WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0

[Chest Rockwell]

I've still been playing a lot of Street Fighter 6. Have been playing Manon more than Guile recently, but enjoying both of them a lot. Have kinda plateaued with both of them in the mid-Platinum rank. I am self aware enough now to be able to spot the mistakes I'm making but have been too lazy so far to work out how to properly use training mode to work on them.

As a result I have been playing a bit more Casual to find people I can have long sets against in order to be able to try to work on particular things in a low pressure situation.

I really should just bite the bullet and dig a bit deeper on the training mode functionality. I'm looking forward to the watch replay straight from the end of match screen update that's coming with Mai, as I feel that will motivate me to do that now. I only learned about the replay takeover functionality this week from a YouTube I was watching, which is an amazing feature!

Also looking forward to fighting Mai as she will be in the regular rotation for a little while at least. Anything that means less Ken or Akuma matches is welcome. I've played those matchups so many times now they're probably the easiest ones to grab free league points from but it gets a bit boring. Akuma is more interesting to face because his kit is less one dimensional than Ken's, but still a bit samey when you see so much of him. 

Edited January 31, 2025 by Chest Rockwell

[JLM]

Yeah that is an incredible quality of life change. The replay take over feature is a game changing addition to fighting games, but in SF6 it’s currently buried several menus deep and is massively under-utilised. I’ve been using it but not as often as I should, love that they’ve moved it exactly where it needs to be. 
 

Will be dipping back into the game and getting Mai on the 2nd. Pretty faithful adaptation of her kit from various KOF games, but I’m most interested in the level 1 super giving her flame stocks and those super charged fans. Looks like a lot of fun. 
 

 

[TildeGuy~!]

High On Life is free on PS Plus this month,  I’ve played the first couple of hours and it’s hilariously fun.

[The King Of Swing]

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition (Switch) 

I'm really enjoying it for the most part but fuck me, does it ever stop throwing side quests at you? 

[Ironic Indie Lad]

Gone on a wild Resident Evil binge over the last couple of weeks. 

Probably in my top 3 gaming series of all time. Its been a full blown obsession for me at various times in my life.

I replayed the original Resident Evil 4 (genuinely may be the GOAT of games) followed immediately by the remake. Quite a nice experience to get a feel for what they have changed.

Quick run through of the Arrange Mode on Directors Cut. Popped for the occasional different perspectives compared to the original which I know like the back of my hand. Probably going to directly from this into the REmake as well.

I have got Code Veronica waiting in the wings as it was about £2 in the Capcom sale. This is probably the entry I am least familiar with so looking forward to replaying it for the first time since the PS2 days. 

 

Edited February 10, 2025 by Ironic Indie Lad

[Dr. Alan Grant]

3 minutes ago, Ironic Indie Lad said:

Gone on a wild Resident Evil binge over the last couple of weeks. 

I’m not sure if two constitutes a binge, but I’ve recently finished the remakes of 2 and 3 and loved them. I did the remake of 4 last year so I’m going to move on to 5 and 6 which I’ve never played. I’ve done a little of Biohazard, but the first person perspective turns me into a sissy when I play. 

On PS Plus, they’ve got the Revelations games, Darkside Chronicles, Code Veronica, Director’s Cut of the first game, Operation Raccoon City and Umbrella Chronicles but I don’t know much about most of them.

After playing 2 and 3, I took it upon myself to begin working my way through the films as well. That…was a mistake. 

[Ironic Indie Lad]

1 minute ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

I’m not sure if two constitutes a binge, but I’ve recently finished the remakes of 2 and 3 and loved them. I did the remake of 4 last year so I’m going to move on to 5 and 6 which I’ve never played. I’ve done a little of Biohazard, but the first person perspective turns me into a sissy when I play. 

On PS Plus, they’ve got the Revelations games, Darkside Chronicles, Code Veronica, Director’s Cut of the first game, Operation Raccoon City and Umbrella Chronicles but I don’t know much about most of them.

After playing 2 and 3, I took it upon myself to begin working my way through the films as well. That…was a mistake. 

The Revelations games are definitely worth a play. I cant really speak for many of the spin offs though.

The 1st game is probably among my favourite games ever. I have to say though, if you never played it at the time and played it for the first time in 2025...wow. I cannot imagine it coming off very well. 

[Jazzy G]

The Forzá Horizon series peaked with 3. 4 was alright, but felt a little too "live servicey", and 5 continued down that road. 

Forza Motorsport isn't too bad, but the AI Drivatar opponents are ridiculous. The number of times I'll just get punted off the road because I'm at lower levels playing again AI based off of unskilled players is ridiculous, and I just end up hotlapping my favourite circuits. I haven't played a GT since 4 on my PS2, but if I wanted some pure driving sim joy I'd just dig that out again. 

