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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.
After a sojourn through the PlayStation store with my five year old in an advisory role, I am now playing Dave The Diver. A very charming indie game in which Dave dives by day, catching fish and harvesting other edible sea goodies; then runs a sushi restaurant by night. So that's it, resource management and fish collecting. Or is it....? Maybe something weirder lurks in the depths of the Deep Blue Hole off the coast from Bancho's Sushi bar. It's on free for whatever level of PlayStation Plus I have and is definitely worth a look at that price. Even Yahtzee didn't hate it (spoilers though)
The five year old is playing the latest Ratchet and Clank on it's easiest setting and has declared it "the best game ever"
Also playing DTD and I love this game. Graphic is beautiful, music too, characters are funny, and story is interesting too. Combination of different mechanics is good, and the fact that there no way to lose make the game cozy in my opinion.
Just a small note: Dave the Diver is a Nexon subsidiary creation, not indie.
Oh, fair enough. I was going on what Yahtzee said, but thanks for letting me know.
I have finished Witcher 3 including DLCs. It was quote some ride! I have played it since beginning of March this year, so it comes up to half a year! I play one game at a time, this was really long time. It was very worth it though.
I have finished the game afew years back for the first time ever on my Switch Lite, the base game. Since I got Steam Deck, I knew I would like to play it once again and finish it on PC (Steam Deck) as well. Both times after speaking my friend and heeding his advice I went straight for the highest difficulty - the Death March. This is how the game should be played. It is very challenging but also very doable if you pay attention to everything that you have in your arsenal. And when you're done (woth the fighr, quest, boss, game...) you feel very satisfied.
The game launched in 2015 I believe and ot stays strong to this day. I would even go as far as saying there is no competition in this sector of RPG genre - you can't play better game overall. The story is there and is captivating. The world is there and it's atmospheric. The RPG things are there and are perfect. You name it, the game does it great.
Witcher 3 got next-gen patch on PC but I played classic version because I didn't want to spare that extra power on my Steam Deck (giving up battery) for nicer graphics. The game looks great on the small.display even in the classic version where you can go higher in settings and still get better battery life and less fan noise. I could play for 1.5-2.5 hours on one go depending on daytime (brightness).
What a game! I'm glad I gave it another go and this time with DLCs. There are great and have tough boss fights. I mean really tough! I'm probably done with this wonderful game as I put around 350 hours into it over those two playthroughs. Just on Steam Deck I clocked over 200 hours for base game and DLCs together.
And there is one more thing I have to add. I got the game for around 8€, which is 200 CZK. And I gor over 200 hours of gameplay. Since I kinda look at games from the "hours of gameplay per money paid" perspective, this is probably the best game I have ever bought. This is if we don't even count how great the game really is!
Alright I'll ask: Yen or Triss?
I would always take very nicely shaped and somewhat calm yet fiery redhead over the one who always bitches around and uses everyone she meets. I picked Triss, to be clear.
I picked both of them on Switch though, which was very amusing in the end!
In Balatro, I just unlocked my 150th Joker (just need to buy the last on in a game...). I'm working through the decks with all stakes. I've cleared through Blue on all decks and have cleared through Gold on the Checkered deck.
I also recently finished Tears of the Kingdom and let me just say thank God. I accidentally forced myself to clear the mob wave ahead of the final Ganandorf fight three times because of my lack of food after the first time, and accidentally resetting to an autosave prior to clearing after the second time. In all, the final stretch took me about 2.5 hours and two play sessions to clear.
I also started Arkham Knight, still pretty early in the game. I have to say, I'm understanding the criticism of the batmobile. It's very clear the devs just really wanted players to play around with the vehicle. Every puzzle in the first section is solved by the batmobile. As soon as you get into a bit of a groove, the game is like hey what if you used the batmobile again?
But it is an enjoyable game so far, and runs pretty smoothly on my PC
ah, that's the reason I can't get into it, though I really loved Asylum and City... I'm not far at all in the game, but I can't stand the batmobile sections. It's a shame though because I really went spoiler-free into the game and
spoilers
I was genuinely surprised (and happy) to see the Joker "come back" from the dead to haunt Batman. The explanation is a bit lousy, but whatever.Since it runs well on the Steam Deck, I'll probably finish it in bite-size sessions.
That's so weird. I loved the batmobile and it did feel like the necessary next step for the Arkham games.
Did they overdo it? Yes I think they could've toned down the batmobile sections, but it was so much fun to use, even if they did had to have convoluted reasons for batman using weapons (all the tanks are drones, hitting criminals "shocks" them, etc) I was ok with it
I think the batmobile is smooth to drive and it's enjoyable to use to traverse around the city, but in the first on-the-rails portion of the game, you're forced to use it for even simple things. It's like the devs didn't want you to to forget it was an option. I remember one part in particular, I was supposed to save some workers, and the closest one was about 100 yards away, so I just zipped over there, and as soon as I got to the area, the game was like actually you need to pull this wall down, so please call the batmobile over.
