Your 2020 Gaming Diary

[Londragon]

Started posting my playthrough of The Messenger, ready for the Podpals this coming week.

[Lee Plays] The Messenger (Part 1)

Old Nintendo Gamer starts his ninja adventure in 8-bit action platforming style. Including the opening cutscenes, and Autumn Hills.

[Aperson]

Here we go then, time for the final seed boss. The last Leviathan goes down in this episode after a major boss battle... against you know who!

 

 

Yep, he's back!

[Cube]

Played Battletoads, it starts off great then just flops mid way. The fighting levels are great, but the platforming and space shooting sections are really dull, and there's loads of both.

 

Also played chapter one of Tell Me Why. A story driven game, it has compelling characters and an interesting mystery. Definitely going to play the next chapter.

[Fierce_LiNk]

2 hours ago, Cube said:

Also played chapter one of Tell Me Why. A story driven game, it has compelling characters and an interesting mystery. Definitely going to play the next chapter.

Go to 0:54 for the magic to happen.

[drahkon]

Much better

Final Fantasy VII Remake progress: Reached chapter 9.

Still amazing. I'm enjoying every little thing. All the details from the original are there. And there's so much new to see and experience...love it.

[RedShell]

So I’m still enjoying the daily bit of Animal Crossing, but with those sessions getting shorter and shorter, and with there being nothing new to play on Switch (and seemingly nothing new on the horizon there either ) I’ve since turned my attention back to PC gaming in a big way, and it has been an absolute blast!  

Here’s what I’ve played/am currently playing on PC:

• Death Stranding - complete
• The Touryst - complete 100%
• The Messenger - complete
• New Super Lucky’s Tale
• Forza Horizon 4 - complete
• Microsoft Flight Simulator 
• Halo: The Master Chief Collection 
• Sea of Thieves
• Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
• Sunset Overdrive
• Streets of Rage 4 - complete

At the moment though it’s all about Sea of Thieves. This game is incredible!  I obviously hadn’t played a new game by Rare in a long time (probably Star Fox Adventures on the GameCube ), went into this one completely blind and have been absolutely blown away!

Rare always had a real talent for producing high quality visuals back in the day (often at the severe expense of performance ) but what they’ve achieved with this title is simply remarkable. It looks so good, I don’t remember the last time a game had me in such a constant sense of awe. It’s not just the graphics either, the music and the overall presentation, all of it has that unmistakable Rare vibe that I’ve really missed over the last 18 years.  

Gameplay is fantastic too, exploring, solving puzzles, finding treasures, sailing the seas (feels like Wind Waker on steroids! ) fighting skeletons and encountering other pirates, it’s so much fun! It’s clearly designed around multiplayer but I’ve found playing solo to be a very rewarding and enjoyable experience, there’s a similar sense of satisfaction to that of playing Monster Hunter solo, and occasionally getting ambushed by a full crew of rival pirates is both exhilarating and hilarious.  

I also have to tip my hat to the guys that programmed the being drunk mechanics/effects, top-notch! 

Anyone know how long games typically last on Game Pass before being removed? Hopefully I’ll be able to finish all of the story quests before this one leaves, anyway.

Edited September 2, 2020 by RedShell
Forgot Streets of Rage

[Londragon]

[Lee Plays] The Messenger (Part 2)

Old Nintendo Gamer finishes off Autumn Hills and moves onto the Forlorn Temple, before descending into The Catacombs.

[Cube]

1 hour ago, RedShell said:

Anyone know how long games typically last on Game Pass before being removed? Hopefully I’ll be able to finish all of the story quests before this one leaves, anyway.

Microsoft's own games don't leave the service. 

I want to love Sea of Thieves, any enjoy it occasionally, but I hate most encounters with other pirates.

[RedShell]

35 minutes ago, Cube said:

Microsoft's own games don't leave the service. 

Oh nice! Cheers for the info.

36 minutes ago, Cube said:

I want to love Sea of Thieves, any enjoy it occasionally, but I hate most encounters with other pirates.

