Last game played...

[JamesC]

- growing up in Great Yarmouth  ....

Oh man!  You have my sympathies.

Ha ha - it had its good points. The arcades during the 'golden age' being one of them.

[Keef Monkey]

Battered through the Battlefield 1 campaign pretty quickly and enjoyed it a fair bit. Not usually that into real war shooters like that but this told some really good stories with some characters I really engaged with and cared about. The way it's split up into mini-stories too was quite a refreshing way of doing it, meant every hour or so you were getting a new setting and focus. Favourite was probably the pilot one, had some pretty epic aerial thrills and also some great on-foot levels. Plus, while it isn't enhanced for XB1X it does have HDR and some of that stuff looked flipping gorgeous.

[I, Cosh]

Hopelessly addicted to Stardew Valley on the Switch. I can't be trusted to work from home anymore as I'll think "Oh, I'll have a quick blast on this while I make a cup of tea." and look up four hours later.

[Zenith 666]

Switch has become my Achilles heel for work.Bloody can't put it down at the moment.highly recommend Owlboy and Celeste for anyone who's looking for something new to play.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Switch has become my Achilles heel for work.Bloody can't put it down at the moment.highly recommend Owlboy and Celeste for anyone who's looking for something new to play.

Don't buy Skyforce Reloaded. Just... don't. Minutes to hours in seconds.

[I, Cosh]

Switch has become my Achilles heel for work.Bloody can't put it down at the moment.highly recommend Owlboy and Celeste for anyone who's looking for something new to play.

Don't buy Skyforce Reloaded. Just... don't. Minutes to hours in seconds.

Is this just an update of the one that was free on PS+ a couple of months ago or a completely new game?

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

It's a sequel

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Just installed Path of Exile but it's so user-unfriendly as to be unplayable.

My character was blocked by an invisible wall until I did... something. I pressed every button and did everything I could think of, but nothing happened. I'm sure there was something, somewhere, in the myraid of menus but, as the game couldn't be arsed to tell me how to start then I can't be couldn't be arsed finding out.

Deliverately opaque games do my head in.

[Tiplodocus]

Tiny Tips was playing Celeste and Furi (?). Both looked rock hard, Celeste bonus levels especially so.

[JamesC]

Fire Shark - a vertical scrolling shmup from Toaplan.

This genre really seems to have fallen out of favour these days which is a shame. The fashion among the few niche games which do get made seems to be 'bullet hell' which requires super precise movement and pattern memorisation.
Fire Shark is from a simpler time though - if you keep your wits about you it's entirely possible to finish the game on a single life (not that I'm anywhere near good enough) and the whole thing feels absolutely fair.  It's slow enough that you can see what's happening (and react to it) but there's always plenty happening, some nice variety in enemies/patterns and it controls wonderfully. Far, far better that the vastly overrated 194x series. highly recommended if you like these sorts of games.

[radiator]

A friend lent he his copy of Zelda: Breath if the Wild, and it happily coincided with me getting the mother of all colds, so I've been digging in a lot over the weekend.

It's unsurprisingly great - I love the sense of freedom, of pure exploration, and I also appreciate the quietness, the fact that you only sparingly encounter enemies. I understand how some might perceive this as 'boring', but I like the more sedate pacing (most other exploration-based games try to throw enemies and set-pieces at you constantly for fear you'll get bored). I also like the fact that it's a challenging game, but only if you play recklessly, if that makes sense? They're not afraid to throw very deadly enemies at you, and for you to suddenly feel out of your depth, but because it's so easy to bypass and/or run away from encounters it never feels overwhelming or jarring. At times, it kinda feels like a big budget indie game, which is just great, and it's so, so refreshing to play a Zelda game where the world isn't so heavily gated and that you can pretty much go anywhere and do anything at any time.

I'm less convinced about the crafting side of things - the swapping/breaking of weapons and the cooking mechanic (which seems surprisingly simplistic and limited). I've got to admit - I don't really see what their inclusion adds to the game over just having standard weapon and health pickups.... Time will tell, I guess.

