Hey, Talking Time, Whatcha Playin?

[Becksworth]

Took the plunge on Control: Ultimate Edition while it was on sale on XBox. Previously I played it part way through on PS Now, which I think was just like the baseline PS4 version, so with the Series S update this is already a lot better. The load times are actually bearable!

 

[Octopus Prime]

I am very grateful for the confluence of events that made the Switch region free, and also had the good people at Bandai-Namco spring for a surprisingly solid localization for Super Robot Wars T.

I'm only a couple missions into it, but hey, this is very much my jam!

 

[Lokii]

I sawr that Wild Arms 3 was on PSN so I dloaded it. Haven't touched this one since it's release five thousand years ago and I remember very little beyond the characters running in circles every battle. The stylistic flourishes both big and subtle are the real draw and the glue that cements this conception of Western-Fantasy. It uses genre to explore the ways that a JRPG can be cinematic. Real interesting stuff, I'm glad I'm decided to follow the impulse to revisit.

 

[Peklo]

Virginia as a genre-best RPG protagonist and character design is the initial hook I'd offer to most. Aesthetically the game is just tremendous, and no one's ever forgetting that prologue premise either.

 

[Lokii]

Just did a boss fight against Virginia's foil, Janus. Just before the fight he tells his henchmen to "stop quaking in your boots" and "zip up." During the battle henchman 1 can tremble cowardly increasing his evasion, and henchman 2 can zip up his fly increasing defense. I love it. Wonderful gameplay/narrative/style harmony.

 

[Fyonn]

Played through ZerORanger again, this time for the first time after beating the story of the game. Usually I delete my save file and do the story again.

Every day that knowledge of ZerORanger's plot isn't unavoidable via memetic osmosis is a day that ZerORanger continues to be underrated.

 

[Aleryn]

Virginia of Wild Arms 3 reminds me of Dark Cloud 2, the latter being a less refined take on that mood. Wish I hadn't passed over Wild Arms now, I'd have bought the game purely off that illustration of Virginia above.

 

[Octopus Prime]

I DID buy Wild Arms 3 entirely because of Virginia

Also, gotta say, “Drifter-in-training” is one hell of a career path

 

[Lokii]

Drifter in this context means treasure-hunter. Or maybe superhero.

Wild Arms is a series about cowboy superheroes.

 

[fanboymaster]

Judgment finally getting back to this after getting stalled out early close to release due to circumstance. It's an interesting contrast after playing through Yakuza: Like a Dragon which, while I haven't finished this yet, is likely a stronger game overall. Still Judgment manages to use essentially all of the Yakuza building blocks without actually feeling like a mainline Yakuza game, where Like a Dragon abandons much of the mechanical framework but feels every bit like the next main game, it's a testament to how strong the series identity is.

I'm impressed with Judgment's tonal deviation, Yagami is definitely not a pushover of a protagonist but the framing allows a group of five Yakuza to act as a successful threat to his person, a framing that was never attempted in a mainline game and would not work given how the protagonists are treated as burly beef tanks. The game's protagonist really centers its worldview, where Kiryu or Ichiban have both had their lives destroyed they faced that by choice and look to the future. Yagami, in the tradition of detective stories, is haunted by the past and is much more weary despite also being the youngest of the three. The aesthetic framing giving a more technical, modern sheen to the UI really drives it home. It's very impressive and I'm excited to keep going.

 

[Adrenaline]

I don't really understand why Just Cause 4 got worse reviews than 3. The process of taking over the map is a lot less monotonous and the missions are pretty fun.

 

[nataeryn]

Well, the folks over at Paradox have pretty much rebuilt Imperator again. Its hard enough learning where everything is in a Paradox game.
The interface feels like its trying to be a little closer to CK3. The aesthetics are definitely better. The menu buttons are much clearer icons. Everything takes up less space and crunchy data can be found in cascading tooltips. Some of the text has a pretty narrow width factor though and it was a bit tough to read on my resolution. I'm definitely not used to it yet.
The inventions are now in a tech tree and you earn inventions as you tech up and don't buy them with cash. You can dive deep into one tree or spread out.
And they dropped the military system of just build as much as you can afford (basically EU4 minus force limits) and now its a levy system tied to pops on a per governor basis Plus Legions, so its similar to the CK system of Levies and Retinues. So a levy size and composition depends on the pop sizes and their culture. And if your levy takes a hit, so too will those pops when you send them home (Hey Vicky 2!) Levy experience is used to fuel your nations military traditions.

 

[lincolnic]

A streamer I like has been playing Enter the Gungeon a lot recently, and it reminded me that I had a free copy from the Epic store, so I've been putting in an hour here and there. I...can't tell if this game is good? I've got hundreds of hours on The Binding of Isaac, so I feel confident with this style of roguelike, but this game seems so heavily reliant on RNG that it's very hard to make any real progress. Most of the time I don't even make it past the first boss because I haven't found any good guns, and when I do I feel extremely overpowered. Also, I'm no good at the bullet hell stuff. I want to like it, but maybe this one's just not for me.

 

[Octopus Prime]

You’d think that Star Wars, Metroid, Tomb Raider and Dark Souls would be too many cooks in the kitchen.

But here’s Fallen Order, establishing that it’s the exact number of cooks the kitchen needs

 

[karzac]

I'd actually argue that the game required another cook to give some more variety to the potential approaches to combat, but it's still a combination that works suprisingly well.

 

[Aleryn]

Blasphemous is promising so far in a dreary baroque way.

