Your Gaming Diary 2022

[drahkon]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Have you played it before? It's a cracking platformer. 

I have not.

It definitely shows its age. Not from a technical standpoint (the art style is awesome, and the performance is great) but the actual platforming is a little clunky.
I'm getting used to it, though, so it can only get better  

One thing I don't like is the vaults. Most of them so far could only be opened after you collected other collectibles and backtracked to those stupid little safes. It's quite annoying  

Also: Bentley's voice is stupid. 

[Hero-of-Time]

1 minute ago, drahkon said:

I have not.

It definitely shows its age. Not from a technical standpoint (the art style is awesome, and the performance is great) but the actual platforming is a little clunky.
I'm getting used to it, though, so it can only get better  

One thing I don't like is the vaults. Most of them so far could only be opened after you collected other collectibles and backtracked to those stupid little safes. It's quite annoying  

Also: Bentley's voice is stupid. 

Yeah, it's definitely a product of its time. I do miss those types of games though. 

[drahkon]

2 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, it's definitely a product of its time.

Very true.

I did get used to it, though. Just finished the first world and I'm in love.  

The new moves you get are kind of unnecessary and it's a shame that you apparently have to get the "view all collectibles through the binoculars"-ability in every world separately, but the game plays very well, even with the occasional jank.

 

[drahkon]

*ehem*

Excuse me, this is an announcement.

FUCK THOSE STUPID CAR RACES IN Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus.

Thank you and good night.

[drahkon]

Took a small break from Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus after completing the third world and bought Neophyte for 1.10€.

Aptly described as a "mini hack-n-slash roguelike" it is exactly what you expect. You play as a little guy, collect spells and powerups and hack-n-slash/cast your way through waves of enemies.
Very simple, but incredibly fun  

Some gifs from its ich.io page:

                     

I finished the game once on the first run (which also included the tutorial) and unlocked a higher difficulty which will throw elite enemies at me. Will definitely give this a go tomorrow.  

[drahkon]

On 2/11/2022 at 6:53 PM, drahkon said:

FUCK THOSE STUPID CAR RACES IN Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus.

And fuck every other level that has some kind of gimmick like twin-stick shooting or rail-shooting (which are both horrible in this game).  
The actual platforming is great, but man oh man, those gimmicky levels are ASSFUCKERY. They are full of jank and occasionally have annoying RNG that can fuck you over.

I'm in the final world, though, so not much left. But this final world is full of assfuckery...I'm not a happy man.

[drahkon]

Nobody asked for a quintuple post but here it is:

Here's what I didn't like:

• the music
• the gimmicky levels and their ridiculous amount jank
• the camera was all over the place at times, resulting in a few deaths
• collectibles that require you to backtrack a lot or collectibles that are missable (not a huge deal, as there's a chapter select)
• certain abilities trivialize the platforming sections
• that stupid turtle who sounds like a cliché nerd-kid from US teen movies - I hate him so much

Here's what I like:

• the graphics and art style - timeless and still looking good
• the actual platforming and stealth (until you get some OP abilities)
• the villains had a short, but sweet backstory (they mostly got bullied and then turned evil - not very creative but it works)

Yeah, some things to like, some things to hate. I'm giving it a solid 6/10.

Oh and also:

My third one this year  

[drahkon]

Last night I wanted to give a genre I've never dabbled with a go: Dungeon Crawler RPG.
Asked Google to get me some good ones, found out that the Etrian Odyssey series is awesome and also found out that I don't have a device to play these games  
Then I came across a reddit post which recommended Dungeon Travelers 2 on the PSVita. "Cool", I thought.

So I gave it a go.

I pressed on the bubble in the Vita main hub and was greeted with...boobs. Lots of boobs. Big ones, too. 
Played for a few minutes and got a panty-shot shoved in my face and the following line from the girl with the barely clothed ass:
"Gimme some of those inches!"

(to be fair, the girls were talking about the main character's height, not his ding-dong)

So yeah...it's a game with fanservice. Not really for me, even though I like boobs. Stopped playing it right then and there. Didn't even get to try the battle system
(By the way: not shaming anybody who's into these kinds of games. To each their own ).

Anyways, looking forward to Horizon: Forbidden West tomorrow  

[bob]

Stopped playing it right then and there.

Pretty sure everyone stops playing after 5 minutes don't they?

[drahkon]

1 hour ago, bob said:

Pretty sure everyone stops playing after 5 minutes don't they?

Edited February 17, 2022 by drahkon

[Hero-of-Time]

Between all the other games i've been playing, I managed to start and finish Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World.

