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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 100%'d Astro Bot this last week! Such a wonderful game and one of the few games where I felt obligated to do everything it had to offer! There are still a couple of trophies for me to get related to just some secret stuff, but I otherwise found all the bots, puzzle pieces, beat all the levels, etc.!
Besides that, I picked up Tactical Breach Wizards. I'm a fan of the more puzzle like gameplay over something like xcom. I'm having fun solving the rooms and one thing I want to mention is how much I love that this game encourages you to play your way. It doesn't try to get you to play optimally and even specifically says not to worry about it multiple times. You're there to get some funny story, solve the rooms, and move on. I just really appreciate that the design of the game encourages you to play "imperfectly" in a puzzle like game and to just enjoy your time instead of stressing about the "correct" solution.
I also booted up American Truck Sim this week. I have 30 or something hours in Euro truck 2 already, so this isn't anything new for me. I just felt like driving in the pacific northwest a bit, so finally booted up ATS (I bought the game and a few DLCs months ago and then just kept playing ETS2 instead lol).
One thing with my gaming habits: it's almost like a switch has been flipped for me, but I'm feeling way less pull to buy games on release now. I'm usually someone who buys all the big name games right when they come out because I want to be part of the hype train. Despite really looking forward to Star Wars Outlaws and Space Marine 2, I still haven't picked up either. I know I did pick up Astro Bot on release, but me last year would have bought all three of these by now and just not finished any of them. I'm feeling a lot more patient these days and a lot less influenced by what the "popular" game is at the moment. I think part of it is that I spend nearly zero time on gaming forums anymore outside of Tildes, so I'm not bombarded with threads about new games all the time. I do plan on getting Outlaws, Space Marine 2, Black Ops 6, Dragon Age, and Stalker 2 all this year or early next year at some point, but I think I'm starting to realize that it's perfectly fine if I wait a month or two after a release before I play something (thankfully I did in the case of space marine since they don't have ultrawide support yet (it's coming)).
I also recently 100%-ed Astro Bot! There was a lot of "hey, it's that character!" but it also turns out that I don't know a significant chunk of apparently big-deal Playstation games. Fortunately aside from the character cameos it was still a delightful time, clearly given a lot of polish.
I recently 100%-ed Tactical Breach Wizards! I don't often do that for most games but it was a blast for this one (aside from one specific one - Defenestrate 10 enemies by turn 3)
I'd also go so far as to say we don't need to make any more comedy games as we probably peaked here. The game is just genuinely funny with some shockingly touching moments.
American Truck Simulator/Euro Truck Simulator 2
I have a lot of audiobooks and podcasts I need to catch up on, but cannot focus without doing something with my hands. Enter ATS/ETS2. On top of that, the games are really fun as well!
I keep meaning to get back into those.
I had some cloud save problems a couple years ago that wiped both my ATS save and my custom keybinds for both games. Every time I think about jumping back in–usually because I've bought a handful of map expansions during a Steam sale–I'm never in the mood to go through the ballache of setting up the keybinds and voice recognition again.
Voice recognition?? Am I doing this wrong lol
Sorry, it occurred to me after the fact that that's something I added, and that I didn't explain.
I have a program that accepts voice commands to trigger macros that I use for a few games like the trucking simulators and Elite Dangerous, so I can automate a few of the things that don't come up super often, and so don't need to be bound to a controller button.
I used it for controlling lights and cruise control on the trucking simulators, but it really shines in Elite Dangerous, where I have the docking request and jump commands bound to a code phrase. It almost feels like I'm actually talking to flight control for landing clearance, or to my computer to initiate the jump sequence.
It's called VoiceBot, if you're interested. It only really works well for games that have keyboard keybinds. I don't think it can recognize controller inputs.
ETA: I believe there's a trial version on the developer's website that has most of the functionality of the licensed version. You should probably try that first to see if it works for you.
