If you’re playing on an Xbox I would recommend Burnout Revenge. It’s my personal favorite in the series and the 360 version works on One and Series consoles.
I don’t think Paradise City is a cover song (am I missing something?)
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@brettch is still right about it being awful though.
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Your uncle gave you alttp because he knows about links uncle and wants to be given the same respect and honor as a knight
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I’ve been playing stuff.
I played through Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater again for the first time in a long time. It’s okay. Kinda wish I had done Tony Hawk 2 instead, but the urge was gone after I finished 1.
I also started Resident Evil 3 (PlayStation, not any remakes). I picked the easy mode, which I thought was pretty reasonable in 2, but in 3 they give you a whole arsenal and an infinite ink ribbon. It feels like too much, but I’m not that bothered. I’m in it more for the spaces and exploration than the survival, but a little more friction would be nice. I just got back into the police station and Nemesis is jump scaring me. I’m a sucker for a video game returning to a location from a previous game, although I was also having fun exploring the more open Raccoon City, so I hope I get back out there again soon.
Finally I played some Wizard Hunter 2348 which I bought just to see what exactly it was, and was pleasantly surprised to find something kinda novel and fun. It’s a fast, messy, slippery stealth game. You’d think that wouldn’t work, but it’s more about being fast than being sneaky. You can get spotted for a moment without any problem; it’s when the wizards get a good look at you that things get bad. It’s got hella rough edges, but there’s something cool in there.
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This is a good one. I played it a while back and I picked up the sequel last night. Instead of just having to notice the anomalies, each one is now a little puzzle. The hints are not always obvious.
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I finished Kirby and the Forgotten Land this evening. Well, I saw the credits and then it unlocked some new harder levels but I’m good, thanks. Really enjoyed a nice, relaxing game with a few surprises. I’d finished Alan Wake 2 just before this so it was a nice change of pace. It is a very charming game.
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Nice!
I’ll have to check that out, also.
I’m enjoying having some short things to play through. Ah dang that reminds me that I need to go back and finish The Invincible, I can’t have much longer to go I would imagine. Maybe an hour or so.
I finished Metroid Prime Remastered tonight with 100% items and an only slightly painful 92% scans. I don’t think I’ll ever go back for those. I loved the game but thought the pace absolutely fell off a cliff around the point I had 75% of the suit powers/new beam weapons. I’m generally fine with backtracking and exploring in Metroid games, but something about the map layout in this – maybe the lack of shortcuts – made hopping between zones feel more like marathon runs than short sprints.
I’m excited to eventually jump into Prime 2, if only to see how some of the rougher edges get sanded down this time around.
I loooooved this one. Took me about an hour too. I’m thinking about trying a group run with some friends, I have a feeling it’ll be one of those games that’ll work well with a crowd doing a pass and play with the controller.
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I find that Exit 8 game really interesting for two reasons: 1) it comes from a lineage that was effectively horror-tinged hidden object games (which is a genre combo I never would have considered). I don’t think we get Exit 8 without I’m on Observation Duty And 2) it spawned about six other games that are basically it again and they’re all very popular with streamers. Like the Observation Duty games, it became a kind of mass-produced horror.
Chilla’s Art is also hovering around this conversation, and made his own Exit 8, even.
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Maybe I have some sort of say, uncle who works at nintendo
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I played a board game on a site called Board Game Arena, Innovation.
I was hungering for an Innovation playthrough because it has some basic similarities to Balatro. You have a small deck of cards for every tech level (1-10), and your goal is to build synergy between different card abilities to get more achievements or get the most points when someone goes beyond tech level 10. There is a lot of routinizing with abilities printed on the cards, called dogmas. For instance, here are two level 1 techs:
Some have conditionals (“if” or “if you do”); some are demands, where if you have more of the symbol than another player, you can force them to take an action. Much of the game is trying to stay ahead of others in a focal symbol, building up tech, scoring cards, or meeting objectives for achievements.
