19
votes
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.
Just started the Silent Hill 2 remake. Only put about 3 hours into it so far, but it's good. It's a very pretty game and they did a really good job so far of recapturing the oppressive and stressful nature of the original SH2. Feels like what I played when I was younger on PS2. My only complaints is that it suffers from the usual UE5 stutter a lot of games have and the voice acting is pretty bad from every character I've heard speak so far.
I've also been playing the demo for Metaphor ReFantazio in preparation for the full game release this weekend. It has been my most anticipated game since the release date was announced and I'm excited to finally play it. The demo is amazing and reviews for the game just released today and it's at a 91 average on OpenCritic.
Oh boy, the remake is $93.49 CDN. Guess I'll be waiting until that goes on sale. Glad it's good!
I grabbed it on Green Man Gaming for 30% off.
Meh, only shows me 22% off. More just a comment on the first time I can remember seeing a base version of a game being over $90 on Steam.
I agree with everything but I actually really liked the voice acting. Maybe it's just cause I'm comparing it to the original which, while charming, is not very good.
I just started playing plate up with my soon-to-be wife*, and it has been an absolute blast. My whole YouTube account is now a plate up recommendation engine, helping me automate my burger restaurant.
No, seriously, I didn’t expect this one to hit so hard. I’ve read how people ‘lose friends’ over the game given how tense the coop can become but my wife and I have just enjoyed ourselves a lot running restaurants together.
Given what I can see in the YouTube clips about this game, we’ve barely scratched the surface on what we can do whit this game in terms of maps, recipes and automations, so I’m pretty sure we’ll be coming back to this one for a while.
I’ve tried playing solo, but that was a lot less fun. Do I would advice to play this if you have someone to play with.
*we’re getting married this Wednesday!
(On a side note: How awesome does metaphor refantazio look?!)
I think my girlfriend and I played like 50 hours of plate up or something together. And yeah its a blast!
Its a really good game, and like you said the depth is surprising. You think the first few times you play it's actually reasonable simple... Except it is not.
One night we started a game at like 6pm I think, and we wanted to try and get the achievement for overtime day 15. So we went all in on cake, our most successful dish we'd tried yet. We got all the right cards and the right setup and it got to 2am and we were on day like 25 or something insane. The group counter was up at over 200 groups. So we just had to turn it off and go to bed lol. Next day we continued and immediately failed the run because we lost the rhythm lol.
Also, congratuations! I hope you have your Plate Up high scores shown at the wedding!
Haha thanks ! ^^
Sounds like such an epic run you guys had. We had the same issue when trying to pick up a run we paused for the night: rhythm and muscle memory gone, immediate failure.
We’ve never made cake, so we’ll definitely try that out.
Do you also skip any cards that make your dish more complicated in favor of the cards that influence crowd behavior ?
Yeah, every time lol.
It can be fun to play a game with more complicated food or a starter/side/desert but you're not gonna strictly do as well I think as if you just go heavy into the other cards.
That said some cards are just about run killers in the right mix. But we usually laugh about it.
Cake was a lot of fun I found. I do the cooking and I automated almost the entire thing. We're not very good at automating the table service though!
We’ve just played a cake run… oh my god. Amazing! No dishwashing!!
Still no clue how to automate the cooking, but I was going fast. ^^ We do all our ordering from behind the counter which makes the table service easy as well.
Congrats on your upcoming wedding! I hope it's the best day!
Thank you!
Ninja Gaiden Still haven't gotten past Stage 2, I get near the end of the last level but the game really throws some bullshit at you. I'm enjoying this style of game play of playing for 30 minutes, seeing how far I get, retrying the hard sections until I learn them well.
Legend of Zelda Picked up a cartridge this weekend. I couldn't get my NES to read the first copy I got but my local story is very good at having multiple copies and swapping out stuff that isn't working. This era of games is really scratching an itch. The video recently posted on the front page is well timed. I'm probably going to write up some reflections on modern games versus earlier games. I like that games of the era don't have a manufactured dopamine drip built in and the graphics are so flashy as to hide the core gameplay loop.
