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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.
This week, I finished the version 2.3 storyline of free-to-play Chinese gacha game Honkai: Star Rail, and I’m extremely enamored by it and the arc it concludes. The writing here is very impressive, frankly some of the best I’ve seen in a video game, and that’s a pretty high bar. HSR is structured like an episodic JRPG, where each major arc, lasting for around four major patches (6 months), takes the cast of characters to a new planet where they meet new allies, solve new crises, and explore new themes. It’s an interesting structure that, to my surprise, kind of justifies the game’s live-service content schedule. The latest arc, which takes the crew to Penacony, a Vegas and Roaring 20s-inspired dreamland in the throes of capitalist decay, boasts probably a 30-40 hour main story and as much side content again, all added as free post-launch updates. It’s hard to imagine a traditional singleplayer full-price release doing this: a major, lengthy and in my opinion very good narrative, fully playable for absolutely free, that will, of course, be followed by more major arcs with similar structure and delivery schedule.
I guess it's like a TV show, in that way: regular “seasons,” or arcs, with each “episode,” or version update, continuing the overall seasonal story while also functioning somewhat as a self-contained narrative. If you play, say, a live-service multiplayer shooter, you’ll have experienced the “content treadmill,” grinding each week, each update, in order to unlock the ability to grind more, do more of essentially the same gameplay for hundreds of hours. But Star Rail is primarily a story game, and grinding is only necessary if you want to challenge the toughest endgame content as a free-to-play player, so it feels less like I’m logging on each week because I have to (keep up with the meta) and more because I want to (see where the story goes next). So what about that story? Well, I’m a bit mixed on Star Rail’s writing and presentation as a whole. Out of the three major arcs that have happened so far (the one that was in the game at launch, and the two added so far post-launch) only one, the most recent, is really great in my opinion (the other two are.. fine, but more uneven, with high peaks and low valleys). But that newest arc, the Penaconcy arc, feels like an almost perfect realization of a strong, unified creative vision that conveys its themes really successfully.
At the start of the arc, the game poses its central question: “Why does life slumber?” It’s a sort of abstract and odd question, one that didn’t really pique my interest. But as the story progresses, you’ll meet maybe a half dozen major characters who have been confronted with the same question, whose deeply personal answers will lend it a lot of philosophical and symbolic depth. Right at the beginning, one such character poses a nihilistic thesis: “Imagine if this splendid dream were fated to fall apart… everyone, and every face they remember, the joy and the heartache; the vows sealed and those left hanging – all will inevitably march toward a predetermined ending.” It’s a telegraph of how the story might end, and it had me convinced I knew where Penacony was going. Shortly after this conversation, you enter the Penacony dreamscape for the first time – essentially, a casino-cum-outdoor mall that can only be accessed with the dream tech from Inception, and it’s pretty overwhelming. I can only really compare the feel of the environmental design here to Cyberpunk 2077. The soundscape plays a major role: brash, bombastic background music, the hum of traffic, overlapping advertisements blaring from every shop window, the slot machines dispensing their auditory dopamine. So does the side content, if you choose to engage with it: pay to nonconsensually access your acquaintances’ dreams! Use a special technique to control NPC’s emotions! Help an impoverished shop worker decide whether or not to give up on her hopeless dreams and commit symbolic suicide! In previous arcs, our main character took on the role of dumpster diver or package inspector for light, airy diversions from the story. Here, she’s instead offered the chance to be a non-consensual therapist and/or a deranged gambling addict. It’s uncomfortable stuff, honestly, contributing to the overwhelming atmosphere, and the sense that something is deeply wrong here.
So, based on the opening hours of the story, and the very effective, cohesive environmental design, you think you see where this is going (or at least, I did). “This story” (I thought) “is a cynical, nihilistic critique of capitalism and the American dream. It’s going to end with the dreamscape being destroyed, and that outcome not being such a bad thing.” Which, if the story headed that direction, as it seemed like it was going to with its opening act full of overwhelm, melancholy, and death, would have probably been fine. But now, with the arc wrapped up, I can safely say that the direction the writers took things ended up being much more interesting. By giving you this nihilistic, negative first impression, the game primes you to empathize with the secondary antagonists who want to destroy the dream. It fills you with skepticism for all of your allies who see value in the dreamscape, and what it can represent. But of course, nihilism is the breeding ground of existentialism. Skepticism of the environment pushes you to value the people in it, and the connections you form with them. So when the story eventually takes a turn towards optimism, empathy, and embracing the absurd, it is, for me, extremely striking and effective.
