Last game played...

[Theblazeuk]

Dishonoured 2 - it's good, love the world building, can never get over how easy it is to just moider everyone. The powers allow a lot of fun but honestly don't need them if I'm on a good murder spree. Tend to play stealthy/non-murderous just to add a bit of challenge. Not really using any power other than Far Reach to swing around like spiderman.

[Keef Monkey]

(posted this in the Switch thread accidentally so will move it here!)

Played through Watchdogs 2 over the holidays and had a great time. The systems give you lots of scope to figure out your own solutions to missions and make it really satisfying, there were loads of times I didn't physically enter a mission area, but crept around the periphery remote-controlling my drone and RC car thingy to stealth through areas and hack what needed hacked. It makes for a really unique approach to stealth, and gives it a ton of player agency.

People seemed really down on the first game in general so would be a shame if that put people off because this is a real step up, it's got some swagger and confidence that was missing before, the tone is way more fun and the characters and lead are great. Didn't expect to like it as much as I did, but it was brilliant.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Hard as nails. But really good fun. And nice to see Hitler as a self-pissing semi-senile maniac, yet still keeping his insance murderous pyscopathy.

[pictsy]

Finally finished Resident Evil 6 with my friend (we didn't get to play much over the hols).  Gah, the game is bad.  The Leon campaign turned out to have it's own frustrations and I think is marginally better than the Chris campaign.  Both are considerably better than the Jake campaign.  I really didn't enjoy it that much and any of the cool or interesting bits were over-shadowed by its failures - of which there were many.

I also purchased Lollipop Chainsaw before Christmas and finished it pretty quickly.  It was a fun game that I thoroughly enjoyed.  I liked its goofiness and the music themed bosses.  I think it also has replay value as I'd like to unlock more of the stuff.  I like it's art style, also.  Bright colours and comic book aesthetic... nice

There are a bunch of games that are candidates for my next playthroughs.  Finished Dead Space 3 might be a priority, but it looks like Metal Gear Peacewalker is now an option.  I also have both Baldur's Gates (I never played the second one, but loved the first one when it came out) and Odin Sphere Leifthrasir.

[Smith]

Got aome stuff at GOG.Stronghold Crusader,Jazz Jackrabbit,Army Men RTS...

[Keef Monkey]

Congratulations on making it through Resi 6! It's a slog and no mistake, although as a fan of the series I'm glad I trudged through it for curiosity's sake. Lollipop Chainsaw is great fun, I'll buy anything Grasshopper put out because they're always unique and entertaining, the No More Heroes games are fantastic. There's such a madcap creative energy to their games that you never quite know what madness is going to happen next. Their next game is Switch exclusive, so that'll probably be the thing that finally sways me to get one. 

[NapalmKev]

Call of Duty: WW2

Some good, some bad!

The good - The multiplayer reminds me of the original Black-Ops in terms of gameplay, which is a good thing as I think that B-Ops is still the best CoD to date. I'm glad the Developers have gotten rid of the awful wall-running/Double-Jumping which i'm not a fan of at all! The level design is good but not great, sadly. None of the Maps leap out as anything truly exceptional but at the same time none of them are completely shit. The Graphics are superb with rich detailed battlegrounds, no garish oranges, yellows and teals here!

Zombies is quite good and offers a little bit more to the formula with activities to do around the Map rather than just herding the fuckers into a group and wiping them out. And the Easter eggs are actually achievable by standard/average players.


The bad - only 9 multiplayer maps (10 with season pass) which is a bit of a piss take. It's been suggested by some that this might be due to having to change the game halfway through the development cycle which may be the case but I can't play Team Deathmatch on excuses. There's a mode called 'War' which has been Stolen borrowed from the likes of Battlefield 1 and Destiny. It's a dull game mode and made all the worse because we will now get less multiplayer maps in the Season pass (3 instead of 4) because 'War' maps are separate.


I like the game and consider it one of the best CoD's in years but the lack of maps is starting to grate a bit.

Cheers

[pictsy]

I have started dipping back into Yakuza 5.  I love this game.  It can be weird and hilarious, but also mundane.  I finally moved to the second act after my stellar career as a taxi driver and have just gone through a ridiculous sequence of events.  The game can be just so engaging.  I love the combat, which is not over-complicated but satisfying in what depth it has (and there is some depth).  I love the mini-games and have unfortunately only been able to play pool once.  There is such variety in what you can do.  The main story is compelling enough that I feel I am totally lost having not played any of the previous games.  It's taking me a while to get through it as it is a long game, but even after long breaks I can pick it up and carry on playing like I had only stopped yesterday.  Thoroughly entertaining.

Also completed the Resident Evil 5 extra content 'Lost in Nightmares'.  This was pretty good content and showed the Res5 engine could do something more leaning towards survival horror.  The only downside to it was it's length.  It was really short.

