La5t Game You Fini5hed And Your Thought5

That's good it went down well, as I really enjoyed it but haven't played the first and wasn't really waiting the second. Just I know it can turn out bad looks at Shenmue.

Anyway I finished House of Ashes, much like last year's Little Hope it's a fine budget interactive horror thing to amuse oneself for a few hours.

Which is handy after Metroidread and before Forza Horizon 5.

That's great to read Jimbob. I mean, I'm jealous because I'll not get to play it and it sounds like a corker, but I know how invested you were in this and I'm glad it delivered rather than disappointing. Also: more games should do that postgame thing. (thinks wistfully of TTYD yet again)

You could play via XCLOUD, Balla.

Polished this off at the end of my week off.

The original Wario Ware on the GBA had the brief of being the game Nintendo would never make. It was messy, wacky, full of grossness and unusual characters. The sharp, short-length games are treated completely throwaway. The humor is crude, the gameplay is often half-arsed. I love them all.

This one, oddly, feels like a much more standard Nintendo game. You play as actual characters with their own standardised control schemes. It has more of a campaign feel. It made for a more satisfying singleplayer playthrough but the individual microgames often end up feeling frustrating as you power through the extra layer of abstraction.

The game ends by saying "the story is over but the game has just begun" which in previous Wario Wares was incredibly true but I don't feel that same desire to go back and score-chase this one or rinse all the games. I'll probably have another stab at it and maybe I can get into the character controls and enjoy some of the great and hilarious games but right now I'm happy to leave it for a bit.

Definitely want at least one multiplayer session.

Also . . .



Polished this off this morning. Early on I wasn't super into it; drifting from Metroid to Metroid wasn't as satisfying as following a specific goal, and the environments were a bit samey. The actual gameplay was sublime though. Samus controls great, the various weapons and moves were all brilliant and the last couple of bosses were classic stuff. I may even go back for 100% completion.

Hot Baws wrote:

Toree 3D has been getting lots of good press lately, and I’m happy to add to that in my own small little way. It’s a 3D platformer (with some slight horror teases) that uses a distinctively N64-like aesthetic. That visual style is used meaningfully here though, as Toree 3D deliberately and genuinely feels like it’s been ripped out of 1997. With its cutesy mascot, tight controls, poppy soundtrack and short levels it reminded me very much of Chameleon Twist, just with a lot more pace and without an elongated tongue to use. Remember Chameleon Twist? You should, it’s better than whatever fucking dogshite you’re currently playing.

There’s just nine levels here, but they’re all fun and straight to the point. That’s reflected in the game’s price: you’re getting about an hours’ worth of entertainment for your 89p, and I think Toree 3D’s lifespan is perfectly balanced with the cost. There’s not a whole lot else to say about Toree 3D, other than to for me to recommend you go and download it. Without the scope or budget to be so, it’s not quite the new A Hat In Time. However, it makes me curious to see what the developers might do next. There’s a really solid foundation for a bigger and more ambitious platformer here, and I’m looking forward to that. 7/10.

Toree 2 is ‘what the developers did next’. I’d hoped that Toree 3D would act as ‘a really solid foundation for a bigger and more ambitious platformer’, but truthfully Toree 2 is simply more Toree 3D. It has the same cost, the same lifespan, the same aesthetic and the same gameplay. That’s all right though. It’s still got that same quality. 7/10.

I missed it the first time, but 89p for a little throwback 3D platformer? Don't mind if I do!

I finally started R&C on PS5 the other day after having it for maybe a month & being the main game I got a PS5 for. Now that I have finished it, what a phenomenal game with Rivet the star of the show, I hope we're getting some sort of Rivet Trilogy on PS5 much like PS3 has the Future Trilogy.

If you've got a PS5 or when you do then you need to check it out R&C and unlike like Souls etc it has gone down a tad in price.

Edit

Just finished Unpacking on PC via Game Pass but is on everything but unsure if I'd pay £17 for it, as it is about 2hrs long of a simple puzzle game of this girl who is a Nintendo fan and her life for 1997 to 2018 moving around.

