Be Excellent To Each Other

Inspired by a question I was just about to ask Satsuma (not Saturnalian or IanA or whatever he used to be)

Beex - what games are you gaming right now ?

I'm still playing a few rounds of COD : IW , slowly going through Zelda BOTW on the switch , Hearthstone on my mac and phone - and have clicked the buttons to download all this months PSN plus titles

I've not really played anything for months. Just not into it at all right now.

Unsurprisingly, I'm still on Binding of Isaac. However, I'm in the home stretch - I have one more achievement left to unlock, which is to play 31 daily challenges, which means I'm just playing it once a day until it unlocks and then I'll try and find something else to get stuck into, but nothing is really grabbing me.

Just put away The Stanley Parable. Dipping into DiRt Rally a fair bit

Motorsport Manager

When we get chance, LEGO Marvel Heroes, and I also have GTAV on the go, and Fallout 4 just started.

Mad Max on Ps4. It's... ok.

Not anything right now, because I'm at work.

But in your head your driving a car around a new circuit :-)

I've just finished BOTW and have my eye on starting Titanfall 2 next. However, Wonderboy 3 is looking like a more attractive prospect at the moment as I'll be able to play it on the go.

Apart from that, I want to give The Coven a go on the 3DO. I downloaded it last night but you'll have to Google it to find out any more about it.

FACTORIO. ALSO FACTORIO.

Snetterton and Myrtle Beach have just been announced as coming soon so I'm already scoping them out on Wikipedia etc.

I have been playing Motorsport Manager on my iPhone and I'm probably over halfway in Until Dawn, which is quite good fun if a bit schlocky.

NieR Automata, or Space Engineers if friends are online.
Spade Engineers is a hell of a time sink. Don't even notice the time going by and suddenly its 4am.

My Xbox just gathers dust.

Well, let me tell you...Hollow Knight on the peeeeceeee.

I've got 22 hours clocked in and it's absolutely fucking marvellous: Metroidvania mixed with Dark Souls.

I was thinking how to describe my experience with it just yesterday and this what I came up with:

Remember the hollow tree in Dark Souls? I got stuck there after I became cursed for the first time with half health and I was having a shocking time trying to progress with half health to no avail. The game had fucked me and I was desperate; making no progress down the tree or through the pissy swamp. Instead I decided to climb out, go through Blighttown, the fucking sewer and back up to the old hag who was the only person I knew who sold the curse reversal. That trip back was a massive slog and absolutely draining. I can't remember exactly how long it took me to get up there but I think it was a good couple of hours. Finally I made it back and then, exhausted, I went back, said fuck that tree and those pissing frogs and had a go at the spider boss. After the spider boss (and many attempts trying to kill her) I found the lava world, then Izalith, then I rang the bell and went to death trap castle, then Anor Londo. Christ, I'd almost forgot about the tree. I'd just found so many other places. Then I lost a shit load of Souls to those two archers on that walkway and had to rush back to get a shit load of Souls. Fucking hell, I was pissed off and I'd left a bunch on a ledge and had been launched off multiple times with an arrow in my face. Fucking game.

That's Hollow Knight. But less aggressively painful.

I got my ass handed to me by a boss that had a terrible run from the bonfire/bench past two sorcerers that you just couldn't avoid. You have to take them on and they are fucking relentless. I'd given up and decided to explore elsewhere, before I found a massive cliff side, a diamond mine, the royal waterways and some other places. I forgot all about the boss I'd been at for an hour. That feeling of exploration (but on a sort of smaller 2D scale) that I got from Dark Souls 1 is almost perfectly captured. At one point I fell into a pit unveiling another massive area that didn't want me there at all and lost all my souls/currency. I had to fight all the way back and launch myself down there absolutely terrified I'd lose my souls/currency. It was the hollow tree and those archers all over again in a single place.

I don't think I've played a game that has managed to capture the spirit of Dark Souls 1 like Hollow Knight. It's different in lots of other ways but the feeling it has evoked in me has made me want to play it and nothing else.

It's massive, it's beautiful, it's a pleasure to listen to and, most of all, it's absolutely brilliant.

