What games are you guys playing at the moment?

[Steve]

I've just tried out Naraka: Bladepoint, which was added to Game Pass a couple of days ago.

It's a battle royale game for up to 60 players. You play as 1 of 10 different characters, each with a range of abilities. There's a whole bunch of different weapons you can use, including various swords, daggers, nunchucks, and spears. It's much more of a martial arts/fighting game than a shooter, even though it does include ranged weapons like crossbows and pistols.

The movement is nice and fluid as you can double jump, climb up trees, climb on top of buildings etc. You can also pick up grappling hooks that let you quickly traverse the environment.

There's a few different game modes, but the core game is either played solo or as part of a trio. It's your standard battle royale fare, in terms of the map shrinking over time, and the last player/team standing being the winner.

It is a bit overwhelming when you first play it, solely due to the sheer number of options and moves. The first time you play, you're taken through a short tutorial that teaches you the basics, and thankfully they've added in the option to play against bots, including a "casual" option, so you can get a bit of practice in before taking on real players.

When you kill a player, you can loot their body and either take or swap their items, but I found that a bit overwhelming too, just cos they carry so much stuff and you don't really get much time to be browsing through it, comparing it with what you already have. I'm sure once I've played it a bit more and know what I'm looking for, I'll get way faster at that aspect of it.

Currently the game is only available on Windows and Xbox Series X/S, but it's supposedly coming to PS5 and the Xbox One consoles too at a later date. It's part of Game Pass on both PC and Xbox, so if you have that, you can play it at no extra cost, otherwise it starts at £17.99 for the standard edition.

It has cross-play, which is enabled by default, and unfortunately the only way to disable it is to disable cross-play globally on the Xbox, which sucks IMO. As the game has been out on PC for 9 months or so, if you have cross-play enabled you'll be up against some experienced players who will hand your ass to you, as well as the usual cheaters/hackers you find on PC, so it would be nice if they added a simple toggle to turn off cross-play in the game's own menus, rather than having to disable it globally.

But yeah - first impressions are good!

[Steve]

I've been playing Road 96, which is available on all consoles and PC. It's just been added to Game Pass.

It's an adventure game set in the fictional nation of Petria during the 1990s. The country is ruled by a tyrannical dictator. You play as several teenagers trying to cross the border and escape. The game features procedurally generated interactions and your dialogue choices affect the outcome.

As  you progress through the story, you meet various NPCs along the way. Each play-through isn't very long, but you play through multiple times as a different teenager each time, learning more about each NPC as you go. It also features various mini-games you can play, although they don't offer a great deal of challenge. The music is really good.

I wasn't sure if it would be my cuppa tea, but I found myself engrossed almost immediately. I would highly recommend it, and if you have Game Pass, it's a no-brainer to download it and give it a go. The download is fairly small too.

[Steve]

I finished Road 96. I fucking LOVED it. It took me 6½ hours, so it's not a long game, although I hadn't hit 100% on all of the main characters' back stories. There's a new game plus option that lets you go back in and play again.

There's also multiple different endings, plus multiple ways each scene can play out, so there is definitely incentive to play through it again.

There are only 12 achievements/trophies in the game, 11 of which you're guaranteed to get if you finish the game, but 1 is quite easy to miss: -

Spoiler

After you meet Zoe for the first time and you go to sleep on the cardboard, when she wakes you up and takes you for a chat, right after you sit down, look at the fire and there's an option to blow on it, which unlocks an achievement. I missed that on my first play-through. If you miss it, you can easily get back to that scene in 5 minutes or so via new game plus.

Reading through some other people's opinions of the game after finishing it, it seems that everyone who plays this has a different experience, at least in the first play-through. I've seen people talking about shit that never happened to me, plus I survived situations where other players got killed or were arrested. Such a cool fucking game!

[Steve]

Thanks to Game Pass, I've discovered another great game: Monster Sanctuary.

It's kind of a cross between the 2D Metroid games and Pokemon. There's a huge map to explore. Really good turn-based combat. Loads of monsters to discover and collect. Loads of skills to unlock.

I would highly recommend giving it a try, and if you have Game Pass it's not even a 1GB download so it's a no-brainer to give it a go.

[Steve]

This evening I did my first play-through of Bright Memory: Infinite.

It's a story-based FPS. There's not really anything new here in terms of game mechanics. Throughout the course of the game you pick up a pistol, shotgun, machine gun, and sniper rifle. You also have a sword, which you can use to deflect bullets. You have some skills, such as being able to pull enemies towards you, or toss them up into the air. You can wall run, use a grapple hook etc. There's skill trees, with unlockable upgrades.

