What games are you all playing at the moment?

[Harrison]

So what is everyone playing at the moment?

On the PS5 I'm mainly still playing Gran Turismo the most. I've some way to go still to collect everything and unlock it all. Not finished all the menus yet. And I'm also still playing Sackboy. A great platformer.

I've also been playing Human Fall Flat in 2 player with Tom. We are having great fun but it's such a frustrating game. We are determined to complete it but there have been a few raised voices!

In Gamepass on the Steam Deck I'm playing Lake. Interesting little Adventure game about a women returning to her home town after 22 years away to cover her dad's mail delivery job for a couple of weeks. Interesting idea as the mail delivery aspect makes you meet and interact with the locals to discover the plot and different directions to take the story. Some might find it a bit slow and tedious because it partly really is a mail delivery postman simulator, with you driving to addresses and delivering parcels. But the graphics are lovely as you drive along the road that runs around the edge of the large lake.

Also on Steam Deck I've been replaying Black Mesa (remake of Half-Life in HL2 engine) and Skyrim. Still both great games, that look great and run perfectly on the Deck. I think the Steam Deck will make me revisit a lot of PC games released over the kart 10 years that I never played much and intended to return to. Tempted to play Fallout 3 or New Vegas next. Or maybe Bioshock.

[Demon Cleaner]

Where to start :)

I know Lake and the reviewers mentioned the slow pace, at some point I'm gonna try it, if just for relaxing. I started also playing Cloudpunk which is nice and slow but gets repetitive quite fast as basically the only thing you're doing is delivering packages from A to B all the time. Visuals are nice though.

Having so many games, basically everything that is out :lol: it's sometimes difficult to decide. I'm mixing a bit genres so that it doesn't get too repetitive.

I'm going through my back catalogue and play games I feel I need to still play before moving on. At the moment on PC I'm about to finish Days Gone, it's quite good although not the best open world, but enjoyable.

I'm also playing ANNO: Mutationem, which is nice, nice visuals, something different, exploring and platforming.

I played but didn't finish the LEGO Star Wars Skywalker Saga, lost a bit interest but it's funny and has also nice exploration.

Played half way through Elden Ring (with cheats), but uninstalled it as it's not really my cup of tea, exploring is nice, but I had to play it with my iPad in the other hand to know what to do next, as it leaves you completely alone, no indication what to do or where to go next.

Finished Sniper Elite 4, as 5 is already out. Finished Assassin's Creed Origins because I have still the next ones to play, and I thought it was absolutely fantastic, I made even the platinum trophy on PS4, that much I loved it, so I'm really looking forward to play Odyssey and Valhalla.

Playing Immortals Fenyx Rising which surprised me a bit, really nice open world with exploration and good overall mechanics, nice puzzling sections.

Finished Final Fantasy VII: Remake Intergrade two weeks ago and I really enjoyed it, great visuals and very nice gameplay.

Have Riders Republic going on from time to time.

Still playing Ghost Recon Breakpoint from time to time, if I want exploring and shooting with stealth.

Racing games I played recently were Hot Wheels Unleashed and I regularly play Forza Horizon 5, just gorgeous (would probably be nice on the deck). Hot Wheels Unleashed is fine, gets a bit repetitive in my opinion.

Played Resident Evil 2 for some hours, but I was never into Resident Evil games, and also don't know if I want to continue this one. I wanted to start playing all of them but I doubt that I will do that.

Also still playing Ghosts of Tsushima on the PS5, fantastic game, long time I didn't continue.

Started playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild in Yuzu, don't know when I will have time to continue that, just wanted to try it and see if it would be something I like.

Always playing some Madden, NHL, FIFA, NBA in-between when I get the time, sports games are the most time consuming.

And there's probably more...

[Harrison]

Nice. I need to continue with Ghosts of Tsushima. It looks amazing on PS5 and has a great combat system. Only played it for a couple of hours so far.

