Starfield

It rules, I spent hours redesigning my ship yesterday because I could, just lost track of the time fiddling with things I could have ignored. This game is really good about letting you roleplay in your roleplaying game exactly as much as you're interested in. You can get pretty crunchy with weapon and armor mods, ship capabilities, medical buffs, mining and manufacturing, etc. But what's nice is that you can ignore all of it, it's just there if you want to min/max or play super optimally. I'm pretty sure you can just play the entire game by just wandering around and using stuff you find.

I'm playing an explorer through and through, so picking a random planet, setting down, and then learning about the local plants and animals and exploring nearby caves and outposts is a chill experience. I'm excited to try being a space pirate, a big rig space trucker, a scientist/engineer, a bounty hunter/assassin, a wild west gunslinger, but I think I'll save that for other playthroughs with other characters I make. I think I could eventually get related skills in this playthrough but it'll take forever grinding out a jack of all trades.

Baldur's Gate 3. I was playing Divinity Original Sin 2, but my friend convinced me to board the train before it left the station. Felt really natural to pick up as a DND player and Larian Studios fan. It's really a superb game. I'm playing a githyanki paladin, oath of ancients. I just wanted to be a nice old man going around helping folks and githyanki felt like the "plot race" given the whole mind flayer plot. (I'm still playing DOS2 bc I'm a maniac, playing Fane has been delightful)

Final Fantasy XIV. It's a MMO if that's your cup of tea. I'm mostly just "raid logging" these days, AKA hopping on twice a week just to raid with my static (group of 8). My best friend's wedding was two weekends ago and they all came out, plus a retired member. I love them all so much, I would've dropped this game ages ago if it weren't the game we shared.

The open source PC port of Perfect Dark.

You will need to provide your own rom as it contains the game's artwork assets. Aside from the alternative ways of doing this, there are now some great and perfectly legal options to dump your own N64 game cartridge (however your old eeprom saves will not be compatible due to some differences in file size and check-summing).

While the story may seem a bit campy, the game is immensely fun. In the near future of 2023, large-scale technology corporations have insidiously weaved their way into every facet of daily life and international politics, prompting the formation of philanthropic organizations that seek to check and balance these powerful firms. One such group, Carrington Institute, has received a distressing message from an engineer looking to defect from manufacturing syndicate dataDyne over widespread ethics violations that go straight to the top.

Motoko Kusanagi Joanna Dark is sent in to retrieve the employee who reveals himself to be Wintermute Dr. Carroll, and has vital information about the motives behind dataDyne. However, before Carroll is able to reveal much, he is recaptured, prompting Joanna and her team to follow a trail that leads her to dataDyne's Chicago-based subsidiary, G5 Corp.. There, she encounters the Smoking Man Mr. Blond, a shady figure who seeks to dredge up a dark secret from the bottom of the ocean.

Utilizing an extension of the engine written for Goldeneye: 007, Perfect Dark's early, unique physics and fluid movement stem from the prior title's initial design as an on-rails shooter. The drop-in raid on dataDyne is an example of stealthy, hard-hitting and fast paced introductions that would inspire plenty of later titles such as Call of Duty 4, while the incorporation of pre-programmed shaders helped push the N64's SGI-inspired hardware to it's very limits.

If you have played the title before, get ready for the return of Daniel, Elvis, Jonathan, and all of your favorite characters, now with modern controls, high resolution, and smooth framerates. If you are new to the series, prepare to get strapped in for late-90's era, paradoxically light-hearted and world-ending action, in a similar vein to The Fifth Element or Independence Day.

Sea of Stars

Sea of Stars felt like a perfect storm. The art is gorgeous and complemented by a well implemented lighting system. And the gameplay is inspired by some of the most adored JRPGs, like Chrono Trigger. I was a big fan of the demo, and I was bullish on how much of good time I was going to have.

Sigh...

I don't think I like Sea of Stars.

Each session I played gradually got shorter. The last time I booted it, I avoided a bunch of combat, got to a new town, and was so unenthused by all the dialogue I knew would follow that I quit the game after 15 minutes of playtime. A reaction provoked after less than five hours of playtime.

