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I've had a quick 10 minutes on this, so my thoughts will be brief. The game setting is quite unlike anything I've ever played. It's a 4 player co-op game where you are tasked in casing a job and carrying out a heist. However it doesn't play sneaky like you would expect it to. You basically set up covering as many angles as you can, and then when you are ready you pull your gun and begin being a nasty little shit. The game reminds me a lot of Left 4 Dead for some reason. Your team of people start out with 2 weapons but you can level up and rejig what you take with you. This includes ammo bags and medic stuff among other things. The events work similar to the events in Left 4 Dead but have more persistence. Instead of one event that you complete and pass, you are put into a play area where several events knock on to each other. While these events get deeper and deeper to the objective, the authorities will start to try and stop you from getting to them. Again, this reminds me of Left 4 Dead, security guards are hopeless and easily dealt with, police are harder and then swat and other stuff starts to show up, with each unit having a special niche similar to the Left 4 Dead special infected. A typical section will have you race to an objective, and then defend it against waves of swat before it being completed and moving onto the next part of the heist. It's not too hard to follow. The bad news for some is that I could find no controller support in game. I did a quick scan and found THIS, but I'm not sure how you configure it in. If you cannot get it to work it looks like you're stuck with KB+M controls. It's not so bad though, I'm no whiz and I did fine, there's a lot of leeway that should get you used to playing with those tools instead of a controller. I'm looking forward to playing it in a group, I bet it's a right laugh.

I've been playing this most of the day, to the point i had no idea it was so late! and a quick go when it came out friday night on steam. it's totally awesome to the max it's a 2D bullet hell shooter, it started out as a Japanese indie game, then made its way to arcades, and this steam version seems to be a port of the arcade version with some new features. the general idea is to shoot stuff and dodge stuff as usual, and the basic scoring system involves shooting stuff at close range (any shooting will build it up but just slower) to build up a boost meter, which has 2 levels, when the meter gets above a certain point you can use it as a bomb, and if the first level is maxed out you can go into boost mode where you have more firepower and get more points - there's also a second boost mode you can enter if you fill up the meter again (or filled up both levels in the first place), which i believe gets you more points still. i'm still not totally up on the scoring so there is more to it than that - there's also a lock shot button which can be used at the same time as normal shot, think this is supposed to be used for killing big enemies for scoring. going into boost is crazy, stars all over the screen to collect, mass destruction and bullets everywhere, and double boost mode is equally crazy, with more stars but less bullets as you'll be killing everything faster, but it doesn't last long. there's a boost mode which seems slightly easier, where you go into boost mode automatically and stay there till you bomb or die. there's loads of modes: novice - boost novice - original arcade - boost arcade - original arcade - unlimited? - can't remember exactly what its called but its a really really hard version of the game - like futari ultra or something. arcade - time attack - this is a new 3 mins stage - unlimited lives - get as many points as you can. i've tried all the modes now - managed to 1cc novice boost after 3 or 4 tries so it's maybe a bit too easy but that's the idea of the novice modes - it was still great fun. novice original - had a few goes and got near the end - will keep trying for the 1cc. the arcade modes are quite a lot harder, i struggle with the 2nd level boss - it might be a bit of a difficulty spike as stage 3 is alright imo. hopefully the hidden ship will help with arcade mode - there are 4 ships - i've still not unlocked the last one - apparently its overpowered so i look forward to giving it a try in the arcade modes. i am really enjoying it at the moment but i guess it might end up a bit like SDOJ where the novice modes fun but too easy to stick with long term but the main modes are too hard for me - too early to call this mind. the graphics and sound are generally great but the sprites are sometimes a bit blocky and dodgy looking - the explosions/bullets/gold stars/player shot in boost mode all look amazing, it's like a symphony of madness, colours and stuff everywhere. it's got online leaderboards and replay saving. i have had some problems getting it to run in the desired aspect ratio/screen size on my screen in full screen mode - easy way to avoid this is to play in windowed mode and stretch the window as desired. also it's currently under £5 on steam - i think this is an amazing bargain - probably a goty contender for me. http://store.steampowered.com/app/285440/?snr=1_7_15__13 anyone else playing this?/might pick it up? (you should ) also here is someone destroying the first stage making it look much easier than it actually is (maybe i should find a more standard player for a video demonstration but most videos are the old version at the moment), although the first stage is quite easy:

