Completely different type of game. Itās third person, and apart from deflecting bolts with a lightsaber, nothing so far in the way of shooting.
So very late into this generation, I have finally caught them all. After being somewhat of a 360 fiend during the last generation of consoles, I vocally broke ranks with my former favourite corporate gaming overlords and bought a Playstation 4.
My objections to the original XBox One all still stand, but in the interim, Microsoft released a beefed up version of the same console and I am pleased to say that it is a pleasant surprise.
I have been playing Sunset Horizon and Forza Horizon 4 today, both very fine games that sit near the top of their respective genres.
Forza Horizon 4 is particularly amusing for us Brits. Itās a very reduced version of the North of Britain, meaning Edinburgh is only about 10 miles away from the Lake District. A couple of nitpicks, but if you like car games, itās a fantastic game.
Haven driven around the Lakes before, I was thrilled to see the inclusion of Danger Signs in the game. I remember seeing one of them in real life, a road with a grade so savage that it was one way. Did the downhill stretch in 2nd gear. It was not unlike a flume ride.
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Did you bag an Xbox one S, or X? Thinking of getting one in the sales
Got an X. Havenāt tried it in 4k yet or done any of the TV stuff with it yet.
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Itās a nice mixed bag at the moment, almost exclusively courtesy of the Xbox One and its Game Pass subscription service. Iāve been playing a lot of good games. A little bit on each.
Bloodstained : Ritual of the Night
Now that Konami isnāt making Castlevania games, the guy behind the seminal Symphony of the Night has weighed in with an off-brand spiritual successor, a gorgeous adventure with character customisation options coming out of its arse, be it appearance or weaponry. It plays beautifully, and a really nice touch are Street Fighter II-style moves that can be found on each weapon.
Metal Slug X
Itās a remix of a couple of Metal Slug games, perhaps the pinnacle of 2D animation at the time. You might have seen this one in the arcades, but you are more likely to have seen the series as downloadable titles, emulated versions of this arcade game. There is the odd bit of slowdown, but this doesnāt stop this game from being one of the finest entries in the best run and gun franchise of all time. I am presently obsessed with the high score mode at the moment and am about the 6592nd best player on the format.
What I really like about this series is that it doesnāt cheat like so many of its contemporaries back then. It doesnāt try to poach the pound coins from your pocket. You can complete this game on a single credit.
Assasins Creed Odyssey, its a big game, I mean a huge game, samey and grind but good.
Itās an oldie, but a goodie, and I think I might have stumbled upon one of the best versions of it.
Sid Meierās Pirates. There has never really been a sequel. They just riff on the original game, which is old enough to have graced the likes of the C64.
They made a version for the PC in the mid 2000s which had updated graphics but exactly the same gameplay structure. Iāve played it a bit this year.
Iām playing the XBox version, backward compatible and upgraded, on the Xbox One X. The conversion made a lot of smart choices, such as speedier sailing and binning off the bit where you have to walk around maps for treasure. Quick time events replace the crappy dancing sequence controls.
Already an easy game, this version acknowledges that and just mainlines the fun bits. Practically the same game as the 1987 original. Still as much fun.
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Seeing as I have just relieved my bro of his xbox 360 I might have to look into this one, really enjoyed some of the civilisation games so be interested to see what this is like.
So this might be of some interest to our demographic
That is a DE-10 Nano, heart of a new retro gaming device known as MiSTer.
You have probably used a software emulator in the past. This is different.
Software emulators pretend to do hardware in software, but they sit on top of a regular OS. They have to contend with other things the OS is doing, and suffer as a result.
This device has a special kind of chip called a field programmable gate array, or FPGA for short.
This is reprogrammable hardware, which means you can just program it to be other hardware, like old computers or consoles (there are downloads that make this a cinch). To all intents and purposes, it then is that hardware, cycle-accurate, and not competing with anything else.
From a gamerās perspective, the results are astonishing. I never realised how important having no input lag actually was. Old SNES games feel fucking electric compared to emulated variants.
It does everything from the Commodore PET to SNKās NeoGeo. It wonāt do Playstation era or afterward. What it does, it does beautifully. Could be something to keep family members entertained during lockdown.
Tagging @Korruptor, @gavstar, @BTripz, @bucks and @Matthew-Le-God, all known geeks.
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Does it do the Z80A architecture and does it have TV out to properly replicate the best computer ever 
It does the Speccy, yes.
I think the damage was about Ā£200, but as I say, it does everything up until the Neo Geo. Not as many arcade games as MAME, yet - but I can see most of it coming over.
Iāve really been enjoying the Minimig (Amiga) setup. Thereās a hard disk image full of games that you can just mount (oo-er) and play with (missus).
I pre-ordered Doom Eternal the other day and itās arrived, however I realised that I have yet to finish Doom (2016) as I kept rage quitting because I couldnāt get past the Cyber Demon.
I am therefore concentrating on finishing Doom (I have got past the Cyber Demon) before I install Doom Eternal, this is killing my son who keep asking if I have installed it yetā¦
Animal Crossing, yo. Thatās me until the Autumn.
How old are you?
Iāve lost mine to Ki for the same reason.
Shame theyāve still locked it down to one town per system. I was hoping it would be one town per user.
Animal Crossing is excellent. It genuinely shifts hardware.
Not really one I am playing at the moment, but I thought Iād mention it again as it is one of my favourite games of the past few years and Iāve managed to get one past the eldest.
As some may know, Nintendo have recently released Animal Crossing, which pretty much represents them at their greediest. Animal Crossing has always been a very single player game, in that it actively diminishes the more players want to play on a system. There is one save game per system. Not per player. Not per copy of the game. If you want to run two separate towns, you need two separate consoles.
Now the eldest wanted to play on Animal Crossing too. This isnāt possible without her fucking up the youngestās save game, or me buying another Switch, but Iām not paying that money for what should be a piece of piss in software.
So I suggested that she play Stardew Valley, mentioned here before with none of the problems of Nintendoās title, most of the benefits and a few areas in which it completely surpasses AC. Itās also only 11 quid and you can play it multiplayer.
She was up until 4am this morning, playing something which looks and feels like a retro game, which she claims to hate. Itās out on almost everything, so could be well worth a look for these coronavirus times.
Sniper 4, its ok and very much in the mould of hitman, ok not great, lull in good games at the moment.
Iāve picked up Fallout New Vegas again this week, itās an oldie but a goody when pickinās is slim 
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Good game, either that or 3 are the best, probably this one as 3 was so bug ridden it was a joke.
I do think those style of games or the engines used have had their day, the AI is so dumb and the stale characters had me bored when I went back to play.
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