Astro Bot
If you played the free Astro’s Playroom then this is just a whole bunch more of that. I’ve heard some say that it’s similar to Super Mario Sunshine, and I agree. The colorful graphics and ease of play makes it fun and addictive, yet pretty easy all around. Easy in the sense of, why is it so damn easy? I still enjoyed it, and will probably keep up with the next one. It’s just fun to experience. The friggin controller, even on the lowest vibration setting is so damn annoying sometimes though.
The Last of Us Two Remastered: No Return
I had to get back into this game after years of avoiding the story since it came out. The first time I beat it, the emotion stuck with me for weeks, and I just couldn’t pick it back up because of it. This time, with the arcade-ish style of No Return, it’s just a good time to chuck Molotovs at zomboid fugal things and set trap mines to see the other factions of humans blow up all over again. It’s so difficult to just finish a run on the moderate difficulty, that even when trying Grounded mode, I end up lasting maybe one or two rounds. You can be almost any character, there are really great maps, and the creativity to complete a round is endless. It’s just more gold coming from Naughty Dog. I highly recommend it.
Have you played all the bonus levels in Astro Bot? Some of them are far from easy! Re: the vibration, I didn’t find it annoying but I am surprised how long the battery lasts when it’s constantly chugging like that. Would you recommend Mario Sunshine for someone who’s never played 3D Mario games but loved Astro Bot?
Just go straight for Super Mario Odyssey. I don't really play Mario games or really platformers in general, but I really liked Odyssey and compared to Sunshine, Odyssey is more modern.
Oh I don’t discount the bonus levels, or do you mean the “oh, ex, triangle, square levels?” Those can be damn tricky to get… and the master level sheesh.
I’d definitely get SMSunshine! I had a lot of fun back when it first came out. It has that same feeling. I’m hoping when I get my Switch hooked back up to finally play Galaxy too. I’m sure any Mario game would tickle our Astro itch.
Yes the X/triangle/etc levels! I spent more time on one of the X levels than any other, including the master challenge!
I’ll be sure to check out some Mario games then since Astro was such a treat.
I have enjoyed this thread for so long as a lurker, finding so many hours of awesome gameplay because of your tips, I know feel ready - oh almost obliged even! - to play along :).
I found a way to get geforcenow up and running on my steamdeck, which I used to play the seemingly graphically intense game Shapez 2. That has been a lot of fun. A true wormhole, effortlessly consuming my gaming hours! My only gripe might be the pacing. I’m unlocking new features way too fast and the in-game explanations are not that great. I have now unlocked wires, and am just not smart enough to know how to use them. Guides are talking about ‘building the make-anything-machine’ which is so much above my Shapez skill it’s not even funny.
To my surprise, Sniper Elite 4 has managed its way to my gaming library. I thoroughly enjoyed Doom 2016, but was looking for something a little more laidback? Somehow, sniper 4 fits that mold. Planning a kill takes time, slowly moving across the map to get the perfect look, shooting, and then moving again as to not get caught. The graphics are so over the top gruesome, I somehow don’t really register it.
To top it all off, I’m dipping my toes back in the Final Fantasy XIV pool where I have spent hundreds of hours over the past few years. My wife is catching me up in the MSQ, so hopefully we’ll soon be able to run new dungeons together. Maybe that will lessen my dungeon anxiety ^^. Oh, and our in-game marriage is pending!
I haven't played Shapez 2 yet, but it's on my wishlist and I have been watching a bunch of YouTubers play it. It looks great, but I'm not surprised to hear the tutorial and pacing aren't great yet. It's still super early in Early Access, so hopefully that improves with time. It's been a loooooong time since I played the original shapez.io, but I remember getting overwhelmed rather quickly in it too though, so who knows. :/
The Sniper Elite games are super fun, and I especially enjoyed playing through 4's awesome coop campaign with a friend of mine. And fun fact, they're made by Rebellion, which is Medieval Historian, Jason Kingsley CBE's game company. He has an awesome YouTube channel on the subject called Modern History TV... which I regularly watch, and have even posted a bunch of videos from to Tildes over the years. :P
Lol what. Your last paragraph just blew my mind. I've watched a bunch of Jason's videos and even discussed it before on some of those tildes threads you posted. But had no clue he was the CEO of the company known for Sniper Elite of all things. Wild!
LOL. Yeah, surprising, isn't it? He doesn't come across as your typical video game company CEO, does he? :P
Been going through the logistical whiplash of Slime Rancher 2 and Satisfactory 1.0 and it's a good time.
Slime Rancher was recommended by a friend that teaches Montessori and it's not something I'd normally play. I understand it's in early access, but compared to other comfy farm games its not nearly as nearly as engaging or involved as I'd like. Very few meaningful structures, crops, resources and upgrades and lacking overall verity to the world since its all admittedly adorable smiles. I'd recommend My Time at Sandrock or following Fields of Mistra if you're looking a new Farm/Build lo-fi game.
HOWEVER, my 3 year old loves it. She wants to take the SteamDeck to school to show her friends all her happy slimes. We play it every other night and I'm using it to teach her how to count her slimes, identify their colors and associate that with what they do and eat. She also recognizes their facial expressions and know when they need to be fed.