Marvel's Midnight Suns
I'm probably ~20 hrs in but I heard good things of this game and I enjoyed Firaxis games in the past so I gave this a shot since it was free on EGS. Combat is really clever and has the fun of Firaxis' previous games like X-Com without the stress (e.g. Iron Man can't die). The plot is kinda meh and the non-combat gameplay of getting to know the other characters is kinda cringe, it can be done quickly through skipping cutscenes. Likewise there are way too many systems dumped on you early on so it takes a while to figure out what to do. On the presentation side, character models are pretty meh, pretty basic PC graphic options and I had to get a mod to increase the FOV. It's fairly inoffensive but also forgettable.
Had I paid for it I'd probably still enjoy it because I find new mechanics interesting. Definitely worth a shot the next time it's given away. Feels like 7/10 kinda game
7/10 is a good score for this one. I felt much the same way as you did. I found the relationship building aspects of the game to be extremely dull and unengaging but the deck building and action aspects were fun. I just wish that game loop was more prevalent throughout.
I just finished this game! Got on Epic for the same reason. I love the card system! It's a really unique take on the turn based genre. Adds a fun bit of strategy when playing. I also enjoyed the side missions of exploring the map and getting the lore.
The story was alright imo. Nothing special, but not bad either. I thought the relationship building was fine. No better or worse than the recent FE games.
I completely forgot I claimed this at some point. Thanks for the reminder, I'll have to give it a play at some point.
I've been putting a few hours into Valve's new game, Deadlock. In my friend group, most people seem to feel it's not for them, but one guy has been enjoying it, so I've been playing it with him a little bit. I find it kinda hard to tell if I do like the game, or if I don't? My moba experience is very small, I've probably played 5 total bot matches of traditional mobas several years before this game came out, so I went in a complete noob to the mechanics a lot of players already understood. I have played a decent amount of Overwatch and TF2 though, and I generally like Valve's other games. In all these hero-based games I find it really difficult if not impossible to find my preferred character. The whole shop of different upgrades is really complex and intimidating, so I just took my friend's advice and use whatever is the top rated community build. I do like how there's a bigger emphasis on playing objectives and being able to fight NPCs to level up instead of it being PVP only. I also find the third person shooter vibe more fun than a top town version.
I, like a couple of people in this community have been playing UFO 50! It's been really fun and I really enjoy going through a bunch of old-ish games from an era I didn't even exist in!
Editing to add:
I've also been playing a lot of chess recently. Idk why but I've been really addicted to doing puzzles, I don't have the confidence yet to play ladders but I've been playing bots and it's been nice feeling like I'm getting better tbh!
Still playing the 1.0 release of Satisfactory!
I nearly bailed on the game midway through the first space elevator phase, as my main production was getting way out of hand and the complexity kept ramping up. But I stuck with it, and rebuilt my main factory a few times after reading some guides on good factory layouts. I'm glad I kept trying, because I'm having a blast now zipping around on power lines and planning out train logistics.
I also found that I was getting a lot of anxiety RE combat in the early game, so I reluctantly turned the creatures to peaceful with the plan to turn hostility back on if it broke immersion. So far it's been great, as a lot of the other environmental aspects are challenging enough. Not having to worry about creatures has helped me branch out more into unknown territories (especially caves!).
I had initially planned to go in somewhat "blind" and try to avoid looking things up, but quickly realized that the game doesn't provide all the information needed to really excel in the later game. There is a lot of help in the form of tutorial and text in game, but there are a bunch of little shortcuts that aren't really covered. I've found the subreddit for the game to be invaluable as I progress. Also this google sheet that I found somewhere along the way.
Just got back into Satisfactory over the last week or so. My son, who is 10, loves it, and we started a whole new world. We made some hilarious spaghetti factories in the past, but he wanted to be more careful this time, and his new factories are beautifully laid out.
I just started a new playthrough for myself, and I'll admit I cheated a bit - I've got previous starts at all four of the default locations, so I just turned on flying and picked a new spot a little ways away from some of the other starters.
I do quite enjoy this game!
