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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.
Control
Got it for free on EGS a while ago, slept on it for a long time, couldn't get into it, and finally pushed through the beginning. It was a blast, the feeling and feedback from your powers were incredible, and I loved the lore & atmosphere. The last part felt like a fever dream, and Jesse, your character, summed it up herself after a particularly intense section: "That. Was. Awesome."
All around that was an excellent game. It felt good to play, it was never boring, it did not overstay its welcome, and it was full of weird stuff. And now I'll probably buy the Ultimate Edition on Steam, because it's cheaper than buying the DLCs on EGS.
My only complaints are that the map and level design are confusing (though I understand this is kinda on purpose), and the levitation power is unlocked a bit too late.
That's a great game. I remember the first boss battle was very frustrating, so maybe the difficulty balance is slightly off. And I'm not sure if I like how enemies respawn in rooms that you've cleared, even though I know why they did that so you can grind. But it's really great art design, production values, and I like the physics engine.
Ah! That's exactly where I bounced back initially. Your character is still weak and there's this boss that is not only throwing concrete blocks at you, but also dodging the ones you send back, plus spawning normal enemies non-stop.
Just finished Life is Strange True Colors. Had been putting it off because I wasn't a fan of the second game, and the trailer didn't seem to show this one as being much better, certainly not comparable to the original which was a masterpiece.
But I found myself loving it, it's almost as good as the original game, much much better than 2 was. I loved the characters and writing so much. The only criticism I've seen that is a bit valid is the plot is a little small scale and the setting is very limited. Which are both kind of true, but it works. The power of emotion makes sense in a smaller scale and very character centric story. So I think it all worked well.
Excited to see if the new one just announced will hold up to this and the original game in terms of quality.
True Colors was so much better than LiS 2 (which I had initially skipped because of bad word of mouth but eventually went back and played earlier this year).
I didn't really love the ending, though. She's trying to convince the town of what happened
It was never really clear to me, either
But, I am looking forward to the next iteration. Going back to Max should be interesting.
Not really sure how to tag spoilers, so I'll say Spoilers here if anyone is reading and doesn't want to know.
She was grazed in the forehead by the bullet, it probably looked like any other scratch from the fall she received. Also if she had actually been shot directly with a bullet hole, she wouldn't have survived the amount of blood loss, it took her all night to get out of the mine.
Now that you mention it, the coverup does seem a bit confusing. Why did they need to blow the old mine at all? Even if he made a mistake, they framed it as an accident and he was a hero for saving everyone that got out. The only people who knew it wasn't a mistake would have been the actual miners that were there. Some inspectors going down to the old mines wouldn't be able to figure out it wasn't an accident. In fact it would probably be even more suspicious because of the blast residue and suddenly caved in mines that weren't before? That's a fair point.
But again I think it goes back to the characters and interactions is what made TC as good as it was. The plot wasn't the heavy hitter this time, it was the relationships, and this is shown in the council meeting. If you made the right choices and gotten everyone's trust, they come to your aid. If you didn't, well they won't. Kinda like real life.
I do agree it's a bit weird that if you get no support that everyone just thinks you're crazy or something. Like look at her, something clearly happened. But if you get everyone's support it's a very heartwarming ending with everyone joining your side.
I went back and watched the scene again because I was sure she was shot in the stomach and I thought the head wound was from her falling, but it's really not clear where exactly she was shot (and I'll concede she doesn't seem to be bleeding around her side and I can't see any holes in her sweatshirt in the cutscene) so my fall back here is how does he miss from that close of range lol
Anyway: minor quibbles. The game was much stronger on the whole than LiS 2.
Right before he shoots, Alex takes a step towards him, which could be enough to shift her head just enough out of the shot.
Alternatively, she raises her hand up and is clearly raging, even though we don't see it explicitly I think you could argue she transferred some anger into him which could be abrupt and sudden enough to throw off the shit as well.
But yes way way better than 2.
