Currently Playing in 2019....

Oxenfree. I know nothing about this, save that it's meant to be good.

I had Daytona on 360 when it came out, thought it was pants. I revisited it in Back Compat and love it, it itches the teenage me seeing it in the arcades.

Photek wrote:I had Daytona on 360 when it came out, thought it was pants. I revisited it in Back Compat and love it, it itches the teenage me seeing it in the arcades.

Blue blue skies

Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage on PS3. So far so Musou. If you've played one of these games you've played them all however Fist of the North Star perhaps seems the most suited source material for the franchise.

Got far too many games on the go, but these are the main ones occupying my time.

Xenoblade Chronicles
Really enjoying this. Hadn’t touched it for a few weeks due to a lack of time, but then had a good 3 hour or so session last night. All just around Gaur Plain really, completing a few side quests, grinding, exploring, levelling up my arts and getting new equipment…lovely stuff. Hoping to get another couple of hours in tonight, but weeknights are never good for that kind of thing. The combat system has a depth to it that goes beyond my level of interest, but thankfully you can ignore most of it without detriment (so far anyway). Some of the quests are frustratingly ambiguous, and I've died a few times due to massive, high-level monsters coming out of nowhere and joining into battles that didn't concern them, but otherwise it's really good fun.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD
Very much enjoying the simple goal-oriented, classic gameplay here. Soundtrack still sounds great, and while the controls feel a bit unresponsive at times, for the most part it feels fine. When THPS is good, it's damn good.

And because my 'currently playing' pile wasn't big enough, I had a sudden urge to play some…

F-Zero GX
I completed the Story Mode quite a while ago but never got around to fully completing all of the GPs or unlocking all machines/parts. Think I'd just done them all on Easy and Normal. So I'm going through on Expert now and trying to unlock everything. I've done the first GP (can't remember its name) but the final three are pretty tough...I can get down to the final race on all of them with overall 1st place still being up for grabs, but I either finish too low or push so hard that I end up losing all my machines. Must practice more!

I finally cracked open the wrapper on Steep this week. It's an absolutely lovely looking game that cracks along at a fair speed (maybe a wee bit smoother on PS4 Pro). Typical Ubisoft open world game with icons all over the map and no explanation on what to do or where to go. Plays like a combination of Skate, Burnout Paradise and Far Cry/Just Cause. I just wish I was cooler so I actually gave a gooseberry fool about the 3 million clothing/accessories that are available.

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen

I'm glad I enabled the option to double the timer length (in mission and 'Avatar project') as the game seems to be far more challenging now. Those new enemy types are absolute nightmares to fight, especially when one of the Chosen shows up during a mission involving swarms of 'Lost' zombies.

Many years ago I started Dark Souls and gave up pretty quickly, on account of it being premium-grade bullshite, and subsequently traded it in for something far more enjoyable. I forget what - repeatedly punching myself in the ballsack, possibly. Time passed and, upon buying a PS4, I picked up a copy of Bloodborne as it was touted as being the 'killer app'. However, my time with this game was also brief as it too shared the Dark Souls trait of being bollocks of the highest order. With Bloodborne buried in a shallow grave in the garden, which next door's cat chose as the prime location upon which to dump (that's how I like to remember it, anyways), a line was drawn under these tedious arse-fests and a vow was taken never to touch a Souls game ever again. Lesson learned. Until I got caught up in the hype for Dark Souls 3 and bought it on release. I'm not sure what had changed - I certainly had fewer alternatives at the time as I was a bit skint having just successfully financed a divorce from an overweight wife - but I stuck with it, got gud, got gudder, and actually finished the game. It's fair to say I really enjoyed that attritional wankpot of a game and, believing I had now gained a greater insight into how these games should be played, I dug up Bloodborne from its shitty resting place and started the journey again. Long story short, I finished Bloodborne, then went on to Dark Souls 2, finished that, played through Bloodborne again, and now I've gone back to the original Dark Souls and, whilst I wouldn't describe it as 'easy', it's definitely a lot more enjoyable now I've developed the right skill set for it. I even got up early to get an hour in before work. Doesn't look the best, mind, and there's an awful pixel 'twinkling' effect going on most of the time (playing it on Xbone). So, yeah, not bad so far.

The Division - location is great but gameplay is a bit samey but will stick at it for now.

After finishing Bioshock started Far Cry 4 for my next FPS but realised it was open world similar to The Division so have put that on the backburner for now and moved to:

Halo 2 Anniversary MMC - On legendary. strawberry float me this is a challenge. Took me about 5 hours to do the first level and kept me up until 3am. Second level not quite as long. As someone who was underwhelmed by the the campaign when it first came out and not played it since I am actually quite enjoying it - there's just something about playing it on legendary. Although I'm under the impression the first few levels were the best and it was the Arbiter levels and when the Brutes turn up that it went downhill. Also have vague memories of an endless corridor on a spaceship.