I've also been playing a bit of Brotato again when I have 10 free minutes to play something. As bullet hell games go, this one is fun and silly and enjoyable. There are a few characters I have yet to unlock so I'm kind of working on that.
No, the game doesn't really provide the necessary tools. You're going to need this: http://satisfactory-calculator.com/
And this:
https://satisfactory.wiki.gg/wiki/Satisfactory_Wiki
And maybe this: https://www.satisfactorytools.com/1.0/
I also have some Reddit posts detailing valuable alternative hard drive recipes too, weighting them based on resource and power use. Rather opaque and a bit counterintuitive, but useful.
As for trains, when it's not a single train on an isolated loop, try building two sets of rails side by side with distinct right(or left) hand drive. The game logic doesn't do well with large amounts of trains going multiple directions on a single track and routing them with signals is a pain. If you didn't figure this out yourself yet, it's best to just split them.
For sure, my next big move is to build a large double rail network along the western coast. I currently have a single rail loop going from my plastic production up the coast to my computer factory. I mainly did it just to get the hang of trains on a small scale, but I can already see how it will bind up if I try adding more trains/routes.
I already have several tabs open to all three of those sites. :)
I make pretty extensive use of the interactive map on satisfactory calculator, and use satisfactory tools to rough out my production lines. They are both pretty great.
One thing that works well, although you're free to experiment of course, is to make trains a maximum of 4 cars long (Train + 3 Cargo) and have a main loop with branches off to stations with blocking signals every 4 lengths. A station should never block another train from passing through so you switch the train that needs to stop by either making a siding or a passing lane. This allows near infinite trains* to run on the same loop without deadlocking while allowing every train to remain at speed without interruptions (unless at an intersection).
If you're using the calculator and tools you're well under way and you don't need more. Most of the games is seeing what pretty spaghetti you can create that still functions while setting your own goal for what you want to produce next.
*up until your maximum 4 block count of course.
This is exactly what I have planned! :) I want to try to build it to be pretty robust from the start so I don't have to tear it down again. I don't mind rebuilding the factories, but rails are kind of more tedious, even with blueprints.
I found this reddit comment I really like and they posted a couple of screenshots of compelling designs: [1][2]
I think I'm going to build on the water and avoid elevated for now, just because I like the view from the trains. I'll probably go elevated if I need to expand over land in future, but I'm going to try to use drones and trucks where possible to move things to the coast for the trains. I haven't unlocked drones yet though, so we'll see how that plan plays out in practice.
This was definitely me at the start, but it's now a somewhat more organized pasta thanks to straight placement mode belts and vertical building. :D
Uncooked spaghetti then!
The person that implemented the straight placement mode needs a raise.
While I have your attention though, do you have any tips for aluminum processing?
I have a giant elevator from a pure bauxite site that I built last night, and am planning to build a factory on the coast where I pull together the the coal, copper, bauxite, and water needed for the process. I'm wondering if I should plan to ship in silica as well, or if the byproduct from the first washing is enough to recycle? Satisfactory tools seems to indicate as much
You should be able to make a closed loop with the byproduct looped back into the system. Let me get back to you a little later when I have the time to make a screenshot.
Edit: is that the pure bauxite node on top of that giant promontory near the desert starting point? A giant elevator of pure Bauxite sounds familiar haha.
Yep, I think we are talking about the same one. Here's the beast in all its utilitarian glory.
The other option was to spiral a train up there, but that seemed sort of unrealistic in comparison.
That's the one! I opted for a different location altogether in the end.
Which you can see here: https://imgur.com/a/nZCqHyV
It turns out that I do bring in additional Silica, and it's the Alumina Solution that I pipe into the system for the Aluminum Scrap, those Refineries then create Water as a byproduct which is looped back into the original Alumina Solution Refineries. You can see the Silica from the Refineries being used, stored, and sunk so I'm overproducing and bringing in additional Silica. I'm sure you can do without the additional Silica if you scale down the operation. This operation ends up creating and storing everything from Aluminum Scraps, to Aluminum Ingots, Aluminum Casings, Alclad Aluminum Sheets, to Heatsinks.
