One completion just scraped through at the end of the month, but I played and bought a few others.
Games completed this month
TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge – Xbox Series X
GamePass delivers once again, a standout title for the year and it’s available on the service from day one. This modern release is very much in the style of the old Turtles arcade games, and has many nods to those classics included. Like Streets of Rage 4 in 2020, this once again shows there is life in the genre yet. I played this the way your supposed to, all the way through in one sitting, with wine and a friend. I’m still not a fan of playing brawlers like this solo, but there are few better genres to play co-operative with friends.
I’m playing on GamePass, but it seems a good fit for the Switch too, Amazon have a physical copy for pre-order here*
Games played during June
Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch – Nintendo Switch
Unsurprisingly taking up a lot of game time, but not dominating the month as much as I’d expected. More on that story later. Anyway still very much enjoying it, although Drippy is an abomination and I hope he isn’t in the sequel.
At present it might still be on sale on the eshop, but if it’s back to full price or you’d rather have a physical copy, it’s available here from Amazon*.
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion – Xbox Series X
I’m still enjoying trying things on GamePass that I probably wouldn’t otherwise look at twice. This is an entertaining if simple little action RPG. Quite enjoyed playing it for a while, although I’m stuck on a bit of an annoying bossfight, and not sure I’m bothered enough to keep playing.
Forza Horizon 5 – Xbox Series X
Got heavily back into this during June, so much so that it slowed my Ni No Kuni progress and allowed my friends to run away in front of me. No regrets though, and they’ve finally announced the first expansion will be launching in July so I expect my gameplay to continue. The expansion is another Hot Wheels one like they did for Forza Horizon 3, that was one of the best packs yet so really looking forward to it. Although the expansions are not included in GamePass, there is a good bundle of extras* that includes both Hot Wheels and one more pack yet to be announced as well as loads of cars and in game perks.
Again I’m playing on GamePass, but if you would prefer to own it on disc you can buy it here*.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 & 2 – PlayStation 5
Revisited this after talking about it recently with my nephew. It’s really well done, and runs great on the PlayStation 5. I’m still pretty bad at it though. Did progress through a few levels, but as much as I have fond memories of the originals, I don’t think I was much good at them either. Don’t expect there are many who would agree, but my favourite Tony Hawk games were Project 8 on the 360 and Sk8land on the Nintendo DS. I’d love a remake of Project 8 to be honest, or even for it to just pop up on GamePass.
I have this PS4 edition available on Amazon* – however, I did pay an additional £10 for the PS5 upgrade. It’s worth it in the sense that it looks and feels much better, but probably not for me for how little time I’ve actually spent with it.
Until Dawn – PlayStation 5
My girlfriend doesn’t play many videogames, but does share my love of horror movies. As suspected this has proven to be quite a hit, and we’re currently enjoying a playthrough of this together. Not sure how many of the cast will survive, but I had forgotten just how entertaining it is.
What’s been on the arcade?
New ten pence arcade game is Pac-Land, not really my cup of tea, so I’ve been back to playing Bubbles, Robotron and Super Street Fighter 2 on the cabinet.
June Pick-ups
Grow Bot – Nintendo Switch
Application Systems Heidelberg are currently sharing codes with me faster than I can play them. This is an interesting looking little puzzle game though, again one that’s been out on PC for a while but is shortly coming to the Switch.
Panzer Dragoon Remake – Nintendo Switch
With Nintendo running a pretty decent sale on the Switch eshop, I picked up a few this month. This was the first I went for. As remakes go it had respectable if not great reviews, but I’m a big fan of the original SEGA Saturn game and it was on sale for £2. Worth a punt.
Tales of Vesperia: Definite Edition – Nintendo Switch
My JRPG group have lined this up to play after Ni No Kuni. We all enjoyed Tales of Arise, but had never played any of the earlier games so interested to see how this is.
If you don’t fancy the digital edition, Amazon do have the physical one*. It’s pricey on Switch but can be had much cheaper for PS4 or Xbox.
House of the Dead Remake – Nintendo Switch
Why settle for one SEGA Saturn remake, when you can buy two? Jury is still out on this for me, but since I don’t currently have a PS3 or Wii set up in my lounge I was hoping this might fill the light-gun void. You can use the joy-cons to aim, but on first go it isn’t very satisfying. I’ll spend a bit more time with it and see how I get on.
Before Your Eyes – PC
My one purchase from the Steam summer sale. I’ve been interested in this since hearing it mentioned on a few podcasts. I haven’t tried it yet but the basic idea is that it uses your webcam and that the story advances every time you blink. Looking forward to trying it.
PS5 Hard Drive and External SSD for Xbox Series X
Longer term, I want more storage for the Xbox as that’s where the majority of my gaming is done. However, I originally had the same setup for both of these consoles. That is, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X games installed on the internal hard drives (as they have to be to run) and all the PS4 and backwards compatible Xbox games on two external 2TB traditional HDDs.
My goal was to stop using the HDDs entirely for faster solid state drives. (I want to do the same with my PC in the long run, but costs are fairly prohibitive. It’s getting better.)
I bought this Western Digital SN850 M.2* drive for the PS5, adds an extra 1TB to the internal storage on the console. Fitting it was relatively straight forward, although taking the case off was a bit of a faff. As it happens it’s also faster than the standard storage it comes with. I moved the PS5 games onto there, and the PS4 stuff is now on the other internal drive. I’ve still got some space left for now and no need for an external one.
I got this Crucial 1TB external SSD* which I’m using with the Xbox for now to house all the backwards compatible stuff, because it’s much faster than the old HDD I was using. When the costs come down (or I run out of space on either machine), I’m going to grab this 2TB internal upgrade* for the Xbox and move the SSD to the PS5 to use for PS4 stuff.
Convoluted, sure. Makes sense to me though and I now have a couple of spare 2TB HDDs kicking around.
*As usual, these links are affiliate ones, which may earn me a small commission if you buy something.