What games are you playing at the moment on current systems?

[Harrison]

Over Christmas I got back into the PS5 a lot more as I had a couple of weeks off at the start of the new year.

I only ever achieved one Platinum trophy on the Playstation so made the mistake of Googling easiest games to get them in and went down the rabbit hole and playing some quite bad games that only took 10-30 minutes to achieve everything and get the platinum. Mostly puzzle games and quick flick through story novels,

But I also decided to go back and play a few games I intended to but missed,

Final Fantasy Tactics. I've always been a fan of this RTS. I imported the original from the USA for the PS1 and had to buy it again when this remake came out on the Playstation, I couldn't decide if you buy it on PC and PS5, as I considered playing it on the Steam Deck, but I went with the PS5 version as I was used to the PS1 original so the controls were similar and it felt right. Great remake. If you haven't ever played FFT give it a look,

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered. I played this when it originally came out and had intended to play through it again. The Remastered version recently released for the PS5 was that very excuse. With the updated graphics engine (using the second games) the game looks great and plays just as well as before, Still get fun stalking the robots for a kill. Does get a bit similar over time though so I have been swapping between this and the next game,

Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories. This is actually a PS4 game that was originally intended for the PS3, but got shelved at the time and then finished a lot later. These are very Japanese style games which are always my favouite as they are more interesting and unique to most things being released in the West these days. I played the first couple of games in this series so had wanted to try this last one.

It's about you visiting a large city in Japan when an Earthquake happens, and you are caught up in the aftermath. You can tell the graphics were originally for the PS3 as they are a bit more basic than newer games, but that's no issue, It's basically an adventure game that could easily have been a point and click adventure in the past. You talk to survivors and try to help them if you want. You have to find objects and trigger events to progress, and there are side quests and stories such as events between rival corporations and gangs. I've about half way through at the moment and it's a fairly big game. There are sudden events such as an unstable skyscrapper suddenly collapsing right in front of you. Often blocking a road or area you could access before. And in one section you have to row a boat with someone you made friends with around a completely flooded district to try and rescure people from collapsing apartment buildings.

As with adventure games it's not about quick reactions or shooting things, It's about talking to everyone, collecting information about the situation in the current area and picking up missions and tasks from them.

There have been a couple of places where I was completely stuck and had to look on a GameFAQ guide to work out what I needed to do, but other than that it has been fairly straight forward. You have a few conversations where your choices effect the outcome of the current or future events, but most seem to just play out anyway.. such as being at a ferry dock trying to get on the boat out of the city when the whole dock collapses.

I've really been enjoying it, The game is free with you have PS Plus Extra. Not a style to everyone's taste as I could see some getting a bit bored of it quickly, but I've enjoyed it so far, It keeps you moving to new locations that are quite different. Starting off in a part of the city with some fallen buildings and people in the street wondering what happened, then you find yourself moving through buildings and convincing people to let you thorough a back door to get past a blocked street. To going into the underground and having to walk along the top of crashed train carriages. Or try to sort out a dispute between 2 rival gangs that ends up finding you kidnapped and tied up in a shed. They could easily have made it very similar all ther way though with you just navigating through fallen buildings to escape, but instead they keep the situation and locations changing,

Star Wars Outlaws. I grabbed this over Christmas in the sales too. As you all kow I'm a big Star Wars fan so had been looking to play this. This game looks great but I've not just got too far into it yet as I' want to actually finish the games above first, I've decided I'm no longer starting games and leaving them after a couple of hours to never return. If a game grabs my attention I'm sticking with it,

Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move. I've always loved this game series. Played it on the PS1, N64 and anything else the series has been released on, I was going through the discounted games in the PS5 store and spotted this. It's a compilation with a few different versions of the games. It was only a couple pounds so I grabbed it. They are emulated versions of the original Arcade games and some console versions. You have control of the scaling so can run then original pixel size or scale them up, and you can add filters to smooth them out or add scanlines. Most importantly they play perfectly and allow 2 player and internet multiplayer.

Yes i already have these games in emulators and on the original systems. I could set them up, but most of the time now I like to keep things simple and just have everything on the one current system. Plus you have get achievements.

Front Mission 1 remake I first encountered the Front Mission games with the 3rd game when it was released on the PS1. Great mech game. When I heard they were remaking the first 2 games I was really excited. I've been playing a bit of this first one and it's a good remake, preserving the original but bringing the controls and some game elements up to date. I'm not going to buy the second game remake until it's in a sale though but the third is also due out as a remake soon,

Baldur's Gate 3 Very late to the party with this one as it's been out quite some time. But I didn't have the time and it was quite expensive full price. So I grabbed it in the January sale and am planning to play it when I'm on holiday over Easter,

[Tiago]

Last year:
Satisfactory: one of the best games i played in years.

This year:
The last caretaker: alpha but very very good.

This week:
Starcom: Unknown space: simple game like the old asteroids, but very nice visuals and you can build your ship tile by tile. Interesting idea, well implemented

[Harrison]

Nice. I already had the first 2 wishlisted on Steam but not played any of them yet. The Last Caretaker looks interesting so I will definitely add that to my shitlist, and I do like space games,

[Tiago]

Satisfactory be prepared for 150 hours. If you like to customize and go into details then you can go to 200 or 300 hours....

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The last caretaker is more a relax game. You have to travel a lot by boat and it is very relaxing. Top game!