This isn't a bad game, but nitpicks progressively built to me not wanting to go back.

Combat

The game has a strong foundation of turn-based combat, augmented by systems for timed hits and interrupting enemy attacks by breaking "spell locks". And it does a fantastic job of addressing players who are typically anxious about using items and skills, by providing constraints and incentives to use them as frequently as possible.

But I found it frustrating that such a strong foundation doesn't seem to be built on. Neither equipment nor level ups seem to appreciably change gameplay. You seldom get new skills, and the ones you do don't expand your ability to express yourself strategically. Unless the game radically changes further along, I've probably already seen the lionshare of what combat has to offer. Which made me start dreading combat, since even the most trivial encounter was a tedious ritual of breaking spell locks and timing hits for essentially no recompense.

Storytelling

Story is usually a tertiary source of enjoyment for me, after gameplay and art. My baseline is "doesn't get in the way of my enjoyment".

The story got in the way.

Every meaningful story beat was buried under so much dialogue that neither advanced plot, expounded on the world, or served as a vehicle to develop the main characters. In fact, the two leads could probaly swap lines and the story would be indistinguishable. The game's humor is self-aware in a way that can feel tonally dissonant. The game would break the 4th wall, then heavily satirize its medium, and then immediately present you with a story looking to be taken seriously.

I've enjoyed JRPGs with significantly worse stories. I got over it by skipping it. You can't skip scenes in this game. The best you can do is mash B to advance the dialogue at a pace rivalling the march of a glacier. I started the game knowing I (initially) really liked the gameplay, but spent then first hour stuck in what felt like almost an hour of cutscenes which dove deeply into the backstory of characters I had just met and didn't care about yet.

I wrote a lot of words just to say "the combat doesn't feel like it ever changes, and I can't skip dialogue I don't care about".

I'm frustrated because on paper, I should've liked this. Sea of Stars' launch was supposed to be a couple days of respite from work, in a game with a refreshing take on a genre I love. But instead, it was a period of jealousy towards the people who could overlook my nitpicks and enjoy what is otherwise a lovely game.

I started playing Sea of Stars a couple of days ago. They really nailed the old school 16bit RPG vibe, the music is great and the battle system is fresh. I'm not far into it, but I am really enjoying it. After this I'll probably pick up the new Armored Core game as I haven't played one since the PS2, but I loved all the older games in the series.

Based on someone's recommendation here in another thread I've been playing FTL: Multiverse (which is near-complete fan-made overhaul and non-canon sequel to the original FTL game). It's been great seeing all the possible ways a run can go versus the standard "fight the rebel ship at the end." I mean yeah, you still generally fight a big ship at the end of each game, but the context can be quite varied based on what quests you run into midgame. I especially like the ancient biomechanical ancient race whose weapons and ships are incredibly powerful. That most races have two or more factions is a lot of fun since you can usually "side" with one or the other when travelling through a race's sector. I feel like I have more fun making different ship builds than the original game too since the stable of unlockable ships is so huge and varied.

Replaying Factorio again. Vanilla, no mods (never have, base game is a lot to do for me). Still a fantastic game. Still hitting the same "shit I should've thought of this" moments. Replayability 100/10.

I see lots of people talking about Starfield. In review after review, the thing I heard complained about, and even saw news articles about, was how the ships worked. There was a very popular news story about one player taking 7 hours to fly somewhere unsuccessfully that you might've seen. And the one game they kept saying they hoped the game was more like was No Man's Sky. I heard what we've all heard: it's supposedly good now. In Starfield reviews, I saw clips of people in No Man's Sky flying around on a planet with their ship, going to orbit, then flying to other planets seamlessly. I also heard that it had multiplayer too! THAT'S what I wanted from a game like Starfield, so I bought NMS. A buddy and I are currently on the first mission where you fix your ship, build a base, etc. and the tutorial part is grueling, but from what I gather, the game is what I was looking for. I'll need to get a bit farther to really see how much I like it, but I loved using the ship! Seeing that it'd take 3 hours in real time to reach a nearby planet at normal non-boost speeds, but I can if I want, was sick. It made the space travel feel more real.