I'm pretty sure this was free on Switch. There's a publisher on there that gives things free if you've bought their other games, so a couple of people on here might have this. I've got to say, it's worth paying for, it's a great little game. You play as a circle missing a slice who sets off on a journey to make themselves whole. The gameplay is simple, roll and jump. You eventually meet a stick who has never explored or experienced much who joins you, now you can stick to things. Eventually it becomes apparent that stick just wants to lay down roots and you're pushing them in to things they aren't wanting to do. So you break up, then you meet Moss who has no interest in a relationship and just wants comfort. Now you can only cling to things, you can't jump anymore. The game goes on like this, new people, new types of relationships, and new gameplay. It gets relatively heavy and does a good job of tieing its themes in to gameplay. It's way longer than I expected too, a good few hours. Genuinely one of the best things I've played on Switch this year

I was never going to buy this. I always wanted to play Gal Fighters on the Neo Geo Pocket but never picked it up, now it's really not worth the price, especially as it's just the Fatal Fury game with a different roster. SNK Heroines Tag Battle isn't Gal Fighters, but it leans on it. It's more gratuitous than Gal Fighters, which was just a fighting game, and Mai aside, treats the female characters as it would the males. This takes Terry and makes him a pretty girl, puts everyone in revealing novelty costumes, it's like a Tecmo game. I didn't want to support that, but the novelty got the better of me so I picked it up cheap intending to never play it. Boredom and lack of things to play on the Switch got the better of me, and now here we are It's not that bad a game. It's a tag battle, but with layers of confusion that make it kind of impenetrable. There's an auto-combo system, so press either of the attack buttons and you'll chain together a string of attacks, and you can finish with a special move. Special moves are a button press too, so down + special does one thing, back + special something else, simplistic but it's fun enough. There's orbs dotted around the stage than can be smashed, and I think recover energy from your support character, I'm not sure, this is where the game starts to lose me a bit You pick two characters, one is the fighter, one is support, but you can switch between them. They share the same health bar, so there's no great benefit in switching, but they have different special meters. Whenever you use a special attack your special meter drains, but does refill slowly over times. I'm not a fan of this system at all, I just don't see the benefit. However, and this is something I conceptually like but in practice I find unreadable, you don't win the fight by depleting your opponents health bar, instead you have to do enough damage to get them in to the danger zone then launch a super move. you can only launch a super move if you have enough special bar left. How much is enough? Fuck knows, so it seems better to just switch characters once you've done the damage. You can also have your support character throw shit from the background, the computer does this all the time, the final boss especially, I've never worked out how to do it. Also there's a block button rather than just pushing back, this is shit, plus there's no way to break combos, which I'm not against on principal, but with some of the cheap shit the final boss pulls. And on that note. The game is very easy, it's no wonder I never learnt how to play it, but the final boss is proper cheap, difficult SNK. It will straight up cheap at times, seeming to skip animations so it can dodge or block your supers and countering perfectly to end the fight. I was seemingly getting stunned in one hit so I could be finished too. Infuriating, and enough of a reason to never play it again. It's not irredeemably bad, but there's enough wrong with it, the story, the confusing systems, the slowdown, the final boss, that I'm not looking to learn how to play it

This games all about being awesome. If you want to be awesome, play this. Its pretty hand holdy to begin with as you'd expect from Nintendo. Story wise, does it matter? Ship crashes, 3 different crash site for three different main characters, shut the fuck up cos I want to play. First dude (Charlie) you get to control gets you used to commanding pikmin around, second dude (Alph) gets you to building stuff and creating new pikmin. Ive met up with the third, this is a chick called Brittany, she showed me that with two main characters on screen we can split in to teams and multi task. I already met up with two types of pikmin, red and rock, rock pikmin being super awesome and tough, so i can split in to multiple teams with multiple pikmin? This is gonna hurt my poor brain. Looks effin gawjus, cant wait to playa new Zelda game like this. Wii pad is lovely, sticks are just right, movement is super smooth and the buttons arent at all confusing so far. Also have an instant affinity for my pikmin chums, the lovable buggers. Just finished Day 2, have to stop for a little bit now but hoping to wank some time in over the weekend. Loving my Wii U.