I saw someone else playing comment on the fact that it was really convenient that nobody walked into the mine from the entrance by the town that was just open and see all of the evidence of several dead people, their deaths of which were covered up. Either it's a glaring and damning piece of evidence that the entire town missed, or you can't actually learn anything from it, in which why would the company blow it up to hide nothing?
Also hiding an explosion in another explosion seems a lot more contrived than any other possible cover-up. Definitely felt like it was written backwards, they started with the results and then made up a plot to get there and hoped you didn't think about it too hard, despite being the focal point of the intrigue and instigating event.
Ultimately, it's porn or a dumb action movie, the plot doesn't matter, it exists just enough to get the characters where they need to be for the main event, which in this case is character drama.
I was under the impression that that incident was really deep in the mine, as it took Alex all night to find her way out. Like 10+ hours of wandering/finding a path.
It's probably unlikely any locals would venture that far into the mine, but an inspection would.
Ah, I worked on that! Always get excited whenever I encounter people who have played and enjoyed it.
Do you happen to have any thoughts on the upcoming LiS Double Exposure? I noticed it was a different studio making it compared to the original Life is Strange, but the same one as True Colors, and further noticed the studio has had some controversy stemming from internal issues. I'm excited to continue buying into and supporting the franchise, but I wonder if, from an insider's perspective, the internal company issues will affect the quality of the final product?
I don't mean to stoke the flames, and I'm sorry if this brings up any negative emotions, feel free to not respond if that aspect is not something you want to talk about
I don't have much to say on that mostly because I don't want my words taken out of context. I haven't worked at that company in several years so I really can't speak on how things are going there.
That being said, I'm really looking forward to seeing more of Double Exposure! I have friends who are still working on that and just like to support them.
Thanks for answering, that gives me more confidence in looking forward to Double Exposure as well!
4D Golf -
Fucking brilliant. Not just because of the AMAZING work they did making it function at all, but that they managed to make it pretty intuitive. You will need to sit down and think (or accept being 20 over par as you try things) your first time through, but it feels so so so good to get those "AH HA" moments where things finally click. And you can then start to play the GOLF side of the game rather than the puzzle side, and the courses are great.
Oh and it's got a marble mode and a level editor for the extremely ambitious. Cannot recommend enough.
SF6-
I'm a bison main, so yeah. Finally jumping in and trying to get used to the new mechanics now that there's someone I want to play.
Cult of the Lamb-
Been my steam deck timekiller. S'ok although i'm still somewhat early (only 2 bosses dead).
Other than that it's been a lot of next fest stuff:
Ironhive-
Frostpunk + simtower + STS. I love everything about it in theory but the demo was too short to really get a feel for how well it will work in the long run. If they get even close to nailing this i'm sold.
Metal Slug Tactics -
Only messed with it for a bit, but loved what I was seeing. Actually clever and fun, not just a cash in from what I'm seeing.
Kriegsfront Tactics-
Mecha tactics. Very barebones for the demo right now, but the potential is certainly there.
Aero GPX-
Scratches the hell out of that FZero itch.
Addicted to Dicey Dungeons currently.
Roguelike deckbuilder made by Terry Cavanagh of VVVVVV and Super Hexagon fame.
I tried Balatro before this but didn't really get into it. Dicey Dungeons I found easier to get into. Played it 4 hours straight on the first day I gave it a shot. Many more hours to be spent on it.
It's a great game, an so incredible much variety in the characters.
Lately I’ve been back into Stardew Valley, a little late to the newest update train but enjoying it nonetheless. It’s especially nice that most of the mods I’m interested in using have updated by this point too. I’m on summer of year 2 and just starting to get into more endgame content, which has been fun to explore since I’ve never had a save get very far into any content that requires community centre completion. That is, I usually start to lose interest once the centre is completed and I’ve married someone, and I can certainly feel that this time around too- hopefully the later game content comes soon enough and is interesting enough I can keep playing for another year or so, but I’m not so sure it will be.
As a request, I’ve been having the urge to play Skyrim again, and I’d like to find an alternative which scratches the same open world RPG character creator itch, if possible. I’ve played it too many times to have much fun running through Bleak Falls Barrow again, and I’d love to experience something new. TIA.
