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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 stayed away from Kenshi for the longest time because I erroneously thought it was some type of janky dark souls uberhard game. It's more akin to rimworld. In fact, id describe it as rimworld if rimworld were a janky top down rpg about ninjas and samurais. It's devoured the past few weeks of my life. It's great.
Kenshi is a masterpiece. A janky as hell masterpiece. I spent six weeks glued to my PC for every waking moment after I bought it, just completely lost in the experience. Everything from the world building and hilarious writing to the exploration and emergent gameplay moments is one of a kind. Every second is just filled with so much soul.
I'm with Crimson that it really is in a genre of its own. Though I see where you're coming from with rimworld. Very similar vibe/setting.
I absolutely bounced off of it the two times I've tried to get into it - nothing seemed to happen, I just wandered around an utter empty wasteland and picked up broken crockery to sell in the tiny excuse for a settlement I found, before dying to everything I encountered. Any advice for getting a foothold?
Oh boy, here I go ranting again!
The early game is rough. The most important thing you can do early-on is increase your squad size ASAP. Squad mates can heal each other, and you'll actually start winning fights once you get a squad going. Plus, multiple squad members means simultaneous leveling. You can find people to join you at bars for varying fees, in settlements, and sometimes just by wandering around the wastes. There is a HUGE list of recruit-able characters.
It's also important to keep in mind that the game intends for you to lose a lot of fights. And even limbs. Especially limbs. In fact, picking and losing fights with high level enemies is one of the fastest ways to level up skills.
Once you get some gear and levels, losing fights usually just means getting knocked unconscious, not outright dying. Humanoid enemies don't execute you when you're down, and they'll usually move away once your whole squad is down. (...unless they're slavers or cannibals or holy nation paladins or or or...). If you're having a hard time finding good equipment, don't be afraid to use clothing/unarmed. High level dodge and martial arts is kinda OP.
For the occasions where characters actually die, don't be afraid to reload a save if it means mitigating frustration. I play without reloading as much as possible because it makes me more invested in the gameplay, but sometimes an encounter is too catastrophic, and I'll reload because the setback would otherwise reduce my enjoyment of the game.
As far as actual strategies, my early game method was mining copper outside of Squin. It sells for a pretty high price, and there are some nodes close-ish to the town gates. If any starving bandits or ne'er-do-wells jump you, you can kite them into the town guards, who will dispose of them swiftly. If you're fast, you can loot the bodies before the guards carry them away for another boost to your income. Then, there's a Shek mercenary at a bar in Squin named Raine the Giant who will join you for 7,500 cats (the in-game currency, not literally cats, for anyone reading this who hasn't played lol). She was my first squad member, and that muscle lady is a monster. She carried my team all the way through to the end of that 150 hour save. She was always the last one standing for EVERY fight.
That's just one hyper-specific example. There are so many ways you could do it! Once you start to orient yourself to the game world, you start to see opportunities for creativity.
To address your first point "nothing seemed to happen": that is honestly just the nature of kenshi. There's no main story line that will eventually pull you in. You're not the protagonist. You're just a survivor trying to make sense of a broken world.
You can play the game a lot of ways, but the thing that really makes kenshi shine for me is the exploration. The map is HUGE, and it is packed with so many hand-crafted POIs, encounters, and memorable characters. You'll come across so many details and pieces of lore and places that just make you go "WHAAAAT". I didn't lose interest in my first playthough until I had scoured the whole map.
It's also immensely satisfying seeing your squad get incrementally stronger as they level skills and find rare equipment. You go from puny starving scavengers who can't fight off a goat to near-invincible martial masterminds.
Damn. I should start another Kenshi run.
Hm. Okay, then. It sounds like I just was trying to play it in a way that it isn't built for, exactly-- particularly the squad emphasis.
Reinstalling now-- I'll keep all that in mind and give it another shot. Thanks!
It's possible to do a solo game, but it will be significantly harder since the game is balanced for squads. If you still want to try that, I'd play as a skeleton and go for a full martial arts build. Skeletons don't need to eat, which will save you precious inventory space, and they can more easily repair themselves (at the tradeoff of requiring expensive specialized medkits).
My first play through settled in with 8 members, but if I play again, I think I'll keep it at 3 or 4. It can get tedious managing so many inventories.
There's a lot of specialized dialogue between specific characters, so missing out on that is one downside to a small squad though.
Got it. It's not that I'm averse to playing a squad, I just didn't realize it was that critical. I'm used to very single-character-focused games. And what you said and I'm reading about it being not just typical but necessary to get beat up a lot is a big paradigm shift too. Rethinking a lot of my standard playstyle now.
Kenshi is an amazing game. I've got a decent chunk of time in it, although most of that was spent dying, resetting, and trying again. I don't think I would call it a janky RimWorld though. It has similarities but over all I think it's a very unique game.
I kind of struggle to get into it. Any advice?
I think I should start the game mode where I start with a squad.
A harder or easier start (start as a squad, start with some skills) doesn't change too much about the overall experience, imo. If you're finding the initial early game dull or uninteresting, definitely try a start that might be more to your liking.
I did the wanderer start. I spent the very beginning part of my game mining copper outside of the Hub. Fill up my inventory with copper (more valuable than iron) and then sell it at the bar in the Hub. When the bar at the hub ran out of cash, there's another bar not too far away, and if they ever managed to run out of cash, I'd trek to the nearby town Squin to sell.
I spent about half an hour of real time, running at double and triple speed, just mining and selling to earn a stock of food and cash supply. This might sound boring, but it wasn't. While my character was dilligently hammering away at the copper deposit, I was busy swinging my mouse around, scanning the horizon, looking at the groups of wanderers passing by. Whenever a group would get within sight, I'd check them out and try to see if they were hostile, and if so, would their path cross close enough to my mining spot to see me? Could I outrun them if that happened, or at least get to the safety of the guards in time to avoid being kidnapped by slavers?
All of that provided enough tension and interest to keep me the player occupied. Meanwhile, my character was building up valuable skills in laboring, athletics, strength and stealth (because of course I was sneaking around constantly).
If you're really struggling to get into Kenshi, I'd recommend watching a few episodes of an LP to get some ideas on how to approach it. I watched the first 8 episodes of this one before I decided that Kenshi might be fun for me, and starting my own run.
I've been on the Monster Hunter: World and Rise grinds again, prepping for Wilds :)
Also, since Slay the Spire 2 was announced, I've started going back to make some runs. It's crazy that even after 450 hours and finishing the game, I still have a reason to go back! Since I've finished the game, I find that going back and doing suboptimal/forcing silly decks is way more fun and way less pressure. (I've been chasing the high of getting a perfectly optimized Grand Finale deck since I pulled it off for an A15 win or something, and nothing has ever come close to that feeling)
Content Warning has been pretty fun too, it's definitely a meme game but I don't think I've laughed so hard before at a game in a while. It's definitely more fun with friends, but if you have a group that's just kinda silly it's hilarious.
