Last game you DIDN'T finish and your thoughts

That is... not what I'd expect to read from somebody who thought it excellent. What did you play it on Jim? I do feel like it's one that benefits from being played off Switch, but a puzzle game with iffy puzzles has a lot of room to make up with its VIBES.

I got the PS5 version - basically because it was 1 pound cheaper!

I played it on Xbox via Game Pass but outside of that, the price difference of a digital only game across the three system always bugs me.

Like I bought Fall of Porcupine of PSN as it was the cheapest of the three versions I could have gone for, yet what's the reason why.

That'll be (part of the reason) why then. As I said, you might have a better time on another system, and you both did. I don't think performance makes up the difference from what I played to excellent, but it probably makes it easier to ignore some of Cocoon's less interesting moments. (Like the way the thing moves. It's seriously not fun to control, which is fine until the game decides it wants to be an action game for a bit.)

It's me.  Again.  SHOCK.

BAYONETTA ORIGINS - CEREZA AND THE LOST DEMON:

MELATONIN:

LEGO STAR WARS - THE SKYWALKER SAGA:

Yeah, the earlier LEGO games were really creative with their cutscenes and were pretty funny in how they used physical comedy and miming to get the point of the scene across. The Darth Vader "I am your father" scene was excellent stuff.

A watery double-bill!



Everybody's favourite not-an-indie of 2023 didn't work for me at all sadly.  The discourse I read was all about how Dave the Diver starts off well, with an addicting swimming-to-restaurant loop, before getting lost somewhat in its own nonsense.  I think that nonsense might actually have worked better for me, because I didn't care for that loop at all.  Not being able to aim didn't help, but really I just didn't like being time-limited in the amount I could explore, nor did I find the ocean area itself terribly interesting, or the navigation very fun.  I found the writing mixed too, and it felt odd killing a bunch of endangered fish.  It looked nice but that was really all it had.  Everybody's favourite not-an-indie not only wasn't an indie, it wasn't everybody's favourite either.  It's a shame, because I really thought from the description I might get on with it.



Which is more than you could say for Subnautica.  Mas called this as soon as I mentioned it.  Heck, I had this as the likely outcome.  I got swept up in a wave (ha) of post-Metroid Prime craving for another first-person vaguely sci-fi explorathon, and thought I'd give it a go while it was on sale.  Unfortunately I don't like survival, or crafting, or drowning.  I gave it a good few hours while The Lady was watching, but we have a new house and a new setup where she doesn't sit behind the gaming sofa most of the time, so that's out and so's the game.

That's it.  I'm done.  I gave it a shot, but I'm done.

If you're reading this, you probably don't need me to tell you why in the end I never made it past Castle Kamoshida in Persona 5 Royal.  In case you need a refresher: the threat of making decisions that decide which content I miss, a pretty trad battle system, unappealing demon designs to a bloke who's firmly in the 'cute' camp when it comes to collectable beasts, an interminable first dungeon.  Those are all classic Persona facets that have dogged me (behave) throughout the whole series.  For this game in particular, Persona 5 bleeds "cool" and "sexy" but I don't really care for "cool" or "sexy" in games (or in real life - I know, you'd never think it); and several of the dungeon improvements turn it into more of a stealth-feeling game, and I don't care for stealth either.

Now, this is very much an 'it's not you, it's me' state of affairs.  I think this is a good game probably!  Although the battles are still trad, a combination of dynamic visuals and small additions raise them far above the quality of 3 and 4; the dungeons too.  I can appreciate from a distance the demon system and the social sim elements.  I think the dungeon length probably is a genuine flaw, although I can imagine it gets better once the game doesn't need to tutorialise everything.  I still think TMS #FE has the best dungeons in the Persona series.  I have some genuine gripes about the female character design too, more so since somebody posted these extracts from the Persona 5 artbook.  But for all that those are more egregious for being spelled out, Ann Takamaki's no worse than Xenoblade's Pyra.

No, the real reason for me giving up here is that I'm not a Persona (or Shin Megami Tensei) fan and I'm never going to be.  That's okay.  I've got Squeenix and MonolithSoft pumping out JRPGs I'm more attuned to, I'm fine with giving these a miss from now on.  Sorry Mas, but you're hardly lacking for fans of the series.




Speaking of stylish turn-based RPGs I don't have time for, I fell off the Thirsty Suitors wagon as well.  This feels like it should be more my deal: the battles have action commands to them, and the art is much less sexist.  And yet, Thirsty Suitors' elements don't hang together that well.  I enjoyed the battling but found the cooking average and the skateboarding tiresome, and they never feel like they're complimenting each other.  I found the main character's whining as unappealing as Takamaki's leather catsuit, just in a different way.  I felt like I could see the path of this game stretching out before me into solid 6/10 territory, without being as playable with my brain off.  

