What Games Are You Playing?

D1tchd1gger said:
Yes. Played Ghouls n Ghosts on the Mega Drive in the early 90s.
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Oh, wow. Nice. 😀

I love the Mega Drive version of Ghouls 'n Ghosts. The music and graphics are awesome! I play it on the Mega Drive library on Nintendo Switch Online.

D1tchd1gger said:
The knife is very good, it's the fastest weapon to throw and can be thrown straight down
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Yeeeah, you know your stuff, dude! The knife is the weapon for fighting the boss of stage 4 (the giant maggot), in my opinion. Because it shoots out at two slightly different heights, it lets you just crouch and fire to take out four of its five weak points. 😌👌

Do you remember how far you got through the game? Did you ever finish it?
 
D1tchd1gger said:
Yes. Remember being surprised after "beating" it that you had to go through it again!
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Hohhh, very nice job. 😌👍

Yeah, it's a Ghosts 'n Goblins tradition, that. That and having to get the short-range weapon to be able to finish the second loop.

Ghouls 'n Ghosts has been the only game in the series so far that I've been able to beat without consulting a guide or video at some point. They're kinda tough. 😅
 
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Game #4 - Vanity Fair: The Pursuit (PlayStation 5)
Acquired: 30.11.2025 - Started: 20.01.2026 - Finished: 21.01.2026 (Story), 21.01.2026 (Platinum)

Moving away from the recent digital pickups with a lesser-known title and one that was developed by Chinese developer MuYan Studio. Vanity Fair: The Pursuit is an FMV game, aka Full-Motion Video, like the ones that you would get back in the day but for the modern audiences. It's almost like playing 428: Shibuya Scramble but the scenes were in motion than static. Anyway, the reason why I wanted to play this one is because it's pretty much a Chinese drama series disguised as a video game and I don't often see C-Dramas available to watch legally.

The story of Vanity Fair is all about a young filmmaker who starts out rough and has to work his way through various hurdles to become a successful director whilst also getting involved with a few individuals whether it would be revenge, or trying to resolve an ordeal that doesn't get them into serious trouble. The story can lead into different outcomes, thanks to the visual novel style structure where one choice you make could end to a bad ending.


The game has a lot of bad endings and even endings that aren't necessarily bad but not the ideal route. For example you could decide to sleep with a girl, get them pregnant, reject being a father, give up your career as a filmmaker to become a bolt maker and then when the girl and young boy appears you decide 'nah I'm good back to making bolts' and watch the others react with a surprise Pikachu expression. That is literally one of many endings this game has and it's pretty entertaining.

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The story is divided across six chapters and a prologue, with various options to go back and forth to see different outcomes and be able to skip scenes if you have witnessed them already, which allows for easier replayability if you're trying to see different routes and endings. The timeline structure is a bit messy because you're using the D-Pad to go back and forth whereas I would have preferred a model similar to a world map to make exploration of the timeline easier. It's fine for the most part but you can easily get lost with the navigation. Another major issue is unfortunately the localisation of the game.

The English translation for the most part was fine, but there were noticeable grammatical errors and when there's profile segments appear on screen, the spoken dialogue during that moment isn't translated. The subtitles are also fairly large and because they're white with no borders it can make the reading experience a bit challenging, which is made worse by the speed that which the sentences appear which I think is due to the sentences that appear are single line only.

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Despite the issues, I had a good time with Vanity Fair: The Pursuit. As a game it's not perfect but as a Chinese drama series it's a solid experience, with a cast that definitely looked like they were having a great time with the various endings and scenarios and the story was honestly pretty unpredictable from my perspective. The true ending was good too. It took me 5 hours to finish the story and get the remaining trophies for the Platinum, which isn't a 100% completion but a good majority of the scenes experienced.


Four games done and we're still in January. That's already ahead of last year's game completion!
 
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Game #5 - Nobody Wants to Die (PlayStation 5)
Acquired: 22.01.2026 - Started: 22.01.2026 - Finished: 23.01.2026 (Story), 23.01.2026 (Platinum)

As I was struggling to figure out what to play next, a new game arrived in the post from Limited Run Games and it was for the Polish developer Critical Hit Games' narrative adventure game Nobody Wants to Die, a very intriguing futuristic but classic dystopian noir vibe that almost looked inspired by BioShock's aesthetic.

The game is centred around a detective named James who is investing a murder in a world where people can live for hundreds of years thanks to being able to transfer their consciousness from one body to another. What hooked me to the game was the aesthetic and art style which was really striking from the get-go, and you can interact with various objects, rotate them and witness James react to what it is, whether it be a bullet, a book, or a note written by someone. James' attitude can change depend on what dialogue choice you wish to choose, whether to make him a sarcastic guy or a decent person who's trying to make do with events that happened to him in a previous body.

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In various parts of the game you have a special investigation mode where you look around the room, checking items and encounter clues as to what transpired in the scene. Now what made this even more fascinating for me is the game's reconstructor device that visualises the scene from a previous point in time and allows you to go back and forth to see how an individual died in that moment. Since the game takes place hundreds of years in the future, this type of device was really cool and I'm surprised I haven't seen this as much in other media. The closest would probably be Minority Report.


