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What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?
What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.
I've been playing Descenders (currently on sale 80% off) and it's pretty fun. You bike down a mountain, while doing tricks. It's not a race (generally) you just do tricks for "rep" and try not to crash. If you crash too many times, your run finishes. The physics are pretty good, and the courses are procedurally generated. There are recurring elements - ie. it's not procedurally generating unique ramps, there is a library of ramps, and it places them on the scene you are biking through. There are some quality bespoke maps as well; a construction site where you have to make it to the top, which is difficult but feels rewarding when you do it, a mega-ramp where you have to do mega-tricks, and a ton of other maps that don't show up in the regular course of career mode (or at least, haven't shown up for me yet). Good game, definitely worth the 5 bucks it currently is, and there's a sequel coming out in a while.
Slay the Spire is one I've returned to despite the fact that I have 100%ed the game, including some meta-achievements that aren't actually tracked, like doing an A20 heart run on each character. It's a great game, definitely in my top 10 all time, and there's also a sequel coming out for this one next year.
You are me, I literally have both games lined up for my meetings and other lazy days at the moment! Only other thing I've added to my rotation is Dungeons and Degenerate Gamblers that released last week!
You are me, and we are both @kfwyre (with Descenders especially).
I find it to be a particularly relaxing game. I was getting frustrated for a bit, then had a conversation with kfwyre about it on your post about Descenders 2, and then kind of gave up on that angst about it - my expectations about what to do during a run - and remembered the slow is smooth and smooth is fast, and just gave in to doing what seemed best for the run, even if it didnt' work with the objective for the course I was on.
Great game overall!
Oh, and while I'm shouting out kfwyre, I've been trying to live the Backlog Burner life, and the main reason I installed it a while ago was to just play something that I owned and hadn't played yet. I'm going to pick another one for this week, probably tomorrow, and will probably report back after doing so.
Another one for the fold! I’m honored to be in such good company.
I played Descenders last year. It was really tough for me but I found it very enjoyable and relaxing. I think it is still free on Game Pass
I found it hard at the beginning, but something clicked for me the other day and now I'm mostly breezing through the original areas. Part of it was a realization that I'm not competing - I'm playing for fun, and when I'm concentrating on the fun, it is fun, so I didn't have to cram as many tricks as I could in, or try to maximize a run. I could just barrel down the hill, and that's okay. I could also try to throw in all the tricks if I wanted to; there's no judgment, and no real reason to do other than for enjoyment.
It's one of the games where I find the playing itself to be the reward, instead of playing for a reward. I like that.
Edit: oh, and I checked - it is included with GamePass.
I went hard on descenders in 2020/21, it is a really solid game. Basically the Skate. of biking on a low budget. Stoked for the second one!
After Descenders I ended up with Lonely Mountains Downhill and enjoyed it quite a bit more even with the low poly graphics. It's a pretty chill game overall but if you want to go for achievements it can get a tiny bit sweaty.
I’ve been playing STS lately too! I only originally started earlier this year, but have returned after a relatively short break and I’m definitely coming to remember just how much cool stuff is really packed into this game. Still only A2-6 between characters, but I’ve been having lots of fun just recently picking cards I wouldn’t ever usually take and seeing what synergies I can figure out and make work with them. I was recommended to play by a tildes user late last year after expressing how much I liked Inscryption’s gameplay, and I’m really glad I picked it up!
There are a ton of great decks that can be built in STS. It's still hard to beat how much fan a Grand Finale deck can be when you build it right, for example. The Defect is far and away my favourite, despite it being one of the most difficult characters to make work. Actually one of the things I miss about reddit was the pretty good discussions around r/slaythespire - I often learned things in their card discussions. It's cool how much depth there is to the game.
I have been allowing some Reddit back into my diet just to scroll r/slaythespire, and have been enjoying that a lot! So many good memes. I just need to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand or anything.
I don’t dislike playing any of the characters, but i would say Defect is probably the one I “get” the least, next to Ironclad. Only build I’ve been able to make work for them is the power card (can’t remember the names) which channels lightning whenever you get hit, and then generally building around that. First time I played them I picked up that card late, and when the heart did a bunch of attacks in a row on me (3x12 or whatever it was) I had NO idea what was happening and it just died haha.
I started out understanding the Ironclad the least by far, but I think I’m starting to come around. Every time I get something good working it feels totally broken though, like a recent snecko eye + dead branch + corruption run, or insane strength decks.