After finishing the Fallout TV show, I finally went through installing Tale of Two Wastelands and have been playing through Fallout 3 (and eventually New Vegas) I loveeeeeeed 3 so much, and the storyline is just like talking to an old friend, almost comforting despite it's bleakness. 3 is probably one of my favorite games ever growing up.
I went to the Magic Prerelease at my LGS for the first time!! I haven't played Magic in over 10 years, and It's still pretty fun! The new set is really fun too, and honestly opening packs is a fun experience with all the alt arts and stuff like that. I didn't do that well but it was a fun casual event and I'm looking forwards to going back to the LGS to play other games! They're a huge Flesh and Blood location, and I kinda wanna pick up a Pokemon TCG starter deck too just for funsies.
Finally, after playing a one shot with my usual DnD group that's been on hiatus, I finally started getting my other friend group into DnD and have been DMing for them for Phandelver! It's honestly a great time, and I love that my friends have been getting into it. It's a bit harder to prod them into getting into character, but I think I've been finding ways to get them into it and they've been enjoying it.
I'm in the same boat regarding StS2 and Fallout. Saw the announcement of Slay the Spire 2 and immediately felt like playing the first game. So I have been doing the dailies again for that (and also Monster Train which is equally awesome). My favorite combos usually involve either 0-cost cards (shivs, claws, ftl) or lots of powers (noxious fumes, thousand cuts, after image), or preferably, both.
And I plan on replaying New Vegas soon since I too just finished the Fallout show. 3 is great too, but I just love me some wild west aesthetics.
Claw decks are always my guilty pleasure. I know they're not very good, but I can't help but force it every time. Powers spam for Defect is incredible too, I think my A20 wins were all from those haha. There's just nothing more satisfying than a Grand Finale deck, would recommend trying it.
You should try to set up Tale of Two Wastelands! It's actually not as difficult as I thought it would be, just takes an hour or so. I plan on going through both whenever I can.
Wow I didn't know about TTW, seems interesting. Reminds me of Skyblivion which would be Oblivion remade in the Skyrim engine (if it ever comes out). Something about those old Bethesda games just feels so nostalgic, jankiness and all. To this day I still jump around in pretty much every game I play because of Oblivion (you had an acrobatics skill that leveled up the more you jumped, so I jumped everywhere I went). And the sounds of the fallout games were more distinctive than I had realized. While watching the show, every time someone used a pip-boy or power armor or one of the vault doors opened I was like 'yup, that's the sound'. Even the radroaches sounded correct, lol.
This is the guide I used to set it up: https://thebestoftimes.moddinglinked.com/intro.html
Funnily enough, I didn't actually play Oblivion till way after, but I still do the jumping everywhere thing lol. The show was incredible! I loved the Fallout theme playing every time they showed -spoiler- and I'm so excited for Season 2 already. I think all the actors were really good too.
Content Warning has been pretty entertaining and it's been a while since my group laughed this hard at a game too. Would be nice if it allowed for more than 4 players though. We were rotating a few people between playing and watching the others via Steams streaming which still kind of fits thematically being influencers and all that.
Have you had any issues with mics not recording on the videos? It seems to happen randomly to us despite everyone's mic working well in the game otherwise.
I know they had mods for more then 4 people, but I think they closed that mod off after the server instability stuff that was going on, unfortunately. I dunno if/when they're gonna revert that sadly.
I haven't had that issue! to be fair I haven't made too too many runs through it but I'll keep a lookout for it. All of my ones saved to desktop seem to have sound.
Shoot, I wish we knew about that mod earlier! You're right, from what others are saying they have limited the player connections server side now so the mod doesn't work anymore.
Also the last patch says they've fixed some issues with player voices not recording but we still had it happen once this past weekend. For us when it did occur it was only one players voice lost on the recordings, the rest would work fine. It also was happening more often to the 2 people that were using push-to-talk, so if your group has it happen checking if they're using PTT is a good first step to troubleshooting it.
Maybe the person using PTT might have a similar binding to discord/Content Warning? or it's not the same button? Worth checking out, but maybe they just were talking in discord and not in game. That's the only thing I can think of, but I think we all just use open mic since we just mute ourselves on discord.
That was our original thought with the PTT users so I started applying a server-wide mute on our Mumble server while we were playing just to be sure. The rest of us were using voice detection and occasionally had the issue happen too, just with less frequency than the PTT users did. I'm sure the remaining issue will be sorted out soon enough with a patch.
God I loved Fallout 3. Is it playable? Like if I fire it up on Steam will it work well enough or does it need to be modded?
I thought it could, buttttt I downloaded it and it crashed when I saw Dad's face in the first cutscene lol. I think the TTW fixes a lot of the issues though so I'd recommend that. Linked it in another chain!
TTW requires a few mods that exist for FO3 to stabilize the engine, just a handful of FOSE plugins to tweak engine parameters, and ir should run just fine. FNV requires similar mods to not crash.
TTW is "the more stable" way to play but is also quite different than vanilla FO3. I didnmy first FO3 run with it and it was pretty great though.
I'll definitely have to check it out. I put 400+ hours into Fallout 3 so something a little different would be good too.
If you feel up to installing more mods on top of TTW, I recommend visiting WastelandSurvivalGuide.com and following the guide there. I just got around to installing TTW about a month ago, complete with a functioning TTW installation on my steam deck.
If you told 18 year old me that some day I'd be able to play Fallout 3 and New Vegas as one character on a handheld device, I think I'd have peed myself just a little out of excitement.
wait i really should have tried going through all that work on the steam deck, i forgot that that was an option! i'll have to try that next time i have actual motivation lol
DO NOT run the TTW installer on the Steam deck. It will take like a full day to complete the install process.
Hi-Tech Lo-Life made a video a few months ago giving a run through on how to get TTW working on a steam deck. The good news is that you've already done most of the hard work, assuming you installed it on a PC and it's working properly there.
I also have been doing some Slay the Spire - mostly Daily Climbs, but some A20s too. I found an annoyance! There's a card called "Infernal Blade" which costs 1 (0 if upgraded) and reads "Add a random attack into your hand. It costs 0 this turn. Exhaust." That emphasis is mine.
I was playing a game where I got unceasing top early, and managed to thin my deck out and take Clash - generally a garbage card - and Anger. It was mostly an auto-kill deck; I only had about 18 cards in the deck, and only 4 of them had a cost above 0. I was presented with an upgraded Infernal Blade as an option, and I figured that it would work very well. The next battle, I used it, got a Bludgeon, and figured I was on easy street... until that Bludgeon came around on the same turn and suddenly cost 3! I was not surprised per se, but I was disappointed. This would be easy to fix - either change the card to read "The first time you play that card, it costs 0," or actually fix it to cost 0 for the entirety of that turn.
Luckily I had some Warcry and Havoc as well, so I managed to get rid of the Bludgeon the next turn, and had enough gold to get rid of the Infernal Blade at the next merchant, but I very nearly gave up a really great A20 run entirely because the card didn't actually do what it says that it does.
