What You've Been Playing This Week

[Cepp]

Blitzing through the side content in Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise. Located all of the arcade machines and a Sega Mark III with Hokuto No Ken, so spent a bit of time playing emulated Fist of the North Star from within Fist of the North Star. Got my arse handed to me by Shin.

I was going to skip 100%ing the mini games but they keep pulling me back in. I love the baseball one in particular and that it seems like getting a critical hit on ever enemy will sign out the big dipper in the sky. I'm assuming you get more points if you manage it or maybe a prize / PSN trophy.

[Stakers]

PS5: Played the Outriders demo last night, its a 3 player co-op 'looter shooter', we played across PS4, PS5 and Series X and had a really good time. I don't normally go goo goo over frame rates but this was ridiculously silky smooth. No issues with the PS4 player's experience either. Demo is generous, there's a 30 minute prologue before you can play multiplayer. You pick from 4 classes and its time unlimited.

Switch: After watching the Mario Tennis Aces North American tournament at the weekend I'm back on this. Such a quality tennis game with a really deep meta and fighting game mechanics. Its a shame once you get into the A class online there's only a handful of active players, other issue is that the skill gap is huge so its destroy or get destroyed which probably hurts getting a regular friend to play against.

[fuse]

Just to add to above recommendations, Gorogoa is very good indeed. As noted, it's so beautifully hands off in how it lets you just tinker away and peel back layers of things, allowing you to come to your own revelations and all at your own pace.

Generally speaking, Annapurna is one of my favourite modern publishers; lots of experimental titles stuffed with ideas and meaningful moments. The more I think on it, Kentucky Route 0 was my favourite game of last year, and is up there as one of my favourites of all time. I appreciate that Annapurna weren't even around when it began, but if you're going to start a studio and then hitch your wagon to a title like, that that tells me plenty.

[QualityChimp]

I found a 2Tb external HDD, so it's given me a bit of elbow room with downloads, rather than having to decide what stays and what goes as I quite like having the PSVR stuff on hand to dip into.

Downloaded a bunch of stuff I've been meaning to play, starting with Lifeless Planet and it's a lovely little exploratory platformer.
You play an astronaut who's landed on a desolate planet that you hope to terraform, but as you start looking for the supply pods, you notice some signs of life...

It's a pretty simple adventure and I hoped to finish it in one night (hence the late night [MENTION=9333]kryss[/MENTION]!), but I think I have a little bit more to do. I'll probably delete it once it's done (although might see if my son takes to it), but it's been lovely to play something fairly compact, rather than lurch from one epic timesink to another!

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[Neon Ignition]

PC
Nothing at the moment, most likely eyeballing Immortals: Fenyx Rising next

PlayStation 5
Close to wrapping up Mini Motor Racing X and I think then it will finally be time to indulge in Astro Bot: Rescue Mission

Switch
I'm on Champions Road and Mystery Mission Marathon on Super Mario 3D World so likely done this weekend.

HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER!!

PlayStation 3
Back in the mix, I tried playing Lollipop Chainsaw for a replay but by god is it atrocious. Working through Sonic Unleashed now which isn't a long game but it's also more ropey than I remember.

[importaku]

After finishing ghosts n goblins resurrection decided to have a look through the playstation store to see if i could find any more interesting puzzle games. Found one called Maquette it has the exact same mechanic as a fisherman's tale where you are in a recursive enviroment where you are in front of the model in the centre but also inside it at the same time. Using that mechanic to get through is a lot of fun changing the size of things plus the environments are beautiful. They have that same warm look and feel to walking around that island in the witness.

I spent a good portion at the beginning just slowly walking around and taking in the graphics i love stuff like this, i still go back to the witness just to walk around the island and enjoy the ambience. Solved the first few puzzles so far not sure if it's going to get mindbendingly tricky but so far it's very logical despite the oddness of the space warping mechanic.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Went back to New Tokyo Legacy: Operation Abyss on the Vita after getting about 30 hours in and giving up. Before the difficulty just frustrated me, but after levelling up a bit and changing my gameplay style, it's suddenly clicked with me and I'm enjoying it a lot more. About half a dozen or so missions from the end now and I'm still exploring the weapon crafting and upgrade system, which is much more complex than any of the other Experience Inc crawlers and it's still a bit trial and error at the minute, but I'm getting there.

