[Fiend]

In keeping with the changing season and the recent weather, I've been skipping merrily through this soothing little jaunt:



For some reason I skipped this originally, but played 2 and 3, enjoying the iconic style and atmosphere despite the gamefeel being as smooth and direct as trying to drive a car, blindfold, in reverse, using a buttplug connected to the steering wheel via therabands. I had the urge to try the remake and as promised it delivers on all fronts including aforementioned slick, crisp godawful clunkfest of the controls. So yes it does exactly what it says on the tin, it looks great even at low-medium settings, the quality of life improvements and tweaks all seem good (from a review that highlighted the changes), the gameplay seems reasonably balanced, and the savepoint system is quite generous (I remember it being gruelling in 2 for some reason, although maybe that reason was I hadn't been anally toughened by Soulslikes' punishment yet). Anyway highly recommended at 10 hours in.

Can confirm this is GOTY by some way. Take a completely iconic game, make it even better without spoiling anything that made it a classic, win.

[JamieG]

Not played many games at all recently. Job/kids/climbing etc all taking precedent. But I have had time to squeeze a couple things in on the switch.

Played Tears of the Kingdom in the summer which was obviously excellent. More Breath of the Wild style goodness with some incredible building and physics mechanics.

Strange Horticulture is a really lovely short puzzle style game set in the Lake District, were you are identifying plants to help people with various ailments/problem. In the meantime there is a weird Cthulhu-ish story unravelling through conversations with the people that visit your shop. Kind of a 'cosy' game I guess.

Currently playing Tunic, which awesome and hard. Old school zelda style game with no hand holding, obtuse story and (a little too) hard bosses. Really beautiful visuals too and a cool 'game manual' mechanic. Recommend!

[Will Hunt]

Dusk! 90s graphics shooter inspired by Doom, Quake, Half Life et al. Cheap to buy. Fast-paced with a good metal soundtrack. No reloading, all blasting. Fiend would love this game but he's got his head too far up his own arse to play it. If he does play it he'll come up with some pathetic whine about how it isn't a true reflection of the spirit of the 90s horror shooter.

Metroid Dread. Environments are a bit samey; music completely forgettable. By the mid-late game you are waaaaay too strong, to the point where non-boss combat is effectively removed and some of the abilities you've gained render certain puzzles and platforming challenges redundant. The melee counter ability is fun but makes most combat completely trivial. Minor spoiler: the final E.M.M.I. (the near-unkillable robots that pursue you through certain areas, giving the game a great mix of blasting and stealth) delivers the game's biggest anticlimax by just dying in a cutscene without a single button press. Normally you have to evade them through their labyrinthine area to find a weapon that can kill them, then stand rooted to the spot shooting them as they advance towards you: brilliantly tense. The biggest complaint I have is that on my first playthrough I got to 100% completion after <15 hours. For a game that costs £50 that is outrageous. Compare against Hollow Knight which gobbled up 70 hours, had an incredible soundtrack and hugely varied artwork, and there was still more play I could have eked out of it AND it was made by a team of three people!
However, and it is a big however, the gameplay is amazing. Samus is fast, the movement is slick, the game moves on at pace. The boss battles are fantastic; evading and eventually killing the E.M.M.Is is brilliant. I loved every minute of it that I played. Sooooo, if it's on sale or you can get a physical copy second hand then buy it; don't pay full price.

[Dingdong]

Fossilfuel 2 - Dinosaur puzzle shooter ffo: Dino crisis, turok, resident evil, silent hill

[JamieG]

Played a couple more things recently.

Cult of the lamb - Was quite good. Rogue-like combined with farm style management. All wrapped up in a funny cute Cthulhu-ish art style and aesthetic. Didn't finish, but just because I'm busy more than anything bad about the game.

Untitled goose game - Nice art style, funny, causing chaos as goose is cathartic. But it its a one-trick pony that I tired of super quickly. And what's left is not that good a puzzle game. Good for a couple hours distraction but not much more.

Balatro - Really addictive and fun deck builder style game based around poker. For fans of things like Slay the Spire or Inscryption I recommend this. No story at all, but really good game play! Highly recommend. I'm still addicted!

[T Loughlin]

Agree about untitled goose game. Good for a laugh for a couple of hours but that’s it. For a similar one time vibe have you played ‘frog detective’?

