TimeDelayedGamer

I am extremely disappointed by the lack of fish puns in the article title and comments.

'Plaice... the final frontier'...

I'll get my coat.

Subnautica Below Zero for me again this weekend. I've been taking my time with it and just soaking up the game world. Such an amazing game, as good as the original in my opinion. The seatruck is fantastic, like a modular combo version of the seamoth and the cyclops from the first game. Pretty deep into the game world now, so suspect I'm nearing the end. I'll be sorry when it's over.

Once I'm done with Below Zero, I was thinking of giving NieR Replicant ver.1.22 etc a spin as the general consensus seems to be to play that one before Automata...

Have a great weekend all.

@Kraven Condolences mate. I hope the funeral goes as well as these things can. Video games were a comfort to me when I lost my own dad. It's sometimes strange to think how much games have synergised with major events in my own life. Sending you prayers and strength today.

Having a whale of a time (pun intended) in Subnautica Below Zero. There have been jump scares, mainly caused by me bumping my sea truck into rocks. There have been leviathan encounters. I have spent about a week seemingly just building my base and collecting resources, and have enjoyed every second. For me, this is one of those dream games, as there's something about the underwater setting that is just so compelling. Feel sorry for anyone with thalassophobia, claustrophobia, or agoraphobia playing this though. It really covers the bases at times for those primal fears 😅

Subnautica Below Zero for me this weekend. Played the original a couple of years ago and was blown away by it. I'd heard mixed reactions to Below Zero but have gone in with an open mind and so far I am loving it.

Also just finished with Ys Memories of Celceta and had a fantastic time with it. Never met an Ys game yet that I didn't like!

Ys Memories of Celceta for me. I became a massive fan of the Ys games after picking up Oath of Felghana a few years ago on PSP. They're the sort of games that just remind me why I love videogames. Sure, the game engine may be dated and it looks like a PS2 game, but it's made with such love and charm that it's difficult to resist.

Still intending to start Falcom's Trails games at some point - they're on my list!

Also finished Tomb Raider Underworld and Planet of Lana this last week. Both enjoyable. My 12 year old daughter is playing Planet of Lana now and having a blast with it.

Finally completed the Tomb Raider Remastered trilogy (I loved it, but good grief TR3 is a pain in the A at times). Currently playing Planet of Lana, which is very enjoyable, lovely little game.

Also decided to play Tomb Raider Underworld as I'd never got round to that one and I was interested to see the contrast straight after playing the remastered trilogy. I think I prefer the originals: Underworld is not terrible or anything but the climbing is just better on the grid system with the tank controls. I keep dying on Underworld because either it's hard to tell where you can safely jump to next, or the game janks out on me when I try. I'm quite enjoying the puzzles though, but that sense of exploration that the originals had just isn't quite there.

Once I've completed that I'm in the mood for some Ys and Memories of Celceta is calling to me.

@Daleaf On the plus side, at least you now have the secret of life, the universe, and everything 😁

@Andee We can but hope!

The development team have done such a good job on these remasters that I would also love it if they made their own new Tomb Raider campaign in retro style (grid system/tank controls etc) to flesh out a volume two, if say, AoD wasn't possible, for example. Kind of like what Dimension of the Machine was to the Quake remaster.

I really need to get started on this series 🤦‍♂️

@Kidfunkadelic83 I will be double dipping also. I thought about holding off to see if a physical edition would be released, but really wanted to support these remasters so went ahead and got the digital. Haven't regretted it. Hoping we'll at least get TR4 Remastered next.

@PerpetualBoredom In addition to what others have said... What LRG do sounds good in theory, but in practice I've never liked them because they artificially create scarcity on the runs of games they produce. These are generally games that either have never had a physical release or haven't in a long time, collectors want them, but rather than take preorders and make sure there's enough made for all, they limit it (yes, I know that's literally the name of their company) and then the scalpers stick their copies on eBay for five times the price. It doesn't even make much sense as a business model to my layman's mind.

@Cutmastavictory Now wouldn't that be nice.

Just completed Tomb Raider 2 Remastered (took a break after TR1 to play Gears of War, think I needed some virtual bro time with Delta Squad to offset Lara's badass femininity). Amazing to play TR2 again and realise just how influential it was on things like the Uncharted series. Playing the Golden Mask expansion pack now, which is a lot better than Unfinished Business, thankfully.

Happy gaming everyone.

Well, thank goodness for that.

Now the other half of the internet can have a heart attack about it, lol.

Seriously though, good to know it was just an error and not post-release censorship, because that's a slippery slope into a spike trap full of problems.