The story is told via what items you have and where you now live etc, so very minimalist, which you can I gather I enjoyed.

There's two games I'd like to own. Cheers for the advice about Unpacking - £17 seems a bit much. I'll hold fire for a sale.

~



At the moment when I’d seen that Vertex Pop – best known for developing and releasing the fantastic Graceful Explosion Machine four years ago – had not only released another game onto the eShop but that it was also 75% off, I downloaded it immediately and without any second thoughts. From their previous output I was convinced that this was company with a strong and reliable pedigree: Graceful Explosion Machine was really approachable, stylish and satisfying, and Super Crush KO was smooth, addictive and loaded with potential. The thought of more of those kind of things with WE ARE DOOMED made me confident that I’d enjoy their latest work.

It would have helped if I’d researched it before I made my purchase, but I was nevertheless a little disappointed to realise that WE ARE DOOMED is a twin-stick shooter. Even more disappointingly, it’s a fairly common and middle-of-the-road one at that. With the usual array of high-score modes and leaderboard options, all that WE ARE DOOMED has going for it in terms of a unique identity is it’s abstract and angular graphical style. It’s visually stimulating and impressive to be fair, being pleasingly vibrant and technicoloured. Yet at the same time so are about another thousand games of this type. Similarly, I can’t think of any twin-stick shooters that don’t have the same tight controls, synthesised soundtrack and stern difficultly curve that WE ARE DOOMED does.

In its defence, it turns out that WE ARE DOOMED is older than Graceful Explosion Machine, ported to Switch a mere seven years after its Steam debut. Sadly though, it’s is not a memorable game, or an important one. Vertex Pop definitely went on to better things, 5/10.

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy

This game is baffling to me, Square Enix recently said something about how the Avengers game failed because they picked the wrong developer and whilst this is a different developer it clearly shows that wasn't the reason, the reason was because they added all the live service nonsense instead of making a focused and enjoyable game that plays in to the source material incredibly well. GotG seems like a huge apology for what they did with the Avengers, it's exactly what a comic book/superhero based game needs to be, the general gameplay loop is moving through a linear story chapter by chapter, some of those will be navigating the environment and battling enemies, then at other times you might find the focus is on the story and making different dialogue choices that have genuine consequences later on.

It by no means re-invents the wheel and whilst the combat is fun with its control Star-Lord and tell the others what to do approach, the main part of this I will remember is the excellent scripted moments which featured some of the funniest back and forths in my gaming history as well as some epic and absurd moments that a teenager from the eighties brought up on rock n roll could only dream of.

9/10

I think I'm going to play GotG next from my recent pick-ups as it is one I'll trade in once done, and it is likely to drop in value quickest as well. Where COD Vanguard, I’ve got access to digitally so that's not going anywhere, and I don't plan to trade in SMTV.


FH5 builds on the brilliant FH4 in main ways, as I can post i this thread as now all the story mission, showcases, site setups are all intertwined now for the goal of getting into the hall of fame. Then after that I unlocked more story missions as one dude wouldn't race me till I go into the hall of fame.

Still more like normal races, online events, seasonal stuff as like any modern game, especially one on Game Pass (You can all play via the Cloud, you don't need an Xbox) to keep you coming back each week to do. It looks fantastic on the Series X in 60fps, and it very nearly went to the top of my GOTY, it's only narrowing missing out as I personally prefer more story based games.  

I can't see anyone not liking the game, and I'm even thinking likes of Balla here as sure realistic cars but more arcadey and doing things like race a train in your anime supra, I can see it being more exciting than just race 11 other cars around a circuit.

