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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.
The Rise of the Golden Idol is a sequel to The Case of the Golden Idol and is a fantastic detective deduction game. You are presented with a bizarre scene rendered in an interesting art style. As a nameless, omnipotent being you float around and look for clues to determine exactly what happened (i.e. who did what action using what objects and when). There are usually several red herrings or logic puzzles that need to be solved and the mysteries are challenging enough to make you feel smart for finally solving them. There is an overarching story between the scenes which takes some wild and entertaining turns.
Highly recommended. Especially if you enjoyed Return of the Obra Dinn (although if you've heard of one you've probably heard of the other). Although you should start with The Case of the Golden Idol first, since there are many direct references even though they take place hundreds of years a part. I also slightly prefer 'Case' too, especially the 'old point-and-click game' aesthetic and that each case actually revolves around a murder/death in a clever way. But if you enjoyed the first game then you'll definitely enjoy the second.
I love the series enough to buy the 'season pass' for the planned DLCs, something I have never done for any other series. Looking forward to the new cases next year.
Case is on my list, along with The Investigation at Hobbes Barrow, but I just haven't felt ready to buy them each time they're on sale.
Really, I ought to, so that when I am ready to play them, I have them at the ready. I loved Obra Dinn and Case is constantly on my mind.
I believe Barb was playing this today. I remember enjoying the premise of the original. I've seen games like this that were not so good, however. Investigative games are so easy to do badly! I'm happy to read that Rise is good.
I have been utterly addicted to Satisfactory. I have played about 60 hours in the last 8 days since I started. It has consumed my life. Pretty much every free moment I have outside of work has been playing it. Love it
I played the hell out of Satisfactory when 1.0 launched, but I always hit a wall right about where I unlocked petroleum fuel generation. The difficulty of logistics over long ranges just killed any enthusiasm I had for it. The fact that fluid dynamics are just obnoxious in the game didn't help.
Additionally, I've started maybe four or five runs, and each time I ended up disgusted by the sheer ugliness and haphazardness of my factories. The absolute pain in the ass of tearing down large operations and managing inventory overflow was enough to sour me on even attempting it.
I'm torn about whether to blame the game or my own brain for the walls I hit in progression, but I lean toward blaming myself for the most part. Fluids could probably be a little less assholish, and the long-distance logistics could be a little less annoying of a hurdle maybe, but ultimately I think it's down to me. The game demands a little more creativity and patience than I think I'm capable of.
I think the progression does a great job of giving you the tools you need when you need them.
I needed steel and coal, so I traveled a long distance from my base to where several coal spots were. I got annoyed running all that distance back and forth over and over and it seemed too long at the time to bother with a conveyor. But then I unlocked hypertubes so I could zip over there and fill my inventory and zip back for what I needed.
Then I got into oil and had to go really far away from base to find a bunch of oil. Got all my oil production going and man is it a pain when I need a ton of plastic to run back and forth 3-4 times to bring back enough plastic for projects. And this is definitely too far for conveyors.
But then I unlocked trains! Oh my so much faster and easier and I only had to run tracks once. Way faster than my 3 minute hypertubes ride as well. Like 1.5 minutes on a train plus tons of resources.
Now I've had to go even further away for another oil spot because that first one wasnt giving me enough resources. And I've just unlocked and started playing with drones. Which don't carry as much as trains do but are faster and no need to run tracks. Just build a port at each side and it automatically collects and brings back to the home port.
Also as far as aesthetics, I gave up trying to make anything look nice, it's a giant haphazard of spaghetti and I have no intention of fixing it cause it works. And I need function over fashion.
Next hurdle is going to be nuclear although there's a few uranium nodes nearby but need to finish my second oil factory and then upgrade my main factory (I need so many circuit boards and they craft so slowly!) before I can get started on that
Same here, except I hit the wall in the last phase of elevator parts when I was building a giant rocket fuel power plant. Somewhere around placing my ~96th fuel generator, It just sort of stopped being fun and started to look like work.
