Your 2021 Gaming Diary

[Hero-of-Time]

Thanks for the detailed review, @Julius. Fantastic stuff.

I've always wanted to dip my toe into the series but have never got around to doing so. I picked them up digitally on the Vita a fair few years back now when they were selling them for something stupid like £2.00 each. One of these days I'll actually sit down and play them. 

The early entries in the series are rated very highly by JRPG fans but, like so many franchises, it seems the series went downhill as it went on. 

[drahkon]

Great write-up @Julius  

Have the games on my Vita, tried the first one a few times but hated the battle system...never gone back. It's a shame as I've only heard great things about Suikoden...

[Cube]

Day of the Tentacle. Really enjoyed it, even if moving stuff between time zones is a faff. Plenty of humour and interesting puzzles.

WET. Felt like playing an over the top mindless shooter, this fit the bill. It's styled like a low budget B-movie being played at a drive in theatre. Lots of slow-mo and diving, good fun.

Star Wars Racer Revenge Not quite as good as Episode 1 Racer. AotC Anakin podracing just seems strange.

[Aperson]

23 hours ago, LazyBoy said:

That'll be the day I pick up a PS5. With all the previous games I waited a while after launch before playing them, but I feel like I've missed out on something by waiting. They're real event games in that everyone is talking about them when they release, discovering secrets as a community and formulating game styles. There's also the temptation of just googling where the best weapons are, or boss strategies, which isn't there yet at launch. So yeah - day 1.

I can kind of see what you mean. I originally picked up Dark Souls a few years ago with the intention of playing through the entire series, with the reasoning being all my irl friends are in to the game and the series and it was a critically acclaimed game... several years later I'm still yet to beat the original Dark Souls never mind tackle any of its sequels. Its slightly annoying really because I see many people who have beaten multiple Soulsbourne games including a friend who started at Bloodbourne and subsequently has played the entire FromSoftware Souls catalogue yet I only ever got about halfway through the game and struggle to get very far in the first phase against Ornstein and Smough. I put the game down years ago and keep finding new games to play while Dark Souls remains untouched. This is not a good sign for Dark Souls because games like that in my collection that end up in that state can take anywhere from 6-14 years to finally get around to finishing, by which point I don't have much motivation to play the rest of the series

[Hero-of-Time]

34 minutes ago, Cube said:

Day of the Tentacle. Really enjoyed it, even if moving stuff between time zones is a faff. Plenty of humour and interesting puzzles.

I love this game. I played it loads as a youngster but never actually finished it. When the PS4 version arrived I snapped it up and finally seen the end of the game. It's a classic Lucasarts game and for me it's up there with Monkey Island.

Did you ever play the first game (Maniac Mansion) back on the NES? That's another one that me and my friends played to death when we were kids. 

[Cube]

3 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I love this game. I played it loads as a youngster but never actually finished it. When the PS4 version arrived I snapped it up and finally seen the end of the game. It's a classic Lucasarts game and for me it's up there with Monkey Island.

Did you ever play the first game (Maniac Mansion) back on the NES? That's another one that me and my friends played to death when we were kids. 

Haven't played it. I have no idea why they haven't remastered it. 

They also need to remaster Curse of Monkey Island (same style, just higher resolution) and Escape of Monkey Island (same treatment as Grim Fandando...although would be better as a 2D remake).

[Goron_3]

17 minutes ago, Aperson said:

I can kind of see what you mean. I originally picked up Dark Souls a few years ago with the intention of playing through the entire series, with the reasoning being all my irl friends are in to the game and the series and it was a critically acclaimed game... several years later I'm still yet to beat the original Dark Souls never mind tackle any of its sequels. Its slightly annoying really because I see many people who have beaten multiple Soulsbourne games including a friend who started at Bloodbourne and subsequently has played the entire FromSoftware Souls catalogue yet I only ever got about halfway through the game and struggle to get very far in the first phase against Ornstein and Smough. I put the game down years ago and keep finding new games to play while Dark Souls remains untouched. This is not a good sign for Dark Souls because games like that in my collection that end up in that state can take anywhere from 6-14 years to finally get around to finishing, by which point I don't have much motivation to play the rest of the series

For what it's worth, Orstein and Smough is, hands down, the hardest boss in the entire franchise. I hit a brick wall and ended up grinding from level 47 to 61 just for that fight (as well as levelling up my pyromancy and Estus flask). 

