SleepyAnimal

Two things I discovered this week - one, Plants Versus Zombies becomes an unusably slow, indecipherable pile of bum rubbish after about level ten on Survival Endless which is mostly the reason I bought it. Two, the right-hand analog stick on my Switch has given up and stopped working, so I can't play Dredge with the Iron Rig dlc that I got on sale, so despite having a ridiculous amount of games to choose from, I'm playing Being Grumpy And Not Gaming "Cause I'm In A Sulk all weekend.

A particular boss in Silksong is giving me a right load of gyp. It came out of nowhere, has an odd name and no context whatsoever, and I have no idea why I'm fighting it, but also at some point I realised I was having a great time getting my booty handed to me...so, more Silksong for me. Having lots of fun actually making the effort to push forward in Loop Hero too, though.

🤷‍♀️ I hope it's great, I hope it reinvents the metroidvania wheel, I hope it costs a tenner like Hollow Knight, I'll probably play it, but my hype's dissipated a wee bit.

Fell quite deeply in love with Sea Of Stars last week. It's not perfect sure, but it's gotten closer to conjuring my fondly remembered joy of childhood rpg exploration than any other game has in a pretty long time. I've played a fair few thoroughly decent role players and had a good time, but this has just clicked that little bit more. It's ridiculously charming, looks lovely, sounds wonderful and just lots of genuine fun, really.

So many games all but untouched in my backlog, so many great new games or good stuff on sale in the eshop...so I started another playthrough of Skyrim. Moulding myself into a sneaky thief type as I've not tried it before, and remembering how easily you can lose a couple of hours just walking around or hunting bandits.

Been waiting almost fourteen years for the next Elder Scrolls game, dunno what everyone's complaining about with Silksong..

Trundling through Crypt Custodian which is fun, kind of cosy, a bit sad, and a bit more challenging than the devs' other games. For some reason have also decided to earnestly grind through Dicey Dungeons stage by stage, and on top of that I have to admit, a fair old bit of Balatro, which is fun and addictive enough as an idle distraction type deal but hasn't completely won me over without really being able to say why.

@sanderev @JohnnyMind exactly, individual user customisation all the way!

I'd quite like a personal filter where you can permanently stop individual games from showing up for you at all, so anything you're 100% sure isn't of interest for whatever reason can just be gone and your eshop view becomes slowly but surely streamlined. Something you could review, adjust, turn on and off that would let you be completely subjective and judgemental, but just as an individual user. No idea if it'd be practical and have thought it through very little indeed, but I could personally scour a good few hundred things I don't give a monkeys about from my eshop in a matter of minutes.

I loved Ecco and Ecco 2 on the megadrive, and still do. An - at least in the 90s - incredibly realistic and atmospheric wildlife simulator with obtuse puzzles and scary aliens? Yes please. I seem to vaguely remember that the creator of the first game at least (yes, I'm too lazy to Google it) might have had some kind of dispute with Sega so they might as others have suggested just be hanging on to the IP to stop anyone else running off and making an Ecco game, but oh man...if they made some kind of top-quality reboot/remaster/sequel with the same level of atmosphere and general gorgeousness I'd be a happy human.

Treated myself to Sheepo and Crypt Custodian after finishing (and really enjoying) Islets, and have been flicking between the two. Feels like you can chart the development of ideas across the three games and Crypt Custodian is definitely the most polished and accomplished of the three, but they're all fun and different enough to be worth checking out all of 'em.

Also splashed out a bit on Octopath Traveller over Christmas, and was looking forward to throwing myself into a nice big traditional rpg but have to admit the really, really badly done Olde Worlde dialogue got right on my Bristols so much I put it straight down. Will go back, sure it's magnificent, but whoeth in the fudgen didst decidest to make all the characters speak like a terrible parody?

Have been waiting for Islets to go on sale for a while so snapped that up when it did. Am 38% through and enjoying it very much - it's manageable enough to avoid hurling abuse at the screen after 30 odd progress-free attempts at some fiendish boss, but challenging enough that I feel like I'm achieving something when I do make progress. Also downloaded Balatro, which seems fun enough, haven't been bowled over by it yet but keep going back for more, so I guess it's working its magic?

Eyeballing Neva and/or plumply discounted Octopath Traveller on sale, haven't given myself a Christmas gaming treat yet so might try one of them imminently...

@Zequio Yeah, looking back now it seems amazing they managed it! Not sure I appreciated it at the time as I was about seven, was also fundamentally useless at it if I recall. Also now slightly hooked on watching people play through old Atari games on YouTube...

Reasonably sure the top one was also the box art for the Atari 2600 version, which is what I had. The Boss music for that (along with the title screen tune for Robocop on the Spectrum) remain personal earworms to this day. So EU/US version 100% for nostalgic reasons.

Don't particularly care how long the game takes, but genuinely don't get why Team Cherry can't just take a moment to update folk, even just to say "not ready yet" a hundred times. They have to be aware of how many folk are desperate for news...send a goshdarned tweet guys! It'll take you thirty goshdarned seconds, goshdarn it.