Lastly, after completing Lost in Nightmares we went on to play and complete Metal Slug 3.  It's an OK game that looks good, but it was a shallow experience.  It felt like we were playing with cheats, because no matter how much we died we just kept coming back.  I'm guessing that it may have been an arcade coin eater and the only peril was how much money you had left to spend on it.  It didn't take long to complete so I guess it didn't get boring, but it wasn't exactly satisfying either.

[Keef Monkey]

Played through Hand of Fate and really, really enjoyed it. It's a weird mash-up of deck-building and table-top RPG mechanics with videogame dungeon crawling and combat. Sounds mad but works really well. Every dungeon has a boss at the end, and while most of them aren't too tough the last couple took me a few tries so I almost uninstalled it when I realized that the final battle is all of the bosses in one fight. It felt like a massive difficulty spike, and the sort of thing I really hate in games. Thankfully I managed to get through it in a few attempts, otherwise I had fears it would turn into one of those infuriating game obsessions where I'd still be banging my head against that one level in a few months' time!

So yeah, aside from the difficulty spike it's a great game, and definitely an interesting and unique idea. I see there's a sequel now so might look into that.

[radiator]

Night in the Woods.

Beautiful, charming and completely and utterly boring.

Bitterly disappointed - I was expecting a modern spin on a point and click adventure/puzzle game with elements of platforming, but it isnt that at all. I've been 'playing' for over an hour and as far as I can tell, the entire game consists of wandering around the same 4-5 screens talking to npcs. Thats literally it.  Occaisionally you get to - wow - choose which line of dialogue to say (which changes nothing). Each to his own, but to me a game where 90% of player input is clicking through dialogue is not a game - its a cartoon where you have to press a button every three seconds to keep it going - ie not my idea of fun.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Skyforce Reloaded on the Switch.

It's great and well worth the £9.

[Professor Bear]

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds - a game that is already utterly beautiful and they somehow found a way to make it look even better.
Batter your way through a post-apocalyptic Yellowstone Park, an ancient hydroelectric dam, and even an active volcano, fighting giant robot bears and pumas and a rogue AI. The different environments and weather effects are gorgeous to look at and run through - the heavy snow on both the ground and in the air is brilliantly atmospheric, as is the in-game rendering of borealis effects.  Aloy hasn't exactly been sexualised much compared to many game protagonists, but here it kind of stands out that so much of her wardrobe is flattering to the female form rather than practical for extreme cold conditions, with one of the local outfits (for arctic conditions) sporting a bare midriff.  I would have liked to see some sort of naturally-occurring debuffs because of the cold environment, as you just run around meter-deep snowdrifts and swim through partially-frozen lakes with no consequence, and while there's plenty of side-quests, errands, and a decent main questline, possibly this is not 16 quid's worth of content - though I certainly wasn't disappointed I spent it.

Terminator 3: The Redemption - PS2 tie-in to the unloved sequel, this is actually pretty good when you don't have to do the present-day driving sequence that are just a matter of memorising hidden turns and shortcuts rather than actually racing or shooting.  The third-person combat bits are pretty good, but it really never returns to the enjoyable heights of the post-holocaust LA opening chapters.

Urban Chaos: Riot Response - hilariously OTT right-wing first person shooter for the PS2, full of gore and swearing as you play a heroic LAPD riot officer sent in to gun down rebellious rabble in a dystopian near-future America and no, at no point does the stroyline require you to question the brave men and women of the emergency services or your superiors: your enemy are the poor from start to finish.  Looks and sounds like a game you'd see in a mid-90s cyberpunk movie, to the extent that it might be a genuine possibility that Robocop will crash into your living room while you're playing it.  Looks its age, but still very fun to play.

[Keef Monkey]

Finished Brutal Legend, was a bit of a love/hate experience. Loved the writing and the world and the artwork and the whole heavymetal vibe was really well done and made it feel pretty unique. The RTS-style stage battles were a bit of a hurdle for me though, I really hated them for a lot of the game. Enjoyed the last couple though so may have been a case of the learning curve just being a tad too steep for them and causing frustration. Glad I pushed through, really cool game.

[Greg M.]

The RTS-style stage battles were a bit of a hurdle for me though, I really hated them for a lot of the game.

They kinda ruined the game for me, and were the main reason I never completed it. All the other bits were great - I love Tim Schafer's style, I love heavy metal (and there were some really great track choices - Brocas Helm? Hell yeah!) I even gained a new and genuine appreciation for Jack Black. But it wasn't enough.

[radiator]

Finished Brutal Legend, was a bit of a love/hate experience. Loved the writing and the world and the artwork and the whole heavymetal vibe was really well done and made it feel pretty unique. The RTS-style stage battles were a bit of a hurdle for me though, I really hated them for a lot of the game. Enjoyed the last couple though so may have been a case of the learning curve just being a tad too steep for them and causing frustration. Glad I pushed through, really cool game.

Sounds a bit like Double Fine's other game Psychonauts - everything about it is great except, you know, the actual gameplay part.