-1 Miner and 1 Water Extractor into
-4 Refineries producing Alumina Solution* and Silica**
-2 Refineries* producing Aluminum Scrap and Water***
-Water piped back into the first 4 Refineries***
-Aluminum Scrap and Silica into Foundries**
Note that this screenshot is from an older version 0.8 save file, I just reached that point in 1.0 but haven't set up the production yet (still scouting a spot). While that shouldn't change anything to the recipes, it does mean it's when I knew less about the game so there's probably a better approach to this.
Nice, thanks for the screenshot! A lot of the pictures online show super compact setups that are impossible to follow. Yours looks very clean and easy to follow.
I did some more reading and it looks like bringing in extra silica will be needed if I don't want to back up on Alumina Solution. So now I'm being sneaky and trying to find the Pure Aluminum Ingot alternate recipe which eliminates Silica completely from the equation. :D
Thank you! And yes, lots of people go overboard with the efficiency-slider where even space must be optimized as much as possible. I like seeing my stuff race across the conveyors and see the logic flow functioning. I must say that this one in particular is one of my favourites even if it's not optimal. While I'd probably change some things up next time I have to set up Aluminum (which is next on my list in my 1.0 save), I've always liked the easy to follow build from the screenshot.
You could also package the solution and sink it if you're unlucky on the alt-recipe rolls and you really need to have your Aluminum going.
If you're set on using the Alumina Solution further in the product chain instead of sinking it (which is obviously preferred), here's what the wiki says on this which clears things up, though I suspect you referenced this:
The Silica produced as a byproduct does not suffice for Aluminum Ingot production (using the standard recipe), so more of it has to be produced from Raw Quartz. It can be omitted with the Pure Aluminum Ingot alternate recipe, which however reduces ingot yield by 25%.
Routing 1/3 of the Scrap into Aluminum Ingot Foundries and the rest into Pure Aluminum Ingot Smelters consumes exactly all of the Silica byproduct, and reduces ingot yield by 12.5%.
Using the Sloppy Alumina alternate recipe produces no byproduct Silica. This plus Pure Aluminum Ingot reduces ingot yield by 10%, but greatly increases energy efficiency.
I agree with you. I love seeing the stuff zip around. I built a logistics floor for my computer factory and I honestly think it was more trouble that it was worth. Lots of extra lifts and routing and at the end I can't even watch the parts move (unless I made the floor glass anyway).
With some save reloading I was able to roll the Pure Aluminum recipe! After reading your comment though I might also want to use my available hard drives to get the Sloppy Alumina recipe as well. :)
After reaching the 10th and final act of Path of Exile, at level 74, I've decided to take a bit of a break as progression has become a bit frustrating. Admittedly I've built my Dead-Eye Ranger as a glass cannon but never had trouble with survivability until now where I seem to have hit a rather tall wall. Getting gear upgrades at this point has also been quite difficult as most stuff I find is trash and I'd rather spend my limited time playing the game instead of trying to trade for gear. I'll return to it in a few weeks to power through the rest of the campaign.
In its place I've gone back to continue Disco Elysium. I'm currently on the 4th day, playing as a highly logical, dramatic, physical instrument that believes he is a superstar art cop with political alignments that are all over the place (though predominantly a communistic ultra-liberal). The amount of dialogue choice in this game depending on the skills you have chosen is really quite staggering and I'm planning to do multiple play-throughs to see how differently things can play out. I also really love the writing and think the voice acting is top notch, without a doubt it's some of the best I've experienced in a game so far. I would certainly recommend this game to anyone that is interested in an RPG without combat. Well, mostly without combat as there are a few instances with violent solutions that you can choose, but these are still dialogue based skill-checks and there is no active combat in the game that I'm aware of.
