Video games and gaming

[Rick2468]

Played Balatro, and I liked it, had it on Switch, it’s a great game, I always played the same strategy and ended up leaving it, I will go back and try again thanks for reminding me.

I spent about 150 hours on it in total. I enjoyed it but I regret not mixing my strategy up more. I played High Card which when you got it going with steel cards etc was unstoppable. With other builds the RNG could screw you over at any point - I believe the developer is releasing a major update at some point as they realised people tend to follow a smaller number of strategies. When I went for the completionist++ achievement I played flush builds on the checkered deck so still not much variety.

I recommend the challenges if you haven't done them already. They seem tricky at first but are fairly easy in general (the last 3 are VERY hard, but the rest are easy) and make you try different things.

[Munter84]

I've recently been replaying Monkey Island 1 and 2 for a bit of nostalgia.

I actually played Monkey Island 2 first, back in the early 90s, at a PC-owning friends house (a rarity back then, and terrible for his street cred). Having been raised on console games, primarily platformers and action games, experiencing an adventure game with a deliberately slower pace, a focus on dialogue and humour, and set to sumptuous hand-drawn backgrounds and high-quality MIDI music, absolutely blew my mind. Monkey 1, which I played a few years later, was a marked visual downgrade but still oozing charm and wit, and in hindsight is probably my favourite.

Replaying both I mostly breezed through - once you know the solutions to the puzzles it's basically just a case of going through the motions, and anything that stumped me for more than 15 minutes was summarily Googled. Both massively enjoyable to revisit, with rose-tinted goggles positively screwed into place. I do wonder how the hell anyone was supposed to intuitively get some of the more cryptic puzzles, though.

[lewisjones23]

I've recently been replaying Monkey Island 1 and 2 for a bit of nostalgia.

I actually played Monkey Island 2 first, back in the early 90s, at a PC-owning friends house (a rarity back then, and terrible for his street cred). Having been raised on console games, primarily platformers and action games, experiencing an adventure game with a deliberately slower pace, a focus on dialogue and humour, and set to sumptuous hand-drawn backgrounds and high-quality MIDI music, absolutely blew my mind. Monkey 1, which I played a few years later, was a marked visual downgrade but still oozing charm and wit, and in hindsight is probably my favourite.

Replaying both I mostly breezed through - once you know the solutions to the puzzles it's basically just a case of going through the motions, and anything that stumped me for more than 15 minutes was summarily Googled. Both massively enjoyable to revisit, with rose-tinted goggles positively screwed into place. I do wonder how the hell anyone was supposed to intuitively get some of the more cryptic puzzles, though.

The Monkey Island games were fantastic, I downloaded them on Steam a few years back, still entertaining for an hour or so, especially the swordfighting with pirates

[Rick2468]

Knocked out a few narrative/experience games that had been on my list for a while. This games are very hit and miss with me so I didn't get around to them for ages but thought I'd give them ago and in a couple of cases I was nicely surprised.

- Road 96 - this really surprised me. I found it really interesting and had a great atmosphere. It could be funny in places, thoughtful in places and genuinely terrifying in places where just one bad move could get your character shot. The sequence of scenes is randomly selected and there were some scenes that I didn't experienced. I enjoyed the game so much I'm going to look up the scenes I missed on YouTube.

- GRIS - this also surprised me as so many people call this game an 'experience' rather than a game. I think calling it an experience is really harsh as there are puzzle and platforming sequences all the way through which are fun to play. You unlock new abilities along the way which keeps things interesting. It looks beautiful too and the graphics look like a watercolour painting. It's very short but I think short is underrated, too many games go on for too long.

- Night In The Woods - this was the highest rated game out of the 3 (has 'Mighty' rating on OpenCritic) and it was the most disappointing for me. Your actions in the game have absolutely no bearing on the story other than do you decide to spend the afternoon shoplifting at the mall or ghost hunting with another friend. There is a fun dungeon crawling mini game which was a lot of fun but the rest of the mini games were really bad. The main character was so unlikeable. I remember being a bit of a bratty team but I was no way as much of a twat as the main character that you play so I just did not relate at all.

Silksong is out, I decided not to buy it right away. I'm sure it'll come out on PS+ at some point, it's just a question of whether I want to play it now whilst the hype is at a peak. I might buy it on a whim over the weekend. I want to support the developer for releasing the game as such a low price (£15.99) but I did buy Hollow Knight twice so they have my money.

I've also been playing Cyberpunk 2077 on the side. I think I've done all the side gigs, crime scenes and cyber pyscho sightings. So I just need to do some character branch quests and the main quest. Looking at the trophy list I think I might be about a week away from completing it.

[RandomGuy99]

Amazon announces a new James Bond themed game and they've gone back to the origin of the character. I wonder if that means they'll be going back to the origin story for the new movie too.

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[Munter84]

Amazon announces a new James Bond themed game and they've gone back to the origin of the character.

Kind of a no-brainer considering the absolutely mangled continuity and tenuous canon of the cinematic universe. It looks like a contemporary reboot which is a sad but safe option. A developer with real cajones could have a lot of fun with a Bond game set in a postwar world faithful to the novels.

