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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've finally played Outer Wilds. I've not played the DLC yet, but the main game took me about 30 hours or so. What an amazing journey and what an amazing game. I don't even know why I haven't played it yet, since the game is right up my alley. But anyway, without spoiling anything this has been one of the most stunning and profound journeys I've taken in gaming. And the soundtrack is absolutely amazing too.
I also played some Dorfromantik I nice little city builder which is very peaceful and beautiful. The game is more like a puzzle, no trading, no fighting. Very calm music, it's more or less a relaxation therapy lol
Oh man, I'm right there with you on The Outer Wilds. I finished the game last night and it gave me shivers. I loved every minute.
I wanted to write a whole bunch about how the game made me feel, and why I don't think I got into it or understood it the first time I tried playing it back when it came out but really it's all still sinking in. I don't have the charisma to explain how I feel about the game just yet! It was profound, thought provoking, emotional and a thoroughly enjoyable experience that only a video game could deliver. I hope I'll be able to articulate why once I've thought about it a bit more!
In my first playthrough, I've noticed that I rushed a lot of the game and actually missed some HUGE lore and plot points. I found the game to be good-ish, but when I was still feeling that there's a lot more to explore, I dove in again and really took my time exploring every nook and cranny. That was when I truly fell in love with the game. It's also hard to write about the game without giving away spoilers to accidental readers. Hypothesis ( ;-) ): The game can't be described as it deserves.
Another game that I highly recommend if you liked the story and puzzle elements of Outer Wilds is Return of the Obra Dinn.
Oh thanks, I've seen this game before but I have not played it yet. Guess I'll check it out! :)
Three people have told me this is an incredible game so I picked it up over the holidays. So far, it's not really gelling with me. Hopefully it will grow on me with a bit more play time.
It's not for everyone and I wouldn't feel too bad if you don't get into it. I put about 13-hours into it and got towards the end of the story before giving up, because I got frustrated with the main conceit of the game--that is, the restarting constantly and having to wait for certain parameters before I could do a thing.
It's a really interesting game, but the time pressure of it got to me and I ended-up ending my time with it feeling annoyed and frustrated with the game overall. Kind of spoiled the previous ten hours or so for me.
I absolutely loved my time with Outer Wilds. I went into it after not gaming much for a couple years, splurged on it during lockdown. It secured a position in my list of games of "best games ever."
But I haven't finished it. The restarting/time pressure just slowly eroded my desire to start the game up. I wanted to crack it but I started to feel overwhelmed with the things I wanted to do and knowing I was going to be interrupted.
I'm tempted to restart. I loved everything about the game except the time limits and they're pretty critical to the game.
Also aimed at @BeardyHat
I felt exactly like you in my first playthrough! I was hugely frustrated at times with the loop aspect and also with the timing aspect of certain puzzles. For me it turned out to be that I just rushed too hard through the game, trying to find "the ending" or "the answer", whatever you wanna call it. But after taking more time, taking in the lore and using the waiting option at the starting campfire, things got a lot better. The loop just becomes a normal thing of "oh, is it time already", instead of "fuck, why is this happening NOW?".
I can highly recommend giving it another try with the mindset of "dying and looping is a central part of the game", it helped me a lot at least.
What I've noticed, as the game didn't click for me at first either, is you really have to take your time with it. Read into the lore, try to connect the dots and just enjoy exploring. I was frustrated with the (let's say) "roguelite/roguelike" aspect of the game, if you can call it that, but once I didn't rush from A to B to C constantly dying, I enjoyed the game a lot more. Once I got invested in the lore, the true love began :) I hope you can find ways to enjoy it at some point, I can just highly recommend sticking with it a bit longer
It's not a game for everyone. 95% of the game is the story, figuring out the secrets of an ancient civilization and using that knowledge to solve the games mysteries. You'll have to read a fair bit to be able to progress, if that part isn't interesting for you it might not be a game for you.
Death Stranding has consumed an inordinate amount of my time since I picked it up during the winter sale. There's really no better way to describe it than "A Hideo Kojima Game". It feels like a movie especially with the frankly absurd amount of star power in it, but it's got the length and pacing of a multi-season series, and it's full of goofy stuff that only works well in a video game. It definitely won't work with everyone, but for those it does it's a work of art. It's also the most "multiplayer yet singleplayer-only" game I've ever played. You'll never see another player, and yet the impact you can have on others is very noticeable and beneficial. This is in stark contrast to a lot of MMOs that are multiplayer-only, but are practically singleplayer games with how little you actually interact or work together with any random player you come across. I thought Kojima might've been blowing smoke up his own ass with how inflated an ego he seemed to develop but hell, this guy has earned his reputation and then some.
