Did anyone else love Expedition 33? What game(s) are you playing?

[Disciple of Nagash]

It's been a while since I've got into a brand new game - I'm still playing Destiny 2 (any other CN members on there?!), but a few months ago I got to enjoy the brilliance of Expedition 33 and I absolutely loved it. Such a different story, the design was magnificent and the french inspired music *chefs kiss*

My only complaint was that it didn't last longer and it's clear with certain areas more was planned but then cut out. Whilst I do want to play it more, I also don't know if they could recapture the magic or not....

With Destiny now being a bit meh I've just seen the release of the newly updated MGS Snakeater, which has always been one of my favourite series of games, so think I'll dive into that next.

 

[Sception]

i havent had the chance to play it yet, but i've hear nothing but good things. I want to give it a try, but for me September belongs to Silksong.

 

[Oppenheimer]

I haven't played Expedition 33 yet, but it's on my wishlist. I generally don't play games until they are a couple years old. I'm currently playing Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader and am really loving it. One of my favorite games was Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, so it's good to see more games in that vein.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

i havent had the chance to play it yet, but i've hear nothing but good things. I want to give it a try, but for me September belongs to Silksong.

I've never heard of it, but it looks beautiful, just did some googling. I might have to add it to my list to play

But you're both definitely missing out on E33, it's so beautiful!

 

[Sception]

I've never heard of it, but it looks beautiful, just did some googling. I might have to add it to my list to play

But you're both definitely missing out on E33, it's so beautiful!

Silksong is a sequel/spinoff to juggernaut indie darling Hollow Knight. If you haven't heard of or played Hollow Knight yet, and you have any interest in 2d action platform soulsy metroidvania type games, you really should give it a try. The game has it's flaws, but it really is something special, and I'm super hype for the sequel.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

I've just seen it's on PS5 so I will give it a go then, you've convinced me Sception

 

[Sception]

I'll give E33 a go myself, once I'm done with silksong. I was going to at some point already, but your recommendation has pushed it up the list.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

Excellent, look forward to hearing what you think!

 

[Sception]

Still deep deep into Silksong. all other hobby gaming activities are on hold. I've beaten the game, and 100% it, and did the 5 hour run - which wasn't as bad as I'd feared. Only one restart pretty early on. I still need the 30 hours 100% run (daunting), the no death run (shouldn't be too bad), and the 100% no death run (terrifying), before I get my life back.

Something this forum might appreciate, the game has a lot of little nods to the Castlevania franchise, Symphony of the Night in particular. Hornet's basic movement animations are borrowed from Alucard, the tool system is based on Castlevania subweapons... and other stuff I wont get into b/c spoilers.

It's neat to see in a genre that tends to lean way more into the 'metroid' than the 'vania'.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

I've watched a few videos on Silksong Sception and I was about to get it....but on the subject of Metroidvania I then saw that Metroid Prime 4 is getting released in Dec and that Metroid Prime Remastered was on sale which was one of my favourite games....so long story short I ordered a Switch 2 which arrives this week and I'm looking forward to getting back into FPS Samus Aran!

 

[Sception]

fair enough! I'm a bit nervous re: prime 4 and will be waiting for reviews before i pick it up, especially as I'd be stuck on switch one and am worried about how well it will run on the older hardware / without Switch 2's mouse controls. But the prime 1 remaster was really good and is definitely worth playing if you feel nostalgic for the original gamecube release. Sadly it seems like we're not getting new ports of 2 & 3. If you have a pc that can handle wii emulation (I'm guessing you do if you're playing E33?), then you should look into 'primehack', a fork of the Dolphin wii emulator dedicated to playing just Metroid Prime Trilogy, including re-adapting the control scheme. It's really well done, and will probably remain the best way to replay Prime 2 and 3 unless and until Nintendo change their minds about remaking those games for Switch/Switch 2.