I played through the original Mega Drive version of the game last month and really enjoyed it. I figured it would be best to get the remake played soon after so that everything was still fresh in my mind. Given how Alex Kidd and Panzer Dragoon remakes were handled, I didn't have high hopes for this one. However, I was pleasantly surprised how well this turned out.

A lot of the cute animations were still intact, the gameplay was spot on and some of the little changes they made worked great. I found that farming money in the version was far easier than in the original. On that version I always found it difficult to make money and that meant I never could really afford the best gear that was on sale. That wasn't the case here. Also, the save system was improved in that, outside of boss battles, you can save anywhere in the game. It certainly made the game less punishing, if a little easy at times. 

In terms of the trophy list, for some reason the original version and this one had different requirements for the platinum. The original game was far easier to get the platinum on, whereas with this version it required me to collect all 200 health drops, buy every weapon and armour and do a few other random tasks. Nothing to difficult, especially as I had essentially already played through the game before. 

Both versions of the game are great and I can recommend either of them if you fancy playing a platforming/adventure game from the Mega Drive era.

 

[Cube]

Fable Anniversary

 

I was surprised by how much of a complete mess this game is. It seemed very highly regarded, but is just so clunky in all aspects. The story itself started all over the place, the two thirds of the game felt like no coherent story, with the last third being about the blank slate character’s family. It just felt really jarring. 

The menu systems are also a complete mess, using items was a massive pain, as was selecting quests or even trying to see the map. 

I really didn’t enjoy this game at all.
 

Fable 2

Now this is much, much better. Gameplay is a ton of fun and the story has a structure. There’s a lot more interaction with other people, even if it is simple and Sims-like. The characters in the game - partially Hammer, Garth and Reaver - are extremely likeable. Quests are a lot of fun, too, with a lot of humour and some of the choices felt meaningful.
 

Fable 3

The first half of Fable 3 is great, providing more of what Fable 2 gave us. Everything seems to take a back seat when you become king and have to rule over the kingdom. There’s very little in the way of adventuring and quests from this point, and the choices are quite boring. The game gives you enough money to make all the “good” choices. On top of this, while Reaver is an enjoyable character in Fable 2, he’s downright insufferable in this one. 
 

Hypnospace Outlaw

A rather odd game where you’re a sort of moderator on a 90s inspired internet platform. You browse through looking for people who are breaking rules, while you are provided with certain tasks for important things that need removing.

Using the right search terms, finding the right links to stuff and solving puzzles set by the people using the service is required to get past the tasks, while you may fall for traps like wasting money on scams or accidentally installing a virus (forcing you to buy an anti-virus) - although sometimes you need to purposefully do this to find the incriminating content.
 

Telling Lies

An interesting sort of “game”. Telling Lies is mostly live action footage, mostly one-sided conversations taken from phones or webcams. Using a computer, you use search terms to find videos and watch them to try and understand the story. Each search only provides the top 5 results, so you have to get creative with terms. You can rewind/fast forward footage, and when paused you can highlight text to search. One annoying issue is the footage always starts at the search term, you can’t skip to the start, just hold rewind for ages.

The story that gets uncovered is interesting, and quite well acted - particularly when people are listening to someone else talk (that you can’t hear until you find the other side of the conversation). 
 

Destroy All Humans (Remake)

 

A lot of fun, with some frustrations. I was surprised as to how much sneaking and stealth is involved. The controls are quite “busy” due to the amount of things you can do, which resulted in some annoying moments and failed missions. 

You can blast people on the ground, describe yourself as other people (via holographic technology) and read minds. The missions are pretty rigid, requiring you to do the exact thing, not much messing around or experimenting involved. That said, it’s still fun. The boss fights really drag on a lot, though (the worst part is that they’re not difficult, just long), and it would have been nice to have more missions focusing on destroying humans. 
 

[drahkon]

 

Not perfect but an amazing achievement nonetheless.
A few glitches/bugs, some things that could do with QoL improvements (like picking up materials) and janky platforming (that was very annoying at times) take away that one point, leaving it at a 9/10 for me.

Still...I've had so much fun with H:FW that it ranks as one of the best games I've ever played.
If an open-world game with as many side activities as there are here can make me focus on the story for the majority of my playtime...you did a lot of things right with the writing. I loved the story but I wish a certain "tribe" was more prominent and not left for the last few missions. But there's potential for DLC and/or a sequel which I hope will expand on that.

The side-missions come close to the quality that has been set by The Witcher 3. It's easily the biggest improvement from H:ZD. 