I pulled the trigger on Tunic a week ago and man, what a wonderful game so far. It's scratching some of the Outer Wilds itch, but I wasn't expecting to love the isometric Zelda kind of combat mixed with some soulslike endurance dodging. I've bounced out of Dark Souls twice, but the boss fights are genuinely making me wonder if I should give them another shot. Without spoilers, the first major boss was such a wonderful little dance of learning, execution, and focus mixed together with the aesthetic to make such a sublime experience. I hope it keeps up through the whole thing.
Still on Stellaris Nexus mostly, but also grabbed The Gnorp Apologue which is a neat idler/engine builder style game.
Unlike many from the genre, which i don't enjoy, this is as much a puzzle game as it is an idler, in that you really don't have to "idle" if you're doing it right. If you're at a point where it looks like you're going to have to wait forever to hit the next tier, you just prestige, get new talents, and try some different combos. It is insanely fun and very simple and has kept me coming back as I try different builds and synergies.
I've been enjoying the hell outta that cute little game, too. I love that zybellium and perk points are very finite resources, and you really have to lean into a certain niche if you want to go far. You can absolutely make a bad build if you spend zybellium on the wrong thing or take a perk point that doesn't benefit you. Still can't get past compression tier 8 lol
Gnorps are another chokepoint resource as well. I don't want to spoil anything since figuring out how to beat the various compressions/talent tiers is half the fun, but they've done such a good job building it with a variety of ways to get through.
I just got my 20th talent point last night and i'm still having fun trying new things and limiting myself from just leaning on what I know works.
A friend got Stellaris Nexus for me and him to have something to play together and I was not expecting it to be so much fun. It's kinda like a virtual boardgame, and I really appreciate the matches don't take too long. It's a surprisingly good game :)
It's probably my favorite 4x, full stop. It's the first game in years to really try to fix things outside of distant worlds 2 (which went the automation route and has it's own issues). They kept all the flavor and fun of having a bunch of different empire doing crazy things to each other and it works so well.
I've also been playing (the) Gnorp Apologue this week. It's a really nice change to play an incremental/idle game you can complete in a few days rather than playing near-enough-to-forever (it took me ~17 hours total to go from start to finish), and it does that without being overly complex and still a lot of fun. It's an impressive balance to achieve.
Thanks to @Wolf_359 I've finally bit the bullet and bought Outer Wilds. I can'ŧ say much about the game without spoiling anything, you have to play it yourself. It is great game that is driven by your own curiosity and need to explore and know more. I haven't finished it yet but I discovered like 90% of things in the game, I believe I'm almost end-game state. I played for like 20 hours to get where I am now and it was great time! I will definitely replay the game some time in the future after I manage to forget a lot of it, as this game is kinda like escape games - you can only do it once because you know everything in your second playthrough. But I believe I will forget anough in 2-3 years to be able to enjoy it to some extent again.
I have also been playing Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. I made scoundrel level 4/consular level (currently) 5 character which I know will shred through the game. Many people play this game bruteforce way slashing everything. I play more in the "disable then attack" style with Stasis field (freezes opponents in place) that almost can't be resisted/saved against. You don't need bruteforce when your enemy can't do anything :) This game stood the test of time for me. I should write about it in the thread that emerged a few days ago...
@sparksbet @dr_frahnkunsteen
I bought Trombone Champ on sale for the switch. It was cheaper on Steam but I wanted to be able to play this using the switch controller - highly recommend for hilarity
Tried a few songs, so far so good! It's nothing like playing an actual trombone for sure, but I do love that you're free to play every pitch and control the breathing, as opposed to most music games that are "1/0" hit or miss. The struggle for intonation is a very real thing for most un-key'd instruments like orchestra strings and yes the trombone. One reviewer said this game is more like playing a theremin and I agree.
Was surprised to read that the game was developed by 1 guy and some art from his wife. Great job so glad he's doing well even a year after release.
Looking forward to playing more tonight!
ADACA. Half-Life 2 mixed in with Halo and Stalker. Mechanically, the most fun parts of each. I mean it—it's 5 h of concentrated enjoyment the likes of which I haven't experienced in a long while. The story is rudimentary so far, but I'm hopeful for Episode 3 this year, which as far as I understand would conclude this FPS masterpiece.
