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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 got Outer Wilds in the current Steam sale on a whim after coming across a recommendation somewhere (along with a warning to not look into it too much to avoid spoilers, which I heeded) - somehow this game has completely managed to escape my awareness for 5 years. I just finished the main game and all I can say is .. wow. Such an original concept with so many elements that come together just right, really a masterpiece.
The game doesn't work for everyone, especially people who go in expecting a more conventional gaming experience can come away frustrated - but if you can approach it with an open mind and bring some curiosity - it's mainly an exploration and mystery game with relatively little hand-holding - it becomes a very rewarding experience. It's not really a puzzle game, although there are some relatively easy puzzles (mainly presented as in-universe training exercises to explain certain mechanics) - and access to certain areas sometimes requires creative uses of the in game physics in a somewhat puzzle-like fashion. But again there is usually not too much hand-holding, and many challenges can be solved using the physics in different ways, often not necessarily even intended by the developers. And if any challenge becomes too frustrating, you can always try a different clue or thread to follow or different area to explore. Eventually, clues will point back to places you might have gotten stuck on before and new ideas of how to progress might arise.
If somehow like me you have not yet discovered this game, and seem at all interested, I do highly recommend not looking up much about the game play and avoiding spoilers as much as possible. There are many moments of discovery and "connecting the dots" that provide some of the games biggest rewards. The game is somehow completely non-linear (you can explore anything you want in any order) it still somehow manages to level up your understanding and knowledge and skills in a way that feels really satisfying - and all this growth happens to you, the player, and not through any character leveling - your character has full access to all the tools and capabilities of the game from the start (after the first mandatory NPC conversation following a short tutorial period teaching you basic controls before the game really starts) - it is you the player that needs to gain skills and knowledge that allow you to progress and discover the full story.
Rare 10/10 game experience for me. Btw the game recommends a controller, but can be finished with kb+m as well (there is one area where the controller offers an advantage, but there are multiple ways to progress there with kb+m as well) - I am personally a kb+m player and don't own any controllers and still had a great time, so don't let that initial warning discourage you if you're not a controller player.
Please pick up the DLC as well. It's amazingly beautiful, original, and adds a lot of depth to the original story.
I just got started on the DLC yesterday actually. The feel is a little different so far from the base game, but I have barely even started. Getting strong "Rendezvous with Rama" vibes so far ::)
I may have been part of the recommendations. I, too, got it recommended to me after ignoring it for years and like yourself, I also loved it.
It certainly isn't for everyone, this game is great for people who are curious, want to explore and know more about something they can't even put a name to yet.
I played on Steam Deck, so I had quite easy time with controls and I actually advocate to get a controller for this game. I believe it can by played on kb+m combo but if you were thinking about getting some controller, this game should be the tipping point.
Great to know there is another person who enjoyed the game!
I'm done with Assassin's Creed Origins. It only took me a year, yay. And by "done" I mean "I finished the story".
Honestly a great game, probably my favorite since the Ezio trilogy, but like all Ubisoft open world games, it's overwhelming. There is too much to do, to see, to read, to explore... I need to consciously ignore like 90% of the side quests or it's just exhausting, but I truly enjoyed the trip through Egypt. I also found Bayek much more likeable than the awful protagonists we got in AC 3 and 4. I'll play a bit more to see if there is something interesting left to do post-game before definitely retiring the game.
I'll probably buy and play Odyssey in a year or two.
I bought Forza Horizon 4 and played 5 hours.
I usually don't find racing games interesting - mostly because I know nothing about cars and don't care about them at all -, but this game is just dumb arcade fun. Easy to hop in and out, pretty enough, varied races, I just unlock the cars that look cool... For its price (€13 I think) it was worth getting out of my usual genres.
I haven't played an Assassin's Creed game since 3 -- I also dislike open world games and could tell the newer games were just getting too bloated. Honestly I felt like Revelations was a little too bloated too.
I'm also glad you found the protagonist of 3 insufferable. I see so much praise for that game but I just don't get it. The whole experience made me want to never play an AC game again.
I haven't played the newest few games past Origins, but I did play nearly all of the ones prior, and Origins feels like a completely different game to them. It's a quintessential "Ubisoft game" like you see in games like Far Cry and Horizon Zero Dawn (not an Ubisoft game but feels extremely similar in gameplay). So that can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you feel about the Ubisoft open-world formula. Some hate it, but Origins is my favorite game in the AC franchise because of the scale of the world and attention to detail within it.
Absolutely. There is (for me) just too much of everything and I had to ignore all the side stuff to focus on the story quests but... All that side stuff is good. So many interesting landmarks, caves, and tombs that only exist for well-written and fun side-quests. Even the checklist points on the map are worth the view. It's a shame because I'll never see most of them. I think I haven't even unlocked half the synchronization points.
It's like a gigantic buffet where everything is delicious, and you can't taste everything or you'll just get sick of it. I can't help but feel a bit frustrated even if I enjoyed every bite.
Same here. Love Origins, and I'll eventually pick up Odyssey for the setting and atmosphere as well. Just need to find some time to properly devote to it, which is harder and harder to do nowadays. Back when Origins came out I had a lot more free time lol.
I really liked Origins as well. The setting is great. Bayek is great. The plot was a little meh for me (wasn't a big fan of Cleopatra's freedom fighters or whatever they were called). But I did enjoy the parts of the story that had to do with Bayek and his son and that whole mystery.