I'd also like her to understand that we crashed the economy by min-maxing production and macroeconomic or industry policy does not prevent bad actors from flooding the market with plorts, eventually conpromising the livelihood of every other small family slime ranch, giving us an opportunity to buy out those farms in order to corner the industry and set prices as we please. Don't think were there yet.
On the flip side, Satisfactory has become an incredible complete package and I don't mind paying twice for the steam version. I first tried it around the time fluid systems were introduced and dropped when it got interesting. Didn't want to burn myself out before the full release but kept an eye on development. (Side note: Coffee Stain had some incredible community management and transparency throughout that time. Remember a whole Dora the Explorer trailer where the community managers finding new content through their office.)
Have always been a big Factorio buff. Got multiple saves in the hundreds of hours and will be taking leave when Space Age releases. So I genuinely went into Satisfactory thinking it was a low effort clone. I know the scale and complexity that I expect in these games to be and could not conceive the technical complexity existing in 3D without substantial effort. It turns out that effort is over 5 years of continuous development with a full team.
I think the game ended up in a nice middle ground between the laid back process/farming games and hardcore Factorio. They are fully leveraging the 3d format and giving a lot of attention to the aesthetics while allowing the modding community to accommodate for more complex players (see Satisfactory+). I'm the spreadsheet nerd playing a game because it looks nice and I'm building for vibes over efficiency.
Seriously, not a lot of people will want to hear about how i got a 12% increase in lubricant production by refactoring my petrochemical modules. But anyone can appreciate biomass power plants bolted to the side of a cliff or my radioactive fuel facility being suspended by power cables between 3 mountain peaks. Reminds me of when i would spend hours making solo minecraft builds.
I'd say the game is fairly new player friendly. The tutorial does a good job introducing systems and communicating some of the expectations. There's a moment of sink-or-swim when the numbers of the first big objective show but you realize that its not so bad. Resources are unlimited, there's no time limit, there's plenty to explore and discover if you're not immediately ready and every structure is fully refundable. Worst case, nothing stops you from running a bare minimum production in the background so you can get the stash or tech you want.
There are still minor issues: I hate that I'm limited to a 1-3 merge and split system. I cant set up a global grid layout. There isn't even a simple signal and logic system. Basic signs need quarts for some reason. Enemies are laughably impotent. Alternative recipes are such an amazing part of the game but are a slog to find with RNG. Inconsistent automated vehicle system.
Theres a lot of little things to improve but it not going into 1.0 needing any major content or performance fixes. I hope they start working on a sequel in a few years. Would love to see a Sanctum 3 as small project before that. Its a great small series that needs more love.
Ditto and agreed. First Person Shooter + Tower-Defense is such a fun combo. I had a blast playing Sanctum 1 & 2 with my friends, way back when. The Orcs Must Die! series was super fun, too. We need more FPS+TD games!
Satisfactory 1.0 has me firmly in its grip, with no signs of letting go anytime soon. I go to bed late every night, and have nightmares about inefficient production lines.
But it's so satisfying to finish a milestone and watch my factory from a lookout point. Also, I wish I could replace the stairs in my house with hyper tubes.
I just started recently and I nearly regret it; I knew this game would grip my brain immediately. I lost nearly an hour today after sitting down and thinking “well I’ll just spend a few minutes fixing this production line real quickly”. It’s very addicting but it feels much more rewarding than the kind of MMO addiction I’ve tried to minimize. Instead of “number go up” dopamine it’s “look at my gloriously efficient and horribly complex monstrosity I’ve built” serotonin.
Totally understand that feeling. I have rebuilt my main iron production 4 times now, and each time it gets a little bit better as I learn. It's so rewarding when one of the tier unlocks asks for a resource that I have already automated.
I just finished playing Dark Souls 3, and I really enjoyed it. I'm pretty familiar with the FromSoft catalogue at this point, and to my surprise I liked this game almost as much as Elden Ring. The tighter experience of having a relatively linear path to follow through the game, albeit one that is very hand-crafted, was very enjoyable to me.
The combat seemed to be just as good, but I played through half the game using just a dagger, so I can't really comment on the other systems.
I'm not sure if I'll tackle the DLC. Don't have too much motivation to continue playing through the game I think.
DS3 is the only one I haven't finished. I got bored of it about 50% through, but I keep meaning to go back. I love the other two and couldn't put them down, same with From's other games (especially Sekiro).
Oh interesting, I'm surprised you didn't find Dark Souls 3 fun, it is way less clunky than the previous two and also has a more interesting story (imo) and what I would describe as the best central hub for any FromSoft game, other than maybe Round Table Hold or Hunters Dream
The DLC, particularly Ringed City, is definitely worth a play if you enjoyed the main game. Ashes of Ariandel is definitely the weaker of the two but collectively Sister Friede, Midir, Gael, and Demon Princes are some of the best bosses From has ever done.
I second this. I've played FromSoftware's entire catalog since Armored Core 2 and the Dark Souls 3 dlc is some of the absolute best they've ever done. Better than anything in Elden Ring.