[RandomGuy99]

Kind of a no-brainer considering the absolutely mangled continuity and tenuous canon of the cinematic universe. It looks like a contemporary reboot which is a sad but safe option. A developer with real cajones could have a lot of fun with a Bond game set in a postwar world faithful to the novels.

The demo on YouTube looks good and there's going to be a trilogy of games.

[Munter84]

- Night In The Woods - this was the highest rated game out of the 3 (has 'Mighty' rating on OpenCritic) and it was the most disappointing for me. Your actions in the game have absolutely no bearing on the story other than do you decide to spend the afternoon shoplifting at the mall or ghost hunting with another friend. There is a fun dungeon crawling mini game which was a lot of fun but the rest of the mini games were really bad. The main character was so unlikeable. I remember being a bit of a bratty team but I was no way as much of a twat as the main character that you play so I just did not relate at all.

The way devs portray teens in games (and fiction in general) is really hit or miss, isn't it? I took a blind punt on Life is Strange: Before the Storm a few years back. Mostly enjoyed it, and the characters and setting (geographically, and 2010s time period) was key to that. At one point I paused and wondered if the protagonist's experiences and actions were a true reflection of what it's like to be a teenage girl, and could I as a middle aged bloke truly connect with that? For that matter, could the mostly 30+, mostly male dev team write an authentic female teen protagonist? Who flipping knows, food for thought though.

[RandomGuy99]

The demo on YouTube looks good and there's going to be a trilogy of games.

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[Rick2468]

The way devs portray teens in games (and fiction in general) is really hit or miss, isn't it? I took a blind punt on Life is Strange: Before the Storm a few years back. Mostly enjoyed it, and the characters and setting (geographically, and 2010s time period) was key to that. At one point I paused and wondered if the protagonist's experiences and actions were a true reflection of what it's like to be a teenage girl, and could I as a middle aged bloke truly connect with that? For that matter, could the mostly 30+, mostly male dev team write an authentic female teen protagonist? Who flipping knows, food for thought though.

I agree. Something that is totally lost on me right really hit the feels with someone else who relates more. I gave a harsh review on Night In The Woods, but there was one moment that did hit the feels for me and it may seem really benign. At the start of each morning your Mum calls you in to have a chat and most days I just went straight out and ignored her. It reminded me of home comforts when I was young and my (now late) Mother would want to talk to me about something and I would just turn her down and head out to see my mates. That moment in the game gave me comfort that, even though what I did was harsh, my Mother probably knew that was typical behaviour and wouldn't have taken it as a sign I didn't love her. But that was one moment in a 12 hour or so gaming experience so overall I didn't rate the game.

I have played all the Life is Strange games except the most recent one, Double Exposure. I kind of love / hate them. The storylines are so contrived, and there are lots of boring things when you just need to look at nik naks and photos in a room before the next sequence starts which is boring. But in general I think they are worth playing. I particularly liked Life is Strange and Before the Storm because the sound tracks were very much to my tastes and I heard a few great songs that I still listen to now. I found Life Is Strange 2 good as if you make an unethical decision that helped your current situation (like stealing money so  you didn't have to search trash cans for your food) then your brother would see you and also steal something because you made him think it's okay. That kind of hurt me more for some reason, even though it's just a game!

I finished Cyberpunk 2077 over the weekend. My thoughts are very much in line with general consensus that it is a great game. Really had fun with it and found it so much fun sneaking into places or going in loud and fighting, or hacking a door or parkouring in. I thought each of the endings were really strong and very different - I reloaded saves so I can experience them all. I had a think on whether I preferred Witcher 3 or Cyberpunk, and perhaps I need some time to pass but I think I preferred Witcher 3. I love the futuristic setting of Cyberpunk but The Witcher 3 just had an incredibly eerie vibe to it and I loved the regional accents. The monsters were much more varied as well.

I am currently playing Return to Monkey Island. Another game that I didn't think I'd like but it is on my list as it's got a 'Mighty' Opencritic rating - I seem to be going through my backlog of these at the moment! It's great so far! I haven't played a point'n'click for years. It's made well for console as you can cycle through interactive objects on screen which works well although I thought scanning the screen with the mouse until the pointer changed was part of the fun. It is such an achievement when you use an object on something and the animation is a bit different so you know you did it right and solved the mystery!

Part of the game is set in the same location as The Secret of Monkey Island with the same characters. I haven't played the original for 30 odd years but I am absolutely amazed how I knew which places were wear. There is a cowboy ship seller from the original who has a big cowboy hat and waves his arms who I haven't thought about for 30 years, but when he appeared I immediately recognised him. It's insane that that guy had been somewhere in my memory for all these years despite never thinking of him. It makes me wonder what other crap is in my head.

[Munter84]

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Looks good, with VERY clear Hitman influences. That's another series I wish I had the time to get into.

[Sweetooth69]

Black ops 7 is coming soon so I’m pumped for that.

[lewisjones23]

Black ops 7 is coming soon so I’m pumped for that.