I have not been playing games over the last month or so, but I have been reading a lot about them with all the summer games fests going on. I have been watching all the Dragon Age: The Veilguard news with interest because it has been a favourite franchise of mine. However, my expectations have been low ever since Bioware shat the bed with Anthem and then completely failed to suck me in with Andromeda.
The trailers and previews for DA:V have not been encouraging for my preferences, but it has made me want to finish my second playthrough of Inquisition and complete all the DLCs. I have of late had a very bad habit of not finishing games, and Inquisition is one of them. I tend to run out of steam in big RPGs around the 60% completion mark, mainly because of work/family commitments. So I have quite a back catalogue of half-finished games at the moment, including Inquisition, Divinity Original Sin 2, AC: Odyssey...
So, regarding DA: Inquisition, other than Trespasser DLC (which I believe is crucial for the DA:V story), is it worth doing any other content like the Jaws of Hakkon?
It's 80% or so for me, but when I quit I think it's 90%. It's not usually because of commitments either, I just have a thing about finishing RPGs. I think maybe it has to do with being trained over 30+ years to complete everything before committing to the Point of No Return. It's engendered a general anxiety about endgames, somehow.
I've never had much anxiety about endgames other than frustration at final bosses. I hate bosses as a general rule, which is why I've never played any of the Souls games. If I can't beat a boss after 2-3 times, I stop having fun. Yes I'm lame :)
I'm with you. I want to like Soulslikes, but after about the fifth or so time beating down the same trash mobs on my way to the next bonfire only to get skewered by some asshat who jumps out from behind a blind corner, my interest begins to wane. I think I understand the appeal of honing one's skill through repetition until you reach the flow state, but I got shit to do, Jack.
I'm not sure if I'd call it anxiety but I totally understand what you're talking about.
There's always this gnawing in the back of my mind questioning if I didn't miss something, or screwed up something. I remember managing to soft-lock myself in FFX at the end of the game to the point I couldn't finish it.
It stuck with me I suppose.
I picked up Empires of the Undergrowth about a week ago. It bill itself as an RTS, but it's not like the traditional RTS games. It's more akin to the Settlers series of games, where the player acts as a general, issuing vague "go here please" orders and hoping his units will follow them. Manipulating units has a lag associated with it, and micromanagement is very different from a traditional RTS. This is the most positive way I can write about the controls of the game.
I don't recommend this game, even though its got an overwhelmingly positive review. I'd only recommend it to people who plan to play the first third or half of it, and then let it drop. The first several missions are pretty good. Discovering the general mechanics is fun, and the theme and presentation are great for an indie title. However, the poor pacing and balance issues become apparent in the latter half, when the game expects players to re-play the same missions over and over to memorize the pattern of scripted sequences. Worse of all, the game makes no concessions about this - you'll be playing the same missions, hearing the same dialogue, clicking away the same tooltips, over and over until you beat the level. The only way to avoid hearing the repeat dialogue is to turn off all dialogue and tooltips, but then you risk missing out on the new stuff. It's a terrible design oversight. And you do need to hear the dialogue. Several stages provide key hints on how to handle the scripted sequences by listening to the things said by the scientist. (This is actually a potential accessibility issue, because if you can't hear the words, then you'll have to figure out the unintuitive scripted sequence mechanics via trial and error - which means many, many, many complete level restarts).
There is no saving during missions, so you'll have to restart if you make too many mistakes or are too slow, or happen to fail at micromanaging (which is very challenging to do) in the later missions.
There's a lot more I can say about this game, pro and con, but my overall thoughts are to avoid if you're looking for an RTS. If you like the Settlers series, you might enjoy it. But definitely be prepared for the rough edges and repeat missions.
It's a fun game for a few hours. But it's a flawed game overall.