In my case , I came to the conclusion it was also a "me" thing. But I came to the realization that I'm just not a hardcore factory game fan, and that's totally fine. I like building logistics and factories in modded (and vanilla) Minecraft, and I enjoyed other games that have some automation and logistics. The Planet Crafter fits this description, and I enjoyed that one all the way through. At this point I'm comfortable putting Satisfactory aside as "complete". :)
I'll probably go back to Satisfactory occasionally. I'd consider it complete as well, except I have this feeling like I could've accomplished something more in it. I have this hunch like I might just have an epiphany and suddenly logistics and factory design would all just snap into focus. I've had similar experiences with games before, so I recognize the feeling.
Oh for sure. I'm not deleting my save either, and I'll be keeping up with the game's development. If they were to implement something like an in game 3D copy/paste/bulk edit (as opposed to the current clunky blueprint system), I think I could probably pick it back up.
I sunk so many hours into Satisfactory during the pandemic, after starting during the open alpha week back when it only went up to Tier 2. It's so satisfying to see a grand design come together and to work on a bunch of little things and see them come together in to a grand construction.
Is this your first time playing with the 1.0 release, or did you play before?
I played the game for a few hours when I first picked it up in the summer, and like right after that they announced 1.0 so I figured I would wait for that, and then gave it a little time after 1.0 to fix any bugs or updates before finally diving it. It has been a wild ride
After a couple of restarts and almost 400 hours I finally finished Phase 5 a little over a week ago. I wanted to take a break and figured I might be done with it for a while but I'm already thinking of starting a new run lol. It's so so good.
Dang, why so many restarts instead of moving to the next phase?
I did two: The first after the game started to click and I quickly realized that my overall setup could be way better, and the second in anticipation of 1.0 dropping. No regerts at all and little time lost.
Turtle WoW - I saw a post a while back about how the private World of Warcraft server, Turtle WoW, was remaking the WoW classic engine in unreal 5. This is still quite a way out but on the mention of Turtle WoW I decided to check it out.
It's basically an expanded version of classic WoW with lots of tweaks, balance changes (including talents revamp and more class skills) and so, so much extra content. It knocks Season of Discovery out of the park and there's no rush/fear of missing out.
It took me a while to apply optional patches to the client and set up some addons to my liking but since then I've been enjoying playing a High Elf paladin. I plan to set it up on my Steam Deck next.
You may have seen one of my posts! I've been playing Turtle on and off for many years now and always go back when I'm needing my WoW fix, because it's everything I want in WoW these days. Plus, it's really fun and exciting to come across all the new areas where previously there was absolutely nothing.
I haven't made it super far into it yet, as again, I play it fairly sporadically, but my highest is a 34 Priest and I have a 29 Hunter on Turtle mode that I like to play, but I always get a little discouraged when I die and lose exp, as Turtle mode is quite a bit slower.
That said, I'm concerned about the migration over to Unreal engine. I feel like it's created such a huge amount of buzz that Turtle is bound to get noticed sooner or later by the "Eye of Sauron" and shut down just like Nostralius.
Which server are you (and any other Turtle players reading this) on? I don't think anyone I know IRL is interested in getting back into WoW, but I can totally play just a little without getting hooked again and can quit anytime I want.
There are only two servers in Turtle: The RP-PvE one and the PVP one.
Pretty much everyone, myself included, plays on the Nordanaar PvE server for which a lot of features are exclusive.
Also in TurtleWow, although quests and such are faction exclusive you can group with the opposite faction.
There are only two servers, the PvE and the PvP one. I am firmly in the carebear camp, so I'm on the PvE server.
The first link in your post loops back to this thread. Is this the one you meant to post?
Yes, thank you. I think it's possible that Tildes stripped out everything except the final part of the URL from my bbcode link.