Do you not think COD has lost its way?

[Sweetooth69]

Do you not think COD has lost its way?

For sure, Cod isn’t as good as it was back in the day. My favourite of all time is BO2, what a game. I think it’s started to go downhill after Cold war but I only play zombies so I might just be being bias. When I’m gaming with my mates, it’s always a blast so that’s why I’m still getting BO7 even though as a whole Cod isn’t as good as it used to be.

[lewisjones23]

For sure, Cod isn’t as good as it was back in the day. My favourite of all time is BO2, what a game. I think it’s started to go downhill after Cold war but I only play zombies so I might just be being bias. When I’m gaming with my mates, it’s always a blast so that’s why I’m still getting BO7 even though as a whole Cod isn’t as good as it used to be.

Once they moved away from the realism of it, things like jumping boots and being able to climb walls, all that nonsense, just made people turn off

[Rick2468]

Has anyone played Blue Prince? I am going to get started on it today as I have the evening free. I get a bit intimidated by games like this where you don't know what on earth you need to do and there are no guides intimidate me a bit. But the initial investment of time spent playing whilst completely confused really pays off, Return and Enter the Gungeon are two examples that come to mind where I was completely baffled to the point of frustration but I kept on playing them after getting the platinum as they were so awesome.

I usually only play one game at a time, but I'm going to play Prince of Persia - The Lost Crown on the side whilst I play The Blue Prince. I want a game I can play and rest my brain in case I come in from work and don't have the mental energy to face Blue Prince.

[Billy no mates]

Not played Blue Prince, I suspect I will I will do at some point.

I have played PoP and it was ok, it’s exactly what you think it is, however I found myself starting to dislike the metroidvania type mechanics ‘oh look there’s a door just out of reach, come back to here when you get the triple jump and air dash’. I’ve played many games like this in the past but started to tire of that mechanic during PoP.

Playing through divinity original sin, with a plan to play both, and then Balders gate 3
Also playing Paty of Exile 2”.

[Rick2468]

Not played Blue Prince, I suspect I will I will do at some point.

I have played PoP and it was ok, it’s exactly what you think it is, however I found myself starting to dislike the metroidvania type mechanics ‘oh look there’s a door just out of reach, come back to here when you get the triple jump and air dash’. I’ve played many games like this in the past but started to tire of that mechanic during PoP.

Playing through divinity original sin, with a plan to play both, and then Balders gate 3
Also playing Paty of Exile 2”.

Is Divinity Original Sin multiplayer? My friends who I do multiplayer with played it a lot, but I had just started dating my wife at the time and I was desperately trying not to make it obvious I'm a nerd so I paused gaming whilst they were playing it. It has great reviews so I always wanted to check it some day and obviously that would be easier if it's single player.

I love Metroidvanias, they are probably my joint favourite genre alongside a good soulslike game. I rate Hollow Knight and Blasphemous as amongst my favourite games, and I got a list of MVs and sorted them by rating from Metacritic and worked through them until I got far enough down the list where the quality was not great.

I played a couple of hours of PoP and I think it's decent, but as I say I'm a fan of the genre. At first it reminded me of Tales of Kenzera which I thought was a very bad game, so that bought my expectation down but it's won me over. It's quite fluid moving about and you have to mix the combat up as each enemy has it's weak point. I started to power up some amulets so feel like I'm moulding my character to my strengths and I enjoy the platforming sessions.

I want to get an hour in on Blue Prince tonight just to get a flavour of it before the work week kicks off.

[Billy no mates]

Your wife clearly knows your a nerd now then 

Divinity original sin can be played multiplayer, there are two characters right from the get go, so easily played by two. I’m not sure how it would work as it’s a story based rpg, so it would be difficult to find players who are at the same point in the story, I guess they worked all that out.

[Rick2468]

I finished Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and found it a lot of fun. It felt like there was a fun part of the map to explore every time I picked it up. I liked the puzzles and platforming segments. The ability upgrades were cool and the map was well designed - you can zip around the map very quickly by the end of it. Combat was cool in general, I would say the bosses were underwhelming but there was plenty of good points elsewhere to make this a good game in my eyes.

I have a list of games I want to play on PS+ and I was a bit stuck on what to play next. I decided to start Blue Prince as, whilst I really want to play it, I know it's going to be a chore to learn about so it's one I might put off for a while so I thought might as well play it now whilst nothing else is jumping out at me. I am also trying to play all my "to play" games that take over 50 hours sooner rather than later. Sony give 1 month notice of when games leave the service and I reckon I could normally squeeze a 50 hour game into a month if needed but anything longer than that I would have to leave. Blue Prince is a c.70 hour game so would be good to tick it off.

I only played about an hour and it does seem very interesting, but everything is a god damn mystery at this point. I find switches and special keys but no idea what to do with them. I will stick at it and try not to refer to a guide.

