GRcade

Playing Shovel Knight again, but on Switch, the Shovel of Hope campaign. I intend to go through all the campaigns before King Knight's Campaign comes out.

More Grandia II, was having issues with the camera angle being far too close so installed a mod to zoom further out which definitely makes navigation easier (theres no map) but also zooms out the UI making it impossible to read which means constantly adjusting zoom levels depending on what I'm doing.

I'm also stuck on the 2nd boss encounter which is somewhat annoying.

The one guy who apologized to me in DayZ about 'going along' with the racism was one last night and wanted to chat, he was extremely apologetic and seemed genuine so I let it be, the other 2 are going to remain blocked, we met up and I was helping him look for nails for a base he was building, during our travels we seen a dude in a town, we co-ordinated and then I spotted him behind me (we were in VOICE chat and asked him to talk and we sound like). He didn't and I spotted him trying to make a run for it and I killed him! My first legit kill. I was well chuffed, although I got killed from another player shortly after (but DayZ is gonna DayZ).

My kill:

You bastard.

My experience playing DayZ with my housemate back in 2011 remains one of my favourite gaming memories. We once spent about 3 sessions slowly making our way to the airfield and literally as we got there he tried to shoot at a zombie over me as I was crouched and one shotted me in the back of the head!

Bought me a curry to apologise though.

We did head to the Airfield in the dead of night with torches, actually that was one thing I noticed. Other guys played on Base Xbox’s but I always thought the 4K was only upgrade but light sources seem to be too, the amount of times guys couldn’t see me despite on my screen being lit up by my torch, also up in ATC tower I could see other guy MILES away because of his torch, even used binoculars and could see it moving about inside a building casting shadows etc but guy beside me couldn’t see it at all, I think base Xbox might have just a feint lighting effect or something massively reduced.

Trying to platinum Days Gone, but those bird nest things are a pain to burn.

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon on GBA (also called simply Castlevania in the UK). I’ve been playing this over the last couple of weeks and I think I’m nearing the end just have one major area and one optional area left to clear before attempting the end boss.

I’ve beaten this once before but only with rather liberal use of Action Replay codes to level up more and acquire healing items.

The game could really have done with a shop for you to buy basic supplies from like in Symphony of the Night since all items and equipment are random loot drops from enemies, many are frustratingly rare drops too.

Mass Effect 2 (PS3).

I completed the game on the 360 and genuinely thought I had on PS3 too, but checking my trophies I have not. Never played ME3 past the opening section on the 360 so now is the time to rectify that.

I'm going to put all my other big games to one side for the time being and focus on ME.

Started ME2 about an hour ago and it's still bloody marvellous. Fem-Shep all the way.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (GBA). I finished Circle of the Moon this afternoon and thought I’d crack on with the next in the GBA Castlevania trilogy. Enjoying it thus far although I feel I’ve stumbled into an area I shouldn’t quite be in yet as the last boss I fought was doing way more damage than I’m used to.

Picked up Castle Crashers Remastered on Nintendo Switch yesterday, really enjoying it. I played it originally on X360 years ago and it still feels good to play. It can be pretty tough at times so levelling up your character and choosing the right weapon/animal orb combo is pretty crucial. Would recommend this to anyone who enjoys 2D side scroller beat em up’s.

Still working my way through Uncharted 1... it's pretty tough going. I've said before that it may seem harsh to gooseberry fool on the game as it's older now, but it's a new experience to me and it's just so much shabbier than I was expecting.

A big thing is that I don't think I was expecting quite so much shooting, like the vast majority of the game seems to be shooting people, with the odd bit of platforming or driving and even rarer instance of a "puzzle" being thrown in. And therefore it really doesn't do itself any favours that the shooting gameplay is just so very poor. This is a good while after the first Gears of War and it gets the cover shooting mechanics so badly wrong in comparison to that game that it's incredible.

Zombies type creatures have just turned up now as well, which is just

Jenuall wrote:Still working my way through Uncharted 1... it's pretty tough going. I've said before that it may seem harsh to gooseberry fool on the game as it's older now, but it's a new experience to me and it's just so much shabbier than I was expecting.

A big thing is that I don't think I was expecting quite so much shooting, like the vast majority of the game seems to be shooting people, with the odd bit of platforming or driving and even rarer instance of a "puzzle" being thrown in. And therefore it really doesn't do itself any favours that the shooting gameplay is just so very poor. This is a good while after the first Gears of War and it gets the cover shooting mechanics so badly wrong in comparison to that game that it's incredible.

Zombies type creatures have just turned up now as well, which is just

Mate the suddenly zombies is so out of left field it's great. Also you should try using shotguns and the strong pistols, they are way punchier and generally just feel weightier and nicer to shoot.

