Search the Community

Here you go lazy bones @Maryokutai. Not hard is it.

Played the first 3 hours earlier. I like it so far but it barely feels like I’m out the tutorial really so very early days. A lot of mechanics are being introduced still and it feels like the reigns haven’t been let go of yet so I’m not free to fully explore the world yet. First things first. There’s a lot of cutscenes. Almost all of them during the Prologue are ones we’ve seen from past trailers so in some ways we’ve all seen the opening hour but without the context you’ll get in the game. After that you’ll start to see some new stuff but at this early stage most of it is just introducing you to characters and locales with not an awful lot going on in terms of plot or anything. I’m not sure I need to go into a deep dive over the way the game plays as we’ve seen the gameplay trailers in the past. If you’ve seen those clips with Sam delivering packages that’s pretty much all I’ve done so far, the tone has definitely been on the serious side - thus far at least - with the piss grenades and Kojima wackiness completely missing during the opening stages of what I’ve played at least. The way it feels to pilot Sam though is probably what has surprised me the most, I read someone else somewhere compare piloting him to driving a car in GTA or something which had me a little bit worried because I assumed he’d control like a tank but instead he controls like a Sports Car if anything. He is incredibly nimble and controls very intuitively which I was shocked about, the walking speed is a light jog as well which means you get places really quickly. Holding L2 and R2 in will enable you to keep your balance much better and it’s a godsend when you’re carrying something heavy or traversing mountains as it will stop you flailing from left to right wildly. The way you load and unload packages feels very intuitive as well and it’s somewhat novel in letting you pick it up and then rearrange it on your person, it feels very tactile. I’ve made 3 deliveries in total in my time with the game so far. It seems fun enough to me to simply get lost in the world and walk about eventually getting to your delivery point but as mentioned previously I haven’t been fully let off the reigns so far so have only been able to explore very linear corridors which have been funnelling me to the next exposition point. I have met the ‘BT’s’ once so far and the whole experience completely weirded me out. I fucked it up first time around and was flailing wildly not knowing what to do before being chased by some kind of monster thing so I reloaded and gave it another go. The atmosphere in those moments is so damn tense creeping around them whilst crouching and holding your breath, the BT’s themselves give me the creeps, they’ve got such fantastic sound design. It probably goes without saying but the visuals are absolutely phenomenal as well. They world design has a really unique art design to it, I don’t really know what I can compare it to really other than possibly Nier Automata maybe? It just has this washed out melancholic but vivid quality to it that I’ve not really seen much elsewhere. If you like somber indie tunes you’ve come to the right place as well, in particular moments the music will swell and the camera zoom out to give you a sense of place whilst adventuring along. Kojima has a great music taste. As far as negatives go, so far the writing has been a little ropey in places and I couldn’t help but laugh when Kojima’s name comes up under every casting title during the credits as well. So yeah, so far so good really but it’s still very early days. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with it this far but am eager for the leash to be loosened so I can fully explore the world.

This is a little known indie RPG from a couple of years ago that has a 16bit JRPG style. On the surface it pulls a lot of inspiration from Chrono Trigger with regards to its battle system, but instead it has a sci-fi setting where you play as a team of future spies. It has been good so far. Well, the story I'm a bit unsure about. Maybe it just needs some time to pick up but currently it has a dodgy mix of some regular sci-fi and a Saturday Morning Cartoon, but in a way that isn't quite working for me. I just want them to pick one so far. But I've been very impressed with the battle system and that's the star of the show here. You have basic moves, moves that can be used once until you've gone in a turn consuming defensive stance, the moves have a lot of different kinds of properties even early on. Every fight with basic enemies feels meaningful. JRPGs are often more of a marathon than a sprint, where you have to get from one place to the next, doing lots of simple fights and making sure you're prepared enough for it. Here, all of your health and abilities are restored after a fight so they're very self contained, puzzle-y things and don't shy away from making regular encounters feel like boss fights in another game like this. It's cool. It's very cheap on Switch as of now and if you want something to challenge your decision making in a JRPG style I think it's truly worth looking at.