I normally only play one game at once but I thought I'd pick up another game which required less thinking in case I needed a break from Blue Prince. I decided to go for God of War: Ragnarök as it's  been on my list a while. I thought God of War (2018) was absolutely excellent, I'm going to say...so far I think Ragnarök is okay to good so far. It is strange to describe as I can tell it's an excellent game but it's just more of the same from GoW (2018) so it doesn't feel as good as an experience. The storytelling so far is great and the puzzles are fun but, yeh, so far it feels closer to middling to amazing. Plenty of time for me to get more engaged with it though. 

[Rick2468]

I just finished God of War: Ragnarok, it was good and the last third of the game was pretty epic, but I must say I found some of the early parts of the game pretty boring. I don't really play a lot of AAA games as they are not my thing, but I did play and really enjoy God of War (2018) so I was excited for Ragnarok, but I don't think it was as good so overall I'm kinda a bit disappointed.

I hated playing as Atreus, his attacks felt so weak. I tried mixing different combos etc but it felt like I was just hitting enemies with a little twig. I might have been missing some powerful attach but I don't know. I also found the settings a little bit samey, there are different settings but to me they kind of felt the same, just different coloured sky, floor and walls. There were some great epic moments, but I felt sections from GoW (2018) were much more epic.

On the plus side, the storytelling was great the way it smoothly blended between gameplay and cutscenes. The characters were good.

Definitely glad I played it, but didn't hit the heights of GoW (2018) in my opinion.

[Billy no mates]

I’m not sure if I’ve played it or not, this is such a sign of old age.

I’ve played the originals for sure. I’ve played one with his son and a talking head (?). There was a lot of faff with a boat that I hated, and I remember not getting the ‘blades’ for ages and stuck with a crappy axe. I guess this may be the 2018 game.

Working my way through Divinty original sin and thoroughly enjoying it.

[Rick2468]

I’m not sure if I’ve played it or not, this is such a sign of old age.

I’ve played the originals for sure. I’ve played one with his son and a talking head (?). There was a lot of faff with a boat that I hated, and I remember not getting the ‘blades’ for ages and stuck with a crappy axe. I guess this may be the 2018 game.

Working my way through Divinty original sin and thoroughly enjoying it.

Pretty sure you do mean the 2018 game. The son and talking head are in both, but there is much less boat in Ragnarok and you can the blades very early. The head in the first game has some epic moments, loved it when he showed up in the sky. I recall I came in pissed from Friday night drinks and decided to play GoW when I got in and did that boss battle with the head in the sky and thought I was tripping out.

[Ghost89]

Ghost of Yotei is now out. Excellent follow up to Ghost of Tsushima which is one of the best games ever imo.

[Rick2468]

Ghost of Yotei is now out. Excellent follow up to Ghost of Tsushima which is one of the best games ever imo.

I loved Ghost for Tsushima so definitely want to play Yotei. I'm a patient gamer though, so I don't tend to buy games on release unless I want to play multiplayer with my friends or it is a release I really want such as GTA 5. Gives me a chance to wait for a sale or the game to come to PS+. I still have the DLC to do on Tsushima which I have got on my "to play" list so I should get around to it.

[Rick2468]

Finished God of War: Ragnarok and got the platinum. Overall, glad I played it but think I'm a bit disappointed as it didn't hit the heights of GoW (2018). I thought the middle section was boring, and the mop-up work to finish off the platinum wasn't as fun as the earlier game - the Valkyrie Queen in GoW (2018) was a brilliant challenge to get the platinum, they had a similar type of challenge in Ragnarok but I beat it 2nd try with all my upgraded equipment. Story was good at the end but didn't have the emotional pull of the earlier game. Graphically - it looked great.

Next up I'm going to play Killer Frequency. I enjoyed Paradise Killer loads last year and hope this is kind of the same, it kind of looks the same but maybe it's completely different! Feels like a good game to play in Halloween month as well.

I finished Balatro a few months back, but I play the odd game and I had a stonking run where I got loads of good cards and accessories. I thought I might be able to get a 'NANINF' score, where you effectively score higher than the upper limit of the game so the score returns 'NANINF' instead of a number. I failed to do so, then looked it up and realised I was a LONG way off, even though I had incredible luck. It made me realise that NANINF will take hundreds and hundreds of hours to get yourself, so I picked up a seeded run that someone posted where you basically get everything you need so I am playing through that now.   

I am up to Ante 21 and I'm building my deck well and my score is rising quicker than the targets so think I'm on course to get the NANINF. It will be seeded which is not as impressive as scoring NANINF from an unseeded run but I just think it will take me too long to do, so  a seeded NANINF is my next best thing. The rounds take about 5 minutes each as I swap around jokers to maximise the number of consumables I generate and maximise money as well. So I think it is a challenge I will complete over a week or so. I keep backing up the save in case I mess something up as it's taken about 3 hours to get to this point.

