What You've Been Playing This Week

[hudson]

Pretty sure Todd Howard referred to bugs as 'Bethesda charm' in the official reveal trailer

[wakka]

Hahahaha you have to admire the gall.

[Atticus]

More Silent Hill 2. It's no great revelation the game is unpleasant ... the light and shade ratio more one-sided than most ... but as it goes on it starts to feel like a punishing slog. It's a survival horror game, this is what I signed up for, but from what I gather the original PS2 game is around 10-12 hours in length and this remake is double that. That means there's padded gameplay sections with roughly the same amount of story ... and story is the best thing about the game. The puzzles are fun, and I'm happy to power through a few monsters, but the latter levels in the prison and labyrinth feel long and bloated. I just want to get it done now, get the story boxed off and complete. Then get back to the cheery colours of Astro Bot

[Dogg Thang]

More Silent Hill 2. It's no great revelation the game is unpleasant ... the light and shade ratio more one-sided than most ... but as it goes on it starts to feel like a punishing slog. It's a survival horror game, this is what I signed up for, but from what I gather the original PS2 game is around 10-12 hours in length and this remake is double that. That means there's padded gameplay sections with roughly the same amount of story ... and story is the best thing about the game. The puzzles are fun, and I'm happy to power through a few monsters, but the latter levels in the prison and labyrinth feel long and bloated. I just want to get it done now, get the story boxed off and complete. Then get back to the cheery colours of Astro Bot

Yeah, I didn't finish it.

It's really good. Such a great remake in so many ways. It retains the spirit of the original, feeling very true to the soul, while adding improvements and some new surprises along the way. But yes, padded for sure. And more than that for me, and this should be a positive, I find it more tense than the original and I realised that I wasn't actually enjoying playing it. It was hard work. So I stopped. And yet I do think it's a great remake.

[Neon Ignition]

This week:

PC - Avowed
I'm barely past the character creator, it's next up though as Game Pass has been building quite a backlog for me. South of Midnight is done and it really was an enjoyable title, really good for breaking up how many RPG style releases there's been but 100% the weakest aspect is how you essentially do the same enclosed fight again and again throughout the whole game.

PS5 - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Still early in this too, a few more missions in but the second island is still locked. It's been a long time since I played this one but people be damned, it's good but it's still the weakest of the three entries thanks to its feather light steering and largely flat city layout.

Ally X - Saturn
Focusing on a couple of old arcade titles just to break up some of the lengthier stuff this months time has gone into

Additional - Until Dawn and Split Fiction
Now into Chapter 2 on Until Dawn's remake, the missus never plays games so we're slow progressing in this. The jump scares get her every time though. My eldest is working through Split Fiction with me, we're in Chapter 4 now so close to halfway. It's good but Chapter 3 had several low points.

[hudson]

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves (PS5) - Probably my fave SNK fighting game. The game is unapologetically old skool, but at the same time is mechanically rich. Takes some time to adjust and understand, but it's lots of fun. Enjoying being able to link EX (REV ACCEL) moves into Super.

Street Fighter 6 (PS5/Steam) - I close approaching 1,500 hours on this. Not bad for a full-time working father of 3, right? *Social Services knock.

Balatro (All formats) - I'm playing a few runs each day.

Expedition 33 (Xbox Series S) - Good game, but probably going to drop it for now.

Retro - Playing pinball games on my Miyoo Mini+. Great times!

[Atticus]

I powered on and finished Silent Hill 2 last night. Turns out I was at the end of the endless, penultimate bit and on the cusp of a rather more enjoyable (enjoyable? not really) end chapter. It's a game about getting answers and truth. You have to go through hell to get them and when you do it's only bleak. A gruelling, miserable game, but also an effective horror experience with a bold story. Will I play it again? No. Even with the NG+ chainsaw? No. In the words of Captain Sensible, I'm glad it's all over.