Gameplay is top-notch. Fighting machines is better than ever. Stealth + traps, full on attack or a mix of both. Choose your poison. It's all viable.
Dealing with human enemies has improved, as well. 

I think I don't have to say much regarding graphics...everybody who said that this being cross-gen will hold the technical side back was wrong. Plain and simple.
Music and sounds are also awesome.

Decided to leave the Platinum for when the DLC arrives (I'm sure there will be one). I'll most likely play through the entire game again and go for 100% completion (or Platinum completion) eventually  

[Glen-i]

Right, about time that I updated this with the games I played this month. Gonna start off by quickly knocking off some games I played on Nintendo Switch Online. Not gonna go into too much detail on them, as I've already talked about them in the past.

 

 

There was one really funny moment in EarthBound that I need to share though.

Spoiler

I didn't even realise that was possible!

I might be a little late to the party on this one...

Hades is an action based roguelike (Shut up, @drahkon, I don't care) that was released in 2020. Developed by Supergiant games, it won more then a few Game of the Year awards, which is very impressive for an indie title.

Based around Greek Mythology, you play as Zagreus, the son of Hades, as he attempts to effectively run away from home. The issue is that the only way out is to traverse through the various places of the afterlife, and Hades has kinda gone out of his way to make sure that no-one can escape from the Underworld. Luckily, various other gods from Olympus are trying to help Zag out with various blessings.

The most interesting thing about Hades is that unlike most Roguelikes of it's nature, the plot is quite central to the gameplay. There's quite an intricate web of relationship issues between the many characters you meet along the way. This kind of omnipotent family drama serves as a really great incentive to play through the game. I found myself wanting to play just so I can talk to these characters. It's helped by the ridiculous amount of incidental dialogue, all fully voiced to boot. And it gets quite funny at times.

The plot is progressed every time you attempt to get outta the Underworld, it doesn't really matter if you're successful or not, you'll get a steady drip feed of dialogue each time you go back to the hub area. If you were to somehow get to the end on your first attempt, you wouldn't really get much out of the plot, weirdly enough.

And you'll likely die, you're gonna die a lot. The game is very difficult on your first attempt. But as you die over and over, you'll gradually unlock more and more features that all serve to make things easier for you to cope with. The various resources you pick up on each run can be used to power up Zagreus, unlock new weapons, get more equipment, and even change the kind of things you find in your escapades. It might take a few attempts (For me, it took 16 attempts), but you'll eventually make it. It's a matter of "when", not "if". And hey, even if it is too hard, there's a "God Mode" that reduces the amount of damage you take, and increases that reduction each time you die with it on.

I didn't need that, mind.

The inevitability of your success is probably why Hades has garnered much praise, it's a very accessible game for the genre it's in. This is by no means a bad thing, it's a very enjoyable loop that encourages that "Just one more go" mentality. It's all very much helped by the absolute slick gameplay. Zagreus is fluid and fun to control, and if you get hit, it's your fault. The only downside is that things are a little small on screen, so it can be quite hard to parse what is going on at times, especially in handheld mode. It's something I got used to over time.

The credits have rolled for me, but there's still plenty for me to mess with, so I'll be pulling tantrums and legging it to Uncle Zeus for quite a while yet. This game definitely deserved its rewards.

Spoiler

Spoiler

I am Setsuna
Metroid Dread, minus the Dread
Banjo-Kazooie (One hundred and Tooie %)
Banjo-Kazooie (100%, but faster)
Final Fantasy XIII-2
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
EarthBound Beginnings
EarthBound
Hades

 

[Jonnas]

On 07/01/2022 at 12:02 AM, Jonnas said:

So, the method for 2022 is that I'll try to at least finish one substantial game (10 hours or more to finish) per month. Said game should preferably be one I've been itching to tackle for a while, and/or represent something significant to my backlog.

I had quite the sombre PC game planned for February, but things didn't go as planned. Had some phone issues, my work ramped up significantly, and February turned out to be very sunny and dry, which killed the mood for darker games.

But there was a 3DS game I had started playing in late January that got me coming back a little bit every night, and fit this sunny month like a glove. Furthermore, I was almost done with it when Nintendo announced the eventual closure of the 3DS eShop, so I think it turned out quite apt. That game is...

Ever Oasis

Developed by Grezzo (of Zelda remakes fame) and released back in 2017 (a year that produced a lot of bangers), Ever Oasis was a full priced game for the 3DS. I actually got the digital version as early as 2018 (thank MyNintendo for giving me a discount), and it's been hovering tantalizingly on my backlog ever since. The game advertised itself as an RPG where you build and develop your own town (the titular oasis) when you're not adventuring. All of that is indeed correct, except for one detail: I wouldn't call it an RPG, it's more like a 3D Action-Adventure game (what even are genres, amirite?).