The graphics are decent, outside of the face animations in the cut scenes, which are not great. It's a budget title (£16/$20) and the length reflects that; it only took me 2 hours to play through it from start to finish, including doing a bit of exploring, although there is some replayability. In fact, I think you have more incentive to replay it on a higher difficulty level, or to grab remaining achievements, when it's not gonna take you 20+ hours.

Despite it not really offering anything original, I really enjoyed it. The combat was very satisfying, especially the boss fights, and using the special ammo was cool, as that turns your pistol into a grenade launcher, for example. It's easy to play through in one sitting, although whether you feel it's worth £16/$20 is a matter of opinion. I don't regret buying it, and I'll definitely play through it again on a higher difficulty level.

What's most amazing about this game is that it was made by 1 guy, yet it looks like this: -

If you'd told me it was made by a small dev team of 20 people, I'd have been impressed, but 1 guy? Fucking crazy.

 

[Steve]

I liked Bright Memory: Infinite enough to grab all of the achievements: -

When you complete it, you can play through the entire thing again, or choose to play through a specific level, and you keep all the stuff you unlocked from previous play-throughs.

I played through the entire game on 3 different difficulty settings, just cos I enjoyed it, but to get the achievements for completing it on the higher difficulty settings, you only have to replay the final level and kill the end boss.

The hardest achievement to get was killing 20 enemies with fire, just cos it didn't seem like it was tracking properly, but it eventually popped.

[Steve]

I've been playing Kaze and the Wild Masks. Short review: -

It's a 2D platformer that plays a lot like the Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario World games. The controls are simple and precise, which is exactly what you want for a game like this. There's lots of collectibles and hidden items/secrets.

It's one of the best 2D platformers I've played in a long time, so if you're into these types of games it's definitely worth a look.

It's available on all of the current consoles, Windows, macOS, and Linux.

[Steve]

Powerwash Simulator - As the name implies, you powerwash stuff. It might be someone's car, or their entire back garden. You earn money and can upgrade your stuff. This is the kind of game that requires little focus, so you could listen to a podcast while playing it. I thought it was OK. I can kinda see the appeal, but if I'm gonna listen to a podcast while gaming I'd rather cruise around Mexico in Forza Horizon 5 than play this.

Fall Guys - I only got around to trying this for the first time last night. It's a casual multiplayer game for up to 60 players, where you play a series of mini-games with a certain number of players being knocked out in each round. I found it really fun, but it's the sort of game I'd play in short bursts. It's free to play, has cross-platform play, and there are TONS of people playing it so you can matchmake into a full 60 player match in next to no time. There are paid cosmetics and season passes, but you're at no disadvantage if you don't pay for any of that stuff.

[scottie(the)goonie]

1 hour ago, Steve said:

Powerwash Simulator - As the name implies, you powerwash stuff. It might be someone's car, or their entire back garden. You earn money and can upgrade your stuff. This is the kind of game that requires little focus, so you could listen to a podcast while playing it. I thought it was OK. I can kinda see the appeal, but if I'm gonna listen to a podcast while gaming I'd rather cruise around Mexico in Forza Horizon 5 than play this.

Fall Guys - I only got around to trying this for the first time last night. It's a casual multiplayer game for up to 60 players, where you play a series of mini-games with a certain number of players being knocked out in each round. I found it really fun, but it's the sort of game I'd play in short bursts. It's free to play, has cross-platform play, and there are TONS of people playing it so you can matchmake into a full 60 player match in next to no time. There are paid cosmetics and season passes, but you're at no disadvantage if you don't pay for any of that stuff.

A LOT of people have been telling me about Powerwash Sim.  I want it but I can't stomach a $30 game.  Instead of cleaning my place and reaping actual benefits, I'll be cleaning virtual things and somehow reaping the same mental benefits.  

[Steve]

17 minutes ago, scottie(the)goonie said:

A LOT of people have been telling me about Powerwash Sim.  I want it but I can't stomach a $30 game.  Instead of cleaning my place and reaping actual benefits, I'll be cleaning virtual things and somehow reaping the same mental benefits.  

It's part of Game Pass atm, which is the only reason I tried it. I'm pretty sure it's on Game Pass for PC too if that's where you're playing.

[Steve]

I've been playing The Ascent. IGN's review: -

It's an action RPG/twin stick shooter. The graphics look great on the Xbox Series X. I wasn't expecting the game to look as good as it does. It's fun to play, and you can play solo or in co-op over Xbox Live.

It's part of Game Pass on Xbox and PC, so if you have that, it's well worth giving it a try.

[Steve]

I've been playing You Suck At Parking, which was recently added to Game Pass.