It's not for "casuls", mind, which is why it's a bit strange coming only to the Switch. :/

Constantly Pokemon Go.

In the evenings NieR Automata.

Pokemon Shuffle. Picross e7.

On a laptop, Turmoil, Runestone Keeper and You Must Build A Boat.

My constant is still Words With Friends. Looking at my stats, I've played rather a few games now.

On the train I might play some Exploding Kittens, but it's unlikely.

At home I'm trying to get through Horizon: Zero Dawn. It's not rubbish or anything, but it's not Factorio.

BECAUSE FACTORIO.

ALL THE T҉IM̥͞E͏͖̤̟.͏͙̦

Ȁ̞̻͉̹͗̏̃̇Ļ͆͂̽ͩ́̔ͤL̓͆̀ͥ̔͛͏̯̻̹̥͓̫ ͕ͮ̿ͦ̈̆T͖͎͚͗̿́H̾̓̇̒̔Ȩ͎͙̼ͯ́̈́̄̅̋ ̸̼̩͈͉̎͑͛̍̂͘͢T̜̫̙̥ͣͯ̅̏̊H̷̳͔͔͖̤́̿̌͒͒̌̓̋I̬͊ͯ̈ͩ̐͋̚N̂ͩ͑̑ͦ̐̓̾̾͏͏͙͓͡G͔̻̲̭̹͐͢S̞̤̻̜͈͙̤̏̊͂ͭ̋ͭ̕.̻̭̰̜̬̝̤̮͇̓̇̐̔̿̕̕͞


A̜̪͍͇̗̽̌ͬU̶͉̣͕̝̖̩̲̎͆̔̌ͧ̒T̠̬̠̬̰̞̺̀̌͂̍̆̇O̯͍ͥͮ̊̃̑͑̾M̻̭̜̖̝͉͇̯ͧ̿͋̕A̟̘̯̽͆͛͝T̜͔̦̲̑ͅE̷̶̜̫͇̼̼͇̠͚͐̔̂̇̏̔ͫͧ ̵̴̦̺́͝A̶̬̯̍̉̃̊ͥ́̊ͣL̶͖̗̯̻͔̘̃̃͝L̙̘̣̞̠̙͂ ̡̤͓̤̫̫̙̦̅̍̋̀͡ͅT̵͖̄̏ͪͨ̿ͦ̾́Ȟ̟͕̲̗̮̾̐̈̽̉E̶͎̝̻̾͌̌̈́ͫ̋̓ ͈͈͕̘̦͙̿̔͂̈́̕Ț́̂̕H̛̼̳̥̮͋ͩ̌̄͜I̟̼͈̻̣͈̞̿̾̒ͧ͘͠Ņ͙̬͖̣͍͚̖̘̬ͫ͊ͤͫͥ̂͝G̠͈̮͈̩̦͔̐ͪ̐͛͋ͧ̅̑͆̀͘S̯̩̩̣̱͍͈̋ͮͬ̀̊ͭͤ̉̕ A̷͇͍̗̣̙̗͍̥͔̫̺͔̮̣ͦ͆͆́͜͡ͅL̂̒̂̉̈́̄ͮͭ̐ͮ̚͡҉̻̞̫̦͕͍̼̠̮̙̪͙L͎̩̭̻͓̫͇̱͖̳͎̰̯ͮ̀͐͌ͫ͗̄͊̊͛̕͢ ̓̍͆ͯ̕͟͡҉̹̳̗͓̝̦̖̮͇̙̟̳̦̀T̸̴̴̠͕̰̭͍̙̠͔̱͇͔̟̦̮̗̗̠̼̪̈́͛ͦͭͧͩ̽̔̂̾̂̾̀H̷̨͎̫͓̜͓̜͕̥ͫ̃̇̊ͩ̍͑ͣ̇ͫ̀̉̎͑͆͐̾E̢͎̹͎̫̰̯̍ͭͩ̌̓ͣ̊̍͛̅̂͟ ̶̭̤̭̻͎͚̤̟̩̹̈͗̃̌̊ͬ͋̾ͤ̿̆̊͛̂͑̒̕͜͟T̼̗̥͔̭̙͈̰͓̜̳ͧ̎ͩͣ͐̇̌̀ͨ́̀͡Į̶̬̘͈̩̖͉͚͉̮̖̬̻̻̝̿̈̽͋ͥͪ̀ͨ͋̚ͅM̵̨̛ͯ͆̒́͗͐̅̎ͫ̇͆͡҉̣̮͉̬͎̬̲͓̱̣̻̜E̶͋͑̏ͮͬͮ̕͜͞҉̞͕̟̯



Also GTA5 on Wednesday nights. Like tonight, fools!