The Silent and Watcher are lots of fun, and I don’t feel lost trying to figure out which cards to pick. Maybe their gimmicks feel a bit more clear cut to me? Like I know not to take divinity centred cards on Watcher if I’m not really building a deck for that, but I don’t always get (yet!) when exhaust cards are a good idea or not for Ironclad.
Completed a few games recently.
I finally got around to Cyberpunk 2077 this month after I finally got around to Witcher 3 last month. Both games have been a blast. All I knew about Cyberpunk was that it was a disaster at release but patched itself up sometime over the past year. There are some things that aren't always smooth, but the game is MASSIVE so you'd expect some hiccups here and there. To me, it's a much much better version of what Fallout 4 tried to be. I'm 35 hours in and I'm excited to sink in another hundred or so.
I just got a used Switch. First game I played was Outer Wilds (was on sale). I enjoyed it, it wasn't quite as amazing as people made it out to be (I looked up maybe 3 spoilers when I got stuck a few times, usually because I was over or under complicating things), but still very good, and I liked the physics/science influence. Good ending, gave me a bit of a vibe, but not the tears inducing existential crisis some people have claimed.
The Switch came with Zelda BOTW, which is pretty good for a Switch game...but again not as amazing as it's made out to be. The game is beautiful, the combat is incredibly boring without much personalization though (seems like fast swords, two handed weapons, and stabby spears is it?). Gathering ingredients is not super fun, it feels like you just always have multiple low level fetch quests going on. I've found the difficulty to be really weird, things are either super impossible, or so easy it feels like you're using hacks (even with bosses).
I also got Windbound on sale, which seems like an extreme survival Zelda rip off. I thought the sailing mechanics would be interesting, they aren't. It's a very boring game, but also surprisingly relaxing.
Finally, I also got Starlink for that Starfox nostalgia. The story is incredibly bland, but the gameplay is actually pretty fun. You can actually fly through the atmosphere to land on a planet unlike Starfield, which is kind of hilarious to me.
No luck with any of the free to play games, not sure if I needed the Nintendo online subscription or what, but I wasn't able to connect or got stuck in matchmaking forever. Overwatch, Vigor, and Apex Legends were all no goes.
The Suicide of Rachel Foster
I just finished this (as in I just put down my Steam Deck after the credits rolled), so this is less of a review and more of me processing what I just played in a very scattered, unedited way.
The game is a narrative walking sim in which the player character returns to their home after a long time away and spends a lot of time talking to another character on the phone. It's equal parts Gone Home and Firewatch. It also, as implied by the title, addresses some very heavy topics.
Now that I'm done, I don't know that I've ever been so conflicted in my opinion towards a game. On one hand, there was some stuff that I really liked and was very impressed by. On the other hand, there are some limitations and choices I can't really look past.
I'm going to separate out my post into three pieces: spoiler-free stuff, small spoilers, and then mega spoilers.
Spoiler-Free Stuff
I loved the game's presentation. The graphics are great, and the audio is top-notch. The architecture of the hotel is fantastic, and it was fun to just wander around it and explore different areas. It feels very real, and it's seriously one of the most well-done and memorable gaming environments I've ever been in.
I didn't like that the game doesn't have toggle-able head bob. I had to play it on my Deck and hold the screen farther away from me than normal because I'm prone to motion sickness. I was able to avoid getting sick most of the time, but I did get a bit ill after one of my sessions.
I loved that the game is a slow burn. It's plodding and almost meditative at times which greatly benefits its mood and tone.
I didn't love that the game was at times, directionless. The hotel is big and has a lot of points of interest. You can easily wander for a long time without triggering a scene that advances the plot, and while this is kind of cool initially, it wears thin easily. I ended up turning to a guide to point me in the right direction at several points. I'm very glad I did this. I think I would have bounced off the game otherwise.
Small Spoilers
Clicking this will only spoil some stuff about the mechanics and atmosphere
The slow build-up of suspense is great. I think a lot of this was pretty smart game design on the part of the developers. I spent a lot of time wondering if the game was actually a horror game or not. Turns out it really isn't, but a lot of the trappings of horror were there. In particular, the layout of the hotel, with so many different routes and passageways, made me think that, at some point, I would be running/hiding from something. Some of the hallways even reminded me of PT -- I can't help but wonder if that was a deliberate nod?