It's an isometric top-down arcadey driving game. The goal of each short course is to get from the starting point to a parking space and park as fast as possible. It starts off easy, but the difficulty soon starts to ramp up, with bombs littering the road and magnets pulling your car in certain directions. What also makes it more difficult is that if you stop, that's it, you're counted as parked, so you can't come to a standstill, reverse and change direction, for example. Many courses have shortcuts on them, some of which are more obvious than others.

It's one of those "just one more try"-type games. The controls are simple and you can restart any course instantly by just pressing Y without there being any loading screens. There's leaderboards so you can compare your times with your friends, or everyone playing the game, plus there is online multiplayer, although I haven't tried that yet.

It has a battle pass system, where you can unlock new cars, car mods, designs etc., but you don't need to bother with that tbh.

[Steve]

Earlier on I tried out Metal: Hellsinger, which has just been added to Game Pass. IGN's review: -

It's a mix of action/adventure game, shooter, and rhythm game, set in Hell.

It's the rhythm game part of it that makes it really stand out. As you begin a level, the barebones of a heavy metal track are playing. You have to try and carry out your attacks so they hit on beat, which scores more points and increases your multiplier. As you build up a streak of hits that are on beat, other elements of the music are brought in, until the full metal tune is blasting out.

Your weapons are designed so they can be fired in time, for example, the shotgun holds 8 shots and can be fired every other beat, plus if you press X to reload on beat too, it does an instant reload.

I found it pretty hard to hit attacks on beat at first, just cos you might have a bunch of enemies swarming you and in any other shooter, you'd just fire as fast as you could to kill them rather than trying to do it in rhythm with music, but once you get used to it you start to get a flow going.

Apparently it's only around 4 hours long, but there are multiple difficulty levels and there's online leaderboards, so you can replay levels to try and beat your friends' scores. If you have Game Pass, I'd definitely recommend giving it a go.

[Steve]

I'm half way through Beacon Pines atm: -

I didn't think I'd like this game, but I gave it a shot cos it's a small download (about 1GB) and is part of Game Pass. I'm really enjoying it though. There's no real skill required as it's more about exploring and pushing the story on, but it sucked me in pretty quickly.

It's around 5-7 hours long, so you can play through it in a couple of sessions. If you have Game Pass, I'd definitely recommend giving it a go.

[Steve]

I've been playing Inside, which I bought a long time ago but never got around to playing until now. It's an atmospheric 2D platformer with puzzle elements and a bunch of secrets to discover. It's a fantastic game and I can see why it was getting 10/10 review scores back when it was released.

It's on sale on Steam right now for about £4, or if you have an Xbox/PC you can play it via Game Pass. It goes on sale every now and then on the consoles too.

A screenshot I took earlier: -

[Deft]

God of War Ragnarok in about 4 hours 15 mins. Though I'll actually be asleep. 

[Steve]

I've been playing Vampire Survivors.

It's a 2D old school arcade shooter with graphics straight out of the 90s. The controls are about as simple as they could be; you use the left stick or WASD to move and that's it. Your character fires automatically.

You start off super-weak and with a single weapon, but most enemies that you kill drop gems, and as you pick those up, it fills up a bar. When that bar is full, you level up. Levelling up gives you 3 options to choose from, which could be new weapons or powers, or upgrading an existing one. You can carry/use a bunch of weapons/powers at the same time.

The beauty of this game is that there are a TON of different combinations of weapons/powers you can have, you level up very regularly so you're always getting stronger, and there is way more depth to it than you initially think. Also, with each play-through you earn coins that you can use to upgrade your stats, and that carries over to all subsequent play-throughs. You can refund the coins you've spent on upgrading your stats as many times as you like if you want to try something different, and the game doesn't penalise you for doing so. There are a bunch of different characters you can play as, each with their own particular buffs/starting weapon. There are quite a few different levels, with tons of different enemy types, mini bosses, and bosses.

It really does master that "just one more go" feeling that old school arcade games gave you.

It's part of Game Pass, but it's also dirt cheap; under £4 on both Xbox and PC. As it's very light on resources, you can play it on even ancient PCs.

I highly recommend it! It's really addictive! It's only available on Xbox and PC right now, but I'd be very surprised if it didn't come to other platforms further down the line.

[TBearOne8III]

i feel like i abandoned my games.  I finally finished Miles Morales last week.  i had to go around the city stopping crimes for about 30 mins before i did the last battle just to remember how to fight in the game. I started playing Jedi academy on the switch. its an old xbox port. original xbox at that.  I started it months ago and got stuck on a level.  picked it up again. played for an hour. still stuck on the same level. LOL

[neks]

On 3/28/2022 at 12:10 PM, Steve said:

I've been playing 9 Monkeys of Shaolin: -

If you like classic side-scrolling beat 'em ups like Final Fight, you will like this. It offers more depth than those classic games, with more moves and unlockable weapons, items and upgrades.