If you're new to Switch and enjoy classic 2d metroid as well, I highly recommend Metroid Dread. The atmosphere isn't quite on par with the best in the franchise due to the weaker score, somewhat generic area concepts, and some slightly repetitive chase sequences, but the controls are faster and more fluid than Metroid has ever been, the game allows for some compelling sequence breaks, and the boss fights are fantastic, including a few quick kills that feel amazing to pull off. It's not quite as strong overall as ye olde Super Metroid imo, but its still a great game that stands out even in a modern metroidvania landscape that's absolutely spoiled for great games to play.

Dread is definitely on what I'd consider to be the 'must have' list of exclusive first party games for Switch, alongside Mario Odyssey, Mario Wonder, Breath of the Wild, Smash Bros Ultimate, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Animal Crossing New Horizons, and maybe Fire Emblem: Three Houses (I go back and forth on that one - it's very good, but maybe not quite as good as the rest of the list relative to other game in its franchise). There's also several 3rd party multiplatform games that are great on Switch if you haven't already played them elsewhere, with a few stand outs off the top of my head including Monster Hunter Rise/Sunbreak, Dark Souls, Persona 5 Royal, and Alien Isolation. I'm sure there are more, but the Switch was mostly a first party & indie machine for me, so I didn't play as many 3rd party, non-indie games on it to vouch for them. Speaking of indies, the Switch saw so many excellent ports of fantastic indie gems, including Celeste, Belatro, Stardew Valley, Slay the Spire, Night in the Woods, Baba Is You, Animal Well, Hyperlight Drifer, TMNT: Shredder's Revenge, Outer Wilds, Shovel Knight, Cuphead, Nine Sols, Dead Cells, Cult of the Lamb, Ori 1 & 2, Hades, Spirit Farer, Undertale/Deltarune, and of course Hollow Knight and now Silksong, among many, many others. All stuff you've probably heard of and already have on other platforms if you really wanted them, but picking up a new Switch is a good excuse to give some of those a try if you haven't yet gotten around to them. They're certainly easier on the wallet than the first party stuff.

Celeste in particular deserves to be called out as a fantastic game that for many players was practically synonymous with the Switch despite being available on almost everything, and if you have any interest in 2d platformers at all and don't already have it on something else then I'd definitely consider it a absolute must-have.


As for Switch 2 specific games? I mean, I don't have one so can't speak from experience, but I have been following it pretty closely. The launch has been a bit rocky, clouded by recent controversial actions by Nintendo. Focusing just on the games, there's not that many stand out launch titles, and a surprisingly open debate on whether Mario Kart World, the biggest Switch 2 launch game, is even as good as its switch 1 predecessor in 8 Deluxe. Frankly it seems like a mistake to me that they didn't wait until they had a new first party 3d Mario or Zelda game ready to release for it, and I hear 3rd party games sales have been struggling, probably because they're mostly just ports of older titles that couldn't run on Switch 1, so while they might be solid ports of great games they're still kind of old news. Of those in particular, I hear the Switch 2 port of Cyberpunk 2077 is good. Despite Cyberpunks legendarily rocky initial release, in the time since it's become a great game well worth the experience if you haven't had the chance yet. Along the same lines, I'm hopeful that the Switch 2 port of Elden Ring will be good, mostly because I really loved that game and would be hype for more people to experience it, but it's not out yet so too soon to say.

Again, though, it's pretty much fully backwards compatible with Switch 1, which has an impressive library of great games to tide you over until Nintendo gets their act together. Especially the Indies.


In terms of online multiplayer, Smash Ultimate suffers from iffy service (though it's still a must have for the couch co-op experience imo). Mario Kart 8 runs well online, but I kind of burned myself out on the game years ago, so while I definitely recommend it I'm not personally inclined to play it. I've heard good things about Splatoon as a franchise, but never got into them myself so can't say if the Switch game is good or not. However, If you ever end up getting the switch ports of Monster Hunter Rise or Dark Souls, I could absolutely be talked into some co-op. I played the heck out of both on switch with one of my brothers & had a great time with them.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

So my Switch 2 arrived, and I have been enjoying blasting away in Prime Remastered, they did a beautiful job and if anyone else is mulling over whether it's worth it, I think so.

