WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0

[Jazzy G]

Finally had a more substantial look at Mixtape. The soundtrack is good. The little set pieces are a bit hit and miss. I liked the shopping trolley thing, the toilet paper bit wasn't up to much but I lost my mind when I reached the bit where you're 

Spoiler

swinging for the fences on the baseball diamond to The Touch by Stan Bush, especially when she mentions it's from The Transformers: The Movie. 

I can't see there being a whole lot of replay value when there's probably already a Spotify playlist of the soundtrack, which is what holds the whole thing together, but it's definitely something that needs to be experienced before the license for the soundtrack ends and it disappears, but I also see it being like a beloved cult movie where you might dig it out once in a while to have a trot through on an afternoon.

I can see it missing out on some Game Of The Year award nominations due to the "is this a game?" debate taking place, but I also entirely recommend that if you're of a certain age it's well worth a look. It's an interactive Ferris Bueller's Breakfast Club and absolutely deserving of a place in the videogames as art discussion alongside the likes of Okami

It's definitely a great piece of interactive media, and I'm sure there'll be a whole load of these kinds of thing turning up on all the digital store fronts in the coming months and years after the success of this. A Lethal Weapon type one could work where the cutscenes are the characters investigating the big crime and the little set pieces are maybe tiny run and gun stages, a beat em up, or an FPS? 

@FLipswill be horrified to know that I got the Mass Effect Ultimate edition in a sale on XBox Live, and am now looking forward to unwittingly killing all his and his good lady wife's favourite characters like I managed to do on that stream that time. 

I also grabbed Unbox The Room on sale on Switch. It's under £3 right now. It's like Unpacking, but instead of following the life of the lady you're more a removals/interior designer type. You unload the furniture and boxes from the truck and arrange it all. The customer gives you a little brief of what they want you to do as regards the layout of the room(s) and you crack on with it. If you're not happy with the colour of the furniture you can paint it. You could literally just empty the boxes, satisfy the stuff on the instructions and leave the rest of the place a mess and still get three stars. There's also a sandbox mode where you can just furnish your own place. For the money it's a fun little distraction and requires less emotional investment than Unpacking, which isn't to take anything away from that game. 

Edited May 22 by Jazzy G

[Accident Prone]

Started playing Dome Keeper last night to keep me from spending money on Rogue Legacy 2.

Oh boy, I can see this one being an addictive little time sink. I only played for an hour or so and the loop already has it's hooks in me, to the point where I snuck in five minutes before work this morning  just waiting for the kettle to boil. Playing it on the Deck too, so I'm stood in the kitchen in my summer bedtime attire playing this 2D drill'em-up.

It's going to act as a little stopgap for my Ys: The Oath in Felghana run. I'm at the midway point I think, I've reached a boss that is going to take a ton of grinding to beat only a few sections after I spent hours grinding to beat a previous boss. It's a good game, and I enjoy the dungeon crawling sections, but the bosses just suck. Then again, I hate bosses in all games, I've never took on a boss and thought "Yeah that was fun!".

[Merzbow]

Zero Parades is finally out, even with all the baggage surrounding it it'll probably be my game of the year. It's not on the same level as Disco Elysium but it's still written very well, better than most games.

Edited May 22 by Merzbow

[Ironic Indie Lad]

Subscribed to Game Pass after a long break to download Forza Horizon 6

I have a Series X and it sounds like its going to explode running this!

[Devon Malcolm]

I finished with Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines. I couldn't do those bonus levels at the end, they were brutal. You can tell these guys were inspired by Rayman. It's a really good game though and I hope they keep the series going.

I'm now playing Gris. As stunning as reported and the gameplay is simple but challenging enough after a point. Its reputation is well earned.

[westlondonmist]

Got my Switch 2 today. Got Mario Kart and Wonder. Kart World is good, and different to 8 but I think I may prefer 8 (which is one of my fave games), although that may change as I get further in. So I'll still keep 8 to play although I want to get further into World.

Only started Wonder, pretty fun and looks amazing. Not this amazing game that I felt many reviews on release gave the impression but a good 2D Mario. 

 

Edit : I "completed" wonder, although I'll have to go back and collect wonder seeds. Took Mr about ten hours. I'd say I enjoyed it more as I went on and am really glad I got it, great fun and the wonder sections to levels were great fun. 

 

Also really enjoying Kart open world the more I play it. 

Edited May 25 by westlondonmist

[Accident Prone]

On 5/22/2026 at 7:39 AM, Accident Prone said:

Started playing Dome Keeper last night to keep me from spending money on Rogue Legacy 2.

Oh boy, I can see this one being an addictive little time sink. I only played for an hour or so and the loop already has it's hooks in me, to the point where I snuck in five minutes before work this morning  just waiting for the kettle to boil. Playing it on the Deck too, so I'm stood in the kitchen in my summer bedtime attire playing this 2D drill'em-up.

I think I'm finished with this, maybe? I've done a few runs now, completed one in a small cave and one in a medium cave, and the variety between each run just isn't hitting a good 'time spent-to-satisfaction' ratio. Each run can take ages, all in the same looking cave with the same three gems to drill for and the same types of rock to break through, and when you get killed off after a long run and come out with no upgrades for future runs, it kinda makes the process a tad fruitless.