There's a mode in the game where you get historical tidbits and background context for things in the game and I love it. So much attention to detail. Exploring deep into the historically-recreated-and-mostly-accurate pyramids, sometimes in the dark, discovering chambers filled with sand and scarab beetles and hidden treasures in rooms with sarcophagi and hieroglyphics is one of the coolest gaming things I've done in any game ever.
I have also went for Forza Horizon 4 Ultimate (20€). I just want some "racing" game on Steam Deck that is easy to play and also easy on hardware (so SD lasts longer on battery) and this one will fit perfectly. Just did couple benchmarks and I will jump more into it later this summer (I have one game to finish before).
Just finished Horizon: Zero Dawn and it was a beautiful and immersive experience. One of those "reality disappears for a while" games. Also felt ahead of its time in graphics / attention to detail. To this day the entire experience is just absolutely gorgeously rendered, from the characters to the landscapes and settings.
While graphics are often one of the "less important" criteria for me for games, in this particular case they were done so well and enhanced the experience so much that I see how important they can be
Can concur, I played it a few years ago while house/cat sitting for a friend who owns a playstation. It was such a good experience that it almost made me buy a PlayStation before I realized I'd also have to get a TV and all that :D
I have not looked into the PC releases yet. Probably should do that at some point.
The PC port is really good! I played through HZD on a Steamdeck, and it was a fantastic experience. There were some slowdowns, especially when there were lots of enemies on screen, but on the whole it ran great.
In general, the PlayStation exclusives I've played on PC (mostly just HZD and now Uncharted 4) have been great. I understand there were some growing pains when the first came out, but playing them a little while down the line, things appear to be pretty smoothed out.
Downloaded the demo to Roboquest and holy crap what a fun game. FPS roguelite, high-paced, lots of comparisons to borderlands, plenty of verticality, definitely worth checking out for anyone interested in FPS's, roguelites, or some good high-octane fun.
I’ve had that wishlisted forever and still haven’t played the demo. Maybe I’ll do that soon…
It's on sale for twenty bucks until July 11th, in case you want to pick it up now.
But yeah I would highly recommend the demo. Tons of fun just by itself.
The game gets lot more fun when you start getting upgrades for your base, once fully upgraded you starting weapons become a lot more varied and by the late game your weapons are going to become bonkers.
I just finished my first playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077. I know this game had some issues when it came out, but now the game is just beautiful.
Interesting story and characters, beautiful (albeit a bit bleak) atmosphere, fun gameplay (my build was focused on netrunning and smart weapons)
I think I did basically everything there is to do, which took me about 100 hours. I'll probably pick up the DLC at some point, but not right now. I've had my fill, and I want it to end on a high note.
Now it's time for something completely different. I'm thinking Stray.
Don't want to spoil anything, but Phantom Liberty fulfills the vision of world far better than the base game. The condensed play area and more focused story delivers richer locations, characters and even the mostly throwaway fixer gigs. My original criticism was that the base game was a victim of its ambition. A series of growing games would have been more appropriate in building the world and then concluding with the epic adventure. Compared to Dog Town so much of Night City feels dead and uninspired.
So I'm hoping they carry the lessons forward for the sequel.
Sure you'll enjoy it when you're ready to jump in.
And never trust the feds.
As someone who loves a good Bethesda-type loop of finding gear, keeping the best, selling the rest for upgrades, etc, I loved Cyberpunk on launch & hadn't paid much attention to the DLC—I thought it was just additional missions, didn't realize it was a whole new area. Might have to check that out post-Erdtree!
I really enjoyed my two cyberpunk playthroughs. I played up to "meet hanako at embers" when the game first came out on an Xbox one s, and it wasn't a stunner visually or especially graceful, but it was fun. Then last autumn I played through with the modern update and dlc to the end of the game on a series x, and it was great.
I am really okay with the narrativr that CDPR turned this one around. I know it's still breakable, but playing it within the spirit of the writing makes it a solid experience. Plus Idris Elba can make anything cool.
Alright, alright, I'll pick up cyberpunk again.
I liked Stray. I'm not rich, $18 on sale feels fair right now. But at $30 normally, I would say the experience is too short/not enough! But honestly, depending on the person, the experience could be unique enough to justify.
Yeah, I never buy games at full price. I have a large wishlist, and a large backlog, so I can wait and pick up a game when there is a good enough sale.
Stray has been sitting in my library since last year. I think I paid about 17€, which indeed seems reasonable.
Still going on my journey to get all the medals in all the Trackmania campaigns. I finished all the old ones* last week but then a bunch of new ones came out - and they are ridiculously hard..! The desert car is difficult to control and super jumpy but I'm getting the hang of it. I just got the author medal on track 18 after 3-4 hours of trying. I usually only spend that kind of time on the most difficult black track, so I imagine I'm looking forward to a lot of grinding coming up.
*Except 2 that I consider impossible because of physics changes
Every year X4 Foundations gets a new major update and DLC, and I sink another couple hundred hours into it. One of the unique aspects of the game is the near entirely simulated universe.
I think in most space games if you destroy some transport ship and steal its cargo, it is likely that that ship was spawned when you entered the area for the sole purpose of being destroyed by you. In X4 that ship would have always existed and ferrying goods around since it was constructed in a shipyard. And to construct it the shipyard used resources that was transported to it by other transport ships. Those transport ships chose the route due to calculated profit. And they got the resources from a factory. That factory created the resource from another resource, that was transported to it by another transport ship. Which got them from a refinery. Which created it from ore mined by actual mining ships blasting asteroids.