ITSMILNER wrote:Picked up Castle Crashers Remastered on Nintendo Switch yesterday, really enjoying it. I played it originally on X360 years ago and it still feels good to play. It can be pretty tough at times so levelling up your character and choosing the right weapon/animal orb combo is pretty crucial. Would recommend this to anyone who enjoys 2D side scroller beat em up’s.

Worth it in singleplayer or just co-op?

Jenuall wrote:Still working my way through Uncharted 1... it's pretty tough going. I've said before that it may seem harsh to gooseberry fool on the game as it's older now, but it's a new experience to me and it's just so much shabbier than I was expecting.

A big thing is that I don't think I was expecting quite so much shooting, like the vast majority of the game seems to be shooting people, with the odd bit of platforming or driving and even rarer instance of a "puzzle" being thrown in. And therefore it really doesn't do itself any favours that the shooting gameplay is just so very poor. This is a good while after the first Gears of War and it gets the cover shooting mechanics so badly wrong in comparison to that game that it's incredible.

Zombies type creatures have just turned up now as well, which is just

It's shite. 2 is quite a big step forward, the shooting isnt hugely improved but the pacing of it makes a massive difference. 1 is a pretty short game and I was bored out of my mind within a couple of hours. So if you can see it through (I'd recommend just sticking it on the easiest setting if its really a slog) and give 2 a chance. Then you'll know if you want to play the others.

I sat down last night and got stuck into Final Fantasy XII. I had bought it back in 2006 for the PS2 but having being spoiled with Zelda Twilight Princess and Halo 1 & 2 along with 2's online shenanigans, when I booted this up and it looked pretty drab in comparison I didn't really warm to it at all and the battle system confused me (the only FF game I had played before it was FF7). I probably played 2 hours maximum.

Fast forward to last night, it's only 1080p on X1X but it is 60fps (although in real terms it doesn't impact the actual game play) so it all runs silky smooth. Through either anti aliasing or motion blur, the upscaling for 4K doesn't reveal many jaggies at all, (Alien Isolation looks terrible in this regard doing the same 1080-2160 upscaling).

Anyway, despite a slow opening and the slow drip drip of game mechanics, I got past that initial 3hr hump which I had read about to open the game and the gambit system properly. I really like this, I actually understand what's going on with the story and I'm engaged more than I thought I would and I can see myself tinkering with the gambit system more and more.

I also picked up FF IX (9) (all FF games are on sale on Xbox this week) and the little I played of it was impressive, the backgrounds don't look too bad, FF7's look HORRENDOUSLY blurry but after 12 I'm glad I have 9 to go back to as I can only follow 1 JRPG story at a time I find.

Was playing FFIX last night and I'm like 90% sure the battles were running at 30fps. Now I would rather 60 or 120, but, it's odd cause I am sure to strawberry float that when I last played it the battles were 12fps. The battles genuinely seemed to be a ton smoother.

I:m using that Moguri Mod and it makes the game look so much nice too.

It took me many attempts to get into FFIX. It just didn't hook me and I must have started it a good half a dozen times before it finally clicked and I played it to completion. Weirdly I don't remember that much of the story and I think about a quarter of my playtime was preparation for the optional boss.

Torchlight 2

IAmTheSaladMan wrote:It took me many attempts to get into FFIX. It just didn't hook me and I must have started it a good half a dozen times before it finally clicked and I played it to completion. Weirdly I don't remember that much of the story and I think about a quarter of my playtime was preparation for the optional boss.

I've been playing it on and off for a while, but it's one of the few Final Fantasy games that I think is genuinely really good.

Still really enjoying Final Fantasy XII, I'm hooked fully now, absolutely love the game, the music too is stellar nearly up with FFXIII. It also doesn't look too bad tbh, It's clean low poly models kind of give it a certain style.



As for FF IX, I really REALLY liked the first hour so I'm genuinely looking forward to it after 12.

Photek wrote:Still really enjoying Final Fantasy XII, I'm hooked fully now, absolutely love the game, the music too is stellar nearly up with FFXIII. It also doesn't look too bad tbh, It's clean low poly models kind of give it a certain style.

As for FF IX, I really REALLY liked the first hour so I'm genuinely looking forward to it after 12.

Pro-tip: The area from that shot is a good place to farm loot - the skeleton dudes will keep respawning lots if you move around (periodically you will need to move away a couple of screens to get them to start spawning again) - you can easily amass enough loot to sell for 10,000+ to the merchant outside.

I've been playing a lot of this over the last week as well. I bounced off it in the PS2 days but have really been enjoying it now. I think being more open to the Gambit system has helped - I just didn't like the fact it was different at the time. The 2/4x speed options really help as well.