This is definitely somebody's idea of a good time, especially at sale prices.  I'm just not that somebody.

Persona, just seems mad to me for a RPG fan as Persona 5 is like the gold (pun intended) of the genre.

Though this goes to what I was saying in the Switch Rank Thread of both big RPG fans, yet some how wildly different.

Thirsty Suitors is a bit of a surprise as it's pretty short, though if you're not enjoying it, guess downstairs matter if it's 10hrs or 100hrs long.

Look forward to reading about Unicorn Overlord

Guaranteed 3/10 and whoever bought it for me was an idiot.

(Okay, there are slightly better odds than that. Against all expectations I got on with the strategy in 13 Sentinels better than I got on with the VN segments. That's kind of what I'm banking on here, but there's a decent chance I've flushed £50 down the drain and I'll have to live with that.)

That 6/10 path for TS: I could see roughly how long it was going to be due to the number of exes I'd ticked off. It was actually happening at what felt like quite a slow rate compared to the gameplay. Even if the path itself wasn't that long, that wasn't the best sign.

Balladeer wrote:

I got on with the strategy in 13 Sentinels better than I got on with the VN segments.

Well done folks, we've officially hit the worst possible take. It was nice knowing you everyone.

How would you know, you haven't been online enough to see all the other takes.

As someone that's got 13S in my Top 10 Switch games. I did like VN part more but don't think much wrong with the strategy combat.

There isn't any strategy to it, it's literally just sit there and win.

Which to be fair is exactly the kind of strategy I like, and I was still bad at it.

Oh speaking of strategy that is boring, I binned off Super Mario RPG a few weeks back because the combat just isn't all that engaging or even challenging. I was then hoping for the story to carry it but even that's fell short compared to your Paper Marios.

I'm not sure if this counts but I bought the Octopia expansion for Eastward and after my wife spotted me playing it and thought it was Stardew Valley, she then insisted I buy that and play with her instead so Octopia was dropped in favour of Stardew which I understand is quite good so no worries there.

Two days later: "Okay so I'm back on Octopia actually."

Nah no return yet, Stardew is a really inexpensive way to do date night.

Crumpy Andy wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

I got on with the strategy in 13 Sentinels better than I got on with the VN segments.

Well done folks, we've officially hit the worst possible take. It was nice knowing you everyone.

This coming from a man who genuinely thinks DMC2 is better than 3...

Unexpected game tangent: House Flipper. I thought, because of the derisory phrase of "house flippers" being people that do the bare minimum and maximise off the desperate, this was some wacky comedy game, but actually it's quite a charming house designing simulator. I work for a CAD company that makes software for designing bathrooms and kitchens, so I had another interest in it from that point of view. The kitchen options are really in-depth, and I wasn't expecting that coming from Animal Crossing and the original Sims.
I think the only bad thing was... er... oh yeah, it crashing during saving and twice destroying 30 hours of work.

We've all been there, and it hurts like Mas' 2023 dental issues every time.

Jimbob wrote:

Unexpected game tangent: House Flipper. I thought, because of the derisory phrase of "house flippers" being people that do the bare minimum and maximise off the desperate, this was some wacky comedy game, but actually it's quite a charming house designing simulator. I work for a CAD company that makes software for designing bathrooms and kitchens, so I had another interest in it from that point of view. The kitchen options are really in-depth, and I wasn't expecting that coming from Animal Crossing and the original Sims.
I think the only bad thing was... er... oh yeah, it crashing during saving and twice destroying 30 hours of work.

I really liked House Flipper - the perfect podcast game (much like Powerwash Simulator). It has a solid gameplay hook, and the cleaning and painting in particular are satisfying. I wasn't too bothered about decking out the rooms, but the comment on bugginess was something I also experienced. It's in most games now. I have been playing PGA Tour on Series X, and also the Disney Speedstorm kart racer and both get glitchy. Given both are new-ish games, I suspect they'll get patches, but it still feels like each time I play, part of me is fearing the worst.

House Flipper 2 was quietly released last year, one to keep an eye on in sales.

Oh yeah, the PS5 version's out on Wednesday!

My favourite thing about the originals, is that they've made up house buyers, a lot of whom are clearly based on real people; there's a stingy tax guy called Dolan Trusk with a red tie and a dodgy blonde wig for example. But my favourite favourite are the couple expecting a baby, called the...

Smoth family.

Presumably the devs were worried about being sued by the Smith family.