WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0

[RedTwoster]

6 hours ago, Jazzy G said:

Who had an Animal Crossing New Horizons update on their bingo card? Seems like a prime opportunity to start a new island on my Switch 2. 

I was expecting a Switch 2 Animal Crossing announcement before this, and I wonder what this actually means for when we can expect something like that. I’m enjoying my Switch 2, but the fact there are no announced games from Nintendo’s A-tier franchises on the horizon is really weird. 

[Jazzy G]

This is true. The stuff it's bringing does feel like they're loading up with lots of busy work while they maybe work on a new one? It's only £4.19 for the Switch 2 update, which is cleaner graphics and mouse controls. The actual update is free with a fair bit of new content, and ostensibly three more islands to decorate. The hotel thing AND the holiday home academy designer thing will keep people busy. What they really need to do is give the islanders their personalities back rather than them being a copy paste from certain archetypes. It'd be pretty cool if they stuck original Animal Crossing in the Gamecube stuff, or even translated Animal Forest for N64 as a part of the online memberships. 

[LaGoosh]

Sword of the Sea - maybe the most beautiful game to look at ever? Truly stunning. The gameplay is good but so far (I think I'm probably at least 2/3rds in) I don't really feel like they're making full use of its potential - if they were willing to make it slightly more challenging or complex I think there's a really classic game in here somewhere. But really when a game is this consistently visually breathtaking I guess it doesn't matter too much.

[TildeGuy~!]

For any fans of Silent Hill F, the main actress who plays Hinako has been hilariously live streaming the game on YouTube, she has no clue what she’s doing and has never played a game before, someone has been uploading highlights with subs, it’s great.

 

[totheback]

Arc Raiders is a phenomenal game. I play as a Solo almost exclusively and while it probably won't last (does it ever last in extraction shooters?), the vibe in solo lobbies is so chill in terms of player vs player. 80% of the time, people are willing to be cool. It's just heaps of fun. Recommend. 

[FLips]

Did another CEX run today with a mate and grabbed a few more "modern" titles. 

Marvel's Midnight Suns - £6 - Explained to me as "like X-Com but you use card abilities to determine attacks and you can sequence them and combo them". Sounds like a fun twist on a played out genre and my mate highly recommended it, so I took a chance.

Dragon Age Inquisition - £2
Dragon Age Veilguard - £8 - A tenner total for a load of content. Always fancied giving this series a go but especially after finishing and loving the Mass Effect Trilogy recently, I finally took the plunge. I'm sure Veilguard is as much as brand new, but you apparently benefit from playing Inquisition first so I got both and will play them in order.

Alien Isolation - £8 - I'm better with horror games than I am horror movies, especially when it comes to jumpscares. I've really wanted to pluck up the courage for this one and I think this week will be the week I finally give it a go.

Dead Rising 4 - £3 - Described to me as "Not as good as 1 or 2 but about as good as 3. I liked all of them and didn't mind 3 at all, so I think I'll get on with this one. It's a few quid, who cares? It has to be worth that at least.

Time on Frog Island - £8 - Never heard of this one but it looks very much like A Short Hike which I was a big fan of. £8 could be steep for an unknown indie game, but quite honestly these are the types of games I would rather pay more for and take a risk on. One of the reasons I started picking up stuff like this, Redout and Rad Rogers physically is because they're not games I would look at twice on the digital store due to how absolutely saturated it is. A physical release is usually a good sign the game was good enough to bother releasing.

The Sinking City - £10 - HP Lovecrafty Cthulu horror investigation game. Mostly for my wife than me but she's playing through Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 at the minute, which we also picked up on disc. I've heard good things and she likes this sorta thing.

Atlas Fallen - £6 - Another one I'd never have looked twice at digitally but the box made it look and sound fun and a quick glance at reviews tells me it's worth £6. Comparisons to Prince of Persia and Monster Hunter go well in it's favour and I am a fan of mythilogical style stuff. Could be a winner for just over a fiver.

Constructor - £4 - Obscure PS1 council estate building game that somehow got a modern re-release. I only know of one person in my whole life who has owned this game so I've only briefly played it. Even at £4 it's one of the riskier purchases I've made but I'm a sucker for building sims when I'm in the mood for them, and this one has a unique spin beyond the usual Theme Park/Hospital clones we always get.

Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance - £5 - I loved the old Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance games on Gamecube so if it's anything like those it'll be worth the fiver for me. I want brainless hacking and slashing and looting and if it has those, great.

Hades - £12 - My recent completion of Ball X Pit has left me wanting more of the same kinda thing and Hades is one of the few games in this genre I really enjoyed. £12 seemed like a bargain for the physical edition of this too and one that might be worth getting now rather than later. Cheaper than Ebay prices and one I know I'll commit to because my last go of it I got to Hades himself and gave up. I'll get him this time.

Little Nightmares 3 - £35 I think? My wife got this one. She loves the Little Nightmares games and this is more of the same but not as good according to her. We played Online Coop because despite being forced 2 player it has no splitscreen or couch-coop so it's AI or play online. It's generous enough to give player 2 a free friend pass of the game so you only need one copy, but the online is atrocious. Laggy, buggy, jumps and skips all over. We barely made it through the game and probably only did due to it being 4 hours long. 
It doesn't sting as much with a £35 price tag but it's short with annoyingly forced mechanics and not much to see or do. 

 

[Nexus]

8 minutes ago, FLips said:

Marvel's Midnight Suns - £6 - Explained to me as "like X-Com but you use card abilities to determine attacks and you can sequence them and combo them". Sounds like a fun twist on a played out genre and my mate highly recommended it, so I took a chance.

I enjoyed this - introduced me to a couple of new Marvel heroes. 

[FLips]

Just now, Nexus said:

I enjoyed this - introduced me to a couple of new Marvel heroes. 

Marvel Snap did that for me a couple of years ago. I got big into it for like a full year despite not caring about the films a single bit. 

[DavidB6937]

As someone who's been out of the PC gaming world for AGES, and someone who just randomly purchased a PC on a whim the other day.. what's a good starting point? Are there any day 1 essentials in terms of services I should be using? Anywhere that does free games? Stuff like that..

There seems to be a lot more options these days so not sure where to start really. Thanks!

[RedTwoster]

46 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

As someone who's been out of the PC gaming world for AGES, and someone who just randomly purchased a PC on a whim the other day.. what's a good starting point? Are there any day 1 essentials in terms of services I should be using? Anywhere that does free games? Stuff like that..

There seems to be a lot more options these days so not sure where to start really. Thanks!

Humble Bundle and Humble Choice are great ways to get a bundle of games for a much lower price. Additionally, Loaded (formerly CDKeys) typically charges much less for game codes. You get free games regularly if you have Amazon Prime membership, and I’d have to imagine a Steam sale will be coming up soon to tie in with Black Friday.

There are also plenty of great free games and mods - Sonic Triple Trouble 16-Bit is the best Sonic game since Mania by my estimation and Nightmare Kart is a free Bloodborne-inspired Kart racer. If you have Fallout 4, you can play Fallout London for free, and if you have Skyrim, Enderal is a fantastic free full-game mod available on Steam. Hopefully this gives you a starting point, but there are loads of great options out there.

[FLips]

50 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

As someone who's been out of the PC gaming world for AGES, and someone who just randomly purchased a PC on a whim the other day.. what's a good starting point? Are there any day 1 essentials in terms of services I should be using? Anywhere that does free games? Stuff like that..

There seems to be a lot more options these days so not sure where to start really. Thanks!

You'll get recommended Steam no doubt, and likely already know what it is, so I won't bother with that. Personally I'm a huge fan of GOG (Good Old Games) which mostly focuses on old PC CD-ROM/Floppy Disk era games (but does modern stuff too). If you're looking for old RTS, Point n Clicks, and classic FPS stuff then it's worth a look. They do decent sales from time to time and there's a couple of free bits as well.

 

[DavidB6937]

Thanks guys  I'm into a lot of different games so happy to explore all options. I'll keep you updated with my escapades!

[gmoney]

Epic Games gives you a free game every week too. Varying quality, but you know, free. 

[RedTwoster]

19 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Thanks guys  I'm into a lot of different games so happy to explore all options. I'll keep you updated with my escapades!

Looking forward to it! If you’re looking for any specific recommendations just give me a shout, if there’s a genre you’re keen on, I’ll probably know a few hidden gems (as will others - I’ve picked up loads of games based on recommendations made on here)

[Devon Malcolm]

Fanatical do some superb bundles as well, I prefer theirs to Humble.