What You've Been Playing This Week

[QualityChimp]

We finished off Strange Brigade last night in our weekly co-op session.
Final mission is a total ball-ache and really tough, but it's quite the spectacle with giant bosses and waves of enemies.

It's been good fun, actually and the horde mode is pretty decent too, although the heart is pounding by the end, which isn't ideal before bed.

Biggest criticism is the lack of progress on weapons. I thought World War Z was really good in the ability to upgrade your weapons and skill tree perks, but there's just a handful of weapons which all feel slightly underpowered.
Not sure if we'll play any more now it's done, but it's been a real blast and a different vibe to most other zombie blasters.

Then a bit more GTA Online and we're still having fun with the races. Did some stock car races, which brought much hilarity.
There's a catch-up mechanism (car in 1st has limited top speed) and drafting, which really penalise the car in front, but without it, a single mistake can cost you the race and we'd rather have a fun, close race.

Oh and I played a bit more The Last of Us, but it's not quite clicking yet. I seem to be strangling dozens of people because they're in my way. Not even met a zombie thing yet, but my kill count is in double figures.
I keep wanting to replay sections until I do them perfectly, but I really should just crack on with the game. Conflicted!

[phillv85]

I've just started Hades on the Switch and it is brilliant. Probably played about 6 hours so far and I am loving it.

[randombs]

Beavering away at Horizon. Just finished a really cool bit and figured I’m nearing the end of the game but it says my progress is 50%.

Wife clocked 100 hours on it, but I’ve played 45 so far.

It started dragging a bit, but then I realised that was just me doing random side quests. This week I’ve been concentrating on the main quests and it’s been quite the roller-coaster!

[importaku]

Both famicom detective club games unlocked om the switch last night as i had preordered them, had a quick go on one of them, love how every line is voiced they really are quality remakes. Going to have to sit down and dedicate time to playing but stardew valley is holding my gaming time hostage, just when i'm going to bed to save i end up playing another day to continue unlocking stuff or harvesting or checking tv to find out that its a super lucky day so i venture to the mines to take advantage it's addictive as hell.

[Neon Ignition]

Currently trying to work out which game on PC to focus on next now that Resi 8 is done. On Switch I've started working through Taiko Rhythm Adventure 2 now that Mario Odyssey is done. With that entry finished again (I still don't like the games structure even though it's more palatable if you ignore a fair bit of the games content) I'm up to:

SMO > SM64 > SM3DW > SMS

[importaku]

There was a new update for taiko RPG pack that let you use the tattacon in story mode which was pretty nice. No idea why they didn’t release it with it from the start but better late than never. This months regular taiko version online unlock song takara no oka is soooo good.

[importaku]

Today is subnautica below zero, all other games can wait. My goodness just as horrifying as the original, thankfully my survival training on the other planet paid dividends as i was quickly up and running with a large array of tools to get me started and a few markers to go out and explore but enterining a new biome each time fills me with dread as i have zero idea of what lives in there as i avoided all spoilers this time about what the new creatures look like. Already had something huge come out at me from above as i was exploring the bottom & scared the living **** out of me.

Runs really well on even a base PS4 it no longer does that pause for a few seconds thing as you break the surface for oxygen like the first game did and it doesn't seem to be struggling to load in the enviroment in but i have only attained the speed of using a seaglide it may still struggle and do the pop in thing as i find & craft faster means of transport as i nearly have all the fragments of the sea truck although i have no idea what it needs to actually build one.

so far it's just as exciting as the first game was, it was a long time coming but it's been worth the wait (so far)

[Cepp]

Finished FFX with my girlfriend. I found it quite frustrating in parts and im not a fan of some of the systems. I dont hate it, but im a little ambivalent I guess.

[QualityChimp]

Rainy Sunday afternoon and the kids were entertained elsewhere in the house, so I fired up Titanfall 2 on the One.
I've had it ages for less than a fiver, but never got around to it. I've moved the One to the lounge for streaming purposes, and prefer to game in the playroom with the projector!

Anyway, this is a brilliant game. It feels like a mish-mash of lots of other games like Halo 4 (crash land on planet, scavenge the crashes ship) and Shogo MAD (climb in and out of mechs), but I'm having a blast.