I wanted to play Starfield but I can't bring myself to shell out that price and it sounds like it might not be AMAZING so not worth $80 to me.

Someone on youtube who was critical of Starfield (and Bethesda in general) recommended Outer Wilds so I bought that and maybe have 1 hour into it and I'm not sure what I think. Flying the ship is awesome but I'm not sure where to even start with exploring.

My wife busted out SimCity4 again recently so I've been working on 1 city in her region. I still love SC4 even though its 20 years old now but I would love if they remastered it so that it would run better on modern computers. SimCity (2013) was just bad and I haven't put any effort into learning Cities Skylines.

I just started Graveyard Keeper, got it on sale because I saw it compared to Stardew Valley. Not too far in (a little over one or two weeks), but it's been an interesting game so far. It's admittedly a pain trying to figure out how to do some stuff (still not fully clear on how to get the blue resource points even with guides), and getting money is not that easy. But there aren't any seasons, so there are no deadlines to get stuff done. Just my own patience.

Fae Farm.

My wife and I cannot stop playing. It takes the best of features from the farm sim genre but focuses on the player experience. So many quality of life features that just make you question why others games weren't designed the same way.

The multiplayer is also fantastic. Everyone of the players can fully interact with the quests/world like the primary player.

I can appreciate complaints about the price being steep, but for a fan of this type of game I cannot get enough of it. Such a wonderfully whimsical experience.

I rushed Starfield's main story but want to roll a new character for two reasons:

I used noclip and killed my achievements

I like the second run of Bethesda games after I get the hang of one.

It's been the only game I've played all week, and to me is a perfect game. I can't wait to do it again. I actually cried at the end of it which was new, but for some reason this game just hits all my buttons.

I'll say Starfield too, and I did enjoy it a lot, but yesterday my graphics card kicked it. No big deal, I wanted to build a new machine anyways - but weirdly, even though I was really hyped and had great fun playing it, I'm not really itching to get back to it. Like, it's not like I desperately want to fix my computer so I can play it again - I'm not exactly at the edge of my seat

I've been revisiting Monster Hunter World/Iceborne and I'm really enjoying the pace of the game. I had been playing a ton of MH Sunbreak which is also fantastic, but there's something about the meatiness of World that's really scratching an itch for me right now.

I suppose the obvious answer here is Starfield, and I've been enjoying it quite a bit! The performance leaves a little to be desired on my system, but I'm thoroughly enjoying the story. Just waiting for the mod tools to get released so I can get my character some new clothes, really not a fan of most of the outfits in the game

Dark Souls III: Been enjoying just casually exploring the world around Lothric Castle at my own pace until recently. Weirdly, a new friend took me through the Cathedral of the Deep really quickly, showing me all the secrets, and it kinda killed a little of my interest. I think I was just having a good time with the discovery aspect of the game, so I expect I'll try to complete rest on my own if I can. I'm fighting my way to the Cinder Lake crossbow next, then I can try to take out the big worm thing.

Starfield. Unlike Baldur's Gate 3 I'm not feeling compelled to finish it and see where the story goes, but I'm happily enjoying playing it in short bursts where I finish do just the one quest at a time. It feels like Starfield is made for that kind of episodic/anthologic (?) storytelling.

Final Fantasy XIV. I've mostly been playing PvP to get currency for the 10th Anniversary event. I'm awful at it. When I have time to actually focus I've been doing Studium crafting quests and Island Sanctuary progression. I really like that crafting/gathering in this is a big, detailed set of game mechanics unlike any other MMO I've played, even if it's not quite a first class mechanic.

Battle bits on steam. Still not great at fps games despite how long that genre has been going. If anyone has tips I'm all ears.