I also don't really like arriving at a village and having to talk to 25 NPCs and scrolling through reams of text. In general there's quite a lot more cutscenes and story stuff than I'd like - and the story itself seems pretty overly complicated for what it needs to be, and it's so at odds with the more free-wheeling, dynamic feel of the majority of the gameplay.

[Keef Monkey]

I just finished Space Hulk on the Vita this morning! It was hard, but also great and very satisfying but also ran like total dogshit and the AI on one of the missions was so buggy that that one was a slog to get through due to quitting out and reloading just to get the genestealers to actually take their turn. Super clunky, super sluggish and unresponsive, but the thrill of playing one of my favourite board games in bed and on the train and with no need for a friend outweighed it all and I loved it. I've never even gotten to play all the way through the board game campaign because every time I start it with anyone we do about a mission a year, so I feel like a bucket list item has now been ticked.

[JamesC]

A friend lent he his copy of Zelda: Breath if the Wild, and it happily coincided with me getting the mother of all colds, so I've been digging in a lot over the weekend.

It's unsurprisingly great - I love the sense of freedom, of pure exploration, and I also appreciate the quietness, the fact that you only sparingly encounter enemies. I understand how some might perceive this as 'boring', but I like the more sedate pacing (most other exploration-based games try to throw enemies and set-pieces at you constantly for fear you'll get bored). I also like the fact that it's a challenging game, but only if you play recklessly, if that makes sense? They're not afraid to throw very deadly enemies at you, and for you to suddenly feel out of your depth, but because it's so easy to bypass and/or run away from encounters it never feels overwhelming or jarring. At times, it kinda feels like a big budget indie game, which is just great, and it's so, so refreshing to play a Zelda game where the world isn't so heavily gated and that you can pretty much go anywhere and do anything at any time.

I'm less convinced about the crafting side of things - the swapping/breaking of weapons and the cooking mechanic (which seems surprisingly simplistic and limited). I've got to admit - I don't really see what their inclusion adds to the game over just having standard weapon and health pickups.... Time will tell, I guess.

I also don't really like arriving at a village and having to talk to 25 NPCs and scrolling through reams of text. In general there's quite a lot more cutscenes and story stuff than I'd like - and the story itself seems pretty overly complicated for what it needs to be, and it's so at odds with the more free-wheeling, dynamic feel of the majority of the gameplay.

I liked BOTW overall but felt like the designers sometimes forgot that games are supposed to be fun.
I didn't mind the cooking (not that it really added much to the gameplay) but found the weapons system really annoying. I remain convinced that this was supposed to be implemented with touchscreen functionality back when the game was designed to be a WiiU exclusive - it probably would have made the system more streamlined and less irritating.
The NPCs are always annoying in Zelda games so I expected that!
The other thing that really got on my nerves was when rain effectively shut off areas you were trying to explore. It wouldn't have been so bad if rain had meant that certain cliffs or walls took more stamina to climb but instead they just became impossible, meaning you had to go and build a fire somewhere and return when the rain had stopped (which isn't fun).
Overall it's a great game but I think if it had remained a WiiU exclusive it would have been better. Some of the systems would clearly have worked better on the touch screen and even using the gamepad to display maps would have been useful (although those motion controlled rolling ball puzzles can get fucked).

[radiator]

Strongly agree on the rain. I wouldn't mind but it often seems like it's raining half the bloody time, and it's just aggravating when you just want to get from A to B, or you're unable to climb out of a river and end up drowning. The day/night cycle can also be a little irritating, especially if you have no means to make a fire and have to sit around twiddling your thumbs. I think it's a little more annoying than usual as the cycle seems a lot longer than other Zelda games.

I don't think there's any doubt that it was intended to be a Wii U exclusive - the Sheika slate is basically a Wii U gamepad! You're right that the crafting mechanics make a lot more sense if they are touch/stylus based.

[jacob g]

Actually I like the rain obstacle. Zelda nailed the part where you not only prepare for combat but for exploration. What about your horse? What about your stamina? What about weather? Should I cook more stamina enhancers? etc

Maybe I'm still not on board with weapons but other than that I love exploring part.