I'd highly recommend getting back into the franchise. Dark Souls 3 and BB are superb. The only let down is DS2 which isn't worth your time imo.

[Hero-of-Time]

5 minutes ago, Cube said:

Haven't played it. I have no idea why they haven't remastered it. 

It could do with remake as it hasn't aged that well. Not sure if you knew this or not but you can access it in Day of the Tentacle. It's a fun way to play around with the original game and see how it all started.

[Hero-of-Time]

2 minutes ago, Goron_3 said:

I'd highly recommend getting back into the franchise. Dark Souls 3 and BB are superb. The only let down is DS2 which isn't worth your time imo.

Everyone says that about DS2 and it's why I never moved on to it after finishing DS1, despite it being sat on my shelf. I simpy can't go straight to the third game without playing the second. My brain won't let me.   

[Aperson]

13 minutes ago, Goron_3 said:

For what it's worth, Orstein and Smough is, hands down, the hardest boss in the entire franchise. I hit a brick wall and ended up grinding from level 47 to 61 just for that fight (as well as levelling up my pyromancy and Estus flask). 

I'd highly recommend getting back into the franchise. Dark Souls 3 and BB are superb. The only let down is DS2 which isn't worth your time imo.

Fair enough. I just checked my file and I'm level 54. Will try and grind for a bit to get up to Level 61.#

 

EDIT: I was wearing Elite Knight Armour. A lack of manovarability might be why I struggled to much to be able to beat either of them! That explains quite a bit now...

Edited February 2, 2021 by Aperson

[LazyBoy]

2 hours ago, Aperson said:

I can kind of see what you mean. I originally picked up Dark Souls a few years ago with the intention of playing through the entire series, with the reasoning being all my irl friends are in to the game and the series and it was a critically acclaimed game... several years later I'm still yet to beat the original Dark Souls never mind tackle any of its sequels. Its slightly annoying really because I see many people who have beaten multiple Soulsbourne games including a friend who started at Bloodbourne and subsequently has played the entire FromSoftware Souls catalogue yet I only ever got about halfway through the game and struggle to get very far in the first phase against Ornstein and Smough. I put the game down years ago and keep finding new games to play while Dark Souls remains untouched. This is not a good sign for Dark Souls because games like that in my collection that end up in that state can take anywhere from 6-14 years to finally get around to finishing, by which point I don't have much motivation to play the rest of the series

I know some think co-oping is pussying out, but for me its integral to the experience. Give me a shout if you ever want help pushing through Dark Souls.

2 hours ago, Goron_3 said:

For what it's worth, Orstein and Smough is, hands down, the hardest boss in the entire franchise. I hit a brick wall and ended up grinding from level 47 to 61 just for that fight (as well as levelling up my pyromancy and Estus flask). 

I'd highly recommend getting back into the franchise. Dark Souls 3 and BB are superb. The only let down is DS2 which isn't worth your time imo.

Orphan of Kos for me - doesn't let you breathe, where I think with O&S you can kite them fairly easily.

[Aperson]

For what it's worth I'm playing the PS3 version.

 

Anyway, now I'm just grinding souls to power up my new Crimson Armourset which actually allows me to move better. Looks like I'm going to need Titanite Chunks to power up the Crystal Halberd which is the recommended weapon according to people online and the only reasonable way to get those seems to be killing the stupidly OP Sentinels in the hallway before Ornstein and Smough but I have a strategy for them and that strategy is to snipe them with arrows.

[Goron_3]

59 minutes ago, Aperson said:

For what it's worth I'm playing the PS3 version.

 

Anyway, now I'm just grinding souls to power up my new Crimson Armourset which actually allows me to move better. Looks like I'm going to need Titanite Chunks to power up the Crystal Halberd which is the recommended weapon according to people online and the only reasonable way to get those seems to be killing the stupidly OP Sentinels in the hallway before Ornstein and Smough but I have a strategy for them and that strategy is to snipe them with arrows.

