GRcade

Moon Raider (Switch). Under a couple of quid for about 3 hours of 16 bit style Metroidvania lite action.

7.5/10. Well worth a punt.

Dark Nights with Poe and Munro (PC)

The FMV follow up to "Dr Dekker" and "The Shapeshifting Detective". A bit less interactive than those entries (here you just click icons to pick one of 2-3 options each time) and sometimes the icons do not give a very clear indication of what they will do, but each episode (of which there are 6) has a very different feel to it (one of them is even a throwback to one of the earlier games), which helps keep it fresh. They are also quite funny in an almost surreal way which I really appreciated.

6.

Inside

Had this installed for a while and decided to play it on a whim. It was mostly the kind of experience I was expecting (and I did see a bit of someone play it) but it was good.

Celeste - 9/10
Try, try and try again in this excellent platformer / game of precision. Not without moments of frustration; there were sections that felt completely insurmountable, however, through repetition I honed my skills and surprised even myself! Just don't ask how many deaths I had on the final screens of Core (thanks to those bloody lava blocks ). Still got Farewell to go, but I've seen how hard that gets.

Kriken wrote:Inside

Had this installed for a while and decided to play it on a whim. It was mostly the kind of experience I was expecting (and I did see a bit of someone play it) but it was good.

I may be stating the obvious but I'm hoping you've also played it's predecessor Limbo. It's also very, very good.

I was supposed to play Limbo first but for reasons too boring to get into I didn't end up doing that. Definitely will get around to it though. It sounds like it's even shorter than Inside so I may as well.

Open Roads

Enjoyed this. Felt like a very polished beautifully presented 4 hour game, which is a real sweet spot for Game Pass.

Obviously not much real gameplay in this one, but it really is one of those cases where the more effort you put in exploring, the more you will take from the story. Also looks lovely with an ambilight TV, with lots of soft orange and yellows hues getting projected against the surrounding wall.

7

Little Nightmares 2 (Switch). I enjoyed it bit I honestly thought it seemed shorter than the first game,and would have been even shorter if it wasn't for some of the frustrating parts that took an age to get past (some of the axe swinging bits and the Dr Who Blink episode influenced part with the torch, aaaaaaarrrrrggggh that was fiddly as strawberry float). Dodgy ending being stabbed in the back.

Too short at its full price (I got it for about 8 quid), some fiddly parts and a distinct lack of variety in locations stop it being great. Some really good sections though take it above average.

5/10 at full price
6.5/10 under a tenner.

First name to come up in the credits was Henrik Larrson, multi talented guy eh.

The Excavation of Hob's Barrow

Point and click adventure with enough modern sensibilities to keep things moving at a good pace throughout. Exceptional tone, writing and spoken dialogue performances. It's a really unsettling story that does not resort to any jump scares and is stronger for it. Fantastic music also.

The only negative I have is that I did not enjoy the final act as much as the rest of the game. It felt very mechanical compared to what had come before. But a strong recommend to fans of the point and click genre.

8.5

VVVVVV - fun platform game with the stylings of Atari but with the death / reset counter of Super Meat Boy, can be complete in 1-3 hours - great little game.

Dragon Quest 1 on the Gameboy Colour - I had a lot of fun with this. I've never played a Dragon Quest game before but I enjoyed the world and monster design. Not too long of a game to play either and it's definitely the first game in the series so many of the later series staples don't exist yet, but what's there is super good and thanks to the improvements the Gameboy version had levelling up was super fast so I got through it really quickly.

Fallout New Vegas (Xbox)

Buggy but brilliant. I think I missed a lot, but I’m not sure what. My final playtime was about 36 hours and I loved the way the ending is done. I wish it wasn’t so dark in so many of the inside areas though.

9

Persona 3 Reload.

It’s far too long and there are huge stretches where nothing is happening. Also the mechanics seem to be broken for boosting courage etc - mine were all maxed out with months left to go. I did like the ending though, but slogging through Tartarus was no fun at all. I wish I had dropped it much earlier rather than sticking with it to see it out - there is nowhere near of 80 hours of content despite the game taking that long to finish.

6

dmin wrote:Still got Farewell to go, but I've seen how hard that gets.

It's worth it if you've already got as far as unlocking it. Feels like a self-contained min-epic in its own right, but also has some of the most ingenious platforming (and ability to wring new surprises from mechanics you thought you fully knew by now?!) out there.

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered starring Lara Croft

Fantastic little collection, despite III being an absolute slog to get through. I and II are all time classics with II being my absolute favourite. Something very therapeutic about managing the tank controls to traverse the environment.

Axiom Verge

An extremely good Metroidvania. Great pixel art, music and a fun array of weapons to utilise. The powers that open up the map are inventive and somewhat different to Metroidvania staples which means a lot of the secrets are well hidden and require some clever thinking to reveal.

Firewatch - 9/10

Loved the few hours I got to spend with this, great little story, wonderful voice acting from your one friend in the wilderness, good use of music when it needs it, looks lovely but doesn’t perform amazingly sadly.

Heaven's Vault

Ridiculously ambitious Inkle game that achieves what it is aiming for 90% of the time.

The story is an interesting one, and it would be interesting to know if outcomes can be different depending on word solutions you make. The whole deciphering mechanism (and the sheer amount of it) is so clever and vast I really don't know what potential findings are there. I would like to give a run through on NG+ at some point, but it's quite a long game by Inkle standards.

My only knock against it is..... it's not that much fun to play. The sailing parts are dull and the way you move the character is far from fluid (made up for somewhat by the lovely art style and animation). Also it's really choppy on Switch, with lots of stutters. No crashes or anything though.

So it gets an 8. The amount of ambition on display should absolutely be acknowledged. But be prepared to fight through some frustrating UI.

deathofcows wrote:

dmin wrote:Still got Farewell to go, but I've seen how hard that gets.

It's worth it if you've already got as far as unlocking it. Feels like a self-contained min-epic in its own right, but also has some of the most ingenious platforming (and ability to wring new surprises from mechanics you thought you fully knew by now?!) out there.

Cheers. Just recently returned to Zelda Totk, but will give it a shot at some point in the future.

Super Mega Zero - 8/10

Loved it. Really solid platforming game. Great level design, good soundtrack.

Robbo-92 wrote:Firewatch - 9/10

Loved the few hours I got to spend with this, great little story, wonderful voice acting from your one friend in the wilderness, good use of music when it needs it, looks lovely but doesn’t perform amazingly sadly.

A really special little game isn't it. I wish I could erase it and play it again, but I'll have to wait another 5 or 10 years. Or it'd be nice to play through with someone who's never played it.

Sherlock Holmes - Chapter One

Decent entry to the series, but not my favourite. The open world aspect seems a bit unnecessary, and a lot of the mechanics are really just for flavour than to provide any additional challenge or interactivity. Some fun quests in there, and I did enjoy the overall tone of the game. Thought the ending was very strong.

7