It seems like the kind of thing that could be a bit hit or miss, yeah. Sometimes I can play an entire session without encountering anyone else, and other times there are ships and pirates all over the place! I suppose the worst thing about it is if you’re just trying to focus on one of the Tall Tales while there are other players trying to kill you at the same time! Although saying that, the potential threat does also keep you on your toes and makes the game more exciting.  

[Aperson]

With Ridley defeated... again... it's time to go round all the previous planets picking up items. But we explore new areas too and find another boss battle. Part 34 is out now:

 

 

[Londragon]

Been a little lax posting here, up to Part 4 of The Messenger, Part 3 is on my YoutTube Channel,

[Lee Plays] The Messenger (Part 4)

Old Nintendo Gamer returns, but Bamboo Creek takes up all his Ninja skills in this Part.

[Scratch]

Sooooo half way through Horizon Zero Dawn, the next time I settled down for some gaming, I decided to play one of the missions I'd not done yet in Command & Conquer: Remastered. Well that was a bad idea, it's now been about a week and I haven't played HDZ once since. xD I'm sure I'll return to it at some point though, it is a great game.  

[Londragon]

Played a little Spellbreak over the weekend with my son.  It's the newest free-to-play battle royale title, and we came away very surprised at the quality of the title.  It features cross-play across consoles, too.

[Let’s Play: Together] Spellbreak (Part 1) Squads

Old Nintendo Gamer & Son tackle their first sojourn into the realms of magic. Very much still getting to grips with all the systems the game throws at you.

[Aperson]

Time to slay a giant colossus and save our girlfriend... wait... never mind, that's an entirely different game. Let's correct that.

 

The Energy Cell sidequest is finished in this episode of Let's Play Metroid Prime 3 Corruption, but for some reason it needs a 40 minute episode to obtain. Welcome to the most infamous side quest in this game in Episode 35.

 

 

Just a heads up, two of the next five parts are going to be item collection but  apart from that the main story progress will be made as the end of the LP approaches...

 

Also played more of Future Perfect and oh man, that fourth level was amazing. Especially helped with a bond villain that strokes a cat... which then turns out to be a robot with a flip top head that releases gas.

 

Even better, after the sequence, if you press the X or A button depending on your system next to the cat... you can drive the cat!

 

[Nicktendo]

I finished Super Mario Bros. (Allstars edition) at 4am last night because I couldn't sleep.

I warped to World 4 from 1-2 and it took me about 40 mins in total. I spammed the hell out of the rewind feature and feel extremely dirty for doing so, but I'll be damned if I'm going to be punished by the Joy-Cons being garbage. 

I really adore this remake. The visuals and the remastered music make this game instantly more appealing to me. I love the variety in the backgrounds, especially in 8-3 as you approach Bowser's Castle. The portraits of him hanging in the background of the castle are excellent. As are the Toad animations at the end of each world. I also want to give some love to the BONUS room music. I had completely forgotten that tune to the annals of time, but it took my right back to 1995 the moment it came on. I've dabbled in all four games and I'm up to world 7 in SMB2, I've never finished that one, so will probably do it later this evening. 

The nostalgia has been extremely strong with this game, more so than any other SNES game I've played so far. I played this game to death back in the day and I got a super strong urge to make a hot chocolate and stick the Super Mario Bros. Super Show on YouTube to fully replicate the wonderful nostalgic feeling. I'll sit down with Captain Lou at some point later this week. 

I've played handheld exclusively so far and I'll definitely go back and finish SMB again with the Pokken controller and no rewinds, I need to do the game justice. Overall though, I'm extremely please Nintendo released this game. They really didn't have to with the originals all being available in the NES app, so thanks for that, big N, it really made my weekend.

Just pure unbridled joy playing each of these games. 

