Just completed - The Bear and Badger

Paul the sparky

You can't make me

Bob

Borderlands 3: Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot

The First one I've managed to actually finish the end boss. Very generous DLC I pretty much only did story stuff and there's a huge amount of solid content. Good loot three reasonable boss battles ( I hate boss battles and some of the DLC ones are bitches). I'm sort of half way through the main campaign and so it's nice to mix it up with the new DLC I haven't played before. Not sure whether it levels up to match you or it just ramps up as it indicates level 15 to start and at that point i was one shotting the baddies for fun but after a couple of missions there where all on level 30 like me and then it became more of a battle.

Wookienopants

Yakuza Like A Dragon.

Needed to finally finish this before the next game lands in a few weeks time.
Hit a real difficulty spike right at the end game, went away and did some grinding to level up.
Finally beat the last boss and what an ending. Love it when a big game like this ends with

Spoiler:

This game is brilliant. Can't wait for the next game.

Syph79

Being frankly incredible at all videogames, I've now completed Armoured Core VI: Can of Rubicon. This is an interesting one...

The bad stuff: They've built a coherent world using the Elden Ring engine, but separated it out into missions. It feels like it could have been more joined up, but instead you're regularly treated to the leaving the hanger and going into the mission cutscene, as one of the characters says something enigmatic. Linked to that is how the story is drip-fed to you in a deliberately unnecessary way, just to string out its relative simplicity in comparison to other From games.

The good stuff: It looks incredible. There's lots of chunky mech stuff going on - Parts you can swap in and out to optimise your build; weapons to experiment with, looking for decent combinations; and, satisfying combat. It feels good playing the game. It's weighty and taking the various bosses down is cool. Little air punching moments when you overcome one.

The meh (mech?) stuff: Unlike most From games, the very basic enemies pose little threat at all. They can't overwhelm you if you don't respect them. They just fodder until the bosses come along. Speaking of which, repeating some bosses is a bit cheap and unnecessarily adds to the run-time. Once you've got a build that works, there's not a lot of reason to play around unless you hit a build spike (not a skill one). Making the player replay the bosses again in the arena mode for chips to buff your build (the only way to get them) is another way the length is falsely extended.

Overall, I'd say if you're interested in another From game, this is worth exploring. I did enjoy my time with it, but I think it could have been more focused and shorter, while also being a bit grander in scale, by making those interconnected missions actually feel connected.

Blue Swirl

Can of Rubicon was that Andy Warhol painting of soup, right?

Syph79

It was indeed.

Moot_Geeza

I need to go back to that at some point. The bad stuff you mention (specifically the mission structure - I've got no interest in why the mechs are blowing each other up) is the main reason I gave it a go in the first place. Was enjoying it but I bet I've forgotten how to play it now.

Syph79

When I unlocked the ability to lose the shoulder weapons and carry 2 hand ones I could swap in/out it became significantly easier. I found the biggest challenges how it falsely created difficulty by getting you to set up for one boss, only to introduce another one the same mission that required a different weapon set. There's an early spike where you face both a rapid small mech, then go on to a hulking great one and it's really hard to decide what loadout would work for one, the other, or ideally both. That you can't change them during those missions, but you can get more ammo and health kits, is a bit silly. Pretty much every other mission is self-contained (i.e. objective then boss), so I felt those were there to push the player a little more, but it felt cheap.

stonechalice

Just finished up El Paso Elsewhere. Cracking shooter that got totally snubbed in all the GOTY discussions I heard and the game awards. Soundtrack is banging, the shooting is great, the voice acting is top notch. It's like Max Payne complete with the slow mo diving.

It went on a bit too long for me and I wasn't really into the story or the art style and the music could sometimes get irritating, but for what it is it's great. A pick up and play run and gun perfect for steamdeck and there's not that many of them these days.

regmcfly

Wookienopants wrote:

Yakuza Like A Dragon.

Needed to finally finish this before the next game lands in a few weeks time.
Hit a real difficulty spike right at the end game, went away and did some grinding to level up.
Finally beat the last boss and what an ending. Love it when a big game like this ends with

Spoiler:

a one on one fist fight between the protagonist and antagonist

This game is brilliant. Can't wait for the next game.

You should try to get Gaiden knocked out if you liked that ending format. Will set you up proper. Plus you'll cry at the end.

Syph79

stonechalice wrote:

Just finished up El Paso Elsewhere. Cracking shooter that got totally snubbed in all the GOTY discussions I heard and the game awards. Soundtrack is banging, the shooting is great, the voice acting is top notch. It's like Max Payne complete with the slow mo diving. It went on a bit too long for me and I wasn't really into the story or the art style and the music could sometimes get irritating, but for what it is it's great. A pick up and play run and gun perfect for steamdeck and there's not that many of them these days.

I think Gameranx or one of their named presenters included that in a list of their games of the year. It looked like a tasteful homage to MP and something I'd like to try.

Minnesänger

Syph79 wrote:

stonechalice wrote:

Just finished up El Paso Elsewhere. Cracking shooter that got totally snubbed in all the GOTY discussions I heard and the game awards. Soundtrack is banging, the shooting is great, the voice acting is top notch. It's like Max Payne complete with the slow mo diving. It went on a bit too long for me and I wasn't really into the story or the art style and the music could sometimes get irritating, but for what it is it's great. A pick up and play run and gun perfect for steamdeck and there's not that many of them these days.

