What are you playing?

[tiesto]

Ok, so, LiveALive is my first 2D-HD game and first JRPG since probably Tales of Symphonia on the GC. First up, I really like the art style. Looks absolutely beautiful.

However, damn I know this game is from the 16-bit era, but fuck if this doesn't have some is the most archaic and dumb gameplay shit I've ever seen. I started on the Near Future chapter and going up and down several unnecessary flights in stairs in quick succession, all for no purpose other than to "our princess is in another castle" me, is really killing my enjoyment. This is really serving to remind me why I hate JRPGs so much. There's very little respect for the player's time, energy or patience. I'm playing with my son and I really want to keep at it to introduce him to more complex games, but damn if it isn't difficult to maintain interest when everything is so fucking tedious.

Live A Live is super brisk and each chapter is anywhere from 30 min to 3 hours long. Near Future probably being one of the longest. I personally appreciated that they kept to the original (one of my favorites for years) design, with the only addition aside from aesthetic updates being able to see enemy weaknesses.

[Nintex]

Live A Live is great but maybe not the best game to introduce your son to RPG's. It's kind of an anti-RPG in certain ways, fits into the mold of Earthbound and Undertale.
To fully appreciate it you need to understand regular RPG's first and it parodies a ton of movies/stories/actors too (2001 Space Odyssey, Indiana Jones, Clint Eastwood etc.).
By the end it will have exceeded and shattered all your expecations though.

Played more Skyward Sword HD over the past couple of days. I like it much better now compared to the original Wii release.
Lanayru Mine with the timeshift stones is absolutely brilliant. Especially now that Fi doesn't spoil every puzzle I would say this dungeon is as good if not better than Twilight Princess dungeons.

The pacing issues are starting to creep up overall though. First, I had to visit to the Sealed Grounds to learn the first song, next I had to defeat the Imprisoned, then I had to move back to Skyloft to unlock the Tower to learn a second song.
But to do so, I had to fix a little robot and bring back a propellor from the Eldin first so I could open the path to the tower. After dealing with those things I could finally head back to Faron Woods, where I had to do a 'Spirit Trial' (much like TP) to unlock the swimming ability. Now I can finally progress further into the woods. It would've been better if they had simply handed me the swimming ability after beating the Imprisoned. The Harp instrument in this game feels very disjointed and forced from everything else.

It doesn't help that you can't fast travel on the surface (only when you enter an area from the sky) and you can't really fast travel to skyloft either, you always end up in the sky first and then you have to fly a couple of minutes to reach skyloft again.

[Bebpo]

Ok, so, LiveALive is my first 2D-HD game and first JRPG since probably Tales of Symphonia on the GC. First up, I really like the art style. Looks absolutely beautiful.

However, damn I know this game is from the 16-bit era, but fuck if this doesn't have some is the most archaic and dumb gameplay shit I've ever seen. I started on the Near Future chapter and going up and down several unnecessary flights in stairs in quick succession, all for no purpose other than to "our princess is in another castle" me, is really killing my enjoyment. This is really serving to remind me why I hate JRPGs so much. There's very little respect for the player's time, energy or patience. I'm playing with my son and I really want to keep at it to introduce him to more complex games, but damn if it isn't difficult to maintain interest when everything is so fucking tedious.

Live A Live is super brisk and each chapter is anywhere from 30 min to 3 hours long. Near Future probably being one of the longest. I personally appreciated that they kept to the original (one of my favorites for years) design, with the only addition aside from aesthetic updates being able to see enemy weaknesses.

Game could absolutely have used a fast-forward button for battles. Pretty much every other SE retro game remaster has that. I found the battles super slow and the whole thing controlled really sluggish at <30fps from the demo. Honestly the demo made it out to be a pretty dated game.

Though I only did the ninja infiltration chapter. Maybe that's just a slow boring chapter idk.

[Nintex]

Seems like GoldenEye on Xbox is just utterly broken.

I'm currently on Bunker II and there is just no end to spawning enemies. I take out the first guard and get a gun with ~15 bullets, as soon as I enter the first room the enemies just keep spawning and coming in and this happens in every room on the first visit.
I suppose back on the N64 the enemy spawn rate was limited to the CPU or something but now they just never stop. 


Apparently there is a trick to this

[Hamarr]

Metroid Prime really does hold up.  Is this one of the best games of all time?  With the control update, it has to be up there.  I’ve been putting a lot of time into it, which is rare for me with games like this.  I just got the grapple hook.