Bum of the Week!

I'm still playing XCOM Plus on the Vita on my commutes. Think I'm on the final level and I foolishly put my star sniper Lauren Laverne into Psi-Ops training so is unavailable. My only other sniper is Courtney Love and she's woefully under-developed.

Luckily I have colonels Mark Ruffalo, Judy Murray, Nigella Lawson, Mary Anne Hobbes and Jay-Z waiting in the wings to bring da ruckus.

And I started DOOM last night and am pleased by how smooth and fast it is. Incidentally, is it meant to be impossible to see anything? I turned the gamma down as per the setup's instructions and I could barely see anything in the opening room, and was flapping around trying to see stumbling zombies and find the door. Now I've turned the gamma back up and see everything but I don't know if I'm meant to be able to see less for SCAREZ.

I'll do my best to join in!

NBA2K17.

Nothing more than some family guy and survivors on my phone. I've promised myself Resi 7 when my uni work is done though (I'd be tempted this weekend if we didn't have other things we needed to get done).

I'm still playing although my overall numbers have dropped since stupid sexy throughsilver stopped playing

I bought it.

It's still in the wrapper.

Me too!

Xbone - Forza Horizon 3 - not much love for the FH games on here I know but this one is the best of the lot - like playing Pure or Split/Second for some bits, Need for Speed (the decents ones) in others and Sega Rally for other bits. All somehow working together.
Phone - Pokemon Go - for the excercise and daughter kudos mainly now
PS4 - Deus Ex:Mankind Divided - squatting simulator with extra punching through walls bits

Just Hearthstone and fruit machine emulators really, even Zelda has had to take a back seat.

Multiplayer on Saturdays is the trusty old GTAV/Grid Autosport/Dirt3.

Other than that occasional stuff in WoW with the family but I'm not playing the game outside of family duties.

Overall this is good because it is saving me dropping £2500 on a new PC on an ongoing basis.

I'm also watching more telly than I used to thanks to the wealth of great series on Netflix, which is reducing the time I spend playing games.

I'm currently hopelessly addicted to Assassins Creed: Syndicate. After not touching them at all since hating the very first one way back in the day this latest one has really grabbed me by the balls. It's got it's control annoyances at times, and it's repetitive in that way only modern open-world games can be, but it's just flat out a whole load of fun. Not least because the addition of the grapple hook and the stealthy nature of the entire thing means most of the encounters are basically Arkham style murder-fests. I might even go for all the collectibles because once I've murdered everyone who needs murdered I'm quite relishing the idea of a relaxing romp around London grabbing pointless shiny things; though we'll see if I still feel like that by the time I actually finish it. I did murder the Big Bad's second in command last night thought so I'm presumably not that far from the end.

NieR:Automata, Ketsui, the Rick and Morty VR thing and Shadow War: Armageddon are my playing-things at the moment, and they're all very good.

So apart from COD I've spent the last week or so playing Horizon Zero Dawn and just got to the credits roll

Still a few quests i want to go back and mop up but overall an enjoyable game and I liked the way that by the end your switching around between all these different weapons to knock armour and weapons off the big enemies whereas when you first face them your hiding behind walls and rocks to sneak a few small arrow hits

My only real criticism is the resources trees seemed unclear , and for the final fight i ran out of some of my ammo crafting bits (although then it throws more enemies in and i could search them for scrap) - i was just 'search and grab everything' instead of seeking out specific components

Game stats says just shy of 32 hours , and by finishing i hit level 36 - game completion 57.38%

Bill and Ted have just turned up!

The Resident Evil Reremake. Finally made it to the lab!

Metal gear solid the fifth phantom pain. It really shouldn't try to be a platformer.