Anyway, in this game I was being walloped by the other player. For most of the game they had me beat in achievements and most symbols. They kept making me do dogma demands. But I was beating them in lightbulbs, and those dogmas tend to allow faster growth in tech. So I leaped quickly through the techs, got a few high late-game scoring cards, and exceeded tech level 10 to win the game.
So what I like about the game is the multiple legit ways to win combined with a shortish playtime (about a half hour), both of which mean it’s hard to feel truly out of a chance to win. The main complexity is understanding all the potential plays on the field; with three or four players, I imagine I’d overlook a lot of things other players might do.
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oh yes, normal mode with save states all the way – that ensmoothens so many of these oldies, including Alisia Dragoon (I’ve never tried it on hard, I’m good). So glad you had a good time – I took a video of the exact same moment you shared last time I beat the game on Switch, too
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I finished playing Before the Green Moon last night — I enjoyed it very much. Today I’ve been gradually untangling what resonated with me so much. I chatted a bit with @Tradegood about it this afternoon and was hoping to untangle it a bit more with a longer post here.
Please only read if you've played through. I think discovery and personal interpretation is a big part of what makes this one work so well.
I haven’t played any of the Harvest Moons or Stardew Valley, so I came at it with little in terms of expectations — I have a general sense of the main loops of these games with seasonal changes, daily efficiencies and gradual relationship building, but apart from that I’m not familiar with any standards or tropes, so novelty may have played a large part in how much I enjoyed this. That said, I do think this one will stick with me as time goes on even if its just because it was a first.
I think what I enjoyed most about Before the Green Moon was the lack of structure. Someone here mentioned earlier that there isn’t much as far as tutorial or explanation — I also noticed that there isn’t much in terms of gauging your progress either; even the singular ‘goal’ of saving up for a ticket to the moon is sort of put into question by a few other characters and more generally by the behavior of the moon inhabitants whenever they visit your city (rude!!).
I really liked this lack of delineated incentives — at some point I realized that I didn’t really need money (for food or shelter), which meant that I didn’t really even have to farm. I could dial back some of the manic work pace I’d developed just for efficiency’s sake. This was the moment I felt a little more in tune with the speed of the characters and started to feel more connected to the town. I started exploring more or developing my own goals and meaning within the world — I built a little flower shrine outside of one of the characters’ homes and filled my home with candles that I lit every night before I went to bed. I ran out of apples and didn’t know if my chickens would starve, so I set them free in the forest at the outset of the dry season. I wondered about the other characters’ relationships to each other.
Lack of understanding and feedback for my actions sort of shifted me from a goal-oriented play into more of a constructive role playing that really helped me inhabit the world and engage with its themes on a more personal, felt basis. I want to give new foods to Elvis because he seems to like them based on his dialogue, even though I’m not sure if its necessarily doing anything. I want to stand under this awning for a bit to stay dry, because the rain sounds nice and I like seeing the drips collecting and falling from this overhang. I want to wait a second at this intersection so I can watch the streetlights come on with that now familiar hum. I want to tidy up all this garbage people keep leaving everywhere.
I think the semi-abstracted visuals really help here too — its easier to question assumptions in the contrast of a new setting with unfamiliar rules (side note. I am so impressed by the art direction for this game — It feels like some kind of understanding of texture and color relationships that is well beyond my wheelhouse. I’m always appreciative when someone can find that precarious balance of sweet pinks and greens.)
Eventually, the characters’ variety of interactions sort of puttered out and I felt like I was being pushed along, so I started focusing more on the intended goal. I ended up saving up for two tickets so that Pony could come along with me, but that wasn’t an option.
I really enjoyed how sincere this game was in presenting its questions around societal lenses, community and finding meaning and beauty in a discarded planet. I liked how the repetitive tasks of your daily living and lack of pressure gave you time to think about these themes. I liked how the time scale of days and weeks and months can really get one thinking about all the different ways a more meaningful life could look like.
In short:
I’d love to hear more thoughts on this one!