Astro Bot. If you have a PS5, go buy this right now and don't look up anything about it. It's an incredibly tight and inventive 3D platformer. It's very cute, the mechanics are both simple to learn, but deep enough to be satisfying to even the best platformer players, and the environments are so meticulously crafted that it's absurd. Each of the levels is pure eye and ear candy and each level was completely unique. In addition to the main levels, there are a number of secret levels that up the difficulty to almost the level of kaizo levels. Additionally, I don't want to spoil too much around this, but there are levels themed around some more iconic playstation franchises and those are the absolute highlight of the game, to me. This is a must play and easily the best game I've played all year!
Besides that, I've been messing around with giant modlists in Skyrim and Oblivion. I tried Lorerim, one of the more popular Skyrim overhaul packages, but didn't really like it. I then tried Nordic Souls, which I did like! It's a good balance of keeping the feel of skyrim while adding more and overhauling some systems to make it a less bland experience. I haven't played too much as I've just been playing Astro Bot, but I'll go back to it soon. I also have thousands of hours in Skyrim already, so if I don't get hooked on a mod package, oh well.
For now, I'm off to play even more Astro Bot. I am definitely going to 100% this game.
So cool that it’s so good that we all want to strive for 100%. Really means a lot that they made something so damn good! Makes the whole Concord thing with Sony seem like a blip instead of a bruise.
And that 100% isn’t going to require hundreds of hours of time like many modern games do! I’m just so happy to be playing this.
Kind of in a lull right now, really.
I've still been playing Shenmue which is alright, but honestly just makes me want to go back to Gothic more than anything. It's an interesting enough game, but I don't think it's ultimately going to keep me engaged for much longer, though I probably will still play more. The QTE's are a bit of a joke and come out of nowhere, as well as require you to act more quickly than I am able, but mercifully repeat quickly if you fail, so there's not really a fail state to the game from them. The fighting is, fine, I guess? I'm not one for memorization, so I'm unlikely to continue working on any of the moves. I do enjoy the fact that you really need to "live" in the world to make progress. Asking people you know about things and where you can find something and every time I've felt a little lost, I just remember I can ask some people and consult the various district maps. I love that it's all diegetic. I may still continue with it further, as in spite of feeling a little bored with it, it is charming.
I've also been playing a decent amount of Shining Force recently. I made it fairly far when I first bought a Genesis Mini like 5 years ago and always intended to go back and play it on one of my emulation handhelds and I'm finally doing that; I've found a cool shader which makes the game look like it's on a really shit TV from the 70's and honestly, that's wonderful. The game itself is fun and I'm very much appreciating how simple it is. I've recently tried to go back to Disgaea 4 and much as I really like that serious for a variety of reasons, that one is tough to play because there's just so much to it. Shining Force is aged, but it's so straightforward, it's been hooking me in the small moments.
Otherwise, I've been trying to find something to play in terms of PC games, so I've been flitting around with various things. I'm thinking about trying to invest some time in Deus Ex: Revision, but I'm not too sure about it yet as someone who's been playing and replaying that game since it's initial release, I'm unsure I like the changes. As previously mentioned, I may also go back to Gothic if I have the motivation to work out the kinks to get it running on my Steam Deck again; I'm not sure why it stopped, as it played great for the almost 10-hours I spent with it on there until suddenly it decided to stop working.
Otherwise, I don't know.
Demon's Souls: I made good progress this weekend, Tower Knight and Armored Spider down. Now I'm progressing Prison of Hope (3-1), The Tunnel City (2-2), and Island's Edge (4-1). I really like the Nexus/Archstone structure. It makes it so easy to progress an area, leave, try a different area, and really mix up the environments you are in. I like the format of Dark Souls games which trend more linear but Demon Soul's "hub-and-spoke" really works for me.
God of War: Ragnarok: I took quite a long break from this game but revisited it this weekend when I began wanting a story. I was immediately impressed with how lush and beautiful the environments are. I also really like gameplay loop: fights dudes, solve a puzzles, hear a story. I find the Atreus sections kind of a slog, but they're alright. I'll definitely be putting more time back into this game.
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor: A pretty cool Vampire Survivor-like (are we just calling these "survivor-likes" or "bullet heavens"?). Not much more to say, it's vampire survivor except you're also mining through rocks and collecting different currencies to buy your upgrades. Progression feels slower and map or character unlocks seem to be less generous. I'll keep playing it, it's an interesting take on the genre.
It also plays differently than other similar games like Vampire Survivor or Brotato. Movement and crowd control are more important than raw firepower, and you never feel overpowered. (or maybe I'm just not a good player, that's a possibility)
I vote "survivor-like", as Bullet Heaven is the name of an already existing flash game (it's pretty good, you should play it!).