You can play it solo or in co-op with one other person, either locally or online.

Thanks for the recommendation Steve. I was looking for a local coop game to play with my brother in law (following Streets of Rage 4, the new Ninja Turtles game, RiverCity Girls, you see the pattern...) when he's in town and this one totally hits the spot. 

[Steve]

Earlier this evening I checked out Gundam Evolution, which is a free to play multiplayer game based on the Gundam franchise.

You play as a giant robot. There's a bunch of different ones you can play as, each with their own unique weapons and abilities. There's 3 different objective-based game modes, all of which are 6 Vs. 6, 10 different maps, and there's casual and competitive modes.

It's free to play and supported by micro-transactions and there's a battle pass you can purchase if you want to. Some of the robots are locked, but there's still a decent amount that are ready to play right from the beginning, without spending any money.

I enjoyed playing it and will definitely play it some more. It's available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. If you like team-based shooters I'd recommend giving it a try, especially given that you can download and play it for free.

[Steve]

I unlocked the 142nd and final achievement in Vampire Survivors yesterday. I've put almost 50 hours into the game, which, given that I've only being playing it for about a month is pretty crazy. I only paid £3.19 for it, so value-wise it's hard to beat.

There's new DLC coming out for it today that adds a huge new map which is 25 times bigger than any map currently in the game, 8 new characters, 13 new weapons, 6 new music tracks, and some new achievements. It'll cost less than £2. The devs have also announced that they're going to continue updating the main game for free.

[Steve]

I'm a few hours into a new game called Hi-Fi Rush. It's an action/platformer with rhythm-based combat, available for Xbox Series X/S and Windows. It was literally announced and launched yesterday, out of nowhere, and is available via Game Pass.

It's really good! It reminds me of the Dreamcast era. It's kind of Jet Set Radio meets Guitar Hero meets Devil May Cry. The world pulses along to the soundtrack, and when you get into combat, you have to try and hit your attacks on beat. Hitting combos perfectly on time increases your damage. There's some licensed music in the game, so during key events like boss fights, the song will change to one of the licensed ones, which includes tracks from The Prodigy, Nine Inch Nails, and The Black Keys.

Launch trailer: -

If you have a gaming PC or an Xbox Series console and you have Game Pass, I'd highly recommend giving it a go!

[Steve]

I'm playing Hogwarts Legacy.

I've never read a Harry Potter book, nor watched any of the films, and I had no interest in this game until I watched a couple of videos on it. It kinda reminded me of Fable 2, which I loved, and as it's getting great reviews I decided to pick it up.

It's really good so far! Obviously for Harry Potter fans, it's a no-brainer to pick this up, but I think it would appeal to anyone that likes open world action/adventure RPGs.

[Deft]

On 2/7/2023 at 3:21 PM, Steve said:

I'm playing Hogwarts Legacy.

I've never read a Harry Potter book, nor watched any of the films, and I had no interest in this game until I watched a couple of videos on it. It kinda reminded me of Fable 2, which I loved, and as it's getting great reviews I decided to pick it up.

It's really good so far! Obviously for Harry Potter fans, it's a no-brainer to pick this up, but I think it would appeal to anyone that likes open world action/adventure RPGs.

I'm going to buy this to annoy militant trans rights nutters

[Steve]

On 2/8/2023 at 6:14 PM, Deft said:

I'm going to buy this to annoy militant trans rights nutters

Rather annoyingly, they have taken to posting spoilers of the end of the game all over social media. I saw one earlier that spoiled a major part of the game for me before I realised what it was that I was reading.

They've also been harassing certain Twitch streamers. There's a YouTube gaming channel called "Girlfriend Reviews", owned/run by a young couple called Shelby and Matt. They announced that they'd be streaming the game on Twitch, and they got raided by a bunch of TRAs who were screaming "bigot!!!" at them to the point where it made Shelby cry and she quit the stream.

It's crazy how they have elevated JK Rowling up to the status of some anti-trans Hitler, when all she's really said is that nobody should be fired for saying that biological sex is real, and there are cases where spaces should be segregated by sex, not some self-identified gender, of which there are now hundreds.

I think a lot of the anger is also down to the fact that the game has been HUGELY popular, easily breaking Twitch's record for consecutive viewers for a single player game, and topping various sales charts, including Steam's. It makes certain people realise that their hugboxes on Twitter are not the real world.