I have also been playing Hogwarts Legends a little bit.  I am liking it, but having some trouble getting used to the timing of the combat.  Especially when surrounded by enemies.  Getting the shield timing right when I can’t see where I am being shot from.  It seems like I am still in tutorials, or maybe the game is just like this throughout.  Leveling up seems really fast if you do the side stuff, but the level of enemies seems to be scaling with me.

I unlocked talents at like level 13, and story wise the game seems to expect you to do that closer to level 5?  I wonder if it is better to save the side quests until the end unless they are gating the main quest.

[Himu]

Wow. The Hotto vignette in act 2 is utterly fantastic and classic Tragic Quest. That bitter sweet "no good answer" Quest. Hell yes That's how you tell a story. More vignettes please.

[Potato]

Metroid Prime really does hold up.  Is this one of the best games of all time?  With the control update, it has to be up there.  I’ve been putting a lot of time into it, which is rare for me with games like this.  I just got the grapple hook.

Easily in my top 3, even before the remake.

[Joe Molotov]

I'm about 40 hours in on Persona 3 Portable, made it to early November (Lv. 164 in the Tartarus). Evil Persona Jesus just straight up using a glock to murk people is sending me.

Japanese kid seeing their first black person


sorry babe, gotta go home and watch Ben Shapiro

[Svejk]

Metro Exodus – About halfway through The Caspian segment.  Was hoping to have finished it over this past weekend, but that didn’t happen.  Got some strange urge and got sucked back into …

AC Valhalla – For some embarrassing reason, I hit a major mental block of progression in the game back then.  I was too under leveled for further raids, even though that’s what I needed to upgrade my encampment.  Even though it should be obvious, it’s not…  In order  to raise your Power level is by actually applying your skill points to the tree.  Like in Horizon 2, I hold onto them (points) until I come to a point where I need/prefer an upgrade, but you still level up separately…  But in AC:V, you have to apply them to have the level up show.     Now that I realize that, I may actually continue this game.  Although the bloat feels haven’t shown up again to remind me, it feels like solid fun again.  I’m highly considering swapping the square and circle buttons though, to be more like every other character action game (circle being dodge/roll).  Muscle memory is a bitch sometimes.

Castlevania: SOTN – My son has been on a Castlevania binge of late, so naturally I have too.  After he played Aria of Sorrow and absolutely loved it, I told him to play SOTN.  Now him and I are playing through SOTN together.   Game is still and always will be a Grandmastahpiece!!  It’s almost hard to believe how well this game holds up.  We’re playing the Requiem release, which is a bit barebones when compared to the Castlevania Collections of late.  This game deserves a full-fledged release with all the bells and whistles of development art/concept pics, filters, regions, etc.  Also, we desperately need them to release a DS Collection.


Right now, these may all get put to the side if Wanted: Dead reviews well tomorrow.  If reviews are pretty poor, I may wait for a bargain bin price.  Other than that, it may be a mixed bag.  Some previews love it, some don’t…  All of them say it’s bizarre though how it’s all over the place.  Still highly intrigued.   

[Nintex]

Metroid Prime really does hold up.  Is this one of the best games of all time?

Yes, despite being highly rated Metroid Prime only sold like 3 million copies and to this day is one of the most underrated games of all time.

GameCube enjoyers back in the day knew that Metroid Prime was up there with Half Life and perhaps Half Life 2 before Half Life 2 even released and that HALO was a finger painting in comparison to the Mona Lisa that is Metroid Prime.
The biggest flaw is that it can't be recreated, the pacing is perfect because of the level design, if you drop the same mechanics in different more convoluted levels (i.e. Prime 2) you end up with a game that doesn't work quite as well.
If you streamline the mechanics and backtracking (i.e. Prime 3) it's no longer as interesting to play. Metroid Prime is really one of those games where the sum of its parts reaches levels of perfection seldom seen in a video game.

[Himu]

What's so good about the new controls? I haven't played Prime since 2005.

[Hamarr]

Metroid Prime really does hold up.  Is this one of the best games of all time?

Yes, despite being highly rated Metroid Prime only sold like 3 million copies and to this day is one of the most underrated games of all time.