I picked up Starfield on Friday. I’m not very far into it after 12hrs. Been doing side quests and such around New Atlantis and exploring. So far, it’s fun enough. This is the first Bethesda game I’ve played since Fallout 3 (which I didn’t finish). So I’ve kinda come into this mostly blind, which I think is a good thing. It reminds me a bit of Deus Ex: HR/MD, probably because of all sidequest and explo that I’m doing.

Also restarted Triangle Strategy last week or so, after putting it down for a year or two. Had it for the Switch, but then picked it up for the Steam Deck. Been taking my time with that as well.

In FFXIV, I’m in the post-Shadowbringers DLC content. I’ve taken a bit of a break from the MSQ to get the Nier-themed alliance raids, along with the “Eden” full-party raids. I’ve so far only opened two of the three Nier alliance raids, and god are they difficult. But that difficulty means they’re tons of fun. I think I’ve got the first one down pretty well, though I’ve yet to complete it without dying at least twice due to not paying attention to boss telegraphs. The second one is gonna take me a bit more to get through without dying left and right. Prioritizing these over the “Eden” full-party raids at the moment. Did get my MCH to 90 during all the raiding, which means I now have my second Lvl 90 class, the first being RDM. Think I might try a healer class next, just not sure which one.

Going with the crowd and been playing over of Starfield, which is very much a Bethesda Ass Bethesda Game and I love it for that. Finding myself just wandering around and doing whatever sounds appealing at the moment.

My one complaint is the pirates. I worked with them for a bit and eventually murdered them all, but felt no guilt about it, because they're all just shit people, with maybe one exception. Felt like it was a real missed opportunity to inject some humanity into what were, essentially, moustache twirling villains; why are these people pirates? Oh, they just like being pirates, stealing, pillaging and killing and they'll all stab each other in the back at any opportunity.

I also just recently finished John Romaros memoir and so decided to go back and play some id games from my childhood; specifically, Doom and Quake. I've really never properly beat either of them, but I'd like to see if I can do it, but we'll see how far I get. Currently playing Doom on my PS Vita and if I make it all the way through (would love to try the 4th episode, as well as Sigil), I'll move on to Quake, maybe on the Vita as well.

Playing One Way Heroics for my roguelike podcast this week.

I had seen a lot of buzz around OWH so I was excited to try it out a few months ago. It didn't seem to click with me then until I realized there's a ton of co tent in the DLC (effectively a huge expansion to the base game).

Still took me a while to grok what to do and how to navigate the menu systems, but after watching a couple Let's Play videos I finally understood what was happening.

Once you're over the initial learning curve the game is good fun. Each run can he very short, or as long as 45 minutes if you want to push it. The system of banking items across runs is interesting and the general flow of combat, item management, and character creation feels like a very streamlined and polished form of your more esoteric and weird traditional roguelikes.

It's a JRPG that can be beaten in 20 minutes which is a rare combo. This is a solo dev effort (for the most part) so some parts really shine and others don't. Some of the writing is especially cringey and unnecessarily weebish, but is infrequent enough to be swept under a rug I think.

The soundtrack is all arranged midi files from a free Japanese music website, but the pieces selected work so well together, it could be mistaken for an original soundtrack.. I've been listening to it all day and loving every track I hear. It's a shame the music doesn't play natively on the Steam Deck, but I imagine the version on the Switch is quite a good experience to play on the go with the great tunes on hand.

Sniper Elite something or whatever showed up on the PS Plus thing. It’s like a discount Metal Gear Solid. Jury is still out for me. It is weird to me how little sniping I’ve been able to do, and how readily enemies spot me from a mile away.

Been replaying Spiderman, which remains one of the only games I've ever 100%d. Very nearly through the full story again (and should wrap up each district's content in the next couple of days, too). I can't get tired of this game haha. I haven't played the DLCs yet (or Miles Morales) but those are up next!

Not much has changed since the last time I commented on one of these posts. I've been dying in Elden Ring. A lot.

And I have enjoyed the game a lot. I'm just coming to the game after everyone played it last year, but either way it's probably the one game I've played more than others recently.