so this is the new racing game that looks like virtua racing. edit- here’s a video: i like it. The handling is good, it’s like old school arcade drifting, a little bit like outrun 2 - although I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, it’s not as good as outrun 2. Not many things are. Also you get boost from drifting. so the time trials are really good fun, there’s staff ghosts to beat and leaderboards and stuff. I’ve spent most of my time trying to beat the staff ghosts and friends. the racing is where we start to see problems, the AI/rubber banding are both very agressive, it’s weird. They will ram you, and even if you save up boost and use it all at once they will still be right behind you. It’s still manageable, not had many problems winning the championships on hard mode, but guess expert mode could be annoying. I pretty much think all racing games have bad AI though so it’s just a bit more worse than usual here. I prefer time trials so it won’t affect me as much. there are a lot of cars, 8? Drivers who have 4 cars each. With different stats and stuff. Most/all based on real cars, I’m disappointed the GT-ONE doesn’t seem to be the fastest for time trials so I can’t use it. the tracks, hmmm, there are some cool tracks, they look nice, but overall I’m less convinced by the tracks, instead of having a few basic tracks, some intermediate tracks and some tricky ones, they all seem to be on a similar level, Some a bit harder but mostly quite easy to get round, quite wide. They aren’t bad mind, there’s one with dinosaurs and everything, I sort of like them but they could have been better I guess. There are a decent amount of tracks, 16 I think. And you can play them reversed, or was it mirrored? Can’t remember. its on gamepass, that’s the version I’m playing. Not 100% sure but don’t think it’s on pc gamepass. I think it’s out on everything, steam, PS4, Xbox, switch. so overall it’s thumbs up for me, think I’d have been happy to pay the preorder price which was about 12 quid, bearing in mind I really like time trials so am less bothered about the AI annoyances.

Couldn’t find a thread on it, nobody else played this? It’s a rhythm action game for those who like metal and killing zombies. Worth it alone for noticing how close the fake versions of bands like Iron Maiden and Faith No More are. At least watch the opening few minutes of the story, I’ve been having a great laugh with it. On GamePass currently, worth a look.

Its good. I don’t have a problem with the controls and the shooting works out ok if you have something in the circle. I had my mech knocked out and now I’m running around on foot not knowing how to revive it though. ??‍♂️ 481A11B8-81F0-488C-801D-F8AB5548DAB8.mp4

Put a few hours into this today and it’s fantastic. It’s the spiritual successor to Wonder Boy and was developed in collaboration with Wonder Boy series creator Ryuichi Nishizawa. You play as a kid called Jin who goes on a quest to collect 5 magic orbs in order to free his homeland from a curse that’s changed everyone into animals. He’s turned into a pig at first, and each orb he collects gives him the ability to turn into a different animal (so far I have snake and frog warrior). It’s a 2D Metroidvania style adventure with beautiful hand drawn graphics similar to the Wonder Boy III remake, with lots of back tracking and exploring to do whenever you get a new animal power. There are RPG elements too such as health containers to give you more hit points, and weapons, armour, and magic spells to find out in the world or buy from various shops. It’s just the right side of challenging, although so far the bosses I’ve come across have been an absolute breeze.

I'm guessing at the tags because I assume it's on everything. It's more 8bit Castlevania style action, and it's very good. It's a lot longer than the original, and they seemed to have listened and altered the characters a little. Zangatsu has returned but he's altered a little, in the first game it amazed me how useless he was considering he was the main character, here he's immediately more useful with that really getting doubled down on later on. Dominique is back too, she has a better jump and attack reach than Zangatsu. She has a bounce move that let's you access certain areas if you're good with it, I'm not. Her spells are probably better kept as support. She can heal people with the right item, and if you can find the rare pick up she can also resurrect your party members. The two new characters are Robert, a sniper with a terrible jump and a weak, but occasionally very useful long distance attack. He can co prone and bounce off walls, again useful for shortcuts. He also has a really powerful special attack but it's restricted in range. If his health was better he'd be really useful. The most useful character is probably Haichi, who I'll describe as a mech. He's got the most health, can hover, destroys spikes when he stands on them and isn't affected by ice. His basic attack is pretty hefty and his only special is that he can go invincible, so you can sit him in front of bosses and beat the fuck out of them for as long as your magic lasts Curse of the Moon 2 seems to me a lot easier than the first game, maybe I'm wrong and I'm just more practiced at this sort of game again but I don't think I lost a life until stage 3. It's a lot longer, which is no bad thing, more inventive. My understanding is that there's a false ending which sounds a bit of a twat, but having not seen it I can't really judge it Really enjoying it though, I was playing it at release but put it down, glad to be back playing it