God of War: Ragnarok I'm right at the end. I just need to commit some time to playing this last section. I enjoyed the game but I'll admit I'm a bit put off at the idea of another hour or so of Kratos's grunting. Games start feeling too long at this 30 hours mark for me. I enjoy the characters, story, lush graphics it just starts feeling like a slog.
Legend Of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom I picked up the same day as original Legend of Zelda. I'm enjoying the game a lot. I think they did well bringing in design philosophies from Tears of the Kingdom while keeping it directed enough that I have a clear problem to solve. I bounced of ToTK because of the lack of direction. I don't have that problem here. I am worried that it will begin to feel stale but currently exploration is keeping my attention.
I've been playing TCG Card Shop Simulator!
It's basically a slot machine simulator at this point, after like 40 in-game days. It's still pretty fun and a quick game to go through for $10-ish bucks, and a good holdover till Metaphor: Refantazio this week!
That game looked great! I stuck it on my wish list to wait for 1.0 though. It seems like they've got a lot of work to do in early access.
there's definitely a LOT of work to be done, at this point of the game it's basically an idle game with a slot machine component, that you basically have to pay bills in.
it also doesn't really feel like it's a very accurate representation of TCG shops, just looking at my local LGS lol
I'm curious: do you have a personal rule about when it's acceptable to buy a game in EA?
I used to be strictly against the practice, though I've warmed to it in recent years. I've tried to draw hard lines about when it's okay to buy EA, both to limit spending and disappointment, and in an attempt to temper the incentive for companies who'd misuse that trust. But thinking back to my purchasing decisions, they've often been based more on subjective case-by-case feeling than clearly defined criteria.
The first EA title I remember putting in much effort to justify was Subnautica: Below Zero. I bought that EA because I adored the original–which I got at no appreciable cost by Epic giveaway–and wanted to throw more direct support to the devs in the hopes they could come up with even more innovative stuff. While I played through the end product and don't regret the purchase, it didn't turn out to be quite the classic the original is.
Since then, I've tried to draw harder lines around when I will throw money at a project. I tell myself that I'll only buy when an EA game is at a point in development where I'd be happy with the purchase as it is–that is, that I won't throw money at the promise a game shows, but only at what exists at that time and price. That hasn't always worked. For instance, I ended up being really early for Satisfactory, and while that game has developed into something special, I wouldn't have recommended it to anyone until the last couple of updates. Coffee Stain Studios has really made great use of early access, but they seem to be an exception.
Honestly, I used to buy games basically as soon as I saw something I liked and did a little research to prove it wasn't vapour ware.
But I've played way too many games in EA, had fun for a few hours, then tried to come back to them years later when they've had a load of updates and really struggled to get back into the game.
I'm not sure what it is, something about experiencing the core game (usually with some minor or major differences) then coming back to it years later to all the new stuff is overwhelming and kinda puts me off in general.
So I've learned it's OK to wait for release from early access (or buy it as 1.0 gets announced for the discount) then play the crap out of it when it comes out.
Core Keeper was a recent example. I waited for release for that and got the gang together to play. Mind you it was a bit shorter than I expected.
On the otherhand, one example I can think of is Rim world. I played the crap out of that in beta and then it went full release and even had expansions I was turned off, bored really, even with all the changes and new toys.
Dunno, hope that helps give you some perspective.
It does. Thank you.
It also puts me in mind of a quirk of human nature I learned back in my school days.
I met a teacher of creative writing who was adamant that new writers do everything they can to avoid describing the plot of their works before getting them to the first draft. His reasoning was that for people new to writing who get the itch to write fiction, it's the compulsion to tell the story that drives them. Tell the story too early, before you've even written the thing, and that compulsion gets satisfied, but imperfectly. By communicating the thing that was propelling you to write the piece, you've robbed yourself off the impetus to put in the work and actually tell the story as well as you're able.
Writers further along in their careers have an easier time with giving outlines without losing steam, both because the economics of writing for pay demand it, and because they've already managed to ingrain the process of writing into their routines and habits, and so it's much easier for them to maintain momentum even when they've communicated the thing they're trying to produce.