That means that the ship you destroyed will have to be replaced by this entire process, and the loss of a transport ship and resources it carried will directly disrupt the process.
And you can insert yourself into this economy with no limitations compared to the AI factions. Build your own station with factories or shipyards. Buy or build your own miners and transport ships. Create your own economy or use your assets to strengthen and profit from the AI factions.
The only thing not simulated is currency. While goods are priced based on supply, and traders choose routes based on those prices, AI factions basically have infinite money.
I finally got around to playing Oxenfree. I'm really strugging to enjoy it. For context, I've played up until I find my friends and regroup back at the tower.
It's interesting, and I'm enjoying the story. But everything else in the game just feels like unnecessary friction. Walking is slow (sometimes Alex runs (great!), sometimes she walks, sometimes she gets stuck on an edge). It feels like there's no reward or benefit to exploring or going off route. All you get it a slow walk back to the next set piece.
I hear the biggest strength of the game is the dialog. But I cannot get my head around it. Sometimes Alex will interrupt, sometimes she will wait - I wish there was a way to know what was going to happen.
I find myself standing still through the conversations because if I accidentally walk over a story trigger Alex will interupt the conversation for some nonsense. I think the conversation is supposed to continue, but it really takes me out of it, and I swear it feels like I miss some parts which is frustrating.
Oxenfree, overall in my opinion, is just fine. The gameplay like you mentioned can be more frustrating than fun at times, and the story itself only barely makes sense.
But you're right that the dialogue system is where it excels. It's been a while since I've played but I remember my experience being a little more fluid than what you've experienced. One of the interesting parts of the game is your dialogue can trigger branching dialogue but you never really know which way a conversation might turn. You have to respond within a certain time to keep the rhythm of the conversation, or you can choose not to respond, which is as valid of an option as it is in real life. That's what's interesting about the game to me. The conversations feel natural. Sometimes when you walk by something, that triggers a necessary dialogue option, which could interrupt the conversation you're having, but if it was an important conversation, the character will return to it.
I recently finished the second game, which is a lot of the same mechanics as the first, but I think the conversation system is a little smoother than in the first game.
My recommendation is to just pick a destination and head there, engage in conversation along the way, and try not to worry about losing the thread of dialogue or finishing conversations. It feels a bit more natural that way, which is ultimately the point of the system, I think.
Knocked out a few games in the past couple of weeks. Pizza Tower definitely keeps itself short enough to avoid losing it's weird charm. Definitely worth the a play if you haven't given it a go, especially if you like platforms with weird movement mechanics
Also gave Cat Quest a shot because, cats, and it's fine. The gameplay loop got dull and it was free so I didn't see it through. It's probably a good "my first action rpg" for some.
Currently playing Like A Dragon : Infinite Wealth. I'm a casual Yakuza fan having previously played Yakuza Like A Dragon and Yakuza 0 and each time, I've become so bored of the story and game play that I swear off all Yakuza games yet here I am for round 3. Despite the visual package feeling dated (think PS3 remaster where they could only upscale the textures) and the fact there are 22 HOURS OF FUCKING CUT SCENES I just know I'm going to sink a dozen hours into the Sugimon side quest (think Pokemon... but with people) or running the hostess bar. Do I recommend Infinite Wealth? Maybe? The whole series scratches a very specific itch that I've grown to love/hate
The original Cat Quest is decent, but I will forever sing the praises of Cay Quest II. Besides improving on a ton of the first games flaws, it's got splitscreen co-op! My wife and I blasted through the game and are eagerly anticipating doing the same for Cat Quest III. If you've got a buddy to play with I highly recommend CQ2 and expect I'll feel the same way about CQ3.
As an Elden Ring palette cleanser I started up Armored Core VI. I played a bit at release but only did a handful of missions. I started it up from the beginning this weekend and am really enjoying it. The fast paced combat is quite engaging and I really like how much your encouraged to change up your build and approach to different objective. In particular I love that you can change your loadout when you die and restart at the same checkpoint.
I'm currently on the Chapter 1 boss. Phase 1 is easy. I need to figure out how to deal with his new attacks in Phase 2. Replaying missions to earn credits is fun, so in between attempts I'm farming credits and buying out the store so I can try different builds.
I'm happy to hear that you're enjoying the game. It's one of the best games I've played in a long time and overshadowed by the sheer bumper crop of great games we had last year.
Just a recommendation I'll throw out to help: You can sell items back to the store for the same value you purchased them. This means you can dump duds or outdated gear instead of grinding up stuff. I tell you this because there are actually three endings for the game with a good number of missions being overlapped depending on your path. I don't want you to accidentally burn yourself out on replaying missions. Also, as time goes on, and missions get more rewarding, you can have an easier time cleaning up the backlog of store items.
I’ve got over 100 hours so far in ac6. It is quite addicting once you get into the meat of the game. There are lots of hidden items throughout the levels. PVP can be fun depending on the builds you’re up against but it does not take anything away from the overall experience.
Finished Shadow of the Erdtree the other day and I feel like it's really overrated. I don't know how much I should say here without being spoilery, if people care about that sort of thing.
Most of the bosses are just not fun to fight at all. I only fought a small handful that felt satisfying to learn their dance and overcome them, the others were just miserable and felt like my success in them depended entirely on luck. I also got sick of running into the same enemies from the base game that are just so annoying. I didn't buy the DLC hoping to fight more tree spirits and ancient dragons.
I think it was a good DLC overall because I still love me some Elden Ring, but saying it dethroned Blood and Wine as the best expac of all time is a huge exaggeration.