The Steam Next Fest highlight for me was Hollywood Animal
It's a tycoon game made by Weappy (This is The Police) where you run your own movie studio during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Along the way, you need to balance things like actor and director demands in between managing production schedules with some light building mechanics, so you need to build up a healthy pipeline of movies to keep the money rolling in. You can crank out cheap but profitable slop or risk it all for critical and commercial acclaim on one big budget production.
The level of management control the game gives you is very much production level control and not individually placing boom mics on the set, you do sweeping decisions like choosing directors and producers and letting them to do their thing.
The game has mechanics that let you do period-appropriate underhanded tactics to one up your competition and stiff your talent. Do you risk casting a well known actor that fills theater seats but he's a misogynist so you can't cast him in your romcom pipeline? Get a cheap talent that you can build up to be the next rising star? Withhold payments to an actor's estate who died during production and sort it out in court? Would the general public accept women leading roles in action movies in the 1920s? Build up a team to get dirt on your talent so you can blackmail them if they get ideas like asking for a raise?
My main gripe with the demo is it's not quite clear with some systems like how your crew affects film quality during production. You might have a great 8.0+ script that drops to 6.0 during preproduction and goes up to 7.5 after production. Am I capped by the director's skill assigned to it? Is it due to the numerous production delays demoralizing the crew? Because the game does show this in other systems like how filming on location affects the schedule and costs. Another is determining how many prints to send to theaters. You get some estimate of seats if there's a competing movie during your release period but nothing if you're the only one releasing at that time, so it feels like releasing your films into a black hole. This probably should be a mechanic where you get better estimates proportional to the skill of your marketing department.
And it might be on the demo or I haven't seen enough of the tech tree, but also not being able to have more than one writer attached to a production, swapping out key people in the middle of a troubled production, and not being able to demolish buildings once you've unlocked better ones like soundstages.
I definitely like what I'm seeing here. Now I want something similar set in the modern period for TV production where instead of having your own in-house Pinkertons, you have to ruthlessly compete with streaming services, piracy, lean budgets and dealing with unionized talent and crew.
Have you ever tried this older game called The Movies? It was made by Lionhead. I remember it being a blast, and very much like what you are describing. You could also make your own movies in it, since you had granular control over the sets, props, etc. The only downside is that the game is abandonware, so it can't be purchased on any storefront.
Yeah, my memory always assumed it was a 90s game when it was actually released in 2005.
There's attempts to become its spiritual successor like Blockbuster Inc and Movies Tycoon but both didn't grab me. Might be from the lack of the charm and whimsical style from Lionhead and Bullfrog games even if the mechanics where wholesale lifted from the original. To me it feels like SimTower where I'd rather just grab the original and play it again.
Hollywood Animal is leaning into the more serious and business side of running a studio which I appreciate them doing their own thing instead.
Marvel's Midnight Suns
Was free on Epic Games last week. I played through the intro/tutorial bit up to customizing my character and just about to leave for the next mission. The writing seems pretty poor. Every time Iron Man makes a quip, I can recognize in my brain that it's "quippy" but doesn't make me smile or laugh. I didn't seem to be able to reliably see the enemies' health before I attacked them or used environmental actions (ie bashing an enemy with a nearby rock). Maybe I was doing something wrong. Unsure at this point how I feel about the system of accruing hero points to play certain cards, would need to play more. There were a bunch of cutscenes, and the plot is heavily in the magical part of the Marvel universe which I like the least. I like Blade, but the few lines I heard from him didn't do anything for me. Overall, not enjoying it. Probably not picking it back up.
Slay The Spire: The Board Game
Finally finished the 4p run we started a couple weeks ago. I think it was about 5 hours for each session. We will probably play again, and hopefully we can get through it a bit faster. I would say the run itself went very smoothly. Biggest hiccup I'd say was that we didn't flip any energy relics off the first boss so we were all stuck on 3 for a while. We didn't take too much damage and were able to aggressively path to elites and pile up a bunch of relics.
I played as the Watcher and my first few card rewards were Calm/Wrath switching ones and it felt like my deck was doing it's thing pretty early on. They nerfed Rushdown though! Can't go infinite. Which makes a lot of sense for a cooperative game. They buffed Alpha though...in that they skipped it and Beta and go straight to Omega. That was fun, but still a bit tricky to find the time to play it and not take a bunch of damage.
