What You've Been Playing This Week

[JazzFunk]

Installing!!!!!!!!!!

[Atticus]

playing a Metroidvania as a non-humanoid blob puts me right off.

I'm the same. I have it sat on my Switch, purchased many sales ago, but I struggle to warm to it.

[JazzFunk]

That's the prob with games these days, too many good ones to get through! If it was 1995 and it was the SNES...then we'd ALL be playing it!!!

You know what? This could be that one, final bit of impetus to get me to play this game. I'm gonna try and push myself.

Surely, all them good reviews can't be total bollocks, it has so many of them?!?!!!

[cutmymilk]

I couldn't warm to it either. I hate the aesthetic and the soundtrack. There is a lack of hand holding that will get critics excited but personally I just found it frustrating. I'm clearly in the minority though.

[fuse]

See, the soundtrack is one aspect that I think is fantastic - it's very minimal and sombre, and it fits the world neatly. Comparatively, I think some of the characters (and their bizarrely loud sound effects) have got a somewhat silly, comic aspect to them which breaks that atmosphere.

I'm less enamoured with the bosses though, which are so variable in their quality and difficulty. Some of the arenas are claustrophobic and the fights give you no breathing room whatsoever, whereas others you get great big windows to heal, and you can just tank your way through all of their attacks. It feels like they've got a bunch of good ideas for a given number of encounters and instead have spread them super-thin among twice that number.

[JazzFunk]

It just looks....all a bit depressing and gloomy, to me. Thing with SOTN was it had lots of colour and vividness to it, despite many of the locations being quite sombre places.

This just looks...ALL gloom. I hope I can get past the aesthetic and make it 'click'.

Anyway, I was on NES ROMs for about eight hours yesterday, I'm gonna give this a little play tonight. Gotta be done!

[Family Fry]

Hollow Knight. We don't seem to have a first play, which makes me think we must've lost a thread in the great purge? Because it feels like a game that lots of people here would like. There's some things I like, but in others I feel it's been a little overhyped as *the* indie metroidvania to end them all.

I’ll quote myself from 2018.

Managed to put 40 hours into Hollow Knight these past few weeks, all I can say is if you love a good metroidvania this is, probably, the best one I have played since Metroid/SOTN, there’s SO much to do it’s insane. The world and the characters have really got me interested and it’s a game that keeps giving.

I’ve really enjoyed playing it, t’s been a while since a game got me hooked completely, can’t believe it took me this long to play after buying.

For me a major hook was the actual characters, seeing where they were going and the choices that were made, still haven’t fully finished it as I got stuck on a boss that’s optional but I KNOW I can do it.

[JazzFunk]

Now THAT's what I'm wanting to hear! I like loving games, I want to try and get into this and start the lovage again.

[JazzFunk]

Got work in morn but gonna give it at least an hour, in a few mins. Also re-DLed HORIZON CHASE TURBO, forgot about it!

[JazzFunk]

Just put about ten minutes in, am really liking it this time around, plus the control is superb.

Does help that I calibrated my XB1's TV settings about six months back, the difference in look is staggering, I can SEE things now...and it looks really quite nice.

Not feeling that prejudice I had, first time around. God, it looked so damn dark the last time I played it, I couldn't see a bloody thing and it put me right off. Duh!

[JazzFunk]

I'm now starting to think this a mesmerising thing of staggering beauty. The music is amazingly evocative, too. Soooooooooo moody, in a lush n' dreamy way.

I've even got a solution to the problem of the main character looking like some emo rabbit thang and am instead imagining it to be Warwick Davis in a rabbit mask.

But is it a rabbit mask or is it an extracted molar? It could be either. Once you see, you can't unsee.

[Neon Ignition]

Nintendo Switch
About two thirds of the way through The Walking Dead: The Final Season Episode 03

PlayStation 5
Dabbling with Rogue Company, either Ghost Giant or Lego Dimensions next

PC
Juggling both Shenmue III and Cloudbuilt

[CMcK]

Stuck on Gears 5 and Panzer Dragoon last night. I was never great at games but I’m terrible these days.

[Atticus]

Mario Galaxy on Switch. This looks so stunning in 1080p. Doesn't play too shabby either, really enjoying going through it again ... though Odyssey is still my fave 3D Mario game.

[Cepp]

Playing through the story mode for Injustice 2 since its on Game Pass. They should just make an OVA out of it already