As an Elden Ring and From fan, I think ER as a whole is overrated. Don't get me wrong, I really like the game and have had a lot of fun with it, but it seems to me that a good portion of the bosses just feel like bullshit.
I had and have had a lot of fun learning the bosses in the prior Dark Souls games, as well as Lies of P, but ER feels like they wanted to crank the difficulty to 11 on many bosses and rather than adding mechanical complexity or something (I'm not a game designer), they added lots of One Hit Kills and lots of extremely fast bosses who get you by doing random flips in the air so you can't track them or figure out their patterns. It does feel like luck a good portion of the time, because maybe the boss has focused on your summons, so you're able to get some damage in with impunity or you just managed to roll enough to avoid their ridiculous 1HK attacks.
Erdtree looks to be more of the same to me.
Not one boss or mob has a one hit kill attack if you're properly specced with the baseline defensive stats. It's just not there.
The argument of Dark Souls versus Elden Ring where I also prefer the more methodical approach of DS over the frantic battles in ER is totally valid though. That's just a preference.
Blood and Wine never even beat The Frozen Throne so the argument is moot.
But yeah, Shadow of the Erdtree is rough on certain builds making some fights borderline impossible to enjoy. Respeccing made the game better and easier to get into.
Some of the old boss rehashes is tiresome. Tree spirits especially. They weren't good bosses in the original either by any stretch of the imagination, but at this point I just groan when one shows up. Luckily it's not too many.
Which in general is true. A couple of Dragons and tree spirits really is all of the rehashing done and if I divide the time spent in the dlc by the time spent fighting the rehashes, it's minute in comparison.
I really, honestly, don't think it's an exaggeration whatsoever and neither do most people, but to each their own. This DLC has been more divisive than any of their other games.
Prob for a future playthrough—dunno if you're looking for more balanced boss encounters (tree fragments?) or just a fightin chance lol, but if it's the latter: I finally gave in and upgraded a Great Stars + Wild Strikes, beat Rennala & most of the other big names straightaway.
I'm always late to the party on games. I've been playing Spiritfarer for the last few months and have been really been enjoying it. The characters are fun and engaging, the quests allow for flexibility and encourage taking your time to explore, and the narrative is both intense and heartfelt. Without giving any spoilers, at the heart of the game you act as boatman between the "living" world and the after life. We ended up putting my partner's family dog down halfway through playing the game and it just made everything feel so much more intense. I think it helped a bit with the grieving process as well.
Overall the game was awesome, I've spent well over 30 hours on the game so far, and probably have another 4-5 until I've completed everything. It's been a real joy to have as an option when I'm feeling overwhelmed or sad and I'll miss it when it's finished.
If anyone has any recommendations for similar games I would be all ears!
I've had this sitting on my backlog for awhile and just started it this week. I'm on vacation away from home and just want to relax so I brought my steam deck.
What a good chill game. Traveling around, fishing, gathering, feeling some feels, this is really what I needed to relax at the end of a day. If anyone's looking for a cozy game, this is a good one.
You just convinced me to pick it up on switch on sale! I've been looking for nice cozy games that I can play when I'm away from my desk, and this seems like just the thing. :)
Came back to report that this game is SOOO good. I normally go for survival/crafting/automation games, but this one has enough elements that I like to keep me engaged. Love the story so far (only a few hours in). And the fluid anime-style art is fantastic. Fishing, farming, quests, minigames, base building, music! This game has a lot packed in. :)
I enjoyed Spiritfarer as well and it definitely was a game I played during my "must play as many resource management games as possible" phase. Can't think of a ton of games that match the same combination of story and mechanics but there are games that I've connected with emotionally in similar ways to Spiritfarer even if the mechanics and tone are different. Note a lot of these are published by Annapurna which isn't a coincidence cause that's kind of in their wheelhouse.
Florence is a short, simple mobile game about relationships that's well worth playing. I played it with my partner who does not like games on a short plane ride and they loved it.
What Remains of Edith Finch and Gone Home are both walking sims that are well known for their stories. I highly recommend Gone Home which can be completed in an a few hours.
Left field recommendations would be Her Story, an mystery presented as an "interactive film", and Kentucky Route Zero, a strange David Lynchian point/click adventure that I still think of today. Neither pull on the same emotional strings as Spiritfarer but both hit.
I finished Shadow of the Erdtree! I'm sure there are still a few side things I can do, but I killed I think all the rememberance bosses and all the other side ones I could find! Honestly 10/10 expansion. It built on an already excellent game and gave me FORTY hours of content. There are a ton of new weapons, spells, incantations, that are fun as hell and almost every boss I faced was a superb fight. I know some people have issues with the final boss, but I personally think they're well designed and force some players to come out of their comfort zone on their build. I tried about 5 different builds out before I found one that helped me progress!
EA FC 24... Sigh... I want sports games to be good, so badly. I love playing sports, I love watching sports, but it's just sad watching how far sports games fell in the last 10 years. I picked this up because I have a half dozen friends who did and it's legitimately fun to have our own club and play club matches (we each get to play as our created character in online games, so it does a good job of simulating being an individual footballer). That by itself is worth the $15 I paid (I cannot imagine ever paying full fucking price for this mess of a game). While the actual gameplay is fun, the menus are a mess, graphics options barely exist, it's horribly unoptimized, at least on PC, and set pieces cause lag for no reason, so it's hard to get corner kicks to the exact power I want, for example. I really miss when sports games used to be good, because now it seems developers are doing the bare minimum every year, not fixing obvious performance issues, and bogging the game down with microtransactions and other dumb things. People waiting for College Football 25 who haven't played sports games in a few years are in for a rude awakening. It's been especially frustrating as a massive basketball fan that the 2k series is even worse than EA sports games...