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Fired up Vanquish for 40 minutes this evening on Steam Deck and wow! It’s even better than I remember. Controls great, looks great, easy to jump in. It’s Gears of War on Turbo Mode. I love the visual style.
The gun morphing as you change weapons is stellar.
I remember playing this originally when it came out over winter break between my first two semesters of college alongside Lost Planet 2. I brought my PS3 home with me. I beat Vanquish in just a few sittings and loved it. It was cold out and not much else to do. I vaguely tie this game to Binary Domain in my head cannon. Tight and interesting third person shooters by Japanese developers.
Even if it’s just some hazy memories and a taste from this evening, dare I say it’s one of the finest games of the PS3/360 generation? I will dare!
In an era of open world cinematic experiences, I’m here for the arcade feels good to play shooter.
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I have been completely and totally uninterested in games for the past couple weeks. Played the first hour of probably 20 different games with nothing sticking. Eventually just gave up. Just been reading and trying to spend more time outside. I’ve felt a bit guilty about it too, I always feel like I should be playing and enjoying something no matter what. Anyone else ever feel like that?
Tonight I had the urge to play something so instead of trying something random I broke the glass on a game I’ve been saving: Shenmue 2. As expected I was totally absorbed in it right away. I expected more of the same, which I got, but also more changes to the functionality of the game! First person sequences, new mechanics for zooming in/focusing on objects, some different controls, on-screen maps, part time jobs. Amazing! Love it! Lucky Hit! Whenever Joy shows up the worst song in the world plays! I love it!!!
Maybe the lesson here is just to play the stuff I really want to play and don’t fart around with stuff that I’m not excited about just to spend time playing a game because I think I should.
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You know I’ve read a lot of posts similar to this on sites like Reddit where people aren’t vibing with an particularly game and there is almost a weird sense of guilt that they aren’t playing anything. I think someone may have asked the ‘how do you manage videogame burnout’ to the podcast even. I’m curious to know what that is all about.
Doing other stuff is great! But you finding another game that just gels with you is a good feeling!
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I just played the Kunitsu-Gami demo and immediately preordered it. I knew I was gonna play it anyway, but it triggered real PS2/360 era nostalgia in me. Capcom are making a mash up of hack and slash with tower defense with wicked art design. That seems like something that would happen on the 360.
I’m a big fan of this new Capcom strategy of putting out secret bangers in the summer. Exoprimal was the secret bet game of last year and maybe this till be this years?
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Yes
Y e s
I’ve been doing this all year and it’s been wonderful. Even though I haven’t burdened myself with a formal “backlog” in, like, a decade, I continued to play games somewhat compulsively for a long time after. I thought giving games a chance, even ones I felt totally incurious about, would pay off. It never paid off once lmao. Play what you want!! Always!!!
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It’s been early access for FFXIV’s Dawntrail expansion this past weekend, which took most of my time, having finished the Main Scenario yesterday
Personally, I wasn’t a fan of this outing (though I was never really on board with the whole “it’s time for a vacation!” schtick to begin with). The battle content remains solid, if decidedly workmanlike, and the graphical updates make this far and away the best looking MMO on the market
But there’s a real sense in the storytelling that the team is looking to catch lightning in a bottle once more as they did with Shadowbringers, all without seemingly understanding what made that expansion the singular experience that it was. This was also true of Endwalker to some degree, but Dawntrail ratchets that feeling up another notch
I’m the kind of person who sort of wants an MMO/live service kind of game as a default, and for me, there’s still not a better option than this game, so I’ll be sticking around (particularly if the content at the level cap is strong). My MMO-sense is telling me that FFXIV may be entering its post-Wrath of the Lich King era based on the reception s far, though, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens with the game in a broader sense moving forward
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One of my fondest childhood gaming memories is my brother randomly selecting the lowest probability Lucky Hit game and winning on his first go. We made enough money that we never had to work a job again unless we wanted to haha.
We of course also just loved to man the stand and yell “how about trying Lucky Hit?” at random passersby until an old man inevitably cleaned us out
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