WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0

[Merzbow]

45 minutes ago, TildeGuy~! said:

Yea, was never gonna bother it’s not Metal Gear if Kojima isn’t involved.

I've seen so much backlash against that thinking, it's sad how we're seemingly in an age that's increasingly against the auteur theory. Even if he is a bit of a corny auteur, all these games have been his vision.

[Dr. Alan Grant]

2 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

Does anyone who plays these games have any idea what the over arching storyline is? I have completely given up trying to follow it.

I have so little interest in the “lore” of these games. I just want to treat each entry as its own thing without knowing where it’s set in the grand scheme of things. And I’d much rather they did away with the modern day rubbish. 

A busy few months coming up gamewise. Ghost Of Yotei (which might be the only game capable of taking Donkey Kong’s game of the year crown), Borderlands 4, Battlefield 6, what will no doubt be a thoroughly disappointing new Call Of Duty, Arc Raiders and Kirby. 

[TildeGuy~!]

Silent Hill F for me and then a week later Ghost Of Yotei releases so I’ll be busy for a while.

[FLips]

Sonic Superstars

Been eyeing this one up a while and finally picked it up on sale for about £20. I think it's been given a raw deal from coming out around the same time as Super Mario Wonder, and while I'm likely in the minority I would say this is a better game than Wonder.

It looks, plays and feels almost like "what if the team behind Sonic Generations had a go at making Sonic Mania" so you get a little bit of good and bad from each side of it. It has classic multi-tier level design like the old games, but forgettable music like the new games. It has exciting set peices and unique bosses like the old games, but boring bonus games and pointless powerups like the new games.

It has what I'd consider the most creative and fun final stage since Death Egg Zone in Sonic and Knuckles, and an easter egg on par with Mania's Mean Bean Machine boss that got a big pop out of me. Not every stage and boss is a hit but there's no outright bad ones which is more than I can say for most Sonic games old or new.
After finishing it I've unlocked some new character to play a unique story mode with, plus I can still go through with Tails, Knuckles and Amy. Plenty to do.

Well worth the £20 I paid for it and I'd highly recommend it.

 

[Devon Malcolm]

Finally got round to playing Portal 2. Obviously an absolute joy. I'll probably spend all day tomorrow playing it.

[RedTwoster]

20 hours ago, FLips said:

Sonic Superstars

Been eyeing this one up a while and finally picked it up on sale for about £20. I think it's been given a raw deal from coming out around the same time as Super Mario Wonder, and while I'm likely in the minority I would say this is a better game than Wonder.

It looks, plays and feels almost like "what if the team behind Sonic Generations had a go at making Sonic Mania" so you get a little bit of good and bad from each side of it. It has classic multi-tier level design like the old games, but forgettable music like the new games. It has exciting set peices and unique bosses like the old games, but boring bonus games and pointless powerups like the new games.

It has what I'd consider the most creative and fun final stage since Death Egg Zone in Sonic and Knuckles, and an easter egg on par with Mania's Mean Bean Machine boss that got a big pop out of me. Not every stage and boss is a hit but there's no outright bad ones which is more than I can say for most Sonic games old or new.
After finishing it I've unlocked some new character to play a unique story mode with, plus I can still go through with Tails, Knuckles and Amy. Plenty to do.

Well worth the £20 I paid for it and I'd highly recommend it.

 

I enjoyed it too and thought it got a raw deal at the time. I’m not sure all versions are equal though - at one stage (and maybe still) the Switch version was rough. If I remember rightly, it was blighted by microtransactions too. 

I thought the boss fights were very weak, though. Although I enjoyed the levels, the boss fights were unnecessarily long, to the point they felt tedious. They may have patched that, I don’t know - but that brought the experience down for me a little.

5 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Finally got round to playing Portal 2. Obviously an absolute joy. I'll probably spend all day tomorrow playing it.

Honestly, fuck Half-Life 3 - I want Valve to make another Portal game. A VR version, much as they did with Half-Life Alyx, could be sensational (and vomit-inducing).

[FLips]

26 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

I enjoyed it too and thought it got a raw deal at the time. I’m not sure all versions are equal though - at one stage (and maybe still) the Switch version was rough. If I remember rightly, it was blighted by microtransactions too. 

I thought the boss fights were very weak, though. Although I enjoyed the levels, the boss fights were unnecessarily long, to the point they felt tedious. They may have patched that, I don’t know - but that brought the experience down for me a little.