I found it super easy to grind and level up in those areas because a shield-parry against the armoured knights became second nature, and they give around 1000 experience each. I'd usually gain 30K exp every 10 minutes. interesting to see you're playing on PS3 - the 60 FPS remasters were a god send. Good luck!

[Aperson]

Haha. I'm surprised this game does chug so much with the frame rate, perhaps it was too ambitious for PS3!

 

Is it worth killing the Fire Keeper in Anor Londo? I only have +1 on my Estus Flask, most people I see doing Ornstein and Smough have +2. There's a bonfire lower down in Anor Londo with not many enemies between it and the normal one so I don't feel so bad about not having access to the bonfire near the start.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Aperson

[Goron_3]

37 minutes ago, Aperson said:

Haha. I'm surprised this game does chug so much with the frame rate, perhaps it was too ambitious for PS3!

 

Is it worth killing the Fire Keeper in Anor Londo? I only have +1 on my Estus Flask, most people I see doing Ornstein and Smough have +2. There's a bonfire lower down in Anor Londo with not many enemies between it and the normal one so I don't feel so bad about not having access to the bonfire near the start.

Without derailing the thread too much, you should have around +3/4 on your Estus flask right now. If not, spend some time topping them up (there's an easy one to get in New Londo Ruins) and kindle the bonfire nearest O&S so that you're getting 10 EF refills for the fight.

Delighted to say that I can contribute another game to this thread....*drum roll*

Donkey Kong Country (SNES, via Switch Online)

I played this game briefly as a kid and remember it made quite an impact on me but I've never played it since. Right off the bat, I've got to say that I think this game controls wonderfully - there's a real sense of momentum to DK / Diddy and I actually think this game feels better to play than games like Super Mario World. Graphically it's also excellent but I did find that DK's sprite is just way too large. Generally speaking I much preferred just playing as my main man Diddy (I'm guessing the sprite size is part of the reason why Diddy is the main character in 2?). I wish the game had more minecart levels but hey, no one's perfect.

I must confess that I abused the rewind function to get rid of most of my deaths. I'm half tempted to play the game and play it properly. It's not that the game is necessarily hard but I have a tendency to just sprint and jump, maintaining momentum and never really taking my time. There were a few levels late on in the game where I probably should have just changed my approach instead of relying on the rewind, but hey ho.

Overall it's a solid 9/10. I've heard the sequel is considered better so I'm looking forward to checking it out.

[Julius]

Finished a pretty short but wonderfully done game this evening for the Video Game Club. I'll keep it brief and just be posting my initial impressions here, trying to steer clear from any major revelations in the game, before posting my further thoughts after I've let it ruminate a little longer in the Club's thread (which I'll throw in at the end of this post in a spoiler tag for my own future reference). 

WHAT REMAINS OF EDITH FINCH | 2017

Developed by Giant Sparrow and published by Annapurna Interactive, What Remains of Edith Finch is a great example of how effective interactive storytelling, brilliant writing, and a well-designed space can come together to form something much more than the sum of its parts.

As Edith, we make our way through the Finch family household, learning about the ways in which a perceived curse has long afflicted the family through the generations. Edith's words artfully populate the house and its surrounding environments as you explore many nooks and crannies, a place filled with character in each room which consistently characterises the Finch family members with aplomb. Throughout you'll find yourself lightly interacting with objects, locks, and doors, as you dive deeper and deeper into some form of understanding of the curse, eventually finding diary entries which recounts how the curse affected a particular family member, putting you in their shoes as their lives are changed permanently. Each family member feels unique, from their handwriting to the layout of their room, the way they sound, sometimes even how their story is delivered visually, and, most importantly, the way in which their recounting of the events of the curse unfold: one moment you'll be making a wind-up frog jump around, the next you'll be flying a kite across a beach, or soaring across the sky. Whatever it is, these short vignettes allow you to peer - however briefly - into the lives of the Finch family's members, and sometimes, even into their own psyche. I've spoken before about how video games and interactive storytelling can be a great way to instill empathy and share an experience others might be without, and at its highest points, this game delivers on that promise. 