This possibly-horror aspect is further enhanced by the items you pick up. The game sort of fake foreshadows itself as a different game to keep you on your guard, and I liked that a lot.
That said, it's not entirely not horror either. There are some genuinely unsettling moments.
The pick-up-random-items-and-rotate-them-in-front-of-you-to-examine-them is something that, I think, needs to be iterated on and made better in games like this. It's immersion breaking, which is particularly bad in a title like this which is genuinely really immersive in general. Also, I feel like it's always a mistake to let us pick up unintersting clutter. I can't think of a game that had this system that was made better by it? I think it's pretty much always better to just let us look at any items in the context of the level and let the character comment on the important ones.
Narratively, the game has a compelling investigative angle that I think they could have incorporated into the mechanics a lot more.
Mega Spoilers
Clicking this will spoil major plot points including the ending
I will say that I feel like the game did squander a lot of its pretty incredible potential. The hotel is huge and richly made, but it's also mostly... just... there? So many rooms only have a single purpose in the game -- or none at all. I feel like there was such a big canvas for environmental storytelling that went unused. I feel the same way about the items. I get a parabolic microphone for ghost hunting and it's used... once? The only thing I can do with the Polaroid is trigger the flash? I wanted more from these. It feels like they should have been limited to certain scenes rather than made on-demand parts of your permanent inventory if they were going to be so constrained in their utility.
The plot twist with Irving being in the hotel the whole time got me good. Real good. I genuinely got chills. The entire game I'd felt uncomfortable -- they did a really great job of making you feel somewhat okay but also always slightly on edge -- but when Irving finally goes mask-off, the slow burn hours of feeling like something was off suddenly boiled over in one volcanic moment. The entire game you're not sure if Rachel is still alive in the hotel, so you weren't ever really sure if you were actually alone, but the game never implied she might be hostile towards you. Irving, on the other hand, is there and knows where you are and has been there the whole time and is clearly not okay. I felt SO very unsafe in that moment, and whenever a game makes me feel something that strongly, I'm always impressed. In hindsight, it's a little more obvious and I feel like I probably should have seen it coming, but I'm honestly glad I didn't.
Unfortunately, I feel like the game kind of falls apart after that. Every plot point after that -- and even that specific one -- strains credibility pretty badly. She forgot not just Rachel's brother's name, but also that she even had a brother? Irving puts Nicole on a NINE DAY scavenger hunt?
I will say that, if I allow my credibility to bend more than I like, then I do appreciate that the game is deliberately ambiguous. I can't tell from the ending if it was Claire or Nicole who actually killed Rachel. Nicole tells us it was Claire, but Irving hints at it being Nicole (with the mannequins and the hockey stick, as well as his whole elaborate "put the pieces together" deal).
Furthermore, how can we explain some of the stuff at the end? Is Nicole disassociating? Is there a paranormal aspect at play? Hard to know for sure, because there's a lot of evidence and inferences to support different interpretations. I especially like that they confirmed the paranormal stuff from an outside source (the film crew). If they hadn't done that, it would have felt like a hokey misdirection, but instead it feels like a somewhat essential part of the game's explanation.
There are a few threads I haven’t fully pulled on so I don’t know how they’ll stand up to scrutiny, but I like that the game at least gives you the surface area to consider them. Is Irving even real? Is he the ghost of Rachel? Is Nicole actually Rachel? At what point in the game does Nicole become a fully unreliable narrator? Just the last scene? Or earlier, when she starts seeing lights and hearing whispers? Or is it very early on, when she gets a phone call on a disconnected line?
I don't like the ending scene of the game with Nicole's suicide attempt. It felt unearned by the game and the plot up to that point. The fact that you can so quickly reverse it in process too, also feels cheap. It ended up feeling schlocky and didn't have the weight that a scene like that should have. Irving's also felt cheap to me. (full disclosure: I'm a suicide attempt survivor myself, so it's quite possible I'm unable to view something like this through a regular lens)
I generally liked that the characters were complex. I also thought the heavy subject matter was somewhat skillfully handled. The game is ultimately about an adult finally processing a significant trauma she experienced as a kid, and I think the game does a good job of conveying the depth of that pain without being on-the-nose about it. That's a tough thing to do narratively, especially in a videogame.