And it's on sale until Thursday. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1765780/ADACA/
Gave up and bought Baldur's Gate 3. Cost me more than any two games I ever bought before, let alone a single one, but I made a deal with myself to make up for it by trying to not buy any new games until the next Steam winter sale and going through unplayed games in my library instead.
Regarding Baldur... so far so good. I wouldn't (yet?) call it especially brilliant or innovative - it mostly feels like a Dragon Age game with some references to earlier Baldur's Gate installments. As someone who plays D&D, I am pretty impressed at how well they implemented the ttrpg mechanics into the game, and as someone who plays video games, I'm surprised how I've been playing for 20 hours but I feel like I barely did anything. I think it's overall too early to draw any conclusions - maybe after I've completed at least one major quest or gotten closer with my companions.
One thing I really enjoy is that it can both eat up hours or be played in smaller chunks. If I have an hour I can easily progress a quest line. If I have more time I can knock out several.
Played a lot of board games with family over the holidays. One new one I was introduced to was Abducktion, a pattern matching game with a cute theme. The parts were very nicely designed, and the expansion (which adds a third dimension and wildcard ducks) looks pretty interesting.
We also got back into Dominion. My eight-year old chose the card set pictured here, and it was probably one of my favorite sets ever -- really interesting play and very high scoring. For people who don't want to transcribe the image, the cards are:
The picture of the game above also shows off the set of interlocking card trays that I designed and 3D printed. They lock together into a regular grid with equal horizontal and vertical spacing, so they can be reconfigured almost any way for the particular game being played. The paired trays for each player's draw/discard piles include a ramp for the draw deck to make drawing easier.
When stored, the trays stack together and have printed clamps to keep them together in the box, so the commonly used cards like treasures and victory cards can be stored in their trays. Although they are not shown here, I have a couple of solid trays that hold markers like the victory tokens from the Prosperity expansion.
There are also card file boxes to hold the cards not in use. They work with the dividers from someone else's online divider generator.
With this configuration, I can hold the cards from the four sets we own (Dominion, Intrigue, Prosperity, and Seaside) in the three card boxes. All the trays needed for a 3-player game fit with the card files in the giant Dominion/Intrigue starter box, and one other expansion box can hold the remaining trays for 4-6 player games. This works well enough since there are three people in our family. If we get another expansion though, I'll probably just end up putting everything into a plastic tub or a custom box.
Those generated dividers look sweet! I bought a set of trays in Essen to fit all my expansions in one box, but I need dividers of some sort to make it work well. May give these a try.
Decided to give Lies of P a go (despite not really being interested in the whole 'steampunk Pinocchio' idea at all) and it is really good. Definitely more forgiving than other Souls-likes, but the combat is fun and the levels are well designed. The boss designs are awesome too, I already know I'll want another play though just to see some of them again.
As it was free on Epic I've been playing Snakebird too - I like a good puzzle game and this one has some great puzzle design in it. It's been a fun one to play with my son too.
I tried out The Binding of Isaac. It's a rogue-like shooter game, somewhat like Enter the Gungeon.
The game leans into its grotesque aesthetic. The input is keyboard only, even in menu screens. There's no way to review the name of the items you've got. Stats are extremely vague (Damage up, by some nebulous amount; +3 Evil, which quite possibly does something, maybe). There are no descriptions of any kind (you got the Emperor Card consumable. What does it do? Memorize all of them or check the wiki). Also, there's a bunch of blood, poop, and offal and the like, but the UI issues are the truly sickening part.
Gameplay-wise, I rather prefer Enter the Gungeon moment-to-moment. The default weapon in The Binding of Isaac has slow projectiles and is annoying to aim, and items don't seem to shake that up much for the most part, which is a problem when in a rogue-like where it's expected that you'll spend a lot of time with that annoying starter weapon. I miss dodge rolling too.
There are good qualities too. Even the cursory look I've taken has revealed that there is a significant amount of depth, from the plentiful unlockable characters, to the various mechanics and indications of something more, like doors I don't know how to open or running into a one or two of the seven deadly sins on a run; it's a game that seems like it encourages discovery and exploration (Kind of; the game being so anemic with information, even stuff the player has seen before, aggressively pushes players to the wiki, where, in my experience with other games, things tend to get spoiled even if you're not looking for them.). There seems to be a healthy modding community around the game, and it was easy enough to install a couple to help with the UI issues. The general impression I get is a game where you can get out of it what you put into it, however much you want that to be.