Hot Baws wrote:

Just unlocked all the upgrades, raced all the tracks and finished the main campaign of Horizon Chase Turbo on Switch. The developer describes it on their website as being " a modern take on the 90s old-school racers that we loved the most". Of all the retro revival games to come out this decade, this is right up there with A Hat In Time as being one of my favourites. Horizon Chase Turbo is bloody outstanding. It's got the fun and exhilarating speed of OutRun, the strategic thinking-ahead of Top Gear, and it's as balls-hard as Lotus Turbo Challenge. With a surprising number of cars, tracks and modes, unique visuals and a quality soundtrack as well, this is the best arcade racer I've played in years. 9/10.

They’ve kept going with development on Horizon Chase Turbo over the last three years, adding a free Rookie Series mode and then a Summer Vibes expansion that could basically act as OutRun 3 if you squinted hard enough. Carrying on with this, Aquiris recently released their latest Horizon Chase Turbo DLC, Senna Forever.

Made with the cooperation of the Ayrton Senna charity institute, Senna Forever is a loving retelling of the F1 legend’s career, from forming his legacy to establishing himself and then, tragically, onto "seeking the victories he never achieved”. Other than to use Ayrton Senna’s likeness, this whole DLC lacks any official licenses. However, the inverted team colours, distinctive-ish sponsorship logos, clever mechanical set-ups, manufacturer-inspired car designs and evocative circuit layouts all help capture the feel of Formula One very successfully without risking goading Ross Brawn and his pals into slamming down lawsuits.

Sporting a meaty Career Mode as well as three Championship Grand Prix, I couldn’t put Senna Forever down until I finished it. The driving in Horizon Chase Turbo is simply superb, and the new cockpit views really help you feel the game’s speed. The excitement, exhilaration and challenge from the base game all remain, and are perhaps even enhanced and freshened up to feel new again. Really, all Senna Forever does from a gameplay perspective is simply add more fantastic stuff on top of an absolutely brilliant game. This new and full price DLC wasn’t even six quid either, and I’ve seen the base game for as cheap as £4.49. It’s outrageous value for money.

I might have changed my mind since I posted that first review back in February 2019. A game with no weaknesses, maybe, just maybe, Horizon Chase Turbo is the best retro revival, full stop. 10/10.

Was Horizon Chase a PS+ game? I feel like it was and that I've dabbled in it (and enjoyed the time I spent in it well enough) but it could be some other arcade game I'm conflating it with. Really cool to see a Senna focused experience either way.

It was on Gamepass, it was fun enough.

I'm not a big racing guy, and with Mario Kart 64 and Burnout Paradise on my Switch I'm sorted for now, but Horizon Chase sounds like a good'n.

In F1 news, myself and an 8-year-old built a papercraft red bull car today and it was extremely difficult, made more so by him getting overexcited and pulling all the pieces out at once.

That's the best racing-related news I've read since MK8D was announced.

Promptly picked up Horizon Chase Turbo after that glowing write-up from Cappa - it's £3.99 on Playstation at the moment but have seen it on sale on Switch too. I have my reservations as I didn't get on with Hot Shot Racing, which was similarly well-received and has that cel-shaded aesthetic going on too; however, the mere sniff of an Outrun 3 mention had me throwing cash at the screen.

I can vouch for Horizon Chase Turbo too for anyone that is still on the fence, cracking little game that's really easy to pop in and out of. Another such game is What The Golf? which I recently finished and to follow on from what Balladeer has been saying, it's bloody great and I'd happily rate it as one of the best things on the eShop.

Chuffed you liked it Smurf!

