Topic: What (Non-PS4) game are you playing??

Played a little more P4G as I wanna pick it up again when I am done with Reload and after getting like 10ish hours in before, sorta felt like too much to start again so I needed to refresh myself before it was too late. And man, like I know Reload is going for a very different tone, but just immediately P4G threw me into multiple day trips with my core party, and while some of the humour may be a little dated these days, I dunno, they were just so charming, so funny, and I feel closer to this cast in 10 hours than I do in 70 plus over at Reload. You might argue the Reload characters are more complex, but I like how well defined each character is in P4G even if they may be more simplified as it allows you to anchor into them easier. It is this stuff above all else to me that Reload is so sorely missing.

Mario VS Donkey Kong (Switch) - Just finished this up over the weekend (I did everything except the final EX mission because I'm not going to perfect rank all the boss missions to unlock it, especially the BS ice world boss fights). Not GotY material or anything, but honestly a really solid release (and it does get pretty tough in spots, especially the EX missions).

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (PS5) - Just started it over the weekend, but have been enjoying it so far. The Grasslands have opened up for me and it's really enjoyable exploring on Chocobo back to check out all the points of interest.

Powerwash Simulator (PC Game Pass) - Been playing this off & on since the holidays (in-between Switch releases), and I'm honestly surprised at how much content this has. I've only tackled the main campaign so far and yet after all this time I think I'm only a little over halfway through (currently in the middle of cleaning a Carousel). Haven't even started on the bonus jobs, let alone all the DLC it seems to get regularly. It's a pretty relaxing time, though.

I picked up Banishers on PC. I thought this game had quite a strange review cycle where it scored high, but if you actually read a lot of the reviews it seemed like people actively did not actually enjoy playing it, so to me that suggests the scores were too high. I put it on the back burner in response, and I had Infinite Wealth and Persona 3 Reload to focus on anyway, but I've beaten both of those now.

So yeah, Banishers, early days yet, feel like I'm barely out of the tutorial really, but maybe it's because those reviews helped calibrate my expectations I've really enjoyed the first impression.

Combat is sloppy, sure, but maybe it's because I was set to expect something horrible, I think it's mostly fine honestly. I've played far worse that's for sure and at least so far combat encounters have really been only brief sequences to break up the story beats. It is very clearly not the focus and you'd be misguided if you came to this game for the combat.

The focus here is really on the story, and your decisions, and you have to make some really tough decisions almost right away which I enjoyed. I also just think it's a cool concept for a game, it's very much my jam. The setting, atmosphere and visuals are excellent (sans the lip sync) too.

So yeah, early days, so this could absolutely drop off a cliff or the combat could eventually drive me up the wall, but I'm really enjoying this so far a lot more than I kind of expected to.

Played through Crash Bandicoot 1 via the N. Sane Trilogy a few months back and absolutely hated it. The game is designed to make you suffer. And not for legitimate reasons IMO. The frequently unfair level design, strange camera perspective, and weirdness of the feel of the game in general made playing it miserable. Didn't bother trying to complete anything: I just wanted to get to the final boss and be done with it.

So it was with significantly trepidation that I went into Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, but... I'm having fun? A lot of fun, actually. I still don't like the camera perspective, but everything else is just a million times better. Levels feel fun now, as opposed to feeling like they were designed by a sadist. Unlike Crash Bandicoot 3, there's a good balance of normal and 'vehicle' stages. Bosses are a lot more intuitive and less frustrating overall. Finding the secret exits throughout the game is interesting.

This has to be the biggest jump in quality I've seen in a series. Even moreso than Uncharted 2.

Interesting that both were (originally) developed by Naughty Dog, ha!

The Trilogy in general runs kinda poorly on Steam Deck. Probably still better than playing on a Switch, but only barely.

Anyway, yeah, I've been addicted to CB2, and will be completing it unless the game nose-dives in quality suddenly. At least all of the gems/crystals. I understand there's not a ton of point to doing speedruns of levels in this game, like the original.

@Ralizah Crash 2 is a gigantic leap forwards. I’m not sure 3 is as good but I also hate-played Crash 1 and was amazed at how brilliant Crash 2 was. Definitely similar to the Uncharted 1 to 2 leap, almost all criticisms are addressed while pretty much looking like the same game. I really like the structure change too, the rooms make it feel way more open and less rigid than a world map despite it really not being at all.

@nessisonett Only major complaint so far is that the final boss is... like... nothing. Total anti-climax.

Oh, and Cold Hard Crash can eat me. The all-boxes gem in that level is the only one I have left, and it's massively harder than any other challenge in the game. It's silly how much harder it is. I went and grinded lives on the bee level, and I'm just gonna muscle my way through it, but god, it sucks!

But yeah, overall, probably an 8 out of 10 game for me at minimum. I still like the Spyro trilogy more, but this is a really solid platformer.

