Minerva's Den done. I'll definitely be playing Infinite but not right away. I'll do some other stuff first to mix it up a bit.
Think I'll be giving Mad Max a try next. Big old open world game that is supposedly the very epitome of the 7/10 sounds like it could be right up my alley.
EDIT: Though I've literally just spotted that The Ascent is on Game Pass. Hmmmm.
Mad Max is fun so far. It lives up to its reputation as being a classic 7/10 and it's very much a clear the map open world affair but it's fun. And you can choose to give Max a big old hobo beard so what's not to like?
Superhot is finished. Nice little game, that. The ending comes up pretty quick but I'm not entirely sure it needs to be longer. That game has good momentum and being reset after death isn't that much of a bother.
Yeah I liked Superhot. Sounds like it should be a lot easier than it turns out to be.
The Ascent is awesome and fucking berautiful but I can't even run it at 1080 on medium. Will have to wait for an upgrade.
I've just learned that it's just over ten years since Duke Nukem Forever. was released.
Old enough to remember its 15 year development hell ending 10 years ago. Feels bad, man.
It Takes Two finished. I basically stand with all my earlier comments. Gameplay: some of the best co-op gaming ever. Story: mad tonal shifts, no idea who it's aimed at. Overall: Excellent fun, a shitload of effort gone into making it look beautiful and some really cool areas, varied gameplay which doesn't sit on one idea too long, some frankly horrific deaths and too many cutscenes with a clearly traumatised little girl.
Weird but very good and would 100% recommend to anybody looking for some couch-style co-op.
I forgot to mention about It Takes Two that there was a boss fight where my character was turned into a tomato (not as a debuff, that was my form for part of the fight. Later it was a potato then a lime) and I was absolutely laughing my hole off at that.
I'd love to have been in that meeting.
"Guys, hear me out - what if one player gets turned into a tomato here?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhIAIEH-dL4
Yes, please.
I don't get on with strategy games like that but I bloody love SNK's art. I might buy it for that alone.
I like them in principle, but tend to drop them fairly quickly. The only one I remember finishing in the last several years is Fire Emblem, which was very good.
Between this, SOR4, the upcoming TMNT game, and Windjammers 2, Dotemu might be becoming my favorite publisher. Now if they could only move forward with those Garou 2 mockups they showed.
It Takes Two is awesome. I agree though the tone is all over the shop, the kid is a bit of a weirdo too.
I got Darkest Dungeon for £6 with all DLC from PSN and I am loving the whole package.
I'm finding myself drawn into the busywork of Mad Max as I often do with an open world-er. But I've got so many other things I could be getting on with that I think I'm going to mainline the story and just worry about side stuff if HoboMax or the car need levelled up a bit because I'm hitting difficulty/grind spikes.
Sounds like I might love Mad Max.
It's very much in the Ubi-style open world mould, just made by Avalanche. My problem with clearing icons off the map isn't that it's bad, just that I've realised I'm probably doing it for its own sake when (as with any of these things) the entertainment value of the activities varies.
If I had no other games I'd like to get into next I'd be quite happy pootling about but I think game pass alone has added a couple of things I want to get into before I even look at my existing backlog.
How does Europa Universalis compare with Crusader Kings on gameplay depth and difficulty?
Ooft, I barely played any EU because I preferred the RPGness of it.
@Disco might be able to tell you? Not sure who else might have played EU.
I never got on with it, far less accessible than CK2 let alone 3. All I remember is slider hell and not knowing why I did terribly.
Okay, now I realise why the Paul Rodriguez pro challenge is so dodge on skate. Slowdown right as you trick on to the ledge. The actual motion with the stick isn't too tricky.
Cheers gents, I will avoid.
Have you played CK3, Manc? It's very good.
I really enjoyed CK2. Is 3 a huge upgrade or much of the same?
If what you enjoyed of CK2 was getting invested in the characters then CK3 will 100% be your thing.
And I find it hard to imagine liking CK2 but not the "RPGness" of it so yeah, if you liked 2 you should 100% try 3.
I'm still rocking along with AC Valhalla. Its grown on me, I must say.
I still occasionally marvel at the sheer amount of 'stuff' there is to do in these games, though. I think I'm over 80hrs deep, now, and there's so much shit that I'll never clear off the map. You'd have to be a fucking masochist to try to 100% it.
I've also got Hades and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice ready to roll. A real upside to this Gamepass lark is that I can try stuff that I'd likely never risk dropping cash on.
I've banged a month of PS Now on, too. I've never played more that half an hour, or so, of God of War, and Red Dead Redemption 2 is also on there, which I haven't played at all. I'll never find the time for it all, but y'know.