GameCube enjoyers back in the day knew that Metroid Prime was up there with Half Life and perhaps Half Life 2 before Half Life 2 even released and that HALO was a finger painting in comparison to the Mona Lisa that is Metroid Prime.
The biggest flaw is that it can't be recreated, the pacing is perfect because of the level design, if you drop the same mechanics in different more convoluted levels (i.e. Prime 2) you end up with a game that doesn't work quite as well.
If you streamline the mechanics and backtracking (i.e. Prime 3) it's no longer as interesting to play. Metroid Prime is really one of those games where the sum of its parts reaches levels of perfection seldom seen in a video game.

Too bad it didn’t sell better.

I think I was the only one I knew who had a GameCube at the time.  The ones I showed it to were blown away by how good it looked at the time but didn’t have interest in it. 

The platforming also works really well for a first person game.  It also explains where to go fairly well for there being no magical trail to follow or a waypoint marker. 

[Svejk]

What's so good about the new controls? I haven't played Prime since 2005.

Apparently they actually added the MP Trilogy control scheme afaik, which really surprises me, because it simply made the game better and much smoother.  You can actually aim and shoot at your enemies without the feel of moving Samus' torso like a robot.  It's brilliant because it still had enemy lock-on, but with the motion control you can still shoot wherever you want, broadening your FOV scope to be more versatile..  Granted, it was pretty limited in sensor range when compared to other Wiimote shooters, but it worked beautifully in the Trilogy.  Again, I'm very surprised the incorporated that.  Pretty awesome.  As much as it hurts for me to say this, I can't wait for the fizzikal release.

[Nintex]

What's so good about the new controls? I haven't played Prime since 2005.

They've included all the existing control schemes (GameCube controller, pointer controls from the Wii) and also added Dual Analog.
The game just plays like a dream.

Anyhow moving on with Skyward Sword

The pacing issues are starting to creep up overall though. First, I had to visit to the Sealed Grounds to learn the first song, next I had to defeat the Imprisoned, then I had to move back to Skyloft to unlock the Tower to learn a second song.
But to do so, I had to fix a little robot and bring back a propellor from the Eldin first so I could open the path to the tower. After dealing with those things I could finally head back to Faron Woods, where I had to do a 'Spirit Trial' (much like TP) to unlock the swimming ability. Now I can finally progress further into the woods.

Yes, I could "progress". First I had to enter the big tree underwater and climb all the way up the tree next to meet with a Elder Kikwi that tells me I need to go all the way down to look at an Emblem on the ground in the North of the forest.
Then I had to go all the way back to the South of the forest to literally draw a circle on a door so it resembles the emblem I had to look at earlier and the door opens. I'm escorted by some kind of weird fish thing to meet with the water dragon. This is basically a pretty tedious swimming tutorial. After breaking some rocks by spinning blowfish into them I finally find the right one that hides the entrance to the Water Dragon. When I meet with the Water Dragon it is in bad shape and tells me that I need to find 'sacred water'. Hurrah, more dowsing. The sacred water is of course all the way to the North of the forest, literally in the first dungeon, which I have to revisit. But there is a twist, one of the Mogma's has lost the key I need. So I need to comb through every room and check every digging hole to see where he left the key. Once I find the key I can progress further, head to the boss room, beat 3 skeletons and enter the sacred spring again. Obviously the place where the sacred water is kept. Now I can go back to the Water Dragon (thank god the cave has a back entrance so I don't need to pass through the swimming gauntlet again) and after I drop off a bottle of sacred water she opens the door to the Ancient Cistern.

This is the most useless section of the game so far and feels like it was taken straight from Starfox Adventures.

[Bebpo]

I finished a first run of Heaven Will Be Mine with Pluto and kinda hated the game as the writing was ridiculously obtuse and nonsense and I could barely follow or care about anything.

I looked it up and apparently that is a bad route to start with and Saturn is the more straight-forward plot route, Luna-Terra is the lore expanding route, and Pluto is the philosophical metaphysical questioning route.

So I started another run with Saturn and almost done and this one is good. It's like 90% good writing and 10% unintelligible nonsense. Eventually you get enough about the world lore and terms and concepts that it makes more sense.

But anyhow, if LGBT flirtation gundam sounds up your alley, it's an interesting short VN by the creator of We Know the Devil which was great. Also has good music. Will do the Luna-Terra run for the true ending after I finish Saturn.

[Himu]

Final dungeon time in DQXI!

What a ride!