You start out with a dinky oasis with one resident, but by going out into the world, you can find more people that might want to live in your oasis, as well as find materials that'll keep your town running. The majority of residents will be able to open their specific type of store that'll bring business to the oasis (with each one requiring a specific type of material that needs to be periodically restocked), and those residents without stores tend to be better at fighting and adventuring.

The gameplay loop is pretty much this: you start the day, you check up on your local stores, restock those that need it, collect the crops from your garden, and then go out into the world to fulfill any variety of objectives. These objectives are usually "explore that new place because that's where the story advances" or "go to a specific spot because a sidequest requires you to go there". Or you can just go grind/farm for materials you're low on. Or just explore a spot you haven't seen yet because you want to. You eventually get access to options that allow you to delegate some of these tasks, too.

Sidequests are usually given by potential new residents ("I sure would live in this oasis if I had four Bat Wings!"), but as the game progresses and the stores grow, each individual resident will give you a specific sidequest connected to levelling up their store ("Could you come with me meet a merchant in that ominous cave? They have the goods I need to diversify my shelves."). As you unlock more residents, the space in your oasis will grow as well, and you'll be able to choose the best layout for your bazaars.

The adventure part of it kind of resembles Monster Hunter (or at least how I think of that series) in that you grab two residents from your Oasis, form a party, and go out to fight monsters in real time, usually by circling them and attacking them on their cooldown period. Each resident has strengths and weaknesses in combat (usually tied to their weapon), unique special moves (which I couldn't pull off because it was tied to the R button. There I was, thinking I was safe, and they introduce these about a third into the game...), and specific skills related to exploration and dungeon-solving.

Yes, there are quite a few Zelda-style dungeons that involve keys, chests, puzzles, and so on. These, alongside the real-time battles, are the main reason I wouldn't classify this game as an RPG, as it resembles Zelda far too much. In fact, if you're itching for traditional Zeldas, this game might be right up our alley, despite the unique Town Management side of it. Compared to Zelda, these are a bit more simplistic than usual, but the late-game dungeons really show that they know how to design more complex layouts and puzzles. They just took it easy in this game, likely to remain accessible.

There are a few flaws tied to this whole thing. First of all, dungeons and caves sometimes require specific party members to properly solve (for example, rocks that can only be broken by hammer-wielding residents), which means you'll need to go back to the oasis and switch your party every time you see one of these obstacles. You can just teleport to take care of this, but it still feels clumsy, I think the dungeons could've been better designed to prevent these arbitrary party swaps.

Another is that the combat and equipment side of the game feels... unimportant. There's like dozens and dozens of weapons, equipment, and accessories to collect and use, but there's no point to exploring this. The game automatically equips any party member you invite (including the main character), the in-combat buffs don't feel like they influence combat that much, and the main exception to this - the weapons - (the choice of using swords, boomerangs, staves, or bows brings entirely different playstyles) are clunky to equip, as it needs to be done in the oasis, in two specific spots. So we're generally encouraged to ignore this part of the game and stick to a sword the entire time.

Finally (and this is more subjective), I think there's some serious sidequest bloat here! The game showers you with sidequests the entire time, which can be seen as a positive, but it can get stressful if you're looking to fulfill everything. The game keeps track of all sorts of sidequests, but at the same time, it only allows you to tackle one at a time, which is weird. The fact that days go by surprisingly quickly can also make it feel like the quests are more urgent than they truly are. And when you couple this with your usual Oasis Management tasks, it can feel like you're sidetracked from the main quest a lot.

Story-wise, the game is cute and simple: there's a dark evil force in the desert known as "Chaos", and the Oasis is the only bastion of hope that fights it. What feels more interesting are the individual quests from your residents to level up shops, because they're tied to personal character arcs (one of them had an estranged daughter, another one feels his father's disapproval everywhere he goes, etc.). I think these had more potential, but they're very low-key in the grand scheme of the game.

Finally, it also should be noted, lovely aesthetic. It takes clear inspiration from desert-based fantasy, especially themed around Egyptian and Arabic culture (dungeons, clothes, etc.). Characters look super cute and adorable, even when they're a rough-skinned scorpion-cyclops. Enemies are quite varied, from your usual snakes and rodents, to stranger boulder-shaped spiders or giant monster pineapples. Also, the music is quite good, and fits the middle eastern feel perfectly, whether it be the intense overworld themes, the uptempo dungeon tunes, or the cozy and happy town music.