I also have been playing some Fallout, because I watched the Fallout show, which I really enjoyed. I haven't actually played Fallout 4, but I'm going to go through Fallout NV again I think before trying that.
I also have been playing Magic... and DnD. We're on a trajectory together. ;)
Oh yeah, I've seen that "bug"(?) (probably not a bug, just mislabelled) before! I think it also happens with Distraction over on Silent which is what I'm usually playing. (Discard decks are the best!) Hopefully you got through the run though! I've been having fun remembering the general strategies and cards I like building though.
Woohoo! Honestly all good games and all enjoyable, hope everything is fun! I enjoyed Fallout 4 for what it was, but I also haven't gotten through it tbh. I intend to though, but I think I got about halfway before getting too busy in life and never getting back into it. Highly recommend Tale of Two Wastelands to try Fallout 3, that one is my favorite, personally! I remember staying home back in middle school just to play on my PS3 back in the day LOL.
Been playing Unicorn Overlord mostly. As a fan of the Ogre Battle series of games, it's a refreshing take on tactics games that has been missing for decades now. Real time strategy hasn't existed like this since Ogre Battle 64, and it's a good modernization of the genre. Think Fire Emblem meets Ogre Battle.
Also playing Helldivers 2 when friends are online. I'm super behind in the whole game, but getting in a few dives with friends is a great time.
Despite having entirely too many half-finished games going at the moment (Factorio, Disco Elysium, Kenshi, Warhammer 40K: Inquisitor) I snagged Noita the other week. I've had it on my wishlist for years, saw there was a recent big update and a deep sale so I figured it was time.
I am hooked. There's something about punishingly difficult Finnish games that really seem to draw me in for whatever reason as another favourite of mine is My Summer Car. Noita is on a whole new level when it comes to challenge so it's quite fitting that MSC had previously taught me a number of Finnish swear words that I've used liberally in my short introduction to this new game. After having made about 20 attempts I think I'm starting to get a handle on things, however my growing confidence has lead to my demise all too frequently. Perkele.
The wand crafting in the game is really something else. It's quite intriguing how much freedom the system gives you but as I've come to learn the cost of this freedom is often paid in blood... my own blood specifically. I've had two runs that seemed to be going quite well only to end abruptly while testing out a new wand setup in the safe Holy Mountain respite.
There also appears to be more to this game than I originally thought. Having been conditioned over the years to always try going "the wrong way" first, I've found stuff that makes me believe there could be far more in this world than just the cave you're initially meant to go into. I won't say anything else on that, spoilers and all. I'm quite excited to see just how deep this world goes and am doing my best to not look up anything at all, surely I'll figure out what that weird green tablet says and what this Kiuaskivi thing does beyond lighting even more things on fire.
Last night I finished my session after finally getting through the Hiisi Base area, my wands are pretty okay and I have a decent amount of health. Though I had to scramble to get into the Holy Mountain as about midway through the base a large worm flew by me, fortunately it seemed to be going after someone else but I didn't want to remain in the area with that thing lurking about.
Upon entering the Holy Mountain I was told that I had angered the gods, so I think I might be getting close to the final area. I saved the session there and will return tonight to see what horrible things these gods have in store for me.
The thing with Noita is that beating what you think is the boss is more like finishing the tutorial. You're correct that there's more to it, and I recommend avoiding spoilers for as long as possible. Get good at going down first and messing with the wand system (you're gonna kill yourself a lot). When you can consistently handle the first couple layers then try going sideways. Or, if you're especially daring, try going up.
Also, angered the gods? Have fun with Steve.
That's really cool, I'm glad to hear there's more than just going down into the depths. I actually died before even going into the cave for the first time; I went to the left and found the tree, then went up the tree and got an egg, became greedy, died.
A few runs later I was in the first layer and could see the other side of the mountain, had some awfully slow lightsabre wand and painstakingly chipped my way out to the surface. I ran through a desert to find a mysterious pyramid and entered, everything seemed okay until I stumbled upon a large green mass that wasn't doing anything. By this time I was already paranoid of the environment so I didn't chance it and left it alone assuming it was an area probably intended to be done when you're better equipped. I probably should have just taken the chance though as I was promptly killed by falling into acid upon returning to the cave.
I'm guessing angering the gods is all part of the standard experience and Steve is probably just another noita that upset these gods too, right? Are we going to have a god angering party down there? That would be cool...
Noita is lots of fun, in a brutally unforgiving way. I've been diving back in myself with the update. Going for as few spoilers as possible is the right move; Noita is a game that rewards exploration and experimentation, unless it's one of those times it punishes you for it (the creature that has killed me the most according to the game stats is myself). I'd enjoy updates on your playthroughs, as sadly the only way to recapture that initial exploratory experience in games is vicariously.
One note, the green tablet should automatically translate if you stand next to it for a few seconds (at least they do for me in English). Also have some notes on mechanical controls that aren't made quite clear by the game (or at least for me, I didn't realize they were a thing until I read someone else pointing them out), but just in case you want to avoid even those I'll spoiler them.
Game control notes
-Kicking moves in the direction of your cursor, not just away from you.-The force of objects launched by spells (dynamite, bombs, things like that) is determined by the distance from the Noita to your cursor, i.e. the farther your cursor the farther they'll go.
-Right clicking a potion icon on your inventory bar will drink 10% of it.
-You can drink liquids/eat some things by pressing down next to them.
And one hint that makes starting out a little nicer, in case you want it. It sheds some light on one game mechanic, but I wouldn't say it spoils anything.
What could it be?
That green tablet you found is a very practical and useful item.If you have any questions, feel free to let me know; I've done quite a lot of what there is to do and can use the wiki without fear of spoilers at this point, so if you want a hint or clarification on something I can serve as a buffer.
I'm a big fan of challenging games so I've been enjoying Noita's brutality so far and I'm not surprised that the player ends up being one of the biggest dangers to themselves. I'd guess about half of my deaths at this point have been by my own hands. I'll be sure to post an update on my misadventures in next weeks What are you playing thread for you.
I'll have to take a closer look at the tablet, I didn't hover over it for more than a second figuring that it would be deciphered by some game mechanic later on in the game. All I've been using it for so far is throwing it at things, it definitely helped me out early on in the Fungal Caverns with those big purple tanky squid things. I'm guessing the tablets (found two different ones so far) have some special use otherwise, they're too mysterious to not do something beyond being a fancy rock to throw at creatures.
I had figured out the kick direction stuff but it's good to know about the spell force depending on cursor distance. Also the right click to drink will be very useful, previously I was spraying potions on the ground to drink them. I'm still not sure what the point of eating is but I do know that very bad things happen if you eat way, way too much.
Might have to hit you up on that offer to avoid any big spoilers. The only thing I want to know right now would be is it possible to strip a wand of an "always casts X" modifier? I've found a really awesome wand but the problem is that it casts Circle of Stillness every time, which at first seemed great, but my game crawls down to a handful of frames per second after I cast it around 20 times making it mostly useless to me.
