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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 still rambling through Tears of the Kingdom, and I'm totally loving it. I've finally gotten into the rhythm of fusing my weapons, and using the zonai devices. I'm not very proficient at building stuff yet, though. I've been focused on unlocking all of the geoglyph memories, as the story is gripping me way more than Breath of the Wild's did. That said, I've unlocked them all and there are still gaps in my compendium, so I assume there are more to unlock in other ways.
I'm not crazy keen on the way the Sage abilities are implemented, just because their spirits either seem to always be in the way or always far away from where you need them. It's a cool idea, and I like having companions to do the dungeons with, but I much preferred the way that BotW handled the special powers overall.
Still, I haven't been this hooked on a (non-RTS) video game for absolutely years, and it's a great feeling. In fact, I think I'm going to fire up the switch right now.
TotK is all I've been playing since it came out. I'm loving it too, but I'm not getting the same sense of exploration that I did with BotW. For example, getting all of the Shiekah towers was a pretty big multi-day undertaking for me and felt extremely satisfying to finally complete in BotW; in comparison, the sky towers in TotK I had done within the first few hours and it felt like the whole surface map was pretty much open to me at that point.
I think the depths might have scratched that itch a bit more, if only they weren't so darn scary.
Honestly, I found the depths kind of disappointing so far. Once you get in the groove of exploring them and have a big supply of sundelion food and brightbloom seeds, it really takes away from how scary the depths are early game.
I honestly kind of like it conceptually; especially if you know the overworld from the previous game, lighting the depths is the most distinct representation of your growing mastery over the world.
But mechanically, it's a little dull. Once you've lit it up, there's little reason to ever return to somewhere you've been unless you want to mine some zonite or stock up on poe.
The sages are a little irksome; since they can be summoned and desummoned instantly something I've found helpful is disabling the ones I don't feel are useful in the current situation. Sometimes it's helpful to have a full squad to distract lots of smaller enemies, but since they each take up space I often prefer to only have the ones whose abilities I'm actively interested in.
Except for the Sage of Wind. VIP Sage, never leave home without him, even as the combat potential of his ability is low.
I can't count the number of times I tried to do an electric bow attack and ended up creating a warm breeze instead. Honestly found that to be my number one complaint about the already very complicated controls.
Also when everyone's out the larger helpers always seem to be faffing about somewhere off screen behind you.
Just last night I had painstakingly raised a korok up to his travelling companion only to accidentally summon a wind, blowing him back down to where he started.
That's one reason out of many why I decided early on to skip all of those koroks.
But on that note, I'm pretty sure that "players keep dropping things" is the real reason why they decided to put the Reverse ability into the game. Note that it's the only ability you get that lets you do anything while time is stopped, and it has a pretty long range.
TotK is such a large game that I have to take it in pieces or risk getting completely sucked in
This is what I'm playing as well. I'm an old gamer (nearly 50) and have a strong affinity for the Zelda franchise originating after playing the NES LoZ and sharing secrets and discoveries at the Middle School lunch table. BotW was a revelation. The atmosphere, desolate and lonely; the chemistry/physics system; seemingly infinitely adaptable; the soundtrack; minimalist and haunting... TotK is similar, but almost overwhelmingly... busy. That's not a complaint, just a comment. In fact, I can't wait to return this afternoon. I'm about 40 hours in and feel like I've only just scratched the surface of what the game has to offer.
How far have you explored the depths?
I don't want to give too much away, but there's something down there that will help you make those zonai devices much less frustrating to put together. I would actually try to finish exploring the whole thing before you finish the game.
It's pretty scary down in the depths, lol! That said, my Link is a lot stronger now than the first time I went downstairs, and I'm a lot more confident with combat and such, so maybe I'll spend some more time in the depths. I do have a lot of crosses from old maps to go and visit...
For the thing Akir is talking about, make sure you check in with Josha of you haven't yet. Her quest should help you!
Oh yeah, I found it on Friday evening and it has helped a whole bunch. I've been experimenting with trying to build some efficient flying machines for getting about more quickly, but haven't come up with anything good yet. I don't really want to turn to the Internet for suggestions, but I may need to!
I agree with all of this. The game is great, it's a great follow up to BOTW, the story is phenomenal... my only real complaint is the play pattern of the sages. Riju in particular gives you benefits at range, but herself is melee, meaning you have to leave her ideal usage zone in order to actually use her.
That's fairly minor as far as "my only complaint"s go.
I also got into speedrunning it which has been very fun so far. Unfortunately the patches make it more complicated than it has to be. I've been running Master Sword RTA on v1.1.1, but my route simply does not work on v1.1.2 because of a glitch that was patched. Accessing old versions is difficult and creates a barrier to entry for new runners :(
If you like rts, are you excited for stormgate and/or sanctuary?
Neither of these are on my radar actually, but I'll do some googling! I'm keen to give Dune: Spice Wars a go, as I really enjoyed Northgard, but I want to wait until it's out of EA.
Riju's power annoyed me so much because of how it has to charge up before what you want to hit is in range for her lightning. The other powers had a very instant activate to use immediately kinda vibe, but with her's you had to spend way too much time kiting around so BOTH you and her aren't hit or else you're just wasting time since it can also time out after a while.
I'm really liking the game but man her power really made me grumpy, especailly during the fire temple boss fight and trying to use her power against the Gibdo spawns while dodging all the Gibdo trying to gank you
Gibdo strat
In fairness, a halfway decent bow and yellow chu-chu jelly takes them out in one hit as well, and saves having to charge up her attack.
Yeah, I found the fire sage more useful against gibdos than Riju ever was. It's so much faster to use and aim, and between the explosion where he strikes and the flames to either side of his path, he takes much less attention to use effectively in combat.
Amusingly, Riju's a much better mining assistant for those destructible walls, since the lightning strike hits a much larger area and the wall won't dodge an arrow.
You won't find a better game than Outer Wilds. I beat it months ago, and just want to play it again for the first time. I've been trying to find similar games, but nothing lives up. I only hope they eventually revisit the world and put together a sequel sometime, someday. Please.
The Amnesia: Bunker demo was rad - I never got into the original, never liked how basic hide-and-seek it was, but I love how they're incorporating more concrete survival horror gameplay into this one. I hope it gets good marks, I'll be there day one.
And I'm currently banging my head against Baba Is You. I haven't encountered another puzzle game that makes things feel so impossible, until they aren't. I don't know if I'll be able to beat it...sometimes I feel like a genius, sometimes I feel like an idiot...but I'm inching my way through. Love how unique and charming it is.
Baba is great, and also very difficult. IMO it's just on the edge of being beatable without help.
I keep seeing outer wilds recommendations... Maybe time to try it!
It's a game about exploration, peril, and wonder. If you like the idea of forging out into a vast, dangerous world to investigate a mystery, with minimal hand holding but a solid system of keeping track of what you've uncovered, it's worth whatever price it is right now.
Small recommendation for anyone thinking of trying Outer Wilds - I recommend getting the DLC after you beat the game. It's an amazing new section to explore, but I felt like it added a bit too much to the main game and screwed with its pacing. I wish I had beaten the game, and then gotten the DLC when I was in the mood for another adventure.
I strongly suggest that you resist the temptation to consult walkthroughs while playing Outer Wilds.
