Currently Playing

[Raid]

I actually killed the first Rancor you come up against early on on the first attempt - they're not the worst non-unique enemy in the game, I think I had more trouble with the Mogu (the large, bipedal horned monsters that are obviously just recoloured Wampas). I still zoned into that two-Rancor fight, immediately switched off my lightsaber and became part of the living force, because I just did not have the patience for a fight that was obviously going to be frustrating as hell.

I'm sorta glad that you had most of the same gameplay issues that I did - the [redacted] fight had me tilting quite hard, and I wasn't sure if it was just my lack of calm that was causing me to fail. I would have made a terrible Jedi. Unless I was in The Acolyte.

[Rusty]

Starcom: Unknown Space

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1750 ... own_Space/

A top down space faring explore-em up. Typical indie dev type game. Imagine Space Pirates and Zombies.
Big research tech tree.
Build your own ships.
Large universe to travel and explore.
Slightly basic but colourful combat.

I've sunk quite a few hours into this and still want to get back to it. Always a good sign.

[Mantis]

Ghost of Tsushima

Bit of a coincidence that the sequel has been announced this week, but I've been playing through the first game over the last couple of weeks and really enjoying it. The combat really flows when you've unlocked a few skills and has yet to become monotonous, likewise with the exploration.

I advanced the story to the second island then went back to mop up all the side activities on the first island and I am yet to experience that open world fatigue that most games tend to give me nowadays. I think it helps that the game is just so well put together and on point thematically, some of the side activities are a bit of your standard filler fair, but I really love finding the haiku spots and the hot springs where you just chill out and get a bit more insight into Jin's character. I'm playing with the Japanese voiceovers on too so it feels far more immersive.

The game is absolutely stunning too. The art teams really put a lot of love into the presentation and even after nearly 30 hours I still find myself really appreciating just how damn nice it often looks when you're riding through the tall, blowing grass, with colorful leaves flying through the air as the sun rises or sets.

I probably won't pick up the sequel for a long time after it comes out as is my way with most big releases nowadays to play them a few years late, but I'm very glad they're making it.

[Animalmother]

Replaying this as well. Started it last year but got distracted by something else, my PS5 is utterly neglected. It's a stunning looking game, that scene as you're character is galloping through long grass and leans down to run his hand through it is beautiful. The combat is fluid and can end brutally fast if you mess it up (as I often do..). There's a lot to remember and I'm still mixing up the controls from other games, I accidentally slashed my poor horse trying to mount it. I love the PS5 controller but the button binding never feel natural.

[Alan]

Finished Persona 4 a wee while back. It might be the first JRPG Ive ever finished. Its great... except for the jrpg grindy bits that are annoying. If every JRPG was a VN they would all be better games for it.

So Ive now been hammering Persona 5 Royal and my feelings are kind of mixed.

So we have Ann, a girl you recruit into your party. She has been objectified, ogled, sexually harassed etc... then when you go into the alt world where each character gets their own hero costume hers is a skintight low cut red leather catsuit. When she gets knocked down her ass arches up like she's a cat in heat presenting and when she does a combo move she does egirl tongue out, eyes rolling back poses. Its just such dissonance. Its like Atlus are saying "Hey, feel bad for her being so mistreated by men but dont you want to fuck her? Eh eh eh?"

Then there's the dating system. So with the female confidants if you get their trust level to 10 you can date them which doesn't really amount to much gameplay or story wise. However, you are in highschool and some of the women are women. You get one to level 9 and you can joke about dating her and she says "Oh I could never date a minor, that would be too weird" then you get her to level 10 and shes like "Hey kid, we home alone, lets go give you a thorough examination up in your bedroom". Its just weird. I dont remember 4 being so skeezy but I didnt engage with the dating side of that much. I think I dated Yukiko and it seemed sweet and innocent but maybe I'm remembering it wrong.

Other than the sleazeball stuff its SO well presented. It has style for days and is incredibly polished. I love the idea of find a bad person and basically unlock their guilt making them confess their crimes. I love that it does go quite dark and poignant at times but a lot of the ick really takes away from that and makes it feel unearned. I also dont think many of the characters are as interesting or likable as in 4. Ryuji is annoying as shit and Ive just skipped through any of his storyline beats. Its a good game I just wish it had a higher standard of thoughtfulness. I also very much appreciate that the DLC personas included in Royale are so overpowered it lets me skip through most of the tiresome JRPG combat.

[Raid]

Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries

I largely dismissed this when it first came out; firstly because it released as an Epic Store exclusive for the first year, which irked me, but also because all of the missions are entirely procedurally generated and I usually do not enjoy procedurally generated content. However with Mechwarrior 5: Clans releasing in a couple of weeks, bringing a fully scripted single-player campaign (with 5 player co-op), I decided to give it a go to get a feel for it as it's free on Gamepass. Having spent more than 600 hours playing Mechwarrior Online, the 12v12 multiplayer arena shooter (albeit one with the series-standard combat, it wasn't a horrible arcade game like Mechassault meets Quake) produced by the same studio, I should really have twigged that I'd enjoy this too. Playing the same deathmatch games in small arenas in MWO offered largely the same experience, given that neither has any hand-crafted storylines or missions, and the combat is almost identical so I could bring all of that muscle memory into MW5.

Basically, if you liked the 90s and early 2000s Mechwarrior games, there's a good chance you'll like this. The missions are as bland as you can imagine, but the meat of the game is in the combat system, which has always been excellent. Independent torso and leg control, weapons fired in groups of your choosing, location-specific damage that means you can pick off the dangerous autocannons first if you want, and twisting your torso to protect your own components from being destroyed. The Mercenary Company that you operate (taking on missions, spending the proceeds on upgrading and repairing your mechs) isn't my preferred Mechwarrior game style (I always preferred the linear games), but it does at least give you something to do that lets you forget about how basic the missions themselves are. The AI is lousy though, something that was rightfully maligned at launch, and it's the one thing that's giving me pause for the upcoming Clans game.

And it works in VR! It's unofficial, using the UEVR mod by Preydog, but after setting it up it doesn't feel like a fan creation - it runs flawlessly. A VR Mechwarrior game is one of my most-wanted titles, and has been since VR became a consumer product, and while I'd still like one that played well on a HOTAS setup, this is a fairly decent attempt.

[Alan]

Balatro
I put off buying this because I assumed I would just lose hours to it and... I dont get it. I find it quite boring and seemingly based on joker luck more than anything else. Yeah, I dont get the hype.

Shadow Gambit
Finally getting round to this and its great! I always play these games with a controller and something feels off about camera control but nothing major. My only negative so far is the big stupid save reminder bell, its very obnoxious. Everything else is just great! Setting wise it is my least fav of Mimimi's games but still quite excellent.

Persona 5
Finished that. Really good game except for the questionable relationship and objectification choices. Not as good as 4 but theres a lot to love and such fantastic presentation.

[Sly Boots]

Shadow Gambit
Finally getting round to this and its great! I always play these games with a controller and something feels off about camera control but nothing major. My only negative so far is the big stupid save reminder bell, its very obnoxious. Everything else is just great! Setting wise it is my least fav of Mimimi's games but still quite excellent.

If you like Mimimi games, I'd recommend one by a different dev I played a couple of months ago, Sumerian Six - it's very much along similar lines, I had a lot of fun with it but as far as I can tell it was largely ignored by players.

[Alan]

Cheers, never heard of it. Added to the wishlist. I’ve even been keeping my eye on the Stargate game which looked similar but the reviews are mostly negative so waiting on a big discount.