I’ve got back into South Park recently after a long time so decided to play Stick Of Truth again.
Really fun with great gags. Some stuff doesn’t always land but that’s South Park I guess. It’s silly good fun.
Plus having Butters as a companion is always great, he’s just that friggin’ wholesome.
Trying to get through Death Stranding 2. I’m right at the end, now, but the mid section of the game turned in to a real slog.
I always said that Death Stranding shouldn’t have had a sequel, and I definitely stand by that. DS2 is a technical marvel. It looks brilliant, and it’s core gameplay systems are solid. But there’s very little to encourage you to engage with many additional systems. Building extra infrastructure seems to have taken me more time than if I just brute-forced my way between destinations.
I like how bombastic the cutscenes are, and the supporting cast are great, but I don’t think Sam is a very good character at all. There are so many creative narrative concepts that are just presented to the player in the dullest way imaginable, through the lens of a main character whose friction doesn’t contribute to the experience in a satisfying way.
Though it’s not something I’ll ever replay, I had a lot of appreciation for the first game. But unfortunately the novelty of a new experience is not there for the sequel, and it suffers for it.
Booted up Close Combat 3 again yesterday and suddenly realised there might be mods. For context, ive been playing the CC series since their release and never modded.
Getting stuck into the Winter War with a Finnish campaign against the Soviets and its brilliant. Perkele!
Finally picked up The Survivalists. Really enjoying the aesthetic and making a little monkey labour force, but kind of wish I’d picked it up sooner as there doesn’t seem to be much of a multiplayer community for the game anymore.
Also, can’t for the life of me figure out how to get/unlock metal mining to improve my tools from stone, so even though I now have a sailing raft, I’m still basically confined to the first island.
I’ve got back into Starfield. I’m doing a mix of the quests not attached to the main story and surveying planets
Borderland 4. Loving it at the ko but the fps drops are driving me mad.
Hopefully a bit of a fix comes soon, then I can really enjoy it!
Finished Red Dead 1 on the PC and halfway through undead nightmare.
I played both massively when they came out but haven’t played since around 2011
14 years later they both obviously look and play better than ever with a high FPS and maxed graphical settings. Had a great time with replaying both after so long
Couple of weeks ago I finished the remake of Snake Eater, a game I hadn’t played since 2004
Silksong & the new Dying Light, getting my arse kicked by both.
Probably just the odd 15 mins here and there of Snowrunner on my handheld. Busy time at the moment, so just snatching some time to wind down and not really much room for “right, where was I up to??” 😂
Wallace & Gromit Project Zoo
Civ V, can’t get any better
I’ve dusted down the old GBA SP recently and playing my Game Boy collection, as well as buying some games off eBay.
Having said that, I had an English copy of Pokémon TCG 2 imported in and it’s fantastic. I’d completed the first one last week so it arrived just in time at the weekend.
I am still playing No Man’s Sky. I love that game. Just about finishing up the Corvette expedition.
I’ve started the tedious prep for the Final Fantasy X superbosses. To begin with, I’ve been running around the inside of Sin on x4 speed grinding sphere levels to get as many stats as possible before starting the monster arena. Tidus and Rikku already have their celestial weapons powered up, Wakka doesn’t because I can’t be arsed going through hours and hours of Blitzball (FFXED will be coming into play just to add his sigil and 2 remaining overdrives – I’ve done it normally too many times to care). I’m most of the way round the grid with those 3, although I do also want to bring Yuna into play at some point to make completing another sidequest easier. Once I’ve done enough, I’ll be grinding in the arena, first by getting a Triple AP weapon with 2 empty slots for my main 3 characters (the other 2 slots are for Triple Overdrive and Overdrive -> AP), then after that, it’s Don Tonberry time. Then I can beat some of the other monsters for stat spheres.
Haven’t really touched F1 Championship Edition since the Nürburgring podium, Spain is really frustrating me. Best qualifying effort has been about 15th, and a good start and aggressive turns 1 and 2 will see me in the lower points places, but I end up getting biffed by a Red Bull or a Toyota.