I would not call myself inexperienced when it comes to puzzle games (they're how I got into gaming as a kid!) but Baba is You has been consistently very challenging for me past the early parts. That said, it's so satisfying when you get it. I highly recommend Baba is Hint for those who want a way to be nudged in the right direction but still have a chance to solve it yourself.
I'm saddened how solitary an experience Outer Wilds is. Not just the play experience, but sharing the experience with others. The world is so overflowing with attention harvesting dopamine loops that it for me, it's been super tricky to actually convince someone else to invest the time and energy into such a slow, but satisfying burn like Outer Wilds. It's a game that captures the feeling of reading a really good novel.
I'm lucky that my brother randomly started playing it soon after I did, which introduced another problem - how do you talk about the damn thing without spoiling it for each other? Those were entertaining conversations - dropping hints, feeling out what we've seen so far. And then of course once it was over, just gushing and pouring over everything. Good times.
When it comes to the game itself, while I agree the thrills come slower than a game of Clash Royale, one thing I love is that Outer Wilds isn't a safe, static, adventure game world. You're often in overt danger, and always have the background threat in mind. It's actually a pretty exciting gameplay experience almost from the get-go, at least compared to other games like it. If the same (excellent) story were told in a walking simulator, for example, I'd consider that to be the novel version, and a much harder sell.
Outer Wilds is so fantastic. Unforgettable experience. It immediately made it onto my top 3 favorite games list. Loved the use of knowledge as a progression mechanic, and the ending made such an impact on me. Just hearing the main song is enough to get me emotional.
Baba Is You is super cool, loved what I played of it, but I'm just not smart enough to get very far!
A fellow Baba Is You player!!!!
I got into it only very recently so we can be new together :D I know there's a Baba Is Hint site, but if you are thoroughly enjoying the difficulty, hold off -- so rewarding when I finially finish a level!!
Also, Baba Is Cute. So Cute. Love Is Baba
Ahahaha, I just replied to you down there......
What are your thoughts on Tunic? It gave me a similar feeling of exploration and puzzle solving, and it was a pretty relaxing game. I loved it.
I got about an hour in, I think my major issue was the combat being pretty simplistic and easy, and nothing else really grabbing me about it. It felt like a very very light soulslike, and I think Hollow Knight might've grabbed me away. But people seem to like it! Do you think I should give it another shot at some point?
I think it's worth a shot. You're right that the combat is simple, but that's not the main draw. In fact, they actually released an update with an even easier option for combat difficulty.
The main focus IMO is exploration and puzzle solving. I liked the clever mechanic of using manual pages as collectibles to drip-feed info to players, and the constructed language made it a lot of fun to try and figure everything out (Apparently it has been translated, but I lack that dedication).
Take my opinion with a grain of salt, though. I like chill games, and difficult combat doesn't interest me. For comparison: I beat DS3 once just to say I did; I love Hollow Knight, but never even attempted the Godseeker content; I thought Ender Lilies and Death's Door were fantastic, but a little too hard for my taste, and I was struggling toward the end of both; right now I'm enjoying Spiritfarer. In any case, I hope this helps you decide if Tunic is worth your time and energy!
Yeah no, that helps a lot. I honestly didn't get far enough, it's nice to know there's more to it. And while I like my difficult games, it's not a requirement...Hyper Light Drifter wasn't too hard was it? That's one of my favs. I'll put Tunic back into the rotation.
Ooh, I hadn't heard of HLD. A quick google search looks promising, though. I'll add it to my wish list.
Good luck with Tunic!
There's some mysteries to figure out.
Very mild spoiler, no solutions
It has two endings, a straightforward fighty one and a true ending that's heavily exploration based. Keep your eyes peeled. *Really* pay close attention to stuff.Three days, 15 hours and no one has mentioned Dwarf Fortress and its amazing FUN! yet?
I'm mostly a casual gamer, for two reasons: (1) motion sickness, which eliminates many AAA titles and anything first person, and (2) because I have extremely poor hand-eye coordination, reflexes, and I lack the ability to notice subtle visual cues or even blatant, blinking UI features sometimes.
Other games I am currently enjoying*:
Ooblets: wholesome cuteness, quirky NPC dialogue, gentle game decisions and not terribly grindy. Best Pokemon title in my opinion, despite not having a single Pokemon in it.
Baba Is You and Monsters Expedition: being terrible at most games, puzzle games are my main jam. As a software person, Baba Is You offered probably one of the most satisfying gaming experiences I have ever had. I've not finished all the official levels yet, having only recently "beaten" the main portion.
Tales Of [something] and Disgaea: Japanese RPGs and tactical RPGs also fall into the "yes! I can actually play!" category. Favourites are Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Zestiria.
Pikmin: this is a tough kind of game for me, but my proudest accomplishment is completing Pikmin 3 Hard Mode with 0 Pikmin loss (ie, via resets and save scumming). Super psyched about this summer's pending Pikmin 4 release. I'm so there.
Also, rhythm games like Patapon, Crypt Of The Necro Dancer and Cadence Of Hyrule. So glad CoND finally released
"I suck at this very badly"No Beat Mode last year so that I can finally actually play the game. Switch had a free to play week for Cadence recently, and I finished the whole thing by staying up till 4am on the last day lol.So nice to see so many gamers here of all different types.
*enjoying : rapidly and inexplicably switching back and forth between
Give me a port in the storm that is Baba Is You.
I'm loving it, it's so charming and inventive, but like...I've never stared at a screen harder. Did you find yourself leaving levels behind, hoping to crack them after you have more experience, or do I just suck?
I'm not sure if I've ever had as strong AHA moments as this game. I said it elsewhere, but I've never felt more like a genius and an idiot at the exact same time.
same. I've never had a gaming experience that uses 110% of my brain capacity before. This must be how competitive gamers and speed runners feel.
Absolutely. Recently took a few weeks break, picked it up again and resolved three entire levels within a half hour. Absolutely let your brain work on it while you go on with life. I think that's why most levels have numbers that zig-zag and unlock unevenly.
I think perhaps, when I was a wee lass first learning C, there was a simliar level of "my entire world has changed and my brain is reformatting to update to this new paradigm of thought". Man, what a great rush.
How far along are you?
All great to hear. I'm popping in every few days, and yep, loving those moments where you go back and wonder what the problem ever was. The only programming I've done is in Dreams, but I'm grateful for that experience, and also it turns out, Zelda - the block puzzles are finally paying off.
So I think I'm starting 5 or 6 right now, but I have access to a couple further along too? I've definitely been worried about leaving a trail of groaners (that's when I load up an old level and groan), but it's good to hear that it worked out well for you. Honestly I'm usually not much of a puzzle game guy, but Baba is so inventive and clever, it's keeping me coming back.
nice~
yeah don't be afraid to skip around a bit : ) the difficulty landscape is extremely jagged, and some of the most notoriously difficult levels are sprinkled throughout rather than towards the end.
I did ask some of the veterans if all Baba levels are solvable without totally unfair strategies or if there are known bugs, and been assured that everything is solvable as it is on each map. It's very very well crafted.
I also found that playing on mobile is easier for me: swiping YOU in a certain direction using one finger, instead of using keyboard and mouse with two hands. Fewer hardware things (eg limbs) my brain has to track = more cycles for the puzzle.