Interestingly Sception, it's been noted by some in the Metroid community that some of the copyrights etc have been updated for Metroid 2 and 3 recently, some hoping that the success of Prime Remastered has maybe swayed them into doing the same for 2&3, which I really hope. I haven't played 2 in years and looking back at it now, whilst I wasn't sure on it then I think I'd enjoyed it now. It's the same with Zelda: Twilight Princess - I'd love to play an updated version of that, that was a different twist on Zelda I really liked. Also for those following, there's already been some rumours that Prime 5 is already in the planning!

I did get Mario Kart with the console, but not yet tried it! I did have a look at some of the games you mentioned Sception and I've got to admit, some of the indie ones I tend to overlook, I wouldn't have given Celeste a second look for example! But I might give it a try now. I also see Hades 2 is coming out! I did enjoy Hades one, so will probably add that one to my library.

 

[Sception]

If you've overlooked indie games in the past, then now is a great time to go back and check out what you've missed.

Partially because the past gen has seen an absolute explosion of indie development, to the point that it's almost a problem. There are so many indies out there that even great games can have a hard time standing out from the crowd. Despite the fact that there are more and better indie games now than ever before, the indie dev industry is struggling. Many talented young devs & promising new studios are failing because there just aren't enough players out there to play all those fantastic games.

To say nothing of how competition plus the distorted realities of the digital matket have pushed indie prices way, way down. The breakthrough hits that sell millions of copies can be wildly profitable at shockingly low prices. Most indies, rehardless of quality, will never break through that way, only selling a few thousand or even a few hundred copies, and fail to make back their dev budget at the low prices they're forced to adopt to compete with the breakthrough hits. It's a problem in the market, but at least it's one that plays to the advantage of consumers.

A problem that doesn't serve anyone but grifters is the mountain of indie garbage & cheap asset flips, a problem that ai will only make worse and not better going forward. This makes it even harder for newer indies to break through while making consumers reluctant to take a chance on an unknown title. Finding a trusted reviewer who matches your tastes & seeking out recommendations is important. But the effort is worth it, because there are a ton of great experiences to enjoy at fantastic bargain prices in the indie space.

....

In contrast, and the other big reason to get into indie games, the mainstream AAA gaming industry is in a terrible place. For over a decade now big publishers have been buying up studios then forcing them to chase terrible market trends from crypto to live service to ai, while firing the experienced developers responsible for beloved franchises and replacing them with desperate, underpayed, overworked devs who can be bullied into cramming those franchises full of exploitative new monetization gimmicks - devs who can then be blamed & laid off en masse when a new installments fail - or laid off anyway for a short term skock bump even when a game succeeds.

Even Nintendo, a very small-c conservative corporation that, for all its other faults, had been blessedly behind the times on a lot of this BS, is now pushing subscriptions and shilling paid dlc for games that aren't even out yet, and that's not even getting into how gross some of their mobile games are. It's honestly sad to see.

There are still good AAA games, Cyberpunk & Elden Ring are on my recommendations list after all, but even the better of these often launch in a really bad state, and it's a gamble whether a given game will ever be fixed via post launch patches, or how much extra you might eventually be charged for content that the base game was missing. Some AAA games are even made worse after launch, for instance when games are patched to add in exploitative monetization systems only after the game has been reviewed & rated without them.

So for big budget, big studio games IMO it's not even enough to just wait for reviews on releaze, you often have to wait a good 3 to 6 months at least for the hype cycle to die down & post release patches & dlc to be applied to have any sense of whether a game is worth the asking price, especially since the asking price keeps getting higher and higher.