Overall, The Binding of Isaac seems like one of those games you either spend one hour on, or a thousand. Personally, I'm leaning towards one and returning it. I find the aesthetic unpleasant, the lack of quality of life features is frustrating, and given the choice, I'd go with a show that's good all throughout, rather than the one that gets good after a couple of seasons, to use an analogy.
Interesting to read a Binding of Isaac review with a modern context. FWIW I think Binding of Isaac was a lot of people's first introduction to "roguelike/lites" back in 2011. The aesthetic is polarizing and a reason I didn't play it much beyond me first couple weeks with it; but I can't play a game like Enter the Gungeon or Vampire Survivors without seeing the echos of Binding of Isaac.
Once you pointed that out, I do see some of that influence. But, in this case, I think it's the type of thing I'd prefer learning more about in a hypothetical youtube deep dive style, rather than by playing the game itself; the aesthetic ended up being the deal-breaker.
Edit: did you buy the original flash game instead of Rebirth? Rebirth is the current modern version; the og Flash game is indeed quite rough and not really worth it today.
Isaac is definitely an acquired taste, and it's also probably the one game I'd chose if I had to pick a single game to play till my death.
The input is actually the first device you use when starting the game IIRC, and you can swap in the settings. But yeah, it's either 100% keyboard or 100% controller. I personally find it a bit easier with the keyboard.
You're right with the lack of information. Even though it's on purpose, it only made sense when the original flash game released in 2011. But since then, the amount of content has literally exploded and unless you have like 300h+ of playtime, tools like https://tboi.com/ or the "External item descriptions" mod are practically mandatory. Even the game creator recognized this flaw in 2021, but unfortunately it's not a high priority feature.
I also think it's worth sticking around because it has an endless amount of content, a sky-high skill ceiling, and no other game manages synergies like this.
I did get Rebirth. The controller thing I realize was unclear; I'm a PC gamer, so I was bemoaning the lack of mouse support rather than any other controller option.
Your general sentiment to the game is one I've seen fairly often, which is what drew me to it in the first place. And elements of that were visible, even in my limited amount of playtime; it's clear that the developer put in a lot of work. But overall, I just find the general aesthetic too unpleasant a space to exist in. Quite possibly that would fade over time, but I'd need a deeper discount to consider taking that gamble, which is why I ultimately decided to return it.
Rogue Trader. It's everything I ever dresmed of so far. Perfect conceit for the perfect setting.
There's some things if prefer, like real time combat. I also think the encounters can get tedious. But it really nails the fantasy of a space mini king, and it's such an amazing representation of the 40k universe.
I've been playing Triangle Strategy and I have mixed feelings.
I love the 3D pixel art aesthetic, and it's doing a fantastic job of satisfying my turn based RPG itch.
They've done great job of building a world full of political violence for you to explore, but leans a bit too heavily into cutscenes to assist with telling that story. My only other gripe would be the lack of diversity in the set pieces they provide for people to grind on.
Overall, it's a good game. I'm happy I chose it to play over my holiday break.
I finished up Life is Strange 2 right before the end of new year's eve which capped a year in which I played 45 single player/story-focused games.
LiS 2 wasn't the worst game I played but it wasn't one that stood out either. It was easily the weakest entry into the LiS series. I don't particularly enjoy children but I have enjoyed games with children protagonists. This is not one of those games. Daniel was whiny and impatient and Sean's emotional swings were unpredictable which made choosing his responses difficult at times because I couldn't tell how he would actually react based on the text prompt. I think that really comes down to a writing failure across the board. The soundtrack was weaker than other games and I didn't think any of the settings were overly interesting either. The weed camp was probably the highlight of the game but it also featured the moodiest Daniel.
Anyway.
I also started Spider-Man 2. I love the first game and so far 2 has felt like a good continuation. My save % says I'm about 30% of the way through which seems surprising to me because I don't feel like I've played that much. The Kraven storyline doesn't seem quite developed yet, but I'm holding off forming opinions until I've finished entirely.
That said, I'm not a huge fan of the street crime system so far. Without objectives for completion in parts of the city, I don't feel motivated to seek out solving these crimes unless I just happen to be in the area. And they seem, at least so far, to be shorter and easier. Not the end of the world, but it's something that's stuck out to me thus far.