I really tried to get into Dwarf Fortress a bunch but could just never do it. Even the new Steam release just doesn't feel intuitive enough and has way too steep of a learning curve for me to really feel it's worth dedicating a bunch of time to. So when I get that kind of itch, I play Rimworld instead. Less of a learning curve, but still tells great stories through colony management. And it has a scifi theme, which I generally prefer.
I played back in the day when it looked like you were hacking the matrix and it was basically impossible to play without a wiki open at the same time. I had a lot of fun but hadn't really looked at it in a while. I've been meaning to check out the new version.
Oxygen Not Included, is another game that feels like it was partly inspired by dwarf Fortress
Hey give DF a shot again if you have the time. :) Even if it's just to throw a bit of money at Toady and Zach.
I never played with the original ASCII but my husband did, and I loved seeing the tiny 'c' everywhere. He got me a graphics patch but even then it was wiki alt tab all day. You might be glad to know that the steam version still requires wiki for best avoidance of early FUN.
Ooh, I picked up ooblets on sale a while back. Maybe I'll give it a try when I'm done with Roots of Pacha! I'm quite fond of monster taming/critter collection games.
My favorite tales games are Tales of Symphonia and Tales of the Abyss. I did pick up a few newer tales games on a steam sale. I may look into your favorites if they were some of the ones I grabbed.
Thanks for the ideas!!
Ooblets just had a spring time event (May) only critter, so if you get into it at some point, and if you like it, remember to go on airplane mode, set clock to May, and try to nab 'em :D
One of the things I like the most about Ooblets is that your little fellas all follow in a line behind you with every step you take.
One does not "capture" wild Ooblets. They roam freely and dance with you, and if they lose a dance battle they give you a seed to plant. Then the wild ones wander away with their buddies. Which means all of your Ooblets are native to your farm and have always known this life.
Instead of being in some kind of existential limbo, raised Ooblets can hang out at your farm where they dance and water your crops, or one other happy cute wild place, AND you can recall them to your team whenever you want.
When you give NPCs gifts, if they don't want it they politely refuse the item instead of it going to waste and they like you more for trying, not angry and huffy for not reading minds. But 90% of the time it's them giving you stuff, not the other way around.
Little decisions like that, makes it a much more gentle world than Pokemon or even StarDewValley or Animal Crossing.
There's a lot of spoilers type things I like too :)
Tales of Phantasia is only available on an emulator, I'm afraid. But the English localization fan effort is well done. They say you never forget your first Tales title :) Symphonia is a great one. Haven't actually played Abyss! One day when I have more time.....
Ooh, I love the more peaceful way of collecting ooblets! Grow your own pets! Can you pat them? Either way the dancing sounds adorable!
I very much like that approach to gift giving. It encourages you to try things rather than just look it up so the character doesn't get mad at you. I also really like when characters give you stuff too so it isn't all one sided.
Ah, I'm glad someone turned it into a ROM at least. I'd like to learn to turn more of my owned games into ROMS just in case something happens to them but haven't had time to dig into each type to do so.
Definitely agreed on never having enough time for things. I'm glad we can both fit at least some games in!
[Professor Fawnsworth voice] Oh my, yes.
Wild ones as well as yours, you can always slow down a bit and pat them even if you've already got some and just passing by on the road to collecting furniture and whatnot. :)
I wish we could just simply trust digital caretakers to curate them forever, y'know. Steam isn't doing a too poor job but kind of fear what happens after Gabe goes. I know what you mean by wanting to turn them into ROMs
Hah, I pictured the professor saying that although in Futurama, the ooblets would probably be trying to eat the crew when they try to pet them. I'm glad the game is sweet.
I just love the concept of just running around and patting all of the ooblets, I may give it a try today rather than waiting to finish everything I want to in Roots of Pacha.
Agreed on digital caretakers. Older media gets rarer and harder to acquire, physical media degrades, systems break. Not everything gets ported and some games are lost to time. Game preservation is a whole topic in itself complete with ethics and copyright concerns. I at least think that users should at least be able to make backups of media they own. It seems to be a trend that companies want to sell licenses to use things and preferably a subscription so they get more money.
I worry about the day steam's philosophy changes as well. It's a big centralized go to for games and due to its sales and convenience, has a huge user base. I can imagine many ways it could go wrong so here's hoping it doesn't get worse.
I really wanted to enjoy ooblets, but the gameplay loop was not rewarding enough for me. Every time I discovered something new, I never could use it / access it and I really found that disappointing. For example, I unlock a new zone! Nice, that means progress! Here's a brand new ooblet, cool!! But you can't fight it until you get X of these these things you've never seen. By the time you grow/make/buy them, the ooblet isn't so new anymore. It was weird and I found myself not enjoying myself very much :(
I've been playing Magic - mostly EDH - and doing so using Tabletop Simulator. It's a bit clunky, but quite a bit of fun. @Streblo turned me on to MoxField and I've been adding the decks that I play to it, which was fortuitous, as the primary means of bringing decks into Tabletop Simulator is via a decklist tool, so it took 30 seconds to get up and running.
My brother is hosting the games; I think there's a fair amount of setup that he put into it, but it has been pretty much log in, immediately play for me, which has been great. We previously played some Gloomhaven on Tabletop Sim, and it was pretty good for that to.
Glad you're making use of it! It's a pretty good deck builder, definitely a level-up on previous tools.
How has Tabletop Simulator been? Is it tedious to resolve effects? I have played free magic on Cockatrice before, but mostly I play spell table these days.
I haven't been playing any magic in the past couple of weeks, but I did put together a new deck: turbofog landstill. No idea if it's any good, it needs some testing. Basically I love the card standstill and want to force it in EDH. The new Jolrael seems ideally suited to taking advantage of standstill so I thought I'd try and make it work. I'm not sure this deck gets there, it's going to struggle if it finds standstill later in the game but that's what the fogs are supposed to be for. Which also kind of reminded me of the old 2018 turbofog standard deck, hence the name. This deck (hopefully) wins the same way, eventually looping Nexus of Fate or Walk the Aeons and smacking everyone with lands.
Tabletop Simulator is just slightly more tedious to resolve as in-person paper magic, because it doesn't really give you many advantages. There are things that are a bit easier like searching your deck, as you don't have to look through all the cards, you can just type in what you are looking for. There are things that are more difficult, like quickly cascading; I found my cascade deck a bit painful to play. I found that for the most part, as I got comfortable with the mouse movements, it was just slightly slower in general than playing in paper. I also have a landfall deck that ends up playing a lot of lands, and I misplayed at one point by playing too many; luckily someone else was watching and called me on it, but there's no rules enforcement at all. Also I find it kind of rough on a Mac with a magic mouse. Oh, and one thing that you may specifically find annoying is that cards with multiple faces are a bit janky to deal with.
That looks like a fun deck! There are a couple of things in there that I think I might want to add to my loads-o-lands Omnath deck, so thanks for the ideas. Standstill is awesome, I hope that it works out as you anticipate.
If you haven’t already, I suggest checking out this table for TTS. It scripts a lot of stuff, including cascade, which makes life easier. To cascade on this table you just right click your deck and hit “cascade” then input a number and it does it for you.
I honestly prefer this table to IRL play
Thanks for the info! I'll check this one out!