So I started this, played like a 2 hours or so. It's very anime. It's also way more action RPG than you might expect. Combat is fast but grounded and overall your options seem pretty limited early on anyway. Kind of like Nier Automata. Attack, dodge, attack, dodge etc. So far. I've not fully worked it out yet. It's hard to learn so far cause theres a lot going on the screen at once and the frame rate is pretty bad. It's got a cool style though. It makes me roll my eyes when people say "X is like Bladerunner" , but this is like that. But anime and not as dark. Your "legion" does it's own thing usually, but you can leash it around and have it counters attacks while your cop guy or girl does his own thing too. Like if you see a red beam on the ground then it's a tell for a charge attack. You send your legion over and you can catch them before it hits. Stuff like that seems like it could be cool. But honestly so far it's pretty mashy and hard to follow. The frame rate is a killer. I am getting D ranks tho so my rubbishness is definitely a factor Mission 2 boss is cool though.

I did look for an old thread but it looks like one doesn't exist. I got it the other night on the Switch since it's the version with the free style switching. It's a cool idea that's in later DMC games and I thought it may be fun in this game. In the original you picked a style at the start of a mission. Basically the styles are Sword Master, Gunslinger, Trickster and Royal Guard. They all give you different abilities. The first two are fairly self explanatory while trickster is mostly about dodging and royal guard is a parry system. I do have a bit of a problem with it. It's just the way it levels. In later games you upgrade the styles with red orbs (which give you more moves), the same way as everything else, but here I think it upgrades by how much you use it. So I'm not getting the freedom I'd like without spending a lot of time in the Bloody Palace with the main goal of using a particular style a lot. So that's kinda disappointing since I forgot how it worked. I've forgotten a lot of stuff to be honest. I was having a hoot at first. I sunk in four hours in one session, going along quite well which surprised me as going back to Bayonetta kicked my arse. DMC3 is easier than I remember but then I got to a succubus type lady boss, which I think you get the guitar weapon from but I just can't seem to beat her. I don't seem to be doing any damage but she wrecks you with some of her attacks. I call bullshit, I think she's busted. But I'm sure I did beat her back in the day as I remember messing around with that guitar weapon. How I did it, I have no idea.

This game is set in the early days of the internet (1999, to be exact, although in a slightly made up alternative reality) where you play as a kind of internet policeman, ensuring the rules of “Hypnospace” are being followed. It’s made by Jay Tholen who also made the point and click game Dropsy. I love it. It’s a sensory assault of colours, sounds and random fonts. The music alone is worth the price of entry, it’s fantastic. The writing is excellent too, and completely believable.

I heard Abby talking about this on the Beastcast a while back and it was finally in the sale so I picked it up. Minit then. So called cos the game is played in 60 second bursts in which you explore as much as you can before the time runs out. When the time runs out you die, respawn at your house but all significant progress is saved Before I say anymore I have to mention this is a Gameboy game. Monocrome look, 8 bit graphics, sound chip tunes but it's cool as fuck. It's kinda like Zelda: Links Awakening with it's one screen at a time exploration gameplay. You find a sword first so you're combat ready. Next thing I found? A fucking watering can. Then some coffee (this gives you more energy so you can push boxes). It's an odd game. However, it's one of good design. It can be tricky to figure out what to do next, sometimes frustrating when the map expands and you have a couple of different ways you could go but due to the time limit you know the answer is never too far away. It has a handy built in kill button so you can end your run at anytime, allowing you to respawn at your current house. There are about 4 places you can respawn at spread across your map, each one becoming your homebase the instant you enter it. It's very satisfying gameplay wise, it always feels rewarded when you figure out what to do next and I was chuffed as a bollock when i finished it. It's not thaty it's that hard, I was just stuck a few times and refused to resort to a guide. It's not a big game, couple of hours I guess but I recommend it. Once you beat the main game...

