WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0

[BigJag]

Is it actually possible to fly clean laps on any of the Wipeout games?

[Merzbow]

Yeah but it's bloody tough learning how to use the air breaks, I love the PSX titles but have never been good at them.

[BigJag]

I'm not sure if playing it in VR is helping me or not. Fun experience not withstanding. I find myself checking out the scenery a bit too frequently.

[Wideload90]

The steam sale has Hogwarts legacy for £5. Is it worth it? I know it's less than a pint, but time outside age of empires IV is precious and want to try a new RPG.

TIA

[Chest Rockwell]

Epic had it on for free I think? 

[Cousin Jim Bob]

1 hour ago, Wideload90 said:

The steam sale has Hogwarts legacy for £5. Is it worth it? I know it's less than a pint, but time outside age of empires IV is precious and want to try a new RPG.

TIA

 It's well made, looks and sounds really good and the design of Hogwarts itself is fantastic. The magic combat is well done too. I did get bored and binned it off halfway through. I found the story rather boring, and I was never particularly a fan of Harry Potter, so a lot was lost on me.

If you are a fan, it would bump it up a few notches. It's definitely worth a fiver, either way.

Caveats that some of that fiver would be heading JK Rowling's way.

[Ironic Indie Lad]

Did any Switch or Switch 2 guys get Metroid Prime 4?

I am a huge Metroid fan but Prime is probably behind Super, Fusion, Zero Mission and Dread for me. To put that another way, I prefer the 2D Metroid games.

I do still think Metroid Prime is a genuine classic though and the recent remaster on the Switch was excellent.

Been chipping away at Prime 4 over Christmas and have mixed feelings. It feels like there's a bit of a lack of balance. There are parts where it holds your hand way too much (Although the dialogue around the NPCs turns out to be way overblown. The annoying MCU dialogue really doesnt crop up often or for long periods) but then theres other much more old school parts where you are left to just try and figure out where to go, what to do. I wonder if anyone new to a Metroid game would just bounce right off this.

The open world element feels a bit unnecessary. Its basically just Hyrule Field from Ocarina of Time. There isn't much there and its only purpose is to connect the various areas. It pretty much replaces lifts from classic Metroid titles.

Those negatives aside, there are a lot of things I am loving. The music is absolutely excellent. The visuals are really nice with some particularly impressive lighting. The creepy, brooding, lonely atmosphere I associate with Metroid is definitely there is abundance. Particularly in the Ice area which has a lot of Giger inspired design. Most of the boss battles have been really enjoyable and the various psychic abilities are fun to use and not particularly convoluted. 

I don't generally rate games but its feeling like about a 7/10 to me so far. Still a long way to go so definitely could go higher/ 

[Jazzy G]

Started Two Point Museum. It's fun. Feels really easy at the moment but I'm still on the first/tutorial level. I'm sure I'll be cursing it in time. There's a lot to do. I'm sure once I'm left to fend for myself I'll make an absolute pig's breakfast of it, like I normally do. I'll be back to trying to complete Brotato in no time. 

[Devon Malcolm]

Still playing Ori and the Will of the Wisps. It's huge and I'm not very good at it but these games are structured so well that even when you're stuck it's because you missed something obvious, not because it's being a dick.

[The King Of Swing]

Arc Raiders (PS5) 

I'm not usually into extraction/scavenging type games but I got it on sale and it's ludicrously addictive. 

Nice and simple gameplay loop. 

Easy enough to pick up and I haven't had too much trouble with other players, in solo. Most of the griefers and PvP players seem to stick to group play. 

[BigJag]

Meifumado (Various)

Just come across this and I'm a big fan of the aesthetic. From the brief clips I've seen it looks to be a scrolling slash em up. With some cool looking mechanics. The bow and arrow could be loads of fun or extremely frustrating. Has anyone played it? Am I right in thinking it'll be a modern day Shinobi/Strider?