Ive been alternating Baldurs Gate 3 and Sea of Stars.
BG3 im playing a sassy tiefling bard and ive only just gotten off the squidship.
SoS: Adore this game. Its a love letter to oldschool rpgs like Chrono Trigger.

Jagged Alliance 3

Finally completed it, after taking a brief hiatus after the first patch. All in all, it took me about 60 hours, for a pretty complete and safe play-through, involving most quests and the happy ending.

Love it, exactly what I wanted it to be, had a blast, going in to another play-through already. I'm not a big RPG guy -- albeit I like tactical ones -- I don't play them often, and I don't tend to like big parts of them (i.e. story). JA3 hit the sweet spot with me, where I love the tactical gameplay which drew me in (and makes me want to play over and over again), but the story and setting and plot are pretty cool, and I can care as much or as little as I to about them.

I started a second play-through, choosing different mercenaries this time (but keeping my precious Barry) for a different experience. I also wanted to try one of the gameplay mods, after deciding between Tons of Guns, Rato's Gameplay Balance, and Timmeh's set of mods, I went with Timmeh's: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3017633184 . Pretty fun so far, not sure how much has changed with the mod over vanilla, although it does introduce crossbows and a less cheesy version of stealth, and so far I quite like the stealth crossbow kills.

Baldur's Gate 3: Legitimately the best CRPG I have ever played. I've played it for around 200 hours and I still haven't done everything I wanted to do. Currently doing a run where I play as Shadowheart, I try to make the decisions she would make and it's great fun. 10/10

Starfield: It's a pretty fun game. A typical Bethesda game so there are no surprises when playing it. Not as technologically ambitious as I had hoped it would be so it does kind of feel like I'm playing an older game but it's alright. The story is mediocre at best so I'm not sure if I'll ever finish the main quest. In it's current form I'd give this a decent 7/10. There are some technical issues that need to be sorted out (like the worst HDR implementation I've ever seen, and poor optimization). With mods this will probably become a great game that will keep us busy for the next decade, just like Skyrim.

I started En Garde yesterday. It's pretty challenging, but also fun. I'm having a bit of trouble with groups and the Bosses at the end of each chapter, but Nothing i couldn't get through so far. I did have to change the Difficulty from medium/normal to easy on the third boss though. The game doesn't take it self to seriously, which i really like.

I got into Roots of Pacha recently, I only bought it after it was properly released. I really enjoyed it and am finishing up some personal goals in my game, even though they aren’t achievements. It’s been a really fun take on the harvest moon/stardew valley style game with a surprisingly good art style (imo).

I’ve also been playing through the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster collection on switch, and I’m just onto number 5 now. It’s been cool playing through these really old games and so far 5 feels like an upgrade on 3 in its job system (and in its silly/less heavy mood) but also a cool upgrade on music and graphics from 4, tough I expect 4 had a more compelling plot.

Today I played through Gorogoa and it was a fascinating short puzzle game. I feel like there’s meaning in it I didn’t grasp but it had a very fun mechanic. On the topic of puzzle games I recently replayed glass masquerade 1 and 2 on switch, awkward interface compared to PC but fun pretty games all the same.

I started Little Dragons Café recently, it’s an odd game but has its interesting parts. Haven’t decided how much I like it yet.

And lastly, I suppose, I’ve really been enjoying Octopath Traveller though aspects of it can be irksome at times. Still, I haven’t played it for a couple of months but I look forward to getting back to it and then playing the sequel.

Ultrakill. I only just started playing this but it's been great, it scratches a very particular itch I have for games that I find oddly hard to satisfy (fast-paced fps with a great movement system. Other games I enjoy are: titanfall, apex, and quake). The game is similar to Doom, except with less emphasis on resource management and more emphasis on movement and style. This games gives a lot of power to the player in terms of controlling the combat and how they want to handle the various situations they are thrown in. The combat system is really cool, so many of your weapons/abilities compliment each other in really satisfying ways that make you feel extremely skillful. While you don't have as many weapons options as you do in Doom, it makes up for it with the very cool interactions that are possible. I have to admit I was put off by the styling when I first saw this game, as I figured that was the main appeal, but I am so glad I picked it up as I have fallen in love with it for it's awesome movement and combat systems.