[Munter84]

Next up I'm going to play Killer Frequency. I enjoyed Paradise Killer loads last year and hope this is kind of the same,

I gave Paradise Killer a fair crack when it was on Gamepass, I have to say I have never been more baffled by a game. The goal, the point, the genre, the appeal, nothing was apparent even after several hours and plenty of good faith from myself that eventually was eroded away to contempt. Could you give a "elevator pitch" style summary of why you enjoyed it? It got glowing reviews but I felt like I was playing a different game to the one people were gushing about 

[Rick2468]

I gave Paradise Killer a fair crack when it was on Gamepass, I have to say I have never been more baffled by a game. The goal, the point, the genre, the appeal, nothing was apparent even after several hours and plenty of good faith from myself that eventually was eroded away to contempt. Could you give a "elevator pitch" style summary of why you enjoyed it? It got glowing reviews but I felt like I was playing a different game to the one people were gushing about 

It hooked onto my curiosity and I felt I had to discover more of the map and work out what happened so I had to keep playing it to find out what happened. As I played it more I really warmed to the vaporware graphics and sounds and the story was dark which played to my tastes. When I first played it I thought the graphics and character movement was horrible (the fact you could walk up very steep slopes with no loss of speed just felt like lazy design) so thought I'd drop it. But I was intrigued by how batshit crazy it was so went back for more. I loved finding hidden labs inside of mountain edges and things like that, it reminded me a bit of The Witness in that regard, even though they are very different games.

If it didn't grab you when you played it then I doubt it would be worth you revisiting it. It is an odd game so I imagine lots of people wouldn't enjoy it. The reviews are possibly strong because it is a different type of game.

[Rick2468]

Finished Killer Frequency. Went into this blind as had read in a few places it was an underrated Gem. I thought it would be like Paradise Killer which I really liked but it wasn't. In fact, it's not really my type of game and if I had known more about the gameplay I wouldn't have picked it up. But it was short enough to finish playing and it was well done so no regrets.

You spend a lot of the game in a DJ booth hosting a radio show playing music and taking calls. There are some segments where you leave your booth to explore around the station, but 90% of the game you are stuck in the booth just waiting for the dialogue to finish. I found the segments exploring the station the most interesting, and if the game had more of these or longer segments I would have enjoyed it more.

Some of the puzzles were good, there were puzzles where you are looking at a map and directing callers to safety which were really fun. The graphics were ligne claire style which I thought was cool.

So a decent game, decent but not great.

[Rick2468]

Played through Indika. I loved the weirdness and the eerie atmosphere. The graphics were brilliant. I really liked the main character Indika, I am not religious and I don't enjoy debating religion but I liked listening to her thoughts about it. On the flip side the gameplay was virtually non-existent, there were some mild platforming segments and puzzles where you have to move parts using a crane which were very simple. The plus points were enough to make this a fun play for 2 or 3 hours, just like watching a film really.

I then played The Last of Us Part 1. When I heard this was a remake, I was expecting a major overhaul of the previous versions, I am thinking like they did with Resident Evil 2 and Final Fantasy VII. But it is a remaster rather than a remake in my opinion as the gameplay felt identical. It did look better but I would have been pissed off if I have paid £70 for a reskinned game.

My feelings on the actual game matched those on my first playthrough. It's a highly polished games with great characters and story. The world seems like you would believe an apocalyptic world to look, with crumbling buildings and overgrown greenery - I was a bit surprised where all the people had gone, perhaps all hiding and all dead.

My issue with the game is the story is just stretched out far too long. The middle bit drags. I counted 4 occasions where you have to swim to fetch a pallet for Elle to climb through. And at least 5 occasions where I had to boost Ellie up for her to open a gate, door or drop a ladder down. I didn't enjoy the middle 5 hours, but it was fun to play the ending again.

When I played the original games, I thought TLoU1 was mediocre, and TLoU2 was amazing. I wanted to play TLoU2 remake, but thought I would play TLoU1 remake first to see if I enjoyed it more. Since the 'remake' seems to just be improved graphics I don't plan to play TLoU2 remake as it doesn't feel that long since I played the original. I may change my mind but at the moment I'm just going to play other games.

Not sure what to play next, quick scan of my 'To Play' list and nothing sticks out. Given it's still spooky season might do Crow County or Alan Wake 2.

[Billy no mates]

I know what you mean about Last of us, and in a similar vein the Drakes games, my wife loved watching them all, which is unusual. I tended to find the minute to minute gameplay a bit shallow, it reminded me of the old Amiga Ocean licensed games (Batman or Bond etc), with a driving level, then a shooting level, then climbing and so on.

I haven’t played AW2, I did play the first one and enjoyed it, and will at some stage play the second. It might be worth playing Control prior to AW2 as there tends to be a lot of cross pollination between the games, and Control is spooky (in an X-Files way) enough to consider a Halloween game.

[Rick2468]

I know what you mean about Last of us, and in a similar vein the Drakes games, my wife loved watching them all, which is unusual. I tended to find the minute to minute gameplay a bit shallow, it reminded me of the old Amiga Ocean licensed games (Batman or Bond etc), with a driving level, then a shooting level, then climbing and so on.

I haven’t played AW2, I did play the first one and enjoyed it, and will at some stage play the second. It might be worth playing Control prior to AW2 as there tends to be a lot of cross pollination between the games, and Control is spooky (in an X-Files way) enough to consider a Halloween game.