The game is brief, coming in at around 2 hours long, yet manages to get a lot done in that time in its illustration of these characters and the atmosphere of the Finch house. While there are no standout tracks, the music in this game is pretty much exactly what it needs to be, ambiently imbuing scenes with the right emotion or atmosphere time and again, though there is one standout scene in particular involving music which comes to mind which had me grinning from ear-to-ear; if you've played the game, you'll have no doubt what I'm talking about. Lighting, the placement of objects in a room, how tidy rooms are - or aren't - and the narrow spaces connecting these rooms all feed into this game developing a unique atmosphere which reminds me of returning to a place without a loved one around anymore: while there's a melancholy and emptiness to the Finch house, it was very clearly once a place of warmth and a lot of love. 

As much as there is to praise about this game, it does have some shortcomings, which I'd be remiss to mention. Most noticeably on my playthrough, the framerate would occasionally tank in a very noticeable way. It wasn't anything game-breaking, mind, but it would occasionally take me out of the experience and shatter the illusion of immersion that a first-person game is normally reaching for. While the events brought to life from diaries and letters are often very well done, and I love the variety of gameplay styles and the way in which they are uniquely framed, there were one or two which fell a bit flat to me, in that they were a little janky at times to control where the game had otherwise done a brilliant job of leading you through its controls by intuition, and one felt rather uninspired when compared with the rest. Maybe it's not a particular weakness of that story but rather speaks to the strength of others, but my initial impression is that it was a small step down from the rest. 

Those small nitpicks aside, I think What Remains of Edith Finch is nothing short of a masterpiece. If you haven't played it already, I heartily recommend that you do; turn out the lights, stick some headphones on, and put yourself in someone else's shoes for a couple of hours. You won't regret it. 

Spoiler

To get the things I don't like about the game out of the way first, on a technical level: I played it on my PS5 through backwards compatibility, and the frame rate dips were very noticeable at times, which took me out of my immersion (in a dark room, with headphones on - something I find myself rarely doing) a little bit. On a gameplay level: I thought leaping from branch to branch when playing as Molly while she's a cat was pretty janky in terms of how it felt, and for that part where she was swooping down as an owl too; flying the kite as Gus was probably the weakest level for me by some margin, it felt a little uninspired, though it was a neat enough way to mix things up. 

That's me nitpicking, though. That aside, I absolutely adored this game. 

It's not only short, but it's brilliantly paced and directed. You're always engaged by doing something, whether playing through a short segment as a member of the Finch family, looking around for how to make it through to the next room, or just interacting with the environment, but it never feels overwhelming. The game forces your perspective a bit throughout, keeping paths or stairs just barely out of sight until you've looked around, the most memorable instance of which for me was walking out towards the little bridge where you climb through a window to access Milton's paintings, and when you walk out, you notice you walked past a path, which must have been barely out of view, to your right which leads up to the next area. Doors, hidden passages, it all feels so natural a guide in taking you forwards, and I thought the house was really well designed in this way too. 

My favourite level is the longest level by some margin, and I'm sure the one most think back to when playing this game: Lewis's time at the cannery.

To all those who say storytelling has no place in video games, this is where I'll be pointing them moving forwards, because I think it's the best and briefest example of what I think introspective video game storytelling aims for: to make the player empathetic, because you can actually, in a virtual space, put them in someone else's shoes.

I can't tell you what it's like to go crazy, to become so immersed in my own fantasies to distract me from the pains of life, that it takes over my peripheral vision to the point that I stay past the end of the day, but I can experience, to a very limited extent, what that might be like for someone by playing through this level. 

Monotonously dragging a fish from the left, to the right, cutting off its head, and tossing it forwards, all in a dark space surrounded by a sea of greys and browns. Through gameplay, we are instantly connected with Lewis in that this is boring and repetitive work, plain and simple.

He starts to imagine, very simply at first, a different world, and as the player, it immediately grabs our attention and is much more engaging than the work we were doing before: it's brighter and more vibrant, and a little more complex than the process we were going through of beheading fish before, drilled home by the fact that we control Lewis's character in this imaginary world all while we continue to behead fish. 

