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This excites me immensely, particularly the option for different weapons, as lack of variety in the combat was probably my biggest (and only) gripe with the original game. The slicker looking graphics look good, but I think I prefer the more retro, pixel-y look of the original.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
@Jer , have you beaten Village yet?
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Just wrapped it up this afternoon. Great experience in VR, and I only had a small handful of “fighting the controls” moments during particularly stressful cramped-quarters fights.

There were some pretty dread-inducing moments in Heisenberg’s factory (not great to be drilled in the face in VR, and the big drop to the bottom floor of the facility was…special), though the boss fight there was pretty cracking, as was the unexpected section afterward where you play as Chris Redfield with hella ammo and laser-targeted artillery. Good stuff.

If my backlog wasn’t so deep I’d definitely play through on a higher difficulty, but I need to move on for now. Might circle back around later. Still hoping they’ll release a PSVR2 update for the PS5 version of RE7, since I’d totally play through that again with upgraded visuals and (hopefully) motion controls instead of the default controller.
 
After beating the RE4 remake like 10 times I got burnt out and played Dead Island 2. Just finished it last night, and while it's not perfect, I had more fun with it than other similar zombie bash-'em-ups. I liked how each area is its own map as opposed to the massive open worlds of similar games where everything feels the same.

Looking forward to starting Jedi Survivor this weekend. Hopefully the performance issues that many are complaining about don't pop up.

@Jer - Happy to hear you liked Village in VR. I think the game loses steam big time from the Heisenberg fight until the end, but it's a fun experience with classic Resident Evil exploration and one of the most immersive games in the series. There's DLC, too, but it's quite subpar. Hopefully I'll get a PS5 at some point and eventually be able to play it in VR, as well.
 
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Mostly focusing on finishing Persona 5 Royal these days. About 60 hours in, and it feels like I'm probably a little past the halfway mark. The game has a lot of obtuse systems, and there are probably too many de rigueur scab fights. I'm always swimming in more items than I need, and combat is generally too easy, but with occasional harsh difficulty spikes. There are so many people I can potentially build relationships with that I literally can't keep track of all of them in my head, so that's a bit overwhelming. But I plan to be a lothario and romance everyone in sight as payback for all of that analysis paralysis.

I managed to luck into a persona that completely nullifies four different types of damage (phys, shot, bless, curse) and only has one weakness (nuke), so I'm trying to train it out of that nuke weakness and sacrifice other personas to boost its level, but I feel like I only half-understand what I'm doing in that arena. I still don't quite get why so many gaming sites gave this game a 10/10, but it's enjoyable enough.

Shockingly, I'm still playing Jackal Squad on mobile. I've actually made it to the final zone (for the moment), #24, but I've hit another gear wall before I can finish the final 5 levels. Once I can bump a weapon up one more rarity I think I'll be able to close that out, and that will probably be the end of my time with that game. I have continued to be impressed with the developers' ability to make each zone feel unique with both new enemy types and new combinations of enemies, which keeps the game mechanics feeling fresh despite the simple control scheme. And I like how the game plays against type, looking like a button-mashing type of vehicle action game at a glance, but actually being much more tactical and deadly in practice.

The next PSVR2 game I'm likely to check out is No Man's Sky, just to see what they did with it. I've only played that game in its disappointing vanilla version when it first came out, so I figure it's worth spending a little time with it to see if it merits a deeper dive.

After Persona 5 Royal, I'll probably finally get around to playing The Last Of Us Part II, which I wanted to finish before season 2 of the show comes around. It's been sitting on my end table for well over a year, maybe two, and for some reason I just never got around to it. The big question is whether I'll play through the original again first.

I also have God Of War: Ragnarok staring me in the face, which should merit some attention soon.
 
Finally finished Persona 5 Royal after about 130 hours. Apparently I missed a whole extra section of the game because I didn’t max out relationships with three specific people by a specific date, but I’m not going to replay a game that long just for that reason.

I don’t really understand all the 10/10 ratings, because the game can get repetitive and has some rough edges, but its in-your-face graffiti-style UI is appealing and some of the relationship stuff is pretty funny. And don’t get me wrong, it’s a very good game, just not a stellar one IMO.

I do have to say how refreshing it is to see a game include such problematic material without getting lambasted by the social media peanut gallery — you can literally date your homeroom teacher while still being a minor, you can essentially groom your shut-in PTSD-afflicted foster sister to become your girlfriend, and you can romance almost every female character in the game at the same time, including doing awful things like asking your statutorily-raping-you older girlfriend to do your laundry for free while you go out on a date with someone else. There is a bit of a comeuppance later on if you act like a complete shitbag to these women, but not much of one.