I also started a 2p game with the game owner as Defect. Orbs seem way more powerful in that they can be evoked from anywhere, not just the front, and Dark orbs scale with number of powers in play rather than over time. Only got through the first act with him but also having a good time.
If you like the StS video game, like board games, and can stomach the price, I would recommend it!
It takes a while, but I really enjoyed how characters grew through the campaign. Iron Man is definitely supposed to be annoying at first, and it really shows during his interactions with others.
I've never played anything involving cards before this game, but at some point it just clicked for me, and the fights became fantastic. Each attack/action is always successful, unlike X-com, and I loved calculating every single move.
The most divisive part of the game seems to be the abbey - I really enjoyed it, meeting with others, discovering new map parts, secrets, story, etc, but it is completely different from the fighting part, and I understand how for some it might be tiresome.
I've done nothing but play steam demos over the past week (and play Defend The Rook before that). Like several hundred GB worth. As in I searched "demo" in my steam library at one point and over 200 results showed up. On the plus side, I did find a lot of stuff I vibed with; here's my top 6 since bullet points stop being comprehensible past that:
Some more stuff I'm keeping an eye on
Some stuff I thought had nice pixel art, but seem too dark for me
Defend The Rook
Roguelike square-grid tactics (board is 9x9 spaces) with 3 heroes, 3 towers (along with a contraption and trap choice), 3 random spells to keep each run interesting, and your flying wizard castle which you have to keep alive (that's the rook). Each run has 5 stages with 5 waves of spawning enemies; after every wave you get to choose a new perk for one of your heroes and after every stage, you get to use the gold and exp to power up your equipment/heroes respectively. Each cleared stage gives 1 gemstone for meta-progression (mostly in the unlock new sidegrades kinda way) and there are 10 ascensions which I got my fun out of and would rec as a good bundle grab.
Now the game isn't perfect of course. I don't believe the balance was fine-tuned because it feels like some heroes and towers are very obviously better than their alternatives. The game as a whole incentivizes damage, AoE, and multi-hits to kill threats asap as per the norm for this genre:
Taking all of this together, my gameflow usually resulted in putting all my perks into the rogue slot as they have the most damage upgrades and opportunities to attack again; in contrast, the fighter slot is divided by survivability upgrades and the mage slot needs too much luck and investment to get the chain-lightning/AoE going. It feels "solved" to me if that makes any sense, with not much need to change up tactics.
I also felt some UI issues:
Upgrades
Beeline for Upgrade Spells 1 (total of 3 packs of random spells to pick from instead of just 1 pack) and Upgrade Contraptions 2 (Loot Courier can show up as an enemy, kill them for a hero perk).
Contraptions has the most useful unlocks imo and spells matter the least due to randomization and debatable usefulness. So Contraptions > Heroes > Spells. Admittingly, I'm not sure about the exact perks that show up as a result of the Hero tree.
Unit Loadout
A7 doubles upgrade costs for everything, so I'm mainly judging how good everything is at a base level.
Fighter Slot
Elven Commander > Warrior >>> Samurai >>>>> Barbarian
Prioritizing their ability to facetank followed by damage.
Rogue Slot
Ranger >>> Consair > Rogue > Mercenary
They're all usable due to the Rogue Slot's many useful perks, but the Ranger and Consair have the advantage with their range.
Mage Slot
Banshee > Black Witch >> Sorceress >>>> Possessed soul
Can become the AoE unit/have chain lightning, but needs luck and investment.
Rook
Fortress > Sanctuary >= Rook
Contraptions
Hero Banner >>>>> Boom Barrel >>>>> Barricade
Can place 2 of these
Traps
Mines > Bear Trap > Freeze Spell
3 traps to lay down, and a lot of Rogue perks involve them.