 

Edited January 5 by BigJag

[Merzbow]

Never played it but I can highly recommend Mark Of The Ninja, which looks similar but much more based on stealth and it does it in some of the best ways ever. Legitimately one of my favourite ever indie games. 

Meifumado looks like it could have been good but looking deeper into it and it had a rough development, pretty much had it's budget stolen from the devs and was released as an unfinished shell of a game.

[Jesse]

Before I went back to work I finished an All Crowns/Cousins file on Once Upon A Katamari. Nothing special, if you know what a Katamari game is, it's more of that. Perfectly pleasant way to kill a few hours and some of the S-ranks are a little fiendish but overall it's really easy (it's for kids!)

On the other side, I finally beat one of my gaming white wales, finishing a Jill playthrough of Resident Evil. This took me forever, and involved me giving up on a Chris playthrough last year until I was told to give Jill a go since it's a little easier. On the Jill side at least it feels like a point and click adventure game with nightmare combat. I reckon it took me 6 hours to get comfortable with it, then I raced through the final two hours. Not in a rush to revisit it for a Chris playthrough, but will be giving the 2 remake a go at some point.

[RedTwoster]

2 minutes ago, Jesse said:

Not in a rush to revisit it for a Chris playthrough, but will be giving the 2 remake a go at some point.

I love the 2 remake. The remake of the original doesn’t modernise things much, but the 2, 3 and 4 remakes feel like brand new games in the best possible way. 

[Ironic Indie Lad]

On 12/30/2025 at 9:34 AM, Ironic Indie Lad said:

Feeling like about a 7/10 to me so far. Still a long way to go so definitely could go higher.

I WAS WRONG. It got a lot lower.

When I posted my initial thoughts I was only a few hours into Metroid Prime 4. I have now finished the game and its left me deeply disappointed. 

More and more things to dislike just pile up. Namely:

There is so much padding to this game. So much that you took it out, you would only be left with a few hours of gameplay. You know in previous Metroid games, you would get a new ability and instantly be able to use it? Not now. In this game, you need to unlock Fire, Ice and Electric beams in order to progress. Every time you gain the 'chip' required, you need to backtrack all the way to your base so that the annoying NPC guy can install it for you. This always involves a long, tedious drive across the map.

The various areas in the game don't actually allow for much exploration. There's very few branching paths. You pretty much arrive in the area then its a linear path to find the key you need and that's it. 

The bosses are very repetitive. Almost every boss has a huge red weak spot you have to hit. The gimmick is that the weak spot isn't the area your weapon locks onto. You therefore need to lock on and then manually move the cursor a bit to the side to hit the weak spot. Its tedious. What makes it worse is that the bosses are complete bullet sponges. They aren't difficult but the fight goes on for absolutely ages regardless.

The enemy types are so limited. I think the original Prime from almost 25 years ago had over twice as many enemies and there was a strategy to defeat most of them. You just fight the same type of enemy over and over again in this and it doesn't seem to make much difference if you use missiles, your standard shot or one of the various elemental shots. It actually feels more like Halo (and not one of the good ones either) than Metroid at points.

Metroid games have never been deeply story driven but the story in this one is laughably bad. You are trapped on a planet and you need 5 keys to get off it. Fair enough but once you get the 5 keys, the game sends you on two RIDICULOUS fetch quests. More padding.

The first one, you have to find 5 pieces of a huge mech so that it can be repaired to help you break a forcefield.

The second one is unbearably bad. You need to collect a quite frankly absurd number of green crystals before the game lets you progress. The crystals are pretty much the only thing in the baron open world area of the game. This means you need to spend literally hours just driving round the map on your bike collecting as many crystals as you possibly can.

I really wanted to like this game. The intro and first area are both pretty good and had me feeling quite optimistic. It just feels like it goes downhill after that and just gets worse and worse.

Not worth the wait whatsoever. Chinese Democracy all over again!