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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 just picked up Tactical Breach Wizards (by the same developers as one of my favorite games, Gunpoint, a noir stealth puzzle platformer), and I am having an absolute blast (around 8 hours in, currently in ACT 3 of 5 - and have some side missions left to do.)
It’s somewhat like an XCOM isometric tactical game, except there’s no “chance to hit,” so it’s more purely strategic/puzzle-like. The dialog between missions is witty, and I’m really wondering how the story will end. I’m loving the various characters and how they interact, both mechanically and in the dialog options. The progression is also really well done IMO, with how characters unlock new abilities, options, or new characters (and new enemies) just as the mechanics seem to get fully understood. And the ability to then go back to older levels with those new unlocks to spice things up or try new things is really fun.
Also, about 50% of the game is defenestration. 10/10.
Also loving this game.
I will say that I like this more than say, Into the Breach, because it's a LOT more forgiving. If you just treat it like a normal tactics game, not a puzzle game where you MUST solve the situation in one turn or whatever, it's fine. Many missions can take as many turns as you need to be resolved, and you can scrape by on the thinnest of margins, and it doesn't matter.
The early missions feel more puzzle like, due to your lack of options, but around the time you get your 3rd character, it's extremely open in how you approach each engagement.
The maps are hand crafted, so there's no variance in it, and thus you can probably find a "best" solution to each level, but it doesn't matter if you don't.
Yes! I do love the optional “confidence” objectives, but also it’s nice to not have to worry about getting them. And the ability to “rewind” single turns when something doesn’t play out how I meant it to.
I definitely barely squeaked through a mission last night, that I am looking forward to going back and replaying to try to optimize it more for the “confidence” goals.
The rewind is extra great because once you get used to using it you're a lot more willing to just try stuff. Lots of interactions I NEVER would have expected actually work, or work in neat/wacky ways, and it's nice to be able to just try them out and not have to restart the level if they nuke you for it.
Same, just bought it. I also find it genuinely funny, which is rare.
Great to know! The fact it's more of a puzzle game than a tactical action game actually has me way more interested. I knew the dialogue and characters would be something I like, but it sounds like the gameplay will be too. Thanks!
I'm also really loving this one. I haven't played anything earlier from the dev, so it kind of came out of nowhere for me. Seems like they worked on it for a long time so I'm really happy for them that it turned out so great and has been so well-received. Highly recommend to anyone to give it a try if they're even remotely interested. And, yes, it is quite funny!
I'm glad to see this! It's on my list to play eventually because the trailer looked good.
It's just so good. About the only flaws I can think of are some minor post-game menu stuff:
And that's it! Every other part is gold. It's just hilarious and feels good to play.
Well to contribute to the conversation in my own way, I'll comment my thoughts and experiences on character perks and optimization.
Character Mechanics Thoughts & Opinions - Endgame Stuff
Zan
I thought he felt weak early on aside from Predictive Bolt, but then he gains False Prophet which tanks a free hit and unlocking enough perks turns him into a hypercarry that enables infinites.
3 Bolt Burst: 2nd priority after False Prophet I feel. Supportive Fire (Attack if someone else uses a normal attack) makes False Prophet even better and enables infinites with Banks. The Anxiety Dream knockback buff makes it pretty absurd on top of that.
Time Boost: Haven't touched this much, mostly using this if Zan has spare mana and someone on the other side of the map needs help. Mostly Jen or Dall for Mobility, Possibly Banks or Rion for damage?
False Prophet: This thing can enable so many infinites with Persistent Delusion (refund mana if the clone is killed) and Hurtful Lie (Clone fires Zan's 3 Bolt Burst and triggers Zan's Supportive Fire)
Predictive Bolt: Having a one-shot overwatch is good, especially when improving relative action economy by camping an unsealable spawning door. It's just that its perks are reliant on actively maintaining and knocking foes into it and that takes a lot of positioning. Still, I like Conviction (Reusable on the same turn if it KOs). Doesn't feel like Validation gives mana on new turn spawns, not sure if I'm doing something wrong? +1 damage does let it OHKO Heavy Gunners.
Jen
I liked her in the beginning because who doesn't like Chain Bolt. It feels like she falls off though with only 2 knockback for non-conditionals once there's bigger rooms with less windows and more heavy targets. Her kit doesn't enable infinites either unlike everyone else and all her skills are perk-hungry to get to a good level. She does have so many movement options for objectives and door sealing, but I feel like I could do the same thing with Dall and clear out the room while doing it.