I also somehow miraculously finished the (currently) final level of Jackal Squad on mobile, so I don’t have a compelling reason to keep playing that game aside from redoing levels on higher difficulties and doing PVP, though I’m going to hit another gear wall shortly and that will probably make me bounce off the game for good. Lots of fun while it lasted, though.

I will probably play Trek To Yomi as a palate cleanser before diving into something more substantial, like The Last Of Us Part II or God Of War: Ragnarok. I also plan to check out No Man’s Sky on PSVR 2 just to see what it’s like, and I might clean up a few loose ends on Horizon: Call Of The Mountain. I’m hoping for a discount on the Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Tourist Upgrade so I can convert my free PS Plus copy of the game into the PSVR 2 compatible version for under $10. I only got a couple of hours into the game on PSVR 1 and it was fun, but I’m still miffed about the PSVR 2 upgrade requiring an extra charge.

Still need to finish the extra content in The House In Fata Morgana, and I’ve got Death Stranding, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and the Demon’s Souls remake staring at me after this other stuff. And I need to get back to Star Trek: Elite Force II and play Tyranny one of these days, too…
 
Broke out my PSVR 2 yesterday to try out No Man’s Sky and the headset suddenly started turning itself off every 2 minutes. Did all my due diligence and it kept crapping out the same way. Some Googling suggests this happens as a failsafe if the headset can’t confirm that the internal fan is functional after 2 minutes, and one guy who took his headset apart saw that the fan had come off completely! After the behavior continued today I called Sony support and waited on hold for an hour before getting to talk to a person, but to their credit they didn’t make me jump through a bunch of hoops and we got the warranty repair process started. It’ll probably take a month and a half to get a functioning headset back into my hands, but at least the fix or replacement will be free. Never had an issue with any Sony hardware since my launch PS3 had the yellow light of doom back in the day…bummer.

I’m about halfway through Trek To Yomi, which is delivered in the style of an Akira Kurosawa film, black and white and grainy with interesting shot framing. Still haven’t fully nailed the combat system, which is 2D swashbuckling with some projectile weapons, but I have a few go-to attacks that work pretty well. I’m guessing the game will only be about 6 hours long in the end, but it was a free PS+ title, so whatever.

I also noticed that a bundle of the remakes of RE2 and RE3 with the RE Resistance multiplayer game was on sale for $15 expiring tonight, so I went ahead and got those into my backlog. Turns out I already got the HD remaster of RE1 from PS+ at some point, so maybe I’ll play through 1-3 once VR mode for the RE4 remake is done, and then I can try that one out.
 
Just started Diablo IV, as I've got it for free with my new computer - quite good game. I'm not a big fan of H&S genre, but I'm enjoying this game.
 
I'm kinda looking forward to it, but I'm not getting it for the full price without Paladin/Crusader.

In the meantime, I played some more of 2 and 3, with various power metal albums in the background, just to chill.


Anyway, I finished my replay of the whole Dark Souls trilogy, including DLCs, as well as Sekiro. Actually did a whole NG+ on Sekiro (to do the bosses in the alternate ending) and most of DS3 as well, I just couldn't help myself. I'm kinda waiting for the proper time to start with my Elden Ring replay, in order to get myself prepared for the DLC (which will be my biggest gaming experience of this or the next year nonetheless, I have no doubt).

I'm actually thinking about buying an old PS4, just to finally play BloodBorne. from software ruined my life.

Hogwarts Legacy... is definitely a good game, a friend of mine has done three playthroughs already, but...
Although the level design is great and the atmosphere nice and even combat is fun (I just wish I could replay Witcher 3 with this movement and combat - now that is one game whose authors hated combat and moving around, yet somehow thought players will love what they hated and made most of the game around that), but as a whole it has the same old open world pitfalls. It's cool to do a Merlin trial, a second one, a third one. And then you find out there's more than 90! The sidequests, the collections, everything, it's just spamming like a latter-era Ubisoft game. It's still mostly fun, but I just can't bring myself to put away the fromsoft games and finish it.

Just as I can't bring myself to continue with Plague Tale 2. I loved the first game, but the second one lacks many of the positive things I loved and doesn't bring enough improvements to the table, so it's been sitting unplayed for quite some time now.

Looking for Blasphemous 2, 1 was excellent.
 
For anyone into retro shooters absolutely try out Ion Fury which runs on an updated Source engine, same as Duke3d, Shadow Warrior and Blood. Really awesome game.

