Deep into Mass Effect 2, and have completed my team. The endgame awaits. I can say right now, having taken the bad path through the game, that I will play it again being a nice person.
Two games in, the universe feels just as rich as the Star Wars game it evolved from, if not more. Bioware basically had to world-build the shit out of this to get it where it is. Two games in, Iām seeing many of the resolutions of things foreshadowed in the first.
It really is a masterwork of a series of games.
The Mass Effect series is drawing to its end. Started playing the third game on Friday and seem to be in the final group of missions now. I should expect Iāll finish it before Forza Horizon 5 emerges later in the week.
Was up after midnight last night having a look at the new Forza Horizon 5 game. It does look fairly stunning and sounds very nice too. Only played it for 90 minutes last night, but what Iāve seen so far means that I wonāt be thinking about much else today.
Got Mario Party Superstars for the Switch yesterday, a remix of all the early Mario Party games and a tacit acknowledgement that the later games werenāt much cop.
We had a game last night, and I have to say that it was full of theft, double dealing, bad decisions and tantrums. No tears this time around, but then again, lastborn is now 22, not 6.
Itās almost exactly as I remember it.
Iām setting up a new games YouTube channel where ā¦
(drum roll)
ā¦ I am intending to commentate. There are loads of game channels out there already, so I have decided to go a slightly more communal route and call mine Retro By Request, the idea being someone suggests a retro game from the past, I play it and offer my own commentary.
The first two games are these:-
A Boulderdash clone with a skinny Santa. Could just as easily be a smack-head on the rob nicking pressies, imo.
Gingoraās choice. I really wanted it to be shit but this shit is now my go-to game when Iāve got five minutes.
I am quite happy to take requests from Sotonians. Aiming to launch with a few videos, like.
Shite. Keyboard is just an affectation.
Better off with my MiSTeR.
Can I request āFantasy Land Dizzy Eggā on the ZX Spectrum please?
Also how retro are we talking? And are you thinking arcade style games you can bash out in a session or longer games that take a few hours? Iām thinking Syndicate on the Amigaā¦
Anything older than 20 years is fine, I reckon.
Iāve been having a look at Guardians of the Galaxy. Without doubt, itās a pretty game - one of the best on a home console to date. It also has ray-tracing support.
However, itās also a pretty vacant game. Too much of the gameplay is quick time event, etc. I will finish it because the story seems fairly decent, but I canāt see myself going back to it once it is done.
She must be a Pro Evo (RIP) girl.
Which is right.
Back on the Stardew crack, or Stardew Valley as it is sold in the shops. Truly a wonderful game, aimed for people who like Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon but canāt be arsed with some of the stupider mechanics of either.
Itās a mix of things. Farming sim, including flora and fauna. RPG. It has little dungeons for you to descend and mine items from. Dating sim (you can get married, and rather progressively, same sex marriages are fine). It looks like it could have been made in the early 90s, and is truly better than the sum of its parts.
The music is gloriously apt too.
Thanks to the wonders of Gamepass, Iāve jumped back into the world of Skyrim. I put a lot of hours into this game back in the day, but with all the expansion packs that have been released in the time since plus a bit of a crap memory, itās proving a different adventure.
Deliberately chose to go for a melee character. One handed and shield. Deliberately prioritising different things. About to start the whole Bardās College thing, which I never got around to doing last time.
Still an incredibly impressive game. Bit janky, as all Bethesda games like this tend to be. A lot of fun though.
Anyone with a Steam account should check out Vampire Survivors. I think it might be the best value proposition in gaming.
For a measly two pounds and nine pence of your sterling, you get a game which is the lovechild of Castlevania and Gauntlet. There is but one control, all you do is move and your character will issue forth weapons automatically.
It starts out slowly and develops into something frantic and epic each game. Some footage from another gamer below. Ratings are Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam.
Itās a retro mash up par excellence.
A few to report on.
Actraiser Renaissance
Lovely remake of the SNES game, fleshed out with an additional tower defence element. Rearranged soundtrack even better than the original.
Picross
The go to handheld game at the moment. Itās the same game it was way back in the 1990s, just in higher resolution. Thatās not a bad thing. Too many games (Bomberman, Iām looking at you) have violated the āif it aināt broke, donāt fix itā rule.
Super Bomberman (series)
Played last week at my mumās house with the nieces and nephew. If anyone tells you thereās no point to retro gaming, take a look at Super Bomberman 2 - the series perfected and never really bettered.
Eight new Mario Kart 8 Deluxe tracks out on Switch today. Very good they are too, even though some are from the mobile game. To be fair, the only problem people seem to have with the mobile game is the monetisation - the gameplay is lauded.
Playing it on my new Switch OLED. Probably not worth the upgrade if you only play your Switch in docked mode, but the slightly bigger screen is a godsend for a partially sighted bastard like me.
Itās probably also worth noting that the Switch is now the second highest selling console of all time and will probably overtake PS2 in the next year. Nintendo smashed it out of the park with this.
Iāve been playing the upgraded GTA5 on the Series X. This game is getting on for ten years old, but Rockstar were ambitious when they made it. They went for fidelity over frame-rate and back on the 360 and PS3, that made for a rather choppy experience.
Iām running the āPerformance RTā mode and by god it looks glorious. The lighting always looked good before, but I often have moments when Iām turning a corner and can see the light situation and just be floored by how good it all looks.
Iām also becoming increasingly convinced that the story mode at least is a work of utter genius, encompassing Michaelās āsoap opera on steroidsā family life, Franklinās rise out of the ghetto and Trevor Phillipsā continued descent into a madness that began long before the game.
Iām doing the lot again.