Static Blast: Point Blank (4 knockback at point blank) lets it scale and Refreshing Jolt gives her another move after shooting. Refreshing Jolt II sounds better than it actually is given that it's reliant on Zan being in the same mission, and in line of sight to feed her time boost mana.
Chain Bolt: AoE is obviously good, especially in the beginning when you don't have any options yet. Once again though, having only 2 knockback makes it scale poorly and not the best choice for mana usage if you get infinites running.
Broom Breach: It and its upgrade are very reliant on map design, but it does trigger something in the brain to see an objective by a window and know that Jen goes there.
Gale Grenade: I was so focused on Chain Bolt that I didn't upgrade or test this out much, not helped by this only doing 1 knockback. The ability to refresh movement though looks so good and twice at that.
Banks
Very much a burst character to me early on with Spectral Skull for many weak mobs and Death's Door to get rid of big threats ASAP, Sedative Cocktail for debuffs, though she'd need help getting rid of gas masks. Transference to either protect, inflict damage remotely, or just straight up tank and reflect.
Sedative Cocktail: Good for debuffing groups. Only took Stings (+1 damage). Wasn't feeling Drowsy (+1 Sedated) since sedatives only trigger at the end of the turn after the enemies shoot, so it doesn't help prevent damage until next turn. Lightheaded felt too situational for me since the extra Unsteady only affects the center target.
Spectral Skull: Piercing, bouncing skillshot woooooooo. +1 damage to reach the breakpoint for oneshoting basic enemies, Honestly haven't tried the other 2. Dunno how big Big Head makes it, and by the time I unlocked Dizzying, I felt like I wasn't really using the skill in favor of Dall support.
Death's Door: Opening up a window anywhere? This is always good unless the map design is actively going out of it's way to subvert it. +1 use was my first upgrade and Death's Floor lets you instantly teleport an enemy into the 2nd portal if needed.
Transference: Free damage reflector as a one time save. Found an interesting use if you protect a brittle enemy and transfer it to another enemy, they'll take the brittled damage, plus if you were pulling them with Rion the protected enemy will still take brittled pull damage too. Genius Grant (Refund use if protecting an enemy/targeting an ally) allows for infinites by letting you destroy Zan's time clones over and over by redirecting their damage into the old clone and having Zan's Supportive Fire be the main damage.
Dall
I didn't get Dall at first but once she got enough perks, I understood and she became my favorite unit just for being able to go back and forth across the map, plus being able to infinite things with too much armor for Zan. There's a post-game mission with 3 Siege Clerics and I had her charge down all of them without needing Rion.
Charge: Rampage II is an obvious infinite source by ramming the enemy and Zan's clone over and over until it falls. Also just plain fun to figure out how ram as many enemies as possible in the first turn. Haven't tried Telephasing, not seeing the use unless you're on the really short side of a hallway against 2 lined up foes, but you could use swap instead of spending a perk point?
Censer Slam: For those situations where there's just not enough space to charge. Like it's usable, but it just feels so sub-optimal compared to charging across the room to slam someone in the face with a riot shield.
Swap: This is so good for mobility and I'm still uncovering ways to use it. Friendly Refund's obvious use is having an ally get into position for Dall, but you could use it to get Jen into position, blast someone out, move against, and then swap back to Dall for more charging as an example. Swap with Objects enables it to work with Riot Block and pretty much lets Dall reposition for free (aside from mana)
Throw Riot Block: Free reposition tool with Swap, enables Dall to stop in the right row by ramming into it, especially with recall respawning it after it gets destroyed. Not feeling Wall Mode. Why would you ever need to hide when you can ram everything forever?
Rion
Pretty much every part of his kit is usable at a base level which makes sense since he's the last character. Honestly can't go wrong with him unless you're going for super infinites and stuff.
Impaling Vine: Surprisingly solid normal with Impaling Vine dealing 1 damage +3 reverse knockback. Frostfingers (+1 Brittle after dealing damage) feels kinda unnecessary? Like either you've brittled the target already or you need to 2-tap it. Haven't tried Gripthorns since it's an action point for 3 tiles movement? Quicksprout I found was good, not for pulling allies because there's a lot of tables and stuff in the way, but for killing Zan's time clones for infinites.
Brittling Dart: The anti-armor, stock up on mana and go ham. The Corrisive upgrade to get rid of gas mask and enable Banks to debuff them with her potion.
Rabid Bite: Mostly a movement and anti-aggro skill for me. Leaving an enemy alive to be confused has the obvious problem of leaving an enemy alive and they can still target you depending on distance/if you took out all the other goons. The payoff isn't worth it to me.
