Thirith on 24/3/2025 at 08:42
I have very fond memories of Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight, playing the Nar Shaddaa demo for hours and hours. Somehow I must have been all Jedi Knighted out by the time Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy were released; I played them and enjoyed them well enough, but I don't have the kind of memories of those two games that I have of Jedi Knight.
I was going to get started on Sifu, but I'm too exhausted from work these days, so I didn't want to play a fighting game, as it's a genre I'm not very good at... so instead I got started on the mellow, relaxing Aliens: Dark Descent. The first hour or so was a bit frustrating, but I'm now 3/4 into the Dark Hills mission and no longer quite as stressed by everything going on. Already the realisation that I could lure xenomorphs to the ARC helped a lot.
I'm okay with the restricted saving, because I have a tendency to save scum, though I wish there was a strictly enforced law that games must let you save when you exit. It's silly to take a detour to the nearest elevator and go up and down a level just because there's no other way to do a controlled save.
Aja on 24/3/2025 at 22:49
I’m on a shooter kick. I’ve got one more episode to go in the original Quake in remastered form, never having played it originally. It’s good! Different vibe and gameplay to Doom, but it’s mostly well-balanced and gives you reason to use all the weapon types (except the hatchet). I’ve been trying to play without quicksaving although there have been a few troll bits that, while admittedly funny (giant monster pops out and forces you back into the projectile spike room), were unfair, and of course they always come at the end of a long level. Trent Reznor’s soundtrack is far more ominous than the rest of the game’s aesthetic, but it’s quaint in a spooky way.
A different type of shooter is Enter the Gungeon. I hoped it would scratch an itch for something easy to pick up and play a few satisfying rounds, but after five hours or so I’m thinking about calling it. For one, it’s too hard. Difficulty in and of itself isn’t such a deterrent to me, but part of the difficulty is the controls. It’s hard to get that catharsis when you’re physically uncomfortable from having to keep pressure on both joysticks at all times. And there’s no way to make it easier apart from getting good, which I know is the true Rogue experience, but I think I prefer roguelikes with a bit more of an upgrade path.
Finally, I’m back into Selaco, and I’m not sure if it’s because of updates or that later level designs have improved or that I’ve just gotten accustomed to it, but this is seriously good now. Combat feels great. It’s tense and unpredictable, with enemies flanking and pushing and retreating, and the nonlinear levels allow you approach each encounter in multiple ways, and those encounters play out differently depending on how you react. Though it’s based on GZDoom, it does not play like Doom at all; you have to be careful and thoughtful with every engagement.
And the level of interactivity, which initially felt like just a winking nod to games like Duke 3D, lends a sense of richness to the environment and also has gameplay implications in that you can’t see the enemy if there’s paper and smoke and gore and watermelon bits flying everywhere. The sound design is incredible. It’s crunchy and impactful and detailed. And while the levels can be sprawling and confusing, I think they’ve gotten a lot better at signposting (also you have to remember to use your map).
Normally I avoid early access, but if early access is what it takes to get this level of care and attention to seemingly (but not actually) inconsequential details, then I’m all for it. Plus I’ve been playing for 20 hours and still haven’t finished the first campaign, so it’s not like you’ll be starved for content.
Anyway, last year I put it on my didn’t-quite-make-it list of best games, but at this point it’s gonna be a strong contender in 2025.
henke on 29/3/2025 at 17:00
Replayed Mafia: Definitive Edition. Damn that's a good game! Both the gameplay and story are top notch, with some great performances from the actors as well. Started up Mafia 2: DE today. It's alright. I remember a lot of complaints about how slow the beginning of this game is when it came out, but I'm enjoying the more mundane aspects of being a low-down criminal sleezebag. The vehicle handling is also really good in this and I'm loving the "winter in the city" setting.
Picked up Wreckfest 2 in its newly-released Early Access form, less because I'm itching to play it but more because it feels inevitable that I'll get it eventually and the price is only gonna go up over the EA period. In Bugbear I trust! There's only a few levels and cars yet but it plays and looks great!
Getting back into VR. Catching up on the latest Beat Saber tracks. Also finally playing Phantom: Covert Ops, a tactical kayaking stealth-action game. I bought this ages ago on the Quest 1 but barely touched it then. Start from the beginning and I'm hooked! Really fun game and the whole kayaking thing is maybe a bit of a contrived way of getting you moving around in VR without feeling nauseous, but it works!
[video=youtube;bbFYT79u65E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbFYT79u65E[/video]
faetal on 29/3/2025 at 20:34
I know it's not very fashionable to like Ubisoft games, but I am enjoying the heck out og Assassin's Creed Shadows.