The story isn’t without faults, of course. It introduces a couple more characters than it probably strictly needs, due to the developers’ desire to 1). set up future arcs and 2). meet the monthly quota of saleable assets (the game is monetized by, essentially, selling playable versions of the likeable – and sometimes needlessly sexualized – characters that you meet in the story to players who didn’t save up enough in-game currency to get them for free). The pacing can be a bit weird, in that anime way where you’ll suddenly take a detour into a fluffy talent show episode during the rising action. And while the English localization is generally great, sometimes it leans a bit too flowery and metaphorical for my taste. HSR really feels like it’s trying to do this Disco Elyisum thing with its writing style, where the dialogue just dances on the edge of purple and pretentious, in a very self- aware and self-indulgent way, and usually it works, but sometimes it’s not so deft and the complexity of the writing obfuscates some point instead of illuminating it. To me, though, these issues are essentially cosmetic. HSR’s Penacony arc manages to tell an extremely cohesive postmodern story with some really strong characters and a refreshingly hopeful, empathetic and pro-human tone. It manages to be alternatively funny and profound; to embrace sentimentality without turning a blind eye to the problems facing modern society.
Maybe the best thing about Honkai: Star Rail is that it’s doing something that no one else in the gaming space really is. The episodic structure that it uses gives the writers and designers a lot of space to explore different ideas, aesthetics, and themes. It fosters community discussion (much like a weekly TV show release schedule does). And it allows the story to stay surprisingly current, even to reference memes before they get stale (for better and for worse, HSR is the only game I’ve played that seems to really get Zoomer humor). As a whole, the game is… well, it’s hard to recommend. If you have an addictive personality, or poor spending control, you should not play it. If you have low tolerance for messy pacing and uneven quality between arcs, you might not enjoy your time with the game. But personally, as a low spender staying current with the story without really stressing about the endgame combat challenges (the best way to play this type of game, probably) I’ve been really moved by the game and am very interested to see where it goes next.
I'm impressed with the detail you've shared.
As someone who hasn't played many JRPGs, but is looking for some different casual gaming options on phone, would you recommend it? Is it something that can be picked up and dropped easily?
Hmm. I would at least recommend playing through the first major arc -- the one that takes place on the snow planet -- and seeing for yourself if you want to stick with the game, if the worldbuilding, presentation, and premise grab you. As to your other question... Yes and no? The game is a live service game with daily challenges and a stamina system and only a limited time to get that character you like for your team ("so you better hurry!") But unlike most other live-service gachas, HSR is designed to mitigate FOMO to a surprising extent. Version Events (usually little chunks of side content that draw on gameplay ideas from some other genre the developers like, such as management sims or visual novels where you serve drinks) are permanent -- unlike, say, Genshin Impact where they only stick around for a couple weeks -- and you can accumulate several days' worth of stamina without it capping out, so there's not as much pressure to log in and farm for resources every single day. My partner, who got me into the game, plays it more casually on her phone and apparently has no complaints; I can mostly only vouch for the PC experience, but since the combat is a flashy, very readable turn-based affair, I've never had issues, say, doing dailies on my phone during a bus ride or whatever (account linking lets you freely switch between devices, of course).
One of the game's major selling points, maybe THE reason a lot of day one players stick around and love it so much, is the game's consistently excellent music and sound design, particularly in big setpiece moments. So when you're doing main story stuff, I recommend wearing headphones so as not to miss out! Otherwise, you know, give it a try and see what you think.
Are there any other phone games you recommend? I need something to do on commute.
I'm not really a mobile gamer, so in my opinion most of the best-made mobile games are just gonna be premium PC games that have been ported to phones. Bloons Tower Defense 6, Slay the Spire, Vampire Survivors (and its predecessor, Magic Survival) jump to mind as pretty good for brief sessions easily controllable on mobile. In the gacha space, of course there are the Hoyoverse games -- HSR, Genshin Impact, Zenless Zone Zero, and their competitors (too many to name; I personally like Reverse 1999); these are probably the highest budget productions available for phones, even including the MS Gamepass games that you can play on cloud or whatever, but come with the usual free-to-play foibles. Not really the best person to ask on this subject though; I mostly play games for the story whereas most mobile-exclusive games are engagement-farming cash grabs.
Fallout 76
My husband and I just finished watching the Fallout TV series, which of course gave us both a hankering to play a Fallout game again. We considered scratching the itch individually, but then realized we could actually do it together. Fallout 76 is a multiplayer game!
It started off well. I wasn't sure how the game was going to handle dialogue and quests and whatnot, but you can join a "team" which makes you act as a group, and while one person is talking to an NPC, the other can toggle a listen feature on for the conversation so they can still hear and get captions for what's being said.
