Currently Playing

[Lenny Solidus]

Elex II

So a number of years ago my eldest son and I made a simple blood pact that I myself would never ever purchase Elex as he did, a game that made for such a memorable piece of so called 'EuroJank' we would both just be in fits of laughter as he streamed it for me over many a different session. I'd like to confirm here thus today that I have remained true to that same father and son pact - I bought the sequel instead.

And there's just something that compels you to keep playing, to keep searching for poorly allocated items that sometimes zing into the air when collected, to continue to loot areas so absent of any form of light sourcing I'm using the actual placement of the glowy collectable items once highlighted to find my way back out again. Using my trusty jetpack I can adventure in a way few other open world games can even touch, I can thrust my way ever upward like an eagle then get stuck in part of a building directly staring at the item I knew would be placed there taunting me to clasp hold of it unable to move. I can take on dangerous looking Turkey creatures that hit me with such immense force they fold my character in half making my torso become one with the ground and I physically recoil from my screen in abject horror.

The map is bloody huge, maybe even too large and the game is a mixed veg bowl variant of games such as what you vaguely recall of say Two Worlds Fallout Risen and of course the classic Gothic series of old.

Characters all look decidedly freaked out to behold your presence, I feel bad talking to them at one point I came across a small child, then got chased out of the village. Placing a waypoint on the map isn't a case of simply marking X and heading there - instead it offers you readily made icons you can place such as a ? or a campfire or a skull so you can remind yourself that you too were part of the games very own development because the map is completely empty otherwise. Maybe I'm doing it wrong? Combat is pure jank city, you start off with nothing but a lead pipe that magically floats at your hip very soon I found a bow and arrow and honestly it's pretty darn fun when stamina permits so it's best to make good use of the jetpack and always have the high ground.

Scouring the areas in Elex II is not only an interesting time in terms of looting and fighting, the graphics are so beautifully rendered at a distance I can visually see an animal and a tree blinking in and out of existence as they both fight desperately to maintain the same 3D space. If I ever go anywhere near the base of an actually oh so genuinely nicely rendered waterfall my frames go from 60 right down to 6 or 7, I did my best to swim away to regain some frames but the stamina system said no and I was instantly killed by some fugly ass frog creature at around the 27fps mark as I made it back on land. I returned to the area staying away from the killer fps water and clubbed that frog to death with a pipe, then as I attempted to loot it some type of buzzing flying moth I couldn't even see cracked me one and I fell through the map. It's all continued surprises fun and games in the world of Elex II.

Finally the music. The music in this game acts like a jump scare, a completely randomised one that can't decide what mood to set so just says fuck it and cycles through them all in mere moments. What the game does in its defence is remind you of just going out into a game world and actually truly adventuring, no sign postings no pesky hand holding etc just get the fuck out there and get it. Area too high? Come back later and decimate them or give it a shot, sod it. There's always something interesting to come across regardless and that is why it works for all the issues I've experienced.

It's all so fucking good. I can't stop playing it. Four pounds of gratuitous janky goodness.

[Sly Boots]

Haha, I enjoyed the first Elex but not sure if I'm up for that level of jank right now. Or maybe I am. Four pounds? Could be worth a punt.

BTW I knew how that was ending when I saw you taking about 3% off its health bar with each arrow, with a quiver of a dozen arrows

Edit: Where did you buy it from?

[Alan]

Its in this months Humble Choice so that means it'll be on eneba cheap :p

[Sly Boots]

Ah right, not used them before. Is it a proper site, like?

[Alan]

Is a proper dodgy 3rd party grey area key reseller. Bought a few, never had any issues. I would use PayPal or a single use card if your bank supports them just incase though.

[Lenny Solidus]

If it helps any, I bought it courtesy of the following via yes Eneba

Elex II (PC) Steam Key GLOBAL
Mystery store
£3.71

edit I use PayPal, just in case.

[Sly Boots]

Ah, I'll skip it then, glad you're enjoying(?) it though

[Alan]

The humble choice is a tenner and has some other good stuff in there if that’s of any interest. Nobody and Last Call are great and I hear Expeditions Rome is very good too. Dunno about the rest.

[Animalmother]

RoboCop: Rogue City
Got this on sale a little while ago and have been dipping in and out. Made by the same people that did Terminator Resistance a few years back, it's very similar in design and gameplay if a wee bit more polished. You stomp around large open areas with your trusty Auto 9 and spatter criminal heads and limbs across the nearest wall.

You start most levels in the police station and do some busy work side missions like fix a fuse box or help the desk sargent deal with bookings. You can skip all this but it helps you level up quicker and fills the story out a bit more. The missions themselves are in a large open area that you can explore at your leisure and find side missions. These often lead to a gunfight of some description and your faced with large waves of enemies with zero self preservation. One thing you quickly learn is your not a tank and your health can get whittled down quickly when hit.

A few missions have you fight alongside ED209's (who are beautifully modelled), they tear through enemies and it can be hard to keep up with their level of carnage. The fucks will also turn on you if they stray into your field of fire, which is frequently. The levels are nicely detailed and windows and walls can be blasted apart.

It's a good looking game for a mid tier studio and you can tell it was made with passion for the material, the best RoboCop game made so far. It has its faults and can get a bit repetitive, controls are a tad lackluster at times but it doesn't ruin the experience.

[Sly Boots]

Took me pretty much the entire of yesterday putting this together (accidentally deleting half of it at one point didn't help ), but put together a top 10 list of games I've played this year:

[DjchunKfunK]

I can't believe you put Dave the Diver above Dredge, unsubscribe.

[Sly Boots]

Lol

[Animalmother]

More like currently not playing anymore. I finally uninstalled Starfield after having not played it for months. I might come back in 4 or 5 months once the modders have had a go at it. Saying that apparently many modders have already given up on it as well. Poor Bethesda, should have stuck with remaking new versions of Skyrim.

[DjchunKfunK]

More like currently not playing anymore. I finally uninstalled Starfield after having not played it for months. I might come back in 4 or 5 months once the modders have had a go at it. Saying that apparently many modders have already given up on it as well. Poor Bethesda, should have stuck with remaking new versions of Skyrim.

I think that is the media doing what they have been doing since Starfield came out and jumping on one thing and blowing it out of proportion. One of the modders who worked on Skyrim Together posted saying they wont be continuing work on Starfield Together because they find the game boring which lead to a bunch of headlines saying "modders quit making mods for Starfield as game is bad LOLS"

Mod support for the game is pretty good, with it sitting fairly high on Neuxs in terms of mods available despite there being no official mod tools yet.

[Rusty]

Tiny Rogues

Belter of a roguelike thingy. Quite deep. Lots of characters make every run different. Loads of weapons and armour. Lots of interactions between stats. Clever stuff.