Magic: the Gathering
Full DSK spoiler is up. Here are the cards I find "interesting": https://scryfall.com/@Danger/decks/5d39c75d-3e8b-4edc-a36a-8cbfc642f0cb
I HATE the flavor of this set (80s horror). It clashes with the high fantasy aesthetic of Magic even worse than Streets of New Capenna (20s gangsters) and Kamigawa Neon Dynasty (cyberpunk). Worse than Outlaws of Thunder Junction (wild west)! Thankfully they don't lean into the 80s-ness in all of the cards. But some are really jarring. Baseball is now canonically part of the MTG multiverse. Can't wait to one day see "Jace Beleren's Rookie Card" get sold for over one million real American dollars. Ayy lmao. Subtle reference.
Brass: Birmingham
Finally played the top rated game on BGG. 2 plays so far, at 3p and 2p. Like many great board games, it's a lot of information to take in up-front. Feel like I'm just starting to wrap my head around it. Very thinky, have enjoyed it thus far. My favourite part is how turn order is always updated each round, ordering from player who spent the least to most money in the previous round. If you're in last place you can try to spend just under what your opponents did and get to go first next. And each round is 2 actions, so getting to do 4 things in a row can help you achieve quite a lot without being disrupted.
I feel similarly regarding your take on some of the past few MTG sets. I've been playing since Onslaught, and nothing screams Magic the Gathering to me like cowboys, and cyberpunk ninjas piloting vehicles! It just feels out of place, thought admittedly I have a soft spot for New Capenna because I love tri-color sets.
What are some of your favourite sets? I am a huge fan of the first two Ravnica blocks, and I LOVE the Alara and Khans of Tarkir blocks, even if some of the mechanics and cards sucked.
I (typically) love the 2-3 colour sets too. Some of my favourite cards are Charms and Commands. I think Alara is my favourite block! I really love the aesthetics of Bant. The Ravnica sets have all been up there for me too. I found with Tarkir I liked the 3 colour cards, Commands, and the 5 allied fetchlands reprint, but not too much else. It was also disappointing that only the first set in the block was 3 colour. Didn't mind that the second set was different because it was set back in time, but with the 3rd set returning to the same time with an altered timeline, I wished it would have been 3 colour again, and with the 5 enemy fetchlands reprinted.
I'm sorta shocked at the vitriol towards duskmorn. I'd say something like 90% of the cards in it look perfectly fine, and absolutely closer to classic magic stuff than recent sets. Way less jarring than literally everyone in cowboy hats or faux tech suits or whatever. Spirits/haunted things have been a part of MTG forever, and "horror tropes" certainly since Innastrad if not much earlier
Personally I like that they're at least exploring new themes rather than "ravinca....again". Granted I don't think they've done a great job at it (really sad with how lackluster the Phy set was), but at least they're trying.
I did call out those other sets because I hate their flavour too...
NEO also has a lot of "perfectly fine" cards, and then every now and then there's a 1337 h4x0r or cyborg DJ.
With OTJ, I do really hate the cowboy hats. They are really bad, but it's the same thing repeated over and over.
DSK has a lot of different jarring cards: a telephone, TV screens, ghostbusters gear, a chainsaw, a cassette tape, some glaring 80s clothing/hairstyles, aliens, baseball. Some cards with a special frame that has an ugly 80s tech console on it. And some movie poster promos.
But maybe you're right that OTJ is still worse because of frequency...
Personally I would prefer if they continue to overdo Ravnica than these things. Obviously I would prefer they come up with new sets that are actually appropriate to the setting....
I completely agree. I was away for several years and coming back the tie-ins with other IPs and "modern" stuff is very off putting.
I didn't love Ixalan, but it wasn't quite as jarring. MTG had a style for decades, not it feels like they're trying to jam anything they can think of in with the excuse that it's a multiverse.
Still playing Dave the Diver, still love it.
Also still very casually playing Trackmania with aim for the silver medals on all track of the days. Unfortunately some maps are created before physics change and with my level of skills I have to just skip them..
Also playing on Android incremental/idle IdleTale from itch.io (looks like dev managed to publish game on Google Play, but for me itch.io is fine). Game in some ways similar with Idle Slayer, but more player friendly, no ads, no in app purchases, and I love it.
I've just completed Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. It's hard to put this one into a specific genre; it's kind of a strategy/tower defense/hack n' slash hybrid. It's very atmospheric and beautiful to look at, if you aren't put off by horrific nightmarish monsters from Japanese mythology. Apparently there's a "true ending" if I play through it again on NG+, and while I thoroughly enjoyed it, I think once was enough.
Finished Bloodless and Laika: Aged Through Blood; both of them feel like games with a vision behind them, yet they also feel unsmooth in gameplay and sorely missing quality-of-life things, like a dev's first game where they're reinventing every single wheel instead of taking notes from their genre predecessors. I don't think there's much essence either as they both follow a "3 main missions then the final dungeon" structure. The games' atmospheres are very nice though, so I think watching a playthrough of a skilled player would be a better experience than playing through them.
Bloodless
Tomoe is an old ronin who was once known as The Slasher, but has since given up on bloodshed and has now returned to her homeland to fix her past mistakes. The game's defining feature is Tomoe's dash being a parry which allows her to defeat enemies by shattering their weapons with her armguards which does feel great. The unfortunate downside of this though is the game overcompensating for it through many, many unparryable attacks and overlapping attacks from multiple enemies. There is a skill upgrade to counter unparryable attacks by attacking right as the red gleam starts shining and retracting, but since the melee system is deliberately crappy with no hitstun to deemphasize it, it felt finicky enough that I couldn't consistently pull it off and very high-risk since enemies partially regen their break meter if they land a hit.