It slowly becomes more complex, as the imaginary world then goes from being simply top-down and us navigating a maze, to isometric and guiding a ship, before it starts flinging options our way as we sail towards the next goal on Lewis's imaginary conquests. And later on in the sequence, as more and more of the screen is taken over, we eventually go all-in on living in this imaginary world as Lewis, fully immersing himself in it from a first-person perspective in a 3D space, before he guides himself to his untimely and gruesome demise. 

It's brilliant storytelling, and it's brilliant level design, and while it's my favourite example of it in the game, there are certainly other strong levels. Gregory's drowning, while incredibly bleak for his age and also considering what his parents were going through with the divorce, fully erupts into a Fantasia-esque sequence backed by Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers, and it's so colourful, and brilliant, and the only case (that I remember) in the game where we get to experience a bit more than a sudden cut to black and his death; it's almost as if Gregory died peacefully, at least when compared with the other deaths in the game. Barbara's comic book style murder was brilliantly done as well, and I really think the narration went a long way to setting the tone throughout that segment. All of the levels just feel so unique, and even if some are certainly stronger than others, a lot of the weaker ones are on the shorter end, so it's hard to complain. 

Something I don't think really mentioned with this game is how there aren't any controls pointed out to you, and you kind of just feel your way around the controller to figure things out, and I really love that. Using the triggers to swing back and forth to get higher and higher as Calvin comes to mind as I type this, it was such an instinctive thing in sure most of us figured out pretty much immediately? Which is amazing, especially considering I feel this is something all of the levels have in common.

Also, I don't know if it was just that I had something to focus on while walking around the house when compared with how The Unfinished Swan surrounds you in a sea of white, but I didn't find myself feel nauseous at all playing this, which is definitely something I feel is worth mentioning as someone who normally takes a bit of time to adjust to first-person perspectives in games. 

What Remains of Edith Finch is easily one of my favourite indie experiences, and a very memorable one at that.

 

Edited February 5, 2021 by Julius

[Aperson]

I guess I'd better make it official in the game diary then.

 

So yeah, back to playing Dark Souls (PS3) again. As mentioned above I'm still stuck on Onrstein and Smough but I have changed my build to a more Dexterity focused one and have been focused on levelling up that particular stat. I am now far more manoverable and can dodge Ornstein and Smough's attacks but I'm finding my biggest problem being that it's so easy for them to just kill you out of nowhere. When trying to avoid their attacks I sometimes end up pressed against the wall by both of them and it becomes incredibly difficult to escape and roll away from both.

 

Like some sort of madman I have grinded all the way up to Level 70. Like some inexperienced madman my stats were incredibly balanced with a lot of them in their 20s, I have since changed that by only levelling up Dexterity. I can now three shot the Sentinels I've been grinding for and one hit on Ornstein does more than a bar's worth of damage. The only thing left to do is get a good rhythm for the fight and pay more attention to their tells. I have learned all their attacks and generally know how to dodge them all, I'm using the pillars as my safe point most of the time and focusing on Ornstein, more specifically hitting Ornstein if I manage to dodge the room lunge or whatever its called.

 

I'm also intending to grind up a single level after a certain amount of failed attempts, just so that I can feel like I'm making some sort of progress and it becomes easier to kill Ornstein while allowing me to save Flask if needed >.>

[drahkon]

Finished Borderlands 3 with a new character again.
This time I rushed through the story and power leveled the character in order to catch up with two mates.

There's been quite a few additions/revamps since I last played the game. Pretty much higher difficulties with modifiers and better loot. A lot of fun. Still the best "loot-shooter" out there.

Now that my mates also got the first season pass we're going to play through all DLC from that.

Already looked up a build I wanna pursue. Gonna be lots of fun getting the gear, playing through the DLCs (which are supposed to be quite good) and just having a great time with my friends

[killthenet]

First game I finished this year was Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, it's my first musou game so I wasn't sure what I was going to think to it but I got into it pretty quickly. It's disappointing that it's set in an alternate timeline, I was hoping we'd get to play through the actual prelude to BOTW - replete with all the death and destruction - but it's clear from basically the first moment that it's telling an alternate version of events. I was surprised by how much subtlety there is to the gameplay, my impression of the genre was that it's just a lot of button mashing without much strategy but, while there is still plenty of button mashing here, there are more levels to the combat than I had expected. It does a great job at utilising BOTW mechanics and translating them to musou gameplay, it's obviously a lot more rigid but you can still experiment with Sheikah runes to some extent and a lot of the charm from BOTW is present here too. One of the biggest surprises for me was how well it ran, I was expecting it to tank constantly and for the resolution to be dire but it is actually pretty consistent - sure, it doesn't run amazingly but the fact that it runs as well as it does is pretty impressive. I had a blast playing through it, even if the narrative wasn't as impactful as I had hoped, so I'm curious to check out the first Hyrule Warriors at some point down the line. 

