Be Excellent To Each Other

1. Carrion (Switch)

I'm in the lead! And Carrion was pretty good, and only about five hours long, which is perfect.

1) The Division 2: Warlords of New York (Xbox)

More of the same but now in the same place as the first game, weirdly. After the piece of piss campaign there’s a 100 floor tower to smash. Which we did.

2) Night in the Woods (Xbox)

Super enjoyed this. Lovely animation and written terrifically. I’ve only a couple of niggles but it’s one of the better ‘indie-story-not-a-lot-of-gameplay’ games.

Now I’m in the lead!

3) Astro’s Playroom (PS5)

The 2nd best reason to own a PS5, and it’s only bloody free. Utterly joyful. AND it’s led to my first and only Platinum!

4) Bleed 2 (Xbox)

Really good run and gunner that was given away with Games with Gold. Short but really well put together and, most of all, fun.

1) Super Robin Hood - Evercade

Rock hard platformer which was originally a NES game. I'd never have done it without save states but I enjoyed it nevertheless. Made by the Oliver Twins too!

Wasn't it their first game?

Not according to Wikipedia but it does look like it's their first NES game so partial credit!

It was a CPC game before it was a NES game!

It was but I think it was different on the NES. Either way, I bet they were both as hard as each other. Bloomin' old games.

I always imagine BMX Simulator being their first game as that's what was shown on TV when local news covered them. Their chronological list of games on their site shows they'd been churning out games well before that though.

OMG, Cavey was made by the Oliver Twins??

2) Fractured Minds - Xbox One

Over in 20 minutes. This was designed by a 17 year old apparently to highlight something about mental health. It wasn't very good, in fact I'd go as far as to say it was rubbish. An easy 1000 points though.

5) Ghost of Tsushima (PS5)

Great game, great ending (it felt entirely appropriate for me when I pressed L2) , great graphics, great soundtrack, nice story and some challenging and varied gameplay. I never thought the game was wasting my time and the snappy combat and ability to fast travel was the icing on the cake.

I don’t really do open world stuff but this made me want to mop up some trophies as well. I’ve got 5 trophies left to complete and ... well, I can’t be arsed now, but I got that far. Definitely a good time and a stellar game. 10/10

I got the plat trophy, so far the only one I've ever got. You get a text message on the screen saying "Well done, you saved the islands" or something like that and that's it

I might have gone for the plat if one of the trophies wasn’t typical open world bollocks “collect all x, y and z” of which there were many. The trophies before that weren’t too bad and could be done by accident “only 8 lighthouses”, “don’t need all the foxes to get all charms” and “only 20 of 60 docs”. Huge collectathons are just tedious time sinks.

3) Donut County - Xbox one

I already completed this on the Switch a while ago but did it again on the Xbox for the easy 1000 points.

1) What Remains of Edith Finch

I can actually say that I've finished this game. 100%

2) No Man's Sky

I got to the end of the two main plotlines and got a Living Ship. Calling this one done.

3) Fractured Minds - I'll admit, I did this because it's another easy 1000g. Not much of a game. I think there's supposed to be a message to about mental health, but it didn't resonate with me.

Same with me..

If you're after another easy 1000g, Donut County should be on your list. A couple of hours tops.

Yeah, I've been playing that this morning. Got most of the way through the cheevos. Need to go back and hoover up the less obvious ones

6) Final Fantasy 7 Remake (PS4)

Masterpiece.

Time to complete: 31 hours
Amount of items never used at the end: a shocking amount including things I never knew I had and never used like gravity orbs (?) spiderwebs (?) and a fuzzy wuzzy (dufuq).

7) Cyber Shadow (Xbox)

Retro inspired challenging 2D platformer with nice pixel art and funko tuneage. Bloody good this. Not quite as good as, say, The Messenger & Shovel Knight but right up there. Immensely satisfying to beat; especially that 3 stage final boss.

2) Bloodborne (PS5)

I thought I'd see if it looked any different on the PS5 (no) but once I'd figured that out I was back in Yharnam, so I made it my bitch again.

