Currently Playing

[Medicine Man]

You can tone down a lot of the effects in the settings. Stuff like the strobe effects and the line clear stuff can be dialled right back.



The hold piece can be disabled also and the next queue can be reduced to 1 if you like the more classic feel.

[Animalmother]

Yahhhh, your back!

[Medicine Man]

I was never really away. Just less and less to say these days.

Unless its about Tetris Effect of course.

[Raid]

I played Tetris Effect for half an hour last night. I didn't notice a Next Queue. Clearly the visuals are too overwhelming.

[Snowy]

I have been playing AssCreed Valhalla but have put it to one side for a while and gone back to my perennial favourity RDR2, playing online. Thoroughly enjoyable as always.

[Animalmother]

Uncharted 4

Up to the usual Naughty Dog standards of quality this. Graphics, voice acting and script are all top notch and the combat is enjoyable wiping out groups of Sith Ifrican accented mercenaries with wild abandon. The levels are sprawling in places and the jumps make your bumhole pucker with tension.

The PS4 is just so noisy though and playing with headphones is a must.

[Rossell]

Agree with everything there animal.

Firewatch

Not bad until I got to the meaty bit and the save file corrupted. Deleted until I can be bothered to speed run back to that point.

[Sly Boots]

Paradise Killer

I bought this on the strength of one of the OutsideXbox editors saying one of his colleagues had said to him he must play it. Pretty tenuous, but in the space of a week it's gone from a game I'd never heard of to one I keep thinking about post-completion.

The first thing i will said is that if you played Obra Dinn, you should play this (note: everyone should play Obra Dinn, dammit). So what is it? It's an open-world investigate-em-up with a neon, synth-pop world, where you work have to unravel the mystery of who just wiped out the ruling elite.

It took me maybe an hour of play to get into it, largely because it's so damn weird. I don't want to spoil things, but the moment it started to sink its teeth in was the moment I eventually realised that you, and everyone around you, are the bad guys and the slow-dawning horror of what they're actually doing. But they're never presented as that because you, the character, doesn't see anything wrong with it as it's become totally normal and everyone you speak to is so matter-of-fact about it, while everything is taking place on a brightly coloured tropical paradise. But beneath that veneer is some really dark shit that you, the player, sees even if the characters (or most of them) do not.

So you travel around the island, interviewing suspects and witnesses, discovering clues and over the course or around a dozen-hour-long playthrough gradually piece together what happened, at which point you can launch into a trial, present your evidence and execute the guilty, assuming your case was strong enough.

It's bizarre, and it's entirely possible that bizarreness will put some people off after the opening few minutes, but once you penetrate through to the dark heart of the game it's something quite special, particularly if you're anything like me and you love games that let you play detective.

[DjchunKfunK]

Paradise Killer

I bought this on the strength of one of the OutsideXbox editors saying one of his colleagues had said to him he must play it. Pretty tenuous, but in the space of a week it's gone from a game I'd never heard of to one I keep thinking about post-completion.

The first thing i will said is that if you played Obra Dinn, you should play this (note: everyone should play Obra Dinn, dammit). So what is it? It's an open-world investigate-em-up with a neon, synth-pop world, where you work have to unravel the mystery of who just wiped out the ruling elite.

It took me maybe an hour of play to get into it, largely because it's so damn weird. I don't want to spoil things, but the moment it started to sink its teeth in was the moment I eventually realised that you, and everyone around you, are the bad guys and the slow-dawning horror of what they're actually doing. But they're never presented as that because you, the character, doesn't see anything wrong with it as it's become totally normal and everyone you speak to is so matter-of-fact about it, while everything is taking place on a brightly coloured tropical paradise. But beneath that veneer is some really dark shit that you, the player, sees even if the characters (or most of them) do not.

So you travel around the island, interviewing suspects and witnesses, discovering clues and over the course or around a dozen-hour-long playthrough gradually piece together what happened, at which point you can launch into a trial, present your evidence and execute the guilty, assuming your case was strong enough.

It's bizarre, and it's entirely possible that bizarreness will put some people off after the opening few minutes, but once you penetrate through to the dark heart of the game it's something quite special, particularly if you're anything like me and you love games that let you play detective.

Yeah it's a great game, up there with my favourite games of the year. Might even have had a shot of being my favourite game if it wasn't for Kentucky Route Zero which is close to a masterpiece.

[DjchunKfunK]

Haven

This is a game about a relationship between two people and how they deal with running away from their old lives and starting again. It's a sci-fi game so it's based in space and sees you trying to repair your broken spaceship after landing on the planet Source. The planet has been broken into various separate islands and as you explore you learn more about what happened to the planet as well as the characters and the lives they thought they had left behind.

For me the main draw was the relationship and I think they really nailed it. It's usual to have a game focus so much on this part especially a relationship that is on-going rather than one that is at the start. At times it treads the line between schmultz and endearing but I think they mostly thread the needle. Both characters are well realised and brought to life with good voice acting and it feels like a real relationship. They bicker, they argue and they express their love for one another.