I'm replaying Psychonauts for the 100th or so time on my steam deck because its the best game ever hands down, I'm trying to get into Fallout London but it crashes consistently every time I enter the swan and mitre (on multiple machines) so I've stopped caring and shelved it. Also replaying Metro Exodus as well which is pretty decent as far as shooters go.
Aside from Midnight Suns that I talked about in another comment, I've also been playing Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland.
I'm not a particularly nostalgic person, but Rugrats is one of those few exceptions. I grew up watching and loving this cartoon. A lot of artwork and soundtrack is right from the show. The writing sounds just like something the characters would say in the show.
The gameplay is like an old school platformer. No checkpoints or saves mid-level. You either beat it or start over. No tutorial or walkthrough. Each of the four babies have their own strengths that can make certain levels easier, but you can beat it with any one character. There's three difficulty levels. The hardest one limits you to one baby and no respawns. For me that is challenging, but not that hard either. Also the game can be played with HD or 8-bit graphics and sound. They're interchangeable at any point. Both are good, but I prefer HD.
You could beat this in a couple hours. If I gotten it free on Epic, then I would have gotten it on Switch. I'd recommend this to any side scrolling platformer or Rugrats fans.
Aside from my Deadlock comment, I've also been finding myself coming back to Elden Ring. With both the base game and the DLC being one massive game now, and it already being one of my all time favorites, it's basically become "Ol' Reliable" for when I don't know what else I want to play.
Particle Fleet Emergence from the author of the Creeper World series. A game dealing with controlling a fleet of spaceships fighting against particles, particle emitters and particle based ships.
The player ships are also varied and partially destructible including functional subsystems. So for example you have a ram ship to tank the particles and be able to get close to the emitter with a utility ship able to destroy it or a redirector ship to send friendly particles against enemy ones and other ship types.
To be honest the logic controlling the particles is relatively basic and I view the game as being a good way to a puzzle game instead of strategy one but it is fun.
I am not a fan of the story but the campaign is effectively a tutorial towards making your own ships and levels or exploring the various user made ones.
Just finished Kingdom Come Deliverance. By the end I was kinda tired of the quests involving combat. Too many 1vMany situations where the combat system didn't really hold up because it was obviously focused on 1v1. 1vMany was either too random, or too easy. Mount & Blade (Warband and Bannerlord both) does it better. Also the usual solution to 1vMany was just to stealth kill, poison food, or kite with arrows. Melee was generally the worst option. Realistic from a sim perspective, not so fun from a game perspective.
The Switch version also crashed all the fucking time. Overall a good game, but I was happy to be done with it.
Anddd noww....
Just started on Dark Souls Remastered. It's....not as difficult as it's made out to be. Still hard and really fun though. I think the idea of being able to run around difficult enemies might have been odd at the time of release, so just people naturally getting stuck on difficult enemies and not realizing they could literally run past maybe lead to its reputation. Even now I feel like most games are run away and come back later vs. run around and loop back later. YT also helps for weird tiny shit like how to backstab reliably, which the game doesn't really tell you...your shield must be down, but also you need to be stationary/barely moving. The first part is somewhat self evident, the second not so much (as there's no crouch/stealth that displays a backstab input on screen).
The combat is pretty fun, which surprises me, because I usually dislike any melee combat that is "simpler" than Mount & Blade or Bushido Blade. At least they have parries and ripostes though!
Agreed. I like KCD's combat, but you're right that it's much better 1v1. Mount and Blade has probably my favorite combat system in any game ever. Just so unique and intuitive. I think KCD was just trying to be as realistic with the combat as possible, hence more enemies = more difficulty. But I think it went a bit too far in that direction and could have gone a bit more in the 'feels fun' direction, so that by the end of the game you could cut down large groups with (somewhat) ease and feel like a badass.
Hopefully they make the 1vMany battles better for KCD2.
