Topic: What (Non-PS4) game are you playing??

Pac-Man World RePac (Steam) - I'm on the final world & think I only have two levels left (one of which being the final boss). The gameplay doesn't flow as smoothly as a Mario or Astro Bot game, but it's still pretty solid & I think it does a great job of mixing in the "Pac-Man" elements giving it an identity of it's own (imaginative variety in terms of boss fights too, it must be said). Glad it gives out loads of extra lives too. I honestly haven't had that much issue with it overall, but I lost over 15 lives alone on 6-1 due to the fact that a lot of it consists of small floating platforms (some that move or disappear) where it's hard to orient yourself & I'd jump into the abyss constantly (to think this has apparently made a number of QOL improvements over the original, to boot). Graphically it looks lovely too. If I didn't know any better I'd think it was a completely modern game, and the world themes are very varied.

Star Ocean: the Divine Force (PS5) - I don't think it's optimized very well, as even on fidelity mode it doesn't always hit the 30FPS target (though issues mostly pop up in cutscenes, oddly enough, gameplay is usually solid), and apparently the PS4 & PC versions are even worse off in that regard from what I've heard. That said I'm having a lot of fun with it. Flying/gliding around the environments with "D.U.M.A." is a blast & it's fun to use in combat as well. I like the sci-fi element (it's set on a fantasy world with magic, however the protag & some of the other party members are space travellers from Earth who have crash landed here), and it's the first large-ish JRPG I've played since XC2 that's so willing to be endearingly cheesy. Just cleared a dungeon that climaxed with a boss fight against a big blue bird, and have now arrived at the capital.

Goddamn you really ploughed through DS @Ralizah if you're already at Anor Londo! I have to admit I'm curious about that playtime of yours...

Have fun in Sen's Fortress? I honestly found that the most annoying area in my playthrough last year... Well aside from one area you haven't reached yet that nobody likes 😅

Congrats on finally getting the ability to warp with the lordvessel! Did you summon Solaire for Ornstein and Smough? He's usually pretty good for taking the heat from one of them so you can focus on the other. He typically doesn't last the fight though.

Dark Souls 2 and 3 make it so you can warp from the start of the game. DS3 is also very linear (There's only 2 branching paths if I recall correctly) if that appeals... Though the areas are quite large still and have lots of nooks and crannies.

Oh and about Firelink shrine did you get the firekeeper back?

@HallowMoonshadow I'm well past Anor Londo at this point. But yeah, I'm curious to see exactly how much time I've racked up in DS... in a few days, since the Switch won't tell you how long you've played a game until ten days or so have passed, for some completely arbitrary reason. Meanwhile, on my 3DS and Wii U, I can look at complex breakdowns of how long I've played a game, how many times I've booted it up, which months I gamed the most, get an ordered list of my games by total playtime, etc. at any point.

Sen's Fortress was actually pretty fun! I mean, not all of it, considering some sections just felt unfairly difficult (the bit where you have to walk across a razor thin platform and are IMMEDIATELY shot off by a lizard archer hiding off to the side of the level, forcing you to go back to the bonfire, was pretty frustrating), but it was nice to have an environment with actual puzzles in it! I've long felt one of the biggest weaknesses of From Software's Soulsborne titles has been how much of the experiences amount to just running around empty environments killing enemies, but this environment, with some minor tweaks, wouldn't be entirely dissimilar from a dungeon in a game like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. So, I'd go as far as to say it's my favorite area in the game at this point.

The Catacombs/Tomb of the Giants were miserable, though. Even worse than Blighttown. Glad to be out of there. Although Gravelord Nito ended up being a pushover once I forged a divine weapon to take out his little skeleton homies that crowd around you during that entire fight.

Yeah, I summoned Solaire during the Ornstein/Smough fight. It's hard enough WITH help! Certainly wasn't wanting to solo it. Although I almost had to, because, by the time I defeated that encounter, I had just used up my last humanity to unhollow and summon Solaire one final time.

Dark Souls 3 really does sound like it cuts out a number of the annoyances from this game. Saw it for $15 in a Walmart the other day. Maybe I should have picked it up. Are shields still useful, or does the combat go full Bloodborne and become Dodge Roll: The Game? I do like the resource management element of using your stamina to protect against damage with a shield.

Yeah, some black orb I picked up triggered in Anor Londo, and it transported me to a dimension where I could fight the NPC that killed the Shrine Firekeeper. Dude was an amateur, so despite fighting against three enemies, I didn't even end up needing to heal at all.

@Ralizah Yep shields can be used in all three Dark Souls games.

Sounds like your are actually enjoying it? Which is not something I thought I'd ever be saying to you.

@JohnnyShoulder Mostly. Accepting at the outset that the experience would likely be rife with frustrations put me in a mindset where I'm more able to enjoy the game for what it is.

Also, the initially short play loops as you learn what to do through trial-and-error are much easier for me to swallow on a portable system.

I'm pretty sure @Ralizah if you press load game on the main menu rather then continue it shows you your game time per save slot/character so you can look your game time up whenever Ral

And yeah I do remember that feature from the 3DS was pretty cool. I remember being quite surprised at spending over 200 hours in Pokemon X!