Had my eye on this for a while. A nice, linear game that doesn't take 3 months to complete can be a nice change of pace now and then. And this looks great. Some real Another World vibes along with the Limbo/Inside influence.

Playing through the Tomb Raider Remastered collection. Still only on the first one, being a father and full-time employee sucks, lol. I'm thoroughly impressed how rock solid it is after all this time, and the improved visuals and smoother gameplay just makes it all better than ever. Tank control gameplay that I once thought of as a bit awkward I now think of as very precise and technical. If you make a mistake in this collection, it's on you.

And good to know the game can still make me jump out of my skin when some random wild animal or other creature comes leaping out at Lara from nowhere 😅

Have a great weekend all.

Ooft. There's really no excuse for bad ports or remasters - they already have the template of the successful game to build off and see what it should look like and play like. It just smacks of cash grab.

And just after Aspyr had earned some kudos with the Tomb Raider I-III Collection as well...

@JonnyAces Ha, I did it the other way round, finished Ghost of Tsushima in the New Year, which left me in the mood to watch Shogun!

Ghost is a fantastic game, enjoy it.

Tomb Raider Remastered for me. The original game blew me away back when it came out and this remaster is just fantastic. The updated visuals are really hitting the spot, striking the right balance between being faithful to the original and looking that bit more modern, and with lots of subtle and well-judged effects (like sparkles on ice), that just lift the whole thing. Looking good, Lara!

Playing with the original tank controls, which are a lot better than I remember them being. When you climb from A to B in Tomb Raider, you feel like you've achieved something, not that the game has done it for you 😃

Have a great weekend, everyone.

I still haven't got a PS5 yet, so I guess I'll hold off and wait and see if this materialises and what the price point is. I'm a bit sceptical generally on mid-generation hardware upgrades though. If software needs to run on both the pro and the vanilla console, then it seems like whichever of the two consoles people own, someone is not getting the best deal in that set-up.

I remember reading Jeff Minter's 'Yak's Yak' column in ST Action magazine way back in the late 80s/early 90s - I still vividly recollect some of his fascinating insights into game design, like how he described working on Defender, and found that a slight tweak of a vector explosion routine suddenly made the whole gameplay experience feel smoother and more cohesive.

Llamatron (boss battle fighting a toilet, anyone?) and Revenge of the Mutant Camels ate up dozens of hours of my childhood. Might have to check this collection out.

Metal Gear without Kojima is not Metal Gear. His unique and quirky creative vision is so integral to the DNA of the series that without his input, it will just feel like a knock-off. Or so I suspect, anyway.

A likely story.

The Answer was a lot more straightforward than the main game - it was mainly dungeon-crawling, if I remember correctly. This definitely smells of an opportunity to grab some extra cash.

Never played the original, but love Falcom at this point just based on my experience with Ys - anything they do is on my radar now.

@LtSarge Agreed, if the industry is looking for a solution to the triple A bloat that is making production costs soar, look no further than games like Falcom's - a pleasant, distinctive art style, made with love, and gameplay up the wazoo.

I'm not sure my conscience can take it. I still haven't got over accidentally clobbering one of the pyromancers in Dark Souls and then being forced to kill him because he wouldn't stop aggroing me😁

Not playing at the moment, but it's definitely on my radar now!

@ShogunRok They should probably change their name to 'Premiumware' or 'Deluxeware' or something less... vanilla 😁

Still playing Dishonored, just finished the main campaign and onto the DLC missions now. What a great game. I'm impressed by the impact of its story and the moral choices it throws at you - Samuel's final words to Corvo were like a knife in my chest: "I'm disappointed in you, Corvo. It's like you went out of your way to be brutal" 🤔 Er, oops😁

I've finally got round to playing Dishonored - loving the Thief/Deus Ex influences, the world building, and those visuals which manage to do a pretty good impression of an oil painting. Also been playing Inside, which was just as great (and haunting) as I'd hoped after playing Limbo years ago. Lastly, still dipping in and out of Tunic. I'm right at the end now, trying to puzzle out the last few secrets and work out what the heck 'The Golden Path' is. Letting my subconscious work on it 🤔

Great to see this awarded such a good score. Well and truly getting this. The original Tomb Raider trio, especially the first two, are burned into my mind vividly. The stories were sparse, but the atmosphere and sense of being lost in ancient, undisturbed places just couldn't be beaten. And I for one liked the fact that there was no handholding. Exploring the huge levels and puzzling out how to proceed was part of the joy of it.