Spore Bomb: AoE damage, exactly what it looks like. If the first one doesn't finish them off, the second one should. Not too sure about the Pressurised upgrade. Like it looks cool and piles on even more damage, but I feel strangely wary about it if you're putting your own units close by since it can knockback into them I think.
Looking back at all this, I'd have to say Zan >= Dall >>> Banks = Rion >> Jen
Feel free to comment or change my mind on anything.
Been playing Deadlock constantly for around a few weeks now and got me hooked from the first go. It has the makings of another classic Valve multiplayer game with a cosmetic shop behind it.
The quick history to the game that it is now:
Got to admit, the handshake agreement before it was lifted made Fight Club feel more fun before every streamer and influencer got to complain and scream about it. Got to relive the organic game discovery from the 90s with demo discs that came with in game magazines, even for a moment when the Discord server was the only source of information about the game.
I'll only admit up to 2000 hours of Dota 2 and games like these are right up my alley. I also like bullet points, so here we go:
would you be able to get people into the alpha? Asking for myself!
I can send you an invite if you have not gotten already, goes out to anyone else who reads this just dm me your steam code. You need to be friends in order to be invited to the playtest.
i got one from a friend, but thank you so much! it's really fun haha
Been playing the Enhanced version of the first Borderlands.
I'm surprised by how well it's aged actually. I don't really know what's from the remaster. I believe it only did visuals but it may have done sounds too.
Anyway the sounds and feel of the guns is actually really good, the animations for said guns are less so but they are forgivable.
The story is pretty mediocre, mostly carried by pretty good characters and the really amazing gameplay.
I'm surprised how the map doesn't become that boring considering that it's basically a desert the entire time. Mad Max also did a good job at this so maybe deserts are easier to make interesting then I thought.
I have wandered into the world of modded Slay the Spire. I've been trying out a mod called "Downfall" which basically unlocks many of the bosses as playable, and you go down the map instead of up, and finish off playing against the OG playable characters. It's pretty good!
Related, I've been blown away by how well the board game adapts the video game! There are some key changes to game flow; a die is rolled every round to trigger some relics and determine some enemy attack patterns. Game is perfectly streamlined for tabletop.
I had a long train ride back to Boston for a friend's wedding, so I ended up picking up Black Myth Wukong for the train ride on my steam deck. The prologue runs really terribly tbh, and with low settings it can have a pretty consistent framerate but it looks 100000x better on my PC obviously. I think there's a memory leak somewhere though because after a while it just starts chugging and takes a full restart to fix. I'm not really a Soulslike gamer but I'm enjoying the game a lot and maybe I'll go back to finish Elden Ring afterwards.
Also started a All The Mods 9 Minecraft server with some friends! It's really incredible how much Modded Minecraft sucks you in, I literally skipped a lot of work on Friday just to play, and stayed up late for multiple days before I needed to go away for the weekend.
I picked up and started playing World of Warcraft: The War Within. Yes, I am unfortunately one of the dumb simps that bought the "early access" (paid $40 more to play the game on the actual release date that I justified to myself because I was free all weekend and that was worth $25 over having to start on a monday and the upgrade also had 30 days game time worth $15).
For a WoW expansion, it's pretty good! The story so far is the best we've had since Legion, which isn't saying that much, but it's definitely a step forward. The new zones are fantastic and the quality of life in this game keeps improving. Obviously the art and music is on point like always. One addition here is "follower dungeons" and story mode raids, which let you experience instanced story content with bots instead of human players. Personally, I don't have enough social anxiety to keep me from playing with people, but it's a great addition for those that play the game as a single player game. Delves are also fun, they're single player dungeons with difficulty tiers and even on tier 3 as a good player (former heroic raider, so good, but not excellent), I was sweating. I think that will keep certain people busy for a long time.
That said, the combat is very samey. I thought the hero talents might spice things up, but it really turned into "your spec as usual, but now with red" or something. I'm playing mage and frost sided frostfire mage is fun, but it's not much different from just playing frost, with the exception of some cool looking effects. Same with frost spellslinger.
The game is also just as much of a conveyor belt as always. I played through the main campaign, but I think I'm already kind of done. The game is just overwhelming. I beat the campaign and then there were approximately 2 billion side quests on my map along with world quests, dailies, etc. Additionally, the game just doesn't have the same charm that it did when I was younger, either I outgrew the game or the game outgrew me, it's very different now. I played every week of my life from Burning Crusade through Legion and I played a fair bit of Battle for Azeroth and Dragonflight, but I think I'm just kind of done. I played maybe 12 hours over the weekend when I planned on 20-25 and I didn't feel like playing anymore. I don't even feel like playing today, either.