There are so many weapons and I'm trying them all out. They seem a little samey, if I'm honest, but they're all handy in a firefight.
Just done the section where you leave your mech and have to rendezvous the other side of a facility after holding off waves of enemies.

It's set to normal difficulty and the enemies seem a little stupid, but that's fine because I wanted an adventure where I feel like a badass mech pilot, not some punishing Souls experience.

Other bits included a dip into the GTA racing against online peasants and did pretty well!

[randombs]

Finished Horizon a few days ago.

It was spectacular.

I straight jumped back in and started the Frozen Wilds DLC but stopped after a few minutes. I realised I'd rather have a break and play something different for the time being.

[samanosuke]

Finished FFX with my girlfriend. I found it quite frustrating in parts and im not a fan of some of the systems. I dont hate it, but im a little ambivalent I guess.

I literally just finished it too, on Switch no less. I rather enjoyed it and didn’t mind its linearity at all. I quite liked the sphere system and customising aeons was fun. The grinding - oh the grinding - that was its Achilles heel for me.

Still playing Clannad but it’s not grabbing me like the other VNs I played recently such as Worldend Syndrome and Steins Gate. The pacing seems too slow with too much superfluous dialogue with the likes of Sunohara and Ryou. I’ve finished my first run and got no ending whatsoever; unsurprising as the story didn’t really go anywhere.

Going through another run now to see how things improve but so far I can’t see what the fuss is about.

[Cepp]

I literally just finished it too, on Switch no less. I rather enjoyed it and didn’t mind its linearity at all. I quite liked the sphere system and customising aeons was fun. The grinding - oh the grinding - that was its Achilles heel for me.

Still playing Clannad but it’s not grabbing me like the other VNs I played recently such as Worldend Syndrome and Steins Gate. The pacing seems too slow with too much superfluous dialogue with the likes of Sunohara and Ryou. I’ve finished my first run and got no ending whatsoever; unsurprising as the story didn’t really go anywhere.

Going through another run now to see how things improve but so far I can’t see what the fuss is about.

The grinding was what killed my first attempt at the game a decade ago.

I got used to the sphere system and came to enjoy it, especially once some of the better abilities like Double Cast were learned. Wasn't a fan of the equipment system despite having some decent gear by the end of it though and I despised the temples which were boring time wasters.

The battle system was fun and a nice change from just pressing X every turn. I always like it when games make status spells and debuffs useful.

[randombs]

I gave Dirt 5 on my Series S another go this evening and I’ve decided I just don’t like it. It’s the only X|S game I’ve bought so far, and I’ve given it enough chances but it’s… soulless.

It’s all pink and orange and fireworks and EDM, but with none of the playfulness of Forza Horizon 4.

I award it an uninstallerific 1/7

Moving swiftly on, I noticed FIFA 21 X|S is on Game Pass.

It’s wonderful. No silly setup nonsense, just straight into matches with no kerfuffle(although I’m pretty sure that’s because it used my save data from FIFA 20).

7 Bolton Wanderers out of 7

While FIFA was downloading, I fired up Halo CE Anniversary. This year I’ll be playing it on normal difficulty.

[importaku]

About 55 hours into stardew valley it's addictive as ever finally completed the community center and also gotten to the bottom of the mines along with finally starting to look after animals and plant proper crops, not really interacted with many people in the town as i want to do a few years of getting leveled up and amassed a large pile of materials. Kind of hit a roadblock now as i need indium ore but i'm too weak to get very far in the skull caves to get it so it's slow going. Managed to get enough to repair the boat but getting to the island uses up a load of time so i don't have long to explore before you have to go home but it's a lot of fun. So many super expensive mysterious items to buy including the warp towers from the wizard.

Also been playing the missing heir version of famicom detective club it's really good, both the high quality voice acting and the great remixed soundtrack make it really atmospheric, Makes me want a gyakuten saiban game done in this style as i love how fluid the characters animate when you talk to them.

[cutmymilk]

So many super expensive mysterious items to buy including the warp towers from the wizard.

What the hell! I had no idea Stardew was like that. I thought it was straight up farrrrrrming.