However there are two major issues that prevent me from being able to unanimously recommend that people check the game out. Firstly the nature of the world means you are moving from island to island and you have a map but once you are on an island you have no good way of knowing which bridge you should take to get to the island you want to. I ended up constantly eyeballing the map and trying to figure out which way I came onto the island and the work out which bridge would get me to where I wanted to go. The game allows you to set a marker on the map and an easy fix for this would be to put a marker above the bridge you need to take to reach your destination.

The other issue was the combat. It's not terrible but at the same time it's not great either. It's real time and requires you to use either ranged or melee attacks to take enemies down, once they are knocked out you need to pacify them otherwise they will heal and start attacking you again. You control both characters in fights and at the start it is fine but as you face off against tougher enemies it starts to become a chore as you always need to have one person blocking otherwise you will just lose chunks of health at a time and doing this limits how much damage you put out. It basically becomes an exercise in trying to limit the amount of health you lose each fight which isn't fun. On top of that you can't heal except at a camp, which are few and far between, and your ship. Quite early on you can make an item that allows you to heal in battle, but it uses a resource that isn't as plentiful as I would like and also doesn't heal for a great amount. Overall the combat feels very much like something that was added to make the game feel more like a traditional game and I think it ultimately makes it a worse experience.

It's a shame because I think outside of the combat it's a lovely game and although the other stuff you do is mostly just gliding around and collecting resources I enjoyed the story and especially the relationship between the main characters.

I'd love to be able to recommend this game as I think it is something people should experience, but the combat and map issues mean that I can't really without rather large caveats. It is on Game Pass so if you are interested maybe take a look at it there.

[Animalmother]

Finally completed the main quest on Skyrim Started this game about 6 odd years ago on the Xbox 360 but never managed to finish it, picked it up again on new Xbox and now done. Can now mod the bollox off it and give everyone big boobs like the gods intended!!

[Animalmother]

The Division 2
I initially had misgivings about the first game but grew to really enjoy it once it clicked with me. The extremely bleak setting of New York in winter invested with rats and piles of bodies everywhere really set a grim tone, like the Last of Us but without zombies.
The 2nd game is set in Washington DC during summer and isn't quite as bleak. The cover system has been overhauled and is extremely good, weapons feel more punchy and the gear system has been improved. Some amazing set piece battles like one in a aeronautical museum and planetarium are great fun. It does have bullet sponge enemies and you can die instantly if you walk into the wrong area but overall it's a blast to play.

[Tommy]

Little Big Adventure 2

Had been feeling a bit shit the past week or so so thought I'd revisit an old favourite. Probably my favourite game ever.

Unfortunately, I've ruined it somewhat by learning to speedrun it, but it's still great. 1997, it must've been one of the first 3D open-world adventure games. The game is rich with different worlds and tasks and has a great balance of nudging you along without spoon-feeding you. I still remember the first time I got past the first island (My Kennedy moment).

It's really difficult to get new people to give it a go because it's an old game in a genre that has progressed exponentially, but if you like an adventure game with open-world aspects with a good story, I'd implore people to give it a go even now. It doesn't require you to have played the first game (I never did).

[elgaucho]

Hmmmm - had a bit more time recently to play some stuff I'd wanted to.

Children of Morta
One of the games in this month's humble bundle, CoM is actually a really great little game. I thought I'd hate the narrative storytelling getting in the way of the rogue like gameplay, but in fact it makes the game, and I found myself mostly immersed in it from start to finish.
The game includes 7 playable characters, each with their own talent trees and skills and combat type, and, while i had my favourites as i went through, the fatigue system forced me to rotate, and over time I found every character had their strengths and weaknesses. The difficulty curve is interesting without being overwhelming, but the upgrade system and the "family benefits" system really helps as you reach the endgame and get to leverage these bits.
Highly recommended.

Gunfire Reborn
I picked this early access roguelike FPS up on sale a few weeks ago.
I don't think it's a game changer in any way, but I love jumping in and spending 20 minutes on a map.
Each playable character has three primary skill trees, each skill upgradable three times. But which skills you get on any run will vary wildly based on RNG. So one run you might get defensive skills, the next grenadier skills, elemental weapons damage, etc etc.
The RNG is equally captivating and infuriating, as a run can go back early on without the right drops, but it does keep you coming back.
They've made a 4 player coop mode, but I've yet to find anyone to play it with, and couldn't be bothered to wait for the matchmaking.
The gunplay is good, with a dodge mechanic helping out, and it does get the blood flowing in a good way.
Definitely worth a bargain bin pickup!

[Raid]

I've finally gotten around to grabbing Hades. I'm a massive fan of Supergiant's visual and sound designs, but it's only really Bastion that clicked with me on a gameplay level. Hades is definitely strong on the aesthetics, but I'm not quite convinced of the gameplay yet. There's a good chance I'm going to end up loving it, but my biggest successes so far have come from spamming attacks and dashes, which is kinda fun but not particularly deep (and I dread to think what it's doing to my spacebar). I got to the boss in the third level that way - I think I had one of Poseidon's boons which makes your dash do damage and knockback, combined with the Shield weapon that does short range damage.