I wonder how much that effect or something similar to it impacts early access developers. The history of EA is compatible with the hypothesis at least.
I do know that a similar phenomenon has happened to me as a consumer of video games. I've purchased EA titles that I've intensely enjoyed while in EA that for one reason or another I never bothered to pick up again after release. Sometimes that's because the devs took the game in directions I didn't care for (which was exactly my experience of Timberborn), but sometimes it's seemingly just because I got my fill of whatever was compelling in the game before it reached a finished state.
I think it's a trickier feat to develop a game in EA than many dev studios appreciate. It's kind of a shame in a way that it's one of the easier and most direct ways to fund a small indie title.
It's interesting that you think about the video game market that way. I subscribe to some indy, and non-indy devs who talk about Steam and the video game market in general as they make and sell their game and for the most part it seems like it's a requirement to follow the trend otherwise you are likely to fail.
In particular it was interesting to listen to Mark and Chris from Introversion (Prison Architech, Darwinia, Uplink) talk about their new game and the struggles they face with Steam today. Customer expectation and the Steam algorithm fight agaisnt a developer if you don't follow the same steps as everyone else. Which these days seems to be:
That will change again no doubt, some games don't do that. But that's the general structure today.
Introversion decided to do the same thing with their new game which they did with Prison Architect, that is release on EA very, very early and stay on there for years to build the game with community input. And they've said it's hurt them really badly in today's market because expectations of EA are the game should be much more complete.
I very much agree with your statement from the customer perspective though. We (consumers in general) have been through a bit of a roller coaster with video games trends and now we are in a place where we are actually spoiled for choice each year. For devs it is very, very hard to get noticed because of the sheer volume of titles, indy or otherwise. And like you say, it's incredibly hard to get it right from start to finish!
Nier: Automata - I must say that so far I am not really impressed considering how praised it was. A lot of it has to do with the no saving demo which is one of the most horrible design decisions I have seen personally. Getting through it on easy I can see how they worked it into the lore, but the fact that it was intentional does not mean that the decision is good. Even as an outside observer not well versed in game design I could see obvious ways to mitigate the problems while keeping the core point which probably means they left the problems intentionally - hence horrible design.
Other that the gameplay is fine but nothing special so far.
I could see what they are doing with the camera changes. Though personally I thought that in the prologue where they were used most so far they were far too frequent and abrupt even if the gameplay transformation was interesting.
I am up to second main boss so far and I must say that I am not sure what to make of the story.
Probably mild spoilers and idle speculation since I am likely fairly early into the game.
The obvious conclusions the game present so far makes me think they'll add twists to it or pivot in unexcpected directions though I don't think they will completely subvert it.
That being that the machines are in some way remnants of humanity and the androids are in some way aggressors. But even assuming no subversion will take place later there are lot of ways that could be taken.
I am not even ready to discard the possibility that there are actually humans on the moon who were the aggressors with the earth-bound humanity succumbing to some bioweapon but not before cobbling together some prototype uploading process and rigging automation to keep it going.
Or we could go completely different direction and take the alien story at face value. Aliens invaded and conquered but splintered after with one faction assimilating the(concept of) humanity and the other the form.
Though I admit I have trouble differentiating what is there for presentation reasons and what is there for lore reasons.
The intro message, general tone and what I have been hearing about the game make me think that the overall message will be something gratuitously nihilistic and or edgelord though I would like to be pleasantly surprised.
I'll look forward to seeing how close or far I was though at this point I am honestly not sure if I just look it up or play the game.
I really liked the game when I played it around launch. Though it really doesn't shine until you've played through all the different "new games" or "endings". Each time "new game" really is a different game. The first time through as 2A is probably the longest and least interesting. I highly recommend trying the other endings if you beat it as 2A. They go much quicker and are really why the game receives the praise that it does.