I played some CoD: Infinite Warfare multiplayer yesterday. It's such a funny beast cause on the one hand the guns make pleasing noises when you shoot people on the other hand:

It's so bland - boring robot men running around metallic boxy maps with no personality. They even managed to turn the groovy airport level from MW2 into something utterly lifeless.

It has horrid level design - boxy box levels made out of boxes. The same 3 routes for Every. Single. Map. I went and played some MW Remastered afterwards and there's nothing like, say, Bog, Overgrown, Crossfire or Countdown. There's not a single map that I can fire a weapon from one end of the map to the other end. Sniper rifles are completely useless. There's only a handful of corridors long enough for them to be useable and even then any AR can blow you away with the power of a sniper rifle. But with all the jumping around and jetpacking you'd have thought that IW could actually accommodate some more open maps. And the jet packs are awful; pithy little sput sput sputs that require you to take your hand off the aiming stick for far too long as you'll die in milliseconds from a couple of bullets.

It's horribly unbalanced - I swear I watched in horror as I spat some bullets into a guy's face (or a gal) clearly scoring 2 or more hits yet I fell over first. The killcam showed he had an AR that was the same as mine but decked out in neon fucking whatever but some variant or other that was obviously more powerful and probably brought with CoD Points like a twat. It turns out that I'd stopped playing at level 22 so what hope have I got against some cunt who has decked out his weapons. And why was I playing against someone who had prestiged many times over? Probably because the player count is so low. Meh.

And shite netcode - probably (cause I don't really know what this is) cause I died immediately for lots of encounters when I was pointing a gun at an open door and instantly died when someone came around even though I pulled my trigger as soon as I saw a flash of pixels.

I put MW Remastered on afterwards, scored shit loads of kills, died a lot and had a reet jolly awesome time doing so and rarely thought any of the thoughts that coloured my enjoyment of IW. I did have different thoughts though, mainly, 'fucking noob tubes'. Still great though.

I'm not sure if you want answers to any of that or not - i can explain a lot of what you've seen but if your not enjoying it don't play it :-)

It annoys me because I like CoD in the main but IW's multiplayer really winds me up. I kinda want to get to max level in case I'm missing some weapons that will make it more playable.

You won't be able to convince me that the level design is any good or the sniper rifles are useful, mind. Try if you like...

Arkanoid Vs Space Invaders on the iPad, and Polybius on the PS VR.
Waiting for Nex Machina and Star Trek Bridge Crew on the PS4 & VR

So since I'm still playing this i will have a go at answering the questions and I agree level designs are not great (my favorite map right now is the remake of Rust from MW2)

Some levels seem to have an area set aside for snipers but i was never any good as a sniper and I just run and gun so its not missing anything for me there
(e.g. the small space station map has a long middle corridor that generally gains a few snipers at each end , the mining level has 2 long areas for snipers , the crashing space ship has one side that is just a long run so again seems setup for snipers)

Bland , i guess is down to the individual , yes its boxy but there are often ways out of those boxes or around those boxes and that may come down to just experience with the levels

The only sniper I use is the E800 and thats because you can hold a button and turn it into an AR - so snipers are crap :-)

Jetpacks are awful , there are really two things here , some characters have a booster to give them a better jetpack after charged , but you can also use the jetpacks and wallrunning as a chain to get higher and the more you do that the more unusual positions you can get into , there is some skill in using them and if you get it right (on either side either anticipating where someone is going , or coming in from an angle they are not covering) then you will win in the gunfight

Your gunfight comment suggets to me your either playing non-hardcore (i only play hardcore as i hate the pump a clip into someone for them to turn round and one shot you) or you were using something that was out of range (an SMG at distance or shotgun or AR at extreme range)

Guns - the very first gun you start with (the Nv4) is the best in the game , the default version of it is fine but you get better versions out of supply drops - the epic / legendary variants have an ability which stops the gun losing power at distance (infinite range) so getting one of those will make a difference (you can craft that with scrap but you need to save it up to do that) - all the other guns have bonuses / limitations but for some parts its knowing and trading those off (I do also like that for all the other new guns added you can unlock them by doing tasks e.g. one is unlocked by playing 20 games where you kill with at least 3 different weapons so just switching some classes round will get you that - BTW thats the RVN the 3rd best gun) - some of those come with 'unchangeable camo' so yes that makes them stick out (play a game and just go around and scavenge some guns from the floor to see what you get)

Unlocking better guns comes with playing the game , and hitting prestige level 1 gives you a 'classic gun' unlock which gets you the 2nd best gun in the game (the mactav which is the UMP45 from MW2) - there are no variants or supply drop versions of if and you will still find a lot of people using it.