Thanks, I'm looking forward to the update. I appreciate a challenge when it can hit just the right difficulty sweet spot. Noita often frustrates me in this regard, but somehow I keep coming back anyway.
The secrets and puzzles in Noita cover an interesting range. Some are built on a personal level, where it's entirely possible someone will figure it out themselves. Some are built more on a community level, where the chance of any specific player doing the right thing is low, but the chance that somebody in the community will do it is high. Then there's one that people still haven't figured out. IIRC the progress menu keeps track of how many secrets you've found.
There isn't any way to remove an always cast from a wand, but there is one modifier that would do the trick here. The Spells to Power modifier does exactly what it says; converts spells around you into more damage for a projectile. If you found that somewhere, you could use it to clean up the old instances of Circle of Stillness. There are a lot of spells and modifiers though, so it's unlikely to turn up. Still, if you end up tossing the wand, maybe leave it somewhere you'll remember in case you want to double back.
A quick note on lag, the Gold is Forever perk can potentially cause some issues in longer games where you go off the beaten path. I'd avoid it myself.
It's helpful to know that some of the secrets are meant to be that obscure, and with that knowledge I'm going to give myself 24 hours of playtime after completing my first run before I start looking stuff up.
Not that it matters now since I died and lost that wand but I had that Spells to Power modifier near the end of my run! I didn't even try it as I figured Circle of Stillness didn't count as a projectile, assuming it was some kind of shield spell. Also I recall that Spells to Power had a crazy high amount of mana drain so it sat in my inventory unused.
When I returned to Noita last night I found Stevari in the Holy Mountain waiting for me which was a surprise, this must be the Steve that @Soggy mentioned. I'm really hoping I don't have to deal with mini-bosses in the Holy Mountains past the Hiisi base.
My main wand was pretty good as it had very low cast/recharge and a decent mana pool/regen. I had set it up using a couple sparkbolt triggers that then released even more sparkbolts with damage plus, it could burst about 900-1000 damage before depleting my mana and would regen fully in under one second. It was able to shred Steve and turn him into bone dust pretty quickly but he still managed to claim half of my HP. Luckily I found a hole in the ceiling of the Holy Mountain that must have been made by that worm I saw earlier. With that I took a chance and went back up into the Hiisi base, found a healer Hiisi and charmed it with some pheromone potion to make it heal me. I found out about that trick on a earlier run when I stumbled upon a healer that had already fallen into a pool of pheromone liquid.
Now making my way down into the jungle I had full health, was immune to explosions and fire. Things were looking up. Maybe it was because of my perks but the jungle was surprisingly easy so I took my time and collected an obscene amount of gold. I found the Dragoncave with the giant egg in it and played it safe by casting a silly number of Circles of Stillness around the room before attempting to break the egg open. I expected a dragon so I was caught off guard when the giant red worm emerged. Thankfully my precautions paid off and my wand was able to slay this worm of unusual size with relative ease. After that I continued on to the next Holy Mountain at the end of the jungle.
Again Stevari was waiting for me there but luck remained on my side and I ground him up before he could so much as lay a single boney finger on me. This time I got a perk that let me edit my wands anywhere which sounds like it could be one of the best perks one could get, though it would have been nice to get it a bit earlier in the journey. I continued on my descent into the Vault.
Dropping down into the vault things seemed to be oddly quiet for a change, all my other entrances into the previous sections were met with instant chaos and combat. Little did I know what waited for me beyond those stacked boxes.
I booted the crates out of the way like the unstoppable noita I was only to be greeted by two robot ninjas wielding lightsabres and shields... my wand was useless against them and I was made into a pile of minced meat before I could even comprehend how dire the situation was. Saatana...
You're definitely having the full Noita experience! Glad you're getting so into it.
That was fun to read, thanks for the update. Nice work shredding Steve, and finding out about the Hiisi healer trick; that one can really come in handy. My experience in the jungle matches yours, where it is noticeably easier than what came before. Hiisi Base is kind of where the rubber meets the road in the game though imo; the first couple biomes, you can muddle through with your starter wands if need be. The third is a significant step up, though it's a bit sparsely populated and with the wide open spaces you can rush for the holy mountain if need be. Hiisi Base though is cramped, full of enemies, riddled with metal, and stuffed with explosives. In comparison, the jungle is a nice quiet place to recover after the mayhem.
Then comes the Vault, and your nice tropical vacation ends. Sudden death is a quintessential Noita experience, so you can rest in peace knowing you're playing the game as intended.
The blessing / curse of Factorio is that it is inherently unfinishable. One of these days I really want to sit down and plan out an LTN megabase, but I always get bogged down in the middle sciences.
Very true, a friend gifted me the game and blessing/curse is exactly how I would describe his relationship with it. He has shown me his train network map that has been under construction for the last year, nearly 800 hours into it, and it is quite impressive to put it simply. If your plan is to make anything like what I saw then good luck because that is going to take some dedication!
I'm currently about 100 hours into my first factory with my only goal being to launch the rocket before calling that run complete. It's in the final stages of research now and can probably get the rocket launched in another 10-20 hours if I don't get sidetracked by tinkering with circuits again. Then I can start over, apply what I've learned and hopefully make a factory which is less of a spaghettified mess that I can expand forever.
My only piece of advice is not to start over, but to move over and keep building on the same map. It's a remarkable drag to be back at the beginning with small inventory, no bots, no plastics, etc. So much easier to leverage your first factory to build the parts for your second factory. You can eventually use the deconstruction tools to dismantle it if you really want.
I thought about doing that but want to play around with the world generation for the second run to make it more of a challenge. Having kept the default settings for my first world I found that the biters ended up being far too easy even with pretty light defenses. Also I want to take a look at some mods after this vanilla run is completed.
Anyone here have any experience with Divinity Original Sin 2 local co-op on the PC? I've played it plenty (love the game), but never co-op. Can I just connect two controllers and that's it? Or are there other considerations that I might need to factor in. This would be on steam big picture mode, if that makes a difference. Recently set up a PC for the living room TV and figured this would be a great game to play with my wife.
Fantastic game. It's been a few years since I've played it with local co-op but don't think there were any other steps other than connecting the two controllers.
Baldur's Gate 3 is also made by Larian Studios and also supports local co-op. Can't recommend enough.
So I tried a bit of the Suicide Squad game and as a long time fan of the Arkham series, I saw a spark of somthing special that I wanted to explore it a bit more.
So I decided to play the Arkham series again.
Took a little work to get it working on steam deck (just need to install GEProton and play in airplane mode) but Asylum plays like a dream in comparison to Suicide Squad. It's also amazing with regards to power usage.
Environments are rich and crammed full of detail. The Riddler prop puzzles were an amazing excuse to cram every room with somthing unique while also grounding it in the world. And because players will be scouring every corner of every room, it needs to be well designed and individually distinguished. On the other hand, not a fan of Riddler trophies. Sort of breaks the immersion to have needless dead ends for a collectable.
