What Has Everyone Been Playing This Week? 4

[Atticus]

I spent an hour with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night today. First impressions are very good

[randombs]

Sonic 4 Episode 1

The casino level is gorgeous, but you know about the dodgy physics. I gave up and decided to try Episode 2 for the first time...

Sonic 4 Episode 2

Night and day.

What a beautiful game. And the music is great, too. The game is so good, it makes me wish they had gone back and fixed Episode 1's physics. Luckily there's no story to risk missing out on so as far as I'm concerned, this game is Sonic 4.

[Neon Ignition]

Oooooohhhhhh Myyyyyyyyy Goooooooooooooooooood

Far Cry: New Dawn was exactly as I expected, such a boring and lazy retread of Far Cry 5. I feel like Ubisoft have been remaking the same game again and again since the third one. Utterly worn out so done with that. I'm currently taking a pass at Fahrenheit: Remastered but I'm unsure if I have the interest to experience it again, such is the way with David Cage games. Might be best just to stick with Destiny 2 for a bit longer.

[Dogg Thang]

Completed Cadence of Hyrule a few days ago (it's lovely!) but also played through What Remains Of Edith Finch on the Switch. I love that game so much. It's full of heart, really charming and also sad pretty much all the way through but not in a way that is really milked - I mean, it's not going for unfair or cheap feels. It's a lovely game. I was surprised that it runs pretty well on the Switch and looks nice.

[fallenangle]

Pretty much certain I'm going to give up on XB360 Bayonetta. Can't get much joy from it at all. I thought at one point it was going to click with me but that was short lived when I got stuck on a boss, decided to end the session and retry later and found that the auto-save checkpoint was not, as I assumed, just before the fight but four areas prior to that. It temporarily saves a checkpoint there but once the session is end it gets deleted.

That sort of stupid, unavoidable save system has always been a source of anger for me and in an episodic game like this totally unnecessary.

[dataDave]

Pretty much certain I'm going to give up on XB360 Bayonetta. Can't get much joy from it at all. I thought at one point it was going to click with me but that was short lived when I got stuck on a boss, decided to end the session and retry later and found that the auto-save checkpoint was not, as I assumed, just before the fight but four areas prior to that. It temporarily saves a checkpoint there but once the session is end it gets deleted.

That sort of stupid, unavoidable save system has always been a source of anger for me and in an episodic game like this totally unnecessary.

Which boss is it? That sounds excessive to the point where something could have gone wrong. The save system kicks in between verses, so you are (eventually) expected to complete this section in the one sitting.

Any more leniency with that and it would be too easy to exploit the trophy cabinet and fill it full of Pure Platinum awards. If you ever get to the point where you're score-attacking the game the auto-save is actually a huge detriment, and WILL spoil a Pure Platinum run of an entire chapter. Eventually you have to master each of the verses and then string them all together in a proper run, as you would with any good shmup.

[fallenangle]

I'm just not really enjoying the gameplay. It feels like I'm just button bashing, spamming the same more powerful moves and dodging (which seems to be the key technique) and that's when I can see where Bayonetta is amongst the confusing, often multi-enemy encounters. By the time you've re-orientated the camera she's taken serious hits and you just know there's going to be slog getting through that area without restarting.

The boss I was having difficulty on was the dragon in the church until I found a place where all you had to do was dodge the occasional fireball and just keep on shooting because it could not get her. The space was so cramped you could barely see where Bayonetta was standing.

The point I gave up in the first session was the second part of the fight when I'd gone through all that and then, before I could add some health, the other dragon head killed her.

When you end the session and restart from the last automatically saved checkpoint you're sent right back to redo the other witch fight, then three more town areas with sub-bosses and multiple enemies and the bridge 'puzzle' before you can even attempt the dragon fight again.

I have finished that now complete with its annoyingly unexpected, if very simple QTE finish. The game designer obvious knew it would it would be hateful to have to redo the dragon if you messed up the QTE as there was a temporary checkpoint there but I had the feeling they were think about doing that.

I had the same issues with the original DMC too - I just did not get on with the fundamental gameplay, hated the camera and the frustration I felt outweighed any satisfaction received from complete an area. This type of game is just not my cup of tea, I guess.

[dataDave]

When you end the session and restart from the last automatically saved checkpoint you're sent right back to redo the other witch fight, then three more town areas with sub-bosses and multiple enemies and the bridge 'puzzle' before you can even attempt the dragon fight again.

There's something not right with that, unless they 'fixed' it for the PC version. It's been years since I struggled with that part on the 360. Even so, it's not much retread. 2mins?

My advice to avoid button bashing is to not press any attack buttons. At all. When facing a boss or any new enemies simply concentrate on Evade. Directional Inputs plus Evade are the only buttons you should be pressing. Learn the visual cues which signpost an incoming attack. After you're not taking hits only then do you want to worry about windmilling in. On Hard mode you'll have to Evade off of audio cue which is much more 'second nature'. I actually find Hard easier than Normal due to that.

Later on you unlock the opportunity to purchase an accessory that grants you a Third Strike style parry. It costs 200k Halos so make sure you have enough ready for that. The timing is super-lax, you can literally just spam tap the direction towards the incoming attacks and it will parry each and every time. You can even parry sweeping lasers with it that way.

As for the camera any enemies that are off-camera simply will not attack. You can use that to your advantage afterwards when things get crowded.

Anyway, you're on your first proper boss fight now. Good luck.

[Neon Ignition]

Do you know what I've had a bit of a hankering for? Metal Gear Solid 4
I think mostly because it's one of the very few games to remain landlocked to the PS3. I could PSNow it but committing to getting it done within the free trial...

[Atticus]

I put another couple of hours into Bloodstained: RotN last night and the castle is opening up nicely. I can't help but have a bizarre kickstarter prejudice where I'm waiting for the game to expose itself as something cheap and cobbled together but it's not happening. This is a genuinely well crafted game that does great justice to SotN, one of the best games ever made. Amazing achievement.

[hudson]

Sky Force Anniversary - PS4
Woah addictive, chilled, grindy and gorgeous shmup.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I've fired up my emulators again this week. I haven't really settled on a game yet, but I've enjoyed some Jeanne Darc (psp). It's a bit like disgaea and FF Tactics. The story is silly but the combat is nice.
I also have a hankering to play right through Sonic 3 & Knuckles. I've completed sonic 3 and I've completed sonic and Knuckles but I never owned both carts at the same time back in the day. Plus I can make regular saves with the emulator so I can dip in and out.

[Neon Ignition]

It's been too warm to really play anything this week so this weekend I'm looking to:

Yooka Laylee - Pick this up from where I left off, early in World 4 so a concerted effort should see it wrap up soon enough
Judgment - I have a chance to give this a run through, I've only done the opening and it was a little disappointingly over-Yakuzafied. I'm hoping it quickly finds its own feet as first impressions give no real indicator as to why they bothered with a rebrand.

[_SD_]

PS4 Pro Samurai Shodown

[Jaz]

I've fired up my emulators again this week. I haven't really settled on a game yet, but I've enjoyed some Jeanne Darc (psp). It's a bit like disgaea and FF Tactics. The story is silly but the combat is nice.
I also have a hankering to play right through Sonic 3 & Knuckles. I've completed sonic 3 and I've completed sonic and Knuckles but I never owned both carts at the same time back in the day. Plus I can make regular saves with the emulator so I can dip in and out.

Jeanne De Arc is amazing. I played it and finished it a few times on my Ps3 using custom firmware. Great game.