I have been slowly working my way through the mainline Kirby games so I picked up Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards on the Wii U VC and played through it over the space of a couple of nights. It's absolutely a Kirby game, packed full of the charm I've come to expect from the series, but it's probably one of the weakest entries I've played thus far. There aren't really any major criticisms I can level against it, it doesn't do a lot wrong but it doesn't mix things up that much - the main hooks of the game are the 2.5d perspective and the ability to combine some copy abilities, a mechanic that I didn't really engage with that much. The ending feels like an anticlimax too, the final boss battle is way too short but like I said, still packed with charm and some fantastic music so it's a fun game to play through but I was hoping for a little bit more from it. As an aside, playing through Kirby 64 made me really annoyed we didn't get a 2.5d Metroid game on the N64 - it could have been incredible.

I picked up When The Past Was Around when it came out on Switch a few weeks ago and spent an evening playing through it towards the end of January. It's a gorgeous point and click adventure game, telling the story of a young woman grieving for her partner. Everything is centred around memories, collecting groups of objects that each have sentimental value to the characters, taking you deeper into their relationship. The main characters are musicians, so melody plays a big part in linking the memories and the soundtrack gradually grows more complex and vibrant as the game progresses. It's another short but sweet game, it takes about 2 - 3 hours to make it through the story, and I really engaged with it, definitely recommend it to anyone who loves games like Florence.

Finally I played DOOM III, also on Switch. I had never played a DOOM game until I picked up the first one in late 2019, since then I have been slowly working my way through the whole series and this is my favourite one so far. It reminded me a lot of Alien Isolation at times, just with more firepower at your disposal, it's much slower paced than previous entries which probably rubs some people the wrong way but it works better for me. I like how atmospheric it could feel at times, really feels like a survival horror game at certain moments - the desperate search for healing items when low on health, worried that you could be ambushed at any moment, I wasn't really a fan of the story but it did what it had to do I suppose, my main issue with the game is how ugly the human character models are - they look like they've been transferred into the game from a cheap mid-00's cg cartoon, just horrible to look at. Like I say though, overall I enjoyed it, the fact that its more modern in terms of design than the first few entries is probably a big factor in that so I'm keen to check out the 2016 reboot to see if I enjoy that even more.

Still can't get a PS5 so my Switch is going to be busy for a while yet - I might look to my PS3 and other older consoles to help share the load, still plenty of games on my backlog for those systems too.

Edited February 3, 2021 by killthenet

[martinist]

Started playing Bulletstorm: Full Clip this afternoon after having it sit in my library for a year or so. Not too far in but it teaches the mechanics of the game pretty well from the start. The whole leash and kicking mechanics are pretty fun too.

Still trying to get 120 stars in mario Galaxy, i think i'm around 75-80 so far, shouldn't be too long. Then I do it all again with Luigi.

[Cube]

Played a bit of Clustertruck but it's not as fun as the videos looked and was quite frustrating.

Just played through GoldenEye and it's great fun with a modern control scheme. 

[Hero-of-Time]

Like a couple others on here, January was a bit of a mop up month. I spent a large amount of time earning the platinums for both Yakuza 7 and Kingdom Hearts Melody. The credits had rolled for each of them but the platinum grind was real in both games.

I moved on to Avengers and also seen the credits roll on that game. Sadly, this is another game requires a large grind for the platinum. I continued playing it throughout the month but I'm still needing to put in a heck of a lot more time in order to grab the trophies. It's one that I'll continue to pick away at during the next few months.

I've continued to jump in and out of Worms Rumble. I put a fair bit of time into last weekend due to it being double exp for a couple of days. I'm still only just over halfway through the ranks. Again, the grind is real and it's another game I'll continue to pop in and out of inbetween other stuff.

