Returnal

I've seen disc copies going on eBay for around the £40 mark. Well worth it for that price. The controls are just so tight and satisfying once you get into the groove. My GOTY, no question.

Keep moving and be aggressive. Don't forget your melee.

Don't get too hung up on dying. It's designed that way. Just go straight back in for another run.

Im not much of a bumper jumper, either but since you use dash equally as much as jump, youre fingers are usually hanging around the face buttons anyway so I dont think its a big deal.

But, yes, do turn on autosprint.

Went back to trying to defeat Nemesis. My session a couple of nights ago went much the same as my previous ones, although I was now confident in clearing phase 1 without taking a hit and could avoid all attacks in phase 2, albeit not 100% of the time. Phase 3 I just couldn't get to grips with and it was taking me so long to grind through biome 1, as well as regularly dying on route to the Nemesis, that it remained quite frustrating.

Last night felt as if it was going to go much the same way. I even had one moment in which I had a malfunction right at the start that prevented me from increasing proficiency. The only fix for it was to pick up 1 parasite. I had to go pretty much all the way through the biome before I could find even 1 parasite (it was in the secret room with lots of purple plant things).

My first battle with Nemesis showed that the rocket launcher was great against phase 1 and 2, but I didn't get much out of it in the last phase. I also struggled still to really get a feel for the correct way to tackle this phase. I was generally just pushing forward on the platforms, but once I got close it was really hard to avoid the attacks. It was only right at the end that I worked out that sometimes it was good to not be on a platform.

On my second fight with him in the evening I started to use that knowledge from the start and I was actually whittling him done quite effectively. I took quite a few hits though and was low on health. I landed the killing blow, just as he landed one one me...

Good thing I had the astronaut figurine or I would have been really pissed!

So, finally able to make progress now and feel like I can get back to actually enjoying the game.

Got my bro this for Christmas. Been watching h play a fair bit. He's loving it. Looking forward to getting my hands on it further down the line. The atmosphere looks great!

Finished this today and now just mopping up secrets. But wow, this game just keeps giving, It’s still throwing new items and situations at me. Hands down best PS5 for me, and you really do get out what you put in.

Made it to the third biome on this (feels like I’ve been going a while but to be fair I didn’t get much chance to play it over Christmas as it’s not the sort of game that lends itself to short bursts).

The 2nd Biome boss wasn’t too bad at all and went down first try (well, with an Astronaut but I think that still counts). I thought the actual getting there was often harder than the boss himself. The bosses do give me that Souls-like sense of exhilaration when they go down. A sort of joy-mixed-with-relief feeling that’s really special.

I had an interesting Parasite that healed me on Obolite collection, but prevented me using the Green health pickups. I think it worked pretty well and definitely promoted a “get stuck in there” attitude to the combat.

The third Biome is quite cool. I sadly got killed by a big Astronaut robot thing, but so far those have been the only really challenging enemy I’ve encountered.

Turned off after that, but I am now looking forward to going back to Biome 1 with the new toy you get from the second boss and see where I can explore!

Those things are a easy if you just rush and melee them.

The suicide bombing tie fighters with the homing rockets are hands down the biggest cunts in the game.

Man, as much as I’ve enjoyed this I’m finding the end-game a real chore.

I reached Biome 6 a couple of times but stopped playing after that. Gone back to it a few times but it's not the sort of game I can jump in and out of because it feels like playing it for the first time again after a break.
It's a game you have to play constantly but it's too frustrating for me to play a lot of.

As far as I can tell, I can't melee yet, unless I'm missing something obvious!

Cheers, yeah got it on my next run and encountered the first boss. Gradual Progress.