Just completed - The Bear and Badger

b0r1s

Citizen Sleeper (PC Gamepass)
A game about stories set in a cyberpunk world. The gameplay is basic, but rewarding, as the stories unfold your choices grow and you are eventually managing several threads, making decisions for yourself and the people on the space station of the games setting. As a straight game it should probably be a 5 or 6, but the stories make it worth a...

[9]

b0r1s

Emily is Away 2 (PC)
I still don't like Chapter 3's over gamified speed round, it felt too forced and lacked nuance. Apart from that, as good as the first game. Is it diminishing returns for number 3?

[8]

Minnesänger

b0r1s wrote:

Emily is Away 2 (PC)
I still don't like Chapter 3's over gamified speed round, it felt too forced and lacked nuance. Apart from that, as good as the first game. Is it diminishing returns for number 3?

[8]

No. 3 is far superior to 2.

Minnesänger

Death Stranding: Kojima Mega Cut
Owned the game at launch on PS4 and adored it but never finished it. Upgraded to Directors Cut on PS5 and finally fixed that. It’s very good, and uneven, and brilliant, and jank, and it’s pure unadulterated Kojima. I love it. The final few hours are roooooough. The boss fights are…a whole lot of nothing. It has some of the most interesting world traversal ever. It continues Kojima’s love of hyper granular systems and emergent gameplay possibilities. It’s a bit sluggish especially in “action” moments. It’s a masterpiece. It’s very, very flawed.

Next Kojima game Day One as always. [9]

b0r1s

Can't complain about any of that. Think the journey rather than the destination made it for me. Did I give it a 10? I should have. I'm on my second play through (something I never do) and I'm spending far more time connecting up each area, doing as many deliveries as possible. It's a very satisfying experience.

Minnesänger

b0r1s wrote:

Think the journey rather than the destination made it for me.

100%. When you just pick up some deliveries and head in a direction, taking time to not just look at your surroundings, but travel through them, enjoying the journey and constantly adapting to small challenges…there’s no other games like it. A game to play just to feel what it’s like to play it again.

Dark Soldier

Minnesänger wrote:

b0r1s wrote:

Emily is Away 2 (PC)
I still don't like Chapter 3's over gamified speed round, it felt too forced and lacked nuance. Apart from that, as good as the first game. Is it diminishing returns for number 3?

[8]

No. 3 is far superior to 2.

I have not played the third. That's tomorrow set. One of the best series of games.

Minnesänger

Dark Soldier wrote:

Minnesänger wrote:

b0r1s wrote:

Emily is Away 2 (PC)
I still don't like Chapter 3's over gamified speed round, it felt too forced and lacked nuance. Apart from that, as good as the first game. Is it diminishing returns for number 3?

[8]

No. 3 is far superior to 2.

I have not played the third. That's tomorrow set. One of the best series of games.

Let me know your thoughts. I enjoyed 2 but I found the systems to be far too visible, and the differences between the girls to be just simple A-B switches. 3 feels like a response to the criticisms of 2, while also doing it’s completely own thing.

b0r1s

Will add it to the ever growing list.

Blue Swirl

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (Switch)

An entirely generic action (J)RPG, but a solid one. Clearly made on a budget, but made by a team that cared about the project.

Despite some questionable morals to the stories (e.g., don't give money to poor people, they'll just gamble it or spend it on alcohol), I had tons of fun exploring the city of Balduq.

My personal favourite is the character that couldn't remember the elaborate names of the attacks and skills that the party would shout, anime-style. "Shadow dive!" became "sha la la-la-la... underground!", for example, and it never failed to raise a smile.

[8] treasure chests containing suspicious meat that we ate anyway out of [10] unsubtle references to European history.

Minnesänger

Late to the party but finally got around to playing There Is No Game. 4-5 hours long, absolutely zero bloat - a very svelte and constantly inventive little thing. I laughed a lot, probably the most laughs-per-minute-per-pound of any game I've played. Or, at least, I can't remember a game that managed to extract more.

It's not perfect, but it'd feel churlish to mark it down too heavily for those flaws - there's a couple of parts that are slightly annoying as you have to grab things with your mouse, some puzzle solutions are a little awkward to execute (even if you know the solution), not every joke lands...

They're not game breakers, and in a game that swings for the fences as often and and hard as this, a few misses are forgiveable.

Buy it. Like, for real - just buy it and play it. Linku.

An easy, easy [9]

Moot_Geeza

On the Switch watch list it goes, ta.

b0r1s

Jedi Fallen Order - Xbox Series X

Enjoyable Star Wars souls rip off with a terrible lead character but good enough metroidvania lite action. The end boss was utter bullshit (perhaps I needed to find more stuff to level up my force bar) and after dying a dozen times decided to switch to easy mode just to finish the game.

8

Paul the sparky

I didn't like it. My ten year old nephew had the same gripe as me, daft little dog things taking more than a single swipe of a lightsaber

Tempy

I gave up pretty early on. A pale imitation of Souls combat with some enjoyable platforming and puzzling.

EvilRedEye

I completed it on the second-highest difficulty setting and enjoyed it, git good dickheads.

yourfavouriteuncle

I liked it but had to knock it down to easy for the penultimate boss that was frankly broken. I liked it despite the main man’s face and general attitude.

Paul the sparky

I didn't play it long enough to get stuck btw

Moot_Geeza

I played it on easy for a couple of hours six months apart, recorded a video of the Benny Hill ladder climbing animation and deleted it.

regmcfly

Tempy wrote:

I gave up pretty early on. A pale imitation of Souls combat with some enjoyable platforming and puzzling.

I got to Wookie planet and didn't want to back and forth planets.

Blue Swirl

I think we all want to stay on the Wookie planet. Best hugs this side of the Outer Rim to be found on Kashyyyk.

EvilRedEye

Panzer Dragoon (Switch) - It was fine, I guess? [6]

Moot_Geeza

It's not a good remake really, smoother framerate and some early 360 era gfx slapped on top, all feels a bit cheap really. Hopefully Zwei gets a bit more love.

b0r1s

Sable - Xbox Series X

Mainlined this far quicker than any other game I think. I had a ton of quests still to do and three areas of the map still not uncovered so a lot of the game is optional. I enjoyed my (short) time with it and it was a nice change of pace not having to fight anything. The setting was solid enough but the aesthetic and poor frame rate left me unimpressed.

Think it took about 5 hours.

[7]

Blue Swirl

EvilRedEye wrote:

Panzer Dragoon (Switch) - It was fine, I guess? [6]

I've been eyeing this up. I guess it's sale fodder.

EvilRedEye

Honestly, I can't moan for £2 but if I'd spent a bazillion pounds on the Limited Run edition I would probably have been disappointed by the bang for the buck.

Blue Swirl

You'd struggle to buy a newspaper and a drink for that these days.

Blue Swirl

Used my points for a discount, got it for £1.40.

Moot_Geeza

Worth it for the soundtrack.

Blue Swirl

It's not the best game ever, but it's presented with such bombast it's hard not to smile.

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