With Resident Evil I was a big fan of RE2 so played through that remake as soon as it came out. But I've yet to get into the RE3 remake beyond a quick play a I never completed the original for some reason

But I'm really hoping for a Silent Hill remake at some point. That would be brilliant on current hardware.

I've tried Forza Horizon 5 on the Steam deck via Gamepass. Runs really nicely, but I've never really got into the Forza series as I find it a bit too arcade and over the top Amercian style. I suppose I'm more a fan of sim than arcade. But saying that it's really just this series.

I've not played Elden Ring. I'm not really a big fan of these games. And I'm glad you get stuck/lost too because that's the issue I always have with them. Frustration at not knowing where and what to do. Plus the combat is unforgiving, although I've been told it's not as hardcore as the Dark Souls series which I've played but always get very frustrated with.

[Harrison]

I played Cloudpunk when it first came out. Had followed it through development, so was eager to play it. I liked the game, but the UI is a bit of a mess. I was also playing it on PS4 and for some reason it's bugged as it shifts the visuals slightly to the side, off screen, so you can't see a few things that you need. I contacted the devs to ask about this but never heard back.

So would you recomnend Immortals Fenyx Rising? I've had it on my wishlist since release. Just so many games to play.

And FFVII remake was great. Part 2 called Rebirth isn't out until Winter 2023. Way too long to wait. And it will be a PS5 exclusive as it will utilise the system's fast SSD to live buffer the overworld continuously without load screens.

[Demon Cleaner]

Plus the combat is unforgiving, although I've been told it's not as hardcore as the Dark Souls series which I've played but always get very frustrated with.
Like I said, I used cheats, otherwise I wouldn't even touch it.

I played FFVII on the PC, so if the PS5 version is only coming in winter 2023, the PC version will probably need one more year.

[Harrison]

Would you not buy the PS5 version?

[Demon Cleaner]

Would you not buy the PS5 version?
I'm cheating :whistle:

[Harrison]

Cheating in FFVII? :o

[Demon Cleaner]

Cheating in FFVII? :o
Cloud infinite HP and max money. Other than that I want to progress normally, but the grinding times are definitely over, my life is getting shorter, and cutting a game's playing time down by 50% is helping, my life still goes on with 100%.

[Harrison]

Fair enough. I'm still a bit of a purist and don't like to use cheats unless I really get stuck. And even then I try to just use a walkthrough or guide and not resort to actual cheats.

I have been using cheats to quickly run through retro games I've always wanted to play but never managed to play through though. So I can finally see everything.

[J T]

I'd really like to replay FFX for the story, but much like DC there is no way I can be bothered to grind for hours and hours.

I'm taking a bit of a pause from much gaming lately. We've recently dusted off the old X360 and the rockband instruments (I have 2 guitars and a drum set) for family play and remarkably, despite having been in the shed for many many years they cleaned up well and seem to work just fine.

[Harrison]

Nice. I recently set my Wii up again to play some family games. Bowling, Golf and Mario and Sonic Winter Olympics are still just a much fun, and current systems can't provide that interactivity. Bit mad in a way that they have all now distanced thematics from motion control. When a game was written well it works really well. I suppose Sony is with the Move controllers, but combined with VR, so it locked it into 1 player only. I just love the instant access to Wii games.

Ski jumping or bobslay using a balance board is still great.

[J T]

Agree - I picked up a Wii U about a year ago (I still had a bunch of Wii stuff even though I'd bricked my original console) and found similar sometimes it just works so well, and at the time I think we almost forgot that due to the incredible amount of times motion control was shoved into where it didn't fit at all.

Many of those games still hold up well and the basic graphic style imposed by the relatively weak console actually added, I think, to the charm - things like Wii sports have a charming cartoon style.

The Wii U gamepad also made some of the party style games neat, as it introduced an extra dimension (hide and seek, murder int he dark style). I can see why it wasn't fully successful but truly in interesting idea.

- - - Updated - - -

Also the 360 still has a working copy of Monkey Island SE, so I'm introducing the kids to that.