Yeah the M&B system was so good, allowed some customization in the settings, and worked in 1vSlightly Many. I always went with the direction of the attack was determined by the backswing, so to attack left you'd click left mouse for attack, then move the mouse right for the backswing resulting in a slash to the left. It felt like your mouse was a sword/polearm that you were waving around.
KCD almost had this, except for the wonky lock on system that was focused on one enemy at a time. The parry and master strike thing was kinda lame compared to M&B.
KCD was definitely a bit trickier to get used to. M&B was a lot more intuitive.
Some of my favorite gaming memories are storming castles in Warband, going to the top of ladders and just cleaving down repeatedly with a bastard sword or two-handed axe. Ridiculously satisfying.
Really interested to see if KCD2 keeps it mostly the same or tries something different with the combat.
Yeah I played a lot of CRPG mod, which they now have for Bannerlord. Lot's of fun memories from that game....especially from the occassional horse archery trolling.
I'm curious how far you are in Dark Souls.
Some parts of the game definitely hold up for difficulty, but otherwise it's reputation for difficulty is moreso a product of its time. Souls-style combat has permeated much of the gaming world along with games wearing their difficulty as a badge of honor, and the arms race that's become. Dark Souls was a trailblazer in a lot of ways (Demons Souls notwithstanding), so much of what it was praised for had been refined and ramped up to 11 since it's release. The speed of combat in particular has really ratcheted up since Bloodborne and going back to DS1 after DS3 or Elden Ring feels like playing at half speed. At this point, the hardest challenge is dealing with the games jankiness, especially poor camera controls and falling off edges (still a FromSoft staple).
It's a great game; still highly recommend to anyone who never got around to it.
How far is hard to answer. I think still fairly early game. I am terrible with the names too.
I have just killed the guy at the flame keeper altar with the laser priest upstairs, found the blacksmith, killed the big bludgeon dude with the +equip load ring, rung the upper gargoyle bell, unlocked the dark forest door (where you get the eastern armor), and killed ~3 black knights? I got the black knight shield, which I feel has made larger enemies a lot easier to deal with tbf.
+5 halberd has made things kinda easy.
I just attempted the butterfly boss, but wasn't able to figure out how to avoid/block their attacks. So that might be my next...educational DS1 experience/forced upgrade to a Steam Deck or Legion Go.
I think you are right about the speed, it hardly compares to the twitchiness of Chivalry and M&B online multiplayer. I have seen 5 year old comments posted years after release where people were saying they still hadn't figured out parrys, which don't seem too hard.
Even then it was rather overblown to the point it scared people off rather than invite them in. What people weren't used to, and I'd argue is the trailblazing, is how it just let you go into the world without much guidance while not at all providing guardrails. The difficulty comes from figuring things out and learning, never about being unfair or overly punishing (some outliers notwithstanding).
An often seen complaint from a new player was why they couldn't pass the skeletons, which should tell you more than enough.
Baldur's Gate 3's patch 7 was an invitation to start my 7th playthrough. It would be my first time replaying after its first month.
Surviving through hundreds of "1" rolls and too many hard crash spots; it took me 40ish hours to complete this adventure with my charismatic tiefling Sorcerer.
Now I wish to tinker around the difficulty a bit and start an evil origin run with Wyll. Which might be the least played path.
We just finished playing Core Keeper this week.
Game is pretty good. I think it's a little overhyped but anyone who liked Terraria will like Core Keeper.
It took us between 20 to 40 hours (playtime spread) of 5 of us to do all the bosses and get all the progression gear. We missed some of the secrets and achievements but they said they are gonna add more content so I'd happily come back and re play in the future.
I'd say the pros of the game is its learned a lot of good lessons from Terraria. A lot of the progression is smooth and everything feels good. All the bosses are unique and fun.
My only real gripe is the lack of gear really. Unlike Terraria the game kinda expects you to do everything all the time and not spec into melee, ranged or magic. So the pool of equipment is kinda ebb and flow between levels. Yes there is always a basic crafted ranged or melee at every level but uniques are few and far between (and rip magic users).