Spent about 5 hours with this yesterday and just left the first planet. I really like that sort of game design in open world games. A complete but bite sized chunk to get you ready for the rest. Places like White Orchard in The Witcher 3. As for the game, it's okay. Crushingly okay. There's nothing in the game I don't like but there is nothing I love either. The writing is pretty good and there have been a few funny moments but there hasn't been a character introduced yet that really connected me to the world and the world itself is your generic capitalism gone wild scenario. Which I like, I'm an easy sell on that sort of thing but it's been done so often that it's just okay. Combat is okay. Loot is okay. Graphics are okay. Character creator is okay. Skills are okay. Player choices are okay. You get it. I'll be putting some more time into it today so hopefully it just starts off slow because there is definitely potential but I worry that they have spent so much time on giving the player a million different choices that none of them really mean anything.

Started the campaign on this earlier today and have had an absolute blast with it so far. The feel of the guns and the sound design is just absolutely superb, you can hear and feel each individual shot as you make it and feel the impact much than before when you kill an enemy. The main new addition from previous games is being able to stick, take cover and peek by clicking the right stick in to peek and pick off enemies. It drops you right in the action right away and can feel a little too quick and confusing at first, it really rams the plot down your neck and you’re a bit like ‘hang on...who’s that?’ But you soon just go with the flow really, the Villain hasn’t really been hyped up as much as previous games and I’m still a bit like ‘I’m meant to hate that guy?’ But yeah it gives just enough motivation and slap bangs you right in the action. Still piecing things together now but and trying to understand some bits and pieces but the world building is decent enough without being awe inspiring. The levels themselves have all been really varied. There’s two set in a European city, a couple set in a fake middle-eastern city at different times of the day and one set in the fake Kazakh mountains. I guess nothing too crazy or out there in terms of CoD but they’ve absolutely nailed the atmosphere in all these missions, possibly better than they ever have before. I don’t wanna give too much away and spoil things for people but it definitely pulls no punches in terms of subject matter. It definitely seems to be much more aware of the horrors of war than some previous titles and the subject matter reflects this, featuring burning bodies, civilians being shot, war crimes being committed and other atrocities (and I’m only on the 5th or 6th mission!). Had a few technical issues with the cutscenes running at about 1fps every now and then - but I seemed to rectify this somewhat by switching to borderless full screen - a few weird AI issues and clipping issues with enemy soldiers but apart from this the game has ran more or less flawlessly on my new GPU, it looks absolutely phenomenal. Some pics:

Picked this up last week after reading lots of glowing impressions and very positive reviews. It definitely hasn’t disappointed that’s for sure, I’ve had an absolute blast with it for sure and it’s definitely one of the best platformers I’ve played in recent years. The game takes on two dimensions. The 2D side-scrolling platforming takes up the majority of your time with it and I think the easiest way to describe how it looks, feels and plays is heavily inspired by Retro’s DKC series and Rare’s original DKC series, seeing the game at a glance in motion you’d be mistaken for thinking it’s one of Retro’s games. From the roll Yooka-Laylee do to the hidden coins dotted around the map, the similar way Laylee takes a hit through a level, the hidden doors into puzzle rooms, even the iconic barrels that rocket you around certain platforms. There is an awful lot of crossover here. Some may worry it’s a poor imitation or an uninspired clone but I assure you, to play, it’s every bit as good as it’s DKC counterparts. Worth noting there’s no rocket or mine-cart levels yet though. The second dimension to it and the biggest difference is the world map. With this the World Map is incredibly interactive and inviting, almost a game unto itself. It features a rather large Zelda-esque map filled with charmingly different locales, Pagie challenges, little puzzles to find tonics and new areas, little caves and mysterious little nooks and crannies. By changing the landscape in some way by doing the Pagie challenges you often reshape the landscape to unlock new areas to explore and alter the makeup of a previously unlocked level. A level variation is then created whereby a level can become frozen, overgrown, invaded by new enemies etc. Essentially creating an almost entirely new level to explore based on the outside environment of the world map and where the level marker is placed. The way it feels to play is incredibly reminiscent of the DKC games during the 2D levels, it just feels so incredibly tight to play and definitely has that same difficulty curve. But I think the Interactive World Map is almost just as compelling, you can completely lose yourself in the map just wandering around trying to figure where things fit together and where certain paths will take you. These two dimensions create an incredibly cohesive whole. If you’re getting bored of doing the levels then you can just wander off and explore to your hearts content, if you’re bored of exploring you can enter a level of platforming bliss in seconds. My only real criticism with it would be the level design really. The actual platforming is sublime but some of the level designs themselves are a little generic and nowhere near as joyful, varied, distinct and charming as the likes of DKC. I highly recommend it though, to anyone that’s into tough 2D platformer’s this is nirvana.