We were super excited to set off into the Appalacian wasteland, explore the map, scavenge for supplies, and complete quests.
Unfortunately, our enthusiasm waned very quickly.
The first major story quest didn't sync up for us. We both did it together, with him as team leader. The quest advanced for my husband, but I was stuck with the same prompt as before, telling me to go to a specific bar -- the one we had gone to together and already seen the plot points for.
I thought it was a glitch, until I searched around and learned that questing is not shared. That's just how the game is made. People online were recommending, with presumably straight faces, that co-op parties repeat the quest with each individual party member as the team leader. This means my husband and I would have to do each quest twice. If we had picked this up with our four-player group, then we'd have to do the quests four times.
It made the game a complete non-starter for us. We stopped after that, and my husband refunded the game.
It seems like such an odd design choice to me. Why go through the trouble of making a shared-world online game with co-op, only to make co-op non-viable by forcing quests to be done individually?
Playing through 76 with my partner right now and mostly enjoying it, so I'll give some perspective.
I view 76 as sort of a split game - you have the story quests, which as you mentioned have to be completed by each individual separately. You can team up during them if you want, but it's probably better to just solo them.
But everything else can be done co-op fairly well. Most of the daily challenges lend themselves to cooperative play. All of the events are designed to be played with a group. You can build your C.A.M.P. and others can come check it out and buy stuff from your vendor. (There's also some PvP I've never explored.)
It's far from a perfect game. It's more of an MMO with Fallout elements, and not so much a Fallout game with multiplayer features. I typically log on with my partner and we will play through our challenges and do a couple events together, and maybe run through a couple of quests individually. I'm getting a little burned out of the grind, so I don't know how much longer I'll be playing for, but that's not a ding against the game, I just lose interest in multiplayer games like that after a while.
Picked up Save Room and Outpath on summer sale.
Save Room was a lot of fun, but it's only about an hour to play through, it's a little puzzle game based off those grid style inventories of like Resident Evil or Dredge or other similar inventory systems.
Outpath is also really fun! It's kinda like a mobile incremental game mixed with Minecraft Skyblock mod packs/base building games. You start on a tiny island with nothing and have to gather resources, research new workbenches, build better tools and equipment, unlock new islands, etc. It is a bit grindy but a lot of fun!
That sounds lovely! I’ve been thinking of getting some sudoku and crossword books as well to help reduce screen time!
Take a look at Murdle volumes 1-3. Haven't gotten them myself, but I play the daily online game from time to time and it's a cute and well-polished little logic puzzle.
I prefer to do Sudoku with pencil and paper over on a screen. The screen versions tend to give you lots of ways to actually avoid some of the "grindy" thinking parts, like automatically allowing you to pencil in the possibilities for all spaces.
There are also more options for Sudoku with magazines and books. I have a very large book which has a lot of sudoku variations in it, which is a lot of fun, including something called "Samurai Sudoku", which are basically five sudoku puzzles that have some overlap. (see https://www.samurai-sudoku.com/ for an example).
Im playing Dredge now. It is... a game. I feel like its mostly a way to keep busy, maybe the game isnt as rigidly structured as a game needs to be for me to feel engaged? But im playing it really safe and not really finding a need to stay out at night or anything. The risk/reward factor feels really low, it doesn't seem like night fish make more money or anything. Im enjoying it as a thing to do while listening to podcasts but i dunno how id do with it on its own.
The character art is gorgeous though, and the aesthetic is super fun. Im way into those portions but i wish the whole horror thing would be a little more front and centre over all else. The lovecraftian bits just seem like minor inconveniences at best, so far. Hoping that changes. Even navigating the mangrove area doesn't feel as spooky or confusing or anything as it should. I want more.
Not to dissuade you, but you've pretty much got the gist of things. It's not a terribly deep game, the gameplay never changes in any meaningful way, the story is... there? I dunno, I couldn't even give you an overview of it. Going out at night isn't really terribly risky, especially after you get an upgrade or two, you can simply out run anything out to get you.
It's a fine game, fun enough, but as with all the recently (in the past couple of years, meaning) hyped indies, it kind of ultimately falls flat with me. Good for maybe 10 hours and that's about all.
Go play the inspiration, Sunless Sea. Waaay heavier on the Eldritch horror although needlessly grindy.
Yup. It was sold as a lovecraftian horror game with fishing, but it's just a fishing game with a mid lovecraftian mood.
I also played through this a few months ago (on my Switch) primarily to relax while listening to podcasts. The only thing that really "got" me horror-wise (and only the first time, obviously) was when you see other ships moving around in the distance at night, but once you approach them you realize they're angler-fish-like creatures trying to lure you in.
