What Has Everyone Been Playing This Week? 4

[JazzFunk]

Now playing The Bridge. Forgot about this game. Bought it years back in a sale on the 360 for like £1.99 or summat in a sale back in the day, recently rebought the Xbone version for like £1.99 or summat about two weeks back.

It's like a cryptic crossword. And I'm in the mood for it. It has such a beguiling, retro style to it, a look n' feel that brings to mind Groucho Marx and Sigmund Freud and M.C. Escher and I'm sure loads more. Sonics amazing as well. Grandiose and bleak. Can't complain at Mastertronic prices tbh.

Will try and have patience and persist. It seems to be an admirable enterprise.

[Cepp]

Finished Valkyria Chronicles; the story gets too anime at the end.

->Open Spoiler<-

There's no reason for Faldio to sacrifice himself, the villain was defeated, he literally died for nothing. He didn't need to redeem himself either, shooting Alicia to awaken her powers was the only correct choice.

Utterly stupid.

[wakka]

Come on man, spoiler tags.

[Cepp]

Fine, spoilers added.

[wakka]

I recently finished Wolfenstein 2. I loved it!

I've always been a fan of the old school Id shooters, and it's been tremendous to see them brought back, bang up to date, over the last few years with Doom 2016 and Wolfenstein The New Order. This new entry for me probably sits between those two games in terms of quality. I found it more interesting, varied ride than The New Order, which could be a bit gloomy at times, but it doesn't quite hit the quality bar Doom set (for me, that one's practically up there with Outrun 2 as an ideal modern update of a classic).

The Wolfenstein play style isn't quite as balls to the wall aggressive as Doom - there's a bit more use of cover in gunfights, rather than running in and literally ripping people's faces off - but it's also very, very fast paced. Machine Games clearly understand that, and it's hell of a lot of fun to play.

I did read some complaints that the game was too hard on default difficulty, but I found it fine (and I'm pretty rubbish at games, so I'm generally a good benchmark!). There are two difficulty spikes though, one at the midway point and one at the end, and when it does get really hard, you do sometimes find yourself taking advantage of poor AI to win. Let's just say I'm no stranger to hiding in a doorway that a horde of Nazi soldiers are too scared to cross into, for some unexplained reason. That's a bit of a shame and it'd be nice to see them smooth off those rough edges for the next game.

I must make a special mention of the story, dialogue, and characters. They're terrific. I really need that in games these days to keep me motivated, and Wolf 2 delivers. The new characters added in this entry are distinct, interesting, and a lot of fun - and the story is just the right level of pulp nuttiness. They really nailed this aspect.

Other stuff - I played Metro Exodus for 90 minutes last night after receiving it from Game Pass (actually, the above was from Game Pass too).

I had absolutely no idea what the bloody hell was going on and it turns out that this game directly continues the story of the last two, which I didn't realise. It also contains a massive twist in the first 20 minutes that's probably really exciting if you've played those two, but leaves you nonplussed if you haven't.

So that's a shame. I won't be going back to it until if and when I've played through 2033 and Last Light. They're both on Game Pass, I think, and not too long so it doesn't seem unmanageable.

[Atticus]

More Cadence of Hyrule. For a game labelled short in play-through length I think I'm going at a snail's pace ... happily chipping away and opening up the map with every session.

[Neon Ignition]

At the moment it looks like this weekend will be:

Destiny 2
The First Tree

[Cepp]

Started Way of the Samurai 4. It's clunky but seems like the kind of game that's right up my street.

[Dogg Thang]

I finished Link Between Worlds again last night. It’s a good game.

[QualityChimp]

We've got visitors this weekend so the games room transforms into a guest room, so nothing for me, but I'm in that limbo between games where I simultaneously want to play/watch/read everything!

Heh, I might subject our guests to VR before I pack it away!

[dataDave]

Yakuza 0. My first time playing, so went with hard mode. The first night was insane - got to the first boss with only one piece of food left. Spent forever wondering why he was so tough before remembering I'd yet to spend a single yen on ability points!! Did some upgrading to make him cake.

Streaming it daily at 9pm GMT - http://twitch.tv/fallows

[Nu-Eclipse]

Not much going on game-wise but I have been playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

I'm not necessarily a fan of its beat-em-up mechanics but I think the fanservice is brilliant. Have unlocked all of the characters and might just make a start on World of Light.

[JazzFunk]

Saint's Row 4: Gat out of Hell on unexpanded XB1. Still looks niiiiiiice. Just walking around the open world, taking in the feelz. Glorious. One for the Smile thread.

[Cepp]

Way of the Samurai 4 is... an interesting game. I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with it yet. It's very strange, almost feels like one of those budget Simple 2000 games from the PS2 era.

[Finsbury Girl]

I've been playing The Surge - it was a freebie with PS+ and it's actually quite good. For a souls clone it does a pretty good job having its own unique stuff. Combat is interesting and I'm digging the story & settings thus far. I'm up to the second boss and he is kicking my arse!