It takes a while - you have to finish endings A and B before the game gets really interesting. I was close to giving up too, but I'm really glad I finished it. The second half of the game was amazing to me
I found the gameplay was very flashy and entirely inconsequential, it's basically just mashing dodge until there's an opening and there's very little reason not to play it safe. I dropped it after the A ending for a while, but then I picked it back up and found the rest of it extremely aesthetically and narratively engaging. Would recommend sticking with it if there's any kernel of enjoyment or curiosity in there; I can't knock a game that gets me to genuinely think about philosophy for a hot minute.
I played Automata well after it came out through Gamepass I think. It's fine. I don't know what spoilers you are already aware of so I'll avoid giving anything away, but the game gets a lot better. I would argue it's too late and I eventually decided I had enough before ever finishing the game.
Good luck!
Torment: Tides of Numenera - this game was the spiritual successor to the old-school CRPG Planescape: Torment. Numenera was made by some of the same devs as a kick-starter project. So if anyone is itching for some text-heavy CRPGs with an extremely rich setting then give it a shot!
The setting is Science-Fantasy Earth 9 billion years into the future (I think the sun aught to have went poof by then). It really takes the Clarckian adage about "any sufficiently advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic" to heart. Full of nano/bio/xeno-engineering and true to the Torment line musings on philosophy of self-worth.
Combat sucks ass, there's no voiced dialogue so it's probably not for everyone. But I really enjoyed talking my way out of tricky situations rather than struggling with the boring combat system. Think of it more as a Role-Playing reading game.
After countless hours, I finally beat Fallout 4 (PS5). I loved it. I completed nearly every side quest, romanced Cait, and I couldn't find more to do in the game without paying for the DLC. I felt bad having to put it down.
So, I've started Fallout: New Vegas (X360). Everyone said it was the best and to play it last, so here I am. I just got to Primm and I can say the story is already more interesting than 3 or 4's story.
I've also started Watch_Dogs 2 (PS4) as I've been meaning to play it since 2018 (when I first got it) but neglected to for six years. It's all right so far.
Alien: Isolation finally in my sights again. I played about 5 missions originally when I got it Xbox One like 10 years ago, but gave up out of either fatigue or straight up terror. Told myself I couldn't finish it without someone else in the room with me but honestly, older and wiser, makes it even more fun to play!
The AI is still absolutely terrifying, the map design is brilliant, gorgeous, perhaps a bit punishing with regard to back tracking, but it also encourages memorization of hallways and vents and escape routes and -- I just am loving it. It feels like Alien 1.
The sound design alone deserves a lifetime achievement! It's amazing.
Your timing is pretty impeccable:
https://x.com/AlienIsolation/status/1843305291322200488
Image Text
To our fans around the world: It’s hard to believe that it has been 10 years since we embarked on our journey with the release of ALIEN: ISOLATION.When we started developing ALIEN: ISOLATION, we had one guiding principle: to create a truly authentic experience that went back to the roots of the ALIEN franchise - a new story capturing the atmosphere and terror of the original 1979 movie masterpiece.
It’s been nothing short of incredible to witness your passion for the game over the years and see it reach so many players around the world.
On the 10th anniversary, it seems only fitting to let you know that we have heard your distress calls loud and clear.
Today, I’m delighted to confirm, on behalf of the team, that a sequel to ALIEN: ISOLATION is in early development. We look forward to sharing more details with you when we’re ready.
Once again, thank you.
Until next time,
Al Hope, Creative Director – ALIEN: ISOLATION
I just read that!! I am even more hyped now!
Alien Isolation "Collection" is on sale for 85% off on Steam and GOG, presumably to celebrate the 10 year anniversary.
edit: also on Epic. I checked my library and they gave the base game away for free at some point.
I've heard good things about the game. I looked up a gameplay video and...turned it off after half an hour, pretty disinterested.
I saw some people making fun of the IGN review of the game (5.9/10) and how wrong they were. I went and read the review and what stood out to me were:
I think for me personally, I probably wouldn't enjoy it. I bounce off of a lot of games that are about stealth, and scrounging for materials + crafting. I recently bounced off of Prey (2017) and Horizon Zero Dawn because of this. Horror is also not a genre I have a strong affinity for (though I am interested in experiencing some I guess mostly due to FOMO). I played Amnesia: The Dark Descent when it was all the rage and thought it was...ok.