The best way to discribe combat is Meaty, every hit lands like a hammer and all the tools allows you to be creative or you can get by on button mashing. And I'm invested in every fight, not because I think I could loose, but because the combo must grow. I will say that while every upgrade does make a mechanical addition to the gameplay, I'd consider very few as meaningful game chargers.
I'm particularly enjoying the writing. It's classical comic book narrative style and a far cry from the "MCU dialog" that's we'd associate with the genre. Joker going nuts over the PA. Villains devouring the scenery. Civilians being in absolute awe of the Bat. Every goon having the individuality of a clone trooper. Everyone is fully committed to the fiction in spite of the absurdity.
Overall, I'm having fun and it's a shame that the Arkhamverse needed to be sacrificed on the alter of infinite live service multiverse nonsense.
What do you think is the best Arkham game to start with? I've owned the series for years on Steam, but being indifferent towards superheroes, I've never given them a chance, in spite of how great they apparently are.
The full Arkham trilogy makes for a good complete story. Asylum, City and Knight are complete games on their own and none feel like you're being short changed, but it's far more enjoyable with the context of the previous title. There's also plenty of lore and snapshots of the wider Batman world to discover. My plan is to split the series over the year just to keep the formula fresh.
There's also Arkham Origins and that is a bit of a tougher recommendation for me. It's a prequel that was made after the series, so starting with it feels like you're taking a technical step down. It's also the game that I enjoyed least and mostly because I don't like full prequel titles. We already have a complete story and a ton of context over 3 games so it feels like there wasn't much more to do. But beside that, gameplay is still solid and its by no means a waste of money. It just feels like the black sheep of the series.
I was forced to take a hiatus from Lies of P for the last week, but I was still craving the gameplay style, so I decided to jump back in to Dark Souls (Remastered) for the first time in about 10 years. It's still pretty great, though I'm realizing I'm missing a lot of QoL features from the newer games, such as teleporting to various bonfires (I'm in Sens now, so soon), as well as resuming where I previously was if I die as a phantom. I've died twice as a phantom so far and just find it obnoxious that I don't return to where I previously was, but instead go all the way back to my last bonfire. Minor gripes, but I'm definitely spoiled these days after Dark Souls 3. I probably should have gone back to Elden Ring instead of Dark Souls, but my last play session of ER left me feeling so annoyed with the game, I haven't felt like returning to it.
I've also been dabbling again with my New 3DS, primarily playing two things: Fire Emblem: Awakening and Tetris DS. To my surprise, I'm enjoying Fire Emblem. I tried playing the first North American release on GBA many years ago and just didn't really care for it in the slightest, Advance Wars was much more my speed (still is, I think), but I'm enjoying the story and the cutscenes and the gameplay isn't too bad either. I'm not sure I'll see it all the way through, but I'm enjoying it well enough so far.
Tetris DS has been great for the puzzles so far. My only complaint so far isn't with the game, but with the fact that playing DS games on a 3DS is like viewing them through a vaseline smeared lens in comparison to a regular DS. I could just use my DS, but I want access to all the other games and features that the 3DS gives me, so I suppose I'll stomach it for now.
Also, I just watched Band of Brothers for the first time last week, which enhanced my already severe World War 2 itch, so I'm finally going to give Company of Heroes 2 a go, solely for the Ardennes Assault DLC. I much prefer the Men of War/Call to Arms series as far as WW2 goes, but we'll see if CoH can scratch that itch, otherwise I may go back to Assault Squad 2.
Spent the last week mainly playing Rimworld. I know the "Anomaly" DLC just dropped, but I haven't purchased it yet, so was just using all the other DLCs, plus some mods.
I'm not very well-versed in Rimworld, this latest colony only being like my third or fourth, so it was a good learning experience. Didn't get too far into Ideology and Royalty, but I did play with some of the features from each, to see how it affects progression and all that.
I ended this colony playthrough (just over 2 in-game years) as the difficulty was starting to ramp up and I wasn't really prepared for that. None of my colonist had any good armor and most were still using crap guns or even bows and arrows. Yet scythers were starting to show up, along with 5-10 pawn raids (I did have like 10 colonists). But it was also getting very tedious to micromanage everyone. It's a lot to keep track of.
Next playthrough, I need to do better with research, along with setting up those "killing corridors" for defense.
Yet no one has said that they're spreading "Managed Democracy" via Helldivers 2? Yes, it's a farce, heavily influenced by Verhoeven's Starship Troopers, similarly lampooning fascism.
The game is incredible—when it doesn't crash and when you aren't dying constantly at the high difficulty levels.
In a nutshell, it's fast-paced third-person co-op PvE where you're almost always outgunned and you are certainly always outnumbered. It's just you and up to 3 other maniacal Helldivers to save the day or somethjng.
This week we played the shmup Star of Providence for our podcast on roguelike/lite games
Overall: we really enjoyed it! I played a lot of it years ago when it was previously titled "Monolith" and always had a great time playing it. Unlike traditional shmups, Star of Providence has a lot of room-based cover that you can hide behind which I think helps a lot with the difficulty curve for people like me who are somewhat green to the genre. My co-hosts and I typically play more "bullet heck"-level games like Enter the Gungeon or Binding of Isaac, but Star of Providence provides a nice bridge for us to get our toes wet into shmups without getting too deep into stuff like Touhou.
There's such a brilliant mix of NES aesthetic visually and in the sound design that would feel really at home on a CRT or in an arcade cabinet even. If you're a fan of Gungeon or Isaac you should def give Providence a look. Should be coming to the Switch soon as well.
I finished Baldur's Gate 3 on Friday which had devoured essentially all of my playing time over the last 2 months. I'm in awe of the scope of the game and can't really wrap my head around all the complexities of the story, with all its branching possibilities. I'd read an interview with the studio head, I believe, who talked about the N+1 design philosophy, ensuring that even if the player did the most insane off the rails things, they'd still be able to complete the story.
I completed most of the quests that I activated, though a couple I accidentally locked myself out of (like basically all of Karlach's quests because the guy I needed to be alive had died before I even met Karlach) and a couple I decided weren't worth my effort, especially once I realized there was a level cap. Still, there's so much of the game I didn't experience, like having Minthara as a companion. I didn't even meet Minsc in my playthrough. All of that took 88 hours according to the save file, and 110 according to steam.
Sometime way down the road I'll do another playthrough, but games of that magnitude take a lot out of me, so I don't have much interest in going back to it right now.
Now that BG3 is off the table, I'm looking forward to getting into some games I'd set aside. I started Baltaro this weekend and am definitely feeling the hook already. I also started Max Payne 3 for the first time, looking for something both dumb and action filled. It's certainly scratching that itch.
After a bit of a drought, I got back on a few games last week.
Finished off Firewatch, which I enjoyed quite a bit. Going into the game, I had been warned about the ending but I actually thought it was OK. My main gripe was that I was hoping all the choices we made throughout the game would have an impact on how the ending is presented, but otherwise I had a blast. Definitely worth the $2 I spent on it.