Ok. So, this game is awful. Sorry, but it is. I’ve loved the Contra series for a long time, ever since I started with the awesome Super Probotector (aka Contra 3) on the SNES. This is absolutely one of the worst entries to the series. Graphically it’s nothing special. I’ve seen worse, sure. But considering we’re at the end of this generation, it’s nothing to write home about. The effect where an enemy gets thrown into the screen, Turtles in Time style, is pretty laughable. The overheat mechanic is terrible. Your main weapon overheats in a matter of seconds, unless you hold off from keeping the fire button held down. Your secondary weapon is usually more powerful, but that overheats even faster. There’s quite often a ton of enemies on screen. So your natural reaction is to try to shoot them all. Except you can’t, because your bloody weapon overheats. Leaving you frantically rolling around, waiting a good 8 seconds before you can fight back. Within a few levels, content gets recycled. Hope you like seeing the same bosses and mini-bosses, over and over again. There is a store where you can buy upgrades, but it’s absolutely baffling. Huge amounts of stuff to buy, with not much indication of what it actually does. All of which cost an obscene level of cash to buy anyway. Oh, and if you die in a mission, none of the cash you earned gets kept. So that’s fun. You can’t pause a mission. At all. Even on your own. So you’d better not need a piss, or anything better to do for a good 30-40 minutes. To top it all off, it’s just bloody boring. The whole appeal of Contra is running and gunning your way through waves of enemies. Here, the overheat mechanic completely and utterly ruins the flow of the game. Reviews are tearing this game a new arsehole because of it. And they are absolutely right to do so. It adds nothing to the gameplay, instead it restricts you. Oh, and the spread gun? One of the most iconic weapons in the series. Here, it’s a temporary power up that you get to use for about 5 seconds. If you even find it at all in a level. Utter shite.

I thought there was a thread, there should be, Ape Out got a lot of coverage for a few days at release. It's a simple premise and a simple game. You're a captive ape and have to escape. Your captors are gun toting guards or various types, and you bound through the level smashing guards, grabbing them to use as shields, or flinging them into other people or walls. You can take 3 hits, every few sections you start a new level and get your health back. Killing the guards doesn't really do anything for you other than clear the way, there's nothing to stop you from just gunning it, which is what I tend to do and it probably does rob the game of something The thing that makes Ape Out stand out is the jazz soundtrack which is tied to what's going on in the game, and the old European cartoon look. It's a cool game. The problem is that there's not a huge amount to it. I like it but you're getting as much from it on disc 1 as you are on disc 3. You get new enemies and the challenge they throw at you changes, but it still amounts to you grabbing and splatting. For example, the game introduces enemies who smash through windows wearing body armour, they're more dangerous and more useful as weapons, but they still die from being twatted about by a gorilla

I've played a few areas of this, and it's... alright. It's not funny or quirky enough for that to keep you playing, there's not a lot to the gameplay that that's the reason you're playing, and there's a few frustrations that pull some of the fun out of it. I do really like how the goose moves though The gameplay loop is that you're locked in to an area and have a list of dickish things to tick off. The first area is the one you'll have seen from the early footage, you're tormenting a gardener, so the list includes things like getting him wet, getting him to switch hats, making a picnic. Some are easy enough, walk up to an, sorry, waddle up to an item, press the button to pick it up, then waddle back off with it. Some you have to set up, do something to get your target to change position so they're vulnerable. It's here where it feels most like a stealth game, or a game akin to Gregory Horror Show or an adventure game, it's also where it's the most tedious Goose Game doesn't have the tells of a traditional adventure game, it doesn't spell things out for you, which might be for the best. It reminds me a bit of Doughnut County, that was a game that never really got complicated enough to get interesting, all style no substance, if Untitled Goose Game was any easier it would be a procession. That said when you can't work out how to do the next task it's a boring experience, I'm not sure if the game starts focusing characters on the actions that will put you on the right track, but it should. Beyond that the only other criticism I can level at it so far is that it can be a bit fiddly. If there's a couple of items that can be picked up, 99% of the time it will pick up the one you don't want