Baldur's Gate 3. Truly a fantastic game, I have several campaigns going with different groups and have enjoyed playing all of them with different characters. I started playing table top DnD for the first time this year, which I found very helpful for understanding BG3. I find the opportunity to use the level design (especially the verticality) and environmental elements to my advantage to be a huge addition to the DnD combat experience that was missing from my experience with table top DnD. This is the first game I have played in this style, but it has been fantastic.

Wow, it's really hard to avoid Starfield news these days. I'm trying not to read much so I go into it with no preconceived biases other than my own from past Bethesda games.

I'm a patient gamer so it takes me a while to get to the latest games. I'm playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey right now. I think it's a great game but I lost momentum with it over the summer when I went on holiday. It's not easy getting back into it because I've been really busy at work. It's such a massive game and I've definitely reached that point where I just want to finish the main story. With so many other games I want to play and so little time, I often reach that point in a long game where I consider abandoning it and moving on. But I would much prefer to finish the main stories before moving on given the choice.

Looking forward to playing Baldur's Gate and Starfield some time in the future :)

I recently made the mistake of buying a bunch of games while I was away from my desktop, so now I'm back trying to play:

Civilization 6 - I've put in hours and hours in Civ games since 2 so I thought what the hell let's check it out. Didn't have any time to delve into it though because my attention was drawn to

Humankind - A "Civ but different". I'd played a demo that impressed me so when I found a good deal I picked it up. It's very polished and has interesting systems while still feeling familiar to Civ players. Haven't even completed a single game yet but I'm enjoying it.

The combat is miles better than Civ's imho, it has more nuanced options apart from At War - Not At War (skirmishes outside your or your opponents territory do not necessarily trigger a war) and it actually has a teeny tiny bit of tactics which I assume will play a larger role as I move up the tech tree. Also, it takes up map-time! Play 3 (?) rounds of combat and the Map Round will end and you'll have to continue combat in the next Map Round. This means that you can move units up to reinforce the ones in combat, giving it more strategic depth and making it feel more epic. That said I hate hate hate hate just how far units can move in combat. If there's cavalry involved they're pretty much guaranteed to swing around and murder-stomp your archers on the 1st turn.

I also feel like it was made by people who felt too constrained by Civ and am pleasantly surprised by the mechanics I come across. Oh I burned down an opponents outpost that was supporting an Iron Mine? Yay. Oh wait they'd SOLD that resource to an ally of mine, who is now cut of from it and they're pissed and asking for money! Can't figure out how to stop my goddamn heathen citizens from converting to a foreign religion though.

I'm still very early in the game because I can't get into the "just one more turn" 5hour groove those games demand and am distracted by my desire to discover my options in:

Horizon's Gate - bought after someone suggested it in a Tildes thread. Ok first of all I was taken aback by just how ummm pixel-arty it is. It feels like it was made for a tablet screen not a 20"+ ,monitor. Am very intrigued by how deep it goes, it seems to have ship customization, exploration, crafting, multiple skill trees per character and a decent-ish combat. I'm kind of wandering around at the moment and I feel that this too is a game which demands a minimum of 2hrs per sitting and that's why I keep coming back to:

Doom II - Yup. Doom II. The game that would make us congregate in the house of the friend with the PC that could run it, decades ago. Bought on a whim for nostalgia's sake and goddamn, a game with one plane of motion, only vertical surfaces and pixel monsters genuinely holds up. I also enjoy how the Hurt Me Plenty difficulty does just that, the game is like "eh screw, you figure it out". I've been playing it much more than expected and have not yet touched the rest of the pack it came with. Currently on Level30 and shit man either we were really good as kids or we IDDQD'd our way to victory because sheesh it's a struggle.

On my radar are: BG3 obviously and Company of Heroes 3 because CoH2 is a game I keep coming back to, just to throw on a podcast and rain down artillery on everything that as much as blinks.