I'm so glad to have been wrong. DQ you still know how to do it. I'm interested in giving the original a try some time.

[demi]

You still have all of Act 3 yet, the game is hardly over

[Himu]

I meant final dungeon before the post-game 

[Himu]

Got to the final boss of DQXI act 2 and  it's a bloody marathon of a fight between it and the second form. I tackled the first form but the second form was surprisingly rough. I'll beat him tomorrow.

Edit: tried a second time and beat him. Yay. Now for post game.

[Nintex]

Despite all the bullshit leading up to it the Ancient Cistern dungeon was certainly worth it. It looks great in Skyward Sword HD. I also didn't realize before that the underground contains Malice connecting it to BOTW

Also Karane and Pippit hooked up and Dodoh of Fun Fun Island has his party wheel again.

[Himu]

Yeah so I'm okay with DQXI act 3 and don't think it ruins the story. It feels like one of those anime what if filler episodes or The Search For Spock. I don't take DQ post games that seriously. I've always treated it as extra story.

[Joe Molotov]

Getting close to the end of P3P, probably will finish it in the next day or two.

last two episodes when the anime runs over budget


Xenogears fans playing their second videogame: "Getting real Xenogears vibes from this."

[Himu]

Alien Isolation leaving Game Pass. I need to finish it and buy the physical eventually.

[Nintex]

At the Sand Sea in Skyward Sword now.

I love this area mostly because of the double clawshot and NIER automata vibe and I Just realized Skyward Sword actually predates it.
Seeing the pictures of the ship crew in better times and reviving the robots for a brief moment with the time stones.

What is especially sad is that they are stuck in the past thinking that I'm traveling through the world as they know it.
Link or Fi don't break their fantasy or reveal the truth either but simply play along to progress in the future.

[Potato]

My gaming guilt admission is I have never finished Twilight Princess (tried at least three times) and have never played Skyward Sword.

Breath of the Wild saved Zelda for me and, I imagine, many other people.

[Himu]

I have up on Zelda when they made skyward sword. Didn't even bother buying it. Series went completely stagnant. Then they made a sequel to link to the past and made it baller and I've been riding with Link again  ever since

[Himu]

I ordered DQXI for Xbox from GameStop.com originally and it was stuck in limbo for days sitting in processing. So I just ordered from Amazon. I wanted to support a game shop so bad. I'm just now getting my DQXI from GameStop the day I beat the main game. Lmfao there's no way they'll refund me. Anyone want this shit?

Edit DQIII theme in act III fuck yes

Edit 2: DQXI act 3 is fantastic and doesn't ruin the game at all. Act 2 still happened but the characters get a more proper chance to do things. Also Cobblestone is the invite village? Perfect. The game play is so open ended too. Usually DQ post game is open but this has so much even more content it's crazy.

[demi]

Act 3 is the real ending of the game. People who complain about it are losers

It's not some optional shit, it is required gaming for the true ending. Just like Persona 3 FES

[Hamarr]

My gaming guilt admission is I have never finished Twilight Princess (tried at least three times) and have never played Skyward Sword.

Breath of the Wild saved Zelda for me and, I imagine, many other people.

I had the HD version on the Wii U but didn't ever get around to playing the last dungeon before selling it.  I hope they re-release it for the Switch eventually.

I've tried Skyward Sword a couple of times, including the HD version on the Switch. The controls are still too awkward for me. I stopped after the first boss fight. 

[Bebpo]

Act 3 is the real ending of the game. People who complain about it are losers

It's not some optional shit, it is required gaming for the true ending. Just like Persona 3 FES

I'll wait until Himu is done with it to blast it.

[Himu]

Damn some of these bosses in act 3 are some ol BS. Malicious Jormun in particular is horseshit and even when I beat him it doesn't count unless I finish him off with a Zap spell. If he gets the first then then your only advantage is over. Some stinky Doo Doo design decisions in Act 3 for some of these fights but damn are they not legit.

[Bebpo]

Sorta beat the new FF Theaterhythm Final Bar - Still haven't gone through all 400 songs or so, but past the credit roll and unlocked all the characters and just playing endless mode.

It's worse than Curtain Call in controls and campaign, but it's got a larger song list and a multiplayer mode so it's kind of a wash. Unless you're still digging out your 3DS to play Curtain Call regularly, it's worth a play just for the new coat of paint, but I find getting perfect chain songs a bit of a crap shoot because of oddly dropped inputs occasionally playing on the switch in handheld with joycons.

