What You've Been Playing This Week

[QualityChimp]

I played a bit more Call of Duty: WWII and then finished the campaign.
I'll echo my earlier sentiments that I'm never really 100% comfortable with real wars used for entertainment purposes.
The final section of the game takes place in a prison camp and they'd taken steps to be a bit delicate with the subject, like you can't shoot anything and it's being photographed to catalogue the events that transpired there.
However, because they've conditioned the player to look for hidden trinkets, I was a bit shocked when I thought I saw a collectible.
It was actually just a dog bowl reflecting light, so I'm relieved they weren't that tacky, but it shows how they train you to look for them.

I still played through it and really enjoyed it. Some bits were more interesting than others, but it was a decent story of how America single-handedly won WWII...
Some of the stealth missions ended up being the most fun and I replayed those until I did them without being detected. Pretty telling that I was in the 0.9% of people to get one of the stealth achievements!

It was free with Games Pass a few years back so, if you forgot about it like I did, it's available if you fancy some cinematic war action.

[Anpanman]

Finished EDF5 on Hard so I'm enjoying playing my favourite levels on Hardest to get myself up to speed to take on Inferno.

Interesting this time in that since I don't have to complete the game I'm actually learning new strategies and weapons combinations to tackle some of the levels which freshens things up a bit.
I'm also using Google Translate on the phone to decipher the Japanese too, so every day's a school day.

PS2 era graphics aside, I still maintain that level 75 is one of the most immersive levels I've ever played on anything.

[QualityChimp]

Started playing Superliminal (PS4) and really like it.
Basically, you're in a dream and your perspective is all messed up.
Pick up a chess piece and hold it in front of your face and it looks big, then let go and it's big. Likewise, put something big in the distance, then pick it up and it's tiny.



It's fun and freaky, with Portal or Statik vibes with the monotone narration and passageways you're not supposed to be in.
However, it feels a little shallow with some pretty basic puzzles at the moment.
I was using the perspective trick to climb to the roof on giant soda cans, but was disappointed there was nothing up there for explorers.
My son played it and loved it and then got the achievement for completing it in under 30 minutes!

[Golgo]

Resi 4 Remake on PS5. Still plugging on that when I can be arsed. Bit too end-of-year tired to try anything else but it's good, better than the original. Merchant is brilliant. Been monitoring my level rankings, bearing in mind I enjoy exploring these games, and couldn't quite understand how people get S-Rank. So I had a Youtube shufty after finishing lvl 13 and worked out it basically involves running and shimmying through avoiding enemies as fast as you can. Which is dishonourable and off-mission. Shame on them. S-Rank stands for Shame-Rank.

[QualityChimp]

Okay, I completed Superliminal (PS4) and really enjoyed it.

In my previous post, I moaned there didn't appear to be any Easter eggs or reason to explore, but basically my son had done it all and found al the blueprints already.
I did some mooching and found some secret areas, which was fun.

Not a massively difficult game, but definitely worth a play if you like stuff that plays about with logic, with loads of crazy things happening.
One minute you'll interact with something and it won't do what you expect, next you'll think that same new rule will apply and it'll do something different.
I'm being vague to avoid spoilers.

I wouldn't pay the full £17 RRP, but if you see it in a sale for under a tenner, it's worth a play through, for sure,

[fuse]

Got a lot on the go currently.

The 25th Ward: The Silver Case. Played TSC aaaages ago but the pause between that and this meant I left it for a later date. So far I like it; it being fully remade as well means you get a nice Killer7-esque navigation system too. It's obviously for weirdos who like the Suda51 house style and don't mind text-heavy adventures, but so far it's moving at a decent pace. I uh, have maybe got a little distracted from it however.

Murders on the Yangtze River is a Chinese-developed take on Phoenix Wright, which is definitely rough around the edges, but quite enjoyable. The rough edges are mostly to do with the localisation, which for the most part is passable in written format, but when we suddenly start meeting characters who speak English things go a bit more off the rails. On the plus side it's definitely a bit quicker-moving, which after the recent Edgeworth repackaging, is notable.

Getting stuck into Fantasian -Neo Dimension- too. I should probably do a proper first play for this one. In short it's another Mistwalker game that in another universe would've been a Final Fantasy one, and I like it.

Also the Pokémon TCG Pocket mobile game. I'm not really engaging much with the online battling side of things, mainly as I managed about ten games at the start of it before 9 out of the next 10 matches were against folks all using the same deck as is instructed by THE META. Maybe this gets better over time as more cards are released? Anyway, fun little thing to open up on the phone a couple of times every day and to coo at nice cards and share progress with pals.

[QualityChimp]

Yeah, so I started Skyrim (PS4) last night.

Not got very far (still in the opening bear cave section).

I read a brilliant LitRPG book called "Awaken Online: Catharsis" and the lead character plays an online VR game and ends up becoming a necromancer almost by accident and he ends up sacking a whole town because every time he killed someone, they joined his undead army. Well worth a read/listen, but it made me laugh when I saw someone doing something similar in Skyrim:

[hudson]

Path of Exile 2 (PS5 Pro) - I'm loving this. Reminds me of old skool ARPGs. Going to team up with friends over xmas to play this in co-op.

[QualityChimp]

Played a bit more Skyrim. First cave with the bear - NPC ducks down and shows you how to go into sneak mode. Hit him with a dagger and his health barely drops (and regens), but it levels up your stealth at a ridiculous speed. Left the cave at 100 max stealth.


Just remembering the bits I did in VR Skyrim. Found the friendly old lady's house, looked in her basement to discover she's a witch and killed her and her house is mine now.
It's one of the few "free" places where you can store stuff without it disappearing.

VR bow and arrow is like a machine gun, so this is frustratingly sluggish in comparison

[wakka]

Wait, you've never played Skyrim before? That surprises me.

It's one of the few "free" places where you can store stuff without it disappearing.

Later you get to build your own house and you can store stuff in it. Not sure when the option becomes available but it was one of the expansion packs, back in the day, titled Hearthfire.

[fishbowlhead]

SpiderMan2, finally started this properly now, I'm playing on Pro but HOLY CRAP the graphical upgrade over the normal PS5 is massive, settings on Fidelity pro with 120htz on and all settings at high, chefs kiss.

[fishbowlhead]

double post, sigh, "its working" on it though

[dataDave]

Tetris. The ModRetro one.

[Finsbury Girl]

still plugging away on Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon - just discovered that you cannot move the right stick once you've engaged hard lock (I'm up to chapter 4) Holy F**K this is a game changer.

[Dogg Thang]

Tetris. The ModRetro one.

How is it? How does the machine feel?