So I guess I wasted some money on an expansion I might not play for even another dozen hours, but at least I'm starting to accept this game isn't for me anymore and that I can just move on instead of picking up each expansion with the hopes it recaptures how I felt about the game from 2006 to 2016.
I was playing a bit of LOTRO and Guild Wars 2 up until I resubbed to WoW. I might try them again, but I think I'm entirely burned out for a lifetime on tab target MMOs. LOTRO and GW2 at least do great from an environmental standpoint (great art, music, etc.), but the gameplay of both is still kind of just meh now that I'm taking a step back and looking at it. It's frustrating knowing that this genre will never be like it once was. I know some of that is nostalgia, but MMOs were also legitimately better back in the 00's and even 2010's for various reasons. But oh well, I'm trying to move on for good instead of doing this on again off again depression loop with the genre.
So I guess what I'm looking forward to this week is the Seekers of the Storm expansion for Risk of Rain 2 as well as Star Wars Outlaws this week! I saw the reviews for SWO are pretty mid, but it sounds like I will like the game regardless, so I'm probably getting it unless it has massive issues on launch.
Had a similar thought when I hit 70 Saturday night. Really wanted to jump into new content but balked at the price of the early access edition. Called it for the night and slept on it. But rarely have time during the week and wanted to have the change to play some this weekend. I'm glad I made the purchase.
What type of content do you normally do? I'm hoping I can spend a season in arenas. Some of my friends who play hardcore are side-eyeing the expac even though they skipped the last couple. I'm always tempted by mythics because I have fun doing harder 5-man content, it just gets a bit sweaty for my taste once key levels start getting high.
In my life playing WoW, I've had a few phases, ha. At first I mostly played the game socially and just did normal quests and up to herioc dungeons. Then around cata I got really into raiding up to herioc and stuck with that through Legion. In WoD, I got super into world pvp for a bit because there was fucking nothing to do in that expansion, and then in BFA and DF, I was pretty casual and didn't do much more than heroic dungeons.
My initial plan with TWW was to get back into raiding. In the time I was away from WoW, I became a really accomplished raider in Destiny 2, so I was looking to do that in WoW as well, but I think I just don't have it in me to play this game any more than casually anymore.
Sounds like we're in a similar place. I raided the most in Vanilla/TBC/WotLK but I absolutely do not have it in me to be in a raiding guild anymore. I mostly did LFR since it was released and some PUG raiding in BFA. Other than that I've had phases of M+ when I have a good group. When an expac hooks me I end up doing arenas and BGs. I hope I can get into that this time, but it is hard with so many other games around.
WoW raiding is just exhausting to me now because there's always a harder difficulty and the raids aren't exactly short. You could have a dozen clears on the most recent raid and it will still take hours to clear when everyone knows what to do. So yeah, when I sat down to think about it, I really didn't want to commit every Tuesday for the next year to raiding, ha. In Destiny, after the first handful of tries, you can clear most raids in under an hour while shooting the shit, which I love. Raids there are more focused around puzzles and figuring out the mechanics rather than big execution oriented fights in WoW, so they're not an endless grind after you get the first clear.
I know it has a weekly topic, but just would like to bring it to attention here as well Minecraft with a bunch of people from tildes!. The server was relatively recently (in the scale of things) started a new, but in the short period that it has been up a lot of fun stuff has been build.
Before the Tildes server it had been a decade (longer probably) since I did play Minecraft and I honestly never expected to really play again. But it has been incredibly fun so far!
For those who are of the mindset that Minecraft is a kids game, that might be true in general but not on the Tildes server.
It is kid friendly though! I know several members' kids join every once in a while to enjoy the builds. In fact my kids were following along with the sheep murder mystery/trial from the last server. :)
It really is a blast for all ages.
That's true! Just wanted to convince the people that might not join because they think it is all kids. In fact, I think the average age on the tildes server might be over 30.
Absolutely. I didn't mean to undermine your original point :)
I also wanted an excuse to post about the laughs my family gets from following the server shenanigans. ;)
Oh for sure, I love that aspect as well. The pirate ship with two rooms for the kids of posi are a great example as well :)
That ship is epic. It's such a cool addition to the mountain. I have so many screenshots where I was just wandering around town and felt compelled to capture how it looks up there.
Couple of recent-ish favs:
https://ibb.co/YfLvkkm
https://ibb.co/Sd72GKF
Still playing Trackmania aiming for the silver medals on all Track Of the Day tracks.