Also included in the detective work are UV lights to identify tracks of blood from one point to another, and a scanner to see where cables are located or spot any signs of bullet fragments in bodies. After an investigation, there's also a small segment where you gather your clues and determine a path from start to finish to finalise your findings and come up with a conclusion over what had transpired. All of the investigative work can be done without any help since you can find the objects and where to go on your own, but the game does support an option where you can scan around and find the next go-to if you need a holding hand.

The PlayStation 5 version is how I played Nobody Wants to Die and there's a good number of customisation features for the settings which includes performance and graphics mode options. I went with performance mode but honestly I think the graphic mode may be the best approach since this is not a fast-paced type game that required any form of high frame rate.

The story took about five and a half hours to finish and I enjoyed my time with it. I do think the story does falter during its latter half despite a lot of interesting plot points here and there, so I reckon they could have expanded on various areas like the police side of things and the antagonist. Still Nobody Wants to Die is an interesting narrative game and worth checking out. Great visuals, interesting mechanics and a decent story so I'm glad I took the time to check it out.


Still in January with five games completed! Going to take a break on games until Code Vein II arrives.
 
Finished up the 3D Gex Games - pretty decent with some catchy OSTs but collecting all 100 flies for each level and hub area was a tedious timesink.

I have RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army on PS5 lined up next. Have done the prologue and some of the first investigation and am curious to see how this holds up.
 
Played a few more hours of Pokemon Scarlet

Seem to have slightly messed up the order as Psychic Gym was like 45, then I went on to the Normal Gym and it was only 35. Two Gyms left - Ghost and Ice

Haven't been this close to over leveling Pokemon in a while. Even early badges I was having to box some Pokemon to make sure there weren't any obedience issues

Then started Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (1.5 Remix)

I've been looking at playing Kingdom Hearts for a while now so decided why not :)
 
Dino Crisis
I revisit Capcom's PS1 horror games quite frequently, but this is always the most awkward one to get through (as long as we ignore the atrocious Resident Evil Survivor, which deserves to be forgotten). When a developer makes a bunch of similar games these days, we expect there to be quality of life improvements along the way. Releasing after the first few Resident Evil games, and determined to offer a familiar but distinct experience, Dino Crisis makes the questionable choice of introducing quality of life reductions.

The core gameplay and atmosphere have the same winning formula as RE, but there's a lot more friction to your progress through the game. The first change you'll notice is how storage boxes work. Instead of the universal magic storage of RE, there are now different boxes for different types of items (ammo, health, etc), and you need a certain number of keys to open each.

The change that's most likely to trip up first-timers is the lack of a menu log for any documents or codes that you find. This was a standard feature of RE, but Dino Crisis expects you to either remember important information or write it down. Combined with some puzzle clues that are easy to miss, and puzzles that are generally more frequent and difficult than early RE, and it's easy to get stuck without a guide.

The other major change is the shift from pre-rendered backgrounds to full 3D. It makes things feel more dynamic when dinosaurs are chasing you, but comes at a cost. The PS1 could only handle very limited environmental geometry and textures, so the whole game ends up being set in a dull grey research facility. There's none of the gothic atmosphere of RE1/2's mansion or police station, and nothing as detailed as the city streets of RE2/3.

Despite all the caveats, the original DC is still fun to return to once in a while. It's just not in the same league as Dino Crisis 2 or the early RE games.
 
Last time I posted, I had just started Witcher 3 and figured it would keep me going for a while.

Well it's February and I'm still here 😂 I'm on the final DLC though, Blood and Wine so I'm nearly done, but this DLC is huge so I still probably have another 20-30 hours easily left. Absolutely loving the experience though. I was pretty addicted at one point.

I did take a mini break in December to play Hogwarts Legacy because it dropped for free on Epic and that was a nice 2 week break. I took another 2 week break to play through the first Bioshock too, just finished that today.

I've also been socalising through Arc Raiders. My friends play so I joined in and it's a good time. I'm a loot goblin so these kinds of game call to my soul lol.

It's back to the Witcher 3 grind, probably to finally finish it. I did need those breaks though because as much as I was enjoying the game, I needed a change because it got a bit stale. Unsurprising after 170 hours I suppose lol.
 
01. Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA via NSO)

Though not the first game I've started this year it is the first I have beat.

This was my first time playing and beating a Metroid game and this was absolutely fantastic.

I've struggled to get into Metroidvania's before but this has changed my mind about them and I understand the appeal.

The gameplay loop of exploration and upgrading I found an enjoyable one. Samus just felt good to control for the most part as well. Near the end of the game, the gameplay style changes briefly and I liked the change but the devs made the right choice in not letting that section overstay its welcome. I am aware this final section isn't present in the original Metroid and though I haven't played the original, this felt like a welcome addition to me.

The bosses were a mixed bag, most of them were enjoyable enough but some were just annoying, especially the final boss from the original games section, that wasn't fun at all. Thank goodness for the rewind feature on the Switch, I'm not ashamed to abuse it during sections like that.

I really liked the atmosphere as well along with the graphics and sound design which were pretty great for the system I'd say.

I've already ordered Metroid: Samus Returns on 3DS to continue my Metroid journey and then I'll be onto Super Metroid, Fusion and Dread. I'll tackle the Prime series and Other M at a later date. I may also try out the original Metroid 1 & 2 at some point but they're not a priority. Speaking of the originals though, I found it neat that once you beat Zero Mission you unlock the original.
 
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