I think Gameranx or one of their named presenters included that in a list of their games of the year. It looked like a tasteful homage to MP and something I'd like to try.

It’s real decent.

regmcfly

I want to play that mad Max Payne nonsense. Sounds right up my street

Blue Swirl

Goodboy Galaxy (Gameboy Advance, via Evercade)

A stonking 2D platformer that'd probably be rated one of the best on the system had it come out 20 years ago, rather than in 2021. Really hope there's a sequel to this at some point. 64% completion and 11 hours on the clock.

[8] or [9], depending on how forgiving you are for oldskool-style checkpointing.

DrewMerson

Blue Swirl

No. 35, Goodboy Galaxy/Witch 'n' Wiz.

DrewMerson

Olimite

What’s Evercade?

EvilRedEye

Remember those Blaze retro handhelds? Could play Mega Drive games and stuff. They decided to make one of those with interchangeable cartridges and actually decent emulation and it took off sufficiently well that they now have an extensive library of carts covering old console games, arcade games and some home computer stuff.

Olimite

Sounds interesting. Do you get them at specific places or is it freely available at Amazon-type places?

DrewMerson

LivDiv

If you were to ask me to guess what Mankind sell I would bet my house on reduced Lynx gift sets.

DrewMerson

Blue Swirl

Olimite wrote:

Sounds interesting. Do you get them at specific places or is it freely available at Amazon-type places?

Freely available. It's one of those retro handhelds that are all the rage, but with less yarrrrr and more carts.

Home page.

Moot_Geeza

EvilRedEye wrote:

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (Arcade) - My entire personality is Cadillacs and Dinosaurs now. I’ve been playing the games, I’ve been watching the cartoons and I’ve been struggling to source a copy of the comics. Due to man-made environmental collapse, the Earth becomes uninhabitable for humans and people have to hideout underground, Fallout-style, for hundreds of years. Humankind re-emerges to find that evolution has mysteriously surged in their absence and dinosaurs now once again stalk the Earth. People are divided as to how to live in this new Earth - some decide to respect nature to avoid another catastrophe while others are poachers, disrespecting nature, and some even seek to use science to drastically change or destroy nature. The good nature-loving guys (and gal) of New York are surprisingly hyper-masculine and now drive Cadillacs (powered by dinosaur poop according to the lore) and beat the shit out of poachers with their powerful physiques. Consequently, this well-remembered arcade game is an side-scrolling beat-em-up where you punch, shoot and vehicular-manslaughter your way through eight levels to protect the environment from an evil plot. Three players are able to join the fun and the game adds an original fourth character to the cast so that three fellas can play without one of ‘em having to play as the lady like some kind o’ stinkin’ homo. The sprites are big and the unreconstructedly masculine combat is violent and fun, with blood splattering off enemies as you shotgun them to ribbons and so on. It’s very much a 16-bit side-scrolling brawl on steroids of the kind you simply wouldn’t be able to get on console. It’s a fun game but as a single-player freeplay game it turns into a bit of a mindless slog through the content as the multiplayer focus means you continue on the spot instead of, say, having to use your skills to complete each level within a single continue. The parasite boss is also a bit cheap. I imagine it was very fun to play with friends at the arcade back in the day though. Overall, it’s a solid one-o’-these and worth a look if you like the genre. [7]

Forgot to comment on this. I'd posit that it's top tier (i.e. in the top 3 or 4) for genuine arcade belt scrollers. As with all games like this it's great in co-op (up to three player). I can see the [7] for a solo play tho.

EvilRedEye

Would definitely have scored it higher if I’d been playing it with two other people in an arcade. I imagine with three people trying to get through it before their change ran out back in the day it would be a fun challenge but playing it solo free-to-play it becomes a bit of a button mash as death has basically no impact.

b0r1s

Persona 4 Golden - PC more investigative fun with the Scooby gang. This time in a small town where a series of strange murders happen. Even though I owned this many years ago I put off finishing it for one reason or another but I’m glad I came back to it. Overall it’s a great game with that nice loop of limited choices in the day, interspersed with dungeon battles in another world. I think they improved pretty much everything with P5, except this is a tighter story and, if my memory serves me well, a much shorter playtime because of it. It’s a great turned based JRPG [9]

Bob

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Borderlands 3

After over a 100 hours I've finally completed the main campaign on Borderlands 3 with my Zane Build. A combination of hand held and TV play the Switch port holds up very well. It's a very more-ish loop of completing missions finding new loot and then optimising that loot to do it all again. A couple of annoying boss battles but the beauty of the zane build is that he can use two action skills (I Went drone and clone).

Still got two DLCs to mop up and some side stuff.. Excellent game and incredibly generous.. All the side content plays like story missions and there's no ubi-bloat of repeated filler. Quality game. 9 out of 10 for me.

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stonechalice

Looks shit

Bollockoff

Jusant - I really liked it overall but I don't think they really needed all those lore scrap collectibles and it would have been a better atmosphere with a bit more environmental story telling, maybe some skeletons? Though it seems like they definitely had an intended age focus for this game which also blends into my soft complaint it really just isn't challenging. The very final climb hints at what a more difficult game could have offered where you're asked to actually think about how much rope you're using and the pros / cons of using a carabiner.

But as a cute adventure / tactile climbing game it was pretty engaging. Shoulder pad climbing I found really natural and even though it's a simple rhythm it keeps your attention a lot more than just holding A and pointing up.

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