Still playing Dave the Diver. Tried fighting
Also recently I found very good idle/incremental game on itch.io - IdleTale. Looks similar to Idle Slayer, but more player friendly, with better graphic, music and without any ads or p2win features. Url: https://edgrace.itch.io/idletale
I'm nearing the end of Tears of the Kingdom and trying to will myself through the last part. I've unlocked the secret shrine... Secret, and am headed toward the boss battle in that section. I took about a year off from this game after getting about 60% of the way through last year, and now I've taken about a month off since getting to this point.
I really wish I could love these games (this one and Breath of the Wild) because they're so deep, but I have a hard time motivating myself to play. And at this point I feel obligated to get to the end because I am so close, relatively. I think I'm just dreading the last of the big fights.
I too have taken a long year-ish break from tears of the kingdom. I sunk 95 hours in right after launch and completed a lot of main quests, but only ever did one temple. Since picking it back up (after failing to get back into several times) I have finally completed my second temple.
I don't know why this game in particular has been so hard to get back into. Maybe it is just the shear size of the game that mentally creates a large static friction to get started again. As I continue to play I hope that I build up an inertia to push through the end.
I finally got into Subnautica on PC after starting once or twice and it not grabbing me.
Well, it done grabbed me good. What a cracker of a game! The upgrades and story are really, really well paced so you are rarely at a loss and something is always tantalising just out of reach. It's generally pretty chill, but no doubt there are moments of existential dread, particularly when, like yesterday, I unknowingly wandered into the Void . . .
It took me ages to get into it as well. I tried and tried, but just couldn't get into it, then sometime in 2022 it just clicked and I played it all the way through. Excellent game.
I don't want to say too much more, but wandering into the new areas is just so cool and the vehicles are some of my favorite in gaming.
Dark Souls: beat Capra Demon and unlocked The Depths. Though I cheesed it a bit, he was getting stuck on some geometry and I was able to pump some fireballs into him.
WoW: The War Within: I sat down Saturday night and got a character to 70 very quickly in Dragonflight. Than Sunday I ended up springing for TWW with early access. Yesterday after ~3 hours I hit 74ish.
Pros:
Mixed:
If it makes you feel any better, I don't know a single person who hasn't cheesed the Capra demon. The dude really cannot navigate stairs at all and he's such a pain in the ass otherwise.
I finished my first run of Colony Ship and it was a hell of a rollercoaster of peaks and troughs.
I'd go through like 3 hours of having a lot of fun followed by a couple of hours of very much unfun, feeling like the game was taking me for a ride or just being weirdly mean.
I did play on underdog difficulty, so maybe I shouldn't complain. I did like the fact that even though I'd kinda chosen a faction to support like a lot of these games, my crap build first character was too kitchen sink to actually stand up to the other factions so I was forced to take an option I'd not normally consider.
I didn't like how quite a lot of the quests seem to randomly throw in high level skill checks for seemingly random skills down what I thought were pretty clear cut character paths.
What I mean is, my kitchen sink character was mostly very good at charisma and social skills, but not min maxed enough to breeze the game on that alone which is fine, I understand I made that mistake now. What got me is talking my way through a quest to suddenly have a mandatory stealth, combat or maybe otherwise skill check which was incredibly hard, suddenly gating the social archetype.
I'm all for reliability, hell I started a combat min max right away, but it seems a bit weird about it, I dunno. It's different and maybe you'd love it.
On the subject of the combat min max, I had trouble with that too which was unexpected. My kitchen sink guy was actually fine with a lot of the combats except the obviously placed optional "these are for the toughest min maxers" fights they dot around.
So I was keen to go through the game again and do all that fun optional hard stuff. But boy I was wrong. Turns out the skills in chapter 1 do not make up for the shocking amount of good gear I got with kitchen sink from all the other methods I had to obtaining good gear. The stuff in the shops is OK to a degree, but the best stuff you get from behind skill checks and hard fights.
So I found myself going from mandatory fight to mandatory fight using the gear from the last to barely win the next. Seriously brutal! Very challenging if you're into that.
Otherwise I played some Farming Manager 2021 for something chill. It seems fine. It's easy to play, stick it on 4x speed and watch the money go up kinda thing.
Not sure what's next on the agenda, I'll be back next time!
I picked up Shapez 2 last weekend and have been utterly engrossed with it. It's the pure essence of factory games boiled down into a pure form - like Satisfactory or Factorio. You get a request for a shape and then you make that shape utilizing the resources around you in space. Each mining spot creates a randomly generated shape (from a small list of potential pieces you can get a wide variety of basic parts) so it can be fun searching for the perfect shape to use as a base. From there you can rotate, cut, swap, paint, stack, split, bedazzle, and otherwise manipulate the shapes into whatever it is you require. Then, you deliver to the vortex.