Lastly, I started both Nier Automata and Kingdom Come: Deliverance and played each for an hour or two to see what I wanted to play next. The original plan was Nier first since it's shorter (unless you replay it a bunch for all the endings, I suppose), but KCD is hooking me a bit more, so that's my next thing. That said, while it's a lot of fun to be in this immersive world, some of the systems are so incredibly clunky. I don't understand why I can't just quick save, for example. I know a big part of the game is learning to live with your consequences as if you were actually there making real decisions, but I don't even want to undo consequences, I just want to save before "obviously important part that might kill me" so I don't need to spend 20 minutes running back to where I was before. There is an in-game item you can drink to quick save, but it's a limited item. Mods exist to just give you quick save functionality, though, so I can always do that if it continues to bug me. Maybe I'll get used to it after a bit. So I'm not as much jazzed with the systems behind making this an "immersive sim", but the actual immersion of the game is incredible! The game world, conversations, plot, and everything else are a really good vibe and make you truly feel like you're living someone's life instead of just playing an RPG. I'm excited to dig more into this!
Nier Automata is really more of a game you "replay" multiple times to enjoy the full game.
Worth doing, but definitely don't stop after the first playthrough.
yea my friends and I also play FC 24, but all of us only ever play Club mode on it like you mentioned. The game is just a mess and that is its only redeeming feature. the AI if you are playing alone and offline is just otherworldly bad. I think AI in soccer games was better in the early 2000s honestly...
Playing Celeste after watching an insane runner play masterfully through the d sides map pack. I commented on our clans discord what a beautiful game it was and one of my friends bought it for me. I'm only on stage 3 and shit is getting real. What a wonderful game. And I've been going out of my way to follow the story line as well, not just speeding through everything (lol as if, i am not very good at platformers), Madeline is a such a great character, she's got a good heart, and she seems to be battling her demons while doing her best to help those around her.
Now's a great time to pick it up, it's on sale for $2 USD on steam until the 11th.
I've replayed the base game including the B and C sides a bunch of times, and that video inspired me to try out the D sides
I got to the first checkpoint on 1D and might have to give up lol. Stamina management is so frustrating.
It really is a no brainer at that price. If you're at all into platformers just grab it.
I'm getting deeper and deeper in Minecraft after my wife suggested we play together a bit one night a few weeks back. We played in a world for maybe a dozen hours four or so years ago, but aside from that I had never played the game.
This time though... I'm hooked. I've got a half dozen different automatic farms outside our base, a trading hall, brewing setup, a tree farm of my own (admittedly bad) design, and just can't stop trying new stuff with redstone. Half of the day I'm fantasizing about what I'll build next time I get a few minutes to play. It's awesome and I have no idea how I totally missed this aspect of the game last time.
Looking forward to the Elden Ring DLC and maybe Green Hell in the future, but for now all I wanna do is design and troubleshoot restone and get some friggin elytra.
You may already be aware, but Tildes has a new Minecraft server starting this Friday (7/12). Should be a lot of fun. :)
I saw that and wanted to join. But I'm playing bedrock on Xbox, and they said this time round they were opening it to bedrock players because last time it was buggy. Maybe when I get a new laptop I'll be able to take part.
The Witcher 3 player here once again. I have finished the main game (+ all base game quests) a few days ago. I consider myself to be playing a lot (having family, house, job...) and it still took me 4 months on my Steam Deck (that I use throughout the day everytime I have some time). My first manual save in the game is 8th of March and actually I finished the game on 8th of July clocking in 125 hours (probably more due to many deaths and reloading).
I have finished the game on Switch Lite before and I wanted to play it once more on PC. I'm not W3 veteran or anything like that, but I played (just as I did on Switch Lite) on highest difficulty called "Death march" and I strongly advise everyone to do the same. You will be dead many times, you will do more evasion than attacking but playing on highest difficulty will make you use everything the game has for you - oils on your swords, signs ("magic"), pick right skills, picking fights with as few enemies at once as possible etc. I believe this is the way to play the game.
Witcher 3 is almost 10 years old and yet it plays and looks like game of today. It didn't loose any of its charm or qualities. It stood the test of time really well. I'm still playing it as I want to do DLCs and get some more achievements. I haven't looked into it, but this may be the second only game that I may actually want to finish all the achievements (first one being Horizon Zero Dawn). It will be worth it.
Played on Steam Deck but selected "classic" version in Steam properties of the game (under "beta" list). It still looks great while drawing much less power and running at much more stable framerate than next-gen upgrade.
Hate to tell you this, but yer a W3 veteran, Harry.
Haha but yeah I totally agree. Death March is difficult, but it makes me interact with parts of the game that I otherwise completely ignore, namely the bombs and oils, but also things like the magic system and even the bestiary. In the more normal difficulties, you can hack and slash your way through almost anything, but on Death March you really need to be methodical about your gear, who/what you'll likely be facing, your level, the paths you take, etc.
Whole different experience to regular W3 for anyone that hasn't tried it. Way more time-consuming but also way more satisfying. Even just clearing a few wolves or drowners on DM makes you feel like a baddass.
You hit tne nail.on the head. This is exactly how you play and feel on Death march. It is very well worth the time and dedication, you really feel like a badass. I can't imagine playing on other difficulty. My very forst playthrough was on Death march and I don't see any point to try another.