In writing this I did look at some online discussion of the game and saw some people criticizing it for essentially being pedophilia apologia, and that feels like a pretty significant misread to me? The entire game is about the fallout from Leonard's grooming and abuse of Rachel, and both Nicole and Irving were clearly deeply damaged by this in ways that still affect their adult lives. Irving does give a speech at the end defending Leonard, but that's his villain moment and meant to make you feel unsafe, so we're clearly not meant to sympathize with his reasoning -- it's instead a clear indicator of just how far gone Irving is as a result of his pain. Also it’s darkly alluded to that he himself was possibly harmed as a child as well, which could make his defense a coping mechanism.
If I felt the game in any way supported the abuse of kids I wouldn't be saying anything positive about it, but I honestly don't think it does.
Ultimately, I don't know how to feel about the game, which is, quite interestingly, also the in-game feeling I had for most of its playtime. The cynical part of me wants to dog on some of the stuff that I think is so bad it almost compromises the whole thing, but the affirming part of me wants to acknowledge that the devs did some legitimately impressive stuff too.
I'm going to deliberately lean more in the direction of the positive, simply because I know that it requires a million times more effort to create something flawed than it does to point out flaws in something already created, and that's an imbalance that regularly works against devs and other creatives. So, ultimately, while I think it does have some issues, I do think it's a genuinely good game and would recommend it to people that like walking sims. It's an experience unlike others I've had in gaming, and I commend the devs for trying to go make a game narrative that has some literary heft to it.
EDIT: I tried to go to bed after writing this, but I can’t fall asleep. My mind keeps mulling over the game and going over different parts, trying to make sense of them, evaluate them, examine them for potential meanings or subtexts. A game hasn’t given me this much to chew on in a long time. I’d say that’s a definite strength. It gives you a lot to consider.
I went back to Ghost of Tsushima this week and loving it. I guarantee it's going to still take me another year to finish it because I'm doing every side quest, collectible, etc., but it's a fun time. The atmosphere is just so good that I don't feel like I have to march towards the finish at all, it's one of the more enjoyable open world games I've played. If you haven't already played this one, you definitely should try it, it's one of my favorite games from the last 10 years.
I also started No Man's Sky. I picked this up originally as a "get it out of my system" game. I've always been curious about it and have plenty of friends who have hundreds of hours in it, but I've brushed it off because I typically don't enjoy crafting or survival games. So I bought it just to get the nagging want to play the game out of my system and thus far.... I love it!!!
I think the game systems strike a good balance of guiding exploration and encouraging your own exploration. The plot hook they give you to start feels like just enough to get you to learn how the game works and then the locations you go to have nearby locations that spark enough curiosity to start going out of your way. So I'm kind of getting bit by the exploration bug now and want to see what other planets, ruins and settlements are out there!
The actual gameplay is fine. It's been mostly pointing at rocks and pressing the trigger and then using the resources for things, but despite the gameplay being pretty basic (so far), the game itself really invokes a sense of wonder and is incredibly immersive thus far. It feels like I'm the captain of a space ship exploring the galaxy rather than just myself playing a game. This is giving me the vibes of what I wanted Starfield to be, which I bounced off so incredibly quickly, despite actually being a fan of Bethesda's prior games. That game lacking extremely basic features for a space exploration game, such as not being able to fly your own damn ship into atmosphere and land, completely pulled me out and I'm glad NMS is giving me a lot more freedom.
NMS is actually giving me a bit of nostalgia of playing Elite Dangerous back in the day (yes, ED is now a "back in the day" game). I know that's still around, but the simpler systems of NMS is something I'm enjoying for now. I've started to fall off more complex sim-like games lately. I haven't played DCS in months, don't want to re-learn ED, etc., though I still do a ton of general aviation in microsoft flight sim. So yeah, NMS is vibing right now for me.
Edit: also, I think I'm just done with Destiny 2, at least until there is a major content update. The Final Shape was fantastic and the best shape the game has ever been in for an existing player (new player experience is still awful), but now that the new release wore off and with all the recent layoffs and news about Bungie, the wind has come out of my sails on this game. I took a break for the last 2-4 weeks, tried to play at the start of Solstice this week, and I just immediately got bored. I don't even want to do raids anymore right now. I think I just need a looooong break and I might come back for a couple weeks a season to experience the story, but I think that game has run its course on me after 1300 hours. I still had a lot of incredible times in that game and it's one of my favorites of all time, there's just not much more for me to do except repeat the same existing activities. It's a shame, because the game is truly unique, nothing else feels quite like it, but the announcement that the game is unlikely to ever get a full expansion again was a little bit of a gut punch after how good The Final Shape was.
