WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0

[Nexus]

40 minutes ago, The King Of Swing said:

I might be mistaken but isn't character level less important than your junction setup? 

yeah, in fact it's harder if you level up excessively. 

[Merzbow]

Seeing Telltale mentioned in another thread, they're working with Deck Nine who were behind a few of the Life is Strange games to develop a game set before the TV version of The Expanse. It comes out in just over a week and I'm pretty hyped, there seems to be a lot of Camina Drummer in there.

[The Gaffer]

I'm no expert on VIII but outside of basically breaking the game before you even leave Balamb Island with the shitty card game, another thing you can do that's better than levelling up is just draw relentlessly from weaker enemies. If you have your cures junctioned to - say - SPR or whatever then having close to 100 of them stocked at all times is going to increase your health massively. 

Thank god the game has that junction swap thing. The sequences around disc 2 where they all split up require you to basically swap over their attributes constantly unless you're dividing all the magic and GFs among 6 characters, which sounds like too much of a chore. It does render some of the already one dimensional characters even more like interchangeable avatars when your tank goes from being Zell to Irvine at the push of a button. 

I also had far more fun playing X-2 to X. X-2 is Girls Aloud themed X with a really fast, customisable battle system and some insane side quests and content. I find the pace of X an absolute chore. Religious fundamentalists on a really long pilgrimage. Wahey! 

[Merzbow]

X-2 is easily the best since IX, XV low key tried to grab some of that vibe with a boy band but it's still not as fun.

[The King Of Swing]

Doesn't help that Noctis is such a shit main character.

[Merzbow]

He's no Yuna going all John Woo.

[The King Of Swing]

Now Real Emotion is stuck in my head and I want to play X-2.

[Merzbow]

Taking a break from Zelda and bought No More Heroes for half price on the Switch, batshit mad and the main character trained in wrestling with Stu Hart?!

[TheScarlettChad]

16 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Taking a break from Zelda and bought No More Heroes for half price on the Switch, batshit mad and the main character trained in wrestling with Stu Hart?!

Named after the song by The Stranglers too. 

[Dr. Alan Grant]

I bought Dragon’s Dogma in the PlayStation sale for £4 after having it recommended to me quite a few times.

Also, I’ve been seeing good things about Remnant 2. “Soulsborne with guns” seems to be the general description. I haven’t played the first, has anyone here?

[Merzbow]

13 minutes ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

I haven’t played the first, has anyone here?

I tried but found the world pretty empty and it felt too clunky, had none of that Soulsborne magic. May have been better with friends but I'm mostly a solo player unless it's something like Mudrunner.

[FLips]

Pikmin 4

I never thought it would be possible after spending most of Spring playing Tears of The Kingdom but Pikmin 4 has surpassed it as my game of the year.
It takes everything that is wonderful about the Pikmin series and presents what is essentially a love letter to nature, to Nintendo and to the fans. It's truly a "best of" and there's not a single wrong foot the entire way.

It harks back to the Red/Yellow/Blue days of Pikmin 1 and simplifies the main game by limiting you to only three types of Pikmin being out at once, and even suggests which ones you might need. Pikmin 3 wasn't hard by any means but there were times where you had small amounts of every type and had to chop and change constantly. Later caves do give up this rule briefly but the overworld remains constant.
You get the Caves system of Pikmin 2 but they're shorter and snappier and very generous with the checkpoints so you don't have to do all the levels in one sitting as you did before.
It gives you the exploration and variety of Pikmin 3 and expands it massively. The overworlds are huge and almost Mario-like in how they segment into smaller areas so you can tackle them peice by peice. Enemies are plentiful and you can practice battle them in the Piklopedia which is a nice touch.

The amount of Quality of Life changes they've made too is astonishing. Everything that was kinda finnicky about the old games is gone and replaced with something better. Pellets now only change colours based on what Pikmin you have out so you can easier grow your team, the dog Oachi can gather Pikmin on it's back so you no longer lose stray ones off tight edges or through narrow gaps, and the biggest one is that you can now have each colour onion at your disposal so you no longer have to scrounge for the White and Purple Pikmin in caves forever.