[Demon Cleaner]

Btw, what do you think of the new Monkey Island (Return to MI)? The graphic style already makes me wanna skip it.

[J T]

I really liked the 'grounded' cartoon style of the originals (I went to say 'cartoon realism' but then re-thought) but I wasn't expecting pixel art this time round. Sure, I prefer the original style but I don't mind this new design.

I've purposefully been avoiding looking at much content as I really want to keep it as a surprise. From the few small bits I have seen, i think it's reasonable - and the original teaser trailer with the skeleton playing violin on the dock seemed quite fitting with the tone I'd expect from the game.

[Harrison]

The new MI has been getting good comments, but I'm not 100% convinced by the look. Will either grab it when discounted or wait for it to be included in Humble Bundle or on Gamepass or PS Plus.

[J T]

I bought it on Switch and had a quick blast in handheld mode.

up close and in motion the new art style is actually quite neat, I like it. I can see how it's not for everyone but it's a definite approach and choice made by the makers, they've picked an style and really committed, they've gone for it.

It suits the 'story' style of the game, I guess it could be called rather 'fitting'

The only thing that I've found jarring is that guybrush has a big nose with a big pink tip, and for some reason I keep focussing on that.

The voice acting is good, really good in the case of Guybrush, and the UI is nice and simple. I'm going to try and avoid reading much about it while I play.

[Demon Cleaner]

The voice of Guybrush has been Dominique Armato already since 1997.

[Demon Cleaner]

I started with Assassin's Creed Odyssey yesterday, probably gonna take me some time to finish. As I already loved Origins and made the platinum trophy in that, I'm very tempted to do it again, as I love everything that was/is in those games. For Origins it took me around 90 hours to accomplish that, Odyssey seems even bigger. The world is so vast and I get easily sucked in that it is difficult for me to stop, considering open worlds, Ubisoft definitely knows what they are doing.

I started the game on PS4 to see how it is, after one hour I loaded up my save on the PS5 and wow, although they apparently didn't change anything besides having 60fps it just looks gorgeous. Lightning and color are much nicer and seem a lot clearer, PS4 looked a bit washed out, but only when comparing, otherwise you wouldn't have noticed. Plus loading times are obviously a lot better and the constant whirring of the PS4 fan(s) is also quite annoying.

I finished the story of Days Gone, good game, don't know though if I return to finish any side quests like cleaning nests, bounty hunting or clear out camps.

[Harrison]

Days Gone was good. I only completely the main story and never went back and did ask the side quests. Too many games to get through.

Not played Odyssey yet. My favourite in the series is still Black Flag. Love anything sailing and pirate based. Might see how it runs on the Steam Deck this weekend. But I think for games like Assassin's Creed games you need a big screen to appeciate the game worlds. They always make such vibrant and interesting places to visit that feel alive.

[Demon Cleaner]

I liked Black Flag but in the end the sailing got to tiresome for me, plus I missed a bit the parcour part as the towns and cities were not really built for that.

In Odyssey you will have the ship part again, as there's a lot of islands and you need to sail around. And you get it very early on and can upgrade it with a lot of stuff.

[Harrison]

Sounds good. Really need to complete some of the others though.

[Demon Cleaner]

I started playing Star Wars Squadrons yesterday, I think it's ok, played only 3 missions but got already the feeling that the game will get repetitive after some time.

[Harrison]

It's really designed for multiplayer like XWing vs TieFigher used to be. The singke player missions are great, but to give the game any length of play the multiplayer is the focus. Working as a team in a squadron of 5 taking on the other side.

But even if just playing through the singke player there is a variety of missions.

[J T]

'Space flying/Shooting' is a type of game I always think that I am going to really like but in reality never quite get into and I'm never quite sure exactly why. Maybe because I go into them all thinking they will be like Rogue Squadron, but aren't.

I eagerly tried Star Wars Squadrons about a year ago but it just really didn't click for me and was quickly put away, just like Elite Dangerous, and Project Sylpheed, and other games I thought would be neat but just..... weren't.

