Played a few games, bought some stuff. Let’s call it a success.
Games completed this month
Octopath Traveler – Switch
As with Bravely Default this is another game that has multiple levels of completion. In June we rolled credits on the main storyline, but the game continues. Hopefully we’ll see this here again in July, but it is getting harder.
I bought the digital edition to use up some store credit, but you can get the physical one from Amazon*
Games played during June
Nanotale – PC
Still been playing a bit of this, and do hope to complete it. I seem to get lost a lot more than I did in Epistory which is a bit tedious. The typing mechanic is still really fun though.
Super Bomberman R Online – PC
As suggested last month, I did move to playing this on PC. Played a few more rounds and still enjoying myself. I don’t really like the different character powers & stats, but it’s good fun regardless.
Forza Horizon 4 – Xbox Series S and PC
Felt like dropping back into this for a while after seeing the trailer for Forza Horizon 5 in the E3 presentations. Still my favourite racing game, looking forward to the new one.
Dungeons & Dragons Dark Alliance – PC (GamePass)
This is pretty terrible, and a buggy mess at times. However played co-op with a couple of friends has been entertaining. We all have GamePass so we didn’t have to pay for the game, certainly helped with the enjoyment.
Quake Champions – PC
I suggested last month that I might try to get back into this. One of the purchases below encouraged me to give it a try. It is still great fun, but I’m so out of practice it’s a bit of a slog trying to climb the rankings again. I may play a bit more but not sure how much patience I’m going to have for the practice required.
What’s been on the arcade?
Ten Pence Arcade Podcast have a double-header this month, with Mr Do’s Wild Ride and Mrs Dynamite. I have played a bit of Mr Do but Mrs Dynamite requires the latest version of MAME which I can’t run on the cabinet yet so I haven’t tried that. I have, however, been playing a lot of Super Street Fighter 2 on it though, so there’s that.
June Pick-ups
Mario Golf Super Rush – Switch
Pre-ordered last month and it came out at the end of June so I did manage to get it downloaded. Haven’t played it yet so we’ll find out how it is in July.
This* is the physical edition if you’d rather not get it digitally
New Monitor
I’ve fanicied an ultrawide monitor for a while, but they had been a bit out of my budget for the spec I wanted. Finally found one at a sensible price that ticked all the boxes. It’s a 34″ Ultrawide curved display from Iiyama, 144hz refresh, 1ms response time, 3440×1440 resolution. It’s this one if you’re interested in the rest of the specs.
I got mine from Currys because I had a discount code that made it <£400, but otherwise it is cheaper on Amazon*.
Nex Machina & The Name of the Game Documentary – PC
Although I bought and played this on the PS4 when it came out, after recording & releasing our Twin Stick Shooter podcast, I felt like getting back into it. As discussed on the podcast, the PC version is supposed to be better, so thought I’d check that out for my self. Grabbed it along with the making of documentary in the steam sale.
More Pinball FX3 tables
After setting up my new monitor above, I’ve mounted one of my older 24″ widescreen displays next to it, in a vertical (TATE) orientation. The better to play pinball and some vertical scrolling shoot em up games. The extra Pinball FX3 table packs are in the Steam sale, so I grabbed the Williams Volume 2 pack, so I could play the Black Rose table. Pinball games are still great played fullscreen on a vertical display.
A Guide to Japanese Role Playing Games – Book
Perhaps a surprise purchase for someone who can count the number of JRPGs played on one (well two now) hand. However, this seemed like a comprehensive guide to most of the genre, and I thought reading it might help me pick out other games that I’ll enjoy, avoiding the rest. If you’re interested, they sold out but are due to be reprinted and on sale again in October from bitmap books.
*As usual, these links are affiliate ones, which may earn me a small commission if you buy something.