I started Clair Obscur Expedition 33 today.
This game won the game awards last year is from a French Development Studio.
Seems the combat is like Final Fantasy 7 style (I played long back maybe around Hitman 2 Silent Assassin game).
Reminds me somewhat of the Gwent like game (Witcher 3 Wild Hunt)
The story looks mysterious and something about a paintress with a touch of paintings and French culture and architecture.
First Boss Fight:
The soundtrack and music adds more taste.
So weird, I literally just bought this tonight, sight-unseen in terms of reviews/knowing anything about it, purely on the basis of the Blade Runner-ass launch trailer video. Came into this thread to see if anyone else had played and my first unread post in the thread was yours - so glad to hear it has lived up to expectations, because it looks fucking amazing!
I also have it in my wishlist as I was waiting for it. There was also another game that looks like this called “The Last Night” but it seems to be stuck in development hell.
Probably should grab it while it is on sale even though I am busy with other games. 
After seeing @Codename-24, @TheChicken, and posts online of it, I ended up getting Tomadachi Life on a whim. I’m enjoying it, it’s very quirky, but in a very naturalistic way. The music and presentation is great. And I’m actually very impressed with how customisable the Miis are. I guess I still think of the Wii era Miis in comparison.
I’ve pre-ordered First Light. I’ve deliberately been staying away from news from the game as much as possible in the last few months. Nightfire and Everything or Nothing are 2 of my favourite games of all time, and so after a 14 year wait for a new console Bond game, I’m definetly getting it. I hope it’s good.
Just did my first ever Sequence Break in a video game.
Playing Donkey Kong Bananza and I read that you don’t need every single power up transformation to finish the game. Also you can skip entire sections of each level if you’re crafty.
So I thought, why not take the challenge?
I’m in the Freezer biome, youre meant to get this Zebra transformation so you can run across these thin sheets of ice without breaking them.
But I found a trick. If you grab a soft material like snow or dirt, it can stick to the thin ice and basically create a platform you can normally stand on. So I did that for 2 of the long bridges (took a lot of trial and error) and made my way to the boss of the area without needing that Zebra ability! (I’ve heard the game gives you all the missed abilities anyway after you finish the story, so Nintendo actually accounted for this type of stuff)
It was pretty cool to figure out and overcome on my own terms!
Also, the game is usually fairly hand-holdy if you talk to every main NPC the game points you to. (Usually they just spawn another waypoint towards the main objective that’s incredibly obvious.) But you can thankfully just skip them and once you get to the main objective, the game just skips to the next objective instead.
I bought Marvel Cosmic Invasion upon release but I haven’t played it until recently after the release of the new DLC characters Ben Grimm and Scott Summers , The Thing is as awesome as ever but Cyclopes game play is pure perfection , hell every X-man is Storm , Wolverine, Phoenix and Cyclops absolutely are perfect, bonus is that the rest of the cast are great so far , Beta Ray Bill as a playable character was a nice surprise ( I have one more last character to unlock for those that have played please don’t spoil the last ) definitely a recommended game from me for Marvel, Shredders Revenge and “beat em up” fans altogether.
Just finished playing through Replaced. Loved everything about it - cyberpunk vibes, artwork (especially), soundtrack, combat (especially), platforming, and even the story was decent-if-not-spectacular.
If Slay The Spire 2 didn’t exist, this would be a clear GOTY for me, really excellent stuff.
My Resident Evil series replay have brought me to the RE: Village DLC Whinter’s Expansion. I’m planning on embarking on the last Whinter’s story with the Rose DLC.
Going into RE8 back in 2021 It didn’t really think it looked like a real Resident Evil game, I had the same hesitation about RE7. My fears where luckily proven wrong on RE7. Now that I have replayed Village again. I enjoyed it a lot more this time around, I also found it be a good game back in 21, just not a good Resident Evil game and I still feel that way.
Personally I feel that the game leans too far into folklore and gothic horror. The bioweapon aspect that I enjoy the most about the series, feels a bit to fantastical. I don’t like that aspect, the whole experimentation and science feels more like 1800’s Frankenstien.
I do enjoy the overarching story regarding the mold and it’s origin. That Miranda was the one who put Oswell E. Spencer who inspired him to create Umbrella.
Now I’ll focus on the Rose DLC, before I set my sights on protecting Queen and Country and downing Vodka Martinis.