[Harrison]

Elite Dangerous is great, but it's a game that requires a time investment. It's a full flight sim in space. Far more realistic in terms of physics and control and takes effort to learn and get to grips with. So I can fully understand why many just give up fairly quickly due to the learning curve. And I suppose Frontier: Elite 2 was exactly the same on the Amiga for its time. But the new version just bumps it up a whole level.

When it came out in beta I couldn't wait. But I first started trying to play it with a Keyboard and mouse, like we used to with Elite 2, but that was just impossible. I then tried with an Xbox controller and that was actually not too bad, as the analogue sticks and the shoulder buttons do a fairly good job at flight control, but it still wasn't great, as so many controls are mapped to the keyboard so you had to keep letting go of the flight controls to do things.

That's when I took the plunge and full HOTAS controller. Not cheap but it was like night and day. If never owned a full fligh sim joystick and throttle setup. If looked but was never that into flight sims to make the investment. But after a couple of hours getting used to it there was no going back. The level of control is brilliant, and it's only with such a controller that it all clicked into place and Elite makes sense and feels great. It's still good with a PS or Xbox controller, but you are still fighting the controls. I did try the PS4 version some time ago and they did a good job of reworking the controls for the Playstation, but it wasn't a good.

Star Wars Squadrons is a weird one. Having been a huge fan of the X-wing and Tie Fighter games I'd been hoping for a new SW flight sim for decades. But this turned out being a bit of a half way house. It's not a space flight sim on the level of the old Xwing games, and I would say it's closer to Wing Commander in dog fighting style and the way levels are introduced with a mission briefing, waypoints, and actual gameplay. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't quite what I had hoped for. There was too much hand holding and parts where the game takes over control of your ship. Plus some sections where it feels more like a Descent style corridor shooter.

I played it on PC when my flight sim controller and that did improve the experience, but I tended to play it more on PS4 so I could run it in VR. But it doesn't have enough single player content. I wanted a game just like Tie-Fighter where you are playing though a full Stat Wars Saga. In those original games you were a part of a military story and felt like you were part of one of the films. You had cut scenes and mission debriefs that asvanced the story and events. Squadrons was really just a remake of XWing vs Tie-Figher, designed mainly for multiplayer dog fighting atena style battles between 2 teams of 5 players. Great for what it is for a quick game, but no longevity. I want a game like the originals. I was disappointed.

[Harrison]

Omno

https://store.steampowered.com/app/969760/Omno/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOEQ99PBb5A

This game was given away as part of November 2022 Humble Choice. It's a lovely little Puzzle Adventure. The graphics have that stylised cute look, which I always love.

It feels a lot like a favourite game of mine, The Last Campfire. Similar to that game you enter areas that contain puzzles. You have to work out what to do to make areas accessible to obtain an object or unlock the next areas. No lives. If you fall off something you just appear at the last checkpoint to try again. And it has a nice simple map of thy area you are Curbridge in pinpointing everything of interest, plus percentage completed, so you never miss anything.

It's a fairky relaxed game that's only meant to be a few hours long. I'm only about 2 hours in so far. The puzzles are not that complicated, sliding a block or turning something, and some platforming using extra noved that build with the levels.

Avsilable for PC, PS4 and Xbox. And available for Switch soon.

[Demon Cleaner]

I have Omno, not played yet though.

Played The Division 2 once again last week, tested the upgrade on the PS5, oh man is that game tough as nails. I played one side mission same level than myself and I got killed many many times, almost gave up.

[Harrison]

Yeah, Division 2 is hard but I do like the game. Never played it that far. Really need to. But are you soloing it?

[Demon Cleaner]

Last time I was playing solo, played only for 1 hour, usually I join some people or just call for help. But then it gets even more difficult, I remember in the first Division game I played one level with 3 other players loads of time, but never managed to beat the end battle, always when we thought now it's over there came another wave and another and all more brutal, so basically you were only reviving others and not really shooting.