Tabletop simulator is honestly kind of terrible on everything except a keyboard and mouse. And it better be a real mouse, not a trackpad or ball, or worse - a touchscreen.
Second best input is VR controllers, oddly enough.
Oh I should try it in VR. I almost have it working now though - I disabled some things such as scroll-to-turn things, and that has helped. I think I mostly need to set up / update some keybinds to make things just slightly better and then I'll be set.
But it is definitely clunky as heck.
I haven't heard of Moxfield but I am going to check it out! Some of my fondest memories were playing edh with friends on tabletop during the early pandemic!
Moxfield has all of the things that I want in a deckbuilder and no significant drawbacks thus far, and I've introduced several people in my playgroup to it as well. I was using TappedOut and a standalone app for most things before this, and this feels like an upgrade across the board. I especially like the "Primers" that you can write for each deck, because I'm old and forgetful and sometimes forget the specifics of decks, like "What is it I'm tutoring for?" or "what is the win condition?". For most of my decks, I do a little write-up and then that's enough to remind me how I expected to pilot the deck when I built it. I also like keeping track of changes, and while there's no changelog built in to Moxfield, you can use the primer as a changelog so you can remember what changes over time and why.
While I wish Moxfield had a diff feature with git style commits for change tracking, it's worth noting they do have a history browser for tracking individual card changes if you browse to 'More' - > 'View History'. It's not super useful, because if you remove a bunch of cards and replace them with a ton of cards from your considering list it generates way too many pages of changes to be of use. There's also no way to automatically revert to a previous state, you have to do it manually.
Ha, you nailed it, I just want git commits. I'm usually more interested in the "why" I'm making a change, because I used to find myself taking out cards from decks, then coming back to the deck months later and thinking "Oh, I should add [Card]" when that's a card I had already removed for a specific reason.
Ever since getting a steam deck, I keep coming back to Slay the Spire. It's so easy to play for a few minutes in between things. And there's endless content with mod support (currently working on ascensions in Downfall).
Something about deck builders draws me in. Finished inscryption as well and trying to get my partner to play across the obelisk with me.
I love Slay the Spire! It’s so much fun and it’s super easy to drop in and out of. I have it on several platforms so I can play it pretty much anywhere. I didn’t realize there were mods, I’ll have to check that out. Do you have any recommendations?
The one I'm currently hooked on is called Downfall. It introduces another playable character in the regular game mode, but also adds another mode called Downfall where the playable characters are regular mode enemies and fight your way down the tower. The bosses are the regular mode characters, with the 4th boss being Neow.
Downloading it through the workshop also requries BaseMod as well as StSLib, but Downfall has been popular enough that the mod creators made it a standalone download in addition to the workshop.
Try monster train, the only successor to stp that is perhaps even better.
Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is, still, my big one for the forseeable future.
I am re-learning the BOTW playstyle that is the cornerstone of these two entries and have found the game is 80% confidence against reasonably difficult enemies/world bosses and 20% strategizing a fight. I'm using the patience Elden Ring taught me to treat relatively overpowered enemies like bosses and get better gear to jump up the food chain, and it's working.
I even did some story, but like my last BOTW run I want to hit all the towers first, any shrines, and skill/equip up to tale on the story, and it's good fun. There are 16 towers apparently, twice the previous, but it works just fine.
I'm planning to work on Ocarina of Time: Master Quest as well, via Ship of Harkanian, a PC port of the engine. It's a great experience with the few minutes I played amd I'm planning to switch back and forth between these as I get bored with one. I also just really want to do Master Quest.
You're just going all in with Zelda huh? lol
I get it though. I'm a huge Zelda fan, too. Been playing Tears as much as possible since launch. And leading up to it, I also played a bit of BotW to refresh myself.
Ship of Harkanian is really cool. But I really wish they'd add Xbox or Switch Pro controller glyphs to the game. I want to play with a modern controller without the N64 controller glyphs on screen so I don't have to think about how to use items or play Ocarina songs while I'm doing it. This is why I've stuck with playing the 3DS version of OoT via the Citra emulator and doing some randomizers that way. I can connect a Pro Controller to my PC and it matches the controls on screen.
I figure if I temporarily burn out on one I can play the other, and I've never done Master Quest. heck, I've only ever finished OoT on 3DS as an adult, despite having it around in one form most of my life.
If it helps, on Ship of Harkinian, you can customize the location and color of every HUD element, which I used to rearrange the A/B/C buttons in the "ABXY diamond" shape, with a C button to the side for the right bumper. Then you can change the button colors to match your controller as well. I see a lot of people on the Discord server do something similar. Also, you can turn on several quality of live features in the F1 settings menu. One of the features lets you use the right stick and/or the D pad for ocarina songs, which perfectly translates playing the ocarina with N64 C buttons over to Xbox/Playstation/Switch controllers. Highly recommend playing the SoH's many settings to tailor the game to what you want, because the devs did an incredible job making it customizable.
That's great, but that's a lot of work for an imperfect solution when I can just play the 3DS ROM and have it instantly work with a Pro Controller.
Based on those, you'd probably enjoy Tunic if you haven't played it already.
I've seen it, it looked great.
Finally got around to starting to Divinity 2 (DE), I mean, it's only sat in my steam library for a whole lot of years now figured I'd finally load it up.
All my gaming time is split between Zelda Tears of the Kingdom and Honkai Star Rail. Both are incredibly fun. Star Rail is a gacha, but it has a great story and very high production values.
Tears is incredible though. I'm a huge Zelda fan (I even have a couple Zelda tattoos). It's my favorite game series of all time. I've played Ocarina of Time maybe 30 times. Breath of the Wild was great, but it didn't top my all time favorite Zelda list for a few reasons. Tears blows that away. If this continues as it has by the end of the game and the story stays compelling, then this will be not only my favorite Zelda game ever but also my favorite video game of all time. It's absolutely amazing how much Nintendo crammed into this game in terms of both content and Link's abilities - getting even one of those this flawless would be a feat in any game, let alone all of the new ones in the same game. The level of creativity possible in the game is mind boggling.
I'm trying to take my time so I don't burn out. But I also want to be mostly done with it by the time Final Fantasy XVI comes out so I can dedicate a lot of my gaming time to that on release.
I’ve been enjoying Star Rail as well! I am someone who never really got into Genshin, despite multiple attempts. But HSR fits me/mobile better since it is turn based and doesn’t require fast reflexes/character switching/combos of an action rpg. I think it’s also easier for me to get into because it doesn’t have such a focus on exploration. Genshin was super overwhelming for me, and always triggered my FOMO that I was missing all these chests.
Who knows, maybe HSR will lead me back to Genshin. But not likely anytime soon since Diablo IV is out tonight and that will likely take up most of my time for a while.
I played Genshin for a few months before dropping it. It's well polished but it felt too tedious to me. I also much prefer sci-fi over fantasy themes so Honkai is a better fit for me and it's got more QoL features compared to Genshin.
I just wrapped up Immortals: Fenyx Rising, a game I had completely ignored based on its name alone. Before I saw it free on PS+, I had no idea it was an open world Ubisoft game influenced by botw. I ended up loving it. I enjoyed the combat a lot more than I did botw's, and all of the upgrades/armor stats/weapon stats allow for some fun builds.
Also, rain doesn't impede climbing, and no weapon durability. I like that it has a bit more story focus than botw and the Zeus/Prometheus narration injects some comedy from time to time.
