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What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?
What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.
I'm enjoying my time in World of Warcraft Classic. I was very anxious to play this game since at least last November. I literally dreamed (during my sleep) about playing it. My new desktop computer was partly acquired just to play WoW.
The first time I played WoW the main game was in the Cataclysm expansion. I was taken under the wing of my friend's guild and went through magical moments with them. Because I was in a guild, my progress in the game was fast. I skipped a lot of content in the interest of quickly getting to the level of everyone else and gaining access to the endgame. While fun, this robbed me of the experience of understanding the lore and creating an emotional connection to the game's evolution, as my guild-mates could in their time. So WoW Classic (which is currently in the Wrath of the Lich King era) is in part a new experience for me.
I created a troll Mage on the same PvP server that my (other) friend is playing. I never played in a PvP server before, but if that means that I'll get his assistance and companionship then I am fine. There is some challenge since regular mobs can kill me easily if I'm careless, but overall the experience of playing without rush is highly meditative. The music is enchanting and mysterious. I haven't been to a big city yet. I'm taking my time.
I'm not sure if Classic looks exactly the same as the game was back then, but it is beautiful. Blizzard popularized the "simple yet charming" look, and it works to this day. The game does not feel dated, I would enjoy such a style even on something recent. Classic's world is inviting, I'm drawn to it. It is a place where I can imagine myself living.
I'm anxious to see more of this pre-Cataclysm world since most of my time in the game took place when Azeroth was in shambles. It will be nice to know its glory.
Classic doesn't have many of the amenities of current games. When you get a quest, the destination is not marked on the map. For a while, I enjoyed just going around without direction mapping the world myself. I think that's great and immersive, but I'm not 14 (or 20... or 30...) anymore. I can only give a game a limited amount of time. So I got the "Questie" addon, which adds quest marks to the map. The game also has trainers (like MUDs), so instead of magically gaining skills, you go to trainers and pay money for lessons. I like that.
There's a distinct MUD feel to WoW Classic that kind of makes me wanna play a MUD, in the same way that playing MUDs made wanna play WoW.
I kind of wanna try EverQuest and Ultima Online, but that will require some preparation since those are not simple games.
If you play WoW Classic, send me a message. Maybe we can meet over there ;)
UPDATE: I saw Orgrimmar. It's nowhere nearly as cool as it was on Cataclysm. My Orgrimmar was a supersized industrial-like monstrosity of power and aggression. This Orgrimmar is more of a lightly urbanized encampment. There's nothing wrong with it. It's fine. But it's not METAL :(
Yes, Cataclysm has one fan
My spoiler-laden Pentiment ramble didn't convince anyone else to play yet? Sadness.
Escape Goat 2 was yet another game from kfwyre's giveaway. Gone through most of those now! I didn't 100% Escape Goat 2; it was more of a 90% deal maybe (it has 121 levels, I think). Like the original Escape Goat it's a puzzle platformer in which you control a goat and have to clear single screen tile-based platforming puzzles.
At its core, EG2 is a fun game with fun mechanics. The difficulty curve is so uneven, though! It starts with a lot of levels I considered very easy. And ends with some insanely difficult stuff. I disliked the later levels' over-reliance on extremely precise timing puzzles, since those are difficult for me and it doesn't feel rewarding to keep trying something over and over when I already know the solution... No wonder if you look the game up online it's mostly speedrunners playing it. There are also a bunch of levels with one time mechanics, which gets in the way of actual puzzle solving, because the previous levels never properly prepare you for those. Like, why is there one level with darkness? Finding the entrances to the secret levels is also annoying. They're just invisible, so you have to sniff around adjacent levels and hope you hit the jackpot.
Young Souls is a pretty solid beat-em-up in which a single player (or couch co-op) controls a tag-team pair of teenaged twin siblings trying to save their adoptive father from the goblin civilization that exists below their town. It has fun, satisfying mechanics, a good, consistent art style and both the kids and the goblins have personalities and consciences. It's unfortunate that it seems to have been abandoned by its developers and many bugs and minor issues were never solved, preventing it from reaching its true potential. (I still 100%ed it.)
Got the winged golden strawberry in Celeste, probably one of my proudest gaming achievements to date. Now working on getting the rest of the golden strawberries; I have about half the A-side berries and almost all the C-side berries. B-side berries are a bit more difficult to get as they're more technically complex levels like C-sides, while still being really long like A-sides.
That's insane! Congrats on the golden winged strawberry! I might have to reinstall to give that a shot. No-death runs are not for me, so I noped out of the golden strawberries after chapter 1, but I didn't realize there was this puzzleish one that's not actually no-death.
So yeah, bragging time now that I also beat Celeste as in 100% achievements. I was incredibly proud of myself for that, it gets insanely hard. I was exhausted after the final chapter (didn't know that was a DLC going in, the length of that was sure a rude awakening), and the C-Sides, and I really can't imagine going for the golden strawberries, that's another level of dedication.
I've also 100% Celeste achievements-wise, and its really something to take pride in I think. Personally I found doing the golden strawberries for the C-sides the most fun, given how short the sections are. If you're interested in doing winged golden, this is the guide I used explaining the spike jumps required to beat the level.
I just (~4-5 hours ago as of writing) finished Persona 5: Royal. All I can say is, wow.
My previous run I talked about somewhere here before died of me being massively underleveled near the end of the vanilla story.
So, I re-started a couple times, and this time had a run that went beyond the worst boss in the entire game, and while I had that going on I decided to do the requirements for the Royal-exclusive story as well.
It didn't "hit" as hard as it could because I already spoiled myself on it, but it still holds up well. Especially saying all your goodbyes to everyone before leaving, after being invested in the game for ~3 months.
It's sad, a fair few of these characters I won't see anymore (maybe aside from NG+, if I end up doing that), even in Strikers, if it ever comes to Game Pass.
Well, for now I still have P3P and P4G to go though. I'm not sure what I'll do if/when I get through them as well.