Overall the game definitely felt like it was going more for a Lovecraftian mood or atmosphere over really building any kind of deep lore or story, but then Lovecraft's stories were typically pretty short and also focused more on creating an atmosphere so I guess it kind of fits. I find it interesting because the whole reason I picked up the game in the first place was I read that it was getting a film adaptation. It'll be interesting to see how they flesh the story out if that actually ends up happening. On the one hand I'd be excited for a Lovecraftian fishing horror movie, on the other hand video game movie adaptations don't have a great track record of turning out very good.
I was reluctant to play Dave the Diver because honestly this game looks like a lot of stress, but after watching the long play stream I found that game can be played casually and even cozy. There no permadeath, all events will repeats, and basically you can't miss or lose something significant.
So, I`m pretty happy with it.
Ah, and game is beautiful, combination of 3D and pixel arts works quite fine. I love music and characters are interesting too.
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1868140/DAVE_THE_DIVER/
I am still making my way through Shadow of the Erdtree. I'm still vibing and enjoying big bonk. I'm at the final boss, though I learned I missed a couple of side bosses that I'll go back and fight first, so I've probably got another 2-5 hours until I "beat" the DLC, but then I've got some side things to do as well. So far, it's been a fantastic experience and I really wish more developers could expand on their games in this sort of quality. It's just amazing that we get even more Elden Ring!
Besides that, I picked up the rare game that I don't like. I picked up Street Fighter 6. I used to play a TON of fighting games, but it had been a few years and SF6 was on sale and I liked the demo enough. I played a dozen hours or so and I think competitive 1v1 games just aren't my thing anymore. Even when I went on a winning streak in ranked play, I just didn't feel any "fizz" that accompanies doing good gaming things. I'd much rather just go play something like Elden Ring or Destiny. I'm not entirely allergic to adversarial games; I still play CoD, iRacing, and other stuff, but I think specifically 1v1 tests of pure skill are just not my thing anymore and that's okay!
I picked up Need for Speed Most Wanted on sale, but haven't started it yet, that will sort of be a rainy day game for me and I want to save it for when some of my racing friends are around so I can stream it and we can meme about it.
I'm thinking of getting something else during the steam sale considering I'm almost done with Elden Ring and my play time with Destiny 2 is going to naturally reduce over the next few weeks as the expansion hype dies down and now that I've accomplished what I wanted at this stage of the expansion (a handful of raid clears, some raid gear, all that stuff), but I'm not really sure what I want to play next. Elden Ring has made me thirsty to play more action games, so maybe I'll pick up another soulslike I haven't played or maybe I'll finally pick up Nier Automata. I've also still got Ghostrunner 2 on the wishlist as well as some other non hack and slash games like Trepang2 and Rogue Trader.
So I suppose if anybody has recommendations sort of in the soulslike realm (though they don't have to be soulslikes specifically) that scratch that itch, I'm all ears! I suppose I haven't played Sekiro, so that's an option too.
Edit: I completely forgot that Kingdom Come Deliverance exists and it’s $6, so I’m picking that up and Nier Automata. Both seem like longer games so I should be busy for a while!
Nier is not soulslike but in my top games of all time. Make sure you play through all the endings. It's one of those "you can only experience once" journeys.
Oh yeah, definitely not soulslike, but it’s gonna scratch the hack and slash itch. I’ve heard it’s excellent, I’ve had it on my wishlist for literally years.
Strongly recommend Lies of P if you want more Souls-likes. It's basically a love letter to Bloodborne based around the Pinocchio lore (the original story; not the Disney version). It was developed by a no-name Korean dev studio and wound up taking the Soulsbourn community by storm. It's much more linear in level design compared to the Metroidvania style that From puts out but otherwise it could easily be one of their games.
Besides that, I might also recommend Tunic. It looks like a 2.5-D Zelda clone but ends up sharing a lot of Souls-like features. Combat is like old school Zelda with dodge rolling and stamina management. It's also arguably one of the most mind-blowing puzzle games in recent memory, which ends up carving it's niche in that genre moreso than action-adventure, but there's enough combat to stay interesting in that regard.
I’ve seen Lies of P quite a bit and the gameplay looks great, but I’m pretty adverse to the aesthetic, the whole Victorian sort of thing and puppets and all that. It doesn’t just not appeal to me, it anti appeals and I’m really not sure why. I may still get it at some point since I’m sure once I actually play it, I won’t care about aesthetic as much.
Tunic is definitely in my wheelhouse. I picked it up last year, but never got very far. I should revisit it this year.
Tunic is pretty great, I still need to rebuy it and get back to it.
As for Lies of P, I honestly think it's better than Elden Ring.