Ive played this beyond its terrible tutorials now and so I'm willing to give impressions ok? Its good fun. It isn't like ssx no, or any game of that kilt. It isn't trying to be and those games dump you at a start line and grab you back once you're done. Here we have a big emphasis on exploration, online competition and risk taking. It looks beautiful and you can snap around the map quickly with zero load times to areas you've scoped out using your binoculars during a walk about. Please enjoy my video Paragliding is boring as fuck. I don't understand it really. I hate the music selection. When you die it plays the piano melody from To Build A Home which was funny at first but you can't turn it off and if you're doing something in which you die a lot you'll hear it a lot as it doesn't stop playing on resetting the challenge/race. I'm not super far into it, it's probably massive, but it's quite relaxing and to be minding your own business for then a fellow player come over beside you and do tricks together is quite charming. It's akin to Journey in that aspect.

Been plugging away at this in fits and starts since Xmas but have finally managed to make some headway on it this week since finishing DQXI. I had been excited to play through these as I missed out on 1 and 2 when I was a kid but absolutely loved Year of the Dragon. I knew these games couldn’t match the levels of nostalgia I had for the Crash Remaster Trilogy but I nevertheless wanted to play through them and see if they stand up in 2019. I’ve been playing the first game in the series, about 8 hours in. My impression so far has been a mixed one really, it definitely hasn’t matched up to Crash in terms of difficulty or challenge which has been a disappointment and the whole ethos of the game overall is way more chilled than Crash. It’s more along the lines of a DK64/Banjo-Kazooie type collectathon platformer where you have to get x amount of items, gems etc. To 100% a level. These kinds of games are as rare as hens teeth these days and playing through it after lots of massively long games is a breath of fresh air. Every now and then it’s good to just play a game that is charming and fun and this has got both those elements in abundance. The graphics are excellent too with some really beautiful areas, I’ve obviously no idea how these compare to the original but I know there was initially some controversy over the sky-boxes or something but that all went over my head. But yeah, each zone is of a fantasy-type motif but featuring the usual snow, desert, earth type areas but the heavenly one in the clouds I’m in now and the last swampy area have been a real delight. I have found myself growing tired of it after awhile as the same collectathon-type levels (only broken up by the odd flying challenge level - which are excellent and provide the only real challenge in the game) get very repetitive after awhile. Sometimes I can’t really be arsed to play it but then I’ll dip back in, get in a level and just get utterly lost in it. It really sets the ol’ endorphins off in the brain every time you do something, you get gems and a cool little melody plays, you kill an enemy and the same happens, you free a Dragon, you make a tricky gliding jump and it’s satisfying, it just feels good. It just ends up being a real dopamine rush with positive reinforcement after positive reinforcement handed out to you, like constantly getting patted on the back. It’s a nice feeling. But yeah, it’s not amazing or anything but I recommend it for the £20-odd I paid for it. I have a feeling 3 will resonate with me the most since that’s the only one I’d actually played previously. Pics:

I liked the look of this when Nintendo showed it in their indie showcase, so I took a chance on when it was discounted a little recently. But I’m not sure whether or how much I like it. I’ve just been playing the single player mode. As you can see in the trailer, it’s a kind of wacky, fun pool game, you play as the cue ball who you can freely move around and the aim is to knock all the other balls in the level/stage/pool “table” into various pockets. Of course this involves playing a shot like you normally would in pool or snooker, but it also usually involves various interactions with the environment and many of the balls don’t just stand still either. You move your character, the cue ball, with the left analogue stick, and when you’re taking a shot, you move the direction the cue stick is aiming with the right analogue stick. This part is a bit fiddly and it’s the main reason why I have mixed feelings about the game. But it works a little bit better with a pro controller than with the switch’s analogue stick. Aside from clearing the table and potting the black ball, each level has other challenges you can aim for - completing the level within a certain time, completing the level within a certain number of shots, potting all the balls in the level (many of them are hidden) and also making sure you don’t accidentally pot the white ball. I usually fail most if not all of these, but I don’t really care. The game has a vibrant, fun, colourful art style in the spirit of games like Cuphead and Hidden Folks, and the levels have lovely music too, so on the artistic front it’s no slouch. For now I’m just going to keep playing in 15-20 minute bursts.