I played this for a week or two earlier this year! I got to the end of Westfall before falling off, ahah. The slow pace is a little more brutal than I'd remembered...
The Factory Must Continue To Grow in Factorio. I now have the 5th planet's science automated and have unlocked Legendary Rarity research. Playing for rarity equipment is definitely a different way to approach the Factorio gameplay loop, although some of the technologies unlocked on the other planets do some pretty significant changes to how you approach even traditional builds, like the Foundries and doing liquid metal.
Outside of that as my primary game target, I've got a couple phone games I've been playing at. On is my at this point year and a half long Sudoku quest. I use OpenSudoku on my phone and have "The Learning Curve Collection" from their site, which is 2500 puzzles that span the full breadth of difficulties. I started in to it last June and I'm almost exactly 60% of the way through (1509 solved, 991 to go).
The other is my on again/off again addiction to incremental idle games. This got kicked off originally by Universal Paperclips, back in 2019, which is a pretty quick one - you can finish in about 2 hours if you know what you're doing, and 4 if you don't. Alas, the phone version of it is a buggy, crashing mess at present. Since then I've fully cleared with all achievements Exponential Idle and Magic Research 1 and 2. This week I started Kittens Game. Out of the five, it has felt like the most traditional/classic sort so far, although I'm still pretty early (not even through my first reset yet).
I might have to check out OpenSudoku, I love sudoku, but haven't played in a bit.
I used to use Branium's Sudoku app and even had premium, but unfortunately they did a major version "upgrade" that completely broke it. It did have some nice features like having an "I'm Stuck" button that would actually tell you the technique needed to progress, but the bugs just weren't worth dealing with.
OpenSudoku is fairly simple and straightforward, but it's well made, open source, and free/ad free. No random puzzle generators but there's a bunch of downloadable packs on their website with tens of thousands of puzzles available.
Last night I beat Nier: Automata for the first time. I have some thoughts.
This is my third attempt to really understand this game. My friends rave about it. Most recently, about a year or two ago, I got stuck on a quest that was just a bit harder than I was really ready for. I play the game on easy, but I’m just not very good at action video games. On my break, I got into Elden Ring until I got stuck there. Coming back to N:A felt totally different. I’d gotten so used to how unforgiving Elden Ring is, it was wonderful to play a game that felt like the devs really wanted me to beat it.
It’s unlike any other game I’ve played in that I immediately started playing again. I have heard that it takes 3 play throughs to see the whole game, and it was very obvious while I was starting the game anew that there was more going on than was apparent after one ending. I thought I would get bored playing through things a second time, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. It feels like a fresh perspective.
So that was ending [B] this time?
Looking at my save, I have achieved endings AT. But the first play through was as 2B.
So, when you're told you have to play again, you're supposed to do it from the same save, right? The first ending is always A, then you play through the same stretch of time as 9S and you will always get ending B. Playthrough B is really the only one that's repetitive (and even then there are some differences, since 2B and 9S aren't always together). Once you have those two you can then continue on to sections C and D, which extend the story further, to get those respective endings, and finally you can do something special to get E and fully wrap up the game (the "true ending" so to speak).
There are "endings" F through Z as well, but they each correspond to a "game over" or "bad ending" (in other words, they are different ways of failing). You don't need to get those if you don't want to.
Gotcha! I’m working on B now as 9S.
I remember playing through the game and while watching the end credits thinking it was very good, but too short. Then after the end credits, there's a popup saying (paraphrased) that actually the game isn't over; you should start a new game to see the rest of it. It's kind of a weird design choice. They shouldn't have given us the end credits and made it feel so final after the first (and second) playthrough.
But I absolutely love the concept of playing through the game several times from different angles! Perfectly executed (other than the confusion of the end credits). This game is one of my all-time most memorable video game experiences. I still occasionally listen to tunes from the soundtrack.
