WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0

[The King Of Swing]

Just finished chapter 8 of Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition. 

Forgotten how rubbish the villains are. Serious bottom of the barrel level shit. 

Game is still loads of fun to play though, especially with the QoL additions. 

[BomberPat]

I finished the main story of Rise Of The Tomb Raider; has its moments, but I don't think it's as good as its predecessor. Some good ideas in making it slightly more open world, and adding some basic crafting mechanics, but the story doesn't hold up as well for me - some of the bigger ideas get a bit too big, and the closing stretch is too similar to the first game for my liking:

Spoiler

Two games in a row end up with you fighting Asian-coded immortal warriors, while some magical immortality stuff is going on. And they turn out to be things you can kill in two or three shots anyway, so not that immortal. 

I will probably give Shadow Of The Tomb Raider some time, but I've heard it's a bit of a step down, so probably not for a while.


I started playing Syberia: The World Before last night because it's free on PS Plus. I had only vaguely heard of the series and didn't realise I was jumping in four games in, and had kind of always assumed it was a bit more like Myst rather than a very slow-paced point and click. I figured it might be a fun thing to play with my partner, as I tend to be better than her at lateral thinking puzzles and she's much better than me at visual puzzles, and thought it would be a mix of that, but I got bored very quickly, so who knows if I'll go back to it.

 

I am sinking most of my gaming time into Arcade Paradise. It's absolutely addictive; between the actual running of an arcade/laundrette, and playing as many of the arcade games as much as possible. Some of them are brilliant little games, some of them absolutely infuriating things that I'm terrible at, and that's a pretty accurate representation of an arcade. Love it, even if I am shit at Blockchain.

[Devon Malcolm]

I started playing Peggle again if you're wondering why I'm not around much.

[Jesse]

Peggle's dead, it's all about Nubby's Number Factory these days. Peggle by way of Balatro and early web aesthetics. You bounce a ball off pegs to hit a required round score and you can, Balatro-like, adjust your play through limited, randomised shop items that change the ball behaviour, scoring, etc.

It's a very shallow, poorly-balanced game and yet somehow I'm obsessed with it. Got that Brotato feeling where the fun is immediate and so the crashing out over poor builds or bad luck feels meaningless.

[Devon Malcolm]

54 minutes ago, Jesse said:

Peggle's dead, it's all about Nubby's Number Factory these days. Peggle by way of Balatro and early web aesthetics. You bounce a ball off pegs to hit a required round score and you can, Balatro-like, adjust your play through limited, randomised shop items that change the ball behaviour, scoring, etc.

It's a very shallow, poorly-balanced game and yet somehow I'm obsessed with it. Got that Brotato feeling where the fun is immediate and so the crashing out over poor builds or bad luck feels meaningless.

I was looking at that over the weekend but I hate roguelikes, they've been persistently the most irritating and obnoxiously difficult games I've played since getting back into gaming.

Then again, I also sunk 100 hours into Peglin.

[DavidB6937]

Peggle will never be dead.

[Jazzy G]

@BomberPat try and keep the 6s etc in the middle., and don't forget to use the bonus "weapons" you get for combos. 

[Jesse]

Nubby's Number Factory is way worse than Peglin. I'm hard pressed to say what's good about it - it's irritating, incredibly imbalanced to the point you find yourself either going the same item route for every build or going "Fuck it, I don't care if I win" just to do something different (and then losing).

But it's also like a fiver and really stupid and there's something compelling about the package of it that makes me want to open it up for "just one run"

[Arch Stanton]

Does anyone here make use of Prime Gaming? I keep seeing news about the latest available games, but I've never actually understood how to use it or where to go for it? It seems like there are loads of decent games available every month to Amazon Prime subscribers, yet I've never heard anyone actually talk about using it at all.

[alanchiz]

2 hours ago, Arch Stanton said:

Does anyone here make use of Prime Gaming? I keep seeing news about the latest available games, but I've never actually understood how to use it or where to go for it? It seems like there are loads of decent games available every month to Amazon Prime subscribers, yet I've never heard anyone actually talk about using it at all.

I always make sure to claim them every month, but I've never actually played any of them as I don't really have a gaming PC (or time), but its amazing what you can claim for 'free' these days (I know Prime isn't actually free, but if you've already got it then you might as well claim the games). I always claim them just in case I get a better PC in the future, or in case theres a chance I could maybe play them through the Xbox.

You'll need to have (or need to make) a GOG account and an Epic store account. Once you've got those set up and got your Epic account linked to your Amazon account, its just a case of claiming them off the Prime gaming page. The Epic games get added straight to your account, and the GOG ones you have to redeem codes, but its straightforward enough. After that you would install them from GOG or the Epic stores. Theres a Prime Gaming app as well, but I don't use that.

They've also recently started adding a couple of Xbox codes on there too, and its nice to see anything other than PC games available.

Its worth doing if you have Prime - Ive been doing it since Dec 2021, and my GOG account has 93 games in it now, my Epic account has 313 games, and Xbox has 3 games. Theres some more through Amazon itself too, but I cant see any numbers for those. I've never paid for any of them. Proper games too, good mix of indie games, some retro stuff and older 'AAA' titles

If you aren't aware, Epic have weekly free games as well. make sure to claim them while you are at it.

I've never bothered with any of the Luna games, had enough of cloud gaming when I tried Google Stadia, but I believe you get access to a few games there through standard Prime as well

Edited April 3, 2025 by alanchiz
bit of extra info

[JLM]

Yep, used it to nab the odd thing that had been in my Steam wish list waiting for that mythical “ok now it’s worth a punt” sale price that never quite came. Turns out “free” is the price I was looking for. Got Dredge, TMNT Shredders Revenge, Overcooked 2 and  a few other good’uns that way. Also stuff I wanted to try but had no interest in ever spending money on, like Scorn. Whoooole  lotta 6/10 middle of the road Metroidvanias and the like on there too, but hey, free is free. 