Well, I may actually have one point where easy difficulty (combined with New game+) would be good - achievement where you have to do two contracts not using potions, signs etc. Basically doing it hack'n'slash style. Gear from previous game + easy difficulty should enable getting this achievement.
I'm currently playing the Steam release of Chrono Trigger. I picked it up in a recent sale after a recommendation from a work colleague who overheard me bang on about the turn-based Final Fantasy games at any opportunity.
I'm about 10 hours in and have just left the Ancient World for the first time. I really enjoy the character of the world (very Dragon Ball like) and as always Square made a soundtrack that brings the world alive.
I enjoy the fights with the combo powers that two or I guess at some point three of your team can combine to create a more power full attack is a really interesting use of the fight mechanism and also give nice progression of your power increasing as well as shows the development of the characters friendship in another way than just the conversation they have on screen.
I'm really glad I picked it up.
A coworker showed me Pokerogue yesterday and I'm completely hooked. It's basically just a Pokemon Rogue Lite. You pick your starters and progress through wild encounters and trainer battles, with gym, boss, and rival fights at set intervals. If your team wipes, you start over. Any pokemon you catch along the way are added to the pool of starter pokemon you can choose from. It's literally that simple, which is why it's so much fun.
I haven't made it past the 27th encounter yet, despite several attempts. But I just keep starting over, tweaking my starter team a little bit and trying new strategies. It's very fun!
I’m not a big Pokemon fan myself but I know a lot of people who are. I sent that link out on a group chat with a bunch of them, and a few hours later got this message:
I'm still dipping into Yakuza: Like a Dragon; haven't made a ton of progress, but I did just hit some new story beats last night after I had opened-up crafting and ran around collecting stuff to build some new weapons for my party. I still love this game and its sense of humor and I'll absolutely been continuing it.
I was playing Transport Fever 2 again as my chill game and continued work on a map I've been plugging away at for over a year now. After 90 hours, I feel like I'm finally figuring out how to be a little more efficient, so I've reorganized quite a few of my cargo truck pick-up/drop-off points and seen a marked improvement in Goods stacking up at various places. Was really just trying to get those kinks out of my system and get things flowing better so that my industries can crank out product.
But, I'll probably take a little break from it, as I came across this game SOVL that I've been very much enjoying. It's essentially a computer recreation of the old Warhammer: Fantasy Battles or Warhammer Old World, neither of which I've played. I have a lot of experience in tabletop wargames, but haven't really played a rank & file/flank games aside from a little bit of Black Powder. SOVL gave me a taste of that and I have to say, I love it. It's a pretty simple concept, build a list of available units to a certain point value, deploy them on the board and try and get the upper hand on your opponent through smart play and maneuvering. Playing it has triggered a sudden interest in building a box of Kings of War (another tabletop wargame) Dwarves my friend gave me about 6 months ago and finally trying out Warhammer Old World.
I picked up Cruelty Squad in the last Steam sale because people kept saying it's a great game once you get past the graphics... But I don't think I can get past the graphics. I've tried on two separate occasions but have only been able to play for like 10 minutes each time before I have to quit. Might end up refunding it which I never do.
I'm also about 3 hours into Mafia III and also might be dropping this. It feels so so different from the first two games (definitive edition versions). I'm right at the point in the game after the first long set of linear-ish missions where the world "opens up" and you're tasked with securing rackets... And it has all the indications of the kind of open world game I absolutely hate. Mindless, repetitive missions that essentially boil down to Go to this waypoint on your map, kill a person, repeat. I assume there's supposed to be dynamic allegiances throughout the city and your interactions with NPCs will change based on what you do... But I'm just not really interested in games like that. In my view, the bigger an open world map is, the emptier it feels. Missions/"events" feel copy-pasted to pad out the "content" in a game. It's the same problem I have with looter-shooters and similar live service games.
I really wish the gaming world would return to tight, single player narrative games. I don't need a world to look huge to be immersed. I need well paced, well directed narrative to be engaged. I know I'm not in the majority on this necessarily, but I do think at the very least studios may be moving away from live service games soon.
I'm hoping the upcoming Star Wars game isn't as open world as it suggests it is. At least, if there are designed missions rather than things like Clear this Outpost on the map (like Halo: Infinite), I'll be happy.
I feel you on this. Some of my favorite games are open world (Horizon Zero Dawn, Forbidden West, Elden Ring), but I'm kind of sick of every single player game being open world. I'm very much a fan of games that have a tighter linear design since they can usually tell their story in a more concentrated way.
I think the last newish single player games I played that weren't just straight up open worlds are the Destiny 2 campaign missions, Plague Tale Innocence, Boltgun, Doom 2016, and arguably Jedi Fallen Order and Survivor (there is an open world, but progression in the game is fairly linear due to the unlock system). I know more are out there, but man... I want more games like Mass Effect or Halo, which build an incredibly detailed world and never feel limiting, despite its linear nature. The open world in ME: Andromeda killed the entire vibe of that franchise for me. A well done open world like in the Horizon series can absolutely draw me in, but besides a few franchises, I don't wanna play most single player games for 50+ hours, I want a tight 20 hour adventure sometimes.
Assassins Creed is another franchise that embodies this for me. It has pretty much always been open world, but there's a huge difference in how you play Assassins Creed 2 vs Valhalla, with 2 being a fairly tight experience despite being open world, and Valhalla being an extremely loose experience. I still loved exploring Valhalla's world, but there was just too much to do and too much to see that the game somewhat suffered from having too much.