I won't get too into it over the aesthetics because that's a subjective thing and I can't (and shouldn't try to) convince you that your preference in visual style is wrong.
I will say though that automatons are only a part (though an admittedly *large part) of it. There's a surprising depth to the enemy variety, and that includes humans and eldritch horrors that start to show up later.
But yeah, like I said, it's very much a love letter to Bloodborne and that includes it's aesthetic in a big way.
Check out The Surge 1&2, I feel like they're always underrated when it comes to mentioning souls likes.
I completely forgot about those! I remember playing Surge 1 when it came out and I remember it being clunky, but I could just hop into Surge 2 at some point.
Space Station 14.
It's so good. It's the first game in a while that I've been able to play for more than a couple hours and not then start tapering off in play time, in a while.
In short, it's Among Us, but a good, well thought out game.
It's a space station disaster simulator role playing game. Like, D&D role play, not Skyrim. You make a character and go about your short time on this station, is the focus. It's a Groundhog Day assumption of progression and each shift(ooc round) is not remembered in the next, but your knowledge of your job is.
There are 5 major departments. Security, science, engineering, cargo and medical.
Security patrols and arrests anyone breaking space law and protects the station from the antongonists as the first line of defense. Although, it does fall on the crew to defend fairly often.
Science researches technology to be used by the station. They also are in charge of containing anomalies that will spawn and wreck havoc on the station, but are often not that big of a deal.
Engineering is in charge of maintaining the power and atmospheric systems on the station and also repairing structure damage.
Cargo is selling and buying goods to make money to keep the departments stocked with the materials they need by fulfilling sales bounties and selling materials the salvage team finds.
Medical is in charge of healing the crew. Various damage types require knowledge of different chems to heal.
There is also the service department, but that it is so diverse, that you can't really concisely sum it up. There are bartenders, mimes, reporters, cyborgs, etc...
All of the major departments have sub departments. The salvage team for cargo, chem for medical, detective and lawyer for sec, etc...
All have a command head over the departments. The Head of Personnel is slight higher than than department command, but also manages service and the captain is at the top.
It's really one big process of learning. Starting at an intern level position and advancing as you gather playtime and experience. Every job feels like the described position without feeling tedious and is REALLY well thought out.
All this this is going on, less and less smoothly, as antagonists continue to throw wrenches into the harmonious plan of maintaining the station.
The main antagonist is the Syndicate, who have sleeper agents amongst the crew, barring command and security. Sometimes starting in their own ship and assaulting the crew more directly, intending to nuke the whole place.
There are others, like the space dragon or spider clan ninja and some more neutral entities, like the rat king or skeleton. Even a pacifist theif.
So, the round starts and everyone is bound by RP law to do as they should. Not doing so is "self antagging" and can get the admins involved to protect the integrity of the session.
The round continues until the Captain determines it's time to evacuate or everyone dies.
Otherwise, it's a big sandbox of do what you want. Rounds are vastly different from each other as there are so many factors that affect how things work, with many more content updates to extend that list.
Game play is a bit rough to get started as the controls do a lot of different things, but is fairly intuitive. For instance, if you need a bandage, you can break some glass and use it on some clothing to then craft the bandage.
It's free to sign up for the play test on steam. I highly recommend it, if you like that style or are into sci-fi roleplay.
I'm so glad to finally see Space Station
1314 mentioned on Tildes, and that the game seems to be growing out of the abusive monopoly that 4chan culture had on it.The game is a lot of fun. I would say it's actually a "knowledge game" that gets more rewarding the more you learn about it, refine your skill with the game's controls, get a better grip on all the different roles on the station, and become more comfortable at role-playing with strangers. It has a surprising amount of depth. It's also generally just a hilarious sandbox game.
Plus, it's open-source: https://github.com/space-wizards/space-station-14
So yeah, definitely recommend it
Well, it helps that the admins are some really good people. It still retains a lot of influence from 4chan culture, but it's nothing to be concerned about. The general culture is something I enjoy seeing . I just hope it stays that way and continues to improve. The LRP/MRP divide certainly helps, but still needs work.
It's had a bit of an influx of players and I figured I'd get some Tildes people in on it. It could really use the lot of you.
Wait I tried this like, 15 years ago or something.
I never remembered what it was called, but it seemed like something I'd love to give a whack now that I'm older.
But as Hungarian made me aware, that was SS13. What's the difference between the two?
The main difference, that I'm aware of as I didn't play 13, is that 14 isn't dominated by the 4chan culture that is generally hostile. 14 still has a bit of that, but It's more applied to memage.
But also, I think mechanics wise, the games are roughly the same, just that 14 is still in a playtest and development state and will likely just have updated features.
