What You've Been Playing This Week

[Golgo]

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!

Just saw Dominus is getting a physical via Limited Run, which I'm afraid I won't be able to resist. Pre-orders up on September 13th.

What you playing it on fuse? Tempted to get for PS5 although the righteous choice is probably Switch.

[hudson]

I've picked up Dominus on Switch. Gonna give that Haunted Castle remake a blast then onto....? Well, Ive not played these games before, but loved SOTN.... I'll find out which is chronologically next (by release date).

[fuse]

Figured the physical was inevitable, glad they're not wasting any time I'm playing on PS5 currently, for something like this it's a great example of where going for a full trophy set is a nice little push to keep on, but I can imagine Switch has the advantage of a much better way of handling the touch screen bits. FWIW, the seals in Dawn of Sorrow are able to be done entirely through buttons, and it works pretty nicely.

Chronologically, it's Dawn of Sorrow -> Portrait of Ruin -> Order of Ecclesia.

[Neon Ignition]

Started Indika, having been told to avoid spoilers and so I did, and... umm, yeah. Not sure yet.
Also still working at Black Myth: Wukong, trying to get it done before Astro Bot releases and now somewhere into Chapter 5. Greatest monkey based saga since....?

[QualityChimp]

Finished Uncharted 2.
Still think it sits somewhere between platformer and shooter without satisfactorily doing either.
Can't believe how many times I shot people in the face, but they kept attacking.

However, there were some peak action-movie-game moments, especially that train section.

Bought Firewatch for about £2.29. My son has completed it, but I've only done the first few days. I love the shift of pace from jumping from exploding trains to mooching around the forest. I suspect more will happen later, but I love a good walking simulator.

Stuntman: Ignition. I had to turn off the stunt directions because every time you restart the level, you're counted in THREE TWO ONE! an it was driving the wife crackers, and reminding her of Craig David saying RE EE WIND.
However, I've blazed my way through all the films and all that remains is 5-starring the handful of Director's cut levels, which are crazy long levels.

[Golgo]

Been playing Powerslave Exhumed which I got in the Switch sale. Had an eye on it for a while. Really enjoying it. There are some frustrating and confusing elements, but I think this comes down to it being a first 'go' and what would become known as the 3D Metroidvania. It's weird, for example, how every level has multiple exits, but when you navigate back to any one you always go back to the main front door. Also strange is how level unlocks reset every time you go back, so you got to find the keys (runes) again. So, as a Metroidvania, it's slightly strange. Amazing to think Metroid Prime perfected the formula only five or so years later. Anyway, I'm really enjoying the cheesy Pharoanic-meets-Rambo setting and level design, some of which is brilliant and ingenious, and the pacing is good too. Combat is a bit hit-and-miss; or, to be exact, hit-and-hit. If you shoot in the general direction of something you will hit it - a system which feels like its been implemented to deal with the skittery pests and bugs that are everywhere. I'm glad it's like this, though. Performance on the Switch started OK but it's struggling with the later, more complex/textured levels. Had a few situations of terrible environmental and enemy pop-in - which given the utter lethality of enemies is not good. A level reset tends to put it right, though.

[Dogg Thang]

Been playing Powerslave Exhumed which I got in the Switch sale. Had an eye on it for a while. Really enjoying it.

One of my all-time favourite games. I adored it on Saturn back in the day and I loved this rerelease, which sort of mixes some of the Saturn and PS1 versions together.

[fuse]

Finished Dawn of Sorrow on the Dominus collection and did the bonus side mode I shan't name for reasons, which I enjoyed a lot. Made a brief start on Portrait of Ruin, and will get back and see that through soon.

Then realised that I'd accidentally played and completed the second season of Orwell before the first. Whoops. In my defence they're sold as entirely separate games, and the second game has a subtitle rather than a number, and makes no direct reference to it being a 'sequel' / second season. Grabbed the first though, and immediately it's like "HEY IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY THE SECOND ONE!". Ah well, it's made for some interesting broken narratives where I already know things I shouldn't do, and they both do enough differently to keep things fun.

[Golgo]

One of my all-time favourite games. I adored it on Saturn back in the day and I loved this rerelease, which sort of mixes some of the Saturn and PS1 versions together.

Did you play it on Switch, Dogg? If so, I'm curious if you noticed any performance issues (wondering if my Switch is on the way out - I don't see the issues I've had mentioned online).

[QualityChimp]

Been playing Powerslave Exhumed

Pretty sure this is a remastered album by Iron Maiden.

[Golgo]

Pretty sure this is a remastered album by Iron Maiden.

Title of game was 'inspired' by Maiden (you probably know this) but alas the involvement stopped there. 'Tis a pity. "Why haz I got to be a Powerslave? I don't want to die, I'm a god, why can't I live oooonnnn?!"

[QualityChimp]

Maiden actually did release a game with a greatest hits disc, BITD - ED Hunter.

However, I didn't know Powerslave was named after the Maiden album - everyday's a schoolday!
It was just Exhumed in the UK at release.

[Dogg Thang]

Did you play it on Switch, Dogg? If so, I'm curious if you noticed any performance issues (wondering if my Switch is on the way out - I don't see the issues I've had mentioned online).

Yes, I played through it on Switch. In all honesty, I don't remember any performance issues but that's not to say they didn't happen. If I did, they certainly weren't all that noticeable.

Yes, I think the reason it was Exhumed over here was to avoid any legal issues with Maiden.

[hudson]

King of Fighters XV (PS5): Tough game to master when compared to SF6. These games always seem to have tight and tough execution windows. Still I love playing fighting games and this is definitely one of SNK's finest so far.

Vampire Survivors (PS5): This game finally landed on PS last week and this will be my fourth dip

Tokyo Jungle (PS5 PSN Premium): I always knew this was a hidden gem, but been playing it again recently and I really wish they would remaster this game. It will never happen though. The game is addictive and has you slathering at the chops to become king of the concrete jungle. However, what usually happens is, you turn you next corner and see the green blip on the mini-map indicating food... you get there and FLOMP! Up you go little Pomeranian (that's me - as a massive crocodile eat me for dinner instead). Great game.

[QualityChimp]

Deffo need to get on Vampire Survivors at some point!

I finished Firewatch (PS4) last night and really enjoyed it.
The controls are a little clunky, but you're playing a park ranger, rather than a space marine in zero-g.
I fell through the map at one point, ha ha!

It's more about the story, though, and it's a lovely little tale of handling loss, so it's also a little sad.

It was just over £2 when I got it last week in the sale and it's well worth a couple nights of your game time.