I played it on Xbox and it was pretty flawless for performance. I'm not sure about the microtransaction thing, there's only 5 pieces of DLC for it, they're all skins and 4/5 of them are free. The only payable one is a Lego skin pack for £3.

You're not the first person that's mentioned to me these long tedious bosses, but the only ones I thought were a bit long and rubbish were the Fang chase one and the Stardust Speedway style one with the little robot thing. I would say 2 bad ones out of like 15+ is good going though. I enjoyed the final boss against the Death Egg Robot, and I thought some of the minibosses were creative and some of the Robotnik fights were up there with the best in the whole series. I got a really good classic Sonic vibe from some of them like the jungle one with the claw arms, and the one with the big hammer.

[RedTwoster]

15 hours ago, FLips said:

I played it on Xbox and it was pretty flawless for performance. I'm not sure about the microtransaction thing, there's only 5 pieces of DLC for it, they're all skins and 4/5 of them are free. The only payable one is a Lego skin pack for £3.

Maybe I’m misremembering, or they’ve rolled back on that when the game did less well than expected. I do think that Sonic games often get reviewed more harshly than is merited. Sonic ‘06 was terrible, I won’t dispute that, but the vast majority of Sonic games are solid platformers. The Wii Sonic games are particularly underrated - Sonic and the Black Knight and Sonic and the Secret Rings are both really good. The stories in each are abysmal, but I can’t imagine many people are playing Sonic for that.

[DavidB6937]

Getting closer and closer to the end of Astro and I just don't want it to end. We've had so many fun evenings and weekends with it as a family. It's just been lovely to see the girls smile and have a laugh.

Only thing driving me crazy is the smaller challenges which mean I end up with this going round and round and round in my head for 90% of my waking existence:

 

 

[Supremo]

Over a hundred hours into Death Stranding 2. I can’t remember the last time I was so sucked in by a game loop. I don’t even know if I’m enjoying it any more. Send help.

[RedTwoster]

5 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

Getting closer and closer to the end of Astro and I just don't want it to end. We've had so many fun evenings and weekends with it as a family. It's just been lovely to see the girls smile and have a laugh.

It was the exact same for me - such a lovely shared experience with my daughter. 

Donkey Kong Bananza was a pretty excellent substitute though, and Scribblenauts Unlimited has also been great fun - she absolutely loves suggesting silly solutions to puzzles and laughs her head off as chaos ensues and they either do or do not work.

[TildeGuy~!]

So The New James Bond game 007 First Light is literally just a Hitman reskin it seems…

[FLips]

14 minutes ago, TildeGuy~! said:

So The New James Bond game 007 First Light is literally just a Hitman reskin it seems…

I think that's selling it slightly short. The stealth bits are Hitman reskinned, but then what did anyone expect when it's made by the developers of Hitman? They likely got the Bond IP based on their work on Hitman, they're not going to change it up too much.
The action and driving sections are very much not Hitman and I thought looked fun and chaotic. People keep saying it's Hitman X Uncharted but for me that shooting section looked more in line with Just Cause, with dozens of massive red explosive barrels everywhere and unique ways to take enemies out. 

I honestly wasn't even aware it was a game until I just went and watched the gameplay bits of the 30 minute showcase and now I'm interested in it. I think it very well could be a sleeper hit based on what I saw. Hitman games have years of honing their craft so if you're looking for stealth you can't fall far wrong with that formula, and the shooting looks very weighty and explosive which is right up my street too.

Edited September 4, 2025 by FLips

[thevestofdeanambrose]

I'm a huge survival horror fan and purchased Bloober teams Cronos: A New Dawn yesterday.

I'm about 2.5 hours in and wow it's fantastic! The atmosphere, the story, the 80s synth music. It takes great inspiration from Resident Evil, Silent Hill and Dead Space. The controls are a throw back but modern at the same time.

My only gripe would be the lack of variation on enemies but some of the battles you get in with them are tough so makes up for it. The constant scraping for ammo and meds.

It's completely coded for me. Highly recommend if you are into this style of game.

[Devon Malcolm]

I'm still playing Portal 2 - not because I've got stuck at any point (I've only had to look up one thing) but because it's gone on way longer than I was expecting, in a really surprising direction. It's like two games in one and both of them are two of the best games ever made. Dreading finishing it, I'll be bereft.