Meanwhile I got sucked into Slay the Spire over the last half term. Never heard of it before but it’s such a sublimely designed game. 170 hours later and I’ve decided it’s basically digital crack,

[JamieG]

I haven’t played frog detective. I’ll look it up.

If you love Slay the Spire (which I also got totally addicted to), I’d definitely check out both Inscryption and Balatro.

Inscryption is really good and gets weird. The less you know the better. I’ve recommended it on here before and I think a couple other UKBers have played and enjoyed it. More ‘story’ than the others.

Balatro is much more of a pure card game. Still really good. Maybe not quite Slay the Spire level but few games are.

[T Loughlin]

Nice one, thank you for the tips I will check them out after I’ve finally defeated the heart with the hermit from the downfall mod. I’m not even sure I really like the character but I’m committed now. Slay the spire is just such a finely poised game, it’s a masterpiece of design. The only tabletop style game I’ve played before was citizen sleeper and I enjoyed that more for the story, as the gameplay mechanic gets less involving as time progresses.Would highly recommend though for the art style, narrative and soundtrack. I also played Prey and Mooncrash over Christmas and they are amazing immersive sim games from Arkane, really recommend.

[JamieG]

Nice. I’ve got citizen sleeper on my list. I enjoyed the designer’s previous game. Think it was called something like unknown waters. All about exploring an exoplanet filled with weird alien life. You play a scientist exploring the planet. But it’s all quite abstract.

[JamieG]

‘In other waters’ was the game. Good story if I remember correctly.

[Fiend]

Graven at the mo, HTH.

[Fiend]

Dusk! 90s graphics shooter inspired by Doom, Quake, Half Life et al. Cheap to buy. Fast-paced with a good metal soundtrack. No reloading, all blasting. Fiend would love this game but he's got his head too far up his own arse to play it. If he does play it he'll come up with some pathetic whine about how it isn't a true reflection of the spirit of the 90s horror shooter.

In the spirit of forgiveness for this horseshit, have a couple of true reflections of the spirit of 90s shooters, that are suitable distractions for the recovering boulderer to dip in and out of:

GRAVEN:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1371690/GRAVEN/
Part FPS, part RPG-very-lite, all fantasy, all exploration. Really needed another year in beta-testing for various issues (numerous bugs, some abruptly cut content, bewildering pixel scaling, glitchy hub system) yet despite this, it is a great, properly themed and highly atmospheric old-school fantasy world to explore. Lots of exploration, lots of interconnectivity, lots of getting lost, lots of secrets. It's worth putting up with the "authentically crude" feel of it for all of that.

WRATH:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1000410/WRATH_Aeon_of_Ruin/
Only 2.5 large maps into this but already seems like a nice compliment to Graven. Part FPS, and the other part is FPS too. No messing around, fast movement, meaty weapons, lots of blood and limbs, proper 90s style monsters (so far the lightning ball shooter is one of my favourites in any recent game), undetailed but stylish and well-themed maps. It doesn't have nearly the theme nor atmosphere nor exploration of Graven, but it is very playable fast-paced fun so far.

[Will Hunt]

So have you played Dusk yet?

I bought Doom 2016 the other day and have played a few levels but haven't felt a real compulsion to play. However, I have replayed Hollow Knight and have done some stuff I didn't do the first time around (Nightmare King Grimm and the Pantheon of the Sage. The former took a couple of hours and the latter a few evenings. I'm unreasonably chuffed with both of these achievements).

I think maybe I'm out of love with FPS. I played loads of them as a kid and as a result I don't feel much skill progression. I expect I'm as good at them now as I'll ever be. Replaying Hollow Knight made me realise how much skill progression is involved there. It took me loads of goes to beat Hornet Protector and the Mantis Lords the first time round and they both seemed very slow and easy the second time. Even Trial of the Fool, which felt like the hardest bit of gaming I'd ever done at the time, went quite quickly. I'm on the Pantheon of the Knight now and can feel myself getting better and better as I practice. It feels like a big redpoint project, except even more pointless. What an amazing game.

[slab_happy]

Currently playing a bunch of World of Horror, which has been very accurately described as Junji Ito's Arkham Horror: The Board Game. Fun if you like a mean little roguelite. Though either combat could be more interesting or I'm not using it to its full potential.