Overall, this feels like a solid 8/10. It's not the cream of the crop, but it's quite good, kept me coming back, and I certainly enjoyed my time with it. Despite some rough edges, Grezzo nailed the foundations with this game, and they could do an excellent sequel to this. Or even a solid new concept for an adventure game, allow their creativity to shine on their IPs, please.

  My 2022 log (Hide contents)

Played/Beat/Completed:

-Steamworld Dig 2 (2017) Completed (January 6th)

-Bit.Trip Saga (2009-2011) No Goal (January 15th)

-Ever Oasis (2017) Beat (February 25th)

 

Dropped:

-Dicey Dungeons (2019) (January 3rd)

-The Room (2012) (January 8th)

Originally, I thought for sure this was the penultimate game on my 3DS, with only one RPG left on that backlog... but because of the store's closure, I'll need to fill up my backlog all over again. Also, It's officially the last game from my old 3DS: while playing Ever Oasis, my L button started to act up in the same way as my R button! It was only one session, but it sure freaked me out. So I'll need to switch my account to another 3DS ASAP.

[Glen-i]

Add Majora's Mask to my list. Another game I've talked about before.

I posted plenty of silly videos on the NSO N64 thread, so look there if you want.

[Hero-of-Time]

Nice write up, @Jonnas. It's a game that I started playing when it was first released but then dropped it soon after. It's been sat on the shelf ever since. I want to play through it at some though.

[Hero-of-Time]

I managed to sneak 2 more games in before the end of Feb.

I picked this up earlier in the month as Amazon had it on sale for £20. I've been after it for a while now and that was the around the price I was looking to pay for it. All of the Neo Geo systems are consoles/handhelds I never had the privilege of owning, which isn't a surprise given the price of them. I was pleasantly surprised by what features are part of this package. Being able to look and rotate at the box and then look at the instructions and carts are very welcome additions.

I was looking forward to playing a few of the games in this collection and decided to start with...

Spoiler

Despite me playing a crazy amount of games and franchises across many a console in my time, I have never played a Metal Slug game. I figured what better way to start than with an entry called First Mission. I love the sprite work on offer here. They are really chunky and it's easy to see what things are supposed to be. No doubt this was done in order for the player to actually see what was going on when looking at the dark and tiny screen. As for the gameplay, it's a standard run and gun setup, with a few vehicle sections spread out throughout the game. Nothing special but fun nonetheless. I do appreciate what was accomplished on the hardware that was used though and look forward to seeing what the second game brings to the table.

The final game of the month is one I just finished this evening and that is...

Spoiler

Sheikah inspired this purchase. Amazon were selling the PS5 version for £12 and I decided to finally pick it up. Did I like it? Not really. I didn't care for the goofy take on the Greek mythology at all. I much prefer the more serious tone of something like God of War and this just didn't hit right with me. I also wasn't the biggest fan of the gameplay. The game borrows heavily from BOTW and the shrines in that game. In this game they are called vaults and I found them very tedious. One of the good things about the shrines in BOTW is that they were short and snappy experiences that could usually be solved in multiple ways if the player was willing to think outside of the box. In this game I found a lot of the vaults to outstay their welcome and they were all pretty linear in the sense that there was only one way of doing things.

Speaking of puzzles, there are a stupid amount of them plastered all around the world map. It's not really an open world action game and more of an open world puzzle game. You mark a chest on your map, fly over to it only to find you need to solve a bunch of tedious puzzles to allow you to open it. There are such gateways scattered throughout the whole of the game and it becomes very tiresome, especially when the puzzles amount to doing the same old thing.

The platinum was a pain in the backside as well. On paper it looks quite simple but when you realise some of the tasks that need to be done it then becomes a massive grind.There is one trophy that requires you to level up you potion skills to the max. By the time I had come to the point of no return I was still around 150 items short. I had to spend an hour just chopping down tress, collecting Golden Amber, saving and then reloading. I suppose it was better than the alternative which is the find and open chests. 

I wasn't the biggest fan of the map system either. In games like Assassin's Creed, once you climb a tower everything in that area pops up on the map. On here you have to manually scan the area. Again, I just found this tedious and it is so easy to miss something when doing this.

On the plus side, I did enjoy the traversal system in the game. I found the flying/gliding, climbing and generally getting around the place much faster than it was in BOTW. Also, no rainfall hindering my climbing sessions is always a good thing!  