[nonny]

PS5: Played the Outriders demo last night, its a 3 player co-op 'looter shooter', we played across PS4, PS5 and Series X and had a really good time. I don't normally go goo goo over frame rates but this was ridiculously silky smooth. No issues with the PS4 player's experience either. Demo is generous, there's a 30 minute prologue before you can play multiplayer. You pick from 4 classes and its time unlimited.

Switch: After watching the Mario Tennis Aces North American tournament at the weekend I'm back on this. Such a quality tennis game with a really deep meta and fighting game mechanics. Its a shame once you get into the A class online there's only a handful of active players, other issue is that the skill gap is huge so its destroy or get destroyed which probably hurts getting a regular friend to play against.

Same here with Outriders. Thought it was decent and plenty of meat in the demo but I dunno, I don't think I could bring myself to stump up real money for it... I'm curious to see how it pans out in the final version and what the end game / abilities look like.

I've got a feeling it's one of those games that'll be on sale 50% off in less than 3 months...

[Stakers]

After finishing ghosts n goblins resurrection decided to have a look through the playstation store to see if i could find any more interesting puzzle games. Found one called Maquette it has the exact same mechanic as a fisherman's tale where you are in a recursive enviroment where you are in front of the model in the centre but also inside it at the same time. Using that mechanic to get through is a lot of fun changing the size of things plus the environments are beautiful. They have that same warm look and feel to walking around that island in the witness.

I spent a good portion at the beginning just slowly walking around and taking in the graphics i love stuff like this, i still go back to the witness just to walk around the island and enjoy the ambience. Solved the first few puzzles so far not sure if it's going to get mindbendingly tricky but so far it's very logical despite the oddness of the space warping mechanic.

I believe this is free with PS+ in March, looking forward to trying it along with FFVII remake.

[Blobcat]

A good friend of ours online wanted to try playing Apex Legends recently and we have been playing quite alot of it, even won a game which was fantastic for all involved this week. Really like the trio system which is perfect for us.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I've been sucked back into Stardew Valley again. I needed a change of pace after Control.
Ive downloaded Ratchet and Clank too.

[QualityChimp]

I'm still farming GTA Online, despite things winding up with my IRL mates.

Played some more Lifeless Planet and I nearly threw the pad a few times and almost quit, it has these difficulty spikes.

Then got dragged onto EDF5 for the first time in ages. Hot damn, I love that game.

[Atticus]

CoD sessions still dominate the social gaming but I've also been enjoying some other gems ...

Gorogoa is such a brilliant and satisfying puzzle game. I did get stuck on something again though to decided to take a little break and buy ...

Ghosts n Goblins Resurrection. I always liked but was never any good at (or patient enough) this series. This new one does a few things that make it better for me: fairer checkpoints. Nowt worse than having to trawl through loads again to be smashed by a boss again. Also, difficult options. I'm playing on Squire and it feels about right for me. There's still challenge but I feel progress and momentum. I may still never see the end but it's a great game that;'s full of charm.

Playing this put me in mind of SoR4 so I had a sesh on that too. Love this game so much. It's got nostalgia and style all over and plays so so well. Love everything about it. I even watch the cinematics every time. Soundtrack is perfection too.

Lastly, more Capcom action with Resident Evil 3 Remake. After finishing the first time I decided to invest the points I'd earned in the infinite ammo handgun. It's puny and un-upgradable but so handy in clearing early areas of popcornbies so full and thorough harvesting of all goodies and progress without interruption. Lovely. This game is made to be played over and over.

[QualityChimp]

Playing this put me in mind of SoR4 so I had a sash on that too. Love this game so much. It's got nostalgia and style all over and plays so so well. Love everything about it. I even watch the cinematic every time. Soundtrack is perfection too.

Yeah, I've missed not having it after my Live sub expired.

It's on my PS4 wish list!

[Atticus]

Yeah, I've missed not having it after my Live sub expired.

It's on my PS4 wish list!

Yeah, even when I got gamepass I kept hold of my Switch copy ... it’s definitely a keeper.