I think player count is quite high (at least on PS4) - and i dont really have any problems geting into a match on any HC modes (at the moment i'm playing HC moshpit with the new maps just to get used to them) , however it does *not* do skill matching so yes you get newbies mixed up with people at multi prestige

Shit netcode - possibly , there is one group of players on there who are using the striker character with generally the RVN) and spend the whole game bunny hopping around the map one shotting people , some of this is the way that auto aim works and some of it really is skill at what they are doing , but its very frustrating (when we were playing on here as a group the main complaint against these guys was stay on the bloody ground) - you do get clans of them and if your facing one of those my suggestion is to switch lobbys

Final thing to say here is that there are other game modes which either stop or level all of this out (Infected / Gun game / etc)

And your about 4 months away from the next game which will do away with all the jetpack stuff

After Binding of Isaac, I've now moved on to Hell Girls. Match-three gameplay with an RPG angle, very similar to Puzzle Quest. However, the three main characters are bouncy Japanese women and of the three outfits you can unlock for each one, there's a schoogirl outfit and a bikini, so er, rather a different target audience. Especially as you progress, you unlock images relating to the cut-scenes and of the two I've unlocked, I could repost neither on here. No idea if I'll see the remaining four though as the game difficulty has gone through the roof.

On the CoD thing, I agree that sniper rifles are massively overlooked in IW. Some of the maps are good fun, but are lacking in a bit of the sprawl that old classic maps had (and, amazingly, some of the verticality).

Some maps have sniper corridors, but 9/10 you can beat a sniper with an assault rifle at that distance (especially with the infinite range version of a gun). It's an annoying 'feature'.

More CoD: levelled up to level 47 which isn't too shabby so I've had plenty of chance to play the maps a lot more.

Maps: still not impressed but they're manageable. There seems to be less places to wall run than BLOPS3, which hardly used the feature either for the multiplayer ( one or two maps excepting), but here any areas are mainly well out of way and barely used by anyone. Seems a bit of a shame when you've got the feature to not incorporate it more fully into your game. Not that I'm that bothered mind.

Guns: I've stuck with Zaphods suggestion of the first gun and, yeah, it bangs. I'm starting to think that the problem with CoD is the auto aim and snap to aim system. If you disabled that then I reckon the TKK might not be such a massive problem if people had to aim properly.

Shotguns: fuck me these are weak as piss. I've been waiting (and I'm still waiting) to unlock the fourth one to see if they can redeem themselves from this piss poor offering. Not only are they terrible at any range but the third one is the ugliest design I've seen in some time. It looks like someone slapped a couple of cardboard boxes together. And it doesn't bang either. You know the amount of times I've been killed by a shotgun: 0. No one uses them because they're dogshit.

Sniper rifles: still shit and the only semi auto sniper rifle is the last to unlock. I still haven't unlocked it and I'm almost max level. Way to encourage people to use them, dicks.

Everything else: AR and subs are exclusively used by everyone and it makes for a boring game at times. I reckon encouraging people to mix up their playstyles and have maps that cater for the different types to get a fair showing could result in some more enjoyable matches.

Attachments and tacticals: still no one uses the smoke grenade. WHY NOT? Smoke grenade plus heat vision scope on domination can lead to some terrific moments as you confuse the oppponents guarding a capture point with smoke and pop heads through the mist. Not once have I seen anyone play this way and I've seen hundreds of player by now. I bloody enjoyed myself though.

Jet packs: still meh. I'm not adverse to them by the way - I fucking love AW's jet pack. That's what I want. A tap or a double tap and a big whoosh or whoosh whoosh. And a sideways whoosh. And a back whoosh.