Fallen Order is more linear than Survivor, but Survivor still has mostly, if not entirely, scripted narrative progression (it's been a year since my playthrough, so I don't quite remember how much you could do "in any order" so to speak). Outlaws has been advertised as open world, but I'm hoping it's closer to the Survivor open world style than it is to Ubi's other open world games... I might be too optimistic on that front.
Guardians of the Galaxy is another recent single-play linear narrative game which has one of the best stories in games that I've come across in years. Highly recommend if you haven't played it yet!
I've been doing a let's-play of Later Alligator recently and it is hilarious. A paranoid alligator asks you to snoop on family members throughout the city to see what devious plan they'll enact on his birthday. The animation is great. The writing is great. It's all super goofy. The gameplay isn't anything avant garde, but there's enough minigames to keep your attention from character to character.
I also played Nightmare Kart when it came out. I didn't follow any of the development like a lot of people apparently did (previously known as 'Bloodborne Kart'), so I just judged the game on its merits alone. I'm a sucker for games that emulate the PS1 retro feel, and the game hits all those beats perfectly. You can even put in cheat codes! Definitely recommend as it is free on Steam, and Remote Play Together works great to play multiplayer with friends online, at least in my experience.
The new Final Fantasy XIV expansion, Dawntrail, is out...so that's what I'm playing for the foreseeable future. It's great so far. There's a rich, new continent to explore and learn about. The main story has been fun, though with a constant sense of foreboding...something crazy is going to happen and it just hasn't yet, I can tell. The new character it's focusing on has been good. The graphical upgrade is also nice.
I'm less crazy about the changes they made to my main job (Black Mage). Some nice additions, but a lot of the rework feels like a major nerf (on a class that already has a high skill floor) thus far. I'm starting to pick up on some of the new ways to keep all of the moving parts going smoothly, but it's a major change and the rotation we've had for multiple expansions is basically muscle memory.
Hey me too! I picked up pictomancer, it's probably the most fun I've had with a caster. I'm a healer main, been doing white mage for the raid static and so far it feels the same. Biggest difference is my 2min window now has three charges of a bigger boom button, a welcome addition to the most dull DPS rotation in the game, but we'll see what happens once I hit cap.
I'm still around MSQ lvl 93 -- I anticipate finding the city (or learning its proper nature) will be a real plot twister like how endwalker was completely flipped on its head with the first trial around lvl 84. The start was slow, but I took am enjoying the world building and the graphics -- I can tell it would've been a shame to release this continent without the lighting update.
So Warframe's had an update... about 20 days ago, a smaller one, one frame, 3 weapons, a new gamemode, and one new eximus unit.
And an operation, same deal as the last one: do missions, get event currency, turn those in for rewards.
The big difference is the limits so even the most tryhard have a hard cap, and alert missions giving some variety instead of having to do one mission over and over.
Don't get me wrong, it's good and different from usual, but when it's all you do it gets boring fast.
I also picked up Crime Boss: Rockay City after a video from TheKknowley and it being 20 bucks, with all DLCs free.
It's an heisting game so Payday 2 has it beat on content, but RC has a couple aces up it's sleeve: a lot of QoL/steamlining, and a singleplayer mode (that gets a multiplayer adaptation eventually I hope).
QoL/SL is things like being on a modern engine. Or showing your 3 strikes in stealth, how many revives you have, carrying multiple bags (and loot not always taking a whole bag each). The big one is really important, what with SP being one of the main focus of the game: improved bot AI, they'll bag up loot, carry it back to the van on their own, and can be commanded (2 pings on stuff) so you can try to double KO guards for example. And you also can just take control of 'em anyway in most cases if someone is having trouble.
This is very important in the singleplayer campaign since they're all you get.
The plot is simple: you are Travis "The Candyman" Baker, the King of Rockay's underworld has died, and you want his throne. Get it before Sherrif Chuck Norris gets you.
Gameplay is basically you picking which heists, turf wars, and attacks to do each day, using your team of heisters and army of soldiers to do that. Being a roguelite, anyone who dies, stays dead for the run. Baker dies, and it's game over.
It absolutely doesn't stack up to Payday 2, but for a game that was widely seen as a ripoff of it, I'd say it's a worthy competitor, and a better successor that what I've seen of Payday 3 so far.
Lastly, I've been "playing" Panic at the Dojo. It's a TTRPG that pretty much turns fighting games/beat 'em ups/ martial arts flick into a pretty snappy system.
Seriously, building characters and NPCs is simple enough that you could spam out 40 characters in as many minutes (with an automated character sheet/cards for everything, admittedly), while being flexible enough that you can recreate any character fairly faithfully or make one that fits your playstyle well.
Gameplay's as snappy: I originally has a whole essay, multiple paragraphs, the works, but then I realized I was skipping over important stuff, and trying to add that in would need me to redo the whole thing, so instead here's a video on it. It's the one that I (and most people, judging from the discord) found the game through.
This leads into why I'm "playing" rather than, well, playing: it's a TTRPG so you usually need a few other people to, you know, play with (not too much of an issue, I'm already playing board games without a solo mode alone pretty often); and I have too much fun making characters.
I wonder how often the latter's an issue in TTRPG circles...