Ok, so it’s pretty clear this is by the team that brought us Until Dawn. As it’s pretty much more of the same. From the stereotypical characters (Jock, nerd, wanker), to the narrator between scenes who questions your story choices. It’s certainly shorter than Until Dawn was. And I didn’t find it particularly difficult to make it to the end with nobody getting killed. Still, it was an enjoyable experience. Graphically it looks great, though at times some of the characters had a bit of a fit when walking for some reason. And the story ended with several parts not really making any sense. Apparently if you play it in multiplayer you get some more explanation. But I haven’t, and won’t be doing. So there we go. It still has the “taking ages to look at an item” mechanic that UD did. Which can be annoying when you take ages to pick something up, only for it to serve no purpose whatsoever. Walking around takes ages unless you constantly hold down the run button. And there were quite a few instances where I wasn’t really sure where I was meant to be going. That being said, it was alright. Worth a rental at least.

The very quickest of impressions as I've only gone through bootcamp (which I did in the beta) and played less than an hour of the campaign (as fucking work was calling) Obviously the game looks stunning, Gears was always an Xbox showpiece and this is no different and on the X it sings... 60fps in campaign means it feels a little more spritely in movement too. The first act has you controlling JD making your way through a destroyed Azura (from Gears 3) complex searching for a way to bring the Hammer of Dawn back online. It's a by the books start to the game... It's apparently chapter 2 where the differences kick in. Shooting feels tweaked but still has that weight behind it and we still have the best headshot in gaming.? I'm hoping this turns out to be an ode to Gears, I know we're returning to past area's, I know past characters are returning... I want lore from this game and answers. Old man Marcus is such a badass. I have a eight hour night shift that finishes at 7am, the missus will be leaving for work at 8am... You'd better fucking believe I'll be staying up until God knows when playing this tomorrow.?

So, straight off the bat this game is weird... As in... It feels like I've been dumped in to the middle of a story and have no knowledge of what's gone (or going) on. It seems like it's a cross of every recent weird TV show or film from recent times, there's touches of Inception, Lost and God knows what else in here so far. Jesse (the main character) seems fine so far, she handles well enough... Shooting seems a little loose but I've turned off a couple of aim assists so that may explain that, I've only unlocked a couple of abilities (like launch) but that's opened up combat a little... I'm enjoying what I've played so far. Oddly, the game this most reminds me of somehow is a Dead Space game but I can't quite put my finger on why... I'm definitely interested to see where they take the story in this as so far it's weird as fuck and I have no idea where it's going.

Bit of a strange one, it seems a little like Wolfenstein's gameplay in a service game. It's not quite as punchy, the guns, particularly the shotgun, feel weaker. Enemies have levels, so far they've been low enough that the fodder have been easy to kill, but there's also some that have armour, and the boss took ages I really like the two girls, they're funny, we'll see where it goes but I'd be up for giving them another game.

So. Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force. Brought to you by the geniuses behind the Mega/HyperDimension Neptunia series, it's a medieval JRPG for the ages. Ok. It's not. It's a bit of a pervy game wrapped in a lovely little Dark Ages anime art style. @Sly Reflex was asking me about it last night, and the only answer I really had was that it's inoffensive. Which I then immediately clarified by saying the GAMEPLAY is inoffensive. The story itself just seems to be an excuse to get questionably aged female characters into questionable states of undress. One character in particular, Harley (who thankfully, looks of age), has a particular comfort with herself, so gets herself into situations like this... Anyway, I've just discovered this game is a remake of a 2013 PS3 game. It uses a modified version of the Neptunia battle system, so it's a turn-based JRPG. You have a circular battle arena and your characters make their moves, then the enemy makes theirs (obviously depending on speed levels). When it's your turn, each character gets an area they can cover, where they have to get close enough to an enemy to make an attack. Or far enough away if you're defending/healing. It's easy enough to get to grips with, and as you progress they introduce more and more twists on the formula. You level up as per RPG rules, then also gain a kind of ability points that allows you to increase your attack, defence, movement and attack range, as well as the amount of physical attacks you can do in a combo. It's a nice idea and lets you personalise each fighter to your play style. The story involves finding swords - known as Furies - and using them to release the Goddess. Well, in my story that's what's happening. You can also release this other dude - he's a bad guy - or there's a third option. I'm not sure if you can release both or what. I assume so. A few other systems are in place, but that's the main gist of the important stuff. After about 10 hours of gameplay I'm around level 10-12 and have 4 characters in my party - Fang (the main character), Tiara, Harley and Galdo. All 4 have three hits in their combo, I've unlocked a few extra moves for all of them, and they all have a Fairy giving them benefits/bonuses. It's good. Not great. But there's enough there - besides the perviness - that's keeping me playing, so i'll carry on at some point this weekend.

I'm amazed this isn't already on other platforms as it's been on pc for a bit and looks ideal for the Switch market. It's a Sonic inspired 2d platformer, Mega Drive style graphics and all. It plays quite a lot like the Sonic Mania Encore dlc, in that you play as Spark the Electric Jester (himself), then pick up power ups that change his moveset, with you being able to switch between a couple of them that you have in stock. Different outfits have different moves, Wind lets you double jump, float a bit, roll like Sonic, but the trade off is that the attacks are weaker and have no range. There's an archer outfit that can't double jump but has range and can attack in different directions If you played Freedom Planet it has the same feel as that, it's floaty in a way the Sonic games weren't, a bit loose to control, and enemies don't feel solid. It's not a huge criticism, but it doesn't feel as tight as classic Sonic which it's aping. I'm enjoying it though, I've been chipping away at it over the past 6 months, and I've put a bit more time in to it over the weekend to get it done. It's fun, not amazing, but deserves to have had a bit more attention that it's had

I was watching Review Roulette on Rock/Paper/Shotgun and this came up. It's a fairly simple game, and it's really short, but it's pretty funny and really well done. You're a skeleton of a pirate and have to escape from your cell, then from some other pirates, then track down some treasure. It's fairly basic stuff, lots of QTEs, some sneaking, nothing especially complicated and nothing you can't work out how to do pretty quick. The reason it's worth playing is that it's pretty funny, lots of sight gags like people giving a cool wave goodbye then tripping over something It's good, but it's really short. It's currently in the Steam sale, but the usual price of £5 is, not expensive, but only because it's well put together, I doubt there's an hour of game there. Either way it's cool, glad I played it, and I suspect it will come to other platforms eventually

This is a 2D platformer, run and gun type thing, where you can do all kinds of fancy things, such as shoot at two things at the same time, bounce bullets off things, skateboard, kick things/skateboards at people, slowdown time, and dodge bullets. when you're doing the cool things it's a lot of fun. i often forget to do the cool things and just run through a level shooting everything, which is still pretty fun. especially i find the controls for dodging bullets to be tricky so forget to do it, and slowdown time i keep forgetting to do but the controls for it aren't tricky. but the controls for shooting 2 things at once work well imo - you aim one direction and lock on by holding down the left trigger then aim elsewhere and fire with the right trigger. there's some gimmicky levels that are a bit different, they probably arent really any good but i really enjoyed the 2 i've done so far because of how over the top they are and they don't last long. the levels are very short but there's a lot of them, apparently it's quite a short game, think i'm about 2 hours in. you get graded for each level, i think that's where the game will come into it's own if you get into trying to get a better score/grade - so i think it's good that the levels are short for this. i'm not sure if i'll bother replaying it like this though, don't really know how the scoring works, i'll have to look into it. paid ~£13 which seems like a fair price for it. apparently was playing it in 4k, switched to 1080p and upped the graphics settings, couldn't really tell the difference. so yeah i like it so far and at times it's brilliant, but maybe doesn't live up to how great the trailers for it are (possibly it does but i'm not good at it). also a banana tells you what to do.