Ok then. So first play session done and this definitely feels like a sequel to Super Paper Mario. With the interactive battle system of TTYD or Mario & Luigi. I thought the battle system was a bit easy... Until one new enemy left me scratching my head long enough to discover there is a timer to your actions. Early impressions and all that, but the music so far isn't doing anything for me. Usually Mario OST are quite catchy and memorable. But the music original to this game... Meh. I'll go for a slightly longer play session tomorrow. But overall, I like it.

I’m about three hours into this. It’s the second game by Sam Barlow who made Her Story, and it’s the same style as Her Story but with more characters/actors. I’m enjoying it. The story isn’t super fascinating but it’s engaging enough. The music is atmospheric and very well done (I don’t remember music at all in Her Story) and there are some other nice touches that add to the atmosphere of the game. And unlike The Red Strings Club, Telling Lies isn’t stingy with achievements. One achievement in particular made me smile. Achievement spoiler not a story spoiler:

No one else playing this? I got it on release and I’m fucking loving it. The track design is really inventive and a step above what they’ve done before. I’ve not played enough to say how they stand to multiple plays and bettering times but they’re very promising so far. Feels as good as ever and there seems to be loads of content, I’ve been playing a few hours and unlocked loads of tracks and only just got to the medium tier, this is where it really picks up for me personally. The medium and hard tracks are where the best ones are in the previous instalments IMO. The tracks have some good challenges to encourage repeat plays apart from times as well. Like fusion where they ask to not brake or no leaning, this has similar objectives that pop up but they seem more manageable and more logically set out. Couple of small complaints. The progress for unlocking bikes seems incredibly glacial after the first one. Convenient that’s theres now a way to buy them with real money now... loot boxes, while easily ignored, still annoy. The map layout can ruin the flow sometimes, just adding a bit too much time and too many button presses between plays compared to previous instalments. By far my biggest complaint though, Ubisoft Club! It forces you to link to it to be able to access the leaderboards and have the classic ghost times show (real people not the medal ones). I think that’s really really fucking shitty hiding one of the best features - which was always front and centre and a highly regarded part of the game - behind making you sign up to their shitty club thing. Arseholes. Overall though, the game is brill. If you like Trials get it immediately. Preferably on Xbox and give me some more times to race against!

I think a few people on here have already played this. It’s a cyberpunk bartending conversation ‘em up similar to Valhalla. Looks like this. You serve drinks, talk to people, fish for information. You have an android assistant who quizzes you after every conversation. I’ve played nearly three hours and I like it. It starts off slow but gets its hooks into you. And it has good music, a requirement for a cyberpunk game I guess. If you like games like Valhalla or Subsurface Circular then this is in a similar vein.

So this doesn't even try not to be Castlevania. It's got the same intro screen and everything. Even the C in "Curse" is the C from Castlevania. This is proper old school retroness - 8 bit music, 8 bit graphics and 8 bit gameplay. If you've played any old Castlevania game you'll know exactly what you're in for and if you haven't you're a cunt and you should fuck off. You only get to pick Normal difficulty from the off but you get to pick between two gameplay variants. Casual in which lives are unlimited and enemy hits don't knock you back and Veteran which plays like the old Castlevania games and offers more of a challenge. You set off on your side scrolling adventure from left to right in control of (i forget his name). He has a sword and that sword has limited range and can only be poked in front of you. You destroy lamps (instead of candles) which drops mostly ammo for sub weapons but also yields hearts for health regen and cash for good old fashioned points! Although they are worth bagging as got an extra life at 20,000. I've only played the first two levels so far but each level has predictably ended in a boss fight. Upon defeat of said boss you unlock a new ally of whom you can control. You can switch between allies with the shoulder buttons and each has their own health bar for tactical switching. The first ally I got was a chick with a whip, a higher jump and a ground slide. This new ground slide technique is handy to go under things that the main guy couldn't (cos for some reason he cant slide). I noticed plenty of opportunities to use this slide on the first level so I guess at some point you can go through it with her, maybe after completion, i dont fucking know. She also has a different set of sub weapons also. I've just beat the second level boss and unlocked a third character so i'm gonna go try him out. The game hasn't been too tough so far, i'm yet to lose a life but I'm expecting that to change. I've enjoyed the music so far as well. Do with that info what you will.