After that, I bought and finished Alba: A Wildlife Adventure. It's definitely a game intended for kids but honestly I wanted a bit more of a chill/lighthearted experience when I bought it, so I didn't mind. It's a super chill game where you have to scan animals across the island and try to clean it up. Very simple gameplay, lovely art style and music, and took about 3 hours to 100%. No regrets here either
In the meantime, I've been trying to finish up Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy - I've gotten through the first two games in the trilogy and just started the third. I've been enjoying the personality that the game exudes, even if sometimes I tend to just click through the (verbose) dialogue.
As my next games, I just bought Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, Journey and Before Your Eyes. Looking forward to completing them when I have the time!
Firewatch is great, and I think the concerns about the ending are overblown. But I'm also someone who values narrative over player choice which I know is somewhat of a divisive opinion.
Truthfully I think that any other ending would've felt incomplete or unearned.
Also, sidenote, I think you're going to love Journey based on the other games you've listed here. If you don't know anything else about it right now, don't look it up. Just play it!
Yeah honestly I was pretty happy with it. I just wish it called back to some of your dialogue choices while you're going through the end sequence. But I understand what they were going for - your experience and interpretation of the story will heavily depend on the choices you made, and the game doesn't necessarily have to do a bunch of extra legwork for it to hit home.
Glad to hear I made a good choice! It's been on my "to play" list for a while and I figured I'd grab it while it's on sale. Will share my thoughts when I get around to it!
I've been playing FFVII Rebirth and I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion, but I feel like it has one of the worst openings to a game in recent memory. It's just information overload with all of the systems, mini games, and mechanics. I think the game really clicked for me when I got to Junon, but man if you're doing open world content, pretty much the first 15 hours of the game is just the Nibelheim flashback and then running around the Grasslands pulling Chadley out of your ass every 5 minutes lmao. The open world content is... tolerable. It's not bad, but it's not super fun or memorable. What is fun and memorable are the main story beats like the parade in Junon.
I never played the original, so maybe the Nibelheim flashback didn't land as well with me, it just felt confusing trying to figure out the combat with a character who you'll never play again for the rest of the game.
I just finished Rebirth a couple of weeks ago and your criticism of the beginning is fair. Also, even though mini games were always a big part of FF VII, they kind of overdid it this time. I still think the game overall is great, and much better than part 1 of the FF VII remake.
I think I agree with your critique. Now I have played the original, so I was familiar with the Nibelheim incident. But it is long and kinda boring. And same with the Grasslands. I think it took me at least 18hrs to go from start of the game to the beginning of the next region. Granted, I was trying to do all the sidequests and such.
I thought Chadley was one of the most annoying characters I've ever seen in a video game when I played Remake. Glad to see he's taken on a much bigger role in this game...
Seriously tho, I would love an option to turn the little shit off.
Ha. I don't dislike Chadley, but yeah, now that you mention it, him constantly pinging Cloud every time an intel quest is finished is a bit annoying.
But he's not more annoying than MAI. I do enjoy the irony that even Chadley, who created MAI, is annoyed by her! Devs added a little "payback" for Chadley. Though we players now have to deal with both of them, sigh.
I did think the volume decreasing gag they did for Mai was clever. I work on dialogue for video games tho and it hurts every time I have to stop everything to pull Chadley out for some useless info. I'm at the point where if I do a world intel objective and I don't end up pulling him out at the end, I'm like physically cheering lol.
Pretty much all of Chadley's reactions to your scans could have been ambient and the experience would be 1000x better. And whenever I start one of the region bosses or a fiend intel fight, Mai will of course start talking and then I'll tune her out, but then halfway through the fight she'll still be yapping and I'm just shocked like has she been talking this whole time?! I don't think I've retained a single bit of info she's given during a fight, it's just not a well designed experience lol.
The flashback was also part of the original, I don't think you're missing out. Narratively it sets up a plot point that's going to be resolved later on, and also get you a glimpse of the antagonist pre-madness. Mechanically it also gives you a taste of what a end level character feels like, although here it also teach the player how to use the synergy mechanic.
But I also agree with your critique.
However, having played the original, I was constantly in awe at the graphics compared to what I remember so that was another point of motivation. The soundtrack is also a delight to listen to.
I guess it's time to write something about Islands of Insight. I played a bunch of this game and I'm far from done. I know this is unlike me, but this is, uh, a puzzle solving game. The developers boast "more than ten thousand puzzles!" That's probably true.
The best comparison for this game is The Witness, I'd say. Like The Witness, IOI features an open world crammed full of abstract puzzles which you can engage with and solve at your leisure. There are some key differences, though: Immediately, you notice this is an online game, and you can see dozens of other players running around the same instance as you, and they see you. There's also a lot more freedom of movement, with flight, double jump, super jump, etc. letting you reach everywhere with ease (even working around quest progression). Notably also, the world is divided in two types of areas: A big sky island divided in five regions, and many "enclaves" made of much tinier sky islands. Enclaves are designed areas with predetermined puzzles, and solving these is permanent and gives you "mirabilis," your main metric for progression (there is also a currency you can use to buy clothes and upgrades). The mainland, on the other hand, has randomly generated puzzles which reset every day. They can still be used for some types of progression and quests, but largely feel like a way to give players essentially limitless content.
While The Witness only has one main type of puzzle, with different areas introducing different rules, IOI starts you off by explaining five types of "puzzle". Throughout the game, this is expanded to a whopping 24 types of "puzzle". But they also introduce new types of rules to the "main puzzle type", the logic grid (which is about coloring tiles in a grid either black or white, and is extremely solid), adding up to 13 different types of rules that can appear in these puzzles. When you unlock a new puzzle type or logic grid rule by solving the enclave or a short tutorial progression of puzzles that first teaches it, it becomes available in the randomly generated puzzles of the mainland. Honestly, this progression is pretty well done. You really do get slowly better at all of these puzzles and mechanics, and they do get pretty challenging at the hardest levels. You can't look anywhere without seeing some kind of puzzle, and since many types can be solved very quickly, the game can be pretty addictive, with the player solving puzzle after puzzle, always thinking "just one more!"
I should stop here to say I wrote "puzzle" between double quotes above because these actually comprise different types of minigame beyond the abstract, self-contained ones (which are strictly the most interesting ones). Multiple puzzle types are perspective puzzles, which require the player to position themselves in the game world based on clues or other mecanics and click things - not too different from The Witness either, cough cough. Others are about going through things, chasing things and finding things in the environment, making them more of a grind. You have to learn to do these things, but you don't have to go out of your way to do more of them than you want to.
Jonathan Blow, designer of The Witness and by all accounts a pretty intelligent guy, has gone on record explaining that The Witness doesn't have "a plot" because they realized half way through development it was adding annoying friction to players' engagement with the game (or something like that). The developers of IOI unfortunately did not take this lesson to heart. IOI contains a crapton of, uh, sprites? Ghosts? Anyway, they have vague, abstract insights for you. They have names and such. There's a whole lore thing. According to my menu I have more than 50 pieces of lore I can revise at my leisure (and more to collect). I confess I don't care at all. I'm here to solve puzzles! I smash my keyboard to get through the lore as quickly as possible and do not read a single word. It's really not necessary or interesting to me.