Yes, this was the one originally called Ion Maiden and Steve and Derek put a stop to it.
 
BludBrutha said:
All the Batman Arkham games still hold up. Currently playing through all the challenge maps on Origins.
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Origins is a fantastic game and very underrated. I worked my add off last year to get the achievement/dark knight challenge where you beat the story without dying once. Is that I Am The Night? I can’t remember.
 
Jer said:
I also noticed that a bundle of the remakes of RE2 and RE3 with the RE Resistance multiplayer game was on sale for $15 expiring tonight, so I went ahead and got those into my backlog. Turns out I already got the HD remaster of RE1 from PS+ at some point, so maybe I’ll play through 1-3 once VR mode for the RE4 remake is done, and then I can try that one out.
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The remake of RE1 is one of the greatest survival horror games of all time, if you can handle the antiquated camera angles. It's basically a horror movie that you get to experience twice as different characters. I think the remake of RE3 is a bit brief but good for what it is, while the RE2 remake is incredible (as is the RE4 one).

Never cared for Resistance, though. Outside of the Outbreak games I don't like co-op or multiplayer in RE. To me it defeats the purpose of fear and isolation.

BludBrutha said:
For anyone into retro shooters absolutely try out Ion Fury which runs on an updated Source engine, same as Duke3d, Shadow Warrior and Blood. Really awesome game.
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I love Ion Fury. Always been a fan of those old-school shooter games with equal emphasis on combat and exploration, so the last few decades have not been kind to me with an onslaught of linear games. For anyone who liked Duke 3D and Shadow Warrior, definitely pick this game up.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
The remake of RE1 is one of the greatest survival horror games of all time, if you can handle the antiquated camera angles.
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Not a problem for me, I played through the original Alone In The Dark and a bunch of other games from that era with pre-rendered backgrounds and 3D stuff superimposed on top of it.

Speaking of which, I saw that Resident Evil 0 was also on sale for $5 — is that worth my time?

Sent off my ailing PSVR2 for warranty repairs today — with any luck I might get it back before the end of the month. I suppose it might be a good excuse to try to finish up some leftover PSVR1 games…
 
Jer said:
Not a problem for me, I played through the original Alone In The Dark and a bunch of other games from that era with pre-rendered backgrounds and 3D stuff superimposed on top of it.

Speaking of which, I saw that Resident Evil 0 was also on sale for $5 — is that worth my time?
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Glad to hear about the old-school horror games. The remake is truly a special experience and I hope you’ll like it. Tip: Jill is a bit easier and a little more interesting story wise in my opinion.

Yeah, 0 is worth it for $5. But while it’s visually superb, it doesn’t stack up to the remake. I’d be curious as to your thoughts after you play them both.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
Yeah, 0 is worth it for $5. But while it’s visually superb, it doesn’t stack up to the remake. I’d be curious as to your thoughts after you play them both.
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When I get around to it, should I play 0 first, or would it be a better experience if I played 1 first, then 0?


Finished up Trek To Yomi, which probably wound up being about 6-7 hours long. I guess there are three different endings, but I don’t plan to replay the game to see them, since I imagine they only differ by a little dialogue and a cut scene or two.

I played the game on the medium difficulty, since the default lowest difficulty described itself as being for people who “just want to enjoy the story”, and for the most part I think I made the right choice; but the final boss sent me into a Dark-Souls-level rage with how annoying he was. I did finally beat him after about 10-15 tries, though.

The 2D swordfighting combat was kind of interesting, but I never felt like I fully understood it or fully mastered it. Parries only seemed to be about 80% successful, and some attacks that seemed like they should have worked would wind up failing; but I did get noticeably better over time and felt at least mostly in control.

The game had a cool visual style and was pretty memorable, and I was happy to play it as a free PS+ title, but I couldn’t imagine paying more than $10 for it.

I think I’m going to play through The Last Of Us Remastered and The Last Of Us Part II as my next major undertaking. I haven’t played the first game since its original PS3 release, and I think it was only 10-12 hours long, so I figured a replay was warranted before hitting the sequel for the first time. I also wanted to replay the game while the TV adaptation was still fresh in my mind, and finish the sequel before the second season comes around.
 
I've been playing Breath of the Wild for the last few weeks, which I quite enjoy. However as of yesterday i've picked up my playthrough of Shin Megami Tensei V on Switch, and also Tokyo Mirage Sessions. I'm thinking about getting that new remastered collection of the Etrian Odyssey RPGs. I tend to enjoy Atlus RPGs in general, whether Etrian, Persona, SMT, or a spinoff of some time.
 
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