Ryse Son of Rome - Pretty much done with this now. Played through the campaign twice and then the "solo" multiplayer levels and a bit of survival. Got the 1000 executions on multiplayer achievement and while there are few more not too far away it can take a while finding a match. Some Yank I was paired with who was lecturing an audience about the game while it was loading disconnected once the intro sequence began. Presumably he looked at my gear and didn't think I was ranked high enough to make it worth him gracing my company! For a GWG I can't complain.

Mortal Kombat XL - Having loved MK 1 & 2 and SFII back in the day but not having not really played a similar type game since I've really enjoyed playing this. Working towards achievements really gives an incentive to play it through trying all the different characters. I've actually won a couple of matches online that I wasn't expecting.

Gears of War 4 - After the recent update thought I would give Horde go for the first ever time. Got to wave 22 and then everyone else just quit. Not sure why. One person was out on his own score wise, then was a group of 3, me in the middle, who were pretty close together and then one straggler. We seemed to be holding our own well enough. Will probably give it another go,

Battlefield One - Tried the new Russian levels. Seem like a good addition. As always a lot depends on the type of squad you are in.

I really look like a stereotypical Xbox one gamer who likes shooting things!

Hit me up for any Gears, Division or Battlefield memes.

You invited me a couple of weeks back but was driving other half to her job.

II wrote:XCOM 2: War of the Chosen

I'm glad I enabled the option to double the timer length (in mission and 'Avatar project') as the game seems to be far more challenging now. Those new enemy types are absolute nightmares to fight, especially when one of the Chosen shows up during a mission involving swarms of 'Lost' zombies.

FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU...

Had to rage quit a mission last night after a glitch caused one of my best soldiers to completely vanish (they weren't killed) and rather helpfully the game autosaaved on the exact same turn.

It was an incredibly difficult mission too but it was basically the only way to avoid utter defeat after a previous failed mission ended rather badly.

Tekken 7.

Haven't played Tekken in a while. Really enjoying this. Loads of content as well.

Momodora Reverie Under the Moonlight. This game is strawberry floating fantastic so far. Challenging but fair. Great atmosphere, nice pixel art. Simple combat. Explored about 50% of the map, and just got the cat ability.

Squinty wrote:Momodora Reverie Under the Moonlight. This game is strawberry floating fantastic so far. Challenging but fair. Great atmosphere, nice pixel art. Simple combat. Explored about 50% of the map, and just got the cat ability.

Ah I went through that earlier in the year, aye it's great! Didn't expect it to have such a dark atmosphere but it's surprisingly effective. Super fun and polished metroidvania all round

There was a great SGDQ run of it too:

Jazzem wrote:

Squinty wrote:Momodora Reverie Under the Moonlight. This game is strawberry floating fantastic so far. Challenging but fair. Great atmosphere, nice pixel art. Simple combat. Explored about 50% of the map, and just got the cat ability.

Ah I went through that earlier in the year, aye it's great! Didn't expect it to have such a dark atmosphere but it's surprisingly effective. Super fun and polished metroidvania all round

There was a great SGDQ run of it too:

Beat it in two sessions

Great wee game. Glad I bought it. That speed run is incredible

Jazzem wrote:

Squinty wrote:Momodora Reverie Under the Moonlight. This game is strawberry floating fantastic so far. Challenging but fair. Great atmosphere, nice pixel art. Simple combat. Explored about 50% of the map, and just got the cat ability.

Ah I went through that earlier in the year, aye it's great! Didn't expect it to have such a dark atmosphere but it's surprisingly effective. Super fun and polished metroidvania all round

There was a great SGDQ run of it too:

I completed this earlier this year. I was actually shocked at how good it was. Really super fun.

I think it was your post that spurred me into playing it actually. I bought it in a sale, cause it looked good and reviewed well, and I like metroidvania style games.

I'm weirdly apphrensive about trying new games, so it probably would have sat in my backlog for a year or so, if not for the post. So cheers!

XCOM 2 update: I think I've attempted this particular mission too early as I still haven't got the top tier weapons and the enemies are too powerful for my soldiers to effectively fend off with the equipment they have.

Child of Light - Gorgeous looking game ruined by crappy looking 3D model of main character

Saint of Killers wrote:Child of Light - Gorgeous looking game ruined by crappy looking 3D model of main character

You should see the character you get later on. She looks strawberry floating hilarious. You'll know when you get there.