Graphically, IOI doesn't look bad. It's this vast, vast expanse. You can see far away and fly all over the place. The five mainland areas all have different "biomes" of a kind. However, it's all crammed so full of ruins, buildings, puzzles, creeks, trees, terrain ruggedness, it just blends together. It's extremely busy to the eye, it's hard to spot anything (which some puzzle types definitely leverage), but worse, the "beauty" of the world can ring a little hollow. Don't expect The Witness's tight level design (one of the best in history, IMHO). Expect trees growing out of rock outcroppings.
I have yet to engage with the social features much. A friend of mine got the game but we weren't able to play together yet. Someone sent me a friend request and then I never saw them again. You can emote at people, but everyone's always running or flying around chasing the next puzzle (me too!) If someone stops long enough to notice you, they're probably AFK. I'm not sure the social component of the game is working at all; the game should have been designed with better incentives for cooperation. I do like that the presence of the other players makes the world feel more alive; if I'm going to solve puzzles for five hours straight at least I have company!
In summary: This is like a puzzle solving roguelite, in that it can keep you entertained for dozens and dozens of hours. It's addictive, it's fun, it's good at not getting too frustrating, and it will probably suitably exercise your brain. It can also feel a bit tacky and full of cruft compared to more carefully designed games, but you can just ignore most of that. You will get more than enough for what you pay for this game. If you just want something clever to do during those 5 minute breaks between things, you can use this game for that, but don't get surprised when the next time you remember where you are, hours have gone by.
This is the first time I've seen someone else talking about this game! I played through it and it's a really tough experience to describe, but I think you've done so better than I could. I was initially a bit worried that all the puzzles would be very simple and they'd gone quantity over quality, but that turned out not to be the case at all.
Things I liked about the game:
My problems with the game:
Overall it was very much a mixed bag. I'd still definitely recommend it to a puzzle fan, but probably with the caveat of not shying away from using a walkthrough for some of the riddle puzzles if they do want to experience the endgame content.
I agree with everything you said. I would like the map to remember everything I solve, and I really hate those stupid fractal puzzles.
Are those the mysteries up above lucent waters? I haven't tried any of those yet although I've unlocked many. Feels like I should unlock the whole map first.
Yep, those are the ones! And yes, I'd recommend doing them after unlocking everything else. I started on them a little earlier than that but they are very much endgame content.
I know I'm a bit late to the party but I finally started The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I got a really cheap used copy for the Switch and it's been really fun. I'm playing as a Dunmer (dark elf) and going for mostly magic, with some one handed swords as a backup melee weapon. The generic bugs & glitches are still present, and it's the first game that I've had crash the switch entirely to an equivalent of a BSOD, but otherwise it actually is quite performant and graphically comparable to other contemporary versions (at least to my eye). I do agree with keeping some of the general jankiness of the original (it's iconic at this point), but quest breaking and console crashing bugs feel a bit disappointing.
I've really enjoyed reading all of the in game lore books, which isn't exactly surprising considering I love in depth story telling & world building in novels and RPGs. I'd also argue that the game definitely has held up pretty well, yet at the same time makes Bethesda's more recent release, Starfield, feel all the more dissapointing. Notably its shallower story / world, and the egregious amount of loading screens (it feels like more than Skyrim, and even then many of those loading screens shouldn't have to be there in this day and age).
I think the only other oddity Ive found is the inclusion of motion controls. I really think they should not have included joycon motion controls if they are just going to half ass them. I tried them for fun and it just wasn't responsive. According to one friend who was with me when I tried it, it was less responsive than even the Xbox Kinect motion controls for Skyrim. They even managed to nail the gyro aiming for bows (at least with the pro con).
I think this may become one of my favourite RPGs, but definitely not the highest one by any means.
In unrelated RPG news, I just finished Tunic. I think this might be in my top ten games of all time, I've been slowly playing it "with" a friend who already beat it (he enjoys watching others play games) and I think it has to be one of the most unique games I've played. It definitely has many inspirations, whether that's old school Zelda (Link to the Past in particular), Souls, a few puzzle games, and it actually combines them quite well. It definitely does feel a bit segmented in their approach, much of the exploration and fighting is earlier while more puzzles arrive later, but it always has this sense of mystery beneath its charming / cute graphics.
In terms of more specifics, the "pages" mechanic to assemble the games instructions felt very fun, the Zelda Ocarina of Time esque target-lock combat system works very well and does actually challenge you (particularly with bosses), and the game uses its forced isometric perspective really well. The soundtrack is beautifully crafted as are the graphics.
It definitely isn't a game for everyone, I think some people will definitely just find it frustrating as it definitely throws you into the deepest end of the pool hoping you can swim. But for me it felt rather refreshing. It feels a lot more like older games where there's a challenge, but not necessarily in the way that some older games are just brutal (I know there's a better way of phrasing that but I dont have the words now)
Puzzle related spoilers, if you wish to play the game don't read the full version. There's two puzzles specifically that I found disappointing due to one feeling "bullshit", and the other was simple but tedious (I'd prefer mentally challenging, even if it takes the same amount of time without the tedious aspect)
I think the only two puzzles that I really hated were two of the fairy ones. The one fountain in the over world with the blue squares felt painful because the camera angle obscured some of the squares. A similar puzzle was in the cathedral (I think?) and it used candles without obscuring them, making it perhaps easier but it felt less "bullshit". The other one I hated was the broken golden obelisk, I knew immediately what I had to do and it just felt tedious. I prefer puzzles that make me think for a long time than ones that make me run around the map mindlessly.
Tunic has a great sense of discovery and nostalgia. I do like the fact that it plays with discovery of mechanics as a primary feature. That is novel and neat. But, it suffers because it only soft-gates some pretty important features, and that can lead to the player having a frustrating experience. Once the frustration sets in, the joy of discovery can't make up for it.
Details of my specific issues are spoilers.
I played through about two thirds of the game before I realized that I could power up my attacks and defense. I beat most of the bosses like this. Needless to say, it was incredibly frustrating. The way that the game presented the option to power up was incredibly opaque to me for two reasons: Firstly, the initial weapon progression went stick->sword. So I was primed to expect the game to provide me with bigger and badder weapons as I progressed. I wasn't clued in to search for direct power upgrades. Secondly, the actual mechanism to upgrade wasn't clear to me at all. I suspect that if the designer had included more english on that page, instead of purely symbols, I'd have discovered it much earlier. Also, the fact that the content of the pages would change as I played the game might have been an issue here, as well. I was waiting for some of the ???s to turn into useful symbols on their own - as had happened previously.The worst part is that when I finally did discover the powerup mechanic, it felt very hollow and unsatisfying. I discovered it too late, and all my stats went from 1s to 3s and 4s. Where I was previously playing a top-down darksouls game, I found myself playing a pretty easy beat 'em up, by comparison. It honestly ruined the rest of the game for me.