Armour is the worse, you'll find a good set for your magic build at level 3, then be starved to level 13. It seems the game wants you to invest in levelling your gear using a mid game levelling workbench which makes the numbers go up on gear to make it competitive at that level. But let's be honest, that's not as fun as finding new cool gear, especially if its unique.
Anyway it was still a really good experience. Go for it if you have a friend and want to play Terraria.
World of Warcraft: The War Within
My experience has been a bit mixed with that game. Despite TWW being the first time I've felt properly engaged with a WoW expansion's quest campaign, I'm not a big fan of the dungeons, I'm not a big fan of interacting with the community and I'm not a big fan of Delves as a substitute to an actual endgame.
It looks like at the time I'm typing this, your full comment didn't go through? But I have to agree on TWW. I think it's overall a good expansion and I think it does a number of things right. I think Delves are a good way for many players to get geared, especially players who don't have a friend group that plays and they want to at least do LFR difficulty raids for the story and all that. The questing experience is the smoothest its ever been, combat is still good, the world building, design, music, and art from this expansion are incredible... but I think the game is just not the same game it once was, for better or for worse.
For me, worse. I'm just not having much fun with TWW. I recognize it's a well made expansion but I think WoW has outgrown me. I still enjoy Guild Wars 2 and WoW Classic, so I don't think it's the case of me not liking MMOs anymore, but I think retail WoW just is a different game now than it was 10 years ago (really, it's been a different game from vanilla-wotlk since Legion or so). After I beat the main story at the start of the expansion, I just felt absolutely zero drive to go further. I didn't even want to do normal difficulty dungeons, and I normally love doing dungeons and raids. I just didn't care this time for some reason.
I think WoW retail is still a great game for many players, I think it's just not for me anymore. It's just hard rolling it over in my head because I have played for tens of thousands of hours and I've played the game for over half of my life at this point (started playing at age 14 in 2006 and I'm 32 now). I don't think it's necessarily nostalgia of how the game once was preventing me from enjoying it now, I think it's just that the game demands so much of your time these days to be caught up and I just don't want to invest in it, whereas if I go back and play classic for a couple weeks, the game is mostly about the journey, so I can just chill and do quests for a few hours, have a decent time, and not feel like I'm "behind".
This is exactly why I can't play WoW anymore, it just isn't the same game. I enjoy the friction of Vanilla, I don't necessarily want a "smooth" questing experience and I don't want all the FOMO mechanics or to be the hero of the story. I just want to feel like I exist in the world and that the world isn't constructed around my experience, but instead, exists without me and isn't built specifically to be easy to get around in.
Nah, I condensed my thoughts. The 1. at the bottom was a typo because I originally planned to write a much longer comment but stopped.
I started playing Rogue Trader after getting on a bit of a Warhammer 40k kick. Never played the tabletop game, but the lore is expansive. I am only on chapter 2, but so far I am really liking it. The writing is solid, the missions are fairly diverse. Exploration feels good and the mechanics for it fit the setting very well.
Last night I put a couple of hours into Peglin on iPad, and it's great. It's essentially the format of Slay the Spire with the core gameplay of Angry Birds. I recommend it.
Damn I haven't thought about angry birds in probably a decade. Remember playing it when it first came out on the iPhone thinking it was some revolutionary new thing (touch-screen games!). Combining it with StS sounds like a good match. Thanks for the recommendation!
I also played it a few times (won some journeys, still have to unlock more chars). It's in many ways very dumb (you aim the ball a bit), but at the same time it's "yeah ok I can do that better, one more try".
I've been mostly playing Elex.
Playing a little bit of Shenmue the other week got me up for that flavor of 2000ish Jank RPG, which made me want to go back to Gothic again, but I had some troubles getting Gothic working correctly, so I decided to finally give Elex, from the same developer, a go.
