GRcade

Nothing makes a game look cheap to me more than low-res pixel art with mismatching high-res text boxes. Combined with the also mismatching high res character art it looks like Dragon Quest but made in RPG Maker from stock assests.

Tsunade wrote:I've just completed Digimon Cyber sleuth and now I'm onto the hackers story. I've really enjoyed playing cyber sleuth, it was the first digimon game I've actually ever played. I'm loving the music more in Hackers story though to cyber sleuth.

I was really quite taken with Cyber Sleuth. Didn’t bond with the monsters too much, as they shuffled up and down evolutionary lines, but for the story and the sense of just trying a bit harder I preferred it to Pokémon SS in the end. The music was shite though, glad to read the second game improves on it! (I was burned out on Digimon battling by the time I finished CS, and still haven’t played Hacker’s Memory.)

I’ve been playing Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, which I think is available on most things? I bloody love it, while recognising not everyone will. The combat’s top, the ambience is top, and while the farming feels almost intentionally tedious at times, it’s somehow very cathartic and getting ‘better’ at it is really rewarding! I love how it links into the combat too. Apparently the two-person development team spent five years on this, and most of that was researching rice farming, which is kind of adorable.

Finished up Gears 5: Hivebusters and whilst it was good it was not as good as Gears 5’s main campaign. Luckily I played it via my trial on GamePass so never actually paid out for it. Some nice visuals but not a fan of the characters really.

Have also been playing Timespinner this week, that’s a solid Metroidvania, nothing amazing but I enjoyed my time with it. Pretty short too, finished it up in about 5 hours.

Drumstick wrote:Burnout Paradise Remastered

Been putting more hours in and I'm doing well. I decided to use Big Surf Island as a training ground of sorts; I was able to eventually find all the jumps, smashes and billboards, after which I did the road rules and showtimes for each street. The only thing I haven't done is the freeburn stuff as I don't have online.

Now I'm trying to replicate that across Paradise City, starting with the billboards, of which I have 92/120 so far.

Managed to find all the billboards and finished off the smashes tonight. I should probably get on with actually doing some of the events now that I've found all of those as well.

Still got plenty of jumps to find and haven't done any of the showtime challenges or timed road rules.

More Immortals Feynix Rising, really enjoying the game. Very fun the open world is lovely, the game has plenty of charm and it's not too taxing.

Seven wrote:428 Shibuya Scramble (Steam)

Went in not expecting anything and I'm completely hooked. Got to 12:00-13;00 chapter and I'm looking forward to what happens next. I also love how character's actions can affect other characters, even if the choice may seem minor thing to do -- it's big enough to cause game over on different character which are hilarious.

Still playing this, taking my time as I've been playing other games but I'm now on last few chapters and I think it'll end up being in top five VN games I've played.

Also playing through World of Final Fantasy on Steam, it's cute PokemonxFinal Fantasy mashup. It's quite easy so far but I don't mind too much.

Fight Night Champion - stuck on Issac Frost, he’s impossible.

Unravel 2 - nice little game with slightly unintuitive controls.

Hades - still brilliant. 1 clear.

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Unravel 2 - nice little game with slightly unintuitive controls.

The controls were probably the one thing I didn’t object to! I just felt like it was very, ‘Triple-A tries to make an indie game’, with everything (mostly negative) that entails.

Spyro Reignited Trilogy on Switch - saw this for a decent price in asda so picked it up. Only bothered playing it in handheld mode but it looks great. One of the better 3rd party games I've seen undocked. Looks better than Nitro Fuelled did and I believe they target the same resolution. Only replayed the trilogy a year or so ago on PS3 but am enjoying it. Will probably go for 100% this time.

Disgaea 2 PC - not too far into it but already seeing an improvement over the first game in a lot of ways. Everything is a bit snappier, combo moves are cooler and requirements for pulling off specials aren't quite as strict as they were previously. Some nice new quality of life improvements too - Disgaea 1 PC was kind of bad for that since it missed some QoL that was even in the DS version.

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Fight Night Champion - stuck on Issac Frost, he’s impossible.
.

That's probably the only gaming challenge I've given up on

After blasting through Bulletstorm last weekend which I really enjoyed I've been playing Dead Island this week.

I know I'm late to the party with both of these!

I've enjoyed Dead Island but it's starting to drag a little and I just want it over with. At the prison now so nearly done I think.

Ste wrote:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Fight Night Champion - stuck on Issac Frost, he’s impossible.
.

That's probably the only gaming challenge I've given up on

After blasting through Bulletstorm last weekend which I really enjoyed I've been playing Dead Island this week.

I know I'm late to the party with both of these!

I've enjoyed Dead Island but it's starting to drag a little and I just want it over with. At the prison now so nearly done I think.

I have knocked the difficulty down but it hasn’t made a difference. Might have to give up. It’s an insane difficulty spike.

I really liked Bulletstorm too!

Folk who liked Bulletstorm might want to check out The Darkness 2 as it plays quite similarly if memory serves.

Started playing the division 2. It looks good but it’s a bit bland and very repetitive. Stopped playing it and I’m now enjoying GTA V.

Bulletstorm is incredible. So much fun.

Started Bloodstained on PS5. Looks and runs so much better than the Switch version and it feels good to be starting fresh and unlocking trophies. Definitely a modern classic.

Kentucky Route Zero.

I'm 2 acts in...is this worth continuing with if I'm not really enjoying? I cant say I'm overly intrigued by what is going on. It just feels like random scene to random scene without a hook. And there isn't really any kind of puzzle element to the gameplay. It feels abit of a slog although it does look and sound very nice and is certainly atmospheric. But yeh. Not sure.

Currently 2 weeks into Animal Crossing New Leaf. I play it for at least 2 hours a day at the minute farming fruit from the island Minigames.

I just did the London arc on Valhalla and I'm about to go to York despite only being power 45. I find it's a much better game played as a normal AC with the stealth kills switched on. The fact the guards can one-hit kill you makes the stealth that bit more thrilling.

I picked up Scott Pilgrim for some 4-player shenanigans on the Xbox One. I'm in the process of dev unlocking it and installing Libretro so I can install some Dreamcast and GameCube titles on there too and turn it into the ultimate couch co-op console.

Trials of Mana
like an action rpg version of Dragon Quest
really enjoying it so far (~10hrs), a bit linear though but i actually dont mind that too much, with more open rpgs i often get paralysis by analysis

are people enjoying Bulletstorm after being reminded it existed in the 'name a game beginning with (x) letter'? because if so that makes me happy

Balladeer wrote:I’ve been playing Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin, which I think is available on most things? I bloody love it, while recognising not everyone will. The combat’s top, the ambience is top, and while the farming feels almost intentionally tedious at times, it’s somehow very cathartic and getting ‘better’ at it is really rewarding! I love how it links into the combat too. Apparently the two-person development team spent five years on this, and most of that was researching rice farming, which is kind of adorable.

It just gets better and betterer. (Although I have experienced a couple of annoying bugs.) Up to year five now. (I got to year three and decided to start again with the knowledge I'd accumulated thus far .( I think an awful lot of the complexities of the game - fighting skills, collecting the right things for the farming, food preparation etc. etc. have passed over but I keep pushing in the right direction overall. Really is a wonderful game.

Dirt 4
Been playing through the career since Christmas; there's quite a lot of game in here! It's just sitting on the sweet spot of arcadey for me. Love the rally and rally sport races but it's taken a while get the hang of the 4wd cars. The buggy races are feckin' awful tho, as the backend slides out all the time. I went through them first to get them out of the way.