Well. This isn’t very good at all. I’m old enough to have played the original Doom back in the day, and loved Duke Nukem 3D. Both of which are still really fun today. This? Not so much. It’s a prequel to 3D Realms’ Bombshell, which as it was PC only, I never played that. It’s based on the Build engine, and I’ve seen one review that claimed this is “one of the best Build games ever” and “one of the best first person shooters in recent memory”. I would present a counter argument: “It’s neither of those, and is boring as fuck”. The plot? Pretty much non existent. Apparently someone spilled the main characters drink, which pissed her off to the extent that she seeks revenge. Is there a cutscene that explains that? No. I only found out later that there’s a single screen of expositional text, buried in the options screen. The weapons? Your typical bog-standard pistol/shotgun/SMG. Maybe you unlock more creative weapons later on. I wouldn’t know, as I couldn’t be arsed to play past Level 3. The enemies? Generic trench coat dudes, mixed with annoying spiders that rip through your health bar like it’s not even there. I’ve seen some claims that “it’s funny”. Three levels in, and I’ve seen no attempts at humour whatsoever. Sure, there’s plenty of secrets. But actual humour, such as the type seen in Duke 3D, and Shadow Warrior? Non existent. I reached level 3, repeatedly died to some cheap sections, and found myself thinking the immortal question, “Why am I bothering with this?”. So I fucked it off. Modern audiences will find it dated and boring. People with experience in the genre will find it boring in comparison to much better titles. It’s just not very good.

So this looks like a top down rpg with snes style graphics, bit like a 2D zelda game but with twin stick shooter combat, and also with punching and blocking. and it's also a fake mmo game. it's sort of great, i really like the puzzles in the dungeons, and environmental puzzles in the towns and other areas, although they can be a bit convoluted sometimes. the puzzles are a lot of firing stuff that bounces off walls, moving blocks, switches, elemental powers, jumping, lots of jumping, stuff like that, they're very well done, although the dungeons go on a bit too long. the puzzles sometimes require really tight timings too which can be frustrating but there's a slider to make it easier and give yourself more time. it looks and sounds good too. there are problems though, the layout of some of the areas/towns are super complicated, which makes for interesting puzzles for how to get some pickups etc, but for example last night i just wanted to get to somewhere to start the next part of the main quest and i'd been there before and was told where to go but it still took maybe 20 mins of randomly wandering around to find, and handing in quests in certain towns, even though you usually get a description of the area, can take ages to find whoever gave you the quest. the map is not great. you can fast travel mind but only to certain places. and the combat is a bit of a mixed bag for me, it can be fun sometimes but can be pretty hard and annoying too, there are assists to make it easier - which i maxed out and still found the second level boss really hard. so not sure i'll be able to finish it if it keeps getting much harder. also you don't have to grind much to level up enough if you fight pretty much every enemy you see (although maybe i should to make the combat easier) - i didn't do this at the start and kept being asked are you sure you want to do this, you need to prepare more. i think it's been out for a few years on pc, and been on pc gamepass for a while, but it's recent console release, and that it's supposed to be good, got me to give it a go - i'm playing on pc gamepass. thought it would be reasonably short and i'd be able to finish it before origami mario but i was wrong, apparently it's 40 to 80 hours if you do optional stuff. i'm about 18 hours in. still enjoying it so i'll try and stick at it and finish it if it doesn't get too difficult. there's a news thread with some videos here: https://www.mfgamers.net/index.php?/topic/42274-crosscode/ edit - forgot another problem - the graphics make working out what level you're on and if you can jump to somewhere or not quite difficult which can lead to a lot of trial and error.

I played the first couple of hours of this and I’m glad to be back in this weird world. The game opens at the glacial pace of something like Stein’s Gate, with a very long conversation in the present day, before transitioning to the past (and another long conversation) and then you can finally control York. And that’s as far as I’ve played. The game’s cut scenes have a kind of cel-shaded style which I don’t remember being in the first game, but I could be wrong. Anyway I’m glad to be playing another Deadly Premonition game, eight years after I played the first.