Long-Range Tower
Cannon > Motar >>>>> Sniper
Mid-Range Tower
Frostbolt >>> Arcane > Lightning Rod
Short-Range Tower
Eight Gem > Splitter > Emerald
Spells
Beating A10 allows you to custompick for each spell slot
Low-Tier Spells
Lightning Rod > Sight Tracker >= Bolt of Speed > Zap > The rest
4 uses per stage.
Mid-Tier Spells
Invigorate >>> Weighty Blows >= Boulder Toss >= Rockspear > Mind Control > The rest
3 uses per stage.
High-Tier Spells
Shadow Clone > Duplication > Earthquake >= Hysteria > Bloodlust > Static Storm >> Stoneplate >>>>>> Obliteration
Brotato
I'm attempting to clear all the characters on Danger 5.
I'm down to only five left: Mutant, Arms Dealer, Streamer, Fisherman, and Soldier
Through a lucky turn of events, we got ahold of an OG HTC Vive and have it set up in our play area for standing VR. We found out that it's not actually a hard requirement to hang the lighthouse base stations above our heads, it works surprisingly well with standing VR, putting the lighthouses on tables, and this way is much easier to put away to make space. Now we're getting into Beat Saber, and it's great fun! Too bad about the majority of songs being paid DLC, and the game being owned by Meta, but oh well
We're lucky we were able to get this instead of paying for the PSVR2 that was on sale recently, of course the Vive's resolution is lower, but it's still super exciting to finally try some VR titles I've been wanting to!
If you're playing on PC, you can mod Beat Saber and get custom songs in it (and not only - as an example there's also the entirety of Shrek 1, for what it's worth). Some of them can also get extremely creative. Check out bsaber.com for info on how to do it, and beatsaver.com for songs.
If you give it a shot, try out two tracks made by nyri0: Dondante and Ghost Choir. They are quite different from the base game, I promise you won't regret it :)
Oh, Beat Saber mods are definitely something we'll have to look into. Thanks to you and @turmacar for the suggestions!
As TumblingTurquoise said there's a ton of modded songs and they have a pretty plug and play launcher/downloader for them.
The quality varies, especially if you're not playing at at least I think Expert, but there are also some absolutely fantastic ones. I never got into the "higher" end stuff that looks like a bullet hell but still found plenty that were lots of fun to play.
Caravan Palace - Lone Digger is one I remember. Looking it up I think by calijor?
That Lone Digger map is SO good!! Modded Beat Saber is so much fun, it’s too bad new updates always break mods.
Went through INDIKA on the weekend. Pretty damn good. Haven't seen a game that pushes the boundaries of the medium like this since maybe Hellblade, which had similar themes, although Indika is a little less involved and there's no combat or QTEs. Much more chill. If you're gonna grab it, definitely go in blind, it's one of those.
This one definitely looked interesting to me, but I put it on my wishlist several weeks ago, because I figured I wasn't going to play it immediately.
Still playing Trackmania, still going for the silver medal on every TOD track (I see no point in grinding for gold, and going for it only if I realy like the track).
Other then that I accidentally tried Oxenfree and become veery curious. Usually I don't like this type of games, but first hour hooked me.
Also playing idle/incremental Idle Elements on Android and few other (SFW and not SFW) incrementals/idles.
Waiting for Lightyear Frontier and The Lonely Outpost to go out from Early Access to continue playing. Both games are Stardew Valley inspired farming simulators in space, first in 3D using giant mecha, and second more similar to SV but quite interesting for me nonetheless.
There's a NSFW incremental game? The hell?
Usually not a very good quality. Some specimen can be found on Nutaku and Steam of course.
Feels a bit silly, but I got sucked back into Pokemon Violet and am absolutely hooked on tera raiding. The challenge of dealing with the tera type plus the attacking pokemon's original typing moveset just scratches a puzzle solving itch and I'm having a great time with it. It's the most engaged I've ever been with the endgame mechanic in a Pokemon game. It helps that it's super easy to adjust your stats and abilities in this entry
I don't know how theidea came to be in my head, but a few days ago I had the urge to play X-COM: Apocalypse. Running Linux and not wanting to aetup DOSbox, I tried Steam version. Didn't work. Then I learned about OpenApoc and what a great job someone did on that! Not only does it work simply by pointing at .iso file (that comes from Steam), it also auto-udjusted to my screen resolution of 1920x1080px. I can see so much on one screen!
