What are you currently playing? V4.0

I agree that's BS, at least the manner how janky 2.5D animations combined with inscrutable hitboxes make it extremely unintuitive. It tries to give you a challenge, and the first boss is kind of a gatekeeper, which is fine in my book. What's not fine is how poorly telegraphed and how janky it is.

It gets better once you learn how it works and how to deal with it, it ended up being one of my favourite games, but yeah there's little excuse for the jankiness on display here.

I got through that boss. Played a bit more. It's okay. I'm not blown away by it yet - think HK has spoiled me.

I'm currently playing Fight Night Round 2 via an Android GameCube emulator. Loving it.

Immortals Fenyx Rising

Bloody great game so far. Thought that I'd dip in to check it out quickly over the weekend and I've already hit 18 hours played.
Some great little puzzles along the way without any sign of getting stale yet.

Personally I didn't have much trouble with the first boss in Bloodstained. Maybe I just got lucky, or got used to the patterns quickly enough. Other bosses gave me a lot more trouble, though you usually have options for them (different builds, going back to grind for shard things, etc).

I recall that I found the tentacle was poorly telegraphed, that it went down right on top of my head without giving me the chance to do anything, that its 3D animation didn't align with the ship's surface and that the hitbox was all over the place. Having fought that boss for who knows how many times, I know it inside out and it's no issue, but I can recall I was pretty frustrated with it when I was trying to make sense of it just from what I could see on screen.

The best advice I can give is to try again and again. It is one of these games. You don't need to beef up your character, that won't do much at this stage of the game. You have to learn how this boss works and how to dodge its attacks. At least this game is gracious enough to give you save points right before boss battles, unlike some others I could rant about.

Yeah, I vaguely remember getting through it after a failed attempt or two. Definitely not as bad as some other bosses in the game, but yeah it didn't really sit right on screen. Fancy playing it again now that you've mentioned it but it's probably left GP by now.

Children of Morta, free demo on the Switch. Narrator is great and earthy! Love the art style, music etc.. Pretty generous demo as well.....oh it's 1am! LOOT!!! Epitomises the one more go.

/bleary

Decided to roll the dice on Guardians, so I played a bit last night before bed.

I'm really liking it. I'm playing on PS5, but outside/alongside Marvel vs. Capcom 3, this might be the best Marvel game non-Sony gamers can get.

Much like the Avengers game, it's not MCU-based but it's very MCU-inspired. Unlike that game, it isn't trash.

It feels a bit Telltale-meets-Uncharted-meets-Mass Effect. One thing, off the top, it's very bantery. It's very MCU, and also very Uncharted that way. So a lot of your enjoyment will depend on how much you like that MCU-style back and forth between the characters, and how much you like the characters themselves. The dialogue choices are pretty Telltale, in that you usually get two options, or you can not saying anything, and all three will effect your relationships with the person you're talking to.

I've gone through two chapters, and one of them was an Uncharted-ish walk through a derelict ship and occasionally shoot aliens, the other was a pretty straight forward walk along this path and talk to your companion chapter.

Movement on the on-set is clunky overall, but it could be improved through the skill tree. Star Lord has a pathetic 60 year old man's hop, and his rocket boot double jump barely helps. I feel that will be upgraded though.
Combat on the other hand, seems simplistic but fluid. L2 locks onto the enemy nearest your aim reticle, R2 shoots. It has a Gears-like active reload that makes your next shot more powerful. O is a quick dodge if you press left or right, a backflip if you hold back or a kneeslide if you press up. [] is a context sensitive melee attack. He might throw a haymaker on a larger enemy, or a punt a knee-high alien.
L1 brings up the partner dial that tells your partners to use an ability. As an example, Rocket might hack a console or enter a vent out of combat, or he might lob some explosives in combat.

Soundtrack is a banger as expected. Last song that played as I saved and turned off the PS5 was Tainted Love.

It's still early days, but I really enjoyed what I played. I can easily recommend it to fans who aren't tired of Marvel yet. If you've reached your limit though, this won't bring you back in.

II wouldn't put those games together myself. People call Dead Cells a metroidvania but it's a rogue lite. Haven't played HLD but I believe it's more akin to 2D Zelda. Bloodstained would be your best bet from those games at not being too demanding in my opinion

I get the comparison - these games do occupy a certain Venn diagram of hardcore/roguelike/metroidvania which are mixed together to certain degrees. Even the From Soft games share the same spirit, but sadly I've never been able to get into though.

About 12 hours or so into Guardians of the Galaxy (cheap pre-order copy from Boss Deals on eBay turned up on Saturday), really enjoying it. It's just damn good fun, the combat feels a bit overwhelming at the start but once you get into the flow of things, learn your team's abilities, scan enemies for their weaknesses and stagger them it's pretty groovy.

The huddle mechanic is gloriously daft and geeing up the team to boost them while Hot Chocolate's "So You Win Again" kicks in, the eighties tunes it picks is fairly random, is great.

The constant dialogue between the team is excellent and there's just so much of it, Drax is a standout as his literalism is even more extreme than the film version and there's so much of it but all the voice acting it great. Not having read any of the comics I can only compare the movie and game versions of the characters and I think the game's are better, Peter especially.

It's pretty linear but with areas to nose about to find more parts for upgrades and outfits and so far for me the only place that is really open is Knowhere, it really reminds me of a much larger version of Nefarious City from Rift Apart. I hope you return to it at some point as there's plenty of stuff you can't acquire because there's no way you'd have the money to get them, plus I've got a lottery ticket to check.

The choices you make at certain points, usually through dialogue, certainly make it look like there's some replayability even if the main plot will work out the same way, Peter's copy of Deathtrap Dungeon seems a nod to that.

It's been an absolute joy so far and a highlight of 2021 gaming for me.

I found the real "secret" weapon here is Directed Shield. When he does that otherwise super unfair time stop attack, the game even gives you time to pause, select Directed Shield and just keep pressing direction+R2 until it's over. It completely nullifies that attack (if you're not in the middle of the room, at least). It also makes the otherwise brutal Iga boss fight from the DLC trivial.