So I just finished Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice a couple days ago... If you don't like FromSoftware games, I think this is actually a great one to try because it plays much differently than its siblings in terms of the combat. The difficulty and respawning enemies are still a thing, though. The combat is fantastic once you get the hang of it, but man the learning curve is certainly steep. It took me several hours to finally "get good", and then naturally the game recognizes thats about when the average person is going to get good, so it starts ramping up the difficulty in the regular enemies and bosses. This game though, it's earned a place in my top 10 of all time. Easy to learn hard to master combat, great level design (harkens back to DS1 interconnectedness), interesting lore and good story, captivating visuals and awesome representation of feudal Japan... It's just a really excellent game. I originally played it and gave up on it 2 hours in back in 2020 during COVID, as I wasn't in the mood for the difficulty. I am extremely glad I came back to it though, and would recommend it to anybody.
I have started and haven't gotten very far on The Last Descendant and Elden Ring (non-DLC, first-timer). The former is a F2P cross between Warframe and Destiny 2, and the latter, well, we all know what Elden Ring is. It was on sale for the Steam Summer Sale so I thought it would be a good time to jump in, especially coming off of Sekiro and wanting more FromSoft type games to play. Early impressions are that with Last Descendant, I see it as pretty fun, the gunplay feels neat and the movement is good. There are a lot of systems in the game to digest though, not unlike Destiny, and there is certainly grind. Like many games, it's more fun with friends. I don't think I'll play it very long without them playing, but for F2P you don't have much to lose so it's worth downloading and seeing if you'll like it.
Elden Ring so far, only being a couple hours in, is basically Just Dark Souls III: The Sequel except the most glaring addition is it being set in an open world. Can't get over how good the art and enemy designs are, though. Fromsoftware just always has an eye for quality when it comes to those areas, and it continues to be apparent in Elden Ring, too. Having completed Dark Souls 1 and its DLC and getting through 3/4ths of dark souls III, I don't know how long I'll stay with Elden Ring just because even being a couple hours in, its very much feeling "been there, done that" with the gameplay, but exploring and seeing all the amazing things in this world and like I said the art and enemies will keep me playing for at least a dozen or so more hours.
Elden ring. Dropped it a while back and when the dlc hit the horizon i went back. Best game in ages. Eventually ill make it to the dlc.
I just played through Skald: Against the Black Priory. While the game has a few flaws, its short, the writing it genuinely creepy and the ending is up there with Inside as a real head scratcher.
I always lurk these threads but thought I'd contribute this time. I've been playing a bunch of stuff, but most notable are Cult of the Lamb, Dark Souls (the Prepare to Die edition) and Magic: The Gathering. I've also been running my regular ttrpg games, two with D&D 5e and one using Savage Worlds Adventure Edition. Both of my 5e games are approaching their terminus, and I'm pretty excited to leave 5e behind and move on to other systems soon.
Cult of the Lamb has been really enjoyable. The games loop is fantastic, and the balancing of crusading and colony management is very unique. There's a surprising feeling of time pressure that comes from knowing the cult continues to develop in your absence. I often feel I can't take my time or be cautious because I'm worried something will go wrong while I'm gone. The enemies feel fair, with unique flair, and the weapons are fun. I do wish my follower had a bit more personality, as I don't feel they're much more than another resource and I lack much connection to individuals. That might be intentional given the nature of the game though; why would a cult leader treat pawns as anything special, after all?
With the Shadow of the Erd Tree releasing and me not having even picked up the base game yet, I decided to see how the original game felt. I never actually gave Dark Souls a real shot and keep bouncing off DS3, but the guys at Second Wind were talking about the genre as a whole and remarked that playing DS1 felt like easy-mode these days. Frankly, yeah. There's none of the nonsense FromSoft has had to do like making enemies track your character perfectly, reading your inputs, or making enemies that flail so much you can't predict them. It's hard, but actually enjoyable. And still beautiful despite its age.
Lastly Magic. Oh boy, Magic. MTG is in a really weird spot these days. WotC just released a new direct-to-Modern set which basically soft-rotated the entire format, meaning many of the $1000 decks people had been playing for nearly a decade became worthless overnight. Two weeks later they're shoving an Assassin's Creed set down our throats, then the next week releasing info for not only the upcoming Standard set Bloomburrow, but the next two sets as well! Feels like they've really just opened the floodgates. Maybe a fire hose is a more appropriate metaphor.
On top of all this, Wizards has also gone hard on the power creep with all these new cards. For me it's been interesting to see the community reckon with WotC's clear intent to drain as much money as they can out of the player base. There's a ton of conversations happening about whether this relentless stream of more and more powerful product is acceptable and what we can do about it. Many Commander/EDH players have been talking about making a new version of the format called PreDH. I've been looking at putting stricter limits on my brews, playing Standard in small quantities, and looking to play more community-made formats like Pauper or Dandân. The trouble, and danger, is that WotC will no doubt try to squeeze everything they can out of the game in the short-term with no regard to the long-term health of the game and community. Ultimately, if no one plays MTG anymore then the game is dead, but for now the marketing plan is working.
I have been playing Zenless Zone Zero or ZZZ. It is the newest gatcha game from Hoyoverse (the makers of Genshin Impact). My thoughts on it so far is that the combat has a nicer flow than Genshin, with easier to switch out your characters in the middle of combat, with an entire mechanic behind this. And the story so far is way less serious than Genshin, with the story being more comedic in nature and the animations being more cartoony in nature and more animated than Genshin's cut scenes.
I went back to play Black Desert Online because the new class that just came out was appealing, and I had been thinking about it for some time. It reminded me just how good the combat still is, and I genuinely think that it’s a better game than before with all the streamlining and being much friendlier to new players.