I actually picked up Elden Ring on Saturday but wanted to finish Immortals before playing it. I feel so bunt out by the open world in that game that I may wait a bit before up Elden Ring. I did actually briefly play it when I bought it. I picked the samurai class, got killed of the boss that is supposed to kill you, got to the first grace point and then called it a day.  

Edited February 28, 2022 by Hero-of-Time

[Aperson]

Finished Pokemon Legends Arceus earlier in February. Really enjoyed it, best Pokemon game on Switch. Although, Scarlet and Violet may potentially change that!

Spoiler

 

 

I've moved on to the other game I got recently, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. So far pretty good game though there are several moments where I died over and over again because I couldn't see where I had to jump to link on a grind rail, and the checkpoints give you little time to react to that part.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aside from all of that my game progress has been a bit slow because there's always something new in Rivals of Aether plus the amount of time it takes to mod a character into it, meaning I skipped getting Elden Ring on launch like I originally intended because I wanted to beat Rift Apart first.

[BowserBasher]

Just beat Banjo-Kazooie, 

94 of the 100 Jiggies isn't bad for not remembering much about the game and doing it alone. I think I know where a few of the missing ones are in Gruntildas Lair, but the other few I may need to look up. Also I don't think I ever got the full number of Jiggies nor Notes on the original so this was pretty good for me. I may go do the rest at some point. 

Also as stated in that tweet, how did Rare get away with that woman and the melon joke in that game?

Still a great game though all these years later. I do hope that Banjo-Tooie comes to the service too, I think that was a polished off version of this and possibly better of the two.

Next up on the N64 games for me I think will be Paper Mario

[Glen-i]

So Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII just dropped on Game Pass, so that's the next game on my list.

I've only played 20 minutes of it, and I am already blown away with the direction the plot has taken!

So get this, Lightning is literally Jesus. I don't mean in the whole "main character is the key to saving the world" I mean she literally got a visit from God himself, who tells her that she has been chosen to be the Saviour!

I'm not making this up! God was name-dropped out of nowhere all of a sudden! I was dying of laughter!

What the actual eff is going on!?

[killthenet]

Kicked off February by playing through Pokemon Legends: Arceus. I was on the fence about picking it up, from the pre-release trailers it looked like it might be a bit bland and too focused on conducting box ticking research tasks but the positive reviews convinced me to give it a go. Right off the bat there are clear technical shortcomings that are hard to ignore, the poor draw distance and low level of detail on the textures, combined with severe pop in even at close range are the most glaring problems and it is easy to spot the underlying mesh beneath the textures at times but in terms of the framerate it actually seemed remarkably stable - not smooth by any means but consistent enough that it didn't bother me and I soon found myself able to look past the technical shortcomings and focus on exploring the Hisui region.  First and foremost, Arceus succeeds in delivering a genuine adventure, even achieving legitimately awe-inspiring moments at times and is a huge step up from the antiquated feel of Sword & Shield, I was quickly engrossed in the world, enjoying exploring the wide open environments and searching for secrets with my fears about excessive box ticking and lack of motivation allayed by an intriguing premise and a more expansive narrative than I had been expecting (Pokemon really are terrifying creatures...).  

When Arceus was revealed a lot of the discussion online honed in on the apparent influence of BOTW but for me Arceus seems to share more DNA with Xenoblade than the latest mainline Zelda title. The environments, character designs and general layout of the human settlements reminded me much more of Xenoblade, although the BOTW influence is plain to see in the breadth of secrets hidden through Hisui, as well as the crafting mechanics and the ability to freely explore much of the environment. In terms of exploration things definitely start out a little too stiff and sluggish for my liking, but I think that is by design - movement with the player character is restricted and slower paced to encourage use of the mounts that you unlock as you progress through the story and as soon as you do so, exploring the environment becomes a real delight. The way that you can seamlessly transition from air to land to water or climbing up a rock face is fantastic, really epitomising how accessible and immediate much of Arceus feels to play (especially when compared to earlier entries in the series) - every tool that you need to interact with the world is only a button press away and, even if it can get a little fiddly at times, is a breeze compared to the constant digging through menus that some earlier Pokemon games were guilty of. 

One major gripe I had with Arceus is with the lack of character audio. I can live without complete voice acting, and I can totally understand why Game Freak didn't attempt to voice any of the dialogue (there is a lot of it) but the lack of any audible indication that characters were talking was pretty jarring - it would have helped enormously to convey the individual personalities of each character (think Beedle's goofy 'thaaaankkk yooooou' in Wind Waker) and greatly improved the presentation. It's a shame that such audio is missing because the music for me is one of the standout elements of Arceus, I haven't played many Pokemon games in the last 20 years but the music here was a huge step up from Sword & Shield that helped to elevate that sense of awe while exploring the world and accentuating tense or emotional moments in the story. 