I'm not an open world guy by any means but I loved Ghosts of Tsushima. There's a fun game loop, traversal is mostly enjoyable, and it's just gorgeous from start to finish with a great story
Baldur's Gate 3. Still my first run, blue dragonborn fighter. Just hit lvl 7 and the mechanics are interesting! I just finished Shar's Gauntlet and am below the challenges doing Raphael's request (iykyk), which I paused on tonight.
I play this game, get engrossed, and then play something else. Every time I come back I remember how great it is and it sucks me back in. I am at a point where I want to focus on getting to the end so I can do it again with another build/style (I could reclass, but like my character).
Reply comment to bump for what I think is a great game so far:
Shapez 2 just dropped in early access. It's the same gameplay as the original, but with three layers, a tutorial, full 3D engine, and a tutorial (which I'm still doing). If you like factory games, this is a must-have, it's just a chill low-stakes factory builder. It has a higher price tag, but I feel the first one was sold way below what it was worth.
Messed around with DOOM + DOOM II this weekend since I got it for free for already owning the original games.
It's fantastic. Good nostalgia trip, I don't think I've actually played OG DOOM since I was a kid. So much fun.
I love that they updated it to work on modern systems and runs at 1080p while still using the classic graphics. Love the remixed soundtrack (also cool that they hired a fan who made fanmade remixes to do the official ones).
Also love that it's everything in one. Many of the levels included I haven't played and several I'd never even heard of before. And they made a whole new set of levels for this release as well!
I'm only halfway through the first game right now but it's great so far.
I love the trend of remastering/updating games for modern systems and bundling them all together for major franchises. Halo MCC was also amazing.
I ended-up not playing through the singleplayer at all, as I recently completed the original game on Chocolate Doom, but I did jump in to multiplayer a couple of times, which was really neat. Never got to experience it as a kid, not having internet nor a way to LAN it in '95, so it was neat to see a piece of history; did pretty alright too, coming in second on frags, which is pretty hard given how fast the game moves. I can handle Quake no problem, but it took some getting used to with Doom.
I catched up to Honkai: Star Rail's main questline yesterday. Certainly an enjoyable experience albeit there were rough moments.
Combat is considerably harder than Genshin and much more unforgiving with its team building. After a certain point in game all fights become elemental checklists with a necessity for at least one 5-star ( premium ) healer/shielder character to keep you alive.
But when you find your interests and get your account into a bit of shape game flows really well.
Story/lore is also denser which ends up as a double edged sword. On one end you have more lore to enrich yourself in the Honkai universe. On the other MiHoyo's weak story presentation becomes more apparent. Translating from Chinese is also seemingly bad for long sentences according to native speakers.
Dome Keeper
A light but engaging rogue like tower defense
Got it on sale and have been addicted, sort of scratches that vampire survivors itch I had. The whole game is simple and engrossing, feels comfy to play and I love the art.
I've been addicted to No Creeps Were Harmed TD. An indie tower defence game, apparently made by just one person? If you feel like playing a tower defence game, I can highly recommend it. I've found most of the guns and turrets useful, and there are some interesting combinations you can use I don't often see in those kind of games.
I've tried the co-op mode now (actually, only played it co-op), and it works great. It's exactly how I expected it to work, and "medium" difficulty was very relaxed with two.
Did you happen to try the co-op mode?
No, not yet. Might be fun as well though
Kingdom Hearts: Re:Chain of Memories
I grew up playing the Kingdom Hearts games and was elated when they finally came to Steam (I refused to buy them on EGS). I figured now was the time to actually sit down and finish every game in the series. I played through KH1 and am now almost done with Sora's story in Re:CoM.
I hated it at first. The card system felt limiting and gimmicky. Then after a few worlds it finally clicked - '0' cards to cancel enemy attacks, sleights to maximize damage, etc. but eventually I reached a point (Vexen) where I hated it again. The card system feels too subject to the will of the RNG gods and getting swarmed by enemies who break your cards constantly is no fun at all.
The story also feels lacking - obviously this was originally a GBA game so the fact it's basically a "clip show" of KH1 isn't as big a deal. But having just finished KH1 I found myself sleepwalking through it. It is nice to finally see Axel/Namine's introduction (I didn't play CoM as a kid) but that's all I'm really getting from this game story-wise.
Still have a ways to go with this game, but I'm ready to move on. I loved 358/2 Days so I'm looking forward to that cutscene recap.
