Finished Uncharted 4 last night. Very good game, put me in the mood to dust off my PS3 and play the first three again. Although I’ve got Dishonored 2 sitting there…
1 Like
Mario Kart 8 is great fun! We got it for the Wii U, for which we have the Gamepad, one Pro Controller (that’s the one shaped kinda like an Xbox controller) and two Remotes. I prefer using the Remotes with motion control for steering. My daughter likes using the thumbsticks on the Gamepad. We play in pairs or in groups of up to four when they have friends over. It’s always a hoot, as long as nobody has too much of a cutthroat competitive attitude.
But it sure helps to have a big-ass TV for multiplayer.
4 Likes
In my ongoing quest to get a few more achievements in old games I’ve set aside, I started playing Type:Rider again.
Pros: Very interesting game idea, lots of info about different fonts, extremely fun to go whizzing and bouncing through levels.
Cons: Very floaty & bouncy controls, makes movement quite random. On later levels, it becomes extremely easy for an errant bounce to end up placing you in an inescapable position.
I liked this one to start with, but got more and more frustrated as I went on. Then I reached the “bonus level” at the end, and started laughing and was entirely ready to take back all the horrible things I’d muttered about the game designers… and then several deaths later on a level with no checkpoints (and absolutely horrible soundtrack… the level is basically one long troll), I was back to cursing again.
Final reaction: I’m glad I played it, but also I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to put a game in my “completed” category and delete it from the drive. If I ever get the second achievement (out of two) in The Witness, it might surpass that.
1 Like
I’ve been playing Fortnite’s free Battle Royale mode. It’s been surprisingly fun although I’m not very good at it and it’s not the type of thing I normally play. The premise is that 100 people skydive onto an island and scavenge for weapons and healing supplies, while running to avoid being killed by a deadly storm, and the last one standing wins. The storm closing in continually shrinks (and moves) the space where you can survive, so you can’t just hide out. But stealth really helps. So far I’ve played against about 2500 other people and only gotten 3 kills, but placed top 10 in 25% of my games, 4th - 6th place about 1/6th of the time.
Last night I found a bush costume, put it on, snuck around a hill, saw another bush moving and shot it. That bush had a sniper rifle! Looted it and saw another bush that was waddling down the hill across the valley. Took a few long-range pot-shots before that bush ducked into cover. Ran and hid behind a rock, then started building a wall to try to have a safe place but someone with a much higher vantage point noticed the wall being built and shot me - I got 4th place.
Probably not something I’ll play long-term, but it’s a quick and fun diversion. Most games last less than 10 minutes.
Today I spent some time installing, removing DRM, patching, and configuring Silent Hunter III to work on Windows 10 along with a couple of mods and the SH3 Commander program. That’s a much slower, long-term, in-depth epic campaign game. But by the time I had it ready to play I had put enough time in for one day. 
4 Likes
I have also played this. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds appears to be the current King of the Hill and standard bearer of this emerging genre, but Fortnite’s implementation is both free and available on console.
Some of the very best games can basically be reduced to story-telling tools. What initially drew me to Minecraft many years ago was a written account of one player’s adventures, and various LPs on YouTube. It can be argued that even in the Battle Royale case, that these are systems-driven instead of narrative-driven, even if some of those systems are being controlled by other players.
4 Likes
At RockPaperShotgun’s suggestion, I picked up Superflight on Steam for $2.69. A blocky but gorgeous wingsuit flying game in a set of little procedurally generated pocket universes. It’s relaxing or exhilirating and scary depending on how aggressively you go for the big points.
It’s one of those games that’s great when you just want to play for a few minutes, but with some practice (or a sense of self-preservation) you can keep going for quite a while.
4 Likes
The backer preview version of Indivisible was released today, so I’ve been playing through a bit of it.
I was a big fan of Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2), and the music in this (done by the same composer) is a big nostalgia hit. The games are completely different, but the control system is similarly quirky… Indivisible is a side-scroller action game until you enter a fight, at which point it becomes a sort of hybrid between a fighting game and an RPG.