Also been working on the most recent update for Gran Turismo 2 A-Spec in the background. I’ve got a nice collection of cars ranging from some GT2 classics like the Toyota GT-One, a JGTC Skyline, and a yellow Evo 5 (no Suzuki Escudo yet though), to some very nice modded cars like the Peugeot 905, Mazda 767B and some 1999 F1 cars. I have a BAR, a McLaren, a Jordan, and a few others (I think a Sauber, Benetton and Arrows).
Still grinding Lego Marvel Superheroes on the 360. 80% through, just the comics, some characters and a couple of races to go.
Thinking about upgrading to a One, with drive, as my 360 is starting to not read certain games.
CEX do a repair service for £40. Anyone know if it’s any good, and will it fix my drive? The info says its quite comprehensive.
Picked space engineers back up as they have released a new patch with some changes and now I keep getting roflstomped by giant beaked spiders when I am trying to put a base together.
Dungeons and degenerate gamblers a rogue like deck builder blackjack game (like balatro but was actually in development very long time before balatro released)
Started playing Hollow Knight when the sequel came out, have nearly finished it (111% completion, it goes up to 112%). Really beautiful game, oozes so much personality, had a great time exploring the world.
Not sure how to say this without it sounding like a flex, but I’ve been a bit let down by the difficulty. The final boss of one of the expansions (Nightmare King Grimm) was a brilliant challenge, that’s the sort of encounter I got this game for. The boss rushes have kept me busy for a while too, although it does feel a bit like busywork to spend ten minutes doing easy bosses in order to get another shot at the hard ones at the end. But all of that comes way after 100% completion. I would really have liked there to be some bosses which took 5+ tries before that, especially because the game is fairly non-linear, so you can always go try something else if you stumble into something which is currently too difficult.
There were lots of great movement and platforming mechanics, so I would have loved to see some terrifying platforming sections, with difficulty comparable to the post-game bosses. I didn’t feel like the game really delivered on that front. The hardest platforming bit was probably when the game asks you to travel a long distance across the world without taking damage, which I did on the first attempt (apparently there are more of these challenges, which I’m keen to check out, but again they’re left as post-game optional activities with no rewards).
There’s a mechanic which I loved in Dark Souls: when you die, you drop your currency where you died. If you die againrr before you can get back to that spot and pick it up, it’s gone forever. Really simple idea but it adds so much tension, really gives me that heart-in-my-mouth feeling of tension and high stakes. People talk about how the designers of Dark Souls used *how the game should make you feel* as their starting point, and made the mechanics to support that, and I think that system is a brilliant example of it. Hollow Knight uses the same system – in theory the Hollow Knight version of it is actually scarier, because your dropped currency takes the form of a hostile ghost which you have to defeat, potentially while contending with whatever killed you. But, in practice, I went the whole game without ever losing currency in this way. Even when I had 10,000+ Geo sat on the floor in some distant corner of the map, there wasn’t really any tension, because I always had more money than there were things to buy.
The “final” boss (not really final, but the one which triggers the end credits) in particular left me feeling really disappointed – when he went down I said to my partner “No way that’s his final phase”… but it was… I hadn’t even needed to heal yet. The credits afterwards congratulated me on my perseverance, which felt like they were rubbing it in.
Despite my negativity in this comment, I still found Hollow Knight to be an excellent game, just not for the reasons I expected. There really are some very cute bugs. The story was well-executed, some of the characters were brilliant. I think it might even beat Dark Souls at it’s own game, in terms of packing lots of character into very few lines of dialogue.
I’ll probably play Silksong eventually, but I’ll wait a year or two for them to finish making whatever expansions they’ll do, because I think Hollow Knight without the expansions would’ve felt hollow.
Back when I played Hades, I came into it just looking for a challenge, and ended up getting really invested into the story, which moved me to tears. But it was also very challenging, and the optional difficulty increases were integrated very well into the game, instead of being tucked away in a corner.
Hades 2 comes out tomorrow, which I’m really excited for. I’m going to try and get the last 1% of Hollow Knight done first though!