It's pretty great and gives me the same vibes I got from when I first played Gothic 2 and later Risen. The thing I like so much about Piranha Bytes (RIP) games is that they feel cohesive, like the world has a set of rules it plays by an that's consistent throughout. It also doesn't give a damn about you, so you'd better be careful, thoughtful and paying attention as you make your way though the game, because you are weak as a kitten early on.
It also does "texture" really well. For instance, you start off in a village of, essentially, naturists who have a strong set of Laws that bind them. As you make you way through the village, you see that not everyone is on board. Many of the leaders are strong believers, but a good portion of the underlings are just there because it provides safety in such a harsh world. There isn't dissent per say, more that people only pay lip service to the laws, while trying to go about their own lives and not stir up too much shit. NPCs feel like characters, like people.
Exploration is a blast too. Gothic always had this down pretty well, but it's even better in Elex because you have a (very limited) jetpack. So rather than being completely stopped by powerful monsters guarding an area, you can often find a way to go up and over them or even run through them and jetpack your way to safety.
I'm only about 7 hours in so far, so barely scratched the surface. I'm still very weak, but managed to try an NPC to like me enough that they'll tag along, which helps immensely in the killing monsters department. I'm looking forward to playing more.
I've only put in maybe 45 minutes so far, but I've finally decided to properly play through KOTOR II. I played it many years ago (10+?) and made it a good way through before abandoning it, but at that time, I really didn't like it as much as KOTOR; my tastes have changed since then and I'm excited to get started on it proper.
I have installed the mobile version on my RG405m and spent several days heavily modifying it using this guide. I just went ahead and used all the optional mods in addition to the recommended, even though I'll never actually notice any of the Lore accurate changes. Again, I'm not very far at all, but it runs fantastic and I'm excited to be able to bring it everywhere with me, even if I don't actually play games outside my house ever.
Played Inscryption for our podcast on rogue games
I wouldn't say this is a "true" roguelike/lite, but enough of one and impactful enough to warrant inclusion in the conversation at least.
It was very interesting coming back to Inscryption after a couple years, having had mixed thoughts about it the first time I beat it. I think coming back to it the second time around gave me more appreciation for its mechanics and theme that I didn't fully get the first time around. Which is interesting, since some of my podcast co-hosts had the opposite experience!
Inscryption is truly a magnificent game, and the standalone roguelike experience of Kaycee's Mod shows off just how good the first part of it really is by itself. The mod isn't as deep as something like Slay the Spire, but it's still very good for the experience it's going for. Certainly better that some of the other deckbuilding rogue games we've played for the podcast.
God of War: Ragnarok (PS5): I just love this as a story/comfort game. The world is well realized and fun to explore. I really like the puzzles though I wish the travel dialog would continue while solving sidequest puzzles. It's a great game when I want strong characters and story.
Dark Souls 2 (Steam Deck): I was flying back and forth between Denver and DC. I wetn to spin up DS1 and my steam deck hadn't synced my save so I started DS2. Only played about an hour and so far I like it. A couple minor notes:
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor (Steam Deck): After breaking my weapon in DS2 and feeling a bit demotivated I switched over to this game. I'm about 4 hours in and I feel like I've cleared the first "hump" of progression with the unlocks. My dwarves feel strong enough for the first couple levels and challenge missions. I'm starting to feel like I have my feet under me and some strategies for how to upgrade my weapons.
Bore Blasters (Steam Deck): This is a game I picked up several months ago and find myself returning to. It's a 2D side-scroller roguelike. You have a board of different levels that you move around on. Beating a level unlocks the adjacent levels. Within a level you are piloting a helicopter and mining down trying to reach the bottom while your fuel is spent. The pilot you select at the beginning has a unique skill that allows you to mine faster in some way. Enemies spawn and you find special types of gems and other blocks depending on the level. Your "level up" by mining gems and you are given three upgrades to select from that apply to that run. Between levels you use the currency you've mined to upgrade your helicopter's fuel tank, damage, attack rate, collection radius, etc. There is a campaign you can run through that I've been working on. I'm not sure what it adds except for some other mission objectives.