Currently Playing in 2019....

#BigTheCatForSmash

Yeah it's just back then I felt like I was pretty mocked for just because I happen to genuinely enjoy Adventure games, and few other 3D sonic games. I won't lie, I do enjoy 2D sonic games but I've find myself that I prefer 3D games to them. At least up to Unleashed/Colours/Generations, didn't play Forces but it looks pretty dull to me.

Quantum Break a seeing as I've got a couple of months on Game Pass for £2

Really not a fan of the controls or the combat for starters, been done so much better in other games, but something about it is entertaining and the whole TV show/Game story thing is novel enough to hold my attention.

The Sonic fandom looks at new games with mirth and contempt most of the time, then some years after release start appreciating the finer points of the game - except where there's n0 6uch redeeming qualities. In five years' time, Forces will probably be looked on the same way.

And Big the Cat for Smash... I... don't know what to say.

Been burning through my PS4 backlog this summer, finished Bloodborne, Wolfenstein New Order/Old Blood and The Last of Us and now I'm onto Shadow of Mordor. Enjoying it so far, the combat is fairly satisfying but seems a bit basic at the minute so hopefully new ability tiers will open up more options. The Nemesis system is pretty clever too and I can see myself sinking a lot of time into the power struggles.
My one complaint is the camera, it's just too damn close and there's no option to change it. Makes keeping track of big groups of enemies a pain, same with trying to look around at the scenery.

DarkRula wrote:The Sonic fandom looks at new games with mirth and contempt most of the time, then some years after release start appreciating the finer points of the game - except where there's n0 6uch redeeming qualities. In five years' time, Forces will probably be looked on the same way.

I dunno, my boyfriend is more Sonic fan than myself, and has said that Sonic Forces is pretty bad game -- and from what I've seen it does look like it.

But otherwise yeah, I agree. Unleashed is still my favourite 3D Sonic game personally, the werehog sections are bit naff but rest of the game is great fun.

Sonic Adventure 2 is a solid game in my view, I really enjoyed it when it came out and remember getting the top rank on all the stages, unlocking the secret GHZ level and the like.

It's not a perfect game and there are plenty of things to improve but I happily played through it again on Steam a couple of years ago and still think it holds up well. Some of the Sonic/Shadow stages are class: City Escape, Green/White Forest, Metal Harbor - all top drawer stuff in my book!

Tafdolphin wrote:Death of the Outsider

Just got my powers, and was overjoyed to find the mana bar refills completely over time. One of my major grudges with immersive sims is that they are often designed around the use of special abilities but limit the use of them due to balancing. Here, Arkane have found the holy grail: a set of powers that are readily available and never over-powered.

It's good.

This game isn't perfect, but it has one of the best Dishonored missions in it. I really liked this expansion, I wanted more. You can also explode people by warping into them, so that's always good.

I'm playing Prey and Papers Please on the PC. The latter is really strange. I'm crap at it as well.

Brerlappin wrote:The combat really is dreadful in Bioshock. Its not just that the base gunplay is poor (poor feedback, poor aiming, guns just dont "feel" right), but the constant need to play pipemania to hack a turret or sentry bot and thus give yourself any kind of advantage, slows the pace of every firefight down to absolutely glacial proportions. Theres also absolutely no reason why you should have to choose between using plasmids or guns, it jsut limits what you can do. And the "one two punch" of zap em, den wack em, as Atlas would say, is yet again just slowed down by and made fiddly by having to switch between plasmids and guns for your one-two.

Believe me, i say this as someone who finished Bioshock about 7 or 8 times and though of it as my favourite game of all time circa 2007-8. Its just a game that better in nostalgia than in actuality.

Started playing Bio1 for the first time tonight and yeah I'm finding this absolutely to be the case. The combat really doesn't flow elegantly at all and the bullet sponge enemies lead to a clunky war of attrition. I'm on hard difficulty, in which I love the limited resources but don't love the long enemy health bars.

My god the atmosphere is stunningly realised though, it hooked me in right away! Plus, though I'm not sure how much the Remastered version has changed things, the visuals are still utterly stunning and hold up a treat in 4k. I'm primarily enjoying it as a horror game, which it has been very effective at so far...although realising you can respawn without much consequence has diminished the tension somewhat

Jazzem wrote: I'm primarily enjoying it as a horror game, which it has been very effective at so far...although realising you can respawn without much consequence has diminished the tension somewhat

Dunno if it's same in remaster, but you can turn off the respawn to make it more challenging. It was added in original game via update, there's even achievement for doing whole game without dying as well.

I personally don't mind combat in Bioshock 1, though it is much better in Bioshock 2.

Also I played SADX yesterday and completed all of it including the last story within six hours. In past I used to prefer SA to SA2 but nowadays it's not the case, it's wonky as hell that it likes to send Sonic off to death and camera feels worse in first. Plus DX / xbla version is worst port, can only display it in 4:3 and LOT of lighting issues.

That being said I still had fun! Plus Knuckles' radar is much better than in SA2.

Think I'll try to get all emblems too, but I think I won't do any Chao raising for too long since I dislike the areas in SA1.

People saying Bioshock is a horror game has always confused me, I just never got that vibe at all. It's a bit creepy in parts maybe but I can't remember being that scared and Dead Rising 3 had me scared on occasion.

The Art Deco and style though hasn't been surpassed (for me) in gaming since, Bioshock 2 is even better looking and more expansive in this respect and doesn't suffer the later poor level design in B1. I'm very jealous of people playing Bioshock 1 for the first time though, it's a masterpiece for the first 3/4 of it.