I've also been dabbling in Ace Combat 7. It's my first Ace Combat game. I'm kind of a plane nerd, so I'm having fun grinding money to unlock more planes to fool around with. The multiplayer seems fun, and while I don't score the most kills, I don't feel completely helpless with minimal unlocks.
Last, but not least Darksiders: Genesis. I like the Darksiders games. I like this one, even with the isometric camera. Strife is fun with his ranged attacks, and you can instantly switch to War whenever you want for melee attacks. It's my first time playing an ARPG with a controller and I'm surprised how well it works. I do wish I had some control over the camera, though.
Hey, another Three Strikes ! I hope you're playing with the "expert" control, it's really the way Ace Combat is meant to be played.
After completing the main campaign, be sure to check out the missions DLC, they're worth it. If you like the genre, the PS2 versions (4, 5, 0) still hold up well to this day and can be emulated without major glitches. You'll also understand who President Harling is and who the hell is that space girl at the end.
And while we're at it, check out Project Wingman. I've reviewed in previously here in tildes, but the skinny version is: more often than not it's on par with AC7, or even better in some aspect, while all the game was more or less done by one guy.
Just want to throw some more love at Project Wingman. I've been a massive fan of the Ace Combat series since childhood (Ace Combat 5 was my favorite game for many years) and when I first played Project Wingman last year it blew me away and has become my favorite game in the genre.
The moment when everything turns orange is one of my favorite gaming moments of the last decade, and as someone that took a few years to get around to it, I cannot recommend Project Wingman enough for fans of the genre.
Oh and if you have a VR headset, the whole game is playable in VR, and you don't necessarily have to own a huge battlestation to do so (my 1660 Ti runs it fine on my Quest 1 with everything set to medium)
Every single person I know who played fenyx rising really enjoyed it. However, I do not know many people who played fenyx rising lol.
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. A terrific game, but after a couple hundred hours this playthrough, I'm ready for it to be finished. Probably doesn't help that I'm at max level now, so no new powers, and I'm in the Enigma dungeon, which I might just skip. Also, I'm an altaholic, so sticking to a build until the end is rather new to me.
I'm not proud of myself for this, but I took the bait and downloaded the early access Diablo IV version last night and gave it a spin for a few hours. I wasn't a huge fan of D3 (my roots are with D1 and D2) so I was happy to see some old callbacks, such as:
We'll see what my long-term feedback is because I'm quite nervous that Blizz is going to try and squeeze out more and more microtransactions. But, for the few hours I played last night, I had an absolute blast!
I've been boycotting ActiBlizzard since the Blitzchung incident (reinforced by the reports of sexual abuse), but fuck dude Diablo 4 is so tempting. I grew up on Blizzard games, especially Diablo 2. The lord is testing my strength.
Hold strong. Even if you give in a year from now it'll delay their launch metrics.
I'm glad you're enjoying it. I played the beta and really didn't have much fun with it. I was bored most of the time. I also feel like the UI is pretty awful at conveying what you need to click to find things. I'm hoping Blizzard makes some improvements and I'll pick it up at some point. Really want it to be good though because I love that series.
Looking at the accessibility features mentioned on the website, it looks like there's optional colored highlights for interactibles, allies, and enemies. I haven't bought it myself yet to confirm, but they might have solved your issue.
Nah. I didn't have trouble seeing items and characters while playing. What I mean by bad UI is the menus. Figuring out where to click to get to certain parts of the menus for specific upgrades, shops, etc.
I played during the server slam for about an hour and really liked it! First time with Diablo though, so I'm not sure if I'm just naïve. Would you recommend D1 or D2 to start with?
If you want to experience the franchise, you can do either. Though from a QoL and design perspective, it might be better to go with Diablo 2 Resurrected - it was an HD remaster of the game and won't be quite as dated as the original D2 or D1. Diablo 3 is much more modern than either of them. And honestly, you don't need to play the previous ones to play D3 or D4. Though it does help a bit with the story.
Definitely D2! Especially since they just released a remastered version of it a year or two ago. D1 was genre defining and I have many great memories of it, but I think it might be a little too inaccessible nowadays.
I am thoroughly enjoying D4 as well, but like you, am worried about the microtransactions. It was $140 in my country, then day one (day -5?) there is a $38 character skin in the shop. I'd consider some of the skins at like $3, but I don't care if they start using AI to craft personalized skins that are literally perfect to how I imagine my character should look, I'm not paying the cost of another game (or a couple indies) for a skin.
My current all time favourite is Horizon Zero Dawn on ps4. That game made me so invested, it even made me cry. For me personally, it was the perfect balance of story/open world/mission orientated. I cannot recommend it enough to be honest.
I’ve also really enjoyed recently the quarry and until dawn. They’re both ps4 horror games and if you’re into that then these are fantastic. We played until dawn first and on the first run through we both jumped a few times and that’s saying something. The quarry was just awesome and there’s so many possible endings that you just feel the immense need to replay it
HZD was a lot of fun! I loved exploring the world. I haven't gotten around to the sequel yet but hopefully soon.
Oooh, I loved that one! That was an awesome story and I appreciated story mode difficulty as I'm often feeling too lousy to handle action games well. I hope to be able to play the sequel on PC some day.
Love the Horizon series. Very good stories and worlds.
Until Dawn was so damn fun. Highly recommend that to anyone who even remotely likes the idea of the cheesy teen horror concept. I wanted to like The Quarry but just couldn't get into it the same way as I did Until Dawn, unfortunately.
Immortals Fenyx Rising
Everyone else is playing Tears of the Kingdom which gave me a hankering to try Breath of the Wild but I don't have it so I went with the store-brand version.
And it's good! It's fun. I don't play a lot of Ubisoft games, so I'm not burnt out on their formula (though I can definitely see why people get that way). I wish I didn't thoroughly enjoy mindless checklisting in games as much as I do, but for some reason that speaks to me, so I'm eagerly running around and crossing off map icons.
I do like that there are a good amount of puzzles (albeit mostly simple ones), and I think the game is beautiful visually. The world is gorgeous and the sense of scale is impressive. I still remember when Smuggler's Run came out on the PS2, and I was stunned at the draw distance. Being able to see across the map was genuinely incredible to me at the time. For you younguns rolling your eyes at this, keep in mind that I was used to games like Test Drive Off-Road and its, uh, rather aggressive pop-in. I get a similar feel from Immortals, albeit less powerful because everything in gaming is less novel than it used to be and I'm older and more jaded.
The writing in the game ranges from endearing to uncomfortable, but mostly endearing. The framing of the game is that Prometheus is telling your story to Zeus, so they banter back and forth and there's lots of mythology-related in-jokes. That said, I have mostly been playing it on mute and just listening to audiobooks instead, which the game is perfect for since there is a ton to do and a lot of relative downtime as you get from place to place.
I'm running it on low graphics settings on my Steam Deck via Proton. Even on low though, my Deck gets pretty hot -- the warmest it's ever gotten for me. I also get a very small bit of artifacting on grass, but it's nothing game-breaking and I don't even notice it anymore.
All told I'm enjoying the game and would give it a light recommendation. It's not Breath of the Wild, which is probably points against it for most people, but it also doesn't have a weapon durability system, which is major points in its favor!