released during E3 Devolver Bootleg is a compilation of fake bootlegs of Devolver's more famous games, based on what I've played that mostly means retro takes on some Devolver games, but there are a few reimaginings in there. Hotline Milwaukee is very similar to Hotline Miami, more retro, and unfortunately with worse controls. Hotline Miami was fast and largely reliable and responsive, Hotline Milwaukee relies more on 8-way movement that feels like needs to be dialed in, as such it's not as responsive and you'll die because you weren't facing the way you needed to be. Aside from that it's pretty faithful, more of the same Enter The Gun Dungeon is a rogue-like dual stick shooter, only it doesn't use dual sticks it just uses one, and isn't all it could be entirely because of that. It's basically Binding of Isaac, retro-ified, except you lock in to a direction when you shoot, meaning you're way more vulnerable and while you can shoot and move, you can't aim and move. I'm also shit at it, but I do blame the controls, I suspect I could break the back of it eventually like I did with Binding of Isaac Shootyboots is Downwell. I'm not entirely sure how Downwell plays because I've never played it but in Shootyboots you're in a giant boot leaping down a giant well. You charge up to jump and can shoot for a period while airborne. I liked this, it's not amazing but it's a decent enough retro take on what already looked like a retro game Catsylvania I am shit at. It's a slow, clunky Castlevania-em-up with a large slice of Ghouls and Ghosts added in. You're a cat in a suit of armour, get hit and you lose the armour but are still a hench cat with a sword. It's a bit dull and slow, maybe it gets better as you get further in because I really didn't get very far at all Luftrousers is a retro (almost Atari) version of the Vita classic Luftrausers. It's pretty similar, just slower and easier early on. It reminds me of Amstrad classic Harrier Attack, except without bombs. Actually there are bombs but I couldn't work out how to fire them. Also I don't think it saves your progress which is a bit of a shame because I spent a while playing it. Initially there's only a handful of enemies, and you're rarely attacked by more than one or two at once, once you get to level 10 it starts throwing UFOs at you as soon as you dispatch one, you're not left alone for a second and don't have the range of movement you do in the original. I liked it though, it's probably the one that would work as a standalone game better than any of the others I've played There's a few others, a couple of 2 player games and one based on Ape Out/Donkey Kong Jnr that I'll get around to at some point

About 3-4 hours into this so far so thought I'd make a thread (my first in quite awhile!). To start off its made by the same Dev Team that made 2017's Stories Untold and some of the same developers that made 2014's Alien Isolation so I knew going in it's from a studio with some pedigree. You play as SAM. Essentially the 'Mother' computer AI of the Ship you're on - the Observation. You control numerous cameras situated around the ship and can also take control of remote sphere's that enable you to navigate around - in first person - the ships claustrophobic, dimly lit hallways. You interact with the game in a kind of point and click style, navigating from camera to camera around the station to try to find a passcode, a bit of evidence or open a hatch to advance the story. From time to you'll also interface with certain computers and have to complete little mini-games in order to progress. As for the story, I don't want to give too much away but as SAM you'll assist Astronaut Emma Fisher around the station, helping her in whatever way you can. As you progress, more and more things come to light about the crew, their plight, their mission and why the ship is in the state it's in. Things are quite tense around the station with a pervading sense of dread and foreboding, you never quite feel comfortable exploring but at the same time aren't exactly terrified either, I wouldn't really say it's a scary game at all so far - which is perhaps a little disappointing but it is definitely tense. It's definitely a weird one so far, there's a lot to take in and a lot of confusing aspects to the story that I'm still trying to piece together as I go along. It's consistently engaging, mysterious and compelling though and I find myself thinking about what discovery I'll find during my next session which is definitely a good sign. The way it plays isn't particularly revolutionary or anything but the quirky little computer mini-games are really well designed with that 80s Alien-esque aesthetic that gives them a character of their own and searching for items using the cameras is akin to old school adventure games. We'll see how it pans out but at the moment this is definitely up there as one of my most memorable games of this year, there's not really too much else like it. Some pics:

I checked my receipt and I bought this game for €9.99 on December 31 2011. Better late than never. I loved Rome Total War and I also played a fair bit of Empire Total War (which I shamelessly pirated once I had access to mega-fast internet in university). But I think it’s safe to say that I haven’t played a Total War game in ten years. The game opens with an awesome cut scene. After that I played the ridiculously long tutorial which took about two hours (and you can’t save in the middle). But at least it was thorough. In the course of the tutorial I played one battle and once was enough, I’ve never enjoyed the battles in TW games. I’ll start a proper campaign tomorrow. 2011 graphics.