I didn't like Warped when I played it on PS1 a few years back. We'll see if my feelings have changed at all.

@Ralizah Bosses in 3D platformers often aren’t all that great. The Sonic Adventure 2 bosses are really hit and miss and that’s still probably my favourite non-Mario 3D platformer. Even Mario bosses aren’t great, although I’d say Galaxy’s were at least polished to the point of the 1 hit stars being obtainable.

@nessisonett I'd say Mario Odyssey has strong boss fights overall. Some really, really imaginative encounters in that game. And plenty of variety, even if you do end up fighting a LOT of those stupid rabbit people also.

Actually, Crash 2's other bosses are pretty good as well. Just challenging enough to be fun, but not misery-inducing. I just don't understand why the final boss is the world's most underwhelming jetpack chase lol. Although I suppose it beats the first game's Cortex fight making me want to hurl my Steam Deck out of a window.

Actually just completed the game (all gems/crystals, anyway; the speedruns aren't implemented properly). Kinda disappointed all you get is a 30 second video of you using a laser to shoot Cortex's space station out of orbit.

Still, though, the fact that I actively wanted to do everything is proof enough that this was a rather strong experience. I can see why it's widely regarded as the best of the original trilogy.

Started playing Binary Domain on Series X. Very interesting game made by the Like a Dragon developer. It plays just like Gears of War but it has a larger emphasis on the story than a typical GoW game, kinda like the Like a Dragon titles. It's a very fun game and as there aren't many (good) GoW clones, I'm really enjoying this one. It's also nice to play it with frame-rate boost on the Series X. Can't wait to play more of it soon.

I picked up The Thaumaturge. This seemed like my jam when it was first announced, but I did not enjoy the demo at all and I figured I might hold off on this, as this year is already stacked and my backlog grows by the day.

However, to my surprise, it released to pretty good reviews, and given it was a budget title, I bought it anyway. I figured I could use it as a side game, it is turn based, so I would chip away at it on Steam Deck, an hour here or there.

The problem? It runs horribly on Steam Deck. Not only is this the first game I've ever had a hard crash with on my Deck, I've actually now had three hard crashes with this game in like six hours. You also have to bypass the games restrictions so you can set your own graphics options too, which is weird and annoying. Especially as the options you get locked into makes the game run worse than if you adjust it yourself.

This might be all okay if I enjoyed the game more, but I actually think it is... kinda bad, honestly?

In terms of the good, being set in early 1900s Warsaw gives it a bit of a different flavour. I actually think the Persona inspired turn based combat actually generally works very well. And erm...

The main focus really in the game is not combat or collecting your Salutors (which are the demons you use for battle), but just sorta using your Detective Vision to click on objects in rooms until you can click the next set of objects in the rooms, so then you can have a conversation to move the story along. I dunno, it is just kinda boring, and you aren't like naturally discovering things and putting the pieces together yourself, you are just clicking on things in the order the game lets you click on them. Just not well designed.

Worse of all though is the voice acting. Like genuinely, this might be the worst voice acting I've ever experienced in a game? Which is wild as so much of this game is people just having conversations and you trying to navigate through them with dialogue choices which open up depending on your Salutor's and the stuff you discover with your Detective Mode.

It is apparently not AI voice acting but you'd never know this was acted by real people. The entire voice cast speak with weird accents, at really odd cadences, they seem to inflect on syllables at complete random but doing so alters the words they are saying turning sentences into nonsense, words are often slurred or stumbled upon, too. I often just cannot pay attention to what is being said because of how weirdly it is all being said.

Plus, even if the acting was better, oftentimes the dialogue itself is just as odd as well. A lot of it is really disjointed so it feels less like a naturally flowing conversation, and rather a series of individual sentences flung together into a vague sequence, even if it doesn't make a lot of sense.

@Pizzamorg I really appreciated your Thaumaturge impressions. Honestly I didn’t know much of anything about the game, but your post made me interested in it, ironically. I just watched the trailer and it looks great. It seems to have a really cool art design and the graphics are nice.

And like you felt beforehand, it seems like gameplay that I would enjoy, with the story driven rpg aspects. I did notice the acting even in the trailer was suspect.

I’ll be curious to see if it improves any for you, should you stay with it. Perhaps the forthcoming PS5 port will function better technically speaking.

Have you played Banishers? I'm playing these games side by side, and while Banishers has plenty of differences to Thaumaturge, for sure, it is also a game focused on supernatural investigations set in the past, where you need to make choices, and I think it is done so much better in Banishers. Banishers has some wonky lip sync, but it also has proper voice acting and dialogue too, rather than whatever is going on over in Thaumaturge. Banishers is made by Dont Nod, which should give you some idea as to how strong the writing is and how difficult (in the good way) and well designed the choices are. The Banishers is currently my frontrunner for GOTY, whereas I'm sorta contemplating dropping The Thaumaturge tbh.