I had quite a lot of time off through the holidays and we didn't have too many commitments so I got several months of my usual gaming time done in a week.
An interesting gaming/nerd culture anecdote:
My partner recently read "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" a popular novel which follows a cohort of game developers (her summary "it's about people and human nature, but the game stuff is context I just don't have."). That's prompted a lot of questions about video games and history of video game culture.
The built up knowledge we gain playing them growing up is intimidating. She's seeing more D&D since I'll have Critical Role on the TV, she's learning board games since it's what my friends do together, and this novel has been an interesting perspective into video games. Her usual reticence (read intimidation) to try a game is lessened. She's so far enjoyed power wash simulator, and we rolled two characters for couch co-op BG3. If she loses interest that's fine but right now it's nice to be able to share this hobby a bit.
A couple of them:
I picked-up Realms of Arkania - Sword of Destiny (Remake) on GoG and while it's a very dense, barely understandable, ancient German CRPG from the early 90's, something keeps gnawing at the back of my head to keep going with it. The combat is frustrating and terrible, but there's just something about this game that is drawing me in to figure it out. I put about three and a half hours into it over the last two days and just decided to finally restart with a party of my own creation, but following a guide, of course. So when I feel up to it, I'll be taking another crack.
I've also been in a bit of a handheld mood and have been playing Last Window - Secret of Cape West in the evenings. I absolutely adored Hotel Dusk when I played it about a year or two ago now and after receiving my "new" DSi/XL a month or two ago, I discovered there was a follow up. It's been a nice game to relax with in the evenings while I lay in bed.
To go along with my handheld mood, I also decided to finally fire up Infinite Space on DS. Been meaning to play it for awhile and so far have put about 2-hours in and I am absolutely loving it; I'm not sure if it's a game I'll see all the way through to the end, but I've very much enjoyed what I played so far and am looking forward to playing it some more. I was surprised to see it was made by Platinum Games, given that it's some sort of RPG/SRPG hybrid thing.
Realms of Arkania was one of my absolute favorite games as a youth, back in the DOS days... and TBH, I don't even know why. When I went to replay it a few years ago I actually still enjoyed the combat, but the rest was pretty painful, opaque, and really really unforgiving. Does the remake refine any of the gameplay, or add any QoL stuff (like not having to manually map out dungeons/cities anymore), or is it 100% faithful to the original, warts and all?
Keep in mind, this is my first experience with the series, but I ended-up doing a fair amount of research on it as I was playing. What I discovered is that the remake was pretty buggy and not great on release, but gradually became more and more fleshed out and seems to be considered the definitive version these days. I guess it's mostly a 1:1 port, but some things have been streamlined a bit, removing some redundant and/or useless skills, but beyond that it's pretty much the same. There is a map you can see in town and you do get one in dungeons, but it's dependent on having a light source; if you don't have that, you won't be getting the map. The developers also remade the second game, Star Trail, which is apparently considered the best of the series and of course, you can import your party into that.
All that said, they apparently never got around to Shadows of Riva (I remember the ads in PC Gamer from back in the day, always thought that cover art looked cool), so you wouldn't be able to import a party there, unless you'd been playing the old versions.
Now, you've caught me at an interesting moment: I just decided about 15 minutes ago to abandon the game. I've put about 8 hours into the game so far (I did restart after about three and a half), but I feel like I've seen what it has to offer in totality. The combat is not good, the story is not interesting as well as being poorly translated and the gameplay feels pretty much limited to Town "Zones" and the travel map, which is just (essentially) a bar filling-up, interrupted by periodic menus. Aside from "exploring" Towns and Dungeons, most of the game seems to take place in menus and it doesn't really feel like there's a lot going on.
I tend to gravitate towards games that let me explore and RoA:BoD doesn't feel like it has any of that. Again, you can wander around the limited space of towns, but moving to different places doesn't mean exploring, it just means clicking on the road and watching the road bar fill up as your party travels along it and gets messages about things they encounter. There's no off the beaten path here. I grant that it's a product of its time, having come out in 1992, but I feel it pales in comparison to its contemporaries, such as Might and Magic, which does actually let you explore an overworld to an extent, even if it's a little compressed. Plus the combat, while not exactly a revelation, isn't so mind numbingly dull and slow. In theory I love the idea of preparing extensively for travel so I don't starve or freeze or come upon diseases I don't have the herbs to cure, but in practice, there doesn't really seem to be much to that either.