The Wii! Picked up some new controllers and a balance board. Usually my excitement doesn’t last very long, but this time my girlfriend is also excited. We’re gonna be playing wii sports resort today and probably also wii fit plus.
Minecraft, that’s about it.
After a disaster of a Gran Turismo 7 league race last night. I’ll be chilling out playing Trails in the Sky.
Started playing For the King with my kid. Loving it and a nice change of pace from the usual games I play.
Started playing battlefield (I’ve never played cod in my life) because I got a new laptop that is good enough to play games on. I suck. Can’t remember half the commands. I’ve never played anything on a laptop before and it’s not as intuitive for me as a playstation controller. But have a mate who is helping me in games, not easy going cuz he’s on a ps5 and so when I ask things like “wait, how do I run” he’s like “bro I don’t know, I’m not on a laptop!” Anyway, although it’s a bit embarrassing being so bad, it’s still fun and I have a new found appreciation for my friend helping me as best he can.
Suikoden 2 HD Remaster!
Ark survival evolved
A bit of Animal Crossing to do daily tasks, then Windwaker
**Hades 2** is coming out of early access tomorrow. I’ve already put 29 hours into it, completed a few runs when they released big patches, but haven’t played since Feb. I don’t really want to start a fresh save but I kinda forgot most of the story up to this point.
Been playing **Borderlands 4**. Currently level 35 or so. It’s not a bad game but I think I’m just over the formula now. I played through Borderlands 3 back when it came out but never returned to it, which is strange for me as I played the shit out of Borderlands 1 and 2. I might get back to it at some point but I think I’ve had my fill of it.
Picked up **Megabonk** last night, played around an hour or so. It’s another Vampire Survivors type game but feels like it has more of the DNA of Risk of Rain 2 than anything else. I like these games for a bit of mindless fun. My favourite is still Halls of Torment as it stands but Megabonk is different enough to be up there. There’s a leaderboard which resets every so often so when you complete a run you can see what rank you are. Pretty fun.
I’m trying (and probably failing) to play games I’ve had for years and not even installed. So right now I’m playing Lucius 3.
28 comments
I’ve got back into South Park recently after a long time so decided to play Stick Of Truth again.
Really fun with great gags. Some stuff doesn’t always land but that’s South Park I guess. It’s silly good fun.
Plus having Butters as a companion is always great, he’s just that friggin’ wholesome.
Trying to get through Death Stranding 2. I’m right at the end, now, but the mid section of the game turned in to a real slog.
I always said that Death Stranding shouldn’t have had a sequel, and I definitely stand by that. DS2 is a technical marvel. It looks brilliant, and it’s core gameplay systems are solid. But there’s very little to encourage you to engage with many additional systems. Building extra infrastructure seems to have taken me more time than if I just brute-forced my way between destinations.
I like how bombastic the cutscenes are, and the supporting cast are great, but I don’t think Sam is a very good character at all. There are so many creative narrative concepts that are just presented to the player in the dullest way imaginable, through the lens of a main character whose friction doesn’t contribute to the experience in a satisfying way.
Though it’s not something I’ll ever replay, I had a lot of appreciation for the first game. But unfortunately the novelty of a new experience is not there for the sequel, and it suffers for it.
Booted up Close Combat 3 again yesterday and suddenly realised there might be mods. For context, ive been playing the CC series since their release and never modded.
Getting stuck into the Winter War with a Finnish campaign against the Soviets and its brilliant. Perkele!
Finally picked up The Survivalists. Really enjoying the aesthetic and making a little monkey labour force, but kind of wish I’d picked it up sooner as there doesn’t seem to be much of a multiplayer community for the game anymore.
Also, can’t for the life of me figure out how to get/unlock metal mining to improve my tools from stone, so even though I now have a sailing raft, I’m still basically confined to the first island.
I’ve got back into Starfield. I’m doing a mix of the quests not attached to the main story and surveying planets
Borderland 4. Loving it at the ko but the fps drops are driving me mad.
Hopefully a bit of a fix comes soon, then I can really enjoy it!
Finished Red Dead 1 on the PC and halfway through undead nightmare.