So good new songs in there. I never knew the arcade version All-Star Carnival had original remixes. Most of them are bangers.

Also the campaign structure is pretty stupid since you have to do one series at a time. When you get endless mode it's more like Curtain Call where you get random songs with quests attached but it's not as good as its a survival mode thing and you only pick from 2 songs at a time instead of 3 songs.

And touch controls in the 3DS games were just plain more fun for the series.

Still better than Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memories. I'd give this like an 8/10 if you have Curtain Call. If you haven't played CC and it's all new to you, probably more like a 9/10.

[Bebpo]

Also the music selection is sorta dated since it's a port of an older arcade game (sorta like when Gundam Maxi Boost finally hit consoles like 5 years later because they want to keep milking these arcade machines for years before a home release).

It has FF7 remake and FF15 tracks, but is like 3-4 years out of date on FF14 music (nothing from last 2 expansions) and nothing from Pixel Remasters. The latter kind of sucks because going back from FF1-4 the music quality, regardless of composition quality, is such a downgrade coming from the PR arrangements. Wish you could get an option for playing the PR versions.

It sounds like they're not going to do a quick sequel like the first game -> CC, so who knows if we'll ever get anything beyond this. The DLC season passes are from other games, though they will throw in two FF16 songs when FF16 comes out as a marketing thing.

[Nintex]

Sand Ship done and dusted. This dungeon holds up really well and is more fun now that Fi doesn't spoil the entire thing by default.
The double clawshot also remains one of the finest and most fun items in any Zelda. I hope they bring it back in Tears of the Kingdom.

If I recall correctly I should have completed about 75% of the story by now.

[Bebpo]

Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen

Ah, early 2000s budget VN/Ero Japanese games, when you can have a fully voice acted scene of two characters getting food poisoning and fighting to the death over the one toilet so they get take a #2.

This game is like a normal srpg for 90% of the time, but there's a good amount of really weird stuff (and at times creepy) stuff in there too.

I'm assuming by the time they made the sequel Mask of Deception a decade later and it was a different developer w/Sting and focused on like console/handheld gaming vs niche ero PC gaming that the second game is probably a lot more "normal"

Which makes this pretty funny because it's a modern remake of the original game by Sting, but I'm assuming they kept like 100% of the old script outside the sex bits.

[Bebpo]

I tried the online multiplayer mode in Theaterhythm Final Bar and it's actually pretty fun and cool. Motivates you to improve your scores since everyone is getting good scores and you want to get 1st place and get the best rewards so you really try to get perfect every note runs. Also a good way to level your characters, get loot and listen/clear random songs. Good progression alternative to the single player stuff.

Also I got the hang of the endless mode which is a survival/rogue mode and it's actually kind of neat in how you have to plan what characters and skills to use each song. Good mode.

Going to bump my score of Final Bar to a 9/10 if you have Curtain Call and a 10/10 if this is your first time playing a Theaterhythm game.

[Joe Molotov]

I bought a Japanese indie adventure game called Cthulhu Mythos ADV: Lunatic Whispers. It came out last year on Steam but it just got English subtitles last week. It's a first-person point and click adventure like Shadowgate and The Uninvited, but it incorporates some light pen-and-paper elements from Call of Cthulhu. You have a stat sheet and a sanity meter that drops as you take psychological damage. Your stats determine how likely you are to succeed at dice rolls and clear various events; failing usually means having to do it "the hard way" which typically involves taking a hit to your sanity. The first 3 (of 7) chapters have been pretty easy though, I've lost plenty of dice rolls and never been in any danger. We'll see if the difficulty ramps up or not.

me sowing


me reaping

[tiesto]

Beat Valkyrie Elysium and the Hilde DLC... just have to beat the Seraphic Gate.

This year I'm slowly making progress in a ton of games, but haven't really been able to seal the deal yet on any of them except Control. But now I started 2 new ones:

Trials of Mana Remake - just got to the part where you have the defeat the Benevodons. Enjoying the remake and I think it does a pretty decent job of translating the original to 3D. However, the graphics are mobile-quality, even with using UE4 it looks more like a Unity game. The remastered soundtrack is to die for.