It's a really excellent game.
It's fighting Odyssey for being my favourite of newer style AC games, which makes sense as it's the same studio.
WingedKagouti on 29/3/2025 at 20:49
Quote Posted by faetal
I know it's not very fashionable to like Ubisoft games, but I am enjoying the
heck out og
Assassin's Creed Shadows.
It's a really excellent game.
It's fighting Odyssey for being my favourite of newer style AC games, which makes sense as it's the same studio.
Your sentiment echoes what I've heard from others who have played it: A great Modern AC game.
I'm playing through
Spider-Man Remastered and it's a solid AAA game with some annoying parts, most notably the ones where you control MJ or Miles, which all have felt like padding. The story feels very formulaic so far (75-80% through the main story according to my savefile), but it has been neat to see new versions of classic Spider-Man characters and rogues, including how they grow into a more familiar form over the course of the game.
Aja on 29/3/2025 at 22:44
Quote Posted by faetal
I know it's not very fashionable to like Ubisoft games, but I am enjoying the
heck out og
Assassin's Creed Shadows.
It's a really excellent game.
It's fighting Odyssey for being my favourite of newer style AC games, which makes sense as it's the same studio.
I haven't played an Assassin's Creed since the original, but I am tempted by this one.
faetal on 29/3/2025 at 23:32
I really enjoyed all of the AC games, some more than others.
One thing I always love about them is how lovingly crafted the settings are.
AC: Origins was noted by RPS in particular for this:
(
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/assassins-creed-origins-review-pc)
Quote:
Before I get to him, though, here's a quick paean to the intricacy of the game's historical recreation and in particular, the old man I saw seated in a corner with a collection of odd clay pots near the Library of Alexandria. In a functional sense the man was just background noise, his only role within the game to look spooked when randos decked in colourful weaponry fall off nearby buildings, but his air of concentration caught my attention. As I watched, he selected a pot and tapped it delicately with a hammer till it broke, revealing a shiny new-minted arrowhead, which he added to a pile on his left. I was delighted and mystified. How did the arrowheads get into the pots, and where did they come from?
Many hours later, while roaming the lush, darkened city of Memphis in search of a renegade priest, I found the answer: a man hunched over a coal fire, melting down pieces of iron which he then carefully poured into similar pots using a pair of tongs. Of course - the pots weren't pots, they were moulds. I took a moment to savour the thrill of actually learning something about a long-buried society, under my own steam and without any exposition, in a game that otherwise defaults to killing people, hiding from them or killing them while hiding from them. Then I ran up a fortress wall by accident while turning a corner, and a man with a tower shield kicked my head in.
Sulphur on 30/3/2025 at 02:52
I've never been very sold on the AssCreed games, but I enjoy some of them in the moment, and Origins I've enjoyed in more moments than the rest. It's still a ridiculously long game with an over-laboured second act choked with a sprawling repetitiveness in its objectives, but the details like what you've mentioned above are where a lot of its little joys were to be found. There are inaccuracies that abound if you're a historian, but beyond all that, the intent to ground the game in as accurate a reconstruction of Egypt they could manage is what makes it work for me. Getting to see Memphis and Alexandria for the first time or seeing a divergent version of the Egyptian afterlife (Aten) following the floor plans for the city from Akhenaten's reign ignites in me a certain frisson - and I know it doesn't work that way for everyone, but that's what works for me.
The game part's still middle of the road at best, and often is operating at its worst, but as a vehicle for historical tourism made with care and effort, the series is probably unrivalled.
Having said that, I'm interested in Shadows because they've finally brought stealth back in a way that informs a lot of the mechanics, like a gangling mutant lovechild of the original AssCreed and Splinter Cell, from what I can tell. It'd be a welcome relief if it actually works this time, awkward RPG level frictions notwithstanding. And if they've given Japan anywhere near as much love as they did Egypt in Origins, I'll be looking forward to the whole thing very much.
nicked on 30/3/2025 at 17:16
This is what I've always found with Assassin's Creed games - I love the historical theme park aspect of it, I just wish it wasn't tied to the miserable anchor of Assassin's Creed's infinitely uninspiring gameplay.
faetal on 30/3/2025 at 20:35
The latter games are much better for this.
There's still an amount of repetitive gameplay, but the side quests have a lot more thought put into them, and the combat, while not up to the standards of FromSoft titles, is deeper and more interesting than the earlier stuff.
I'm not trying to sell the franchise, but I'd definitely recommend Shadows to anyone who likes big pretty open-world RPGs.