On the plus side, the game has a very nice retro pixel aesthetic and deliberate color choices, along with a story about stopping the cycle of violence and death shown through Tomoe's atonement and her quest to redeem her wayward nephew.
On a very specific downside, the late-game upgrade that lets you shatter boulders that were blocking your way is a ki-attack that costs 3 ki-pedals to cast which is the max amount for an unupgraded ki meter. Naturally, you'll have to build it up through combat, find a save point, or waste a potion slot on a ki refill.
Laika: Aged Through Blood
It's the post-apocalypse, the Bird Empire is invading, Laika is an immortal warrior who respawns with her motorcycle whenever she dies and is sent to fight them. I don't regret playing the game, but it's crazy how many gaming design sins it commits:
Story is about what you expect from this genre of cynical post-apocalypic, but the lighthouse mission's ending could reasonably be called the best part of the game with My Destiny playing over the final scene of it. I think my main critique is how the end of the game shifts over to the bond between Laika and her daughter Puppy; it doesn't feel like the rest of the game built up enough on it to connect to their family legacy since Puppy only has the same generic lines on the radio and at home instead of more ways to interact (aside from finding gifts for the gift collection). Could've had her give more sidequests or a bigger role in the story to give her more presence.
The soundtrack is quite nice though.
Rabbit and Steel
Roguelike with Co-op and MMO raid mechanics/ability cooldown rotations/bullet hell. Got the cutscenes for the wolves and the dragons, working on solo hard difficulty for all the class types, got wins with Dancer, Defender, and Bruiser. It is very much a skill game that demands pattern recognition to know the safe spots; the only loot opportunities are the beginning stage which gives 2 treasure chests, and the stages afterwards which have a shop at the beginning for ability upgrades and 1 treasure chest just before the boss. I'm having the easiest time with the wolves, but the mice and frogs are rough with their mechanics.
I recently finished Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance, and am now moving on to Persona 5 Royal. I'd played the original release of Persona 5 a few years ago, but decided to pick it up in a recent Steam sale, and keep going with this SMT kick I'm evidently now on.
I like both of these games for their own reasons, but it's hard not to compare them, especially playing them side by side. I'm probably going to jump around between them as I just stream-of-conscious my thoughts out.
I played SMTV through twice -- once to experience the original story, and once to experience the new story. The original wasn't received that well, so they introduced a new storyline for the re-release. I figured I'd appreciate the changes more being more familiar with the original but, I think I would have enjoyed the experience a bit more skipping the original story.
The biggest issue with the original story line is that the human characters have almost no personality. They expanded on characters, and made them a lot more interesting, as well as introducing some new ones, which generally worked well.
Being a bit time poor, I decided to do new game plus and carry over my abilities and demons, and steamrolled through the game the second time. I feel like I robbed myself a bit of experiencing the new bosses, though, and it probably messed with the pacing a bit.
I really enjoyed the level of strategy required in the game. If you don't know the games, it's a bit like Pokémon. You fight demons, and can recruit them to your team, then fuse then into more powerful demons.
It's similar in Persona, but there are a lot more metagame elements to juggle. SMTV is much more focussed on combat, and I feel like there's more depth of strategy. It feels like there's more levers you need to play with to succeed, and the sense of achievement even for beating story bosses is much higher for me.
And while the new story is somewhat more fleshed out, it still doesn't feel like it gets in the way at all. You're battling and recruiting demons within 30 minutes.
By comparison the start of P5R really drags out, as it slowly trots out its various mechanics over the course of hours.
But once it gets going, it is really fun. Balancing your social connections, developing your personality stats, and exploring the metaverse and palaces sounds like it could be tedious, but the way it all fits together is incredibly satisfying.
And the stylised world of P5R is a lot easier on the eyes than SMTV. SMTV has some great demon designs, but the world feels a bit bland and repetitive at times. I like in principle that it's a more open world, but exploring is difficult because parts of the world just look a bit samey. The small, distinct sections of P5R are a lot more memorable. And the visual style is stunning, and gives it a timeless charm.
Persona 5 Royal was my first Persona game ever. It's one of the best games I've ever played. The attention to detail in every facet is just incredible, and while the random encounter/turn-based style is generally too slow for me, a skilled player can really fly through battles. It helps that I played on Series X and load times were basically non-existent. There are however 2 boss battles in memory that throw out all the mechanics the game has taught you and were immensely frustrating and nearly drove me to quit. If it weren't for those I'd give this game a perfect score.
Since then I've played through Persona 3 Reload. I enjoyed this one too but was ready for it to be over by the end.
The first palace boss did something like this. They didn't throw out the mechanics as such, but they introduced some ad hoc mechanics, and it didn't sit well with me. I couldn't remember if this was something they did throughout the game, so didn't comment on it.
