While we here at Operation Rainfall love covering the latest in gaming news and sharing our reviews of titles new and classic, we also just enjoy playing games in our downtime. So with that, sit back, relax, and check out what the oprainfall gaming crew have been up to this week!
After beating Jake’s campaign last week, my sister and I started Chris’ route in Resident Evil 6, with her playing Chris and myself playing Piers. I have to say I really like the commitment RE6 makes to having every campaign feel different. The prologue with Leon felt very different from the explosive set pieces of Jake’s, which felt completely different from Chris’ more cover-based team shooter. Only Leon’s bit so far has felt like a Resident Evil (we purposely kept his route for after Jake and Chris), but I’m still enjoying Chris’ part. Piers is a great addition to the whole RE cast, even if I think Capt Redfield’s personality shifts are eye-roll worthy. Also Ada wearing blue? No thanks! Red or bust, baby. I was particularly tickled when the game went out of its way to let us play on a playground, and the sight of fully geared soldiers crawling around a jungle gym is honestly one of the best moments this game has provided. I also give it points for at least attempting to address issues like PTSD with Chris, but it just sort of gives up on it halfway through so it’s not a lot of points.
Gameplay-wise, I’m still underwhelmed by the sound design and impact of almost every weapon and attack. Shotguns feel anemic, any melee outside Jake’s is a wimpy punch or kick despite the animation, and vehicles are still horrific to control. On the other hand, Piers’ sniper rifle is legitimately awesome and I love using it whenever and wherever possible. Not only does its infrared mode look cool, it packs a wallop and has an incredibly satisfying sound, feel and look when enemies basically explode the moment the shell hits. Exquisite, I love it, A++ weapon. Everything else sucks, but you know, I’ll take what I can get. Also I forgot to mention this last week, but for a game built around co-op, I have never played something so hostile to actually inviting a friend to play with you. Not only is the invite a friend option hidden inside about three layers of “start game,” the button prompt is tucked away at the bottom of the screen after you choose which character you’re going to play as. We’ve had multiple sessions playing so far and I still think I missed the prompt to invite my sister to our session. It’s horrible and I do not understand how it ever made it through to the final build.
So other than killing bioterrorists, I finally bit the bullet and gave Mahjong Soul a try. It’s a nice way to spend an hour or so a day and hits that itch for when I want to play mahjong but don’t want to boot up Final Fantasy XIV to play its Doman Mahjong. Other than the daily One Han City tournament, I haven’t bothered engaging much with the crossover events or anything else, but as a distraction I can’t complain at all. The character designs are great and I like the overall presentation. I also gave Last Cloudia a try since it has a crossover event with Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean The Second Story R, and I’m a sucker for Star Ocean. It’s a decent little sprite-based RPG with some charming character designs and surprisingly good music. The story is nothing to write home about, but it feels very old school PS1 RPG and that has its own appeal. I have not felt the need to engage with either Mahjong Soul nor Last Cloudia‘s gacha aspects and neither feels less of a game for eschewing that entire aspect, so I guess I give them both points for that. Either way, I’m having fun with both at the moment. – Leah
I also played Mahjong Soul this past week. Well it’s normal for me to be randomly playing Mahjong Soul whenever. Recently I’ve been working my way through the latest event. I finally managed to unlock my first title, the new Hand of Meow event title. But also, last week there was a Phase Connect Mahjong Soul community tournament going on which I entered. I don’t really follow any VTuber groups but I find myself interested in joining casual and easy to join and participate tournaments like this, my last and first one being the Riichi City Whale Cup back in March. Anyways, after participating in the Phase Connect tournament I’ve realized my luck flies out the window and leaves the building every time I’m in a tournament. I know I’m not a terrible mahjong player, I’m a pretty halfway decent amateur these days. I’m actually getting close to ranking up in Mahjong Soul to Adept 3*. I’m just over 700 out of 800 points and trying to hold on and hover around 700 until I finally hit 800 and rank up. But for some reason, every time, well the two times in a row now, I enter a tournament, I can’t seem to catch a break.
Most of my losses in this tournament weren’t even that bad, it was simply me not getting my winning tile before other people got theirs and ending up in 3rd, or just barely in 4th. Various matches I even managed to stay in 2nd. But I simply couldn’t get two quality wins in a row to save my life. I got one really decent win where I had over 50,000 points by the end of the match. But then in other matches, I also had two different four concealed triplets yakuman hands at tenpai, both of which failed. The first one, yet again, someone else simply got their winning tile before I could get mine. The second one, while in riichi I was forced to auto deal-in to someone else’s win and once again, was unable to complete my yakuman. It’s really discouraging entering multiple tournaments and having the same horrendous luck and zero chance at winning, every single time. By the end of the tournament, I had gone through 39 matches and my best two scores in a row together only added up to 61 tournament points which wasn’t even close to good enough.
In addition to Mahjong Soul, I also continued making progress in Harvestella. I’m not much further than where I left off previously however. I managed to finish the last Seaslight situation and finished Chapter 3. Before I moved on to Chapter 4, I did a few leftover quests and things and then I found myself finally in the next chapter. At the start of the chapter, you temporarily lose Aria for a short time and yes, it does seem that Castle Lewis was the next place I’d be going in the story. That’s all I can say though, so as to avoid spoiling things for anyone who hasn’t played but may still be interested. I’m not very far into Chapter 4 but I’ve made a good amount of progress in the latest dungeon and am continuing to grow crops as I try to make money and complete quests and whatnot. – Jenae
What games have you been playing this week? Let us know in the comments!
You can read previous Week in Gaming entries here!