I enjoyed the Uncharted games a lot as they were so ridiculous. You would have silly car chases with explosions from a Michael Bay film, with Drake making wise cracks whilst dangling off the back of an out of control jeep heading towards a cliff edge. TLoU is too serious and they keep things realistic (well...barring there being a zombie apocolypse) which unfortunately makes it boring. They break the game up using puzzles but the puzzles are just "go fetch" puzzles, whereas in Uncharted the puzzles are really cool and you end up opening up an undiscovered tomb - which again is unrealistic to think the mechanics would still work after 1,000 years but it's fun.

I actually remember enjoying Uncharted 4 less than the other games, and I think that's because it was the final game and it leaned quite heavily into the characters and story whereas I just wanted more shoot outs and chases.

I think I will start Crow Country tonight if I have time. It's a short game so I might be done over the weekend. Then I'll play Alan Wake 2. I never played the first Alan Wake and annoyingly it was a monthly game on PS+ the month before I subscribed. It's cheap to buy but I've heard differing reviews with some saying it's very repetitive. I did play Control and it's surely in my top 5 games from the PS4 era. Loved the weirdness of it. Hoping Alan Wake 2 will be more of the same. I've seen some clips and screenshots and it looks strange and I am quite unsure what I'm getting into but that makes it exciting.

[Problem Child]

@Rick2468 tlou2 remake is definitely worth picking up mate. If you’ve previously purchased the game you only pay the difference in price (£15 I think) and it includes the game mode Left Behind which is worth the money alone.
You play a series of different combat based challenges as different characters from each faction (Ellie and Abby)
Each character has different strengths and weaknesses Abby’s more of a straight up brawler, Tommy’s a marksman, the wee trans dude (soz forget his name) is a stealth character using his bow (taking out 5 cunts at a time with explosive arrow is 👌)
I’ve put god knows how many hours into that shit, although I just can’t bring myself to play the story again. 💔

[RandomGuy99]

I've been trying out Amazon's Luna gaming service through my TV. It's pretty good.

[Rick2468]

I played a couple of games over the past week...

Crow Country - Old school Resident Evil style shooter where you investigate a theme park to find the missing owner and the monsters have taken over. Really really enjoyed it, the nostalgia was real and I felt like I was in my parent's house playing on my PS1. The puzzles were really good. I ended up dodging most the monsters as I wasn't sure how the respawning worked (sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't) so I wanted to save ammo. Dodging them was a skill in itself as it wasn't a case of just zig-zagging, you could start to go one way so the monster took one step to the left then quickly go right, or get just close enough so they lunge and you run around them. I ended up with loads of ammo at the end so I might play again and be a bit more liberal with the gun play.

Alan Wake II - wow, an excellent experience. I have to say I didn't enjoy it all and found it really frustrating getting lost in the woods about 20 times. The scenes are just too dark and I didn't want to crank the brightness up because the game looked so fantastic, maybe the best PS5 graphics I've seen. The shadows in the woods did make me think a wolf was about to attack me but it was just the shadow of the ferns. I also found the scene setup mechanic confusing and I was too stupid to work out the answers logically so I had to resort to trial and error. I loved the case board though, I think so many games could work with that sort of mechanic. The inventory management was really slow as well, with no button to quickly switch items from your inventory into storage and back.

The story and imagery in this game were utterly fantastic. It's batshit crazy, and I didn't understand most of it but I loved watching it play out. The Herald of Darkness chapter was an exhilarating experience it was possibly the best 10 / 15 minutes of gaming I've had since the ash tray maze in Control which is by the same developer. The way they presented everything with the live action footage over the rendered graphics and the moody theatre lights etc were just gorgeous to look at. The way Alan Wake returned with amnesia reminded me of Twin Peaks - The Return and I wonder if it was an influence as the forest town setting was also similar.

I hadn't played the original Alan Wake before playing Alan Wake II, but I don't think that impacted my experience.

[The0neAnd0nly]

The wee trans dude (soz forget his name) is a stealth character using his bow (taking out 5 cunts at a time with explosive arrow is 👌)

Lev, formerly Lily lol

Ive played both TLOU 1 and 2 countless times. The 2nd one is an absolute slog and very very intense compared to the first one... and that's saying something!!

Still my favourite games of all time though!!

[Problem Child]

Lev, formerly Lily lol

Ive played both TLOU 1 and 2 countless times. The 2nd one is an absolute slog and very very intense compared to the first one... and that's saying something!!

Still my favourite games of all time though!!

Lev!! That’s it 💡
I just hope they do a part 3 where Ellie gets her redemption.. although I suspect her redemption will be the ultimate sacrifice 💀 😢

[The0neAnd0nly]

Lev!! That’s it 💡
I just hope they do a part 3 where Ellie gets her redemption.. although I suspect her redemption will be the ultimate sacrifice 💀 😢

Spoiler for The Last of Us Game and TV show highlight to read
***

My theory is when she bit Abbies fingers off at the end she passed her immunity on which will come into play in TLOU3... if it ever happens!!