I played about halfway through that game before I got distracted by other things. I think I was playing the Switch version, because I seem to remember feeling like it was about to break the system at any given time.
It is a pretty good game. Honestly, It's kind of a shame that Ubisoft did such a bad job at marketing it during launch, because I only remember hearing about it after it had already come out.
rofl, I saw the linked video on ye olde aggressive pop in, and it genuinely took me a half a minute to notice what's wrong with it.....I mean, isn't that just how physics work? sprites pop out of nowhere when you get close enough, as surely as water flows and wind blows....
If the pop-in exists for you in the real world, then I recommend talking to your optometrist about myopia. 😆
In all seriousness, the video doesn’t quite do it justice. It’s one thing to just see the effect happen, but it’s another entirely to attempt to drive within it. It’s nearly impossible to know which way to go in advance, with everything popping up suddenly at the last minute, making the game less about driving and more about reaction time.
Immortals was interesting. I played it when it released. I fell off of it after a few hours. It had a really interesting story and good voice acting from my memory. But the repetitive nature of the tasks you complete in the open world kinda bored me after a while. I also didn't find the majority of the puzzles the game presented to me very fun. But I definitely understand why people liked this one so much.
I've finally been able to try out Ghost of Tsushima with the Director's Cut and I'm having a great time.
Kurosawa Mode or beautiful vanilla?
Vanilla, but I've been getting in the habit of turning on Kurosawa mode whenever I see the standoff prompt come up.
Ghost is so good. The only PS4 game I ever platinumed. And if/when the PC port is ever released, I'll buy it again. That game is a damn masterpiece.
I’ve not played the directors cut but I love that game. It’s the attention to detail that really gets me and how they… I’m struggling to find the word but how they put into perspective the violence and the beauty of the games world.
I played it on lethal with my partner and we really enjoyed the realism and the turn taking involved with playing it that hard lol, although we had to turn down the difficulty for some of the duels. We got stuck for hours on the duel with his friend that betrayed him (can’t remember his name) until we finally relented to turn it down
I discovered Star Wars Racer on Xbox Games With Gold last week, so that's been fun - I somehow missed it during its initial tenure but very much enjoying it now.
I also found out Trackmania Turbo has just been added to Xbox, so it's been fun reliving that!
I play an embarrassing amount of Halo Infinite multiplayer despite the constant issues and bugs... But it's so easy to jump into and out of on my lunch breaks. Also replaying Halo campaigns, just restarted 4.
I got onto the Forza Horizon train faaarrr too late, 5 is just an amazing game, I love the story missions, the open world, the cars, the music - definitely wish I'd started that sooner but loving it.
I ordered a mini handheld emulator thing from a website that turned out to be pretty much a scam, so I'm a little bit disappointed in myself about that but, eh, it was 20 quid, I'll survive. Should have known it was too good to be true, that one's on me.
The annoying part was when I tried to order a second one while I was still waiting for the first... lol
I also play Pokémon Go effectively by mandate because my partner and young daughter insist that I send them gifts on the daily, but secretly I quite enjoy it. Nothing like the originals (I'm a Gold and Crystal dude) but fun in its own way.
P.s if anyone has any genuine emulator suggestions, I'd be very grateful to hear them
Another TrackMania fan! You're in good company.
Also, sorry you got burned on the emulator handheld.
My husband got an Anbernic a while ago, which wasn't a scam even though it kind of felt like it might be at the time (their website looks a lot better now). The device's usability was a little clunky, but it got the job done.
If you want something a little less portable and have a bit more dough to cough up, the SteamDeck plus an emulation setup like EmuDeck or RetroDECK (or even manually installing individual emulators yourself) is pretty much the Cadillac of handheld emulation right now.
Which systems are you interested in emulating?
Anbernic actually has a pretty good reputation for their tiny linux-based emulation consoles. There is a surprising amount of competition in that sphere. Those things used to be barely acceptable for playing gameboy and NES games to the point where they can handle PS1 games fairly well over just the past few years.
Hi kfwyre, thanks for your response.
Thanks, it is what it is - just didn't do my due diligence, it was only later when I felt that something was off did I actually look into the site I bought it from. Live and learn.
It was actually Anbernic clones I tried to buy, mostly just looking for something that will do older Nintendo stuff - I can't stand trying to play touchscreen emulators on my phone, I just can't do it, so I probably will end up getting one of those to be honest - but I think I need to join the missus and kids and get a Switch first haha.
Thanks for the other suggestions though, I'll check them out!
Playing the Final Fantasy 7 remake right now. But I've also got the FF XIII series on pause while I do that. Once I'm done with 7, it's back to that.
I've exclusively been playing Project Zomboid, because it was designed to be punishing yet rewarding. It keeps the player on edge at all times.
Find the game too pricey? Wait for it to go on sale and perhaps get your friends a copy too, so you can play together.
How have you found the learning curve on that game? I love survival horror, love the tension and desperation, and love the idea of a more simulation focused experience, but I find games like this take so long to spin up, and I frankly don't usually have the patience for the deep dive they often require. How long did it take you to feel like you had to handle on things?
The game presents itself in a way that it's a story of how you died. Every time you start a new character/run, the load screen tells you "this is how you died". Though I mainly played the game with friends, I found it was easier to learn when I was learning mechanics one run at a time, and restarting when I felt ready; the character creation system lets you fit into a playstyle pretty easily. Eventually you get used to it enough that you've built enough experience to last a few in-game weeks. That said, I still suck at the game. It's a blast.
There's also the addition of the Steam Workshop, so you can mod the game to your liking if some things aren't to your taste.
Interesting. I love permadeath, roguelikes, survival horror, but another thing that's been holding me back here is the grind aspect. I saw some videos of people raiding bookcases and reading books to gain important skills, and the idea that I'd have to grind that out each time for every character wasn't very appealing. Thoughts?
Reading books was one aspect of the vanilla game that my friends and I agreed was a bit tedious - there are a handful of mods on the Steam Workshop that help players keep track of the books they read, letting some skills persist after death through a "lore-friendly" journal item, or outright speeding up reading by up to 100x. The Workshop really adds another level to this game that makes it way more interesting for my friend group. You can really turn Zomboid into whatever survival horror sandbox you prefer to build, on top of the vanilla game's massive map and in-depth mechanics.
Excellent! Sad to see my suspicions confirmed, but those mods look great. Thanks again
There's a few magazines that give unlocks you couldn't get other than taking at character creation (herbalism to already know poisonous berries and mushrooms, and generator usage) but aside from them, what books do is increase skill gain. If you're not into that, taking Illiterate at character creation will give you a ton of points for other perks.
Tough at first. It gets easier to understand and learn later on.
Project Zomboid with friends is a great time! I play regularly with a small group. It's funny how different an experience it can be depending on your role in the group - I spend most of my time cooking for everyone, organizing the base inventory and patching up injuries.
I got Pokemon infinite fusion going on my steam deck last week and have been playing that in my (little) free time. It's interesting so far takes a bit of configuring to get work correctly but I think I've got it.
This is one that I am looking forward to trying out when I am finished with Advanced Wars 1+2. Looking forward to seeing your thoughts on it! I am also going to be playing on Steam Deck
I just got back into Gran Turismo 7; there's been a significant increase in the amount of single-player content from this time last year. It's still not great, definitely still the slimmest of the numbered GT games, but much improved. The Legend cars are still stupidly expensive, but payouts from SP events are decent enough now that you can pay for pretty much anything in the dealership in under an hour.
