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

@Thrillho It’s amazing how we get spoiled and used to current tech. The game is on par with many games today with regards to its complexity and much of the gameplay, and the HD remaster graphics looks decent enough with the industrial portions — it’s just the human facial expressions and animations that are strikingly different. I don’t remember being put off by the graphics back on PS2, but now I have to prep myself to ignore the antiquated character interactions. 😅

Over the weekend, I played a bit of the chaotic Overcooked and its sequel with my partner. It's not my kinda game in the slightest but we managed to find some fun, at least before the kitchens got too convoluted with their novelty layouts, hazards and challenging recipes.

At one point, we were trying to salvage a minor disaster when my partner casually uttered the immortal phrase, "Oh, hang on, the fire extinguisher's on fire." I laughed until it hurt.

We also tried the Moving Out demo, which was cute enough, but it didn't impress as much.

This probably doesn't exactly fit here, but it's the best place I can think of.

Some screenshots from my Steam year in review infographic.

August - September were clearly my XC3 months as I didn't touch my laptop then (ignore the translucent bar on Sept, it's only there because my finger was touching the screen there).

My games this year: platformers, anime boobs, and a few indies (surprised Final Fantasy Type 0 made my top 5 played games given I dropped it I assume pretty early on. Just goes to show how quickly most platformers can be cleared, and indies tend to be short).

A graph of my gaming interests apparently, which I find highly suspect, lol.

I have no idea how "cats" is so high up given that Stray was only my 7th most played game & I can't possibly think of what else is contributing to the statistic. I think Lollipop! has a few catgirl scenarios (exceedingly NSFW game, look up at your own peril), but again it's such a short game it can't contribute much.

I'm confused at the "LGBT+" statistic as well. I can only assume the ecchi trio (Gun Gun Pixies, Senran Kagura, Samurai Maiden) are being counted as they feature yuri elements at various levels, even though they probably wouldn't generally be counted as particularly "progressive" titles (clearly intended for the "male gaze" & all that, not that I have a problem with that, lol).

Started playing the first Project Gotham Racing on the original Xbox today. I've been wanting to start up another racing game after Grid and thought it'd be fun to try out the PGR series for the first time.

At first I really liked the game. Then I hated it. Then I liked it again and I'm thinking about continuing playing it. It's fun but can be a tad bit frustrating at times.

The thing that makes this series different from other racing games is that it's not just about racing, it's about racing with style. You gain so called "kudos" for drifting, passing other racers, being in the air and so on. In order to pass a race, you'll need to not only achieve the main objective but also gain enough kudos. This can be frustrating sometimes and I didn't even realise this aspect until an hour into the career mode. A lot of the times you'll gain enough kudos automatically without needing to put in any effort. But there will be a few races where it can be fairly demanding to progress because you'll need to actively gain kudos.

It's certainly a different approach to standard racing games and I like that. Normally I'd just tune out while playing racing titles as you only need to focus on completing laps but now I have to pay attention to what I'm doing as well. It's overall a fun experience and I'm looking forward to playing more of it.

@RR529 Apparenly 93% of what I played this year on Steam was Europa Universalis IV. Seems about right!

I tried Hello Neighbor 2 on Xbox earlier today. It was... okay, I guess? Very hands-off in the immediate, which I can see some folks appreciating but I felt kinda lost. Took me far too much trial-and-error to figure things out. Still, it has its quirky charms, and there's obviously a mystery to be solved, which could pull me through. Might go back and chip away at it every now and again.

After being sent plenty of signs, I've finally bitten the bullet and started my Metal Gear series replay.

Well, I say that, but it won't be comprehensive. One of those aforementioned signs was when a YouTube channel I occasionally enjoy recently uploaded a lengthy retrospective on the PSone's Metal Gear Solid so that, coupled with the fact that my best friend was replaying the game at the time anyway, made me reluctant to return to it myself. I know it well enough.

What I did do is briefly boot up MGS: Special Missions, which I have as a PSone Classic on my PS3. Its clunky charms were certainly endearing, but clearing its first few missions was enough to inform me that I'd made the right choice. Skip!

So, it's back to MGS2: Sons of Liberty, which I'm playing as part of the PS3's HD Collection. I think I'll also end up skipping MGS3: Snake Eater for the simple fact that its story is so straightforward, so I can recall its details with far more accuracy (that, and I don't wanna burn myself out if its rumoured remaster / remake turns out to be a thing). I'll definitely be replaying MGS4: Guns of the Patriots though, as that's kinda the entire point of this endeavour. It's the game I know the least, yet also the game I love the most (although MGS2 gives it a run for its money). I also want to complete a second pass of MGS: Peace Walker, as I've only played it through the once before, and I remember having mixed feelings about it. Then I'll finish off with Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which I'm really looking forward to as an antidote to all that quiet, slow-paced stealth.

Alongside all of these PS3 shenanigans, I've finally started Metal Gear Ac!d on my PSP (only took me twelve years to open its box, to say nothing of its sequel). It's, er... certainly a thing that exists, that's for sure! One heck of a weird game, and this is Metal Gear we're talking about, so you know it must be pretty bonkers for me to feel the need to note that. Its turn-based deck-builder gameplay is off to an interesting start, at least, although it's also quite challenging. For the moment, I can't be mad at my failures because every time I trigger an alarm, I get to hear this absolute banger...

...but time will tell whether I can summon the patience to learn its tactics and see it through.

@RogerRoger I thought I had Ac!d but maybe I had the sequel as I remember having the cardboard Solid Eye attachment

@Thrillho What the heck does that thing do? Is it just elaborate 3D glasses?