[Rick2468]

I finally started playing Blue Prince. It's cool but also kind of a pain in the backside as I keep seeing lots of interesting panels and terminals but I don't know what to do with them so I'm sure I'm skipping over loads of secrets. I either need to learn more about the game by exploring more or I am just too stupid to work it out myself. I did manage to open the east door of the final room, and I'm pretty sure I've worked out the chess puzzle but I just need to find a king piece in the house so I can put the final piece in place. It is very satisfying when you do work something out but I also feel stressed if I'm being inefficient in time.

I normally only play one game at a time, but because Blue Prince is probably a slow burner I decided to play something else on the side. I narrowed the selection down to SIFU or Ghostrunner 2 and played 10 minutes on each game. I had such a great time in just a few minutes of Ghostrunner 2 I decided to go for that. By now I'm about 3 hours in and I love it. I really enjoyed the first game but felt the 2nd game didn't really create much buzz on release so I thought it might have been a poor game. I also heard it was very difficult.

It is difficult in that you will die a lot, and the game gives you a death counter at the end of each level which I think confirms you are supposed to die. But the checkpoints are very close to you have to replay about 20 seconds, and there are no loading screens before respawn so you quickly jump back into it. I recall the first game being much much harder than this, but suppose there is still a lot of campaign left for it to get more difficult.

One of my all time favourite games is Mirrors Edge, partly because parkouring is fun but I also felt it looked SO cool. The Ghostrunner games give me similar vibes gameplay wise but the combat is so much better.

[Rick2468]

I finished Ghostrunner 2. I loved the first Ghostrunner game. The parkouring reminded me of Mirrors Edge which is one of my favourite ever games and the combat was a really fun challenge. I loved the first 5 or so hours of Ghostrunner 2 just as much as the first game, but then my enjoyment dropped off for a few reasons which means I didn't enjoy it as much as the first game:

- the hub area felt pointless and the characters seemed to not really care at all about what you were up to. I can barely remember their names and I only finished the main story a couple of days ago. Thankfully you don't spend much time there.

- There were too many bike levels. The first bike level and the bike boss battle was awesome, but by the third bike mission I just wanted to ditch the bike and go back to parkouring.

- The bosses were much less interesting than the first game, the first game did have excellent bosses.

- Lacked quality in places, I got stuck in the scenery a few times, especially whilst on the bike. And the framerate dropped badly in one of the later levels and it made it very difficult to proceed.

On the plus side, there is more of the really fun gameplay that I loved from the first game. The RogueRunner.exe mode was fun but brutal. I found it hard and did worry it might stop me getting the platinum, but I got really luck with upgrades and I was so powerful I was able to cruise through most of Stages 3 and 4 and had nearly 40 lives for the very last battle. Ended up using 17 of those as the last battle was tough.

I started playing Sword of the Sea which has good reviews but I expected to hate it. I have a funny relationship with games like these. I loved Flower when it came out, it felt unique and really fun bringing life into the gardens and fields. I played Journey and found it very plain and did not understand why it was getting rave reviews. I thought SotS looked like Journey, but it is much more like Flower the way you bring water to the desert area. It is such a chill game and the controls, sounds and colouring images as the world opens up are top notch which makes it feel a pleasure to play.

[RandomGuy99]

COD 7 seems to be racking up some bad reviews on Amazon. Anyone on here played it?

[delta69]

COD 7 seems to be racking up some bad reviews on Amazon. Anyone on here played it?

Yep I’m currently grinding zombies, it’s taking ages to level up.
The campaign is terrible so I would avoid that, as for multiplayer it’s ok as it plays like bo6

[RandomGuy99]

Yep I’m currently grinding zombies, it’s taking ages to level up.
The campaign is terrible so I would avoid that, as for multiplayer it’s ok as it plays like bo6

Is it really as bad as this review in Amazon says

"Would have to agree, with most of the of the reviews on the Internet, this is without doubt the worst call of duty ever made definitely not worth £60 not even worth £3.50 the there is so many ways they could have gone for the next game, but this is just completing at a garbage not even finished and to be honest, just looks like it’s been put together by someone on a wet out drug trip no modern warfare not even like a black ops game set in the Cold War just all in of a piece of rubbish"

[Rick2468]

I've got a bit of a handle on Blue Prince but there is still lots of confusing stuff. I've completed the main task now I'm doing all the side stuff. I have probably looked up too much online but I have worked out a few things for myself and it is cool when I do. It's hard to know what to focus on so I've decided to look at the trophy list and focus on a handful of trophies at a time which probably isn't the most efficient way of seeing everything but I'd rather focus on a couple of tasks than trying to unlock everything at once.

Since Blue Prince is quite the headscratcher I've been playing some shorter games on the side...

Finished Sword of the Sea, it was alright. Liked it at first but think I got a bit bored despite it only being a few hours long. It did look good and it was satisfying changing the scenery in each level. Don't regret playing it but personally it didn't live up to the hype.

Played Jusant which I liked. Very satisfying climbing up the mountain and looking at the view to see how far up you are. There are some indoor climbing bits which I didn't like so much and the controls were frustrating at times and I don't think it was me using the controls as an excuse for being rubbish. The last level was really cool.