Not to hark back but I still think, as an opening, Infinite will never be surpassed. The first 30mins of it are so achingly gorgeous, it's a pity to see Columbia descend so
rapidly into a warzone for the entire game onwards.

Dead Cells

So good that after each failed attempt I say one more go and when I look at the clock it's 2am in the morning.

Sonic Adventure DX on 360 still, spent a while on getting emblems -- I've got all action stages bar Sonic, which I will work on tonight.

It's actually lot easier than I thought. Was dreading Knuckles', but it ended up quicker and actually enjoyable. The radar system in that game is so good, wish SA2 would have it

Big though can sod off. I like the character and main objective, but the actual fishing is annoying and fickle. So glad that's over and done with (until I do missions anyway ... but that's after I've got all original 130 emblems)

Also same Switch games as before, on go (in bus) and at home.

I haven't played anything in days. Will try to get back to the excellent Dead Cells later today.

imbusydoctorwho wrote:Dead Cells

So good that after each failed attempt I say one more go and when I look at the clock it's 2am in the morning.

That's me except I resist the urge to smash my pad in the wall and chuck the PS4 out the window. Though that only really happens when I lose cells in the double figures without having used grenades, etc.

Disneyland Adventures

Included with Game Pass and my wife is a Disney nut so I said Id give this a whirl. Its very much not meant for me and I wouldnt give it more than 10 minutes but she really seemed to enjoy it. You just run around the park meeting characters and occasionally going on the rides. The rides being a series of unfailable mini games that have little to nothing to do with the actual rides. There are "secrets" to find during each mini game, sometimes this is a Mickey Mouse shaped token, sometimes its smashing certain things, sometimes its just doing the goal of the mini game. The multiplare part is really weird, when youre around the park, player 1 controls both players, the avatar for player 2 just follows them around and does the same thing they do but in the mini games you have full control. Its very strange but Im guessing its for kids, so the parent can actually go to where they need to go to do stuff and the kid can take part in the mini games.

I wouldnt bother with it usually but if she likes it then I might end up paying more of it.

Rax wrote:Disneyland Adventures

Included with Game Pass and my wife is a Disney nut so I said Id give this a whirl. Its very much not meant for me and I wouldnt give it more than 10 minutes but she really seemed to enjoy it. You just run around the park meeting characters and occasionally going on the rides. The rides being a series of unfailable mini games that have little to nothing to do with the actual rides. There are "secrets" to find during each mini game, sometimes this is a Mickey Mouse shaped token, sometimes its smashing certain things, sometimes its just doing the goal of the mini game. The multiplare part is really weird, when youre around the park, player 1 controls both players, the avatar for player 2 just follows them around and does the same thing they do but in the mini games you have full control. Its very strange but Im guessing its for kids, so the parent can actually go to where they need to go to do stuff and the kid can take part in the mini games.

I wouldnt bother with it usually but if she likes it then I might end up paying more of it.

There are voices in my head telling me not to inquire further about this game but reluctantly here goes From what you've said I'm guessing its easy enough for a five year old to get into?

Meanwhile in grown up on land more Quantum Break on Game Pass. Up to Act 5 Stage 2 now and on Hard and it is still pretty easy, have heard tales of difficulty spikes on here especially in regards to the last boss though.

Now I've got a gun setup I like and all the powers with upgrades it's a little more fun in terms of the combat and controls but still far from where it needs to be in order to be a great third person shooter technically, for me at least. Story's ok, bit mundane, have to say an hour and half of TV has done absolutely nothing to drive the plot really. It's like the game and tv show whilst co existing are at the same time completely separate and not part of the same story, even though they are, I realise I make no sense.

Still it's entertaining enough, and assuming I get this Hard play through done an easy completion to boot.

Manwell Pablo wrote:

Rax wrote:Disneyland Adventures

Included with Game Pass and my wife is a Disney nut so I said Id give this a whirl. Its very much not meant for me and I wouldnt give it more than 10 minutes but she really seemed to enjoy it. You just run around the park meeting characters and occasionally going on the rides. The rides being a series of unfailable mini games that have little to nothing to do with the actual rides. There are "secrets" to find during each mini game, sometimes this is a Mickey Mouse shaped token, sometimes its smashing certain things, sometimes its just doing the goal of the mini game. The multiplare part is really weird, when youre around the park, player 1 controls both players, the avatar for player 2 just follows them around and does the same thing they do but in the mini games you have full control. Its very strange but Im guessing its for kids, so the parent can actually go to where they need to go to do stuff and the kid can take part in the mini games.

I wouldnt bother with it usually but if she likes it then I might end up paying more of it.

There are voices in my head telling me not to inquire further about this game but reluctantly here goes From what you've said I'm guessing its easy enough for a five year old to get into?

It should be yeah, theres a glowing orange trail that always points to where you need to go, you cant fail the minigames from what Ive seen and the hardest part of the controls is selecting items, that requires holding down LB and using the stick, everything else is one button push. If you play with them then you can do all of the park stuff, their character will literally just follow your every move, no matter what they do, and then in the mini games they can take control of their own character. If they like Disney, then chances are they will like this, especially if theyve been to a park and know about the autograph and pin badge stuff. Just be prepared for some slow load times.

Among other games already mentioned, Sonic 3 (the 'Complete' ROM). Up to Zone 5 and while I'm enjoying it overall, it has kind rubbed me the wrong way - in ways the prior classic Sonic games hadn't really. Granted, when I played Sonic CD it was the excellent Taxman enhanced port, so when going from that to this it feels like a bit of a downgrade.

I appreciate the more creative approaches to progression in this game compared to others, but they're not always well implemented. I just passed the infamous barrel in the Carnival Zone. Simple now that I know what to do, but no precedent was set for it earlier on.