I’m still getting a handle of it… when you enter a fight, you can be in control of an entire party, with controller buttons corresponding to specific party members. A little tough to explain, and while it can be quite intuitive there are still parts of it that I have a little trouble tracking: for instance, you often need to block with specific party members, and while I’m easily able to translate from this button push = specific member attacking, I’m having a hard time going from specific member being attacked = push this button to block.
The backer preview is entirely focused on the mechanics, there’s none of the final game’s story in it so I can’t speak to that. There has clearly been a lot of work put into the character of the game, so I have pretty high hopes for it. Final release date is supposed to be some time next year.
3 Likes
Humble Bundle has released a new bundle, and it looks like a doozy. I wouldn’t normally post about them, but since 100% goes to charity on this one…
For just $30, you’ll get 27 great games collectively worth over $385.
100% of your payment will go to provide emergency response, medical care, and community rebuilding in the wake of recent natural disasters in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Texas, Florida, and more.
The only ones of the bundle that I’ve played are Starbound, Her Story, Machinarium, and Psychonauts… if I didn’t have them already (and weren’t trying to cut back on buying games), those alone would be tempting. Some of the others look pretty interesting as well.
1 Like
Ooh – it looks like Indivisible is coming to Switch. I might have to check that out. It looks pretty good, and just the sort of game that would work well on the console. I’ll wait for the reviews to come in though; I’m sick of being burned by pre-ordering games and backing things on Kickstarter.
Now that I’ve finished Breath of the Wild, I have to find my next game. I’m torn between Rime and The Flame And The Flood. Both look good. Octopath Traveler is also on Switch, but I got through the opening and was already worn out by all the dialog. I don’t think I have the patience for JRPG anymore, though I do have fond memories of ones like Secret of Mana.
3 Likes
Oh, should anyone have a PS4 and not have PS+ (like me), the online play is currently free until Sunday. Good time to pick up those online-only trophies if you’ve trained yourself into a Pavlovian state with those ‘dings’.
2 Likes
Super Mario Odyssey is really good. It is very much to 3D platformers what Breath of the Wild is to 3D action adventures. My daughter has enjoyed both watching and joining in as a second player. The goals are unstructured enough that it is easy to run off and go do something silly, and the game never really pushes too hard against that.
I have collected ~215/800 moons at this point, and have finished the story, and it still feels like there is plenty to do.
That is just a preview at this point, so you shouldn’t really view that with an eye towards completing it.
2 Likes
Battle Chef Brigade: it’s like a simple fantasy action JRPG meets Iron Chef. Maybe not $20 of cute, but Steam sale fodder.
1 Like
Brütal Legend is currently free at the Humble Bundle store. Heartily recommended \m/
2 Likes
And now Sanctum 2 is free at Humble just under 46 hours left.
I played the hell out this game for awhile. Tower Defense set up and FPS fighting during the waves.
2 Likes
Got the new wolfenstein there for £20.00 and the witcher 3 for 14 and in sanctum 2 and I have a weekend.
2 Likes
Picked up Horizon Zero Dawn and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy this morning (thanks America, Black Friday is one tradition I don’t mind you exporting) and grabbed the Uncharted collection from the US PSN store last night (despite owning them on PS3, $7.99? Hell yes). So that’s my console gaming sorted for the next few months, methinks.
5 Likes
I absolutely loved Brütal Legend, except for the tower defense / RTS part of the game… which turns out to be apparently most of the game. I adore the characters and artwork and licensed music and voice talent and just driving around in the Deuce listening to the tape deck, but managing the fans and merch and stuff… less fun there.
3 Likes
Probably the best way to think of it is as a space ship simulator, same as the earlier Elite games from the 1980s and 90s. If you buy it expecting an shooter like X-Wing you are probably not going to have a fun time.
2 Likes
Yeah, that took some time to get to grips with. Being able to fly in and whale on people made it a bit better, but unfortunately progression in the story is absolutely blocked if you can’t get passed the RTS sections.
From memory though, that’s only…six…possible places you can get stuck and never pass? 
2 Likes
Yeah, I stopped dead at the first concert. Found it too irritating to get past, so I couldn’t continue the story. And it’s such a bummer, because otherwise the game was totally made for me!
1 Like