@LN78 Pretty much. It would (obviously) alter the display to give you rudimentary 3D graphics but it mostly just gave me a migraine from what I remember!

For some reason I can't seem to stop playing Marvel Snap. It is not usually my type of game, there is hardly anything to it and I don't remember the last time I played a mobile game. I'm a bit baffled by it in all honesty. 😆

@Thrillho That's a thing of beauty and yep, I just checked my copy of the sequel and it's in there! Knew the case felt a lot heavier than average! Methinks I won't be using it beyond a ten-minute test of its novelty, but it's still cool to have. As if things couldn't get any weirder!

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@JohnnyShoulder I have the same relationship with mobile games. I largely ignore them, rarely try new ones, and then get totally obsessed by a random example. Usually lasts three to four weeks 'til the cycle begins again, so here's hoping you enjoy Marvel Snap for the rest of January!

@RogerRoger Its so cool that you have started playing Metal Gear again. Like as I said in another thread its such a good game series. I feel like its a game I wish more people have had a chance play. I feel like the games message is so interesting and one that I think many non gamer would have find interesting as well. Its almost a scary how relevant the games feels in today world.. Kojima deserve so much credit for his work.

@oliverp Thanks, buddy! It amazes me that the Metal Gear movie never got off the ground because you're right, its themes and messages would be interesting to a much wider audience. That being said, I'm not sure some of 'em would work outside of a game. Maybe it's for the best!

And yeah, "scary" is right. I was sitting there earlier, watching the closing moments of MGS2, just laughing and shaking my head. I'd forgotten just how accurate Mr. Kojima was about... well, everything!

Hopefully, with the popularity of Let's Play videos, more and more non-gamers will see the games.

Started playing the first Forza Motorsport on the original Xbox today. I'm so glad this game is good. After starting up two racing games, Project Gotham Racing 1 and Project Cars 1, and not enjoying them at all, I was starting to think that I didn't have any good racing games left lol. But FM1 is seriously really good, even though it's the first game in the series. The controls feel great, the CPU opponents aren't too challenging, the game is very user-friendly and the progression system is great. You receive a free car after completing an event (an event consists of multiple races), which enables you to access events for other regions (e.g. you'll receive a Japanese car so you'll be able to participate in the Asian events). You also get free cars after reaching a certain level. In other words, there's a steady inflow of cars so you don't need to worry about not being able to afford certain cars. With the money you earn, you can upgrade the cars to make the races easier. It's overall a great system for novice racing players like me who just want to put on a podcast in the background and enjoy some casual driving.

I've also been playing One Piece Odyssey on Series X and I'm currently 4 hours in. It's a good game but I wish the PushSquare review had emphasised how easy the game is. You level up so quickly and the kinds of battles don't really change. It could change when I get to a new area, but so far I'm not really feeling any challenge at all from this game.

I also feel kinda dumb after something that happened yesterday in the game. So I was moving my camera and noticed that it locks up sometimes. I would have this issue with my 360 controller in every game as dust would gather in the right control stick, so I thought the same thing has happened now with my Series X controller, even though I've only had it for around half a year. I tried cleaning it, I tried updating the controller, I even tried to shut down the console, pull out the power cord, putting it back in and resyncing the controller. Nothing would work. Then I realised that the camera would lock up whenever I was moving my character. So apparently, you can't move the camera that much while you're moving with your character. If you stand completely still, the camera would move without any issue at all. So I basically wasted all that time thinking my controller was broken when it was a problem with the game itself. I even tried to play other games on Series X and the camera works fine in those games. For some reason, the camera is pretty bad in One Piece Odyssey. But I'm at least glad that I figured that out lol.

Well after much contemplating, I finally decided to start up Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story on the 3DS. So far it's pretty fun! I have to admit, I think it was the right call introducing the player to the Bowser gameplay right from the start considering the gameplay could get rather repetitive after a while in the previous games. So I think the more I play as Mario and Luigi, the more I'll appreciate the Bowser segments. It does seem a bit weird though if you're going to always play as Mario and Luigi while they're inside Bowser. I hope they at least get to come out and explore some areas themselves instead of only having Bowser do that.

Either way, I'm having a blast with this game. Really missed playing this series.

One Piece Odyssey (PS5) - Recently started the first memory world (Alabasta) and it's pretty decent so far. Has a clean, Dragon Quest like vibe (though I'll say Oda's designs can be a bit more quirky than Toriyama's) with an easy to grasp turn based battle system.

Ryse: Son of Rome (Steam) - I was recently reminded that this existed, and being one of the few Xbox One launch games that seemed interesting at the time I decided to check it out. Think I'm a little over half way through it & it's been solid so far. Definitely worth the $10, and it wasn't even on sale.

Played Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story for around 5 hours now and it's an absolute blast. I'm actually quite surprised at how much you get to play as Bowser. It almost feels like Bowser's own game! I don't believe Nintendo has ever made a Bowser game, so this feels like the closest thing we'll get to something like that and it's really cool. I'm very impressed so far and I'm loving the gameplay variety of playing as Bowser and Mario & Luigi respectively. So much fun!

Can’t bring myself to play any more Tomb Raider 4. While the more open levels are certainly impressive for 1999, they’re more a frustration than anything. Having to backtrack across several levels when the movement is so cumbersome and there’s no map becomes a test of patience. I’ve been wandering between 3 different levels looking for what to do with an item I picked up and it’s doing my head in. I’d say I’m tempted to just move onto the next game but that’s a choice of either Chronicles or Angel of Darkness, which doesn’t exactly inspire me.

There's been a £2.00 copy of "Angel of Darkness" in our local charity shop since two weeks before Christmas. Even copies of random "FIFA" and "Madden" games don't usually hang around for that long.