 

[nataeryn]

Shovel Knight is a platformer that I can really enjoy even as someone to typically doesn't have a lot of patience for platformers.
- Shovel Knight controls really well. the pogo move isn't too hard to control. there are secrets to find just about all over. there's no lives and checkpoints are pretty frequent. the challenge ramps up nicely. "Eye-core" is free. There's plenty of gold even if you die and don't recover it. The music is amazing. the bosses look amazing and the writing of their banter has a ton of personality.
- Specter Knight also controls wonderfully. the air slash and wall runs aren't too hard to control. I'm totally invested in Specter Knight's story. the alternate outfits for SK are really cool and i found the effects very useful too.
- King Knight also controls wonderfully. again the move set is fun. I am pretty trash at this card game tho.
- I can't get out of the intro level for Plague Knight... I watched a speedrun of PK and I can see that the move set can be skillfully executed, but so far it has not clicked for me.

For all the modes, I really like how the platforming is tailored to the move set of each character. I like how they will always set up a new mechanic and give you a safe space to learn it before they build on it. many platforming challenges are often a puzzle of how can i use the moves i have to get where i want to go and there's often some execution component to it, but everything I've dealt with has felt very doable.
I've had this game on my wishlist for a long time and finally decided to get it for my birthday. I feel like $40 was a great value for the gaming time I've gotten out of it so far. I've played it pretty much non stop this week and I've got a ways to go yet.

 

[Torzelbaum]

Picked up TimeSpinner again after abandoning it months ago. Really wish I hadn't abandoned it so quickly. There was a tricky platforming part that had killed my momentum back then but I tried it again today and did it on my second attempt. (I do wonder if playing on a different, slower computer helped with that...)

Blasphemous is promising so far in a dreary baroque way.

Have you checked out the new crossover content it has with Bloodstained Ritual of the Night?

 

[Aleryn]

Have you checked out the new crossover content it has with Bloodstained Ritual of the Night?

No? But that's a good reason to try it again after enjoying Curse of the Moon I and II immensely. Thanks.

Good luck with Timespinner, I fell off it too and I suspect there's something really special about it past the beginning slog.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Perhaps the simplest way to describe Kill it With Fire is that it’s like Katamari Damacy combined with Gone Home. Each level has X-many spiders hiding in it, and you have to wander around flipping over photos or opening cupboards or whatever until you discover and then destroy it. And the more spiders you kill/little chores you accomplish per level, the more of each level you can then open up to track down more spiders/anti-spider armaments.

Shine comes off the apple a bit (at least in the small amount I’ve played) when the Spiders skitter under a couch or behind a shelf or something because then you have to wait around until it respawns elsewhere. Took me a half hour to clear the tutorial level because of that.

Also, the spiders are swole. They take several direct whaps with a clipboard or sustained exposure to flame to die and can move around boxes and small furniture all on their own.

In conclusion; don’t play this if you fear the concept of turning over a book and seeing a bug the size of your fist chilling on it, or if you feel bad for bugs that are unfairly maligned.

But if you want to Mousehunt your way through someone’s apartment with a blowtorch trying to kill One Spider, then this is worth it

 

[Issun]

Playing OG Alone in the Dark in the year of our lord 2021 is... an experience.

 

[Becksworth]

Playing through Soul Chronicle in Soul Calibur 6 and I just realized we are 7 games into the series and only now getting any serious characterization. In any case, Mitsurugi being a complete himbo has unexpectedly tickled me.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Seven games into the series, and the third retelling of the plot of SC1, no less!

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Seven games into the series, and the third retelling of the plot of SC1, no less!

Soul Calibur Legends: "Am I a joke to you?"

 

[StriderDL]

Playing through Super Mario 3D All Stars with my 4yo daughter. The imprecision of the movement in Sunshine might be teaching her some bad language. Everyone loves Galaxy though! First time I've played it.

 

[Octopus Prime]

I think my low key favourite part about Fenyx Rising is that whenever you defeat an enemy, be it a huge multi-armed giant or... like... a Regular Bear, it goes flying.

It’s like everyone in Ancient Greece was in Team Rocket

 

[jpfriction]

I think my low key favourite part about Fenyx Rising is that whenever you defeat an enemy, be it a huge multi-armed giant or... like... a Regular Bear, it goes flying.

It’s like everyone in Ancient Greece was in Team Rocket

I think this is true of everyone except the shades of great Olympic heroes who... just suddenly stop fighting you and calmly walk away.

 

[Octopus Prime]

After reading our own Mr. Gipps praise of it over at Retronauts, I decided to pick up Cathedral. And, once again, he has not steered me wrong. It’s got much Shovel Knight in its heart, except for being more of a Troid than a Mega Man. And it’s also a spin-off of the Alwas games. And you KNOW I love me an Alwas!

 

[ASandoval]

Speaking of playing a game because Stu praised it, I've been playing through Days Gone. I'll probably make a longer post once I finished it and can collect my thoughts over in the beating games section, but the TLDR is that I'm really digging it. Admittedly I don't actually enjoy the gameplay all that much and am playing it on easy (and it's still giving me a heck of a time in parts), but the writing and dialogue are really solid. There's stuff on that front that I also don't like, but even that stuff is fascinating and giving me a lot to digest. Again, I'll write something up once I finish it, but it's the best of the over played zombie media I've experienced since Train to Busan and a heck of a lot better than what I've seen of both Last of Us and The Walking Dead*.

*Outside of the first Telltale season

 

[Violentvixen]

Playing Spiritfarer on Gamepass and I really like it. There's been a couple obtuse things but once I looked them up I felt like I could have figured them out eventually.

Gardening, cooking, talking to townspeople and I got to help a union organize and get health insurance! Yay!