[FLips]

Posted about it briefly in the retro thread but I suppose it really fits here as I played the remastered versions of Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3 for the first ever time.

I obviously have a lot of recency bias, but I think it's fair to say it's one of, if not the best trilogy of games ever right?

Sure there are faults here and there, but they mostly come down to just outdated design choices or some barebones mechanics. When it comes to the important stuff though, the gameplay, the story, the characters and dialogues, the world building, the music; it's just brilliant.
I would order them best to worst as 321 but there's certainly room for it to be 231 depending on your playthrough and choices.

1 has the best planetary exploration of the trilogy. It's a bit bare but being able to land your little lunar vehicle on planets and drive around fighting Thresher Maws and finding relics and bases is way more exciting than firing a probe into a planet for materials.
2 has the best characters with easily the strongest lineup of playable party members, and the final mission where everyone can die depending on your choices through the first two games to that point is fantastic nailbiting stuff.
3 has the best combat by far which goes a long way because the third game is mostly combat heavy; seeing the culmination of the galaxy's fight against the Reapers. It also in the case of the remastered editions including all the DLC, has the best story content. The mission where you hang out with everyone one last time as you all think you're going to die soon, and then throw a big house party is just a wonderful way to cap off the trilogy before the final mission.

Personally exciting for me to play too as my wife is a superfan who has been eagerly waiting 10 years for me to play them, and my best mate is a huge fan of them too. They both said despite them playing it numerous times I got outcomes they never even knew could happen or had never personally seen.

For those who have played it, here is my list of casualties from the three games combined and the ending I chose:

Spoiler

Mass Effect 1: Ashley got sacrificed
Mass Effect 2: I didn't realise there was a hidden timer between the final mission being available and you doing it so by the time I started the suicide mission all of my secondary crew members except Dr Chakwas were dead, including Kelly who I had only just got to agree to feed my fish and she got blended up in front of me. Zaeed was the only character that wasn't loyal to me so he died escorting Chakwas back to the Normandy. Due to me not hitting more hidden criteria, Mordin died as we escaped.
Mass Effect 3: I sided with Legion and the Geth over Tali but didn't meet the criteria to call off the war so Legion sacrificed himself uploading his conscious to the Geth, and the entire Quarian Fleet got blown to bits, resulting in Tali killing herself. Miranda was doing my head in being secretive about her mission so I said fuck ya, go do it yourself and she did and died when I got there. Thane dies regardless.

So yeah, not bad I don't think. A bodycount of 5 main characters, 4 if you don't include Thane. If we include minor characters then I killed the entire Rachni race, the entire Quarian race, most of the Batarian race and nearly all of my crew.

For the ending I picked Synthesis as it's really the only good ending. I personally would have preferred one where Shepard lives but I came to the conclusion I would die at some point early in the trilogy.

I highly recommend you all play them if you haven't. I now consider myself a super fan. Which brings me to Mass Effect Andromeda.

My mistake trying to play this so soon after finishing the first three because it sucks. Very jarring it having no relation to any of what I just played, no familiar characters and the awful AAA bland gameplay loop. It feels like Mass Effect made by a new developer after a buyout, which actually may have been what happened and you can tell. Mass Effect in name only, I gave up after not much time at all and won't be going back to it. If it was linked to the originals I'd be more forgiving, but as a standalone experience I could pick up any big developer game from the last 15 years and get the same experience.

In other non-retro news I took a plunge on Two Point Museum and a few levels in it's scratching that itch more than Campus ever did. It's almost a meeting of styles between Two Point Hospital and what I imagine Two Point Theme Park would be. Based more on discovering exhibits, decorating the museum and fleecing customers out of donations and gift shop money. The balance is just right for me whereas I found Campus never truly figured out what it was.

I've just opened an aquarium and I can see me sinking a lot of hours into it.

[LaGoosh]

Ah man, you losing Mordin in 2 so you don't get his big moment in 3 is heartbreaking. 

I love Mass Effect. One of the most fully realised and exciting settings ever and filled with brilliant characters. I think 2 is probably the best game but 3 is my favourite. The feeling of being in a galaxy in total war is just so well done, even if the ending isn't great.

[Jazzy G]

I didn't mind Andromeda. I just tried to forget it was a Mass Effect game and just imagined it at a title that happens to take place in the same universe as Mass Effect. I do get what you mean about it feeling a bit like a Ubisoft game though. 

 

[FLips]

South of Midnight
I can sum up this dime-a-dozen 3rd person action platformer with three bits of info.

Mash X to attack and B to dodge.
All the houses, rockfaces and trees inexplicably have painted wooden boards nailed into them.
Takes less than a few minutes of gameplay before you get the bit where you squeeze through a gap in the wall and shimmy sideways through it.

Uninstalled in the middle of chapter 2. If you’ve played any game in this genre in the last two decades you’ve played this. Bland gameplay and ugly jilted animation hidden behind an excuse of it trying to look deliberately animated. You honestly wonder if anyone has an original idea anymore when it comes to these games.

The Blue Prince
Speaking of Dime-a-Dozen, it’s another day-resetting roguelike mechanic slapped onto a walking simulator puzzle game.

Even shoves a bit of crafting in there as well for good measure.

Played both of these based on good reviews and a couple of people in work raving about them and I think maybe I just hate modern games. Must be the easiest job in the world being an indie developer these days because you can come up with 1/10th of a game and just have players do that one bit over and over and lap it up.