Creeping up on 70 hours of Dragon Quest XI. Not sure I have the stamina for huge RPGs at my advanced age but I was obsessed with their vibe as a kid and the nostalgia of it all is ruddy delightful. Will quite probably start another play through in the 16-bit graphics mode once I'm done. Haven't really got stuck into much else, doesn't mean I won't swell the ol' backlog with things that look shiny that I won't touch for months, of course.

Got further into Darkest Dungeon than I thought I would, impressed at how many deeply unfair elements just keep getting added as you progress. Built up a decent character? Well, now they think that mission you were saving them for is beneath them and won't go. Is there anything in this game, including curing diseases, that won't give you a disease? No. No there isn't. I promise I'm having a good time but there's some real dedication to making quite a lot of people dislike your game right there.

Oh, and DQXI is still my happy place (56 hours!) and got treated to Bo: Path Of The Teal Lotus, looking forward to bouncing around in that for a while looking at gorgeous scenery and probably being quite bad at it. Have a very nice weekend, y'all.

Still bimbling through DQXI, approaching 45 hours. Love for cheesey old-fashioned RPGs thoroughly reignited so wondering what to try next, should anyone have any thoughts 😁😁
Also revisiting a bit of Darkest Dungeon after seeing the second one pop up everywhere. Absolutely useless at it, beyond doomed from the start, but the bits i can survive are fun, and cheerfully hurling corrupt idiots toward their inevitable destruction is strangely edifying.

What's that, powers that be? Why yes, I HAVE been playing a shedload of Dragon Age XI, and have been thoroughly enjoying sailing around in a big boat slapping sea monsters about and looking at stuff. What's that? Oh, you've put Octopath Traveler, another beautiful, gigantic top-range universally beloved RPG on half price sale in the eshop? OF COURSE YOU HAVE. Sigh.

Approaching the thirty hour mark with Dragon Quest XI. Hoping the game is just about to start opening up as so far have just been ambling around small gated map areas, but playing it's making me really quite happy so that's far from being a criticism... also very tempted by Dave The Diver while it's on sale, so might just take the plunge (diving joke, eh? Eh?) on that too.

Treated myself to half price Dragon Quest XI a good while back and have racked up nearly 20 hours so far. None of this real-time button mashing combat for me thank you, I'm far too easily confused and over-excitable for any of that malarkey at my age. Proper turn based combat for the win! The little time-travelling guys and their magical 16-bit village of love (is that a spoiler? I don't think it's a spoiler. Sorry if it's a spoiler.) Made me feel so nostalgic it was almost painful, even though I've never played a DQ game before. It's as old school as a very old school and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Had a great time with Dredge, thoroughly enjoyed a second play through with the first chunk of DLC, third time around would hope for a new perspective, game mode, mechanic, something beyond just more fish and locations to keep things fresh. That said I'll probably quite happily invest in it anyway next time I fancy fish based fun, and it's definitely a game I liked more than enough to go back to, so...

With a caveat for anything truly extraordinary or hilariously discounted I've banned myself from buying any new games, and am picking stuff from the backlog. This will last about five minutes but hey, until then I'm trundling through samey but jolly and satisfying Steamworld Quest and getting started with Ghost Song, which so far is very purple, and has really awkward jump controls, but is weirdly spooky and enjoyable. A fine weekend's gaming to one and all.

Thought I'd be clever and strategic and have a break from Dredge after finishing Dredge so I didn't get tired of Dredge, but all i really want to play is Dredge. Nothing from the backlog or irresponsible sale purchasing has clicked because it doesn't have enough fish in it. I know objectively that Chained Echoes is great, and that Steamworld Dig 2 is a lot of fun, but they're both sorely lacking a haddock-based mechanic. To avoid spoiling great games for myself I should probably just give in and buy the Dredge DLC and play Dredge again. Dredge.

Well I've just finished a long weekend of work, so definitely time to contribute to this. Today's shift was a classic 'perfectly fine until an unpleasant customer made everything a bit rubbish' number, so while my evening gaming plans were going to involve something relaxing like a nice game of cards with an insane faceless something or other, I'm now going to seek out the most blood curdling, violent game i can and destroy hordes of enemies while imagining each one is an entitled, discount demanding douche, which is a perfectly normal, balanced and healthy reaction. Hurray for video games being an expressive medium, eh?

Polished off two endings for Dredge, still deciding which was the most uplifting. Definitely going back for some DLC based fishy goodness further down the line but for now picked up Inscryption in the sale, even the trailer creeps me out so it should be good, then maybe a little bit of kidding myself I'm not going to grab Signalis soon as well. I like to keep it cheery.

Owl of these are great choices.

Close to finishing Dredge, which I've really enjoyed. Love those cute little fishy aberrations. Nowhere near finishing Cuphead, which I've....really enjoyed...I mean I have, it's great, but...y'know.