It Takes Two - playing with my fiancee, and I dare say I'm really impressed with this. Definitely deserving of its praise. Some great level design, good puzzles, lots of cool setpieces, and it actually requires some skill to make your way through. Was kinda worried that due to the co-op nature it would be super easy and the puzzles would be pretty brainless and repetitive, but they're constantly switching it up and changing mechanics. My fiancee doesn't play very many games, however she managed to make it up to Champion's Road in 3D World, so she's been able to grasp this game pretty well. We just made it to the fight with the baboon doll.

[bork]

Played the first stage of Grim Guardians- it's a bit tough on the veteran (pretty much the normal) difficulty!  Got that same old school Castlevania like the two Bloodstained CoM games have.  I don't like it as much as those but it's still pretty good.  I thought it was going to be a metroidvania, but it's more linear stage based like the CoM games and has the same kinda gimmick of switching characters and being able to go back to previous levels and find new areas or rooms.  What I don't like is that when one of the sisters dies, you have to start part of the area over again and resuscitate her by mashing a button.  Sometimes it places the fallen sister in a really bad spot and you will take damage while trying to bring her back.  Felt kinda unfair when this happened right at the boss fight.

[Bebpo]

Almost done with Dead Space and I kinda take back some of my early bashing on both the original and the remake.

It's a good fast paced TPS and the remake does look pretty nice and feels good at 60fps. On replay, the story which I liked at the time for being Event Horizon, is kind of badly executed and the game is basically story-less until the ending and the characters are non-existent. There's some good pacing combat/environment-wise, but the story does not help make it engaging at all.

I'd give it a 9/10 for good satisfying shooter gameplay except there's some really annoying instant kills (more of them towards the back half it feels like) and the load times aren't instant so that annoyed me, and there's definitely not enough enemy variety and the weapon upgrade system is kind of bad. So I think it's about an 8/10 which is fine.

If they remake DS2 I'll play that, but I think they should just make a new DS.

[Bebpo]

Finished the final route/true ending on Heaven with Be Mine by Aevee Bee. I think the lore and characters are good and story is alright with satisfying endings, but my main complaint is while there is good writing in there it is extremely difficult to parse because it's written in a grammar way that does not read well at.all. If you play indie VNs and are down with Trans Female Lesbian Gundam, it's worth a play.

Also now that I've finished both of their VNs (this and We Know the Devil), I looked them up to see if they have a 3rd VN and...apparently they were hired as the writer for Neon White? Just another reason why I need to get around to playing Neon White. Will be interesting to see how the writing in that compares to their VNs.

[Polident Hive]

The Yakuza Ishin demo is pretty good. I’ll pick it up in time. What’s unusual is opting for Unreal over their in house engines. In effect it’s not a notable difference. Some quirks are gone, for better or worse.

[Hamarr]

Almost done with Dead Space and I kinda take back some of my early bashing on both the original and the remake.

It's a good fast paced TPS and the remake does look pretty nice and feels good at 60fps. On replay, the story which I liked at the time for being Event Horizon, is kind of badly executed and the game is basically story-less until the ending and the characters are non-existent. There's some good pacing combat/environment-wise, but the story does not help make it engaging at all.

I'd give it a 9/10 for good satisfying shooter gameplay except there's some really annoying instant kills (more of them towards the back half it feels like) and the load times aren't instant so that annoyed me, and there's definitely not enough enemy variety and the weapon upgrade system is kind of bad. So I think it's about an 8/10 which is fine.

If they remake DS2 I'll play that, but I think they should just make a new DS.

Did they change the level design at all?  I kind of preferred the DS to the level design in 2.  The first game reminded me of System Shock.  I’m debating picking up the remake still.

[Hamarr]

I’m a bit further in Hogwarts Legacy and enjoying it quite a bit more.  I was way overthinking the shield in combat and it was a bit easier to get the hang of than I was expecting.  There’s also enough unlocked skills to find a setup I like. 

I also fired up Atomic Hearts for a bit.  Something about the game is off putting but I can’t quite put my finger on it.  It looks better when playing it than in some of the reviews I watched.  The combat is okay so far but I haven’t gotten to any boss fights yet.  Some of the reviews mentioned you couldn’t run at all, but there is a sprint option.  They may have patched some of those things since the review copies went out?  Or the reviewers didn’t play around with the controls much.  The art style is weird.

[Nintex]

Fire Sanctuary completed, despite the boss being weak (a second fight against Ghirahim) this is a great dungeon. Guess it's now on to the final stretch.
The part where the Donkey Kong 64 team briefly took over development. 