It's pretty emblematic of the original Alien movie, which also maintained a large sense of mystery and exposition long before showing the actual monster. Which in my opinion does not affect the quality of the game, but enhances it.
Yeah, old reviews might not have gotten it right, and new reviews might be trying to capitalize. But I remember the game really shining through back in the day. And it feels just as loved and tight and lean as I remember.
Maybe by my 20-30th hour, my opinion will change, but I would then assume it's because I spent most my time hiding in lockers and not actually escaping the AI.
It does feel a bit different than something like Amnesia. A game like Amnesia might be wholly interesting to watch a Let's Play, where, in my opinion, the magic that comes from Alien Isolation is from the stalking sensation that you get from being in the driver's seat. Amnesia feels like a living creepy pasta, where Alien feels like being lost in a metal jungle.
I'm still playing Satisfactory 1.0. The second to last delivery of space elevator parts (Phase 4) took a long time to complete. This seems to be the phase of the game where most of the players hit the wall where early game logistics start to fail them, and they need to think more about long distance logistics like train and drone networks. I was definitely in that camp. I spent a lot of hours building out rails. I also built a few satellite factories (aluminum, electronics, and motors, to name a few).
Here are some random thoughts as I enter the final phase of the game:
Overall I'd highly recommend Satisfactory. It's given me a lot of hours of enjoyment. It's got a more casual factory building feel, so is probably a good way to dip your toes into the genre. For me, I think it's about as deep as I'll probably go. I seem to enjoy the crafting/survival genre with some automation mechanics, but I don't think I could really fully enjoy a game where the only mechanic is the factory.
I'm going to start Satisfactory soon, and most of my "factory" experience comes from Minecraft mod packs as well. Which ones did you play? Curious if there's any I haven't tried that you did.
Oh gosh, I think I have played too many to list here. Lots of them I bailed on when they got too tedious (Create Astral is in that category). My favorite packs where I reached some level of completion were Enigmatica 6, All of Fabric 3, All in One, and Uncle Genny's. I played both Uncle Genny's and Enigmatica twice because there were so many paths to take. I also liked Life in the Village 2, but that one is more about Minecolonies, and I still don't think I fully finished it.
Edit: I think after I finish Satisfactory I might start up a playthrough with just Mekanism and Refined Storage, or possibly only Mekanism. It's been a few years and Satisfactory is reigniting my desire to build a sweet Mekanism factory. :)
Oh wow, we have very different experiences. I mostly played Sky Factory 3 and 4, Stone block 1 and 2, Agrarian Skies, and a few other random ones in the same vein. Stone block 2 was the one I came closest to actually finishing.
Got 99% there, and then my friend I was playing with got bored when project e became the big endgame portion and we stopped and never finished
The only skyblock style pack I really finished was All in One, and I enjoyed that a lot because it had some of my favorite mods in it and didn't get too tedious with the progression. I tend to nope right out if I see anything involving ultimate crafting, as the end just becomes such a ridiculous grind. I did give Seaopolis a real try with a small group of friends, and got right up to the ultimate crafting stuff before losing interest.
BTW, I'd be happy to answer more questions about any of the ones I've played to near completion if you're curious.
I liked ones with clear progression paths, usually using one of the quest mods to lay out objectives.
What is Uncle Genny's? Never heard of that one
It's a bonkers pack created by GenerikB ("Attack of the B Team", and also one of the original Hermitcraft hermits) and his team. It's mostly a kitchen sink pack with some things locked by progression through different dimensions. The most notable feature is that it intentionally uses less well known mods, and avoids all the super popular ones. So you end up playing with some crazy stuff.
For example I built a base powered completely by chicken byproducts (mainly liquified chicken poo and omelettes). My oldest son decided to play the game as a cyborg with mechanical legs he stole from a secret underground soviet era bunker, and ended up taming a robot T-rex. My youngest son decided to play the entire game as my pet rat. There's too much weird crap to cover it all, but I try to recommend it to everyone who will listen, because the whole thing is super fun. Even better if you can get a group together to play multiplayer.