I heard there was a lot of really overactive admins on Space Station 14, as well as a very easy banhammer.
Has this gotten better? My love for Space Station 13 came from just how wild west it was.
The ban hammer is pretty easy to get smacked with if you aren't interested in following the rules. The integrity of the role play is held pretty highly, but it's not nearly as strict as you might think. Which sounds contradictory, but it's hard to explain.
14 LRP servers are still very chaotic and you get away with a lot more than the medium or high RP servers.
Really the only thing you banned for there is actively making the game not fun for someone else by trolling or otherwise "self antagging" to a certain degree.
You'll just have to feel around and ask.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which I am very much enjoying. I played about 36 hours of Yakuza 0 when it first came out and I enjoyed it, but I found Kiryu a bit of a blank slate and the constant encounters with pretty mediocre (not that I'm an expert) beat em up combat to get tedious after awhile and the story wasn't much to write home about.
LaD feels quite a bit different. Kasuga is a better protagonist in every way, the story is pretty compelling and I'm enjoying the turn based combat so, so much more. I've maybe only put 10-12 hours into it so far and I'm hoping I see it all the way through, but even if I don't, I'm loving this one so much more.. The side characters in your party are pretty fun and interesting too and as always, I love the bat shit sense of humor that this series has.
Well, there's 8 games worth of plot related to Kiryu, so s somewhat understandable that the devs didn't want to shake up his personality too much.
Glad you found LaD to your liking! It's explicitely goofier than the other games in the series, but it still has all the hallmarks of a Yakuza game.
LaD really does seem like it's cranked up to 11 on the silliness scale and I absolutely love it. Hoping to see the game all the way through and eventually pick up Infinite Wealth, because Ichiban and his companions are just fun.
Total War Warhammer 3 and Three Kingdoms. I know, I'm late to the party but I don't play much anymore.
Both games are fantastic. Warhammer has amazing battles, and Immortal Empires is the nicest sandbox ever. I still need to fully understand 3K, but it feels like it has the same strengths as Shogun 2 and then some more (and Shogun 2 is my favorite TW of them all next to Rome 2!).
More Shadow of the Erdtree. I'm about 35 hours in. I'm at the last boss. I've cleared all but one other remembrance boss. I know there are some side dungeons I've missed and plenty of items. But I've been pretty good at finding the Scadutree fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes (+19/+8) so missing 3 and 6 respectively.
This expansion really is a fully fledged game in its own right. Already raved about it last week, but it keeps on delivering. The variety of biomes, colors, and bosses really sets this content apart.
Last week I had a few words on difficulty. Now that I've downed a couple of the hardest in the DLC and put in approximately 50 attempts on this final boss I think I have a pretty good perspective. I'm not a Souls veteran by any means or very good.
I'm actually a fan of this. In games I'm not the type to hamstring myself. As I do this fight it's becoming easier to just "do it solo." I like that the design is making me push myself and when I down this boss it will feel like it was on merit regardless of what tactic wins it for me.
I think it's likely to get a nerf though I hope I can get it done before the nerf. I'm not sure how they'll approach it. I'm thinking maybe they'll make a couple combos easier to dodge maybe? Some currently require frame perfect dodges and the speed at which you have to dodge in different directions is pretty rough. It's possible, I've done it but it's hard for me to repeat reliably. It's starting to feel like fighting game micro which I've never been good at.
Either way, I'm excited to get this done, finish the base game and then start the From Software back catalog. I've heard that going back to Dark Souls 1-3 feels like playing a turn based game versus what's going on in Shadow of the Erdtree.
EDIT:
I forgot, I took a break and started Shin Megami Tensei V/V. My first Atlus game and so far I quite like it. Excited to play more.
Dark Souls 1-3 will definitely feel a little odd compared to Elden Ring, but the combat is still tight and the world building and environments are as fantastic as you’d expect from FromSoft. I played Dark Souls Remastered a few months ago and it reminded me how much I love that game, it was probably my fourth playthrough? Anyways, I definitely recommend playing 1-3 even if they feel a bit odd or dated.
I picked up Dark Souls 1 way back in the day but never really made progress. I've played at least a couple hours in every other entry except DS2. But I really struggled to understand the games back then. Excited to go back having honed my skills and feeling comfortable solo against some damn hard bosses.
You might be surprised. Generally the bosses in the first game are considerably easier than stuff in the later entries. Still a challenge, but generally they lack a lot of the bullshit that's been injected into Elden Ring bosses, where they one hit kill you and do twirls in the air so you can't predict their moves.
