It’s been Gamescom this week, and both myself and Tef have been out in Cologne playing many, many, many games and generally enjoying being back face to face with game developers while they show off their wares. There’s been a ton of great stuff – genuinely, I don’t think I’ve ever come away from a conference having played or seen so many amazing things – but if I had to narrow it down to a couple of immediate favourites it’s got to be Moonbreaker, the new game from Subnautica devs Another World, and Evil West which is going to go down really well this winter. Other than that, I’ve also played a spot of Rollerdrome, and ORX for review.
Thomas has been playing F1 Manager 2022, and says “it is a pretty solid management sim. Rather than going for the easy options, I decided to pick Alpine, just because Alonso is bae”. Which is nice. He’s also been playing Islets, which is a “gorgeous hand-drawn Metroidvania, with excellent platforming and combat mechanics”. Oh, and he dipped into the new Destiny stuff, because he spent money on the season pass last year, and now feels compelled to. Got to have that positive reinforcement!
Aran has played through Thymesia and will have the review written up this weekend. He’s also played a bit more Destroy All Humans 2 as well, with his words on that coming even sooner.
Meanwhile, Gareth played some Pathfinder Kingmaker and started Steelrising for review. He also watched The Sandman and while that’s not a game I’ve let him off because I’ve been really enjoying it too.
Jason’s life is Genshin Impact now. He says, “stupid game’s been consuming me for a month and the new expansion is stunning”. So that sounds like there’s no end in sight. Well, we all need a hobby.
Nick P’s week has been largely dominated by Dead By Daylight. He told us, “the hype train continues until Wesker is released next week! I’ve also been dabbling in Fortnite, destroying people with Dragonball powers. I knocked Cyberpunk on the head, finishing the final mission but not bothering with anymore side content. Finally, and most weirdly, I started playing Viva Piñata again… I already got the 1000Gs years ago, but it’s weirdly addictive and I can’t stop playing. There really is a games drought!” After Gamescom I can definitely say that’s coming to an end!
Ade has been playing The Cowabunga Collection for review, inspiring him to play some more Shredder’s Revenge and that reminded him to play Streets of Rage 4 again! Lots of fisticuffs there!
Jim watched the credits roll on a couple of games this week, the first being Mafia, the 2020 Definitive Edition. He says, “It’s a weird game that never quite fully commits to being a remake, with gameplay that feels pretty dated despite the painstaking effort that has gone into rebuilding the Chicago-inspired Lost Heaven”. This has now prompted him to go and download the definitive edition of Mafia III. He’s also being playing The Last of Us: Part I in tandem with The Last of Us Remastered, for science. He said, “If I had a little more time, I know for a fact that I’d be diving back into TLOU’s multiplayer, it’s still so good.”
Miguel played Rollerdrome, Cult of the Lamb, and some good ol fashioned Apex Legends and Fortnite. Back on this side of the pond, Steve played Thymesia which is “enjoyably rock hard if a bit rough around the edges”, and Arcade Paradise. He told us, “Following my review of the latter I’ve been working through the goals on the arcade machines. I’ve also gone back to Shredder’s Revenge with the 10 year old which is still great fun”.
Tuffcub has acted entirely against character and played the new season of Destiny 2, saying, “it is Pirate themed and very good”. He’s also been playing Midnight Fight Express, review of that coming very shortly, but he can say “it’s rather good and peculiarly like a certain ZX Spectrum game. But in a good way.”
willbuchanan
I played Lego Batman 3 on Vita, I’m one red brick purchase from the plat. I have the brick and the money -or studs – to pay for it but I’m holding off on that simple task because my next plat will be number 150, so I’m hoping for a slightly more impressive plat first, before quickly finishing off Batman. As much as I’ve enjoyed playing it, it’s a fun game, I would prefer for Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood to be the 150 milestone, so that it stands out in my list, as for a decade I thought I’d never get the plat for it. I’d like the reminder there that I’m sometimes more capable of things than I think I am! Does that sound weird? I’m hoping it’s a gamer thing and not just me!
Speaking of Brotherhood, I have been working on that too this week and levelled up to 50 for that trophy. I just have a couple of match bonuses to get (planned for Saturday morning) and that will be all the AC multiplayer trophies for me obtained in 3, Revelations and Brotherhood, which I’m very pleased about.
Tomorrow I’ll also be enjoying a bank holiday weekend rock festival and having a couple of days off from looking at screens for a change!
willbuchanan
I was not expecting to write such a wall of text!
Dominic L
Haha! Hope you get platinum 150!
Andrewww
This week, I continued playing Everspace, which is fun, but I think, overall, I prefer less Rougue-like and less repetitive games. This makes me want to play Elite Dangerous again, which, in a way is the other extreme, a middle-ground between arcade and simulation would be better.
I also played some more Red Dead Redemption 2, which is better than I expected. It sounded like a chore from what I read about it, but that little looking after your horse is no problem. What’s more annoying is that you got to keep looking quite hard for missions, there’s so little meaningful stuff to do, in spite of this massive open world. So, mostly you just ride around and enjoy the landscape, until you find the odd side mission. I hope that’ll change soon, but so far, I’m enjoying it overall.