Interesting that sounds wild. I'll check it out, thanks for the info!
You might want to try out All in One then. It's a lot easier than some of the more expert progression packs, but I still found it very fun.
I will take a look, always trying to recapture the feeling of the first few times I played a modpack and it sounds like this might be one. Thanks!
Backpack battles.
I haven't played in months. A lot of content has been added, and the balance is pretty good. A lot of builds seem to be valid, although a couple classes suffer.
It's a turn-based deckbuilder/ fit-the-items in spaces for synergy-single player game that match makes against other people's builds to play ranked or casually. Would recommend.
It's /too/ addictive, I refunded it for my own sanity :)
(played the demo tons)
Baldur's Gate EE: I have only played a couple of crpgs and I'm still not sure I like them, but I wanted to give the infinite engine games a try. I'm a bit torn. I enjoy walking around finding and solving quests, and the occasional encounter. I don't like that up to chapter four most of my team interactions have been:
Jaheira: Find the mines already or I'll leave!!
Kivan: Find the enemy camp already or I'll leave!!
Neera: I'm not leaving but you are insufferable!
The combat has a bit too many variables for me but it's getting more interesting as I get more options and learn to use them. I should really read the manual. If I finish the game I'll probably change my build for the expansions/sequel.
Lego Marvel superheroes: Been playing a couple Lego games with my kid. I don't like collectathons (or marvel) but these lego games are simple enough for her and bearable enough for me. The lego tone fits the MCU fairly well (much better than the jurassic world game we played last) and some of the superpowers are fun. The controls are ok for the most part but flying units and some vehicles are horrible to use.
I really need to find other types of games she would like.
TouHou: Artificial Dream in Arcadia: Its a classic Shin Megami Tensei dungeon crawler with mechanics from the later games, and a TouHou coat of paint. I have not played much but so far so good.
Mostly Knights of the Old Republic 2. I'm deep into Peragus station and it seems like I'll be heading down to the surface soon to find my ship; so far, the writing is enjoyable and I am liking the fact that it's mostly a speaking to people game, rather than fighting. I don't think it really clicked for me when I first played it 10-years ago, but I'm a different person now.
Heroes of Might & Magic 2: really, fHeroes2, the open source recreation of it that adds some QoL features to the game from Heroes 3. Heroes 2 is really my favorite of the games. 3 adds some really nice stuff; the factions feel more balanced, there's more of them, the maps are bigger and nicer, but unfortunately, the graphics kill my enjoyment of the game. Heroes 1 and 2 just have one of my favorite graphical styles ever; so I've been playing Heroes 2 when I just need something to play quietly that I don't really need to pay attention to with loads of text and VO, like KOTOR2. What's great is that it works well on my Surface Go 2 with touch controls, in portrait mode. I can just sit back and poke at my screen.
I just finished Starfield: Shattered Space.which was my thing for the last week. It was as good as I was hoping it would be with a great story, lots of great lore about House Va'ruun, and enough branches that I will definitely have to go through it again with another character. I still want to go back and tie up all the loose ends (sidequests, etc) because it's a cool setting. It feels like if there were a Morrowind DLC for Oblivion: Here's a radically different society with completely different customs, go have fun. I did it as a maxed out Starborn and it was only easy because I spammed Phase Time. The combat was wild, and it was more of the best parts of Starfield's ground stuff, with unique locations and cool things to find.
I said last week I'd try out more Rain world but I got extremely distracted by both Outward and Crying Suns.
First, Outward. I played it years and years ago, like 2018, and had fun with it but stopped playing as it just was turning into a slog.
I came back to it now to mod it a bit and try to make it a bit easier to play and its going great.
It's really interesting honestly, the game has brilliant ideas and some seriously jaw dropping moments (both world design and interactions) but its hidden behind a load of weird and slightly badly implemented design choices.
I'd recommend it to anyone who likes hard core exploration games and especially if you like working out systems and game magic. Otherwise, maybe watch a YouTube video.