This kind of thing is exactly why I still prefer the old games. I really like Elden Ring, but sometimes it feels more like a high speed hack n slash more than the souls games I fell in love with years ago. I have dozens of playthroughs of the first game both from speedruns and making funny boss roleplay pvp builds so I might be biased. The souls games bosses just feel more well designed and predictable than the nonsense that ER bosses do.
A couple of things but the one worth calling out is Animal Well.
Metroidvania with some GREAT design. I'm not that far in, but the few items I've found are already vastly more clever and interesting than 90% of other games in the genre. Environmental Station Alpha grappling hook tier. Super glad I dived in.
I never grew up with a PS1 as a kid, but my friends did. While I had some exposure to some games such as Metal Gear Solid I realized I never played the original Spyro and Crash trilogies. With this in mind I have decided to play Crash 1, Spyro 1, and Super Mario 64 back to back.
Holy shit Crash and Spyro are incredibly tight games and I was missing out. Playing Super Mario 64 after those two feels like a boring chore compared to the tighter contained level design in Crash and Spyro. I think all three games/series have their merits but I can't believe I missed out on it for so long.
I bought Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner on sale as well and plan to play through that soon. Intro seemed cool as hell though.
Men of War: Ostfront, another recommendation from a fellow tilder... tildiee... tildan... what the hell are we called anyway?!
Summer Sale FTW. Downside: I'm supposed to be doing interview prep and not pasting the Italians repeatedly in Conquest mode!
... ok, so I really am also doing a lot of interview prep. Gotta get paid.
Glad to hear you're still playing it!
I still need to jump back in to my Soviet campaign, but I've been using my Steam Deck a lot lately, as I tend to do when it gets hot outside and Ostfront just won't work on it.
Oh I love it! Was play Assault Squad 2 for the longest time. Got Ostfront on sale. Noticeably better though the mods haven't all been ported forward.
Love the conquest mode. Valor mod adds a lot there!
Also: JFC, they made infantry a lot squishier in Ost!
Oh yeah, you gotta be in that cover! It's a pain in the ass, but you can also build foxholes. If you click the button for it and hold control, you can place multiple one at a time, which will help.
Valor is damn nice. I love playing as the British generally, so it's nice to have them back.
Casual gaming has caught up with me. For the past week the only game I have been playing one of the YouTube playables, State.io. It kills my batteries faster than anything but the pick up and play nature and mesmerizing visuals have enthralled me. I’m pretty sure that it was only intended to be played up to level 100 or thereabouts because that is the point when the “gifts” and store items completely run out, but the game is somewhat broken so it is possible to win even when your opponents are given starting armies larger than yours by orders of magnitude. I just finished level 500.
OK I lied a bit. I just started playing Hypnospace Outlaw yesterday. It’s full of things that appeal to me specifically (everything is clicky!), and the gameplay and world building is pleasantly organic feeling.
I've had Hypnospace Outlaw on my wishlist in the "maybe one day" category for a while. Curious to hear your thoughts on it as you get further in. (Preferably without spoilers!)
I finally had a few bucks left over and decided to splurge a bit. I got Dead Cells, Untitled Goose Game, and Super Mario Wonder, all for Switch.
Dead Cells is where I’ve been spending most of my time so far. I was never super enamoured with the idea of rogue likes, but something about the style just did it for me. It’s been on my consider list for years now.
Naturally, I’ve been dying like a madman, but ever so slowly I’ve been improving and seeing more of the game as my skill increases. I was correct that it’s stylish as heck, and it’s got a wicked sense of humour. It’s likely I’ll be snagging the DLC once I’ve gotten through the game a few times.
Untitled Goose Game was another game I got on sale and have been playing it with my son. We’ve been laughing at the havoc and mayhem we’ve been causing, but little does he know how close to reality this is; Geese are assholes. It’s a really short game, all things considered. We got through it in about an hour but still laugh at the silliness.
Super Mario Wonder is just a joy! I bought it for the family, but I will definitely be taking it for a thorough playthrough once I’ve beaten it with my wife and kid. My family doesn’t have the patience to sit down and figure out all the fun game breaking methods to solve puzzles (my wife doesn’t understand the point of speedrunning) so that’ll be my longer term project.
That being said, it’s very much Mario, and it really gives me an idea of what would happen if you had Shigeru Miyamoto drop acid before coming up with a game design. It’s so much fun to see the different Wonder effects and how they change the whole feel of the level.
Been playing Calico since @kfwyre gave it to me as part of the big giveaway thread. Started yesterday, and today I unlocked the last area of the island.
My takeaway: it's a cute game, but
a bit rough around the edges and I wish it had just a bit more to do. For people who are goal-oriented like me, the game can go pretty fast. I cleared the "main story" pretty swiftly, I just have a couple tasks left for the NPCs.