I finally put Sleeping Dogs down last night and it was a thoroughly enjoyable 40 hours of mayhem, collect-athon nonsense and odd glitches. It’s basically GTA in Hong Kong with you taking on the role of Wei Shen, an undercover cop infiltrating the triads and inevitably becoming worse than any of them in the process. The story does have its moments and plays up to the “are you sure you’re still a cop?” narrative, perhaps too much so. You’re actively encouraged to break bones, put people’s faces into angle grinders and hack away at enemies with meat cleavers. It’s like Saints Row with a human heart forcefully wedged in - yet it just about works. The world is one island separated into three similar areas, littered with plenty of story missions, side jobs for the police, favours for triads, street races, and minigames (fight clubs, karaoke etc.). There’s plenty to do, but the game’s saving grace (in my opinion) is its style. The emphasis on fun is everywhere. The combat is Arkham Asylum style - reliant on counters and timing which is a clever way of avoiding the use of weapons (as you can’t counter) but it’s a lot of fun taking out swathes of goons thanks to perfectly timed counters. The vehicles are probably the best I’ve used in an open-world game, especially the motorbikes. There are hundreds of clothes/costumes to wear, ranging from the standard suits, to shamelessly advertising other Square-Enix titles (Just Cause, Hitman) and even movie costumes that the game is inspired by (Rumble in the Bronx, Ong Bak). You get heckled every time you walk out of a clothing store (“it takes guts to wear that!”) and pestered to buy food (“a man who never eats pork buns is never a whole man”) which becomes meme-worthy, but adds to the character of a city that sits somewhere between Saints Row’s goofiness and Stranglehold’s homage to Hong Kong action flicks. Perhaps best of all is the pacing of the missions - there’s a fantastic bloodbath sequence that I swore was the end of the game but turned out to be halfway, and the effects of that and returning to the triad life afterward actually made me feel part of this world more. It actually calms you down for what is a pretty dark final stretch.
My own experience was hampered somewhat by some relentless glitching halfway through the game. The PS4 would error with the blue screen, cut-scenes randomly interspersed with a car engine humming loudly over everybody’s dialogue, and the hilarious moment I exited a car and hurled into the sky only to then plummet back down and die when hitting the concrete. I remember having similar glitches in Saints Row 2, but pretty sure this isn’t an intentional “nod” to that.
Either way, this didn’t really ruin my experience and I can see why this is a bit of a cult classic.
9/10

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I might have changed my mind since I posted that first review back in February 2019. A game with no weaknesses, maybe, just maybe, Horizon Chase Turbo is the best retro revival, full stop. 10/10.

My goodness me is that a 1984 Toleman in that picture? That's a deep dive (*remembers back to the 80s/90s when he used to watch F1*) (*remembers he would have been 2 at the time so would only have seen that car in retrospective things*) (*so does he remember anything in that case?*)
I've still not played Horizon Chase Turbo, but it was free on PS+. I've put it back on my "bucket list" now - hope you're happy   .

gjones wrote:

I finally put Sleeping Dogs down last night and it was a thoroughly enjoyable 40 hours of mayhem, collect-athon nonsense and odd glitches. It’s basically GTA in Hong Kong with you taking on the role of Wei Shen, an undercover cop infiltrating the triads and inevitably becoming worse than any of them in the process. The story does have its moments and plays up to the “are you sure you’re still a cop?” narrative, perhaps too much so. You’re actively encouraged to break bones, put people’s faces into angle grinders and hack away at enemies with meat cleavers. It’s like Saints Row with a human heart forcefully wedged in - yet it just about works.

I always wondered about that. Whenever I've heard dialogue from the game, it seems a bit cliched with the secret "not really a policeman" stuff, and it's kind-of put me off it. But if it actually works great when you're playing the game, then I can probably overlook that!

I did

A game that was added then removed to a wishlist for "trying too hard to be a 2D Zelda reference" but then forced upon me in a bundle of 1000 itch.io games. It's almost good. It wears its Zelda influence on its sleeve, which I think helps. Although the "oh no someone in a videogame world knows their videogame is wrong" is a bit tired now, there are a couple of neat tricks that this game pulls off that I've not seen elsewhere. One of these is a glitch power up which corrupts the graphics, allowing you to wrap round the sides of a screen without it scrolling to the next one. Later dungeons make use of this in a great way, there's some real mind-bending as you attempt to navigate a castle you have no business getting through.
There are a couple of other downers though. Undertale has also been a clear influence, and early on you find you can equip the "power of compassion"; it's blatantly obvious from the writing (and from the knowledge of the former) that the game wants you to utilise this to unlocks a happier secret-er ending, but doesn't make it at all obvious, even once you twig this and try to, how you would actually do so. Thus the secret last level will be hidden away without a walkthrough and the inclination to play through a 20-hour game again. If e.g. Link's Awakening had to be finished twice, one could put up an argument for this. However, the dungeon structure isn't compelling enough to play a second time. Mainly because (*regrets having to bring this up*) it's randomly-generated. I'm not one for poo-pooing things designed by algorithms instead of humans; humans have made crap, and plenty of procedural worlds/universes have been fascinating. But the result here is a set of bland-looking NES-Zelda-style labyrinths, which resort to very clear paths, randomly-drawn obstacles and obvious gear-gating.
Er, 5/8 or something