Really my main complaints with the game come down to its lacklustre visual and audio presentation, in terms of framerate I noticed a couple of hitches here and there but it was the fuzzy visuals and regular artefacting that really let Arceus down - giving the impression that it was lacking that little bit of extra polish that a game like BOTW has (from the credits it seems like most of Game Freak's staff are focused on animating the Pokemon models so I think they could do with hiring a few more technical staff to help with honing the engine - that or get in touch with Nintendo or Monolith for some help in maximising the technical performance)

In closing, I was surprised by how engrossed I became in Arceus and the world of the Hisui region, it succeeding in transporting me back 20-odd years, it conjured up the same sensations that I felt back then, playing through Pokemon Silver and making me feel as if I was on a real adventure, so for that alone Game Freak have to be applauded. It is a clearly a bold new experiment for the developers at Game Freak and there are plenty of areas that they could improve upon, but for a such a dramatic shift from Sword & Shield it is a stunning first attempt and lays down a solid foundation for them to build on in future - I feel invested in the Pokemon series again and can't wait to see what they have in store with Scarlet and Violet (even if the turn around is a bit too quick for my liking!)

After playing and adoring Supergiant's Hades last year I thought I owed it to them to dip into their back catalogue so I decided to pick up Bastion in a recent eShop sale. First impressions it was very clearly of the same lineage as Hades, the visual style and the music are so similar but definitely less refined than their latest release, and the same can also be said for the gameplay. Combat and movement felt more sluggish and restrictive but much less of a challenge than it is in Hades, playing as The Kid you explore fairly linear environments on a quest to discover what happened to the world, collecting cores to expand your base of operations, the Bastion, as well as artefacts that unlock snippets of lore. In terms of the gameplay loop it feels like a shrunk down and less challenging version of Hades, I never had cause to play through an area more than once but I get the sense that the environments aren't procedurally generated or randomised in any way, and the facilities on offer at the Bastion don't feel as organic or integral to the world as some of the mechanics in Hades do. In the end I couldn't really shake that feeling that it was a prototype version of Hades, I suppose I enjoyed it for what it was but the narrative and characters didn't grab me in the same way so I don't think it will live very long in the memory. 

Given that Elden Ring was on the horizon I didn't want to play anything too time consuming next, so I decided to try Pilotwings on the SNES Online app. It's a series that has totally passed me by, I think my only memories of it are seeing Pilotwings 64 in the shop, nobody I knew seemed to ever own it or even rent it so it was all new to me when I fired it up on Switch. Visually it might have been impressive at the time but there have been much more aesthetically pleasing implementations of mode 7 graphics, when the scaling gets so small it just becomes a blurry mess that is hard to pick out any details from. In terms of gameplay I never felt like I fully grasped the controls, the restrictions of the SNES controller don't really help matters, leaving the controls lacking subtlety so I felt like I was only able to make sweeping movements. I seemed to struggle most with the plane, I could never seem to line things up correctly for the landing, always coming in too quickly or too steeply so I abused the rewind function a bit in order to avoid constant restarts. Can't say I enjoyed it much but I'm glad I've played it as it's an important part of Nintendo's history, will probably give the sequel a go if they ever get around to adding it to the N64 service, the addition of analog controls was surely hugely beneficial to the experience.

Lastly in February I played through Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways. I definitely played a bit of it in the past, me and my flatmates were obsessed with RE4 on the Wii at university and I remember us at least trying out Ada's missions but I'm not sure we actually finished it - the tanker section is about as far as I remember getting, so I thought it was time I saw it through to the end. It certainly pales in comparison to the main game, at least in the early chapters it reuses environments from the main campaign so it never really feels like an experience crafted around Ada's capabilities. In terms of plot it barely adds anything of note either, it repeats much of the same story beats but manages to make the plot even more convoluted. In later chapters it does change things up a bit, offering up the aforementioned tanker section as well as a unique boss fight with Saddler but both soon descend into pretty routine shootouts. Again, I'm glad I played it and back in the day it would have been a nice addition to the RE4 package when it was ported to other platforms, but as a standalone experience it leaves a lot to be desired.

I haven't started playing it yet but I'm sure Elden Ring will occupy much of my time over the next week or two so next months entry might be a bit Elden Ring heavy but hopefully I'll be able to fit in one or two shorter experiences once I've made my way through From Software's latest opus.