It irks me when games have an established pattern of gameplay, but they veer away from it for boss fights. Boss fights should be a test of the skills you've learned through the game, not some completely unrelated challenge.
Points to SMTV for committing to its core mechanics, while still having challenging bosses.
@kfwyre and anyone who is interested in the Witness. I had a moment of pure delight just a few minutes ago. My 13-year old daughter is playing, and occasionally asks for help with puzzles here or there, but is mostly doing the game on her own. She's been plunking away at it over the last year or so, taking breaks and doing other games.
Spoilers for The Witness
She just got to one of the mind blowing things that happen. She happened to be in a valley, looking one way and the leaves make a swoosh. She called me over and was like, "hey look at this, it's like a puzzle!" I tried to be nonchalant about it, said it was pretty cool. Then she started to walk away and I thought she wasn't going to get it... and then she turned around and clicked on it and experienced absolutely pure delight.
Also relevant, while she is doing that, my son and I are playing Satisfactory; quite some time ago, you gave me this second key.
Getting to witness "aha!" moments like that is one of the joys of teaching, but I can only imagine how much more meaningful and awesome it is when you're seeing it happen with your own child! I'm glad she called you over so that you got to share in that moment with her. What a joy!
Also, I'm always happy when my Steam keys go to good homes, but I'm especially thrilled when they go to great ones like yours. 😁
I just checked and my son has 605 hours in satisfactory... now he does like to leave it run overnight sometimes to get more resources - his approach to factory games is sometimes "just grind it out" - but I would guess that well over half of that is joyous fun over the last (time has lost all meaning?) couple of years (?). Building, exploring, making crazy spaghetti factories, screaming and running from giant spiders, finding the giant kitty cats, making ramps to jump all the vehicles off so that he can rate how all the vehicles are at making sweet jumps, building pride tower (a rainbow painted tower) and so much more.
Honestly, it's also part of why I try to give generously during game giveaways here on Tildes. I know first-hand how an act of kindness can snowball into a great life experience.
So, deeply and profoundly again: thank you.
Awww, that is the sweetest thing! Thank you for sharing that! I'm so happy for y'all.
Also, you had no way of knowing this before you shared that, but this school year has been kicking my ass pretty hard, and I'm not in a great place right now. I've kept most of it off of Tildes, because it not something I really want to share or dwell on, but it's there for me all the same.
Hearing your thanks here and the stories of the hundreds of hours of joy your son has had from one of my game giveaways are like a healing balm to my hurting soul right now. Thanks for being a bright spot, aphoenix. I was genuinely in need of one.
I'm sorry to hear that you are having a tough time, and if you ever want to write this all down and send it to someone who is unambiguously on your side, who will read, commiserate, and return appreciation for who you are as a teacher, a person, and a friend, then feel free to send me a DM. I'm thinking of you and hoping that things get better; sending you love and support!
Uhhhhhh, totally unrelated, are there any games on your steam wishlist or anything that you've been wanting to get but haven't yet?
Thanks for open door, aphoenix. I appreciate it. Thankfully, I don't need it right now, but I appreciate that it's there. It might be necessary in the future (it is still early in the school year, after all).
As for your totally unrelated question, I actually just joined a Steam family share with my gaming group, which expanded my (already quite hefty) Steam library by hundreds of titles. I don't want for games, just the time to play them. If you're asking because you were potentially looking to do something nice for me, know that your kindness is enough!
But also you might have to let me live in your Canadian basement. This is another election year for those of us down south, after all.
The basement remains open! Actually, you'd love it here, there's 3 gaming PCs set up, a big TV with a switch, a comfy couch, a projector, a walkout to the forest behind, and it's about twice as big as the 2020 basement. Party in aphoenix's basement again?
I was going to gift you a game, because I couldn't find a good way to send you a meal, which is my typical comforting action.
I've been really enjoying the early access of Lockdown Protocol after getting it gifted. I mostly missed the train on Among Us (my fault, was just tired of kids and people pesking me to play it), so it's been nice to hop into another social deduction early on and help others learn the game.
If you take a look at it and debate with yourself on whether or not to get it, here's a detail I've liked about it: Everyone can work on any task. And it's not just going up to panels and pressing x; the tasks are involved and require multiple steps to complete with some type of teamwork typically needed to finish them on time. This means that there are plenty of opportunities for dissidents (imposters) to sneak into the activities and say... walk away with an essential item and tuck it away somewhere. Or simply pretend to be slightly incompetent.
I've found that the balancing is really fine-tuned, and a lot of the games I've played have ended in buzzer-beaters with the last remaining employee throwing analysis items around with seconds to spare. Once I got all the task mechanics down, it easily became my favorite social deduction game in recent memory.
I got gifted Danganronpa 1, 2 and V3 recently, so I'm trying to go through those. Only finished the first one so far and just started the second one. Some of the characters are extremely eccentric so the series probably isn't for everybody, and I can't help but think the games would work much better purely as visual novels because the class trials can get really annoying, and I've been told by one of my friends that they get even more annoying the further into the game you get. I want to see how the stories end so I'm going to power through them anyways.