I seem to remember @illdog posting about playing this, but I can't find the thread where it is. I'm a big fan of the original Megadrive game and this is basically that game but looking a bit better with added enemies and friends, online multiplayer and stuff. I don't think it's a sequel, seems more of a reboot of the first game. Anyway, it's a rouge-like if you haven't played it before and it is '90's as fuck. The music has always been great with extra funky basslines, and this one is no different. I was a bit concerned when they announced it that it would end up being shit, but a few hours of play on it so far and it's been fantastic. I'm not sure what people new to it would make of it, but for fans of the original, it's great. Level 0 is still there, so they didn't fuck that up.

Finally, after years of watching videos of other people play this, bought the Switch version and had my first go of this with a couple of mates. Initially, we had the bomb defuser holding the Switch out of the dock but as there are two couches in my mate’s living room, eventually just settled on sitting on the couch not facing the TV and either using a laptop or phone for the manual. If you don’t know what it is, one person can see the bomb and has to cut wires and press buttons. The other person (or people) either download and print out the bomb manual or view it on a screen and have to guide the bomb defuser by communicating what the bomb holder is looking at. Colours of wires, how many, etc. It’s a manic affair and best if you swap over a few times, as then the bomb defuser will know what information the manual guy is really after and which information is superfluous. On the PC and PS4, it’s playable in VR which is probably the best way to play it. But we figured out we could actually play it together on Skype with only one copy. It really starts ramping up in difficulty, throwing memory puzzles at you, morse code, etc and we got as far as extra modules you had to keep an eye on that couldn’t be solved from the manual. There’s these things called “needy modules” where they’ll be like a short timer on it and before it gets to 0 and blows up the bomb, you have to hammer a button to reset it. That’s along with the modules that will actually disarm the bomb. Plus the lights will occasionally go out for a few seconds. Or the alarm clock next to the bomb will go off really loudly so you have to put the bomb down and hit snooze on the alarm. It’s fantastic but I’m glad I played with people I have good friendships with!

So I bought this (Guessing by RF’s posts 2 years ago?) and have just started playing it and this is awesome. It’s a bit rough on the technical side, but it makes up for it in real playability. I just had to really put an effort in to pulling my self away from it to get ready for Nintendo. Clearly heavily inspired by A Link to the Past then dunked in that indie game, calming soundscape driven atmosphere it’s very easy to pick up and even more difficult to put back down. The big difference between this and a regular Zelda game is the map seems to be more Dark Souls inspired then Zelda. Meaning that instead of having an overworld to zig zag across to make progress it’s more linear with each area feeling unto itself and sort of like a big puzzle box/dungeon, and then once completed it spits you out at the Firelink Shrine equivalent and then you go to a different area. At at least that seems to be the case so far. Game play is very reliant on push this, pull that and less gimmick focused than a typical Zelda game, but it feels surprisingly good and is a game that really moves which I like a lot. I think this this is a prime example of a little gem. It’s not blowing my mind in terms of newness but it has taken me by surprise because of how fun it is.

Gato Roboto is a kind of miniature monochrome Metroidvania where you play as a cat who can hop in and out of a robot (and other machines). The cat itself is powerless and defenseless but can get to places where the robot can’t. Movement is very fast and compared to other games of the genre you’ll explore large areas of the map very quickly. I’m at 15% completion after one hour. So far it’s exactly what it looks like, plays very well and seems like excellent value for money.

I've been playing a bit of void Bastards. I really like it but it feels a bit strange and I don't feel like the game is going to be showing me anything new after only an hour or two. It sits in this weird spot between early access and full release, which I suppose is why they decided to go with gamepass since a full purchase is a big ask. The aesthetic is great, the world is fun, especially the northern Juves that run around swearing at you. Its just a very sparse idea for a game and hopefully they can expand on it and it's not just a quick cash grab since roguelikes are where the indie money is at the moment.