[Cube]

The Outer Worlds

I never paid much attention to this before. I’m one of the few who thought that New Vegas wasn’t as good as Fallout 3 and 4. So I didn’t know a lot about it other than it was somewhat space themed.

What I was not expecting was how much inspiration it took from Firefly.The Outer Worlds is set on run-down colonies in another solar system, although the rich still live in luxury. Mixes with the futuristic guns and armour are more western-looking ones, and there are Western riffs in the music. You ship in the game - the Unreliable even has portions which look like Serenity’s cargo bay and kitchen area. The first two companions you pick up are a naive, smiley engineer and a priest with the skills to fight, not too dissimilar from Kaylee and Book. This is the closest we’ll ever get to a game set in the Firefly ‘verse. 

Outside of the Firefly stuff, The Outer Worlds is set in a solar system with very loose communication from Earth (would take months for a message), and is led by corporations, which control the masses with advertising, slogans - most people come across more as indentured servants or slaves than workers. It’s a bleak view, but also not too crazy either. You start out being woken up from cryo, from a sleeper ship where everyone is kept in stasis - indefinitely it seems like - and help a crazy scientist to overthrow the corrupt corporations and free the people.

Along the way you’ll encounter a lot of side quests and a few more companions, these quests often have multiple options you can take and will often have sides to choose from - although quite often it can be possible to come to a compromise that can benefit everyone. 

I personally loved The Outer Worlds, the quest stories were good and I really enjoyed the world that was created. The main story itself is a bit short, so a few more areas would have been nice.
 

 

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

 

Went into this completely blind and it’s definitely an interesting experience. It won’t go into too much detail, but the story is about a young woman’s quest to fight her way into Hel (Greek Hel) to save her beloved. Voices around her both encourage and discourage her at the same time. Senua’s journey is fascinating and troubling both at the same time, and the game does a really great job at making you feel uneasy.

The combat of the game is…fine. It has heavy importance on timing your blocks to charge up your “focus”, which puts everything into slow motion. The gameplay features puzzles, most of which is finding runes hidden in the environment - which can be tedious at times, but I get the impression that it may actually be intentional.

While the gameplay isn’t anything spectacular, it’s well worth experiencing for the story. 
 

 

Quantum Break

I

I loved Alan Wake, I didn’t have an Xbox when this came out, so I went straight to Control, which I also loved. I was always put off by the “TV show” aspect of this game, but I finally decided to try it.

I absolutely loved it. Quantum Break is a time-travel story, one where it really, really respects the rules it decided to establish about time travel. The story is well thought out and extremely engaging, so much so that I ended up enjoying the four 20-minute TV show episodes. 

The gameplay is also a lot of fun. It’s fairly basic in terms of shooting mechanics but you have time-related powers for dodging and freezing enemies that make it hugely enjoyable. There’s also lots of emails and notes to find to delve into the background story elements even more. 

I feel bad for dismissing it, as Quantum Break deserves to be mentioned alongside Alan Wake and Control. Although Quantum Break does lose points for not having a new Poets of the Fall/Old Gods of Asgard song.
 

Hydrophobia

 

Hydrophobia has some nice looking water effects, ones that still look fairly nice even now (the game was an Xbox 360 game). Unfortunately, everything else is just bad. 

You play as a security engineer on a giant boat, which is supposed to be luxurious and grand. You wouldn’t know, as all you see are corridors. You don’t even get a good look at this ship in a cutscene. Terrorists attack and are trying to do…something. Another engineer, called Scoot, who is attempting (and failing) to do an impression of Scotty from Star Trek.

Despite all the focus on water….the game doesn’t really do a lot with it. You have to swim through it and alter water levels a bit, but it doesn’t do anything that hadn’t already been done by other games prior to Hydrophobia. The gunplay is atrocious and not fun at all, and the hacking minigames are just annoying. 

I also didn’t realise that this was planned to be an episodic game. The game suddenly stops - pretty much mid-sentence - and that’s it. Due to poor reception/sales, the other parts were never made. Apparently the PC version goes slightly longer, but the 360 version was never updated. 
 

[Jonnas]

4 hours ago, Cube said:

Hel (Greek Hel)

I don't know anything about Hellblade's setting, but to my knowledge, "Hel" is from Norse mythology. Is this one of those cases where the developers mix&matched mythologies?

[Cube]

2 hours ago, Jonnas said:

I don't know anything about Hellblade's setting, but to my knowledge, "Hel" is from Norse mythology. Is this one of those cases where the developers mix&matched mythologies?

Nah. I just wrote down the wrong one by mistake, it's Norse.