There's no combat, no timers, no looming threat, you can play at your own pace. I really, really cannot stress enough how much I appreciate that. It's a game I can throw some relaxing music on with and just vibe to for hours.
As for the challenge of it, I've got the game at the max difficulty allowable at the start and while it's certainly got me scratching my head at times, nothing has proven insurmountable. There are pieces and materials for creating a computer in game to automate shape production (logic gates, wires, signals, filters, etc) but they certainly don't seem necessary. Extra complexities for those who want it!
My friend let me use its PS5 since he went on a month-long trip.
I had frankly not played a single-player game in about 10 years, apart from my replay of BG&E and Hades. I played through God of War (2018) and Ragnarok and I must say that I was completely blown away by how amazing the experience was. It really felt like I was a part of an epic series for about 3 weeks.
Absolute 10/10 games.
Just here to join the choir of World of Warcraft! Launch of the new expansion is in less than an hour!!
I talked @X08 into getting back into the game after her 15 year break and we've been playing together in current content while waiting for the release of TWW. Playing with a friend like this is how it's meant to be played!
Fun fun fun!
After recently seeing that Path of Exile 2 is slated for an Early Access November release I decided it was time I went back to Path of Exile and finally play all the way through the campaign. I played the game casually from the early closed beta until act 4's release which was around 2015 if memory serves me well.
As of Last night I completed act 5 and have now leveled higher than any of my previous characters with a ranger at level 54. I would say that overall I'm very much enjoying the game but I do have a number of issues with it that really drag the experience down.
My first and largest issue is how terrible the performance is in towns due to all the ridiculous micro-transaction skin/effect users that stand around, AFK and crowd the stash boxes. Going through every town is a dreadful experience; I've tried spending as little time as possible in them due to the ever present swirling storm of over the top particle effects accompanied by a cacophony of jazz singing pets, multiple large fire-breathing dragons, some tornado beam whooshing around and what can only be described as someone trying to sound like the grim reaper talking through a tin can who constantly announces some inane quip. It's all too much and makes going to any town quite unpleasant on top of the severely degraded performance.
Unfortunately that issue will never be resolved as Grinding Gear Games wants to force you to see these things so the users that purchase them can show off their digital doodads and it helps GGG advertise the skins to new players. For me though, it very much sours the whole experience.
The other issue I have with the game is the boss design and how repetitive they can be. It feels like the lion's share of notable foes you face will have a multi-phase mechanic; when you hurt them enough they will pause and launch into the tired "Now I will show you my true power AH-HA, HA, HA..." trope. On top of that most of them also use invincibility phases where you're forced to run around for 30 seconds killing trash minion mobs to top up your potions and make the fight last longer than 1.5 minutes. Even by the end of act 5 these mechanics are wearing thin and I assume there will be many other instances of this happening through the rest of the campaign.
With regards to micro-transactions, stash tabs specifically, I've seen many people say that they are a requirement to play the game but I disagree with that statement to a point. If you're like me and are only playing the game to go through the campaign with maybe 1-3 characters then you won't need to buy stash tabs at all, you just have to be a bit more selective on what you're storing long term. If you really want to maximize your free storage you can also make a bunch of characters (25 characters per account) and use their personal backpack as expanded storage just like what we did in the Diablo II days.
But if you're a player looking to grind the "end game" with multiple characters then purchasing stash tabs is effectively required, though you'll have probably gotten a few hundred hours out of the game by that point making it easier to justify the (frankly overpriced, even on sale) storage expanding tabs. That said, I originally bought a supporter pack during the closed beta and only just now have I used any of the 500 ($50) coins to purchase some tabs, not because I needed them but because the coins have been sitting on my account for 13 years collecting dust.
One last thing worth mentioning, if you're someone that cares about how your character looks then there are only two options in this game. As a free player you're going to look like a hobo wearing an ill fitted soiled scrap of leather on your head with no pants or you're spending $50-$100 to be an 8 foot tall high fantasy laser light show with a talking disco ball pet. There is no in between as far as I've seen.
All in all, despite my few complaints I would recommend the game to anyone that enjoys ARPGs like Diablo II, if even just to play through the campaign either solo or with a few friends.