As far as I can tell the NPCs don't offer much interaction after completing their tasks, either, which is disappointing because they have some nice designs and interesting dynamics with each other. Like, the girls in the banner? They're a couple! That's adorable! Another NPC goes to the maintains to visit her girlfriend! I really want to see them come to the cafe on dates and gush about each other if I talk to them!
I think the actual cafe part is the main meat of the game though. There's a lot of customization to be done with the furniture, and the cooking mini games are pretty fun compared to some other games. Using a pogo stick to cut cookies is fun! So is using spoons as catapults to get around the kitchen and literally throwing stuff into the cauldron! I'm just disappointed that the food doesn't sell more quickly/regularly, so there's not much incentive to actively replenish the stock and thus play the cooking mini games. Food can go stale, but I think it's only noted after someone buys it.
Also, riding animals is fun. So is having a bird as a hat, they let you glide around when you jump down. For a good stretch of the game I just rode an arctic fox with a crow as a hat. And there's a laser pointer you can get to play with the animals.
Overall I'd rate it a 7/10. It's a pretty nice and cozy game overall, could use a little more substance and polishing though. And also more skirt options. I'm a magical girl, let me have cute skirts and dresses like the NPCs have dang it!! xD
I've returned to Tears of the Kingdom after almost a year away from it and am finding it somewhat difficult to dive back into. Upfront, I should mention I don't like open world games -- they generally feel pretty empty and traversal is usually pretty boring to me. I'm someone who really values a strong narrative and "complete in any order" open world games generally don't have that strong narrative. (I also realize coming to a Zelda game expecting narrative is silly, but I do like solving puzzles too.)
TOTK feels a lot like more of BOTW which is awesome for people who loved BOTW but to me just feels like a lot. I liked BOTW enough and I'm definitely not saying TOTK is bad game, but maybe that these games are just not for me. I'm gonna power through and finish up the main parts still. Overall, my feeling playing the game -- especially outside of one of the temples -- feels like just wandering around until you see something interesting. That works well for some people, but I guess I need more guard rails to feel invested. I don't know.
Otherwise: I started Mafia III after playing through Mafia 1 & 2 (the definitive editions) for the first time. I really enjoyed Mafia 1, especially in thinking about how much has evolved in gameplay and priorities in design over the years. Mafia 2's story was a huge letdown for me in comparison. I didn't find Vito charming, mostly just too trusting. Every bad situation he gets in throughout the entire game happens because he goes along with someone's plan and never asks questions about who or what or why and just assumes they have his best interest in mind. It seemed really poorly written in that regard.
I'm way too early into 3 to make any judgements on the game so far. It does look very nice, though.
Mafia 1 definitive was pretty damn cool. Loved it after starting my mafia career on 2 when it first came out. I like a lot of what happens in 2 but i agree that vito is a weak character.
I wanted way more from 3, i remember it feeling like a step back technologically from 2. Maybe patches have fixed that? But like, a really low limit of enemies on screen at any one time and they were dumb as hell. You could expect them to casually run into the exact same room using the exact same door/hallway the last 5 guys used. It wasnt fun, dont even remember if I finished it.
From a writing perspective, it really felt like they started with their end goal for each chapter in mind and worked backward from there. Like, We want Vito to get into a war with the Tongs. How do we make that happen?
I'm still doing Shadow of the Erdtree, making builds and doing multiplayer. When I get done with FS games I like to help out folks with bosses for a while. When I first played the game I had a ton of fun beating a boss, then helping some folks, and going on slightly better off than just going right through. This time I went through everything on my own, then opened my character up to helping folks all over, so it's sort of like playing a boss rush randomizer. Just hang out and open up the summoning circles. Awesome setup honestly, I really enjoy doing it.
I've been playing a lot with dual light greatswords and hand-to-hand. The movesets feel really good to me and look awesome. The perfume bottle is fun to use too, it's very lightweight and so, easy to include. The final encounter is really rockin folks, it's not often I come upon someone/a group and win more than once every three or four attempts. With my build I try to just run in, grab aggro, kite a little and go do it again when they get touched. I've gotten a lot better at avoiding but it does feel like riding the limit if that makes sense. Not easy.
I am actually pretty excited to take this character into NG+, because some of the DLC weapons are set up to really benefit from that with more stats scaling. I'll probably do that when I hit 200 (I'm at 185 atm). Before the DLC, I played Elden Ring kind of like a dungeon crawler - jump in, do a dungeon or two, part of a quest, etc., every once in a while. Having the DLC there just means that much more to choose from in that. I kinda need something really nice to look at and focus on for a while I think lol.