Alongside the main treasure hunting you usually do, there are the aforementioned caves that are smaller puzzle and battle levels you traverse in floors like Dungeons. There's also Dandori Stages where you have to gather up all the enemies and items in a certain time limit and Dandori Battles where you have to quickly grow and army and gather up points in a battle against AI. There are also other modes that I won't go into.
Co-op is available but sadly also Mario-like in that 2P only controls a pointer that throws pebbles at enemies. I've not personally gave it a go but if you have kids I imagine it can be fun for them to help out or take turns with you. Luckily you can do the Dandori stages and battles in proper 2 player so there's a decent couch multiplayer on there. They're very similar to the Battle Mode and Bingo Battle from Pikmin 2 and 3 respectively.
The post-game is generous and full of things to do. I won't spoil that though but it adds maybe 15 hours to the main game if you want to do it 100%.
My total 100% time came to 36.5 hours and I've been playing these since the Gamecube. If you're new to the series or a casual player you're looking 50+ to get everything done.

Everything about Pikmin 4 is perfect. Streamlined gameplay that can be both casual and exciting, music that literally brought a little tear to my eye and the most stunning graphics I think I've seen on the Switch. Never before has Pikmin given you the sense of scale it does here. I never doubted the success of the Switch but with Pikmin 4 in the mix it may have became my favourite Nintendo console of all time.

 

[CleetusVanDamme]

Finally got around to setting up the emulators with the dev mode on the Xbox. It sounded daunting initially, but it's pretty idiot-proof following a walkthrough on YT. Just been messing about with XBSX2 (PS2) for a few days and testing some games out. I'm so happy with it, nearly everything I've tried is running great, and the couple that aren't (The Punisher and Headhunter) it seems from googling that there might be fixes out there when I have a bit more of a clue about what I'm doing. I'm just running everything at a blanket 4K/60 right now which could either be too ambitious or actually reasonable, I have no idea. It's going to be banger after banger for the forseeable for me. For £14 (for the developer account), this is a no brainer.

Also, in the near future I'm finally going to achieve one of my most mediocre dreams and play that Jet Li game that I could never find whenever I had the money for it. There really isn't enough Hong Kong action games out there. Look at it go!

 

First things first though. I know how I'm spending this weekend!

 

Edited July 28, 2023 by CleetusVanDamme

[Jazzy G]

The best Mortal Kombat spin-off by a country mile.

Got Bus Simulator City Ride on my Switch. It definitely has that "mobile game ported to the Switch" vibe to it, but at least I can play it for more than 5 minutes without burning my fingertips now. It's good. There are buses to unlock, they feel a little different to drive, and you can build up a little fleet and assign them to the routes that you buy as your porogress through the game. There are missions to keep you moving forward, some are like a "story mode" where you acquire new routes and buses for the city (a made up city, but it feels alive), and some daily missions (drive this route x number of times, serve x number of stops in this part of the city, increase your level, increase your reputation etc). It's good fun if you like those kinds of things. The traffic lights are always on green, and you don't have to worry about stop signs, which takes you out of the immersion a little, but is something that is in Bus Driving Simulator 2022. The route is indicated by a line on the ground to follow as well, whereas in BDS22 you'd have a little tablet with the route on it, which was a nice touch. Somewhere between the two of them is a great bus driving game, and it's probably on a different platform. I'm looking at you OMSI, but probably can't run it on my laptop.

[RedRooster]

On 7/21/2023 at 5:38 PM, Dr. Alan Grant said:

Also, I’ve been seeing good things about Remnant 2. “Soulsborne with guns” seems to be the general description. I haven’t played the first, has anyone here?

The only contribution I can make to this is that I would recommend avoiding Remnant 2 on Steam Deck. Although it’s verified, it doesn’t run well at all. It should never have earned the verified tag.