I've unlocked all sorts of game modes with the two completed runs, but the core gameplay loop in those is largely the same. The next cave up will take an hour+ to complete according to the level description, but I've got a feeling that this game works better with co-op sessions that it does solo. A shame really, because I was really enjoying it for a hot minute, then finished the medium sized cave and had no inclination to go any further. If there were more variety and more direct access to simple permanent upgrades (such as the upgrades to the HUD), it would still be on my mind now.

I think I've just been spoiled for these types of rogue games over the the last decade plus. Your Rogue Legacys, Dead Cells, Slay The Spires, Hades, Binding Of Issacs etc are an extremely high quality point.

I've installed Dredge now, I'll likely have a go at that later in the week, see if that lives up to the hype.

Edited May 26 by Accident Prone

[RedTwoster]

On 5/22/2026 at 11:27 PM, westlondonmist said:

Got my Switch 2 today. Got Mario Kart and Wonder. Kart World is good, and different to 8 but I think I may prefer 8 (which is one of my fave games), although that may change as I get further in. So I'll still keep 8 to play although I want to get further into World.

Only started Wonder, pretty fun and looks amazing. Not this amazing game that I felt many reviews on release gave the impression but a good 2D Mario. 

 

Edit : I "completed" wonder, although I'll have to go back and collect wonder seeds. Took Mr about ten hours. I'd say I enjoyed it more as I went on and am really glad I got it, great fun and the wonder sections to levels were great fun. 

 

Also really enjoying Kart open world the more I play it. 

I can’t recommend Donkey Kong Bananza enough, the central mechanics of being able to break absolutely everything is so much fun. 

Pokopia is also fantastic, it might even be my favourite ever Pokemon game. I’d be very surprised if you didn’t like it. 

I’m playing Yoshi and the Mysterious Book at the moment, and that’s also really good. It’s hard to compare it to anything really as it’s a genre into itself. It’s trying to do something different. You can’t die, and it’s all about discovering new animals and their traits and using the discoveries you make to solve puzzles. I really like it.

[westlondonmist]

10 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

I can’t recommend Donkey Kong Bananza enough, the central mechanics of being able to break absolutely everything is so much fun. 

Pokopia is also fantastic, it might even be my favourite ever Pokemon game. I’d be very surprised if you didn’t like it. 

I’m playing Yoshi and the Mysterious Book at the moment, and that’s also really good. It’s hard to compare it to anything really as it’s a genre into itself. It’s trying to do something different. You can’t die, and it’s all about discovering new animals and their traits and using the discoveries you make to solve puzzles. I really like it.

My brother has Bananza so will be borrowing that. I've not played a DK game since the Wii, so unsure what to expect. I'm sure I'll have fun. 

There is a few games I'd like to get like Yoshi, Mouse PI, Splatoon Rangers and Starfox. I would like to play one of the many huge games like Indiana Jones, Outlaws or Cyberpunk but fuck knows when I'd get a chance to. I had plenty of time this weekend as my partner and son were away but 10 hours on Wonder usually would take weeks not days for me. 

I thought Pokopia might be a fun and easy one to play with kids. Only ever played N64 Pokemon games (except Pokken) so unsure. 

[RedTwoster]

4 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

My brother has Bananza so will be borrowing that. I've not played a DK game since the Wii, so unsure what to expect. I'm sure I'll have fun. 

Even if you had, it wouldn’t prepare you for this as it’s nothing like any of the other DK games. It’s doing something different and it’s much better for it.

6 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

I thought Pokopia might be a fun and easy one to play with kids. Only ever played N64 Pokemon games (except Pokken) so unsure. 

There’s a lot more depth to it than you might think, but I played it with my toddler daughter and she absolutely loved it. It was a really lovely experience, to see her excitement at all the new Pokemon popping up as we built habitats.

[Devon Malcolm]

1 hour ago, Accident Prone said:

I've installed Dredge now, I'll likely have a go at that later in the week, see if that lives up to the hype.

I finished it about 6 or 7 weeks ago and I'm already considering starting it again.

Right now I'm playing Splasher, which is a pretty good platformer. You can tell some of the people behind Rayman are behind it (complimentary). Sort of a cross between Portal 2 and Super Meat Boy except not as stupidly difficult as the latter.

Finished Gris as well. Didn't quite get everything but a stunning game anyway.

Edited May 26 by Devon Malcolm

[CleetusVanDamme]

Directive 8020 sucked rectum. They got rid of The Curator, the best part of all the Dark Pictures games. They seem to have gotten a little embarrassed at making just a movie game, so they've added A LOT of awful stealth bits, that should have just been a few second cutscenes or QTEs. I made no choices that made the story more interesting. The scope for screwing people over to have some fun wasn't there either, I chose to have a character save a random over their best friend, the friend lived (which I kind of expected) and I expected some decent heat between them after, but nope, nothing even got said. I couldn't kill a character I hated (Cernan, voiced by a Heavy Rain level voice actor) until way too late. And worst of all, the majority of deaths of my crew took place off screen. It's everything an interactive horror game shouldn't be.

Normally when I play these games I say it's no Until Dawn. This one doesn't deserve that comparison. It's not even Man of Medan.

[gmoney]

Anyone played the new Bond game? It looks like it might be the tits. 

[CleetusVanDamme]

4 minutes ago, gmoney said:

Anyone played the new Bond game? It looks like it might be the tits. 

It's going to be my entire weekend. Everything or Nothing might finally be toppled!

[SuperBacon]

49 minutes ago, gmoney said:

Anyone played the new Bond game? It looks like it might be the tits. 

I saw a clip on BBC News the other day and I very nearly bought a console to play it. It looks wicked.