WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0

[SpiritOfTheForest]

I recently read Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton and subsequently watched the first film. Really enjoyed it so I was happy to find Lego Jurassic World on PS Plus. I'd only ever played one Lego game before (Supervillains) a few years ago but I enjoyed this. Perfect game just to turn off your mind to and relax, collecting and building things. I could definitely play another one but, as fun as it was, I think a long break is required between Lego games because it can get quite annoying always having to backtrack and play the story levels twice. Apart from that small quibble, a very chill time and a good game to play with a podcast on in the background too.

[westlondonmist]

I like Lego Jurassic Park, but yeah to complete 100% you probably have to go through each level a fair few times. 

 

I've also played Star Wars Skywalker Saga. It's a much bigger game and some interesting side missions but I think Jurassic Park is the better game. 

[Jazzy G]

Lego City Undercover is a lot of fun, is usually on sale and probably short enough that you could crack through it while you wait for GTA6. I'd also recommens the first Marvel Superheroes Lego. If you're a fan of Minecraft etc Lego Worlds is supposed to be good, but I'm not always a fan of how open these kinds of games are. 

[Ironic Indie Lad]

I totally changed my mind after playing the Final Fantasy Resonance Demo. I enjoyed it so much that I have purchased the full game and pushed Zelda back. Zelda can be the game I play over Christmas and New Year (just like in 1998 really).

What a truly beautiful looking and enjoyable game Resonance is. Exactly what I want from an RPG. 

[Devon Malcolm]

I'm on to the Secret World on Mario Wonder, which has brought back my PTSD of trying to beat Tubular and Awesome on Mario World. Absolute bastard levels.

[RedTwoster]

1 minute ago, Devon Malcolm said:

I'm on to the Secret World on Mario Wonder, which has brought back my PTSD of trying to beat Tubular and Awesome on Mario World. Absolute bastard levels.

Oh yeah, they're absolutely nightmarish. Not quite as bad as the Dark Side of the Moon in Mario Odyssey, though - I couldn't even bring myself to keep trying with that level. 

[tiger_rick]

Football Manager 2027 is free to download and play on steam until Sunday if anyone fancies it. If anyone is out of the FM loop, they pretty much re-wrote it, had to cancel FM 2025 because it wasn't ready and then released FM 2026 in a pretty poor state. So far, FM 2027 feels like a much more polished version and has been worth playing, for the short amount of time I've put into it.

[RedTwoster]

2 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Football Manager 2027 is free to download and play on steam until Sunday if anyone fancies it. If anyone is out of the FM loop, they pretty much re-wrote it, had to cancel FM 2025 because it wasn't ready and then released FM 2026 in a pretty poor state. So far, FM 2027 feels like a much more polished version and has been worth playing, for the short amount of time I've put into it.

I kind of dialled out of the series when it became far too complex to enjoy anymore - there were far too many elements added that just weren't fun (for example, training and the tactics becoming much more in depth than I could be bothered with) - how is it on that front?

[tiger_rick]

1 minute ago, RedTwoster said:

I kind of dialled out of the series when it became far too complex to enjoy anymore - there were far too many elements added that just weren't fun (for example, training and the tactics becoming much more in depth than I could be bothered with) - how is it on that front?

Tactically, it's probably the most in depth it's ever been with in and out of posession tactics and effectiveness and player suitability and buy-in being important now. That bleeds over into training, although I've never done training and still don't.

The Touch and Mobile versions are good if you want a simpler experience. I get where you're coming from, I'm normally super-excited about the games and then after a couple of weeks, never find the time or inclanation to play!

[RedTwoster]

3 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

The Touch and Mobile versions are good if you want a simpler experience. I get where you're coming from, I'm normally super-excited about the games and then after a couple of weeks, never find the time or inclanation to play!

I've tried them in the past but I find that they go a bit too far in the other direction - nothing quite hits the happy medium of Champ Man 01/02 or the early FM games for me. Maybe they've developed the simplified version to the point that it now does though, it's been a while for sure. 

It might partly be down to my lack of time these days too - maybe it's one to pick up again in several decades time when (...or if) I retire!

[Jazzy G]

It wouldn't surprise me if you could find a mod of either the old Champ Manager or early Football Manager games with a modern player and club database modded in somewhere. 

[Mr.Showtime]

I've dipped back into FM24 (the last well-received console version) and it's as slimmed down as you want it to be really. I delegate lots of stuff and just focus on trying to improve the squad numbers and shape, and it obviously gets quicker once you know where everything is. I often play as a globe-trotting national team manager too, which I guess slims the work down even more.

[FLips]

Get yourselves searching for “Zelda” on Google. 

[Onyx2]

Elder Scrolls VI is officially titled... Sentinel. Well I'm glad that's all sorted. See you in 2028 (earliest) for the actual game. 

[Jazzy G]

I've got the new Primal Terror DLC for Brotato. It gives the game another whole new lease of life. A new level/set of enemies with the jungle, more characters with their own mechanics, new items, new weapons and new pets.

The new Jungle stage is dinosaur/prehistory themed and has hazards such as holes in the ground to limit how freely you can move around the stage, which can add a whole new dimension on higher danger levels with more enemies and projectiles flying about. Some of the new characters are things like the caveman, the survivalist, which feels a bit like a Predator nod with how his mechanics work and he has to open the trasure chests/crates to find weapons. Or the archaeologist who has to dig up treasure and materials on each stage by staying in little dig areas.

The biggest new change is the evolution mechanic. There are new mutation/mechanisation items that get dropped alongside the fruit and the chests in the levels, and a mech/mutant bar. If you pick up mutation points your evolution bar will go into the negative points, and you character develops a "tumour" which copies random effects from your character traits, items, and pets, or it mutates and cancels out the negative effects of your items or pets, so on my attempted beastmaster run one of my traits is that the character gets +2 movement speed for every pet on the field. My mutation gave me an additional +1 per pet, which meant my speed was incredibly high eventually which led to me not being able to keep up with where my character was and I ran into too many enemies.

If you pick up mechanisation items the evolution bar will go into the positive and allow you to mechanise your weapons by picking up little circuit boards which accumulate like a second currency you can spend in the between level shops to add upgrades to your weapons which give extra buffs to your stats. So you'd use some mech points to upgrade your gun, which would give you a choice to boost, for example, your ranged damage or your maximum HP. You have more control over the mechanisation than you do the mutation, and feels like you could easily end up with an overpowered build, but it'll probably be much harder to come by the up/downgrade points on higher difficulty levels.

The number of mutation/mechanisation points will also lead to mutant/mecha weapons and items appearing in the shop, and mutated and mechanised enemies appearing in the levels as well. It's a whole new way of playing the game. There's also a feature that allows you to turn off the items you don't like by edition/DLC. If you're not a fan of the pets you can turn the paws and claws content off, 

It's £3.99 on Steam, although it was £3.05 because they sold me a bundle including it, but removed the price of the other stuff and hgave me a saving. Console version is scheduled to arrive in January. It's different from a Vampire Survivors, but not too different. Definitely going to keep me going until Warhammer Survivors arrives next week, if not longer. It's not as if there's anything else important coming out this month, unless you're excited about that Digital Eclipse Barbie compilation...

Edited 18 hours ago by Jazzy G