choc full of licensed tables I bought over the years so it's nice to re-download them and pick through some classics. Pinball FX3 beats it in technical terms but there's something down n dirty I like about The Pinball Arcade (they don't censor tables for starters) and it gives you more of a back room bar feel over something overly sterile. Played The Twilight Zone and both Elvira tables last night. All top notch.

If you didn't buy in the past though the table selection now is poor these days (no Bally/Williams tables). I might try Ghostbusters and maybe Big Buck Hunter at some point though ... they look interesting. Not so sure about Woah Nelly! Big Juicy Melons though

I love pinball so when it was announced that so many of The Pinball Arcade's tables were going to be delisted, I bought seven seasons of DLC tables for the PS4 at $30 apiece! Luckily, it was around the time Sony was giving away 20% off codes.

Haven't really played them as I don't own a PS4 but I will. One of these days...

What I have been playing is the Williams' tables for Pinball FX3 on the Xbox One. Zen Studios' customer support was outstanding and helped me transfer all my Pinball FX2 Xbox 360 tables so I kept supporting them and am three tables away from owning them all.

[Atticus]

I love pinball so when it was announced that so many of The Pinball Arcade's tables were going to be delisted, I bought seven seasons of DLC tables for the PS4 at $30 apiece! Luckily, it was around the time Sony was giving away 20% off codes.

Haven't really played them as I don't own a PS4 but I will. One of these days...

What I have been playing is the Williams' tables for Pinball FX3 on the Xbox One. Zen Studios' customer support was outstanding and helped me transfer all my Pinball FX2 Xbox 360 tables so I kept supporting them and am three tables away from owning them all.

FX3 is superb. The Williams tables a beautifully presented and I love the challenges for each table. Honestly never imagined video game pinball could feel so accurate. And as one of the Pinball Arcade guys said years ago: these digital iterations are preserving the legacy of these tables.

[importaku]

Still playing a mishmash of various older titles that i bought in the previous months as i have a lot to work my way through on switch but most recent over the last 4 days i have been playing through NMH III & astral chain both are a lot of fun each in their different ways i'm finding the combat satisfying in both titles but astral chain has crazy amounts of polish & style managed to get 4 of my 5 legions and it's been pretty interesting storywise too. As for NMH III managed to kill off 4 bosses so far but i'm taking my time to explore the world it's set in. I tried playing a bit of the first NMH just to see how it was and ended up doing the first couple of bosses, not as janky as i was expecting and pleasingly it's not censored from what i can see, it was the main thing that totally turned me off when it was originally released as the japanese version on the Wii was seriously gimped both in blood and decapitations.

[Tobal]

All this talk of pinball made me go look how the emulation side been getting on, not looked at it in many years. After finding everything i need internet archive so visual pinball X and pinmame worked together, i've been playing quite a bit of Starwars 1997 and capcom's Flipper Football which is a really neat take on pinball. Also alot of original work around with people making up their own version of what a Metal Slug machine would look like.

[nonny]

I just finished The Artful Escape last night... All achievements as well, without actually trying.

I wouldn't class it as a game really, it's more of a journey with some basic platforming and rhythm elements but it is gorgeous from start to finish (took me about 4 hours all up).

Also has Carl Weathers in it so scores highly from me just for that.

Anyway, loved it from start to finish. Pretty much the perfect game pass experience. Crank it up to 11 though and wear headphones if you can.

[randombs]

Finished Battlefield Hardline last night.

The game is like a TV programme with ten episodes, each one ending on a cliffhanger and a "previously on Hardline" recap whenever you continue your game.

The game got progressively more nuts(in a good way) as it went along but the final episode was awful. It was so boring that I stopped doing stealth arrests and started a firefight just to liven things up. The ending scene was particularly bad and pretty much undid the goodwill earned from the fun I'd had in the previous episodes.

Such a shame.

Anyway, moving on to Battlefront II soon...

[QualityChimp]

Sounds good before the end, Randombs!

I started Control:

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I'm a sod, because I'm exploring everywhere, rather than cracking on with the story.
Reckon I could halve the playtime if I could switch off my FOMO and collecting every single document collectable that I'll never read.

The game was urging me on, but I'd just got some powers of telekinesis, so I spent about 10 minutes just smashing the whole room up. Love the destructible environments, but that janitor guy has got some serious clearing up to do!

Had a couple of jumpy moments, which was cool and I'm loving combat so far, but from clips, it looks like it'll drip-feed me more powers as I progress. Not a Scooby what's going on yet, but it's hella intriguing!

[Atticus]

Really enjoyed Control. It was one of those rare games that came from nowhere and knocked my socks off.

I’ve been playing some No More Heroes 3. This is my first time playing the series. Lots of style and swagger, fun combat, I can see the appeal. The open world bits feel less engaging … until you’ve suddenly killed an hour in it and you’re heading back to power yourself up before the next boss. It’s a little repetitive but has enough charisma to keep you going. About halfway through.

I couldn’t be in Switch mode without a little bit of Odyssey. I’ve said before it’s the best game on the system and my fave 3D Mario game. Straight away the worlds are a pleasure to explore and plunder. Secrets everywhere. It’s as good as it gets.

[Neon Ignition]

Waiting for the postie to deliver Deathloop I returned to Mass Effect

I'm still plugging along and it's fun enough but it still utterly staggers me that anyone makes the argument that it's the best entry. I can't think of one single way that the game isn't the weakest one barring possibly Andromeda.

[nonny]

Waiting for the postie to deliver Deathloop I returned to Mass Effect

I'm still plugging along and it's fun enough but it still utterly staggers me that anyone makes the argument that it's the best entry. I can't think of one single way that the game isn't the weakest one barring possibly Andromeda.

Mass Effect 2 is by far the best entry. I think the only thing good about the original is how well it sets up the universe and characters, it really sets the tone but its the sequel that pushes it forward into it's best incarnation.