I've got my character loadout: FTL- fitted with perception where the screen flashes yellow when someone targets you. It's brilliant but unfortunately given the nature of the game you'll often be dead a millisecond after the flash. But when you're running along and it flashes and you jet pack around a corner and get ready, it's magical. Plus with Phase you can disappear and sod off somewhere else when you see the yellow hues. Phase is fab for domination too when you rush into a capture point and shoot people in the arse.

Final thoughts: the UI is dogshit. I hate the menus, the endless amounts of tat from calling cards, icons and the fucking shop thing to the challenges for daily shit, team shit and special shit, hiding unlocked stuff in a list of 150 and not reorganising it so it's at the top, and the whole scrap bollocks... Christ, it's a confusing mess. Everything about it makes me want to be sick.

Overal: the worse CoD game I've played is still enjoyable enough and when you're in the zone and find a setup and play style you enjoy it can be fun but, boy, you really have to work for the fun.

There's an assault rifle that turns into two pistols. INTO TWO PISTOLS.

SURPRISE, MOTHERFUCKER!

The shotguns are pretty handy on that map in the space station, as it's mostly close-quarters stuff if you avoid the corridor of death down the middle.

Sure, if you want to use one gun, like some sort of farmer.

55 is the first prestige level

After passing that you get a classic token to unlock one of the classic weapons (choose the mactav) , and another good AR (the OSA which has a nube tube on it)

You also get a permanent unlock token to unlock any item you want (probably a high level perk or a class)



Wallrunning is much more hidden on this , there are weird and odd wallrun places at the edges of maps and the fact you can 'corner' on them means that you often miss out on them , also the fact that weapons are as deadly and at range means that wallrunning around an unknown corner can be instant death

Its been handled better by other COD's but when you spot someone boosting off unusual places its worth going back to see where they came from and how they got there.



The auto / snapto aim in this is the most broken part of it (see my comment on the bunny hopping killers in the last post)



They are dogshit *at distance* even with the attachment for extra distance , the only one I really use is the DC-8 (and thats because i got a special super blue one out of a box with extended range by default and that stacks with the other range extender) , the problem is they lose unless your really close to someone and very few maps are setup that way (the space station one being about the only one from memory)



There are also 2 snipers in the classic pool



AR's and SMG's are the most common guns out there , LMG's are also good but they really depend on :
Playing with the MERC class (so that there is no penalty for movement)
Understanding that you'll never reload (because the reload animation takes 3 minutes) , I have a class with an LMG and I typically scavenge a gun off the ground if i think i'm getting close to the end of my clip and will swich over to that :-)



I cant remember the last time i saw smoke used , although for tacticals I do like the seeker grenades (that chase people down) , and the jet propelled ones (which really replace nube tubes)

Tactical the shield is the most used one there - both for defence and confusion (put the shield down , step slightly away and everyone shoots the shield so you take them out while they are shooting in the wrong place

Because of the '10 point' system most people give up on the grenade side for extra perks or attachments , most of my classes on here have :

4 Perks (all the ones to make me invisible to everything) + Engineer so i can see all the other stuff on the map
1 C4 to drop on a domination point
1 Gun with a scope + 2 attachments (sometimes switch this for 3 attachments and no scope / no C4 depending on the gun)



Gone for the little 'pfft' and chaining wallrunning , even though there are some classes who get small boosts to these they are not the jet packs of previous games.



Some of these are actually useful , however there is a lot bolted on here to what was a fairly basic UI and it shows that its not been thought out

Scrap is their answer to 'you have to buy the supply drops to get stuff' , instead you get scrap and can build most of the special guns
You get either a bunch of free scrap / some free keys / a free supply box each day you login (double if you are a season pass holder)
There are now 2 weekly challenges that get you some special stuff (a special SMG / a special character part / etc etc)

From seeing how its changed and moved I can follow where things are but to someone new I agree it would be a confusing mess.
If you are going to play this for a while longer you should :
Login every day (even if you just turn it off afterwards) for your freebies
Do the two weekly challenges (for the last few I've done them within a day or two so probably 6 - 8 matches ?) as they will give you one of the special items and a ton of XP
Save your scrap and keys , only use the 30 key boxes or save up for the special 120 key packs , if you have not pulled a special NV4 out of one after about a week or so you should have enough scrap to craft the next one up , craft it and then keep going , you want the epic or legendary one (epic i think is around 2000 scrap - legendary you need the epic + another 4000 scrap - i think you'll pull one out of the box before you get there)



Its not as bad as Ghosts , but yes not at the level of the previous few.