The original Chain of Memories is actually my favorite Kingdom Hearts game, believe it or not. I enjoyed the card based system in spite of it being the kind of thing I typically dislike. I thought Re: got rid of it in favor of the typical KH combat, though?
Re:CoM has the 3D movement of the PS2 titles but the card gameplay is a direct translation from the GBA version. Sleights, '0' cards to break enemy attacks, etc.
Just finished Spiritfarer (100% completion), which... wow. That's some feels. What an absolute delight of a game, even if it did make me cry repeatedly. Very nearly put it down at first because fishing was boring me silly and not much else seemed to be going on, but once I'd gotten a bit further into it, it clicked, and I was sad to finish it.
So now I'm back to running Noita over and over despite not thinking I liked roguelikes. I used to play Angband and its variants hardcore, I thought I'd get tired of this because really all you keep is knowledge, but... I can't put it down. It's been "just one more game" so many times, because I'll get that new fantastic wand combo and rip through everything in a whole new way. (Until the inevitable mistake.) Still avoiding spoilers and haven't won it yet (not even sure how close I've gotten, though a couple of random-teleport chaos extravaganzas definitely threw me through levels I've still never found again), but I'm itching to know what some of the weirder stuff I've found actually does.
I should play more of Spiritfarer. It's got so much that appeals to me, but unfortunately I seem to have lost the temperament for games built around crafting in general. I can't stand being constantly stopped because I don't have enough resources, or needing to craft something to be able to get the stuff to craft something else.
I hear that, that'll knock me out of a crafting game too, if it's too egregious. I didn't really get that from Spiritfarer, except for the rare times I didn't know what I needed (or more often, where to go) to progress. Since the islands tell you their resources and how much of them they have right then, I mostly just went bopping around at need to collect stuff. I did have to hit a guide a couple of times when I got frustrated enough to stop having fun.
I hated cutting wood into planks, though.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who dislikes that minigame.
I've been playing Steamworld Heist and it's been a good time. It's not the most difficult or interesting game. But for like $4 it's a neat world and a good game loop that keeps me entertained for 20 min at a time.
I'm nearly finished with System Shock Remake, which is an achievement after two false starts over the past year, so I'm glad it finally clicked. I loved System Shock Enhanced Edition when I first played it in 2020 and the Remake is finally giving me the vibes that the original did. The only thing I dislike is Cyberspace, which I didn't have much of a problem with in the original game, but in Remake you get no upgrades or anything to your weapons, so it often ends-up being a little annoying and I have had at least one instance where I unlocked a thing in Cyberspace, but didn't get to explore any further inside of it because there were just too many enemies and I couldn't do much damage.
I've also been dabbling in Mechwarrior Online and Mechwarrior 5. MWO I managed to come-up with a VERY satisfying build for my Cataphract, which has been super fun; that said, I've pretty much only been playing with my friends, so when I'm not, I've jumped back in to MW5, which is...not really all that satisfying. I've only played it about 5 or so hours total, but I really dislike how small the maps are and how generic the missions feel; I played Mechwarrior 2/3/4 as a kid and I felt like the maps were enormous, the missions varied and the games generally just fun. I feel like Mechwarrior 5 could have really benefited from a more hands-on approach from the developers and had some handcrafted missions, rather than just a randomly generated set of missions in between story beats, which are very far apart. It just ends-up being grinding the same generic missions over and over again for C-Bills to upgrade your Mechs.
Anyway, I need to figure out what I'm going to invest my time in once I'm done with System Shock. I'm kind of thinking another Im Sim, but I don't generally like to play similar games back to back, so I may finally start Frostpunk instead.
Another MWO player! It feels like such a small player base but it is one of go-to games. It's likely second only to WoW in hours played for me. I've always been partial to dual gauss builds.
SImilarly, MW5 never really pulled be in. I appreciate the updated engine but found it fairly uninspired.
I'm really glad it's not just me, because I feel like something is wrong with my brain in thinking MW5 just feels bad to play, especially when MWO feels so great. I've been trying to put my finger on that for ages now and I feel like I'm striking closer to the truth with my last comment, but I think that's just one piece of the whole as to why it feels poor.
I only recently am getting back into MWO; it's been years and years since I played. I think I put the most time in around initial release back whenever that was and stopped pretty much completely after a year or so, I think.
