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[FrDougal9000]

Ended up hanging out at my brother's for a good chunk of the afternoon yesterday when a planned trip to the zoo went wrong, and played a bunch of games that I'd mostly never played before. Some of them I played for 5-20 minutes and others I gave an hour or thereabouts too, so I thought I'd be fun to post some first impressions on them.

TMNT: Shredder's Revenge - played five levels, quite dug it, looks v nice and I love how many moves you've got from the off, this is my ideal kind of brawler where it always stays interesting, damn tempted to grab this at some point down the road

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China - seems like a fun stealth platformer, always neat when spin-offs try to maintain the controls of the main games while still doing their own thing

Max Payne - played this for like an hour on Easy, damn fun time blasting lads in messy gunfights, I like how you can stop to read notes and have little cutscenes, gives the game an adventure game-y vibe and some breathing room in between the running, diving and shooting

Heretic - played a few stages of the first episode on normal with my brother, the enhancements in the new port like stronger weapons and map markers for the keys are appreciated, but it still feels a bit too spongey for me

Pitfall - seems pretty cool, can easily imagine someone learning all the various rooms to an art, having both a time limit and limited lives is a bit weird to me

Pitfall II: The Lost Caverns - only played it for a few minutes, but wicked cool seeing such an open-ended explorative platformer where you're free to approach the underground mazes from any angle, kinda wanna play more of this and make a little map of everything I can find

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It was really nice doing this, because I'd been having trouble deciding what to play earlier in the week cuz everything seemed to require more mental investment or build-up than I wanted (whether that's mechanical or plotwise). Nothing so relaxing as jumping into a bunch of games that start STRAIGHT AWAY as soon as you press the start button, they show what they are immediately and you're either into that or you're not. And I was into most of these enough that I hope to pick up games like Shredder's Revenge, May Payne and Pitfall II proper at some point. : )

[Flint]

Been taking a minor break from Yakuza: Like a Dragon just to replay Hexen, courtesy of the new remaster that popped up in my library. Hexen is one of my formative FPS memories that made me fall in love with the genre as a li'l gamer, even if it was almost incomprehensible for my younger self because 1) I wasn't used to hub level style interlinking in my action games and struggled with the concept and 2) I didn't speak English natively so the game's own minimal guidance systems didn't really help much. So a lot of my early memories of it were basically just me stumbling around in it half-blindly, though in later years and later replays it's obviously started to make a lot more sense. Playing it again with the slightly improved mouse+keyboard controls and QOL changes, it's still a rock solid game - not flawless by any means, but it still has its own distinct vibe that separates it from other FPS games even now. No wonder I was so transfixed by it back in the day.

It does also make me miss the days when FPS games had more diverse set dressings...

Going to likely play the remaster of Heretic (which is a game I'm not as familiar with) afterwards and try the expansion packs/new campaigns in-between Yakuza. I'm really hoping this leads to a full remaster of Hexen 2 (my favourite of the two) at some point, and maybe even the wet dream of Heretic 2 finally getting a re-release...

[LeinaWahMom]

Currently I'm struggling to get started on playing games. My main thing right now is clearing the arcade mode with each character in Street Fighter 6. It's still a cracking fighting game that's done much to make the genre more accessible for people like me who struggle to remember combos and special move inputs.

Still can't say I'm any good at it, though. XD

On the side, I've been streaming Amnesia: Rebirth, as part of my going through the Amnesia series for a "Scary Summer" theme. So far I'm fnding it the weakest of the series, in a way I can't really put my finger on. Still, the option to not have to worry about monsters and just enjoy the story is greatly appreciated (it was something I really dug about SOMA as well).

[ElTipejoLoco]

I've technically moved on from Hitman... and back onto Hitman: The new trilogy's third entry getting converted into the de-facto delivery vehicle for the previous two titles means that it is technically taking me much longer than it probably should to complete a single game as the completionist I am because the first two entries are essentially DLC for the third at the moment. The Elusive Targets interrupting some of my progress through the campaigns have also slowed me down as I've tried (and mostly succeeded, sometimes failed) to get Silent Assassin on these 'win or fail, you can't retry until next time' things.

Hitman: World of Assassination aside, I've also been killing time with smartphone games for some amounts of time, with most of it going into Pokémon UNITE's new Electorb Volleyball mode, Sky: Children of the Light's current 5th Anniversary and Season of the Two Embers Part 1 Cinema events, Touhou LostWord, and surprisingly the Pokémon Friends game's three-puzzles-a-day thing (or, at least it feels like those 90-ish seconds are pretty long: I've gotten to the point where I run out of time on the current level of some of the puzzles and I can't tell if it's because they rely on gyroscope-tilting or very tiny on-screen control pads sometimes).

[Enbyeon]

Despite my attempts to avoid Early Access titles, I've been gotten really into OVIS LOOP. It's exactly my vibe for a roguelite.

[Lolo De Puzlo]

Since it came up on stream, I've been trying working to find a path through Genpei Toumaden (The Genji and the Heike Clans) and I've never really thought about how this game feel really advanced for a game from 1986. It's a game I'd recommend people look at, but only the truly masochistic would attempt to master.

[ElTipejoLoco]

I started playing Soulframe since they essentially opened up Preludes access to everybody who signed up during Tennocon, and, uh, wow, I've lost a lot of time in the game. 'sneat.

[LeinaWahMom]

Started streaming Amnesia: The Bunker last night, the last game on my "Scary Summer" schedule. Given how little time I'll have between now and the end of Summer though, I think I'll have to start streaming on mornings...

[RueAzure]

I got started on Metaphor: ReFantasio but it ended up being so toothless and, frankly, dull, that I stopped playing it.

I dunno where I'm going next, tbh. I'm kind of interested in Daemon x Machina: Titanic Scion, but I can already feel open world exhaustion setting in as I play the demo.

[Enbyeon]

Back in the Last Epoch mines with the new season. Trying to play a primalist and hoping I get the squirrel helmet so I have an army of squirrels.

[c_rakestraw]

I played Sword of the Sea. Gorgeous game. Kinda feels like they made Journey again in some ways (much like Abzu before it), but I'm not complaining. More of that is always welcome. Had a great time. Almost wish the trick system was a touch more fleshed out for the sake of the rooms they made for them, but I also do like how it is intentionally basic. It's a fun little thing you can do while surfing the sands and sea.

[Loosf]

Started playing cryptmaster because it was on a fanatical bundle

it is fun




https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-m ... collection

[Lord Tirion]

Took a break from Super Hydlide and replayed Astro Boy Omega Factor, somehow remembered a lot of the game so it went really fast. Once again I'm tempted to watch Tezuka's works

Now time to go back to Super Hydlide, the game where if our valiant hero doesn't go to bed at 9pm is too eepy to fight for his life.

Nothing in the game has given more trouble than the mechanics they added between 2 and 3

[EpsilDelta]

Working on a Deathsmiles 1CC right now. I've gotten to the last boss, so it should be soon.

I'm doing a different route than this now, which replaces Level 1 stages with Level 3 stages; Can get to the same spot with the new route, but now I score higher and get more practice at harder routes.