Funny you mention Twilight Princess as that's the only home console Zelda I've actually played (The handheld one being Phantom hourglass). Good to hear you enjoyed Sen's Fortress though. I kept falling off the ledges and tried going for everything so it meant a lot of falling on tight beams or to the ground floor and having to fight all those damn titanite demons

You got very lucky with the dynamic duo there. Any reason you went for Ornstein first or was that just pure coincedence?

I should clarify that I mean main diverging paths for DS3. So it's not like in DS1 when you get to Firelink & there's like 6 different places you can go and most of them are a bad time. There's still various paths, dead ends and the likes in DS3 but you won't find yourself in an area you shouldn't be til 30 hours in or whatever 😄

Shields are still very useful in DS3. I don't actually use shields all that much though in any of the games though personally besides stopping projectiles. I mainly do dex builds and dodge roll a lot

I don’t think even I can write a review about UEFA Champions League 04/05, it’s one of the most bizarre pointless games I’ve ever played. Imagine FIFA 2005 but with a fraction of the teams, the ability to only play 4 leagues in a season mode and worse presentation. I guess it has the Champers license but it’s just utterly pointless. We might complain about DLC but imagine actually buying that game at the time. Like a full game with a disc and everything.

It’s no Three Lions.

And what an intro!

@Thrillho …is that Ocean Colour Scene?

@nessisonett Indeed it is!

1998 was quite the year for big musical intros to football games;

@Thrillho Road to World Cup 98 is such a brilliant game. Somehow ended up in the final with St Vincent and the Grenadines though so perhaps not the most realistic of games 😂

@nessisonett Yeah, I loved the game growing up. The World Cup mode was incredibly in depth really which made it kind of weird for them to then release a separate WC game too.

The indoor matches were amazingly good fun too!

currently playing these

Pokey Brilliant Diamond
Pokey Violet
Resident Evil 0 and Resident Evil 5 for my Nintendo Switch Lite
Tales of Symphonia Chronicles for my playstation 3
Mortal Kombat 10 for my Playstation 4
Mortal Kombat 11 for my Playstation 4

Started playing Grid Legends through EA Play. Absolutely crazy that I can be playing through so many great racing titles for only €4 a month. The service didn't really appeal to me before I started developing an interest for racing games lol.

Anyway, I've played one hour of the main story and it's pretty good actually. Didn't expect a racing game to have a compelling story. I also like how streamlined everything is, at least in the story mode. It just feels overall great to play. I'm definitely hooked on this game and I can't wait to play more.

I also discovered that the game has a traditional career mode. I had no idea about this, I thought it only had a story mode. If I knew that, I probably would've bought the game because it'll most likely take me dozens of hours to finish it if it's like other racing games. It doesn't matter now though because I'll just play through it anyway.

After buying Grid Legends and adding it to my backlog, I decided to use the rest of my month of EA Play playing through Grid (2019). It's not as good as Grid Legends, so I find it fitting to play it through EA Play instead of buying it. It's still a great racing game overall and I'm enjoying it a lot.

I've been enjoying my time with the Grid series this past week so much that it's become my second favourite racing series after Forza. It's such a good racing series! I'm shocked that not more people talk about it. There's always talk about Forza and Gran Turismo, but Grid is also a solid racing experience. It's so much fun exploring different series and I can't wait to try out Dirt, Project Cars, Burnout and also play more Need for Speed games.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure (PS5) - Just did the thing where you beat the "final boss" but it's not the final boss (looks like I have one more regular level & then the true final boss left to go), which for various reasons I was expecting. It definitely seems a bit more challenging overall compared to your average platformer, but the fact that it's not quite as tight to play as Mario or Astro Bot might play a part. It definitely has some memorable levels though.

Samurai Maiden (Steam) - A surprisingly pretty competent action game (sometimes you can't tell with these ecchi games), so far I think a 6 or 7 would be a fair assessment. So far I've completed the first 8 story missions and a few of the "bubble pocket" side missions (which are pretty much required for upgrade purposes). I wouldn't call it a straight up warriors clone though, and would say it mixes elements of Ninja Gaiden/Bayonetta type games, yes a bit of Warriors, and I'll guess & even say a bit of Souls (though this is just a guess as I haven't played any of those).

I’m finally playing Metal Gear Solid 2. It’s the one MGS game that I never finished.

I’m playing the HD remake by BluePoint on the Vita. It’s early hours, but my qualms with the game so far have to do with the Vita controls. The hybrid of top down viewpoint with FPS mixed in is a little off-putting to my current gaming muscle memory. Still, I’m enjoying the Kojima marriage of quirky and philosophical.

@Th3solution That game is a subversive bloody masterpiece. Enjoy!

@Th3solution MGS2 is bonkers and the story if kind of baffling but I think is possibly even more relevant today. Loads of stuff which is really important in the whole MGS timeline too.

It’s probably the MGS game I played the most as I got every single dog tag in the game. Some of the boss fights on extreme difficulty were just insane!

Even though I'm a huge fan of Metal Gear Solid 4, with it possibly being my favorite game of all time, I've never played any of the Metal Gear or Metal Gear Solid games previously. I should get the HD Collection and remedy that at some point given how good 2 and 3 are supposed to be.

At the very least, 4 would be my favorite experience of all time given that it was my first real cinematic gaming experience of that level, especially with it having an hour and a half long ending.