I final managed to play through and beat Final Fantasy II. The game was average at best but I'm glad I can now say I have beaten the game. Plus, I wouldn't mind trying to play through a JRPG every month. I fell short of this goal last year for a few reasons and do I'll have another crack at it this year. 

The final games I beat in January were Cyber Shadow and A Short Hike. Both are great games, with CS having a very satisfying platinum trophy.

As for this month, I've yet to settle on anything yet. I need to pick a JRPG to play and I fancy playing a few more indie games this month. I've still got a couple in the PS4 backlog that I could dip into. There's also a decent sale on PSN at the moment and I'm quite tempted to pick up DeBlob for a couple of quid. I loved it back on the Wii but have never played it since. It may be worth a punt at that price just to see how it holds up.

[Nicktendo]

Haven't beat any games in the past few days, but I thought I'd provide a little update.

I'm 12 hours into XC2: Torna and struggling to beat Malos in the city square, need to level up a bit more I think. I preferred the battle system in the base game, truth be told.

No progress to report in Final Fantasy IX, what a surprise!

I've been achievement hunting in Panzer Dragoon and I'm finding it more enjoyable. Gearing up for a run though on hard mode!

I went back and 100%'d The Gardens Between using a guide. I'll probably play thorough it again some time soon. Second Steam game "Platinumed".

I've done the third Dark World dungeon in Link to the Past and am having a whale of a time. I still want to try and beat every Zelda game (that I own) this year.

I've finally remodelled my town in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and have quite a bit of free space, currently buying everything for the "Festivale" and making a zone for all that garbage. 

I switched on my 3DS for the first time in almost a year the other night, my R button is broken, looking into getting a 2DS (clamshell), they're about 150 Euros 

I'm now at 90 Stars in Super Mario Galaxy and may have to revise my podcast assessment. The later half of the game is considerably better than the first half. 

That's all, peace out. 

Edited February 4, 2021 by Nicktendo

[Aperson]

After much extensive griding and a complete rethink about how I've been levelling up my character, as well as more deaths that helped me learn the boss battle and it's mechanics... I have finally beaten Ornstein and Smough! As soon as I got to the second phase for the first time and began to realise how much easier that second phase is I felt that if I can find a way to make the first phase take shorter I can beat it. Eventually I realised that instead of just spacing by a pillar and waiting for Ornstein to charge at me, dodging the charge and attacking from there... it was far quicker to just hide behind the nearest pillar that forces both of them in your eyesight. For the most part their attacks cannot hurt you if you are standing behind a pillar and that made it easier to close in on Ornstein and atatack. With about 38 Dexterity or something my +5 Silver Spear did quite a lot of damage to Ornstein with every hit, so much so that Ornstein went down in 9 hits.

 

From there, Smough was mostly manageable and I stuck to a simple strategy of circle strafing around hium, except if he used his Lightning butt stomp. Until I got hit by a horizontal attack while doing this. As soon as I realised that, I changed my attacks and... that was the successful attempt. Remembering the fighting specifics from the Soulcalibur series in how the 8 way run allows you to dodge vertical attacks but still leaves you vulnerable to horizontal moves I started to watch more carefully WHERE Smough was swingin his hammer and punished his vertical moves, rolling back from the horizontal ones. This paid off, I was able to down Smough and now I have the Lordvessel.

 

My next plan is to go to the Catacombs and go after Nito. Supposedly the easiest of the four major bosses I'm supposed to go after. From there I'm going for Seath, then Four Kings and then go after Izalith.

[Jonnas]

3 hours ago, Nicktendo said:

I switched on my 3DS for the first time in almost a year the other night, my R button is broken, looking into getting a 2DS (clamshell), they're about 150 Euros 

Does the R button still move and click like the L button? Could be just some bad contact, which is happening with mine as well. I tried to:

• Go old-school cartridge on it and blow underneath it (I even used a toothpick to keep the button lifted);
• Press the R button more softly. Repeated hammering wouldn't work, but softly keeping it pressed would register.

Depending on the day, either or both methods can spring some life back to my R button. Though it has been a while since it last acted up.

Edited February 4, 2021 by Jonnas