OK I finished Final Fantasy Remake + the Yuffie mission now. Thought it was great, even if I think the ending was a little out there, and that perhaps a little more context around Sephiroth would have been nice. I mean, I know what the story is (at least supposed..) to be, but it just irks me a bit that the the storytelling in it is centered around everyone going "woah Sephiroth is evil" whereas it's never explain who he actually is.
Besides I remember him being more of a mystery in the original until you understand his motivations.
All in all though, it was great fun and I thought they definitely did the original justice in the right ways.
Now I'm a little lost. There aren't all too many games available for PS5 specific, so not sure what to play.
AC Valhalla is an option. But I started with Mass Effect 2 on the PS4 now instead for the moment. REALLY struggling to get into it though. It's something about the gameplay that just doesn't resonate with me, and Shepherd being just as square a character in the second instalment as the first is a bit of a let-down. It really doesn't look like all to much have changed between games... Some of the textures are a bit nicer but thats about it. Animations etc are just about the same, and even the environments are still as confusing and kind of claustrophobic.
Not sure I have the patience to stick with it.
BTW - anyone tried the next Ratchet & Clank?
It's a pity you're not getting into ME2. The Suicide Mission is one of the best gaming levels/missions of all time.
I've started on Control. Pretty good so far but had to fiddle with the difficulty as I kept getting annihilated. Powers and weaponry feel good (reminds me a bit of the Force powers in Fallen Order). Story is batshit but good in an X-files/Bioshock kinda way
I did like Control but didn't love it. Regardless of the enemies you face the combat is a bit rinse-repeat but luckily it's almost always fun to lob a desk at somebody's face. I think my main wish is that when you get some of the movement-based skills it made you a LITTLE bit more agile.
I might need to give it some time. But so far it does a good job of keeping me confused. I don't really understand/see any depth in the character building. Being a Soldier class, my Shepherd can't really do that much else than shoot. I sometimes run out of ammo only to have it restocked in the next scene. I don't always understand where I'm going next, and for an RPG - it seems awfully mission/level-based.
Also - I'm not sure I'm even getting EXP for killing enemies? I like my grinding.
I mean you've chosen the most boring class so that won't be helping.
I'm not sure I ever found it particularly confusing and I think for both the characters that carry over from 1 and the new ones there's plenty of solid character building. ME2 probably has my favourite set of party members of any game. There are some duffers of course like Jacob and I never much cared for Miranda and their fixation with her arse but there's a lot of gold in there.
XP is for missions and choices and stuff I think. I mean there's no grind as you don't go back to combat areas to find them repopulated, etc. It's much more of an action game than ME1, obviously, but I think in terms of character arcs (more so than overall story, though there are some really good missions and story beats) it's among my favourites.
Gonna stick with it. I didn't realize I was so locked into my class when picking it, just kind of went with what I had from ME1 as my character transferred, and it appealed to me that it was "the only class with health generation".
To be fair, I have a complete gung-ho playstyle in most games (i.e. no patience) so it's probably best for that. I've already died twice and dying does my head in in games so it might be for the best.
We'll see where we go. I just recently found Garrus again which was nice, at least. Also, I can sort of get onboard with the Miranda obsession, to be fair.
Vanguard is the way to go. Use biotics to do Force Shoulder Tackle then whip the ol' shotgun or SMGs out to finish 'em off.
I love the Garrus stuff, basically being space Batman. Have you got Mordin yet?
The Miranda stuff just felt like they saw Chuck at the time and thought she was hot, so decided her entire likeness should be that character. The deliberate ass camera angles were something to lol at.
Fuck, seems like I can't change class. I'm about 4h of gameplay in, so fuck restarting.
What stupid mechanic that you can't actually tweak your fighting style as you go along.
She did become a more genuinely interesting character as the game goes on and into DLC/ME3 but The Back Page did an episode ranking Mass Effect character recently and they had her in 4th or something which is demented and I refuse to believe that was anything other than guys letting their horny younger selves have a say.
That is baffling, however I had so little to do with her in my game that I genuinely had to look her up at the end when they put her name on the memorial thing.
They actually removed the arse shots in the remake. I remember seeing some incels furious about it.
She wasn't in the first one was she?
Nah she worked for Jed Bartlett.
Now I'm confused, they removed her from a remake of a game she was never in?
She was not in the first one. Remake or no.
In the remakes she was in the others as usual, but the camera shots of her ass were taken out.
I didn't know they'd remade anything other than the first one.
I'd struggle to think of 4 top Mass Effect characters.
1. Garrus
2. Wrex
3. Ashley
4. Keith David?
Actually, Thane's right up there.
1. Garrus from 1
2. Garrus from 2
3. Garrus from 3
4. Who could care
The correct answer is Mordin.