It's still a game with a lot of warts, but they're pretty easy to overlook now that it's been fleshed out, and the base driving model is still really fun.
AOW4 and perhaps more importantly Spellforce Conquest of Eo. Love the 4x genre, but its got weaknesses, AoW4 is a fun game to start, but it needs some polish in my eyes (i dislike how quickly your factions all start to feel the same, but they seem to be aware of it).
Eo does some really neat stuff (static map, only one base EVER that moves, limited stacks) which sounds limiting, but in practice actually makes the game feel much more involved. If you've ever had 20 turns in a row where you autoresolve combat and don't do much else other than go through the motions you might know what i mean. Spellforce can be quite challenging even if you're decent at the genre, and the fact that you can't just outproduce your enemy (since they're literally playing by different rules, in game and in lore) leads to a much higher % of your battles being interesting and meaningful instead of just a stomp.
I'm currently mostly playing WoW Classic Wrath as they've got the XP event going on right now (Joyous Journies) and I'm leveling a new class I've never played before.
Recently I played the new Path of Exile season and had a good time there while waiting for Diablo 4. Speaking of which I'll be starting that soon but I couldn't bring myself to pay for 4 days of early access.
I finally bit the bullet and started playing Stardew Valley. It really does hit the same vibe as the early Harvest Moon (now Story of Seasons) games - I haven't been as fond of the new entries and was looking for something new rather than just playing the remakes they're doing now. One of the enjoyable things is that there's a blend of mechanics and a lot of easter eggs and secrets, so it doesn't get stale like some of the older farming games do.
There's also many mods to expand the experience further, if that interests you. Multiple additional towns and areas, more crops, UI updates... plenty of options.
I'll have to check it out! I play on Switch but also have a copy sitting in my Steam library, so I could always start a second farm for all the mods. Hoping against hope that if that Iridium Scythe tweet pans out, we get the update for Switch as well.
I've tried to play the Doraemon version is story of seasons and it was so slow I couldn't get past the tutorial......
Glad to see you're enjoying StarDewValley. It's one of the best farm sims imho :)
Just finished GotG, the combat was bland but I really liked the story and the characters. I put down Omori to play GotG so I'll likely get back into that one but I just started Elden Ring so we'll see, haha.
BF has been one of my favourite games since 1942/Desert Strike, and I've been craving an arcade shooter like it for some time. I avoided Battlefield 2042 because I didn't like the direction they were going with the MW style operators instead of classes.
I heard that they had done a lot to try and walk that back but it still had mixed reviews on Steam for some time so I just ignored it. It recently got released on Xbox Game Pass and I decided to give it a shot. The game really feels like the spiritual successor to BF 3/4 and I love it. It's pretty sad that it seems that development is winding down and Season 5 is rumoured to be the last season just as they are returning to form but what are you gonna do.
I just want a new Bad Company game please.
A proper BF2142 successor for me. I want mechs and titans (that aren't lagged to shit)
For that, I want another Titanfall game, personally.
I've finally gotten around to playing MOTHER 3, and have been enjoying it a lot so far. I was lucky to go in without any spoilers; it's definitely been a memorable experience.
Such a beautiful game. Does a great job eliciting emotions and building connections to the characters. I think I like Mother 2 more (probably in part due to nostalgia) but the story is so well done in 3.
I'm almost finished with it now and it really has been incredible. I've been a huge EarthBound fan for years but never got around to playing the other two---MOTHER 1 is great as well, and very charming, if a little clunky.
Yeah, it's tough to get into Mother 1 with how well done 2 and 3. I love the story in 1, but I just can't get past the random encounters and things like that. Really generalizes to a lot of JRPGs for me - once I played EarthBound and Chrono Trigger it was hard to accept the "enemies come out of nowhere flash!"
I might be weird in that I actually enjoy the old-school Dragon Quest style gameplay, but MOTHER definitely hasn't aged as gracefully as some other games. There are ROM hacks that make the game a bit easier---they're not really my thing, but they help for accessibility.
Y'know I never thought to check on any rom-mods for the game, thanks for bringing that up to me!
I apparently hate myself as I am playing dead by daylight still after all these years, almost 3k hours. Easy game for me to turn off my brain and just play tag though.
Also love building farms in Minecraft.
Tears of the Kingdom has been mentioned a ton, but outside of that I've been enjoying the release of Omega Strikers. I played a ton in the beta and I'm so happy it's back. The high energy of pulling off a good pass that results in a goal or successfully defending a strong push as goalie... The game is so hype.
Anyone else playing? What Strikers are you maining? I've been working on my Vryce, Asher, and Juno.
I'm switching back and forth between Lego Skywalker Saga on my Switch and Marvel Midnight Suns on my PS5. I'm also peppering in Blood Bowl 2 and Blood Bowl 3 games.
I'm currently playing Hoa, Tears of the Kingdom, Hogwarts Legacy, and Rocket league.
Hoa is a cool little platformer with nice music and art. very casual.
Rocket League. Car soccer, so much fun lol
Hoa looks so good! Reminds me of, like, a mix between Ori and Celeste, just based on watching some of the gameplay footage on the Steam store. Easy wishlist.
First comment: Reddit refugee of 14 years.
I'm predominantly an Xbox Series X/Game Pass Ultimate player.
At the moment I'm playing Supraland: Six Inches Under and I was surprised:
SPOILER
that Act 2 started after the 'End Credits' song!I'm also playing Planet of Lana for my Microsoft Rewards Daily Achievement. The cat creature is cute! And you can pet it! And the world/art style itself is gorgeous. I'm probably going to forget all the commands tho.
My 'main' game is Halo Infinite. I've never played ranked as I know I'm not good, lol, but I still enjoy social multiplayer even with all the issues plaguing it (network/desync being a major one). In saying that: 💚 Lucid!
I do have a PS4 and enjoy their exclusives like Last of Us and Horizon Zero Dawn
SPOILER for Horizon Forbidden West
I love Nil and hope he has a bigger role in 3!I also have a Switch and use it just for Mario stuff; only Zelda game I ever played was a bit of Ocarina on the N64 but I never really took to it for some reason.
I've been playing a lot of NHL 23. I was really itching for a hockey game for about a year before I remembered I have a perfectly good PS4. I'd rather play it on my Steam Deck, but PC gets no love from NHL.
My audiobook game lately has been VR ping pong (Eleven Table Tennis). This has been one of my favorite VR games since I got a Quest 2, and even after a long absence it just feels natural. Easily one of the most "true to life" VR experiences. It's got some good training modes, bot battles, and online multiplayer. I'll play with my roommate sometimes, but he's been living in Tears of the Kingdom, so I've mostly been playing with an audiobook going.
I've finished Metal Gear Solid 2. Raiden was a fun character, and it was enjoyable unraveling the mystery behind the takeover of the Big Shell, along with figuring out everyone's separate allegiances. Not to mention many of the characters were just plain fun. Gameplay wise, it was much better than Metal Gear Solid 1. The first person aiming really helped with taking down enemies and getting a better grasp of the environments that I was in.
I've now started Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy. Can't say much about it so far but I'm having fun.