[J T]

I haven't played anything much after finishing Return to Monkey Island. We've had some big bills and spending elsewhere so I haven't got much to spend on games until next pay month.

I also have a terrible kind of ennui sweeping over me, I just can't be bothered. A couple of times I've picked up the Switch or turned on the PS4, poked about in the library or the store for a bit and then just turned it off again.

I've had a very quick blast on some Switch online games (say, 10 minutes of Space Harrier or a bit of PilotWings 64) but I just can't seem to muster the energy to get stuck in to anything.

[Harrison]

I get like that sometimes. Just looking through my collection and never actually playing anything. But there are games I keep installed that I drop back into and play when I can't decide. Games that are not story or mission led.

These include:
PacMan Championship Edition 2
Pacman 256
Ticket to Ride
Everybody’s Golf
Moving Out
Wipeout Omega Collection
Crash Team Racing
Puyopuyo Tetris 2
Soul Calibur VI

And one game I keep coming back to is Minecraft Dungeons.

The one game I do play quite a lot lately, loading up between playing others is the PS5 game Sackboy The Big Adventure. It has a very similar feel to games like Mario.

[Demon Cleaner]

Because of your son probably.

[Harrison]

Sackboy? No just me playing that. But Minecraft Dungeons yes we play it 2 player.

[Demon Cleaner]

I thought also Crash Team Racing, Ticket to Ride, Moving Out, Tetris, Golf.

[J T]

I haven't picked up Minecraft Dungeons in a while. I might try and get back into it with the boy.

[Harrison]

There have been some additional DLC in Dungeons, adding the Nether and the areas, and now adding even more great new maps, and if you haven't played for some time there is a new area called The Tower which is now also multiplayer. And you can now change the enchantments on items using a new trader.

[Harrison]

I thought also Crash Team Racing, Ticket to Ride, Moving Out, Tetris, Golf.

Have you ever tried playing video games or board games with a 10 year old? It can be painful and/or infuriating.

Ticket to Ride I tend to only play solo. We own the board game and tend to play that as a family. And he is getting better at it. As the video game version can be a fairly quick game I just play it when I don't have very long. Also keeps my skills up the beat the family! 😉

Everybody's Golf we do play that as a family. But more so just my wife and I. We really got into it during lockdown. But I di play it solo a bit too to try and unlock more of the game. My wife's not interested in that part of the game, just playing rounds in multiplayer. But moans when she discovers I haven't unlocked something yet.

Crash Team Racing Tom gets too frustrated because he isn't that great at racing games. In a 3 lap race I normally lap him. :lol: and my wife's not much better.

Now Moving Out. This is a great 2 player game, but Tom messes around and makes me too angry. I do try sometimes but it can be very hard to not get very annoyed. But then the same is true of Minecraft Dungeons. I'm often spending a lot of time reviving his fallen character whilst trying to fend up loads of enemies. He has a tendency to just pile in and not realise why he's died or gets distracted and wonders off leaving me to fight everything.

But that's just kids for you.

[J T]

Minecraft Dungeons. I'm often spending a lot of time reviving his fallen character whilst trying to fend up loads of enemies. He has a tendency to just pile in and not realise why he's died or gets distracted and wonders off leaving me to fight everything.

But that's just kids for you.

Heh, yes indeed, we had the same thing. Also annoying was he'd pinch all the arrow pickups which was annoying as I had a far better bow than he did (a 3 or 5 shooter with explodey damage too - it was a good wrecking machine) and he'd waste a lot of ammo.

Mario Kart 8 is a good racer for kids, it has good assists that can be turned on/off, team racing, and weapons can be limited. Our eldest is getting quite good, he beats me sometimes... even if I am trying, genuinely, sometimes I lose.

[Harrison]

Oh yes, steeling the arrow drops. I know that well. Sounds like a similar bow to mine, a harp bow that fires 5 arrows that set the enemies in fire and explode. But I get seeing the limited arrows by equiping fire and loghting quivers. Use those and you don't use your arrows up.