So, the lessons I take away from it are to have actual hard gates on core mechanics like levelling up, and avoid priming the player with a progression path that isn't actually the real progression path.
Tunic is a game where I commend the developer for trying something new and interesting, but my experience was bad and I don't like it.
Your exact issue was also the problem the host of "Tales from the Backlog" podcast had (episode 63). So much so, that either it's a common problem, or you are the host of said podcast :) I can't believe you (both?) brute forced it as far as you did without doing the thing. Given what I missed and how easy it is once you know, it makes sense that you missed it, but the difficulty must have been off the charts. My own frustration came later on, when I couldn't find a thing, which is obvious in hindsight...
this thing I missed
In the end-game, at night, I didn't know how to get back to the mine area once the sludge took out the bridge. I didn't find, or ignored, the route north from the mine in the day-time part, into the mountains, so I completely missed the shortcut that is a few steps past the door to the mountain. Once you know, there's even a blatant clue on the relevant manual page! I remained a ghost for ages, trying all sorts of stupid random crap (I was solving end-game fairy and statue puzzles thinking it might help, not realizing I was not getting any closer to what I actually had to do)In the end, in utter frustration I had to look up the solution, and as you say, once a certain level of frustration is reached it does sour the rest of the enjoyment. And looking it up really made me feel like a chump for having missed it.
Yeah, I really enjoyed Tunic. I particularly liked that 2nd puzzle you mention in the spoiler! I didn't realize what it was for ages:
vague spoiler for a puzzle, but not really
It took me seeing several similar pieces before it clicked. I took screenshots, and then drew the solution out on paper. It was pretty great environmental puzzle design IMO. I like it when a game has me taking notes.Discovering the first of those types of end-game puzzles, seeing the solution hidden but at the same time out in the open, was a bittersweet moment. I was torn between "yes!! I know what the big secret is!" but also, "damn, it's such a stupid thing to have to do!".
Anyway, I avoided Tunic for a long while after it was released because people said it was "too difficult", but I thought it was OK. Lock on targeting makes it fair and fun to play. The hardest parts, in terms of time spent trying to beat them, were the later puzzles.
I recently read something about a game called Dredge getting a film adaptation. I'd never heard of it before so I looked it up and it sounded right up my alley (single player Lovecraftian-themed fishing/exploration game). Picked it up on the Switch and did literally nothing else for the entire weekend. Not sure how you'd adapt it into a movie, but the game is fun and addictive in a good way. I think I've mostly completed the main game's story line and got my ship fully upgraded, so next weekend I'll probably wrap it up and then check out the Pale Reach DLC content.
Princess Peach: Showtime! on Nintendo Switch has been a lot of fun so far! The premise is a theater has been taken over by an evil presence; Princess Peach must use different skills to participate in ‘plays,’ to free the captured dudes, and defeat the evil one. For instance, one stage she’s a Sword-fighter, another a Detective, and another a Ninja.
I’m sure the game is made for a younger demographic, but I like its ease and story, especially after some rough days at work lately. There’s replay ability, since each stage includes these magical star fractals to collect, a secret ribbon for your magical creature friend to wear, and I’m sure more to explore. Princess Peach is very cool in this game. It’s been a nice change up from my usual Fortnite Battle Royale (No Build).
Fluxx is a card game everyone must know about. The rules are always changing, (tagline: The Only Constant is Change) but the basic rules start with ‘Draw 1, Play 1.’ Each player starts with 3 cards in their hand. The objective is to acquire the Goal. The Goal may change on anyone’s turn. So while you may have played the Milk Keeper, and the Cookies Keeper, ready to throw down the Milk and Cookies Goal – your hopes collapse – a Goal change, Rules change, or literally an Action card like Steal a Keeper is played, and your opponent gets that Keeper.
Or, another example, last night we played Astronomy Fluxx (there’s many themed versions), and my wife had these 3 planet Keepers (and unbeknownst to me, the corresponding Goal card in her hand). I had a crappy hand, but knew she was getting close, so I played the Supernova Action card – ‘Shuffle all Keepers in play (except for Galaxy, [another card I don’t remember], and The Void, and shuffle them into the discard pile.’ So, I ended up sacrificing one of my Keepers with that play, but ultimately prevented her from winning. Games can last anywhere from 2 minutes to 40, depending on how many players, how many decks (you can combine decks), and everyone’s strategy. It’s not the type of game for folks that must always win, and is easy to learn for folks of all ages.
Monopoly used to be my favorite game, but Fluxx has taken that spot. It’s much easier to find people that are willing to play a game, and much easier to store.
I kept up with Diablo II, and thanks to the gradual fraying of reality's threads had a wildly fun experience. I've been working on a character, Grognak, a Barbarian. I set out to play and not use any guide material/build information. It's been more than a decade since I played D2 with any regularity, I wanted that new experience again.
The way D2 is structured, the three difficulties are a single large progression. I won't bore you with details of that, but it means each difficulty pushes you into a new way of playing, because the rules get tighter/it gets harder and that means having to tune your character accordingly. The fun part came when I started screwing around with Suno, and inadvertently created Grognak's Theme Song. Theme song in hand, and a few lucky drops later, the build is consistently wrecking shit and making progress.
In D2 you get pretty attached to a fun character, so getting the Saturday morning cartoon theme song for mine made it feel pretty special. My build is successful too, thus far at least, because I've made it to Hell mode and have been running terror zones a bit to improve. Leap attack into Frenzy into Double Swing, "A machinegun of swords" I like to call it. With big crowds, dude hits so fast he can keep a squad at bay, stunning each monster and slapping the next one almost in the same moment. I'm nearly at six attacks per second with some room for further speed boosting, and I've really not touched much gear manipulation, so I'm excited to see how much further I can take this character. Hell is no joke; by that point in the game, it is trying to test you, poke at every little inadequacy and force you to adapt. I particularly appreciate that in D2 because it feels like the natural next step after what came before. Nightmare was mostly breezy, and I've been running terror zones to pick up some better gear.
The song cracks me up every time I hear it, and I ended up making quite a lot on Suno just to see how far I could bend stuff (I uploaded some examples if folks are curious).
Edit because I can't figure out what window to type in:
I've mostly been playing Rift Wizard 2 and recently picked up Sixty Four because it's an autoclicker that has a nice aesthetic ( I think from what I've seen I won't enjoy it a ton, but it was cheap enough I thought I'd try it. Gnorp Apologue is still the best thing I've seen in years for the genre).
MK1 has an upcoming DLC and patch that might give it some much needed life. Ermac looks great, but there seems to be some major cast changes, so hopefully it's them using what they've learned so far to take some of the rough edges of the gameplay and smooth them out.
Finally I have so many friends playing Helldivers that I think i'm eventually going to have to look into it, just so we all have something we can play together.
You are correct and I am exhausted. Thanks!