Crying Suns was another return. I think I actually kick started it and played it as soon as it came out. I also really liked that game and stopped. I've kinda done the same thing again though because I find the meta progression kinda frustrating. You find and unlock powerful officers during your runs which you can pick at the start of a new run... Except after you end that run you can't use them again for FIVE MORE RUNS.
Now maybe if I had a bunch of officers unlocked I'd not mind, but I have 2. And one isn't that good. So I basically am sitting waiting for my 5th run to use my objectively better officer. And if I mess up, then I have to wait 5 more.
Its a bit mean really.
Otherwise the game is good. I like the art, the story, the setting. The combat is fun, the FTL style map movement has a cool spin.
There's no mods so I'm stuck with the officer thing, but maybe I'll find more in a few runs and I'll stop complaining.
I've been kind of bouncing around lately and not really finding anything to sink my time into. I played a few hours of Halo MCC multiplayer over the weekend and that was fun. I still haven't gone back to Throne and Liberty since I initially played it. I thought it was fun for the first 6 hours I played and I just have had no desire to boot it up again. I played about 8 hours of WoW classic (SoD) over the weekend. It was fun for a bit, but I honestly got frustrated at getting my ass whooped in Westfall even though I've done it a dozen times before, so I quit for the weekend. I've had no drive to finish Ghost of Tsushima even though I think I have less than 10 hours left, I'm just in a bit of a gaming rut. It's okay because I'm watching some good TV (halfway through season 6 of Deep Space Nine), but I think I'm ultimately just kind of waiting around for Black Ops 6 and Dragon Age to come out.
A new Destiny 2 season comes out today and I will at least be playing that for this week because I'm gearing up for the contest mode dungeon on Friday with my friends, but I wasn't that grabbed during the last season, so I imagine after next week, I probably fall off the game again.
I haven't even gone back to play the second half of Tactical Breach Wizards, even though I adore that game! I think I'm just a bit burned out on gaming right now or that I need to find something for a specific mood I'm having or something.
I picked up Children of Morta a few weeks back because it was mentioned on The Besties and sounded like something that would be very much "my thing." It's been delightful - I haven't gotten this invested in a single-player game in a while. It reminds me of playing the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance series as kid.
It's an ARPG dungeon-crawler with some roguelike elements. The most appealing part is the diversity of characters combined with the way they empower one another. There are truly no wasted runs, because as the different characters level up, they provide boons to every character so you're always progressing at least a little bit. As a plus, it's a fantastic SteamDeck game.
Playing Remember 11. The first time I played it I hit a really early bad end, which was super disorienting; this time I'm finding it a lot more interesting. I'm sure it's going to be the usual hodge podge of Uchikoshi plot points, but half a lifetime after playing Ever17 and a bit removed from the laugh track that was Zero Time Dilemma I'm excited to jump back in. Also curious because I've seen a lot of recent buzz that the way it's unfinished kinda works in its favor? No idea what that's gonna look like...
Back to my healthy indie game diet!
Biomorph is a metroidvania with a cartoonish sci-fi vibe. The protagonist isn't human and wakes up with amnesia eyeroll in a decaying civilization populated with differently non-human people. The core mechanic is the protagonist Haro's ability to steal the bodies of every monster he kills, except for those made out of pure "ferrox" (a blue sentient non-renewable energy resource). Haro can immediately transform into any monster when he kills it, but he only "acquires" the monster type (for the ability to transform anywhere) after killing a few more of that type (killing even more makes the transformation stronger). Each monster has unique attributes including size, walking speed, jump height, attack(s) and movement/traversal capabilities. It's a fun and well implemented mechanic that I can't help but compare to Ender Lilies, a (better) metroidvania in which you acquire the attacks of defeated bosses.
The aesthetic is OK; I prefer Ender Lilies, but there was some pretty good effort put into it, including the animated cartoon cutscenes. The bosses were on the challenging side in a good way (except for an optional post-final-boss). Movement was a bit floaty at first but it gets a lot better with more unlocked abilities, especially the omnidirectional air dash. You can use some monster abilities to get where you weren't supposed to be yet! There's a good world map that shows which rooms/screens still have secrets left to find; I played this game for 23 hours and found everything in every room, so I'd say I did "almost everything".