Whoa, Outlast 2 has you at the business end of the birth of a demon baby. That's gotta be a first for gaming.

Also, the game itself is thoroughly disappointing on all levels. Apart from graphics; the graphics are absolutely wizard.

PC gaming a sodding mess isn’t it?

Tried to boot up Wolfenstein 2 - instant crash with a weird message about system memory. I had to “update” the “drivers” according to the internet. Finally worked.

Continues playing when it crashed when a cutscene started. Checked the internet, I had to “revalidate” the “files”. It took me ages to find out how to “revalidate” and then 5 minutes of waiting for “revalidation”.

Played some Owlboy for 5 hours over multiple occasions. Tried to boot it up again - crashed. I had to go into the “system” “thing” that runs the videogames and amend the “resolution” for some reason before it’d work again.

Sodding PC gaming. I don’t know why you people put up with this crap.

Wolfenstein 2 thoughts:

1) GRAPHIX - This game looks TEH SHIZNIT. Each area is packed with incidental environmental details which make the levels looks great. There might be a few too many underground Nazi bases but when the artists get to let loose on an area they do a terrific job of filling the screen with love. Nazi stormtroopers looks brilliant and explode, implode and die in extremely satisfying ways, often in a cloud of crimson FEAR stylee. I’m just all sorts of impressed by how lovely it all looks. It’s very much a continuation of Wolfenstein 1 but refined.

2) SOUNDZ - nuDoom music guy does mo metal for this and it sounds great. There’s plenty of downtime when it’s just the sound of your lumbering feet stomping down hallways but when the music kicks in it’s always a delight. BJ’s voice is louder than before too so there’s no problem understanding what he’s saying and his murmurings are actually quite brilliant: not funny, but often poignant and touching. The sound effects are great though. The sound of the laser gun never fails to get the hairs on the back of your neck on end.

3) PRESENTATION - There’s loads more cutscenes this time around. Loads. Toneally they’re all over the fucking place. I get what they’re going for: Dark comic book comedy, but it misses the mark almost every time. It’s a real shame because sometimes it gives you a genuine feeling of sentimentality as two characters have a heart to heart but then suddenly someone jumps out of a toilet about a giant shit they’ve just done. This. Actually. Happened. In fact, most characters who aren’t BJ are some B-rated comic book caricature. In the worst way possible. BJ gets captured and has this dream of his mother which is super great stuff. Then BJ has a birthday party. It’s just all ridiculous stuff. The nazis actually come off much better as they stand around talking about that one time they got a glimpse of Terror-Billy and crapped their pants. Or how terrorists are all nutters. The dialogue in game is rather natty.

4) GAMEPLAY - it’s more of the same which is excellent gunplay pockmarked with taking out commanders in a stealthy bit. I wouldn’t mind the stealth bit for a level or two but every other encounter? They’re tiresome and most of the time I’d just trigger the alarm and duke it out with endless waves of baddies (until you kill all commanders in an area) because the alternative was a bit boring after a couple of attempts. The story is front and centre here and, problems with tone aside, I’ve been enjoying it. In fact, I’ve been having a reet good time with wolfenstein 2. A super good time. The boredom of the first game I felt has disappeared or lessened for me as I’ve had lots more fun running around with triple barrel shotgun in one hand and armour piercing assault rifle in the other. There’s much less of the filler crap like using a saw to open chains, or using the laser to cut chains. Nope, none of that crap. Need a cent open - walk up and smash R3. Done. Mind you, the gunplay isn’t as good as Doom but it’s close when you’re let lose. The enemies however are all thick as a board. They’ll queue up to get shot in doorways time and time again, but still the game manages to be entertaining nonetheless.

Vapouring a Nazi who has just been complaining that he hasn’t seen his mum in months has never been so much fun.