I started playing God of War: Valhalla which is the free DLC for Ragnarok and is a rogue like challenge. I thought Ragnarok was a disappointment but after just an hour I have the early impression that Valhalla is way more fun than the main game. It is a lot of fun unlocking thanks and making your character stronger for the next runs.

[delta69]

Is it really as bad as this review in Amazon says

"Would have to agree, with most of the of the reviews on the Internet, this is without doubt the worst call of duty ever made definitely not worth £60 not even worth £3.50 the there is so many ways they could have gone for the next game, but this is just completing at a garbage not even finished and to be honest, just looks like it’s been put together by someone on a wet out drug trip no modern warfare not even like a black ops game set in the Cold War just all in of a piece of rubbish"

Nope most people have call of duty fatigue (yearly cod releases without groundbreaking changes)
This should be black ops 6 dlc, as this isn’t worth full price

Vanguard & mw2 2022 was worst one I’ve played in recent time.

[Billy no mates]

Still playing Divinity Original sin on my steam deck (so it’s an in bed play)

Also playing through Clair Obscure Expedition 33, and will have it completed before it inevitably and deservedly walks away with everything at the game awards. Its story is one of my favourites of all time, second only to Neir Automata. The music and voice acting is also worthy of a mention as it helps bring weight to some of the scenes and me close to tears on many occasions (won’t mention due to spoilers). I hope this small indie developer wins goty, which would be a great fuck you, to the EA’s and Ubisofts etc and their dark patterns they use in games.

[WDFORTE]

Battlefield 6 on PS5 and Borderlands 4 on PC.  Both good games.  I've gone a bit mad and stocked up on games for the Christmas period.  Not a hope in hell of working through them.


PS5
Doom the Dark Ages
Bloodlines 2
Battlefield 6
PainKiller
The Precinct
Astrobot
The Thing Remastered
Worms Armageddon
Mindseye

PC
Borderlands 4
Dying Light The Beast
Arc Raiders
Metal Eden


I'm probably sorted until this time next year..
To be fair alot of these were off of a hotdeals site at notification for 50% off etc, £10 for Mindseye etc, I thought why not..

[Rick2468]

I have been playing Blue Prince a lot this week. I was playing it on the side whilst playing other games but it's clicked with me now so I'm kind of addicted. I have added some permanent perks to my character, the main one being a lot of money so I can buy out most shops which means I tend to fill out most the house with every run. I think I know exactly what I need to do from here to get the platinum trophy, which will be a proud one to one, but I just need to execute it by rolling the right rooms. I have a lot of stars which means I can reroll rooms several times but I want to save those until I really need them, will probably just spaff them on my final run to 100% the game.

It is a cool game which I will look back on very fondly but I have a few gripes. First one being that you are so handicapped at the start of the game that exploring more than 10 rooms can be a challenge, so the information you need to complete the game comes far too slowly and it is frustrating as it feels like you are going nowhere. Also you can't save during a game day, and some game days have taken me 90 minutes meaning I got to bed an hour late because I got into a place I hadn't been before and I didn't want to quit in case it took me ages to get back there. But overall I love it.

[Rick2468]

I got the platinum trophy for Blue Prince which I am very proud of. It was a really fun platinum to get apart from the 'Complete on Day One' and 'Complete Cursed Mode' trophies but I knuckled down to get those as they were the only trophies I needed for platinum.

I rate the game very highly. It is a very unique game which is always a good thing to me and it was really fun building up a house each day and using synergies with your items, rooms and blessings. I had a fair bit of help on the puzzles from a friend who had already played it and was able to give me hints rather then the answer, I did work out most of it for myself and it was really satisfying getting the puzzles right.

A gripe I have is that you are so underpowered at the start meaning it's hard to get very far in the house so the secrets reveal themselves to you very slowly. I thought about replaying the game as I thought it could be fun playing again knowing what I know now but I don't think I could enjoy going back to having no money or other resources so I think I'll leave it unless I find I'm really missing it.

After Blue Prince I went back to God of War: Ragnarök - Valhalla. I had completed the main quest before I got absorbed in Blue Prince but I went back to get the remaining trophies. It didn't take long in the end, just 3 runs, it was fun smashing a few enemies up with an axe after playing the non-violent Blue Prince for the past few weeks.

After that, I started playing Citizen Sleeper which is another game I've wanted to play for a while but been put off about how hard it is to get into. After beating Blue Prince I thought I'd try and tick off another game that seemed mysterious. I'm a few hours in and it seems okay-to-good. It's heavily text based and I heard comparisons with Disco Elysium. In Disco Elysium you got to walk around and explore locations but in Citizen Sleep you just click on nodes and you have a text based conversation with the characters there, then roll some dice to fulfil a task. It feels a lot more dumbed down than Disco Elysium. I'm still early in the game so maybe it will get more exciting. It's a short game so even if the tone stays the same for the duration I should have enough fun with it before it gets too repetitive.

[RandomGuy99]

Nintendo holiday game sale has started and runs until end of December.