Tom has now realised more about vsteeling resources. We do now tend to agree on who takes arrows by who is running low.

Biggest issue left is me shouting "heal yourself", "activate your fire arrows", "wait for the cooldown brit we go on". He's slowly learning. Dungeons is a great game to get them into Action RPGs though. Great fun. Not too complicated, but equally lots to collect upgrade and setups to think about.

[J T]

Ah yes the harp bow, makes a musical noise when it shoots. Great weapon.

[Demon Cleaner]

Wanted to play some old school RPG so I started yesterday with The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (Part I). I have all 4 games and I know it takes quite some time to finish them, and so far around 5-6 hours in, I really enjoy it.

[Harrison]

Not played that yet.

[Demon Cleaner]

Started again with The Ascent, started it like 1 year ago but stopped, now I started again and I think it's great. Just mindless shooting which feels absolutely great. The graphics are just gorgeous as they now added DLSS and ray tracing, it just looks awesome, plus I adore the setting, would say my favorite kind of environment setting. I also downloaded around 30 animated wallpapers of the game in the wallpaper engine, just fantastic!!

[Harrison]

Nice. I'd forgotten about this game. It was given away as part of Humble Choice and I gave it a quick play but haven't got back to it yet. I always enjoy twin stick shooters, even more so if they are combined what a story and RPG elements.

It's also included on Xbox Gamepass for anyone who has that.

I might check its Steam Deck compatibility later. Should suit that quite well will the twin stick controls, although the menus might be a bit complex for the screen size.

[Demon Cleaner]

Should suit that quite well will the twin stick controls, although the menus might be a bit complex for the screen size.
Problem is that the font in the menu's is very small and even on my 77" TV I have to squint to read certain things. Plus there's no raytracing on the deck, you have to admire it on a big screen.

[Harrison]

That's the only real issue running any PC game on a handheld. They are not often designed for small screens. But it can depend how a game is written, because often the font will work ok as the resolution is lower (1280x800 for the Steam Deck).

The genre I tend to avoid on it is strategy because they are normally quite menu and text heavy.

I'm not too bothered about Ray Tracing unless it's within a PS5 game because I don't have a PC GPU new enough to do it.

[Demon Cleaner]

Btw, I had been testing Breath of the Wild on PC in Yuzu and eventually ended up finishing it.

Game is good but I wouldn't rate it a 100% perfect game like a lot of people do. I would rate it a good 7/10.

The open world is nice and exploring it is a lot of fun, at least in the beginning. Starts to get a bit boring as the world is VERY empty and not a lot of stuff happens. The main quest is nice to play, re-enabling the 4 divine beasts, the story is just almost non existing, same old princess story. I did also the side quests in the beginning but gave up quite fast as it's your usual fetch quests travelling from A to B and back.

Most annoying is probably that there are 4-5 different enemy types that are all over the world and none more, gets really boring fighting them over and over again. And the 120 shrines throughout the world are also funny in the beginning but get tedious with time plus some are exactly the same and the loot is sometimes forgettable. Weapon durability is also a pain, who came up with that idea, even your bow breaks after 20 shots, wtf :wall:

I also tried Tears of the Kingdom, as the whole game leaked 1 week before release, it works fine and I just played for 1 hour, but I'm gonna skip that for the moment. Anyways, what I saw is basically the same all over again with some added mechanics, looks really like BotW 1.5 and they needed a whole 6 years for that?? Even the enemies are the same :dry:

[Harrison]

I also tested out the new Zelda on the Steam Deck. Runs perfectly and according to what I've read runs at a framerate 20% better than the real Switch can. That's funny. Apparently the Steam Deck emulates it at 55/60 fps, which is optimal, whereas the Switch struggles to maintain 44fps.

The Switch really is overdue a hardware update. Its smartphone tech is over 6 years old now and that's a long time for that hardware. They have squeezed all they can.