I played both massively when they came out but haven’t played since around 2011
14 years later they both obviously look and play better than ever with a high FPS and maxed graphical settings. Had a great time with replaying both after so long
Couple of weeks ago I finished the remake of Snake Eater, a game I hadn’t played since 2004
Silksong & the new Dying Light, getting my arse kicked by both.
Probably just the odd 15 mins here and there of Snowrunner on my handheld. Busy time at the moment, so just snatching some time to wind down and not really much room for “right, where was I up to??” 😂
Wallace & Gromit Project Zoo
Civ V, can’t get any better
I’ve dusted down the old GBA SP recently and playing my Game Boy collection, as well as buying some games off eBay.
Having said that, I had an English copy of Pokémon TCG 2 imported in and it’s fantastic. I’d completed the first one last week so it arrived just in time at the weekend.
I am still playing No Man’s Sky. I love that game. Just about finishing up the Corvette expedition.
I’ve started the tedious prep for the Final Fantasy X superbosses. To begin with, I’ve been running around the inside of Sin on x4 speed grinding sphere levels to get as many stats as possible before starting the monster arena. Tidus and Rikku already have their celestial weapons powered up, Wakka doesn’t because I can’t be arsed going through hours and hours of Blitzball (FFXED will be coming into play just to add his sigil and 2 remaining overdrives – I’ve done it normally too many times to care). I’m most of the way round the grid with those 3, although I do also want to bring Yuna into play at some point to make completing another sidequest easier. Once I’ve done enough, I’ll be grinding in the arena, first by getting a Triple AP weapon with 2 empty slots for my main 3 characters (the other 2 slots are for Triple Overdrive and Overdrive -> AP), then after that, it’s Don Tonberry time. Then I can beat some of the other monsters for stat spheres.
Haven’t really touched F1 Championship Edition since the Nürburgring podium, Spain is really frustrating me. Best qualifying effort has been about 15th, and a good start and aggressive turns 1 and 2 will see me in the lower points places, but I end up getting biffed by a Red Bull or a Toyota.
Also been working on the most recent update for Gran Turismo 2 A-Spec in the background. I’ve got a nice collection of cars ranging from some GT2 classics like the Toyota GT-One, a JGTC Skyline, and a yellow Evo 5 (no Suzuki Escudo yet though), to some very nice modded cars like the Peugeot 905, Mazda 767B and some 1999 F1 cars. I have a BAR, a McLaren, a Jordan, and a few others (I think a Sauber, Benetton and Arrows).
Still grinding Lego Marvel Superheroes on the 360. 80% through, just the comics, some characters and a couple of races to go.
Thinking about upgrading to a One, with drive, as my 360 is starting to not read certain games.
CEX do a repair service for £40. Anyone know if it’s any good, and will it fix my drive? The info says its quite comprehensive.
Picked space engineers back up as they have released a new patch with some changes and now I keep getting roflstomped by giant beaked spiders when I am trying to put a base together.
Dungeons and degenerate gamblers a rogue like deck builder blackjack game (like balatro but was actually in development very long time before balatro released)
Started playing Hollow Knight when the sequel came out, have nearly finished it (111% completion, it goes up to 112%). Really beautiful game, oozes so much personality, had a great time exploring the world.
Not sure how to say this without it sounding like a flex, but I’ve been a bit let down by the difficulty. The final boss of one of the expansions (Nightmare King Grimm) was a brilliant challenge, that’s the sort of encounter I got this game for. The boss rushes have kept me busy for a while too, although it does feel a bit like busywork to spend ten minutes doing easy bosses in order to get another shot at the hard ones at the end. But all of that comes way after 100% completion. I would really have liked there to be some bosses which took 5+ tries before that, especially because the game is fairly non-linear, so you can always go try something else if you stumble into something which is currently too difficult.
There were lots of great movement and platforming mechanics, so I would have loved to see some terrifying platforming sections, with difficulty comparable to the post-game bosses. I didn’t feel like the game really delivered on that front. The hardest platforming bit was probably when the game asks you to travel a long distance across the world without taking damage, which I did on the first attempt (apparently there are more of these challenges, which I’m keen to check out, but again they’re left as post-game optional activities with no rewards).