Was going to post how I'm back into POE also as I'm very excited for poe 2 alsl. I agree with you that you can play the campaign without spending, but if you go on to play what I would say is the bulk of the game you 100 percent need a currency, map, and fragment tabs and then a few premium tabs to sell things to other players in the trade leagues, though I've avoided that this time around with the currency exchange.
I would also add that imho the vast majority of good poe content is in maps via the league mechanics or in off atlas areas like delve, sanctum, or heist. There is so much to do and learn there that I don't feel like I'm grinding and instead just learning and exploring content even though I have something like 700 hours I feel like a beginner in a lot of areas just due to how much the game changes.
For myself I play with a friend and this league is the farthest we have pushed into the game. My friend just beat all the Uber pinical bosses the other night for the first time and I'm hoping to get there sometime next week. I am very trade averse but the currency exchange has let me dump off stuff so the point thar I have around 15 div which is typically huge for me, I know more serous players are in like 1000s of div by now but this is a big milestone for myself.
I want to try crafting my next gear upgrades but it seems that in the economy you would only do thst for 30 plus div items while most of my upgrades are probably 4 div or less so better to buy them, but I honestly hate surfing the trade site and would rathe be playing the game.
For the campaign I've found over the years that there are skill set ups that hose the bosses in half a second to the point you won't even see most mechanics. I also have gone in with my own set ups and have hit brick walls for bosses worh just not enough damages or not knowing my resists.
There are a lot of tricks in poe for getting gear, you can vendor items to get upgrades, for example this league I needed a phys axe so could put a certain belt, whetstone and an axe and it comes back with another axe with a phys roll on it. You can also get specific rings like the ruby ring that has fire res via the vendors as well. Each act will want a specific res to help, I know act 1 you want cold I forget the others.
But if there is a problem in poe thee is a solution burried somewhere, it's an honestly amazing game and there is nothing like it out there,really worth it for anybody to spend some time in it. My first run was cautiously with no cash in through the campaign and it took me a long time. But that also turned me into a life long player and I've been dipping in for about 3 or 4 leagues over the years and will continue to do so unless poe 2 steals me, which it probably will.
Hitman: World of Assassination
Finally taking my time with this one, as I have with previous Hitman games and I'm actually having fun with it. I just got to Columbia, which I'm unfortunately finding quite boring, especially by comparison to the previous level of Miami. Hoping it doesn't stop me in my tracks.
Dead Space Remake
I picked this up because I thought it would be a fun game to play through with my wife and I was in the mood for something Survival Horror. So far, it's been fun to play and has an enjoyable story. My wife amuses me while we play as well, because she's constantly jumping and shrieking at everything; she finds the game utterly terrifying and is mystified that I can just lay back on the couch and play all nonchalant.
Otherwise, been dabbling in random stuff here and there, but not finding much else sticking at the moment.
Am partway through Final Fantasy XVI. It's... an interesting one. The good parts are great and the rest of it is baffling amateurish? The combat system is pretty good and rewards experimentation and finesse.
But, none of the other systems really make sense. The quests are bad, the equipment is bad, the exploration is bad (seriously, 3 gil as a random pickup reward?).
You sort of have to judge it on two levels:
I think the answer for #1 is "yeah, mostly, but I disagree with what they set out to do being good enough". For #2 it's closer to "probably not, since it lacks basically any RPG elements (insultingly so).
I'll likely stick with it (since, like I said, the fun parts are fun) but boy were there some choices made.
I played Superliminal with my son. It's an excellent puzzle game with a great learning curve, and clever levels. I had to google the solution once, but only because I was trying too hard while the solution was much easier (but not obvious). The game isn't too long, the puzzles aren't repetitive, there are wild visual ideas towards the end, and I wasn't bored a single minute. I wholeheartedly recommend it.
I also bought Hunt: Showdown when it was on sale last week. It's been a long time since I've played any kind of competitive shooter seriously, it's the first extraction shooter I'm playing, and I've never been so tense in a multiplayer game.
On the one hand, the fact that the game favors spatial awareness above everything means that I can improve if I stick to it (as opposed to my reflexes that aren't probably going to get better with age). On the other hand... That game is brutal. Since it's an extraction shooter, you have to bet on yourself to push as far as you can and know when to retreat and extract before getting killed. If you chicken out too soon it's obviously boring, and when you play with randoms you often have the opposite experience and "have to" go as far as possible, and then get killed. It's obviously much more fun this way, but then you lose half your earned money, and then have to buy back your hunter and weapons (which is honestly a chore with an awful UI).
I think it's doable to get a few kills and extract in solo if I don't aim to get the bounty, but this game should really shine when playing with 2 IRL friends.