At any rate, MWO still feels great and it's still damned fun to test out builds; I'm also super glad that Clans aren't utterly dominating the field and you still see plenty of Inner Sphere mechs and that they're still viable, as they're my favorites. I'm loving the hell out of my Ilya Muramets(?) right now and just steadily building my funds with my Premium and Founders mechs as I try to figure out a new line of Mechs to try out. Everything is so different though, I'm not sure if my thinking is even correct anymore. I recall I had to collect all the Centurian's back in the day to build some skill set or something, I don't remember exactly and now they're all the little skill pips to specialize the mech, which is pretty neat.
Oh man, MWO is still going? I think I had close to 3k hours in that game. MWO, PlanetSide 2, and Mount & Blade are probably my most favorite games ever. Didn't like the devs of MWO too much though.
Mechs I remember being the most fun:
Myst Lynx with anything, super fun (but hard mode)
Victor with AC and SRMs
Ice Ferret with ECM and long range laser or medium laser for kiting
Piranha with LMGs (very cheesey at the time, Myst Lynx did it better though)
King Crab with any cannons
Thanks, I think I might have to get the Victor. Somehow forgot I have one I always use in Tabletop Battletech and it's kind of a great mech.
It's one of the fastest and jumpiest assault mechs. Very fun to play like a giant Centurion with the left side empty and used for twisting/shielding, and the right side with MRMs and autocannon.
Sounds perfect for me. Centurion is my favorite mech and I tend to do best in fast mechs. Thanks!
I maybe had 50 or so hours in MWO from before covid and I really liked it back then.
What are matches like in 2024? I remember when I played even then you'd see the same names and sometimes struggle to get a match depending when you played (mind you I'm euro time zone).
Seems pretty ok to me in North America.
It can sometimes take what seems about 5 minutes from clicking Quick Match to actually be in your Mech and on the ground, but that's the entire process of finding a match, loading, waiting for people to Ready, etc, etc, etc. It does seem to bounce me around servers depending on who's playing; sometimes I'm on NA servers, other times Euro.
Community seems pretty nice and fairly communicative overall.
It was a slow gaming week for me:
I played a bit of Nine Sols. A metroidvania sekiro-like in a world inspired by Chinese legend/mythology with a sci-fi aspect. You play a stoic cat/fox type guy. Combat is parry, along with a simple dodge, a basic attach, a ranged attack, and a skill that dodges through an enemy and attaches a "talisman" which you can explode to deal a lot of damage. To build talisman charges you must parry enemies. There is an simple but effective skill tree and you have some slots for upgrades to fit your playstyle. Like any soulsy game there is a bonfire type mechanic. I appreciate that there is a central hub that you can return to relatively easily which will also send you back to where you were when you are ready.
I'm seeing people talk about how difficult it is. It is a hard game but I haven't reach the point where the difficulty allegedly spikes pretty hard. There are also two difficulty settings "normal" and "story." Thus far (3-4 hours) I've been on normal. I recommend it, it is a nice break from the normal styling of this type of game for a more colorful environment.
And then I played about 5 hours of WoW Classic hardcore. I was on a call with a friend catching up and we just leveled some characters while chatting. Hardcore mode is quite fun as a long time WoW player.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
I have been on a Crash Bandicoot kick, and this game kinda fills the void when I get tired of getting all them damned boxes, not dying, etc…
The story in PoP didn’t ever really catch me, but the gameplay is great even if it’s just a side scroller. The map continues to get bigger and bigger, and I do get lost and forget stuff after a while, but when you figure out where to go and defeat whomever or whatever is there, it’s worth it. I love these kinds of puzzle games. Would be down to find another in the same vein if possible.
And because it’s one of the monthly picks for PS+, now I have to try Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.
Started playing Eastward since I'm in vacation. And last night I made a mistake and didn't stop early enough in Chapter 2, so I had to finish it and continue to a bit of Chapter 3 because... Well, if you play it, you know.
So far, I love this game. The graphics are just so incredibly detailed for pixel art, and the setting is so cool. Going to the surface actually felt momentous after spending so long underground at first.
And Sam is adorable. Her sprite is so expressive, she just grins and cheers so much. I love her dynamic with John, she truly is pure. Them hugging, and the piggyback rides, one of the best parent-child dynamics I've seen in games. Also like how John's silent protagonist status is acknowledged by characters. It did make the stuff with Uva feel weird and kinda rushed though...