Started Scenario B with Claire in Resident Evil 2 on the N64.

@Pizzamorg I haven’t played Banishers yet, but that’s a good shout. I had it on my watchlist and it seems to be fairly favorably received. It’s a victim of a busy release schedule and an enormous backlog, so I haven’t bought it yet, but good to hear it’s worthwhile. I like the Dontnod games I’ve played (LiS 1&2, Remember Me). I have Vampyr in my library from PS+ but most of the feedback was mediocre for that so I’d planned to skip it.

Too bad that Thaumaturge is a missed opportunity, alas. The idea of a Persona type rpg that is not anime based and more westernized and photo realistic aesthetic is a good one.

Aye, I can't think of another year really quite like this one, where I am already drowning in all the new releases I want to play (in addition to my massive pre-existing backlog). Although I suppose that is what happens when you play two 70+ hour JRPGs as your starting two games for the year like I did, in Reload and Infinite Wealth.

Also, don't let me put you off The Thaumaturge. I'd feel horrible if I did. It has reviewed well, so people clearly enjoy it, but if you had the time to only play one, I would implore you to choose Banishers instead.

And yes, I too would like more Persona style games that aren't just anime high school simulators. And The Thaumaturge certainly scratches that itch, as you instead play as a crusty aging wizard in a filthy early 1900s Warsaw, flip flopping between the seedy underbelly and the high society. But I just think the execution isn't nearly as strong as it reads when described on paper.

Enjoyed Crash Bandicoot 2 enough that I decided to just pull the trigger and play through Warped. My current plan is to complete it to the point where I get the best ending. So 100%, but not going crazy on the time trial relics.

I'm in a platformer-y mood as of late, so I'm heavily considering moving over from Warped to Spyro 2 once I'm done. We'll see.

@Pizzamorg Oh, don’t worry. I won’t hold it against you if I skip Thaumaturge and then years from now on my deathbed utter a raspy “Thaum-a…turge…” as I stare into the darkness clenching my fists like Citizen Kane, taking my last breaths in painful remorse for what could have been…

😜 I will keep my eyes on the PS5 release as I’m sure it will get a new series of reviews for me to ponder. I usually take the advice of trusted players like yourself into account, but sometimes I just go try a game against better judgment. Perhaps my future will hold sufficient time to play both Banishers and Thaumaturge. By the way, shout-out to both games’ titles. I always respect a game that at least has a cool name.

And I empathize with the notion about longer games that make managing a backlog even harder. It’s one reason I’m skipping P3 Reload for now. I’ve played the original and the length is a bit much for a game that would essentially be a replay for me.

And kudos to you for being able to juggle (at least temporarily) Banishers and Thaumaturge concurrently. I’ll often do 2 or 3 games in parallel, but usually they’ll need to be drastically different genres, and even then I find that one of them suffers neglect.

Honestly it is why the Steam Deck has been such a revelation for me @Th3solution. Being able to game for an hour here or there in bed is how I was able to finish BG3, Persona 5 Royal and Persona 3 Reload in the span of like four months, while also beating games like Infinite Wealth and playing other games like Last Epoch AND working full time and trying to hold other interests. I probably game more on the Deck than I do anywhere else at this point, and I'd have probably beaten significantly less games over the last two years without it. And this is from someone who didn't see the point of the Deck when it was first released.

@Pizzamorg I’ve been interested in a portable device, and I’m leaning toward the PS Portal, simply for cost savings and the DualSense feature set. I don’t have any PC gaming experience and don’t even have a Steam account. So I’d hate to split my library into two ecosystems. I know the Deck can stream from the PS5 also, a la the Portal, but it apparently takes a few steps and even then it’s a couple hundred dollars more for the experience. I think $200 is a fair investment and if I find I liked the Portal then maybe I could jump into the Steam Deck community later.

The problem is, trying to get a Portal is proving difficult. They are supposed to drop some today, according to PS Direct, but I won’t have the time to stalk the store, so we’ll see if they sell out in a couple hours like they did last month.

But yeah, I have Baldur’s Gate 3 in the backlog which I feel would be ideal for a portable device. Currently playing Inscryption which would also work perfectly on portable. And people are saying it works fine for action games too, so I have several of those in the catalogue and it’d be great to play in bed or while watching sports on TV.

The lack of a restart button in these Crash Bandicoot games for levels that involve timed elements was annoying in the originals, but it's borderline criminal in a modern remake. WHY can't I restart these race levels in Warped?! It's so stupid that I have to either die, finish the race, or tediously exit out of the level and jump back in. Even if you skip their stupid dancing animations, it still takes way too long to go out and jump back in to a level.