Edit: Super Mario Bros 2 also finished. Think this is my favourite NES Mario game. Might have to go through 3 again to make sure but I LOVED this game. Finally figured out how to kill Wart. Only took me 25 years. Sorry @markderoos 

Edited September 7, 2020 by Nicktendo

[nekunando]

 

[Aperson]

So... back in Episode 10 I mentioned about a Friend Voucher called Icy Reptilicide... Now finally in Episode 36 we get that Friend Voucher. Took long enough! Also going round and doing everything that I haven't done yet on Planet Bryyo. Basically done with that, just the Valhalla, Pirate Homeworld and Phaaze to go!

 

 

 

The Valhalla is next by the way. Going to be a much longer episode exploring that abandoned Space Station.

 

Speaking of abandoned, made some more progress in Timesplitters: Future Perfect and finished the zombie mansion level. This mansion also has a secret facitiy below it... I feel like the developers here were inspired by a certain Capcom game here. Also this game has aged pretty badly, your partner character, Jo-Beth, has a T-shirt that says Slut on it. Really Free Radical?

[RedShell]

Finished Resident Evil 7 and the extra DLC mission where you play as Chris (who looks really weird now ).

I remember being a bit unsure of the direction Capcom took with this game back when it was first revealed, but having finally played through it I see they definitely made a good choice. It has very much reinvigorated the RE franchise and undoubtedly brought the element of horror back in a big way. In fact I’d say this is by far the scariest entry in the entire series! Keep in mind that I’ve not played RE 6, but I hear that game is scary for different reasons.  

Anyway, once I got over the initial shock of just how intense the game is, I must say I really enjoyed it, the first half in particular was just superb.  It lost its impact slightly towards the later stages, and the finale was also a little bit underwhelming, but overall RE 7 was an absolutely fantastic experience. Can’t even begin to imagine playing it in VR though, it’d almost certainly give me a heart attack!  

[Londragon]

The Messenger is up to Part 10, Borderlands up to Part 16, and we recorded a new game of Armello (Game 2) where for the first time I managed a Kingslayer Victory, well happy with that.

[Let’s Play: Together] Armello (Game 2)

Old Nintendo Gamer & Son play through another entire round of Armello. This time with a beautiful winter theme, the snows have settled in. Will it soothe the King’s rot?

[Aperson]

Getting close to the end of the game now. With all the Energy Cells in hand the trek towards the end of the game begins by visiting the deserted G.F.S. Valhalla...

 

 

 

Including this episode there are just 4 episodes left...

 

...in other gaming news no progress on Future Perfect since the last update, the other gaming time has been spent on Magic Arena as rotation approaches. I have basically finished my "Standard Jund" deck aside from one Scavenging Ooze "and Klothys makes for a nice substitute. Here's the deck below:

 

 

Also this happened in a Ranked game while I was playing Mono Red

 

 

I used Robber of the Rich to steal their Watcher of the Spheres, then cast it using Robber's ability. They weren't particularly happy about that immediately slamming down the Lofty Denial only for me to still be able to pay 1 to prevent the counter so they scooped as a result. Lol.

[nekunando]

 

[Londragon]

My full play-through of The messenger is now up to part 12, and our shared Borderlands is up to Part 17.

But today I want to share a first look at a new eShop title I purchased this week,

[Lee Plays] Hotshot Racing (First Look)

Old Nintendo Gamer takes a first look at Hotshot Racing on the Switch. Working through the menus and the first 4 races in the first cup of the GP mode. Hyped!

[killthenet]

A couple of weeks late posting my August update so I've got a couple of extra ones that I completed recently to throw in too. Kicked off the month by finishing The Last of Us: Part II on PS4 and I thought it was ok. It suffers from similar problems to the first game for me, the gameplay doesn't feel as vital to the whole package as the story but this time around the story is pretty hit and miss. I really like Ellie and Dina's relationship, it feels like it evolves quite organically and the chatter is usually entertaining. It's a bit jarring playing as Abbie to begin with, especially when the gameplay switches entirely to her about halfway through - I actively disliked her in the early parts of that section so I didn't care about her dying at all. She grew on me as the game wore on but I think the way that they structured things really killed the pacing at times. The stealth sections were definitely the most enjoyable, the only time in the game that I felt truly engaged with the gameplay, but the game still suffers from the usual Naughty Dog problems - the 'harder' enemies just being bullet sponges being one of the most apt gripes here. It was a decent game though, not deserving of either the absolute vitriol or praise it's been getting.