Unfortunately, the dialogue writing was quite bad. It's the kind of writing you'd recognize from other games that didn't put much care into their writing, with too many exclamation points, not enough commas and every single character speaking with the same voice. Most sidequests were annoying and repetitive go-here-go-there affairs. It's sometimes difficult to figure out what you're supposed to do next. Still, it was pretty fun.
The Invincible ("based on Stanislaw Lem's iconic novel!") is a true walking simulator. I mean, you can sprint for a bit, or ride moon buggies! But mostly you walk. You're an astronaut stranded in an alien planet (Regis III) and you're trying to figure out why your friends turned up dead or braindead. I never read the book, but there's clearly good writing and worldbuilding here. Visually it's also pretty decent with great alien vistas and cool 60s sci fi aesthetics, although for this type of game that's the bare minimum I'd expect (the selling point certainly isn't the gameplay, of which there is barely any!) The protagonist is always in astronaut gear and I enjoyed the semi-realism of the clunky experience of walking around like that and using the various devices. Finally, this is a fully voice acted game, and the voice acting is good enough.
Unfortunately this game suffered from a number of problems. There were lighting glitches sometimes. It was all too easy to find carelessly assembled sets where you could see the undersides of the 3D rocks/terrain parts, breaking immersion. On multiple occasions I got stuck in invisible geometry or found myself unable to progress because I missed some invisible trigger, and was forced to reload from checkpoint. There were some choices that could affect the story a bit (I think), but the game really didn't want you to make any effort to explore or do something you weren't told to do; on a couple of occasions I am almost sure I skipped over a small portions of the game, since there was a narrative gap.
This is probably a little unfair, since wikipedia tells me this was the first micromachines sci-fi story, but I've encountered the concept many times before and found everything pretty predictable, except for the parts where it made no sense at all, either because I skipped something or because maybe they were references to the book - the game does not replicate the story of the book, but a parallel story taking place in the same location with a different protagonist. The game took 7.5 hours to complete.
Previous
Recently played the DS version of Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer for our podcast on roguelike games.
While my cohosts and I didn't grow up with Shiren and didn't have much nostalgia factor for it immediately, the game grew on us over time as the complexity and depth of its mechanics were slowly revealed. Emphasis on the slow, as in typical JRPG fashion, talking to NPCs and sorting out questlines can take a while.
But wow the production value for a mid 90s roguelike game here is very welcome. Great art, great sound, just a joy to play really. Some of the gameplay aspects haven't aged super well in 30 years, but I'm willing to give a bit of a pass on things like hidden traps and such.
So overall: definitely worth checking out, even on an emulator. I played it entirely on my Steam Deck and was pleasantly surprised how well it worked once I got everything configured. Thank goodness for save states!
I beat the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection and really enjoyed it. I've only become a fan of the franchise with these recent collections, and this is my third one. I still need to play the Apollo collection.
I think the investigation style of walking around the "map" of the crime scene instead of jumping between still images improves the pace of the game. The format of not bouncing between the crime scene and the courtroom also feels more logically consistent, and more in line with a traditional whodunit. The courtroom is part of the charm though, so I would still want it in any expansions to the series.
Writing wise it was pretty good. I don't think investigations 1 is bad, but 2 is just clearly better in basically every regard. Eustace is a much more fun foil to Edgeworth than Lang is. The fan service and callbacks to the older games is a lot more interesting (Gregory Edgeworth compared to Wendy Oldbag is more lopsided than your game of mind chess vs Larry). Both games have a larger mystery that runs the length of the game, but 2's is so much more intricate and is tied to a more unique thematic concept for an Ace Attorney game. Investigations 1 is sorta just an Ace Attorney game, but 2 provides actual growth for Miles as a character. Also, I don't know if I would say the final boss is my favorite in the franchise, they felt the most final bossy out of any in the franchise.