Gemcraft: Frostborn Wraith
I remember playing the old Gemcraft online several years ago and found this one. It isn't new. I decided to give it a shot and do some tower defense.
I am extremely lukewarm about it.
The tower defense seems to be balanced pretty well, at least to any scale I have played. The game has just too many levels in my opinion. I think it has something like 150 levels, which have a "story mode" version, an "endurance" version, and a "trial" version. Story mode tends to not be very difficult, but you have to do it to unlock the other two versions, then often redo the level in endurance to get an unlock (skill or whatever).
There is a neat meta minigame where you build up a talisman to augment your skills between levels that works as a puzzle so you can mix and match puzzle pieces to get better skills for a specific level if needed.
Your level also crawls upward until you get to the point where you can get the resource sapping gem. Once you have that skill unlocked, it is easy to have your level absolutely explode and trivialize the remainder of the story.
Overall it is a fine game but overstays its welcome. Many of the levels can be solved by just getting a single powerful tower and letting it go crazy until the waves end.
Still playing 2-player co-op inkbound. We're back to level 20, and are still getting massively overpowered builds most of the time.
I just finished The Darkness (2007) on 360 for the first time as a recommendation from my best friend. She was absolutely right. That game is a treat, whether it be the atmosphere, characters, NYC setting, and wild gameplay mechanics and crazy imagery.
I thoroughly loved it and let's not forget mr. Mike Patton as the voice of the Darkness is perfect.
I will be playing the second one soon as she also recommended it.
In the meantime I'm playing through Halo 3 ODST for the first time as well and loving it. I played through Halo 1-4 recently and didn't care for 4 but 3 stood out as my second favorite under 1.
ODST is quickly taking that spot. Along with Reach which I need to finish too. That also will end up high up on my Halo ranking list.
Just bought Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 (2020) on sale for ps5. I never played the originals, so I went into it a bit blind. Back in the day I started off at Underground, which included a story mode that I just assumed was in the previous games too. I was disappointed after finishing the tutorial to learn there's no story, just a tour/arcade mode. But my mind kept going back to how great the skating felt. So I've been spending too much of my free time trying to 100% the game now ahaha. The devs really nailed the positive feedback from building long combos and hitting the right lines. There's a solid labor of love feeling in the polish here.
After a few hours I thought they must be close to releasing another, it's been 4 years! Unfortunately the Activision studio behind the remake, Vicarious Visions, was absorbed into Blizzard as Blizzard Albany. Then became a support studio for Destiny. Then Call of Duty. Then Diablo IV. Seems like the Tony Hawk IP is in purgatory and it might be a long time before we get another original title or even a remake.
It's really a shame they didn't get a chance at 3+4, because 4 was the one I first got really into. And then of course THUG/THUG2 were great as well. There was definitely a period in my teens where most of my time gaming was spent playing 4/THUG/THUG2 online multiplayer. I had a whole friend group that stuck together until the console jump to PS3/X360 happened. Good times.
But yeah 1+2 are really good. I was pleased to see they retained some elements introduced later in the series as well (wallplanting, in particular) to open up some new possibilities for skate lines in old levels. Everything feels really solid and you can tell a lot of care and effort went into it.
It’s almost bittersweet feeling how far their craft has come since the great games of our youth, and knowing they’re not putting it to use with more titles. The only thing I’m missing from 1+2 is the level of customization available in THUG/Wasteland. But I understand they were probably working against the clock and spending more time on the core skating mechanics.
I'm giving a second try to Monster Hunter: Rise. I fell off initially on the Switch because I felt bad taking my TV away from the rest of my family to play, and I found it really frustrating to try to parse all the on-screen data on the small Switch screen. I've got my PS5 hooked up to my computer monitor, though, and it's on PS+ so I'm playing through again (mostly because what I've seen of the next game looks really great) and I'm having a blast. I believe I've reached the point where I stopped before, around 3-4 stars.
I'm pretty impressed at how easily I'm finding groups, which is what ruined World for me (I could not find other players to save my life). The Defender weapons they added are obviously making it a lot easier, but I'm likely to pick up the expansion while its on sale so I can get into the true endgame.
I've been playing Armored Core 6 and Mirror's Edge. AC6 is really good so far, but I'm thinking of ditching it—I'm at a point in the game that I feel like I need to grind, and I just can't stand grinding at all. Mirror's Edge is Mirror's Edge: I'm expecting to completely ignore the story and have fun until the last 3/4 of the game.