[James]

Earlier in the thread I listed all the PS Vita games I was looking forward to playing on vacation. So now that I'm on my way home, which of them got the most play time?

The answer: none of them. Instead, I got hooked on a game I'd recently downloaded on a whim because, on first impressions, it looked like a new take on the cruelly forgotten Marko's Magic Football, a unique Mega Drive platformer.

But Tennis in the Face is far more of a puzzle game, as your character is rooted to the spot and must carefully aim and ricochet up to three tennis balls to wipe out all the enemies in their own fixed positions around the single-screen 2D levels.

The first few sections are, as you would expect, relatively easy to pass, and the challenge came from replaying them to rack up the bonuses for clearing each stage with the minimum possible number of shots (usually one). But towards the end it becomes taxing enough to just get by, bonuses be damned.

Like all good puzzle games, the "one more go" factor is strong, and although you don't have to complete every stage before advancing to the next section, the satisfaction of doing so was too much for me to pass up.

It does have a bug that occasionally causes your next shot to be fired without your say-so, which can be a frustrating waste of a ball, but it's rare enough not to spoil an otherwise excellent game.

As well as the Vita it's also available for PS3, PS4, PC, iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone, and the mighty Ouya. Give it a shot.

[jameswalker85]

Soon, I shall be playing Super Mario Maker. I just won the game + amiibo + artbook set.

[James]

You jammy sod.

[jameswalker85]

I know. Gameseek are awesome. I just bought Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection from them as a way of saying thank you.

[Giorgio]

Been playing Omikron: The Nomad Soul. I've 13 hours of play, so far. I'm playing it for the first time, and it's already one of the best games I've ever played. Minus, of course, some nuisances. First of all, the shooting events. They are atrocious. Even though I'm getting used to them, they are fairly unpleasant. Secondly, the jumping controls; especially the fact that the devs are punish you so hard for not implementing the way they have intended the jumping in platforms with gaps. Thirdly, the saving; at least, at the very first hours of playing, because later it's easier to save (you need currency and it's limited).

Today I blow up a bridge. There were two ways to do it. One was to mind/soul control a guard. Another was to climb and get in the enemy territory and shoot down all moving robots. I chose the second way, because I didn't want to potentially lose the character I was currently controlling.

Another game I've been playing is Jade Empire. I had different expectations for it, but it ended up being a Bethesda-esque game. It's good, but not one to label as favourite. It has a lot of filler game-play that, it will hook you for hours playing, but at the end it leaves an empty and bland taste.

[James]

Loving that you're loving Omikron, Giorgio, even with the expected reservations. The action's far from perfect but it's one of my all-time favorite games as well.

I'm currently playing Yakuza 5 and hating Saejima's section so far, but I enjoyed the previous section with Kazuma and have high hopes for the rest of the game. Except perhaps for one section that I anticipate being rather kareoke-focused...

[Giorgio]

Loving that you're loving Omikron, Giorgio, even with the expected reservations. The action's far from perfect but it's one of my all-time favorite games as well.

Thank you, James, for the recommendation. By the way, it is currently -75% (2,49€) on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/243000/

[Shenmue Stare]

I'm on Seajima's section, too, and it does kind of crawl, but i do enjoy the whole story time thing they have going with Kimura. Reminds me of being locked up as a kid. We would do shit like that. Still gotta play Omikron.

[Giorgio]

Still gotta play Omikron.

No brudda should be left aint played Omikron: Da Nomad Soul.

[Shenmue Stare]

Oh, i know it. The backlog is long, haha.

[Giorgio]

I've been playing Lifeline on my Android phone. I downloaded it for free (while it was) from the Amazon Underground app. It's a choose-your-own-adventure ...game. [I don't believe you can call it a game. It has interactivity, but can't say it's a game like you can call e.g. Chess a game.] It's a unique experience. (Not in the virtual sense, though. You don't live in a world.) The story is about an astronaut that the ship he was on got crashed in an unknown moon. That imaginative person is a very self-imposed timid and passive one. He tries to communicate with someone out there, in a desperate hope to call for help. A specific help, just tell him what to do. He will rarely disobey you. [It's interesting how in other games you don't feel that about the avatar. I can't call it your avatar in this context, because it tries to talk with you, rather than you to it).

This is all a make-believe situation (our subconscious is very capable on performing this task). However. It was the first time I interact with an avatar and the story that way, that is from a different perspective. Sometimes, he is very chattery. His talking style screams some very hippie and nerdy stereotypes and a subtle humour of puns. The experience of interacting with it (again, I do not talk about the genre of interactive experience when it comes to entertainment) is like visiting social media. You open your (web) app to check what is new and sometimes reply to those messages. It gave me a sense of understanding about the nature of social media (or how I've experienced them in the past). Only this time, you direct a person in actions to happen in their world. Also, his future depends upon your directions. Indeed, it has the usual good-ending/bad-ending scheme as found in other interactive stories.

Furthermore, the events of the story are very time-based, literally. Most of the times, when you give him a direction/suggestion, he will get to the action and an indicator will tell you that he is, in fact, busy. Then, you let the app run on the background, that is in a silent mode. After a period of time (it could be e.g. from 10 seconds to 2+ hours), you see a notification on your phone that, he's at it again, informing you what has happened after he acted upon your suggestion. And, thus, the story is revealed gradually, in a sense naturally, that way. Again, it is very reminiscent to the nature of the social media (you have a notification, that something new happened). As the days go on (it took me 3 days of non-continuous interaction to finish a path/branch of the story), you become to feel familiar with the avatar, like you have a new person to talk with (only that most of the share of thoughts is done by him). After you finish the story, you have a sense that you helped a stranger save his life or meet his doomed fate, and that you will never talk with that person again (an eternal goodbye).

By the way, 150 rads will do you no harm...