3) Control (PS5)

Mediocre game (with a couple of excellent redeeming bits) with a mediocre story set in a absolutely fantastic world. As a piece of entertainment I loved it, although I think I'd be just as happy to read or watch it.

1. COD Mobile (iPhone)

Got to level 50, so maxed my char in the game. It is fun, but it goes form really easy (non-league), to tricky (league) With a bit of battle royal.

Dark Souls Remastered - Praise the sun!

Sun or son? Did you finish it with the lad? I'm struggling to get mine through Lego city so can't imagine how tricky DS would be.

1) Xenoblade chronicles x (Wii U)

Is this really the first game I finished this year?

I think I might have been missing something, given that even at max level my team felt super weak.

Did you ever make that ultimate weapon for the mechs (I think it was available in one of the side missions)? I can’t remember what it was called but it’s basically a big laser cannon that takes ages to charge up but then obliterates most folk in one hit.

Generally, so long as I was in a mech, I had few problems.

The moment it forced me into a cave, or made me spill all my fuel everywhere (grr), it was like if been given pea shooters.

Yup, after a while it’s either Mech up or don’t bother.

Sorry just seen this! Finished my play though of DSR (PS4) He got to the point where it was 4 Kings and Gravelord Nito to kill before Lord of Cinder (end).

He got Dark Souls 3 (XBone) for his birthday in Feb so he abandoned DSR... he's making good progress but I'm determined to catch him up and beat him.

He's CONSTANTLY telling me stuff about Dark Souls games like I've never played any before!

Amazing! I'm teeing up portal 2 to try with the eldest. I expect it to be an experience of pure joy and frustration.

My son lectures me about Minecraft, like I hadn't started playing literally before he was born

I'd rather that than my daughter starting every sentence with 'You know on Roblox...'

We currently have non stop bollocks about Animal Crossing.

1) watchdogs legion on the PS5. Overall, I really liked it but "stay alive until this happens" and wave after wave of goons come at you can get to fuck.

8 ) Monster Hunter: World (Xbox)

This is one of those games that always seems to come up in online conversations over the years: how great it is, how deep the mechanics are etc etc. Anyway, this is the first time I’ve had a really good crack at the series, and, boy, this one was great fun. It doesn’t hurt that it looks amazing, the combat is weighty and the monsters are great.

It’s initially incomprehensible but give it a few hours and all that fades away and you’ll know where to upgrade your weapons and where to buy/craft health potions. That’s all you need really.

I solo’ed most of it but got some randos in for a few final fights and, frankly? I wish I’d gone that route earlier cause it felt like how it should be played: with 2-3 friends each specialising with different weapons and just going to town on a massive beast.

eg your mum

So... Worth 50 pounds then

FIFTY POUNDS!?

You’ve obviously erased it from your memory. And I don’t blame you

9) Doom 64 (Xbox)

It’s Doom.

I see even you accept that the Microsoft games consoles have ridiculously confusing names

"Xbox" is the make and "360/One/Series" is the model; since the One onwards are backwards compatible it’s fairly irrelevant to specify the model: it’s just an Xbox game I played on an Xbox.

I see, so that’s why you’ve marked all your PlayStation games as PlayStation.

Check, mate and match!

Not really, only PS5 is backwards compatible with most of the last gen, so if I’m playing on a PS1/2/3/Vita game I’ll need to specify rather than just saying “PS”.

I sunk your battleship!

You don’t have a Cluedo

1) The Binding Of Isaac:Rebirth Repentance DLC.

Core gameplay is the same, but just additional levels, bosses, enemies and items, plus existing graphics and sound have been polished here and there.

With everything getting that bit tougher, it seems like you need more luck on finding the right pickups and skill will only get you so far. As ever, the main thing with the game is multiple playthroughs, so I'll see if I can find other new additions to the game.

I'm glad I'm not fussed with Steam achievements though - this game is up to 637 available achievements and I've only got 366 of them, despite the combined 980 hours of play time across the game and DLCs.