I don't hate it, I don't feel like it's a "bad" game, but definitely a product of its time and while I've been somewhat obsessed with figuring it out over the past three or four days, the spell suddenly broke after finishing the first dungeon and doing a bit of traveling, having come to the realization that this is the game and there's really nothing here that's going to surprise me; which would normally be fine, but there's nothing else the game has offer that is driving me forward, so I'll be putting it back on the shelf.
Ah, damn. In that case, the remake doesn't sound particularly appealing to me either. I might give the Star Trail remake a try though, since I remember that being a slightly more polished/fleshed out game, and it's been ages since I last played it. So even if the remake is similarly faithful, warts and all, it might still be worth replaying in that new form. Thanks for the review!
Finally got around to playing God of War (2018) on PC. Really enjoy it and like the pivot in tone to move away from the 00s horny-teenage boy/Michael Bay aesthetic to a more serious and mature tone. One thing I absolutely hate is how it runs on my PC. For reference I'm on a 7700x w/ 3080 and screen tearing is pretty awful and I have to run 3rd party software to increase the FOV to keep me from getting nauseous. I really appreciate that it's now on PC but I wish it could take advantage of PC's advantages over console.
Screen tearing should be easily solved by either enabling V-Sync or capping the framerate to your monitor's refresh rate. I believe the game has a built-in FPS limiter.
Do you have a 1080p/60Hz monitor? With a 3080, you're probably overdriving a lot of games.
I'm running a 1440p 165hz monitor. I've gone ahead and tried a bunch of solutions and the only solution that I find visually acceptable was to enable V-sync, which unfortunately drops the FPS to 60. I think part of the problem is that the game runs only in borderless rather than full window. This is the only game in recent memory that has had this issue.
Hm, your monitor may not actually be set to 165Hz if V-Sync is limiting to 60 fps. Try reconfirming in the Windows settings, under Advanced Display Settings or in your Nvidia Control Panel.
Otherwise you could try framerate limiting through the Nvidia Control Panel. Set it to a few frames lower than your monitors max refresh rate, like 160.
Genius. I swore I set my monitor to 165 hz in advance display settings but it didn't save. Thanks for taking the time to troubleshoot this with me.
No worries. I swear I've spent more hours working on gaming fidelity than I have actually gaming, might as well help people out with this niche knowledge.
I am currently playing Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl. I am liking it, with the only complaint that I have is that I can't play with the Ukrainian voiceovers, just the English voiceovers for the main people, while the non-important npcs are in Ukrainian, which I find odd.
I am also playing Escape from Monkey Island (the one that was on the PS2) on the pc. It has been years since my copy on the PS2 got eaten by my PS. So, it is a game that I grew up with. The controls for the PC port is janky as hell. Mostly because the game was meant to be played with a PS2 controller and not with a keyboard. Although the writing is still good.
Kenshi has completely dominated my time since I last wrote about it. I explored the modding community and landed on a few I really like, then just got back to it.
My base was renamed, from New Raidenton to Okran's Folly, after we successfully defended against a Holy Nation assault squad. There's about 35 members at the base, who defend, produce food, and mine ore/manufacture trade goods. I took a separate group of six, kitted them out in the best gear I had, and set forth to explore the world. Here is an album of some fun photos. Might need to click them for the full resolution.
I messed around with reshade a bit to make the game look nicer, too. As tends to be, the presets I tried all ended up overexposed or didn't do UI masking, so I gathered together the stuff I most liked and pulled it all together myself. Tried to go for a more Borderlands look, with nicer colors, and less crushed black/overexposure/sharpening. I think it came out pretty good.
I am really, really impressed with this one. As I travel, I find all kinds of weird things. The Skin Bandits, the Fogmen, Black Desert City have been the highlights thus far. I don't wanna spoil too much because a lot of the fun is in just happening upon this stuff, but what I will say is that there's always a layer of interaction within these things that I don't expect and totally, absolutely love. Do the right things in the right way and you can open up opportunities, to join with folks, do stuff with em, go against their enemies, etc. These actions can change the world state, so depending what we do it might reverberate later (think folks capturing territory and warring with each other).
Can't recommend it enough. I could go on forever lol.