King and Country, my dude - Lizzy went for a Burton a few years back now.
it hurt to laugh that much
Finished Shadow of Rose, I really enjoyed it. Some cool enemies designs, creepy atmosphere. Definitely more creepy then the base game. Was surprised that the game took place inside the megamycete fungus, in a collection of memories. Which makes sense with what RE7 and 8 built their story upon.
Loved that Eveline played a part in the game, her pitiful and jealous nature. Seeking Mirandas affection, like most abused children felt gut wrenching. Then later reading Mirandas diaries, only acknowledging her as an nuisance and imperfect vessel for her Eva.
The game tug on my heartstrings, the whole father daughter relationship gave me something extra. Something I would have not felt, if I wasn’t a father myself.
Now It’s time to serve Queen and Country, or do you say King now?
Finally got around to doing TLOU2’s Chronological Mode! I know it wasn’t intended by any means, but it does have a number of advantages over the original order imo. More Joel at the beginning, the animal display at the museum becoming ominous foreshadowing, a lot easier to notice the tie ins and connections between the two campaigns, etc. The flaw is that having all the flashbacks at the beginning means that the first part is very slow. But once you get to the “meat” of the game in Seattle I think it flows a lot better than the original.
Either way, it’s still so weird that they decided to follow up the first game’s story about finding hope even in a horribly bleak world with this one which is pretty much just bleak. But perhaps the plan is to have TLOU3 be once again finding that hope, like the second act is the low point to make the prospect of regaining some sense of positivity even more uplifting. With Naughty Dog’s current output, I’ll look forward to playing it in like 2036! (why can’t we have smaller more contained games that don’t take a million years to make?)
Also, No Return mode is an amazing addition! I played it a bit when it first came out but now I’ve really gotten into it. Joel and his comical 12-shot revolver is my favorite, don’t need to have a dodge when you can just blast people away!
Far Cry Instincts and Instincts: Evolution (Xbox) - gen 6 consoles couldn’t run the actual Far Cry 1, so Ubies made these two spin-offs for Xbox only. They’ve been halting my progress in the series for years, because they weren’t fully playable on emulators until recently - yeah, I’m really obsessed with playing everything in order. But now they finally work, so I had to play 'em.
Honestly, didn’t expect to have so much fun. The story’s an alternative take on FC1, where Jack Carver becomes a mutant himself - he develops feral powers like super strength, super speed, tracking by scent etc. It feels too cool to ambush mercs in the jungle, dash and punch them flying, spray them down with a machine gun you just ripped off its mount and stuff like that. You can dual wield pistols and SMGs, and I love how it works here - there’s a separate trigger on the controller for each gun, so it actually feels like dual wielding. You can even stealth occasionally, set claymores and booby traps, but the enemies ain’t no Hitman WoA ones - they see you too well and start blasting right away, especially in Evolution on max difficulty. Most of the time you’ll be gunfighting, but sometimes turning an area into Vietnam and luring angry goons there kinda works.
It’s been a while since I played the original Far Cry 1, but I think I like Instincts even better, especially the first one.
Gun Survivor 2 Biohazard Code: Veronica (Arcade) - sometimes I find gems by playing forgotten spin-offs, and sometimes this - arcade shooter made from Resident Evil CV assets. Can’t say I didn’t enjoy it, however - somehow was hooked enough to pull off 1CC on Medium and Hard. Very Hard 1CC also looks possible, but that’s even more replaying, luck and effort, so I just did a casual VH run as each character, using 6 and 4 continues respectively, and called it a day.
Still, don’t like arcade games because there’s no clear threshold besides 1CC - how much coins is a fair game and how much is cheesing? You never know.
007: The World Is Not Enough (PS1) - continuing my movie/game Bond marathon before First Light, even though something tells me I’m a bit late. Just started this one - pretty much entirely different game from the N64 version. Kinda worse, but still pretty good so far. The only thing is the frickin’ tank controls again - why on N64 there was such a good variety of control schemes, many of which felt basically modern, and here you can’t even swap left/right D-pad with triggers? I’ll get used to it, but still jarring. Another thing is that Retro Achievements don’t always proc for some reason.
So not one I’ve actually been playing myself yet, but has anybody played Marathon? I love the aesthetic, but the only extraction shooter I have tried is Hunt (which I like well enough, but it’s not a genre I’m overly sold on as a whole)