[Potato]

Started to play Gargoyles Quest on Switch GameBoy player last night.

I had that game on my GB back in my childhood, but there was a part that I could never get past pretty early in the game. No YouTube walkthroughs back then, so I never really progressed.

Turns out that I just kept missing a tree that I needed to check under to get some special wings to help me fly over the long gap.

I should have worked it out as a child as there is a hint from an NPC to look there, but I never did apparently.

Also, the rewind function is such a great way to circumvent the archaic game design of the 80s.

Anyway, I think I am more than 50% of the way through and this game is fucking  .

Love it. Definitely try it if you have access to Nintendo Online or have a ROM.

[Nintex]

The GBA games are really pushing me to finally get that Nintendo Switch Online Expansion stuff. 

[Bebpo]

Almost done with Dead Space and I kinda take back some of my early bashing on both the original and the remake.

It's a good fast paced TPS and the remake does look pretty nice and feels good at 60fps. On replay, the story which I liked at the time for being Event Horizon, is kind of badly executed and the game is basically story-less until the ending and the characters are non-existent. There's some good pacing combat/environment-wise, but the story does not help make it engaging at all.

I'd give it a 9/10 for good satisfying shooter gameplay except there's some really annoying instant kills (more of them towards the back half it feels like) and the load times aren't instant so that annoyed me, and there's definitely not enough enemy variety and the weapon upgrade system is kind of bad. So I think it's about an 8/10 which is fine.

If they remake DS2 I'll play that, but I think they should just make a new DS.

Did they change the level design at all?  I kind of preferred the DS to the level design in 2.  The first game reminded me of System Shock.  I’m debating picking up the remake still.

Supposedly it's more open-ended? I dunno, apparently there are new sidequests added but I've never purposely done one and don't know where to go to do it? I literally play Dead Space holding down the line pointer to tell me where to go and I follow the line. That's how I played the old games on release, that's how I play the remake. Follow the line, shoot stuff, smash containers, repeat.

I don't even see Dead Space as a horror game much. It's just a shooter and it's best aspect is that it plays pretty well at 60fps and the weapons are sorta fun.

[MMaRsu]

The GBA games are really pushing me to finally get that Nintendo Switch Online Expansion stuff. 

Just get a modded GBA

[paprikastaude]

I hope I get my Analogue this year

[Nintex]

The GBA games are really pushing me to finally get that Nintendo Switch Online Expansion stuff. 

Just get a modded GBA

(Image removed from quote.)

I have an Abernic RG351p retro handheld thing but there's something magical about playing Nintendo games on Nintendo hardware, plus I can play them on the big OLED TV

Fire Sanctuary completed, despite the boss being weak (a second fight against Ghirahim) this is a great dungeon. Guess it's now on to the final stretch.
The part where the Donkey Kong 64 team briefly took over development. 

Collecting the Tadtones wasn't as bad as I remember. Halfway through you even get the ability to find them by dowsing but overall they are easy to find.
That's the thing I probably enjoy most about Zelda HD remasters, the clarity. I often couldn't find things in SD versions simply because they were hard to see (especially in Skyward Sword with that very agressive depth of field effect).
 
Despite this game having some repetition (you fight at least 2 bosses multiple times and some areas are a bit overused) it's probably one of the most complete in terms of quests in a Zelda game.
First you have to find Zelda and then you have collect the songs and unlock Link's Hero spirit. After that you power up the sword, open the gate of time and travel to the past. Followed by a quest to collect the Triforce and finally the battle with Demise.
The game has about 6 main chapters I would say, while most other Zelda's are limited to 2 or 3. In Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild you never get to collect the Triforce. In The Wind Waker you only have to restore 1 piece of it by fishing the shards from the sea.

[Bebpo]

Finished Dead Space 2023

Yeah, I definitely could have skipped replaying this game and spent those 10 hours elsewhere. Was a fine game, but other than some nice graphics, didn't do much for me. Once in 2010 was enough.

[Himu]

Beat Alien Isolation a few days ago. I have a long write up. I haven't felt this way about a game in a long, long time. It's both some of the most riveting gaming I've ever witnessed but also some of the most flawed. I don't know how to place it but it certainly ends on a high note.

Continuing Dragon Quest XI post game and just taking it a bit at a time. It has been moved to the back burner.