The game itself - This was basically second installment of XCOM series (technically third, but...) and you don't defend the world here, just one city. The combat style can be picked at every mission start - either realtime or turn-based. I went for realtime and let me tell you - the game is FAST. After just a few hours I already have most of the rrsearch done, I have alien weapons, I have my own-built ships... I'm far from completing the game, yet I'm very near in totally dominating it. And I love it! It is still as good as I remember - unforgiving game from the old times. You can get your ass kicked literally in seconds when playing realtime - I'm talking your squad of 12 soldiers dead in 10 seconds after starting mission. Or they can be totally fine! Which is what I love here - you never know how it will turn out. Well, if you're not save-scummer like me :-)
I won't recommend the game here. It is very old, controls are not intuitive, pacing is either slow (turn based) or too fast (realtime) and if you don't know how to play the game (stun enemies, bring live ones, build/situate the base, what to buy and use and what don't...), you are pretty much screwed from the get go. For anyone who played the game and know stuff, I don't need to write anymore - you just know if you like or hate it. I'm having a blast playing it!
Horizon: Zero Dawn on PC/Steam Deck. I got it pulling 60ish on the deck, through a dock on a 1080p TV, at 720p. It still played pretty good.
I bought it on sale a while back and it's a great game. I was worried it would be like Assasin's Creed with a ton of fetch quests, but has a really nicely polished combat system, and is surprisingly great for controller. I started with controller to see how it felt, but like the first game I played on this engine, Death Stranding, and think I'll finish on controller. It's been fun so far.
Vampire Survivors: The road to 100% is what I have decided to call my run. I want to 100% the 1.0 then the Extra collections, then go through the DLC.
I got 100% achievements in Pokeclicker last week. Over three thousand hours of gameplay and/or idling. Everything done. I'm not sure why I did this. I never play clicker games, I only engaged with Cookie clicker for an ascension or two before I lost interest. This caught me. Its grip never let go.
I was going to just leave it at "why the fuck did I do this?" to see if anyone else braved this stupid, stupid challenge in here. Typing this prompted me to check if there was an update. Today! Back to the Nacli mines.
It's been a while since I posted, but I'm still almost exclusively playing Destiny 2: The Final Shape. The expansion is really, really good. There's just a boat load of fun content! The campaign was great, the new weapons are excellent, post-campaign was great, Dual Destiny was amazing, Salvation's Edge is one of the best raids they've ever done. This expansion is absolute top tier and I'm glad Destiny is back in form! I'll still be maining this game for the forseeable future, but I'll at least be taking a break from it for a week for Shadow of the Erdtree! I didn't get the chance to complete the Salvation's Edge raid on contest mode, but I have done a couple clears so far on normal, along with all the encounter challenges (encounter 4's challenge was so fucking hard) and I did get Euphony to drop already!
In addition to me playing Elden Ring later this week, I did get an itch out of nowhere tonight to play a fighting game, so I'm thinking Street Fighter 6 might be my next purchase, after I'm done with Erdtree and after I want a few weeks' break from Destiny.
I'm still hammering away at Skald: Against the Black Priory and I still love it. Slowing down a bit maybe, but my party is about level 18, I'm 20 hours in and I think I'm well into the back half of the game. Finished the island you land on initially and I think I've fully explored the archipelago, so I just set foot on the northern most island (as far as I can tell) and I think I'm speeding toward the end.
One thing that has put me on the back foot is finding enemies that are immune to critical hits. I rely heavily on my rogue for backstabs, but she's basically useless in this case. The other problem is, my physical damage dealers also end up kind of useless, because often the things that are immune to crits are also resistant to physical damage, so those fights were an absolute slog with only one Mage. Hopefully I'm past them now, because I haven't found any spells or anything to mitigate that weakness in my party.