@LafayetteBlues 🤷‍♀️ Who knew? First game was developed by a Sega development team and it's on the Sega-released Genesis collection for the Switch, so that's good enough to hold out some hope for some more isometric dungeony fun, for me at least.

@AtlanteanMan A second for Landstalker. Absolutely epic game!

Absolutely loved Rocket Knight Adventures! One of my all time favourite games. Great music, incredible art and level design, epic boss battles...oh man. Wasn't that taken with Sparkster, and had no idea there was a third rocket knight... I'd pick this up for RKA alone to be fair.

Every game I've ever played, even the really bad ones, all over again for the first time, please. An endless list of gaming moments from far too many years to be enjoyed one more time.
Less annoying and whimsical answer: Breath Of The Wild and Hollow Knight. I've played lots of brilliant metroidvanias and I love TOTK, but nothing has ever made me feel joy and wonder quite like those two games did.

@Yalloo ah ok, sounds like maybe Death's Door has a better balance of secret stuff being a cool addition to gameplay rather than essential to enjoyment, or maybe they just made stuff a bit easier to find? Either way I think I'm leaning more towards Cuphead. Cheers!

@Yalloo Lots to think about, thanks! Visually at least, Tunic reminds me a bit of Death's Door, which I very much enjoyed, and that's a big pull, but then Cuphead just looks sensational... Fully appreciate that they're very, very different, but was there any particular reason you had more fun with Cuphead?

Choosing between Tunic, Dredge, Cuphead and Signalis to grab from the festive eshop sale before it ends, should anyone have any great advice/strong opinions they'd like to share 😁 Will be getting stuck into whatever makes it to the top of that pile over the new year. Beyond that want to get back into TOTK after burning out a bit after 230 odd hours. Love that there's so much to do that dipping back in is going to be an option for a very long time. Happy new year everyone 🙂

Still TOTK, still having a great old time. It seems to work well in small pre-work/post-work chunks - do a side quest, tackle a shrine, go for a bit of a walk and explode a bokoblin or two, it's all good.

Those bubble-blowing gecko salamander things, slapping about the place like vaguely malevolent wet ham are fairly disturbing.

Isn't trying to trash an open world game for having combat, different locations to go to and hidden things to collect a bit like trashing a platformer for having platforms or a shoot 'em up for having a whizzy ship with lasers?

Trying to figure out how to climb up to a hilly, chilly outdoor location in just my pants. Once I'm done with that I'll carry on playing this new Zelda game I've heard about.

@Nanami_Ataraxi Thank you. A very kind message to send a stranger, and very much appreciated. Hope you're in a good place too, and I will be soon enough. Enjoy your weekend! 😁🙏

Have splurged on a lot of games over the last few months to help get through Challenging Times. Nothing has clicked in a good while but had whatever you call those early hours I-Love-This-Game epiphanies with Death's Door and The Messenger last week, so will be throwing myself into them both while waiting for all of reality to completely reconfigure itself.

Looks nice, like the music, Sonic whizzing around an open plain looks fun, no issue with the combat graphics. Wallop.

Started playing Gris around 4am during a bout of insomnia a few days ago, and moments into the intro promptly fell asleep to the lovely music, which I'm now listening to lots because it's great and wishing copies of the soundtrack weren't selling for a couple of hundred quid because vinyl collectors are all absolute monsters, but still haven't actually played Gris. So...I'll be playing Gris.

I never really liked paying my rent and eating anyway.

Came on to say what everyone else is saying - it sucks but am not surprised, and would much rather they took their time and smashed it. Even after 5 years BOTW is still the only thing on Switch BOTW 2 will be competing against, although I guess this news might boost sales of Fenyx Rising a bit if nothing else...

Nabbed Hades in the indie sale, my word it's good. I can stop playing it any time I like yeah, I just don't want to.

@Zuljaras Awesome! I got a bit hooked on Command and Conquer games at uni and then much further down the line discovered this was an early effort by the same folk with similar mechanics and immediately loved it. Such a great game!

Will probably spend most of the weekend overthinking which on-sale wishlist game to go for (I'd ask for advice but it's a long list) and then hopefully picking something ace to while away some of a rare almost obligation-free two days. Also some inevitable Pokémon catching in new favourite walking simulator PLArceus and SOR4 survival mode because it's a day with a y in it.
@Zuljaras ❤️ Battle For Arrakis ❤️

@nessisonett This has absolutely nothing to do with the conversation you're having but that Lars Von Trier comment made me snort my cup of tea through my nose laughing, and I wanted to share.

@Fath And thanks to you too 🙂 No one has the energy for endless discussions about the true undisputed definitely definite meaning of art. Only ever fun if you're hammered (and even then I'm not sure)

@Fath like you say, art is notoriously difficult to define precisely. Impossible really, some might say. My description is one way of looking at some art. Yours is another.

Also plenty of art out there is indeed narcissistic cobblers enabled by the praise of hangers on, and that's still part of what makes it art.