From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc


Somehow I was able to fit in a pile of gaming in between everyone in the
house having a cold and all the other family obligations outside of
that. And it's a bank holiday for me, so I get to keep playing all this
stuff:

Play:
--=--

Scarlet Nexus (PS5) - Oh hey, I've just become part of a bionic
enhancement experiment that's being deployed for purposes of war. Now
that I have my life-changing military assignment I'm going to use what
little free time I have to go traipsing off into the city with my foster sister to go shopping for cute little anime mascot toys. There's a lot
of tone whiplash in this game set in a future dystopia that still
somehow has high-volume manufacturing and a fully functioning
entertainment media and I'm not sure if I just don't get it or if they
did it completely wrong. The gameplay is pretty unintuitive, equal parts Trickstyle and The Darkness, and not the best qualities of either game.
I can see why this didn't catch on and why it was so cheap to buy.

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (PS5) - Did I buy the PS5 disc? (/checks) Yes I did.
Not that it makes any damn difference. This feels most authentically
like a Ys game, if you're measuring against the strange action standard
set by that original duology from all the way back in the TurboGrafx-16
days. It's fast and it's satisfying and it doesn't really require a lot
of explanation. "Pointy end of the sword goes into the monsters" is
pretty much the size of it. I didn't expect the prologue to be a flash
forward though, so there's a little hook there that I'm not sure if I've bought into yet.

Edge of Eternity (PS5) - Hah, this is the best original Playstation game
to ever be rendered using Playstation 5 technology. It really is just
like a lot of those old 32-bit RPGs of the era, with so much flash and
limited technology being used to convey the idea of a big world in a way
that the graphics and sound just can't. Except that this is on a modern console, so all of the stilted motion and signpost NPCs and constrained
maps make it feel like the game was designed back in 1997 and just never
got new requirements written up. Still, I'm oddly compelled to keep
playing because the story takes an original turn, in that our hero has personal motivations that have nothing to do with the giant
globe-spanning conflict that he's otherwise caught up in. That reminds
me pleasantly of the original Nier, in that king and country are taking
a distant backseat to immediate family. We don't get enough of that in
this genre.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero (PS4) - Hah, this is the best
Sega Saturn game to ever be rendered using Playstation 4 technology.
That's not a big surprise, given that this is a PSP game gussied up to
look good on modern systems. But unlike Square/Enix's careless redo of
Tactics Ogre, this is charming in a way that I haven't figured out how
to quantify yet. It's all cute chibi character designs and isometric viewpoints and repeating textures, but it somehow adds up to much more
than a straight port because of carefully chosen camera angles and a
curated understanding of how this medium communicates emotion. This game
is a Falcom joint like the Ys games are, and I think that goes a ways
towards explaining why it connects.

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (PS5/NSW) - Of course I should round
out the weekend with the best Gamecube game to ever be rendered using Playstation 5 technology. Hilariously, the whole game only takes up a
gig of space on the BD-ROM disc, and the update file is like 80 megs or something. It's lovely and charming and I'm afraid that the thing will
happen where I happily farm along for a few hours and then forget the
game exists, like I do with all the Harvest Moon games.

Want:
--=--

Hellpoint (PS5) - D'oh. My PS4 disc is EU-region, so I'm not entitled to
the free PS5 upgrade. And there's no PS5 disc to be had. So do I pay $35
for the digital version or do I pay $34 for the US-region PS4 disc? This
is a lot of hassle to make it possible for me to use the DLC, which is spitefully available for the PS5 and PC versions only and not on Switch
or PS4.

Tokyo Xanadu EX+ (PS4) - Doh. My order got delayed by the hurricane(s)
that screwed up California and Georgia. My shipment is lost somewhere in between, which is to say that it's probably soaked in salt water and
regret at this point. I get to request a refund if it's not in hand
tonight.

Bin:
-==-

Nothing game-related.

Expenditure:
-----=-----

Balance forward - $3,629

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (PS5) - $50
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (NSW) - $50
Scarlet Nexus (PS5) - $17
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (PS5) - $50
Hellpoint (PS4) - $34

Total to date - $3,830

-KKC, who crammed in some gardening too.
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From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

On 4 Sep 2023 at 00:00:01 BST, "Kendrick Kerwin Chua"
<kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

Somehow I was able to fit in a pile of gaming in between everyone in the house having a cold and all the other family obligations outside of
that. And it's a bank holiday for me, so I get to keep playing all this stuff:

I wasn't. Guests and too many things happening. No games last week.

Want:
--=--

Games this week.

Bin:
-==-

Lack of games last week.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
Reality is what doesn't go away when you stop believing in it
-- Philip K Dick
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From Newsgroup: uk.games.video.misc

Kendrick Kerwin Chua <kendrick@nospam.io-nyc> wrote:

Play:

Manifold Garden (PS4) - finished. For me this actually did feel a fair
bit like VVVVVV, despite being 3D, and in a very different style, and
more puzzley, and... maybe it isn't the best comparison ever. While
the game wasn't really quite how I'd expected it to be somehow (I
think I was just expecting lots of dramatic geometry-bending, and not
the weird obsession with puzzle-block trees), it was still a decent 3D
puzzler with some neat ideas and nice graphics.

I did like a little bit in the ending where (rot13 I suppose) nsgre
nyy gur gevccl envaobj fghss vg raqrq ol (riraghnyyl) zbecuvat n
ulcrephor vagb n phor, fdhner, yvar, gura qbg. Fvzcyr rabhtu ohg
frrzrq n avpr jnl gb raq vg.

the whole game only takes up a gig

I wonder when "only a terabyte" gets to be a mainstream thing,
assuming it isn't already. :-) Probably not long now.

Want:

Nothing.

Bin:

Manifold Garden crashing on me three times, and it's not like it's the
longest game ever. At least I only lost minimal progress each time,
presumably it auto-saves a lot.

-Rus.
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