Back to Doom 2016 and going from Alien: Isolation to Doom is like lighting a candle to building a fire. Doom is pure adrenaline rush and one of the greatest games of all time.

[The Sceneman]

Damn the Okumura fight in Persona 5 Royal is a mega pain. The game has been a cakewalk then suddenly throws this major party skill config check at you. Failed a few times already but I have read a guide now so can hopefully take down the burger man next time I try.

Also been trying to get the 1000/1000 in Plague Tale Requiem. Its an absolute drag and the leveling is terribly designed, doesn't help some chapters have no meaningful combat and are just walking and talking. Easily an inferior game to the first one

[Himu]

Tried Red Dead Redemption 2 and it's some of the biggest pap I have ever played. Bad controls where you have to hold a menu open with a button just to change weapons from your horse, endless self inflicted flatulence sniffing from Rockstar with their fancy graphics and "cinematics". Game has worst pacing than Shenmue and that's my favorite game. It makes Starship Troopers look like high art. I keep waiting for the game part to start. You know, the thing Rockstar used to be good at, but it's just endless slow ass cutscenes, digging in its own arse and sniffing its fingers after. As a massive Rockstar Games fan this is the complete opposite of the direction of games they used to make and I resent every single gamer that whipped their hogs out and pleasured themselves with their own mouths who praised it, this type of "gameplay", and the developers that that have ruined this hobby with their inferiority complex that they don't make movies. A visual novel would be better. Perhaps it gets better eventually when Rockstar remembers they make games but I had been playing GTAIV a few months last summer just popping it in for fun and comparing it with this gives me AIDS.

I say all of this as someone that adored the original game. I'll keep going because I notice games these days that are actually good tend to make horrific first impressions.

[Potato]

Tried Red Dead Redemption 2 and it's some of the biggest pap I have ever played. Bad controls where you have to hold a menu open with a button just to change weapons from your horse, endless self inflicted flatulence sniffing from Rockstar with their fancy graphics and "cinematics". Game has worst pacing than Shenmue and that's my favorite game. It makes Starship Troopers look like high art. I keep waiting for the game part to start. You know, the thing Rockstar used to be good at, but it's just endless slow ass cutscenes, digging in its own arse and sniffing its fingers after. As a massive Rockstar Games fan this is the complete opposite of the direction of games they used to make and I resent every single gamer that whipped their hogs out and pleasured themselves with their own mouths who praised it, this type of "gameplay", and the developers that that have ruined this hobby with their inferiority complex that they don't make movies. A visual novel would be better. Perhaps it gets better eventually when Rockstar remembers they make games but I had been playing GTAIV a few months last summer just popping it in for fun and comparing it with this gives me AIDS.

I say all of this as someone that adored the original game. I'll keep going because I notice games these days that are actually good tend to make horrific first impressions.

I swear the popularity of that game is just Stockholm syndrome on a massive scale.

[Himu]

Doom shines even brighter compared to it. Gotdamn. This game reminds me exactly why I chuckle any time someone squeezes their tits about the latest Sony exclusive. More hold up claptrap that a pet could play. I hope to God more of those types of games bomb so the people that make them are humbled and leave the industry or something because something has gotta give.

[Potato]

Honestly, too many people who came into gaming in the PlayStation era have such low standards for what a game should and could offer a player that they just eat that shit up and ask for seconds.

[Himu]

Bro the game actually put me to sleep, real talk. Riding in the snow with characters that don't know how to shut the f up with constant dialogue holding up. Real riveting. Thankfully there's cinematic mode. Perfect time to take a nap
 

[HardcoreRetro]

The main mission design in that game is awful. It's so restricted. I remember one mission where they ask you to sneak into some building and the game basically slaps the controller out of your hand if you don't do it the exact way the markers tell you to.

"Hmm, maybe I can climb up this and get throu..." *Slap* Mission failed. It's like the antithesis to genre the game is set in.

The open world itself is really cool though. It's a world I enjoy being in. Going on a fishing trip, hunting some animals. Side quests that give you a bit more freedom in how you go about things. The treasure maps that work because the world is designed well enough that you can figure out where things are based on a few clues.

One of the treasure maps has a picture of three mountains and you open up your world map, read names and you see a mountainous area with a marked location called "The Three Sisters". Now that you've figured out the area you should be looking in you can use the treasure map in tandem with looking around the world to figure out where it's buried. That's cool game design.