Always loved Rugrats. This looks surprisingly awesome.

But if does turn out to be terrible, you've already got your review tagline... "It's bad, Tommy. Real bad" 😂

@Stickleman "no idea what to do or where to go pretty much the entire time". And people thought Dark Souls was unforgiving 😂

I actually really liked that about the originals. You were plonked in a level and had to figure it out. Each area was like it's own giant puzzle. No hand-holding. To me, that was the whole essence of the game, exploring, discovering and figuring out how to progress.

I remember playing Legend for the first time and the camera panned across to show you were to go next, and I was like, "Agh, they've missed the whole point".

@__jamiie Fair enough, I meant that it ruled in Japan compared to it's performance in other territories, but you're right, the DS outperformed it even in Japan.

@Mikey856 It's a crying shame there's not room for the more experimental stuff as well, but I understand the business reasons. One thing I will say though is that Sony seems pretty supportive of indie developers, a lot of whom are willing to take risks on unique ideas, which mitigates things a bit on Sony's part.

Having wrapped up my first playthrough of Ghost of Tsushima (What. A. Game.), I am currently being mesmerised by Tunic. So far loving every second of it. The sense of discovery is fantastic and the atmosphere, visuals and music are all really hitting the spot. Only downside is the loading (I'm playing on PS4) which seems ridiculously slow after how fast GoT is, lol.

@UltimateOtaku91 That's a good point about Switch being handheld. PSP ruled in Japan back in the day as a mobile device with Monster Hunter on it.

@MrGawain Completely agree. Sony were always willing to push the envelope with innovation and variety in their games in the past, and they seem to have lost a lot of that now since Japan Studio etc closed. I realise a lot of these games didn't sell so well, and business is business, but that willingness to try out ideas and give things a go gave Sony a certain cachet that they just don't have any more.

@Vladspartan I know, there's nowhere near enough new games for everyone to keep up with 🙄

Remedy should have been on the list, probably instead of CD Project Red. I don't really count getting a game into the condition it should have been in at launch as a 'redemption arc'.

I'll just be over here with the popcorn 😂

@Kyushutrail I always make a year end tier list as well 😂 I haven't decided on the final order yet, but GoT is up there. Also played Psychonauts 2, Dead Space, and The Talos Principle this year, and they're all in contention.

That's the original Dead Space on PS3, by the way - my username was chosen for a reason 😁

Finally got round to playing Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut. Just completed Iki Island, so now back to the main story! I could wax lyrical for hours about what a fantastic game it is... Great story, and I love the use of nature to guide you towards goals, events and collectables. The visuals are frequently taking my breath away, and Jin Sakai is a great lead character. Happy gaming everyone.

Had a little bet with myself that Resi4 Remake would be in Liam's number 1 spot, and was not disappointed 😀

Merry Christmas all!!

Ys Origin (playing through Toal's campaign on normal difficulty because hard was kicking my butt 🙄). Once I'm done with Origin's retro goodness, I will finally be giving Ghost of Tsushima a spin - been looking forwards to that one for a while!

Also playing Gravity Rush 2 (one of my fave games ever) with my daughter - she's currently in awe of the scale of Jirga Para Lhao.

I'm in the mood for something a bit retro, so have been playing Ys Origin. For some reason, I've never got round to playing through Toal's campaign, so going to do that after I've refreshed my mind on Yunica and Hugo's stories.

I'm also still trying to finish my last unsolved puzzle in The Talos Principle Road to Gehenna ('Small Space Big Solution' ). It's an absolute bugger and I am completely stuck, which is frustrating as I've solved absolutely everything else in TP1 including all the star puzzles. Determined not to look up the answer, however!

Totally intending to get into these games in 2024... on the PS4 versions I've already bought.

As others have said, would be way more excited for an announcement about Trails in the Sky games getting a port.

@Shigurui I haven't got round to playing TLOU2 yet, but now I've heard it described as misery porn I think I'm going to bump it up my playlist 😂

I hope they ultimately find the right replacement. Sony seems to have lost their way in recent years: increasingly disconnected from the player base, less willing to take risks on a variety of games, closing Japan Studio (that one still hurts) etc. They seem to have become pretty complacent. Really hope that the replacement is someone who understands and loves games and wants to push forwards the medium, as well as follow the PS exclusive 'winning formula'.

Taking a break from Bloodborne after completing my first playthrough. Started playing The Talos Principle this week, and thoroughly enjoying it - great puzzles, great atmosphere, and engrossing story. Reminds me a bit of The Witness.