Edit: Aaaaand refunded. I have to accept I don't have to time nor the energy anymore to git gud in competitive games :(
I started playing Mega Man Battle Network on my analogue pocket (I've never played any games in the series before).
It's a tactical RPG where you spend some time in an overworld as a human, traveling to different points where you can "jack in" to a device, at which point you start playing as Mega Man inside of a computer or network where you encounter random enemy battles and advance the story by finding and fighting bosses. At the beginning they give a tutorial about how to use data chips to attack enemies during the battles--you set up a large pool of 30 special moves, and while you're fighting you get to choose from a random selection of those moves on a cycle to use during the battle.
I played all the way up to the second boss, at which point I hit a real wall because he fires off a move that you can't dodge unless you have a weapon to shoot it down, and that happens more frequently than the cycle where you can select data chips to use as weapons, so it felt super cheap to me because pretty much every other shot he fired off was completely unavoidable, and took me down like 25% of my total health, and the boss had enough hit points that it was essentially impossible to take him down in the limited turns I had to do it before I'd get the inevitable Game Over.
After some googling I discovered that if you press the B button during the battles you fire off another (unlimited ammo) weapon that's supposed to be your primary method of attack and I had no idea even existed! The data chips I was exclusively using are just bonus extra-damage moves meant to supplement the primary attack. I have no idea if the original tutorials completely skipped that important little fact or if I glossed over it, but the game has become SO MUCH LESS FRUSTRATING.
tldr; I'm an idiot who was unintentionally doing a self-imposed ultra-hard-mode MMBN run without realizing it.
Dustborn (PlayStation 5)
I'm not very far into it yet, but I'm greatly enjoying it so far. Absolutely loving the comic book aesthetic and alternate history setting, hungry to learn more of the story, and enjoying the conversations with the companion characters. It's a very narrative-driven adventure game, in the vein of what Telltale Games used to make (and of course, not unlike Dreamfall Chapters, from the same studio). The combat is thankfully a big step up from Dreamfall Chapters, and the rhythm sections (where the protagonist and her companions pretend to be a punk band as a ruse to traverse what used to be the USA) are fun.
Had to give up on Twilight Princess about 40% of the way in, I really don't like the 3d games as much but resolved myself to try and beat the entire series. This is the first one I've put down, perhaps Ill come back to it again at the end but it's just not grabbing me, the controls are frustrating me for sure.
Next I'm on to Skald, since it looks bad ass.
I'm totally an outsider when it comes it RPGs, but Skald does, in fact, look sick. Gonna check it out :^)
Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth - Finally finished this game and like Yakuza 0 and Yakuza : Like A Dragon, I will swear off Yakuza games. The tedious grind, the endless cut-scenes (22 hrs),the boring story, the dated presentation, always result in me getting mods to and trainers to just finish out the game, which is weird because I ended up skipping all the cutscenes so what am I doing with my life? That said, mini games were dope so I'll repost this same review when Yakuza/Like A Dragon 9 comes out 3 years from now.
6/10
I don't game much these days but I'm a sucker for platformers. I recently picked up Pumpkin Jack lately as it's on sale for $7. I'm only thirty minutes into it but I do recommend if you like platformers and/or Halloween-themed games.
I picked it up on a sale too and was pleasantly surprised just how much fun it was. Love the visuals too.
SteamWorld: Heist 2
I've been a huge fan of the SteamWorld games for a long time, so I picked this one up very soon when it came out. OpenCritic rates it at "85", which I think is about fair. It maybe doesn't quite breach "can't put it down" level, but it's a well-made game with polished and engaging gameplay and a fun story (so far) to boot.
Of course, it's hard to not compare it to the first Heist, and in that regard I'd say it trades away a little novelty for a more engaging story and gameplay balance. The only strike I'll mark against it is some of the new mechanics (freezing and totems come to mind) aren't explained super well and the UI around them doesn't feel as crisp as its predecessor. They also basically made all the characters "multi class" where your class is based on your current weapon. Still trying to decide how I feel about that.
There is also a bit of "light arcade" play in the submarine (you're in the water this time) between missions. It does a good job of making exploring a little more interesting without getting in the way too much.
If you liked the first one at all, you know what to expect here: a solid rogue-like 2d X-COM.
I’ve been playing Ys IX and Alan Wake 2. Ys IX looks really dated graphically, but the combat is fantastic as always and the story is ready interesting. In really enjoying it so far. Alan Wake 2 though I would consider a genuine masterpiece. The story, atmosphere and characters are just so damn good. The music is also top notch.