Next up was Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 on Switch, I think I only played the first one through once but I enjoyed it's old school Castlevania vibes. I spent more time with this one so I got more out of it, completing each of the episodes. Even on casual mode it was pretty challenging at times but there was plenty of variation in the level design and bosses. Absolutely worth the money to get that authentic Castlevania feel.

I followed that up with A Short Hike. I'd never actually seen what this game looked like, I had just heard through word of mouth that it was a must play little indie game so when it showed up in the Nintendo Indie Showcase I fell in love with the DS-style visuals and was surprised when the title came up at the end. I bought it straight away and played through it day or so later and it didn't really live up to my expectations. It was cute and charming but I don't think I was in the right state of mind to get the most out of it, I found myself rushing through bits so I think I'll have to play it again and devote some more time to exploring every little nook and cranny.

I set up my Wii U again in a bid to knock out that side of my backlog but the first game I fired up was a virtual console game, Pokemon Snap. I played little bits of it when I was younger, my cousin had a copy, but I never owed it myself so it was mostly new to me. Again another one that didn't really grab me, it was fun in short bursts but I never felt properly invested in it and didn't feel that I really improved in my technique at all. I can see why people love it so much, and I'll definitely check out the sequel on Switch, but it seemed just about average to me.

Finishing August and sneaking into September, I played through Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected. It was nice to see Monolith revisit the world of the first game in this short epilogue but it does feel a bit tacked on, the battle system especially is not as engaging as it is in the main game - it's as if they discount all that you learn through the main adventure and force you to learn entirely different mechanics. Because of this I found some battles a lot tougher than they probably should have been but I managed to brute force them eventually. The additional story never really impressed me, apart from a couple of scenes at the end, but the Ponspectors were a thoroughly charming addition to the series.

Lastly I finished Star Fox Guard yesterday afternoon. I got the physical version of the game in a special edition of Star Fox Zero back in 2016, I played through Zero immediately and gave Guard about twenty minutes or so but it didn't click with me - it's been on my backlog all that time so I finally decided to bite the bullet and play through it. I've never played a tower defence game before so the gameplay was pretty much brand new to me but juggling the gamepad and the TV screen at the same time made things more challenging than they should have been, especially at first. Similarly to Pokemon Snap, I never really felt like I improved at the game just that more abilities and equipment was opened up as I progressed through the story. It has that dumb Star Fox charm to it in places, Grippy should definitely get a cameo in the next mainline game, but its presentation is a bit ropey in places.

Will try and be a bit more prompt next month, hopefully after getting through a few more games before September closes out.

Edited September 14, 2020 by killthenet

[Aperson]

ASSUMING CONTROL OF THIS THREAD!

 

WE ARE HARBINGER YOU WILL WATCH THIS VID...

...ahem sorry abut that.

 

Anyway, the new episode of Let's Play Metroid Prime 3 Corruption is out now though going by viewing figures it seems Friday is a terrible day to upload so I won't be uploading the finale on a Friday, it will be on Saturday instead.

 

 

 

That being said, I have yet to record the last two parts, plan to do that in one recording session.

[Scratch]

Well I just finished all the missions in Command & Conquer Remastered Collection on normal difficulty. I'm certain I'll want to replay it one day so next time I'll do it on Hard difficulty.

Now I just really hope they remaster Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2! I can play the originals through community patches, but even so they're still very crashy/buggy unfortunately, which I guess is just due to them being designed for such an older version of Windows. So hopefully TS and RA2 will get the remaster treatment. The devs have said this one sold well, so hopefully.

C&C3 still runs fine and looks pretty modern, so I don't think that needs a Remaster at this point.

I'll probably return to Horizon Zero Dawn next. And that'll keep me going until Super Mario Galaxy.