Really couldn't get into RE4 when it came out on Switch.  Always a shame when you revisit an old favourite and it just doesn't do anything for you anymore.

It's the cover art for The Gaping Mouth by indie rock band Lowertown.

The critics went mild for it a few months ago ("occasionally fascinating!" - Pitchfork); you might have seen it pop up in your recommendeds?

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Okay I give up, what's your avatar from?  I'm sure I recognise it.

The mirror? Lolalolalol.

I tried a google image search in case something famous popped up, but no dice.  Hopefully it comes to you soon, that shit sends me mad.

6: Devil May Cry V (PS5) 8/10

This is my first DMC; I found it to be a good jumping in point.  This has a nicely presented lore compendium if you feel like brushing up on your DMC history and even a video of the story so far (it's a bit too dense on information for me, I noped out after a couple of minutes).  In any case the story stands on it's own.  I was baffled at the beginning, but the story does drop you into the madness right away and explains things as you go on.  I found it quite engrossing even though I'm only tangentially familiar with the characters.

The fighting is really fun and carried me through the early confusion.  My only touchstone is Bayonetta, it's very much like that, only without the witch-time dodging and at a slightly slower pace.  You get some great looking enemies to beat up including some excellent bosses.  I really like the look of these modern Capcom games, a couple of the environments do look a little dull and samey but the monsters and humans are top shelf.  The cheesy guitar music deserves a shout too.

There's not too much wrong with it.  I initially thought it was too hard and wanted to turn the difficulty down, which you can't do once you started.  It just turned out I was hoarding my upgrade currency, and only spending it on continues, which was really fucking stupid.  You can buy all sorts of shit including moves and upgrading your health etc which would have been a much more sensible way of spending them.

The continue system was a bit odd.  You have some pretty stingy checkpoints so if you want to continue, you have to use a Golden Orb (you get 1 for free per day, or can purchase more with your Red Orbs (your upgrade currency) between missions.  Or, if you're out of golden orbs, you can buy a continue with red orbs.  They get increasingly more expensive each time you use one per fight.

It's really not that big a problem (I didn't find out about buying golden orbs until like the 3rd last level) but I wish it just had more closely spaced checkpoints and purchasing continues wasn't really a thing.  

Other than that though I thought it was a top game, and it seems like beating the game only scratched the surface.  It wants you to keep coming back with new modes and challenges and shit like that.  Impressive stuff.

It's an MP game to me so far.  I've hardly touched SP but am loving the fact that I am not 12 and therefore actually have a chance to be badass in this.  Kids'll hate it I guess.

19. Control (Standard Edition) - Xbox Series S (7hrs)

Always fancied this but my weird hang up with skittish framerates kept me away on the One S/PS4 as I read a few horror stories Alan Wake would've been proud of.  Enter boost mode on Series S, which is a marvellous thing and meant that I got to play the whole game at a super smooth 60fps without having to pay for the next gen upgrade. What a time.

Boiling it down to a flippant approximation Control is a sort of Metroidvania Psi Ops set in a fluid reality building.  There are plenty of Lynchian flourishes and a lot of the subliminal storytelling is Alan's waking nightmare stuff, plus there's a huge residual echo from Quantum Break.  It's quite a nice mix; The Oldest House really is a quality setting.  I'm not one for audio logs and notepads fleshing out game worlds really, but I'd imagine they're more rewarding here than in majority of the multitude of other games that do it. I love the way Remedy layer footage over the display and distort reality with various well implemented head fucks too.

The gameplay is fine.  The gunplay is nothing to swoon over but it does its job nicely enough - popping shots off is more enjoyable here than in most other third person shooters anyway.  There's no cover system, which feels odd at first but worked as a +1 in the end, it was nice to play something that felt different and overall it landed on the good side of 'solid' (I was definitely happy to go through the motions repeatedly, but without the abilities it's quite basic).  The abilities mostly work, although one particular late game addition was a bit more 'that's cool that they let you do that' rather than 'that actually feels really good, works really well and improves the game'.  

It's pretty too.  I expect the ultimate edition lays on the sheen but I like the Remedy cataracts/pastel visuals approach.  Nothing ever seems to be super sharp in motion, which somehow gives the whole thing a weird washed out smudged glasses beauty boost. Good stuff.

It has a few flaws but on the whole it averages an [8] I reckon.  It feels a little clunky here and there, and was maaaaybe dipping to a [7] just before the ashtray maze gave it a shot in the arm and a kick up the jacksie.  What an audiovisual treat that stretch was.  It was nice to play something 'AAA' for a change, even if I did rush through it (it drops off game pass in a few days and I've got a PS5 on the way, otherwise I might've given it a bit more time to breathe).  I was late to the party and didn't stay long but the Ferrero Rocher still tasted good.

7 hours?! We gotta pro gamer here

Or normal difficulty.

I started that earlier. Started off decent but quickly got bored and frustrated.

Yeah it seems pretty good and I don't mind the SoR4 graphics, I just had my fill of Windjammers arcade when I played the original last year.  One for multiplayer.

Glad you snagged a PS5 Moot!  Keen to read your Astrobot review.

Just Returnal. It’s all you need. Actually get Astro out your system first. Then Returnal.

Astro you can get done in a few hours, second best PS5 game, after that it’s all about Returnal.

Unless Bob is pulling off the ultimate troll (the pic he sent me had weird globs of...something on the box).

You're taking a vacation from normality. The setting: a weird motel where the bed is stained with mystery. And there's also some mystery floating in the pool. Your key card may not open the exercise room because someone smeared mystery on the lock. But it will open the Scary Door.

Was considering starting a thread about something similar recently but decided I've made enough recently. I think my pick for a brain wipe would be Hollow Knight.