There’s a mechanic which I loved in Dark Souls: when you die, you drop your currency where you died. If you die againrr before you can get back to that spot and pick it up, it’s gone forever. Really simple idea but it adds so much tension, really gives me that heart-in-my-mouth feeling of tension and high stakes. People talk about how the designers of Dark Souls used *how the game should make you feel* as their starting point, and made the mechanics to support that, and I think that system is a brilliant example of it. Hollow Knight uses the same system – in theory the Hollow Knight version of it is actually scarier, because your dropped currency takes the form of a hostile ghost which you have to defeat, potentially while contending with whatever killed you. But, in practice, I went the whole game without ever losing currency in this way. Even when I had 10,000+ Geo sat on the floor in some distant corner of the map, there wasn’t really any tension, because I always had more money than there were things to buy.
The “final” boss (not really final, but the one which triggers the end credits) in particular left me feeling really disappointed – when he went down I said to my partner “No way that’s his final phase”… but it was… I hadn’t even needed to heal yet. The credits afterwards congratulated me on my perseverance, which felt like they were rubbing it in.
Despite my negativity in this comment, I still found Hollow Knight to be an excellent game, just not for the reasons I expected. There really are some very cute bugs. The story was well-executed, some of the characters were brilliant. I think it might even beat Dark Souls at it’s own game, in terms of packing lots of character into very few lines of dialogue.
I’ll probably play Silksong eventually, but I’ll wait a year or two for them to finish making whatever expansions they’ll do, because I think Hollow Knight without the expansions would’ve felt hollow.
Back when I played Hades, I came into it just looking for a challenge, and ended up getting really invested into the story, which moved me to tears. But it was also very challenging, and the optional difficulty increases were integrated very well into the game, instead of being tucked away in a corner.
Hades 2 comes out tomorrow, which I’m really excited for. I’m going to try and get the last 1% of Hollow Knight done first though!
The Wii! Picked up some new controllers and a balance board. Usually my excitement doesn’t last very long, but this time my girlfriend is also excited. We’re gonna be playing wii sports resort today and probably also wii fit plus.
Minecraft, that’s about it.
After a disaster of a Gran Turismo 7 league race last night. I’ll be chilling out playing Trails in the Sky.
Started playing For the King with my kid. Loving it and a nice change of pace from the usual games I play.
Started playing battlefield (I’ve never played cod in my life) because I got a new laptop that is good enough to play games on. I suck. Can’t remember half the commands. I’ve never played anything on a laptop before and it’s not as intuitive for me as a playstation controller. But have a mate who is helping me in games, not easy going cuz he’s on a ps5 and so when I ask things like “wait, how do I run” he’s like “bro I don’t know, I’m not on a laptop!” Anyway, although it’s a bit embarrassing being so bad, it’s still fun and I have a new found appreciation for my friend helping me as best he can.
Suikoden 2 HD Remaster!
Ark survival evolved
A bit of Animal Crossing to do daily tasks, then Windwaker
**Hades 2** is coming out of early access tomorrow. I’ve already put 29 hours into it, completed a few runs when they released big patches, but haven’t played since Feb. I don’t really want to start a fresh save but I kinda forgot most of the story up to this point.
Been playing **Borderlands 4**. Currently level 35 or so. It’s not a bad game but I think I’m just over the formula now. I played through Borderlands 3 back when it came out but never returned to it, which is strange for me as I played the shit out of Borderlands 1 and 2. I might get back to it at some point but I think I’ve had my fill of it.
Picked up **Megabonk** last night, played around an hour or so. It’s another Vampire Survivors type game but feels like it has more of the DNA of Risk of Rain 2 than anything else. I like these games for a bit of mindless fun. My favourite is still Halls of Torment as it stands but Megabonk is different enough to be up there. There’s a leaderboard which resets every so often so when you complete a run you can see what rank you are. Pretty fun.
I’m trying (and probably failing) to play games I’ve had for years and not even installed. So right now I’m playing Lucius 3.
Comments are closed.