I've been playing a romhack called Pokemon Emerald Seaglass on my 3DS after seeing a thread about it on reddit. It's Emerald, but with graphics more like GBC, an expanded Pokedex, and some new features. For some reason I'm dawdling a lot, so I'm only just at Dewford despite playing it for the past two days for a total of... Maybe 7 hours in-game? (The 3DS doesn't enter sleep mode when closed during a GBA game, and I've had it on in the background a couple times while doing other stuff, so yeah.)
So far I like it. Grovyle and Sceptile are part Dragon type which is awesome, and a bunch of other Pokémon also got given new sub-types. Was surprised by Chingling being Steel-type, and I'm wavering on whether to use that or Ralts/Gardevoir as my psychic type. And I'm pleasantly surprised by the fact that other moves can have HM effects, like Fury Cutter and Metal Claw working as Cut.
Side note, this is the second ever romhack I've played. My first was Snakewood years ago, which is... Pretty infamous, for reasons. I never got to finish it because my laptop got borked when I was at the Elite 4, and I didn't feel like playing it again.
I knocked out the rest of Yakuza/Like a Dragon-- only spinoffs/gaiden left now. I'd say only 1, 3 and 4 were a bit middling, the rest were a blast. My favorites still would have to be the RPG ones though, 7 and 8.
I'm working through a nuzlocke of Pokemon LeafGreen. Allegedly, these are supposed to be an easy gateway into the world of Pokemon challenge runs, a scene I've been fascinated with. Anyway, the level curves and the game just not giving you the type variety unless you're lucky makes the early game hellish.
Also been trying UFO 50. Spelunky 2 is one of my favorite games ever made, so I owed it to the developer to at least getting a shot. Some really brilliant game design in some of them- Mortol is a standout right now. Enjoying it a lot.
After 100 or so hours my journey in Elden Ring is nearing its end. It took several respecs, strategy alterations, emotional therapy, and sheer dumb luck, but I have finally taken down Consort Radahn and completed the expansion. It was easily the biggest challenge I've faced yet, standing alongside Malenia and Margit on the tippy top of the difficulty tower, however, unlike those other two, this one was just pure cheese and frustration with no real sense of progress (or 'gitting gud', to use Souls-parlance). Nevertheless, the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion itself has been wonderful, particularly from an exploration point-of-view which has been my favourite part of the overall game.
Next on the
agendahitlist is Maliketh, then onwards to final victory....hopefully.
Yeah you're fine. Consort Radahn beats the pants off of everyone in the main game in terms of difficulty. The DLC in general does that. Malenia is the only main game boss that can really play with the big boys and even then there's some items in the DLC that make Malenia easier than ever.
That's not to say Maliketh is easy by any means, but you'll be fine.
Ha you called it for sure. I knocked the last three off in a straight run using my regular backhand blade dex build: Maliketh (3rd attempt), Godfrey (2nd attempt), Elden Beast (3rd attempt). Thankfully none of them spaz out to the same ridiculous extent as Radahn.
Continuing from last time, Operation Originum Dust launched basically right after Lucent Arrowhead on Arknights and- okay, lemme try to explain without going too deep...
So, since this is a rerun, the only thing they touch is the shop, stage difficulty is kept as is.
Meaning those stages were made 3 years ago, and in their original forms still manages to be a big challenge.
In other words, they are resistant to 3 years of powercreep. OD-8 is damn near ignoring power-creep.
In short, OD-8 consists of
I'm also skipping over some mechanics of the boss (which has 3 phases, I think there's only one other boss with more than 2 phases across the entire game), but even then I think you can see how this thing's an headache even now?
I ultimately 3-starred it by modifying Eckogen's guide a bit (Lappland pointing up as AoE Guard, Ela as a sniper to support Lappland via her mines, Siege right on the boss, and replacing an healing defender with Kirin R Yato for emergency nuking, but that leave a mine-shaped hole on the left side). Mind, it's not stable at all, I get about 2-3 auto-runs before something messes up.
Keep in mind, Lapp was already here and seen as one of the only 5* worth investing to max her out, while Shu and Ela are both new units noted for being extremely powerful (Shu in particular is seen as the new BiS for her Class, or at worst sharing this position with the previous unit).
Apparently you can also use Reed Alter's S3 here to great effect, but at risk of her and the adds tag teaming your phone into joining the fires.
MVP's this op are Lappland (silenced enemies don't spawn adds), Shu (S3 lets her just tank swarms of infinite sizes, which is good since damn near every enemy is 2 slugs in a trenchcoat and it loves throwing hordes at you), and Siege (during OD-8 I'm sure she was triggering her S2 every 5 seconds or so, and since it also clears adds all around her regardless of how low her attack speed gets, very useful).
Edit:Just got to EX-8 and uh, what.
They don't do much, really. Just remove the limits on the adds spawning starting on phase 2 (so you know, constant line. Fun.) and phase 3 removes the cooldown on the boss' nuke. 1200 fixed damage, every 7 seconds.
You know it's bad when the CM modifier is neutered that badly (locks 5 tiles, only 1 of which is useful, not important, just useful).