I just beat Star Wars Jedi Survivor. It was a decent game, but I definitely did not like it as much as the first one. The story was weak, the enemies mostly forgettable, and the locations were tedious to traverse/know where to go. I get that it's supposed to be a difficult "Dark Souls-lite" type of game, but it just really lacked a lot of what made the first one great in my mind. I hope the next one makes some different decisions in regards to storyline and gameplay, because I do like the series, but I probably won't be revisiting this one again.
Now if only Respawn would make Titanfall 3...
I bought myself a PS5 a few months back because I was getting tired of how slow my PS4 was (and loud, even if I mostly avoided that issue via headphones), to the point I'm fairly sure part of the reason I kept losing connection in Warframe was because my game just didn't load in time.
Speaking of which, pre-Whispers in the Wall the PS5 version would hard crash the slim (I don't think any og console reported having the issue), it's been fixed since then (my 100+ hours in the PS5 version is testament to that) but still, I wonder what caused it to outright shut down only on the slim...
I also got some new game from Xmas, starting with Like A Dragon: Ishin!, a historical drama à la Yakuza (so not the most historically accurate thing, even putting aside the troopers).
If you like the franchise (or would like to test the waters) it is a good standalone entry, even if you can tell the original was made in between Yakuza 5 and 0 and lacks a number of QoL improvements (most notably for me is the lack of pause when switching styles and difficulties backing out of the ability menu, that and battles aren't part of the open world unlike the Dragon Engine games).
I kinda wish the Wild Dance style was available in the newer games, it's very fun to use.
Not quite a new game, but one I actually started playing with the PS5, Cyberpunk 2077, I'm grateful most/all PS4 discs let you get the PS5 version for free since I'm doing this for all 3 games. Gameplay-wise, it does a good job showing how powerful augments are (with how I use cyberware and quickhacks one pushes things heavily in my advantage while the other keeps pushing it hard enough it arguably stops counting as a fight very quickly, didn't experiment with Berzerk or Sandy), but is not really anything special otherwise. Except driving, but not in a good way (feels like it wants you to do big drifts at all time and all, but the streets are often narrow and filled with cars and pedestrians, and hitting anything/one will make you wanted pretty much on the spot).
Story-wise well, it's far less hopeful than most other stories (least the one I follow), while those other stories absolutely have hardships in them, they often end on a hopeful note which basically never happens here. I suppose there is a reason most people in NC aspire to be remembered as a drink.
The last game is Sniper Elite 5. Take a look at the other games I've written about here, in all cases a straight up fight is basically where you want to be (or at least how I play 'em), being in the middle of everyone is NOT an issue.
For Karl it is, stealth and distance are your biggest advantage, with direct confrontation being very deadly both ways, with is a problem when the enemy will swarm you when given the chance. It only has 8 levels but they're long and look to be a game you replay (especially with Axis Invasion, I don't think there's any other other game that's basically PvP+E).
I just beat the final boss of Sekiro. Loved the game, and it was such a great experience overall starting from being nervous about every fight to finally being able to take on Genichiro at the end and slapping him about. It feels great.
I've also been playing Dave the Diver, which is a hilarious restaurant managing simulator disguised as a diving game, and have enjoyed it a lot so far.
Recently played Rogue Tower for my roguelike podcast
I think this game has a lot of interesting concepts to it, but is held back significantly by its UI. Roguelike/lite tower defense games aren't something you see a lot of, so it's an interesting game to explore. We previously reviewed a tower defense rogue game that was much more on the RPG end of the spectrum in The Last Spell, and Rogue Tower is very much more on the arcadey end of the spectrum. That being said there's still a lot of metaprogression to unlock, be it different towers, support buildings, etc.
Two of my podcast cohosts got super into it, but the other half of us weren't bit as hard. I only put in about 6 hours compared to 100+ that one of us did (who also thinks he may have a WR in some part of the game). I still had fun and there's a good degree of one-more-run-itis in it that you want from a rogue-type game. There's a laundry list of things that I would want added or polished to make the game an overall better experience (for me anyway), but the dev has said he's done with work on it and is set on his new project. I can kind of sympathize with that, as you don't want to be constantly tooling on a previous work forever. Whatever their next game is, I'm certainly at attention to play it, that's for sure.
I've been playing Kerbal Space Program 2. Ever since the "For Science" update, it's felt more like the game it should have been at launch. I've had fun slinging kerbals around the universe again and am happy that KSP2 appears to have a better foundation than KSP1 and I'm excited to see where they go in the future.