On an unrelated note ("HENNIMORE!") I got some new joycons and they're bloody brilliant. Don't get me wrong, I love my Hori split pad pro, but I saw some videos about the Mobapad M6 HD and was sold on them. Hall effect analogue sticks? One of those dome d-pad things (although you can pop a regular d-pad on if you want) octagonal gates for the analogue sticks. HD Rumble, nice click buttons. They're really nice, and you can use them as joycons. They'd be a bit awkward to use turned sideways, but as a pair of joycons they're great. A decent size as well, nice and chunky. 

Vicky got the CRKD Nitro Deck for hers and is enjoying it as well. It's the Gamecube styled one. They have a pretty cool SNES styled one as well. 

As far as games this may be one for the farm/bus simulator ones amongst us. I've been playing Truck and Logistics simulator. It's a port of a Steam game, but lacks a few of the features. It has cross-platform multiplayer. You start owning a little van, something like a Citroën Berlingo type thing and do deliveries about the city. When you've picked what you want to haul you have a fun little minigame where you drive a forklift and load your vehicle up, then you drive your precious cargo to the destination, get paid, and repeat. As you get more money you can buy other vehicles like big old Transit vans and wagons. The idea of online multiplayer sounds like it could be interesting with teams of people hauling stuff around. It's like a much less demanding version of Mudrunner or Snow runner. 

[BomberPat]

I played through all of Sayonara Wild Hearts in one sitting yesterday, and absolutely bloody loved it. I'm not particularly good at it, but the art style and music was great, and I like how the gameplay changes incrementally each level, without teaching you how it works.

[RedTwoster]

On 2/9/2025 at 11:07 AM, The King Of Swing said:

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition (Switch) 

I'm really enjoying it for the most part but fuck me, does it ever stop throwing side quests at you? 

I can’t speak for the remake, but having played the original, the answer is no; but you can get away with skipping almost all of them - although one questline does give you access to the best armour in the game. I don’t want to be too specific to avoid spoilers, but I believe (through google) you’ll find the required quests in the fifth major town. 

[The King Of Swing]

9 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

I can’t speak for the remake, but having played the original, the answer is no; but you can get away with skipping almost all of them - although one questline does give you access to the best armour in the game. I don’t want to be too specific to avoid spoilers, but I believe (through google) you’ll find the required quests in the fifth major town. 

I've already gotten used to it. 

Pick a bunch of quests up and do them when I need a break from the main story.

Most seem easy enough to just do as I'm exploring or going from one story section to the next. 

At least the Definitive Edition has markers for quest related collectables. Assuming that wasn't in the original since I don't think it was in XBC2. Though I haven't played that in ages and could be remembering wrong. 

[RedTwoster]

5 minutes ago, The King Of Swing said:

At least the Definitive Edition has markers for quest related collectables. Assuming that wasn't in the original since I don't think it was in XBC2. Though I haven't played that in ages and could be remembering wrong. 

I can’t remember whether it did or did not to be honest - but I’m curious to hear how you get on. There’s a boss late on who is the hardest boss I’ve faced in any video game, ever. I couldn’t beat them and ended up watching what came next, and the eventual ending on YouTube. I’d love to know if they made that fight fairer/easier in the remake, so keep me posted on your progress! I won’t say anything more about the boss to avoid spoilers, but I will say it was not the final battle.

[The King Of Swing]

27 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

I can’t remember whether it did or did not to be honest - but I’m curious to hear how you get on. There’s a boss late on who is the hardest boss I’ve faced in any video game, ever. I couldn’t beat them and ended up watching what came next, and the eventual ending on YouTube. I’d love to know if they made that fight fairer/easier in the remake, so keep me posted on your progress! I won’t say anything more about the boss to avoid spoilers, but I will say it was not the final battle.

I'm about 19 hours in (level 34) and just reached Alcamoth. Just clearing up some side quests. 

Will keep you updated.

Edit. 

The game also has a casual mode, though I haven't had to switch to that as of now. 

Edited February 10, 2025 by The King Of Swing

[Sphinx]

I was listening to some political podcast last night (which I don't usually do) when I had the thought that it might be interesting to play a politics simulator style game to get a better grasp of how politics works or relate to difficult decisions more as I lack some political knowledge.

After reading up, I read Papers Please is good and read mixed things on Democracy 4. Anyone have any experience playing these or have any recommendations?

Cheers

[FLips]

Papers, Please is one of the dullest games I've ever played in my life. I imagine some people swear by it but I found it to be like doing fake work that's more boring than my real work.