Man I really need to go through and play the Metal Gear Solid franchise again. Might be comfy on my Deck.
Did you emulate or play on native hardware? Curious as to how the pressure sensitive buttons would work for MGS2 and 3 with emulation.
For MGS2, I played it on the HD Collection through rpcs3. The only time I had any issues with the pressure sensitive buttons were when I had to use an assault rifle for one of the boss fights.
MGS3, on the otherhand, it seems to be unplayable without pressure sensitive buttons.
I did try emulating MGS3 using Xenia, but the moment I got passed the cutscenes, there were glaring graphical bugs so I'm waiting for the PC port in the fall for that one.
Actually, writing this now I realized I never checked the compatibility list, maybe there's some things I have to change to get it to work...
I love the metal gear franchise! Some of the dialogue is just painful but the world and story itself are awesome. Have you heard about the remake?
Yes I've heard about the remake, but it seems a bit far off so I've kept it off my radar for now. I'll likely play the PC port of MGS3 instead when it comes out.
Objection!!
Phoenix Wright is such a silly franchise :) it's not much of a logic puzzle as much as it's an interactive novel: sometimes their solutions are really convoluted, and sometimes if you "solved" the mystery before the clues arrive you're stuck on their little railroad. But the personalities are so fun and silly, and it's always so satisfying to shout in court lol.
Yeah, so far I'm on episode 3 and I'm not really sure who did it. I suspect the assistant as there is no way she didn't end up learning that Will Powers(the suspect) hurt his leg.
I also have a theory that it's a some sort of fake suicide by the victim to help the studio get back on it's feet. I found the lack of blood to be a bit suspicious, not to mention that I doubt a duck tape repaired spear would not just break. The spear could realistically be only held by the defendant or the victim as well.
I guess I'll have to see if my theory stands in court.
It really is. Seeing the witnesses fall apart when you break down their testimonies is fun too.
Sadly haven't had much time to play games this spring, but I'm slowly been making my way through the Resident Evil 4 Remake side-by-side with a friend. It's been great so far, just as good as the previous remakes!
Looking forward to diving into Star Wars: Jedi Survivor in a week or so once the semester is over, loved Fallen Order and have heard lots of good things about the sequel!
Most weekends I squeeze in a bit of Project Zomboid with friends - I'm the group's cook, medic & inventory organizer, I leave the zombie killing to more capable hands 😅
I've been playing Roots of Pacha. I needed something completely peaceful with all the stress in the world. I enjoy farming games in general and I like the prehistoric theme to it. I enjoy the ability to tame and take home various creatures with my favorites being the guacanos (alpaca/llama like creatures) and of course the dog and cat type pets. The puzzles were a bit much for me simply due to lack of time so I admit I used guides on those. When I don't feel good, games without combat are very welcome.
I was reading that the developers have more updates they want to make so I'll probably replay this one again once they add new areas. I am looking forward to some of the quality of life improvements as well. I hope they fix not being able to move where you put your character's house and allow you to pick day length as 15 minutes is a tad fast. I'd also like to be able to save whenever I want rather than the end of the day being a save like the older farming games. It has room for improvement but I'm still enjoying it as is.
Ugh, same. :/ Aside from me just being no good at them, I just....I like games that go at my pace, or in which there's little conflict, or something that is building upon something, or working together.
I haven't heard of Roots of
PaschaPacha but that sounds up my alleyIf I get enough sleep I can do better at the action games but they're stressful and I play games to relax.
If you'd like to know more Roots of Pacha's theme is working together. I haven't tried it in multiplayer yet. It is ancient times and it is a kind of sped up version of humanity's inventions. The tribe works together to live in a new land, try to make neighboring people get along (no actual fighting, just arguing and thinking the other tribe is scary), and invent better ways of doing things. Some people find the 15 minute days stressful. As far as I can tell, I found that the only impact to staying out too late is you wake up with less stamina the next day so I've stopped worrying about it. This is a farming sim with a relationship system. Not quite as in depth as some other games, but the portrait for all of the characters instead of just a few is nice.
As far as peaceful goes, I would also recommend garden paws. It has a mine you can go to if you want combat, but that's completely optional and really doesn't have much impact on the rest of the game. That one you play as a cute little human or humanoid critter (you can change what you are whenever you want), and you wander the land farming, doing quests, upgrading stuff, taming cute creatures and building stuff. That one does not have a relationship system and no consequences at all for staying out too late. Once you tame the animals you don't have a lot of chores to do with them. It's just a chill game for if you want to wander around a peaceful world doing stuff. It does support multiplayer as well. I've played both on steam so I cannot say how stable they are on other systems.
I'm assuming you have heard of the story of seasons series. I'd recommend rune factory or sun haven but those both have combat.
If you have any more recommendations I'd love to hear them! I'm giving Ooblets a try and definitely like it so far!
I got rotaeno when it was free earlier this week. It’s fun learning how to best play it with the rotation. I have also been playing tons of D4DJ since it’s the d4fes event.
I just started playing Astroneer last week with my partner. It’s basically Minecraft in a space setting, but more forgiving.
We’re hooked. It has a good gameplay loop that encourages resource gathering without feeling too grindy. You’ve got a ton of factory automation options but they certainly aren’t forced or mandatory, and you won’t be punished if you don’t want to use them. And being able to travel to different planets is pretty sweet.
If you enjoy Minecraft like games, but have found many of them to get too complicated, Astroneer keeps a good balance. You can even pull up all the crafting recipes from an in-game guide you can access at any time.
I bounced off Astroneer very fast. For some reason the controls just felt horrid to me. Not sure if that was me, or a setting I couldn’t find.
Just started playing Diablo 4 yesterday. I don't have any experience with the previous games but I'm loving it so far. There's so many quality-of-life features and surprisingly...It's not bugged to hell. At least from what I've noticed.
Been playing some Perfect Dark and Goldeneye 64 using the 1964 GEPD setup on my Steam Deck.
These games are still a blast, and man is Goldeneye 64 difficult on the hardest difficulty. I have no idea how I managed to do this with an N64 controller as a kid.
I just wish I could play Perfect Dark online with other people. Ah well.
Sizzle Season just dropped on Splatoon 3 and the new content is a lot of fun. I’m really enjoying all the new weapons and kits, especially Wiper Deco and Big Swig Express. S-Blast is probably my favorite blaster now, though I’ve never been a big blaster guy, haven’t tried Painbrush yet, but maybe the slower swing speed will mean my fingers won’t cramp up after two matches like with the other brushes. Haven’t had a chance to try the new Barnacle N Dime stage, but I did get to play on Humpback Pumptrack and I forgot how much I liked that stage. Because this is the only game my wife will play I’m happy to see the new features added to Anarchy Battles and Challenges which will give us more reason to play together.
Picked up Boltgun a few days ago and that got me hankering for Quake 2 again so I just got around to installing Q2Pro to rail some people in the face again after 20 years away. Amazing how the reflexes are still there.
I've always been interested in playing system shock, downloaded it a few times to see how it is but the control system just frustrated me way too much, so this weekend I saw that there is system shock remake and I knew I had to try it out.
So far only got to the Research level so I've barely started but the semi retro aesthetic and gameplay is really a nice change of pace from modern games.
Above Snakes, pretty chill crafting game with a story but can get a bit repetitive with the story progression.