Even for games that are eventually good, the amount of that experience that comes from post release content often means previous installments are the better games until long, long after the new installment's release.

Mario Kart World might ~eventually~ be a better game than Mario Kart 8 deluxe, but right now 8d just has so, so much more content thanks to multiple rounds of dlc expansion that World will take years to catch up to.

Long rant short, the enshittification cycle that has plagued the wider tech industry has NOT skipped over video games. If anything, mainstream gaming has been leading the charge down the drain.

But yeah, there are still passionate and talented devs making quality games untarnished by the prevailing pressure to charge more and more for less and less, and most of them these days are found in the indie space. The long list of games to try in my previous comment really was only scratching the surface.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

I totally agree with you Sception - I've experienced this with a game I've loved for the past 11 years - Destiny. It's had its ups and downs but it's currently going through it's worse state, bleeding it's player base with most of it down to pure shitty decisions by Bungie leadership. Making the power grind so hard and boring that players feel like it's another job, instead of release great new outfits on expansions as normal (and actually initially promoting it), then just including an old armour that is pallet swapped and putting the new armour as a in game purchase. They've lost of lot of faith with players and I've stopped playing it for the time being.


On the Indie front, yes for someone like me who's not got that much time to be researching, it's hard to know what's worth picking up and not, it's so oversaturated, so I send up just not bothering and then waiting for the repeated titles that I love (like Metroid, Zelda etc) to come out

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

Finished Metroid Prime Remastered, onto Metroid Dread! Very much looking forward to Metroid Prime 4 in Dec

 

[Sception]

I hope you like Dread!

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

Liking it so far, although got stuck a few times and took some figuring out where to go next. Graphics and gamplay is brill. The anxiety build up with the EMMI's is really well done as well.

 

[Sception]

Glad to hear it! Getting stuck a few times is all part of the metroidvania experience, but I think dread does a pretty good job of shepherding the player towards progression - often closing areas behind you as new ones open up in order to keep the explore-able area manageable through the early and mid game, or putting enemies near breakable walls or ceilings to make it more likely the player will shoot them and realize there's a path to get through. And while this can feel a bit restrictive on a first play through, there's also lots of clever ways deliberately built in by the devs to jump the guide rails and sequence break which keep replay value high.

And yeah, the game play especially is fantastic. Samus has never felt so good - fast and agile but still with a tangible weight to her. I love super metroid, it's still my favorite in the series for its atmosphere and world design, but Samus's jumping physics in that game can feel like trying to throw an empty plastic bag. It's just hard to go back to that after playing Dread. Really remarkable for a team coming straight from the metroid 2 remake on 3ds, which had a frustrating 'stop and go' kind of experience due to the way 360 degree aiming and the melee counter introduced in that game lock you in place. Dread lets you do both without stopping, which completely changes how the game feels and makes everything so much more fluid.

 

[Unas the slayer]

Sadly i have too little time to play such games.
The last one i managed to play was Detroit: become human

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

I'm drawing to the close on Metroid Dread, just need to beat the final boss. I think this has become one of my most enjoyed and highly rated games. Considering I started with Metroid on the Prime series so I was never sure if I'd like the 2D version, but this was so slick and well done. Fun exploration and a difficulty level that was genuinely challenging without really getting too frustrating. Brill graphics, and a decent story line as well. They also did a great job of making the EMMI's giving that feeling of dread.

The only thing I find fustrating was trying to do mid-air shinesparks, and some of the upgrade puzzles took me many many attempts, but I finally managed to get 100%! That's also another callout for the game, generally I'm not bothered about 100%-ing games because I can't be bothered having to spend hours to find everything, but Dread does that really well, making it clear where something is still hidden or upgrades remain.

So yeah, if you've not played it, give it a go! Apart from finishing this boss, I'm now eagerly awaiting Metroid Prime 4, couple of weeks to go! There will also be a new season for Destiny released which I'll dip into, but so far it's still sadly on the decline