Hey what's up, it's ya boy Treesmurf once again jumping on the back of someone else's recommendations.

Ahem.

Sleeping Dogs is a really neat timesink, it evokes cheesy action movies in all the best possible ways with a lot of over the top moments and some fun combat, now I want to go and play it again.

Did you play the kung fu island DLC, gjones? One of the standouts from that game, if I remember rightly.

JayMoyles wrote:

Did you play the kung fu island DLC, gjones? One of the standouts from that game, if I remember rightly.

I did go to an island for an Enter the Dragon style deathmatch tournament, but couldn't do the final section with the room of spikes. This was halfway through the game so didn't know it was DLC, unless this is something else entirely? There are two DLC modes in the menu, maybe I'll return to those one day. For now, I've had enough of Sleeping Dogs as it was eating up every evening.

Abzu

Just rolled credits on this beauty. One of those free downloads Sony made available earlier in the year, it may only be a few hours long but it’s one of the most gorgeous game environments you’ll ever visit. I’m sure some of you have played this, but I’d always admired it from afar as some indie swimming nonsense. In a way, that kind of sums it up, but a more accurate way is Flower meets Subnautica. There’s this underwater labyrinth you inexplicably need to traverse through, and you navigate this avatar fella where it’s unclear who or what he/she even is. All I know is that it gets on with the fish and has the lungs of Pavarotti. Abzu is a very chilled game; there’s no danger of losing breath or being eaten by sharks. The developers are probably mentally scarred by Ecco the Dolphin and this is their therapeutic answer. There are some pointless collectibles and basic puzzles, but it’s just a nice place to chill out in. In fact, I did question whether this is even a game, it’s more like an elaborate interactive aquarium with a bit of climate change messaging underpinning it. Lovely stuff.

9/10

Might as well post that game review that I've had typed up in my inbox since last week...



Abzu is difficult to type up about. Controlling an unnamed diver as they explore a gorgeously rendered ocean, I guess the goal of Abzu is to uncover it’s ancient secrets and interact with its vast animal and plant life. Yet it’s one of these games that’s not really much of a game at all. Abzu puts far more of an onus on its artistic direction and it’s keen sense of discovery than anything that resembles traditional gameplay. Apart from occasionally pushing Y to use your sonar calls, you’re basically left to freely swim around and take in its setting and progress its story at your own leisure. This is far less involved than Endless Ocean on the Wii, the game I’d most straightforwardly compare Abzu to.

While Abzu’s simplicity, spectacle and meditative nature all make for a harmonising experience, I never really became attached to it. I think that Abzu has some delusions of grandeur. Aye, all the things I’ve typed about so far impress, but only to a limited extent. Fact is, Abzu’s story and mystique don’t intrigue me enough, and the emotion that it tries to elicit just doesn’t provoke me. Abzu touched on all my senses, but it lingered on them rather than truly arousing them (kennethwilliams.gif).

Abzu might make you feel differently though. You might already own it as well; Sony gave it away to PS4 and PS5 owners as part of their Play At Home scheme earlier this year. At around three hours long, there’s no harm in giving Abzu a go. Whoever you are, I think you’re likelier to love it than hate it. 6/10.

...this might be one of those rare times where gjones and I don't agree on something...!