I don’t know when I started, but I have a tradition of sitting through the credits and spending some time reflecting on the game. To have the game then invite me to play again felt great, as it was fresh in my mind how much I enjoyed the experience the first time, despite hitting that road bump.
Finished Citizen Sleeper, which I quite enjoyed. From my review:
Citizen Sleeper is great (and the sequel is coming sometime next year)! I also really enjoyed the art style.
Agree that it becomes too easy towards the tail end, and as a result of that loses a lot of the tension. To keep up some sort of difficulty they just upped the points required to complete tasks, which just turned it into a chore where I just threw all my dice into a task, went to bed and repeated. One minor thing I felt was that the game opened a bit too many separate story threads at a time, making it feel a bit disjointed at times. I think I would have enjoyed fewer but longer/deeper story threads instead.
But those are minor things, it's worth a play through, especially as a cyberpunk enjoyer!
Yes! I'm excited about the sequel. There's a demo out, but I'll probably just wait for the full release.
I'm not sure when you played it, but it got 3 free "DLC" chapters which sort of acted as a final conclusion / epilogue. They did a great job tying more of the story threads together into one big conclusion. But, you're right that it was too easy - I had tons of money and could keep 5 dice at all times with minimal effort. But I still ran out of time on some of the final things 😅
You might enjoy I Was A Teenage Exocolonist if you want a game in the same vein with more gameplay shenanigans (not really cyberpunk though).
That's been on my list! My ever growing list...
Just finished Disco Elysium: The Final Cut after about 50 hours, and I quite liked it. Maybe the highest praise I can give it is that I almost immediately thought about replaying it in a contrasting style just to see how different my experience can be the second time around, and I probably will. I typically try to squeeze as much content out of a game in just one playthrough, so that'd be highly unusual. Some of the political and philosophical allusions went over my head - my custom character was more or less a thinker, and the game can give you A LOT to chew on if you dig - but I love how extensively they built and fleshed out the world.
The disparity in the Steam reviews is hilarious, and does a great job of showing just how much the game reflects your own mentality. I didn't necessarily get any moments of profound self-reflection out of it, as compared to some of those commenters on YouTube, but maybe that's because I'm moralist scum. I recommend it.
Reviews for this game are pretty funny, but it always baffles me how little people are willing to engage with anything outside of their comfort zone. Single line praising communism? RFEFUNED
I don't thinks there's only a single one? Disco Elysium is one of the more political game I know. Or rather game about politics. So I get how it can be off-putting for some people. That said, I don't know how they didn't got the hint that it was a text heavy rpg made by a depressed Estonian failed novelist.
Oh for sure! But I was referring to the reviews in that linked video and some of them were made with 0,3 hours of in game time. Calling for a refund in like 15 to 20 minutes. Which means they may have actually refunded after a single line about communism.
My character had both the "Enraged by Communists" bonus and the "Giant Freaking Communist" bonus which, I thought, sounded like a true communist if there ever was one.
I've beaten it twice now but I don't know if I can bring myself to do a fascist run though. Also, I've gone clean both times and can't see myself breaking that streak either... I relate too much I guess.
I believe I'm within the last few hours of the game and like you I've tried to get as much done as possible in my first play-through, though I think I'm about 80 hours in... maybe I've spent a bit too much time looking for phasmids.
The world also really drew me in and with that I'm pretty disappointed there will not be a continuation of the story. The mystique of it all and the pale in particular really captivated me.
Or not nearly enough time looking for phasmids. Or trying to open that door. Or doing drugs.
I'm envious of you! I started playing it a while back and enjoyed it for about 10 hours and then just entirely fell off and never got the drive back to finish. Glad to hear you enjoyed it though!!
After installing Retroarch, I was a little skeptical that I needed an emulation front end. It was difficult for me to understand which advantage something like that would bring, and what I read online was not very helpful. I decided to give it a shot anyway. I installed Retrobat because my main computer runs Windows 10 and I did not want something too labor intensive. Retrobat is made specifically for Windows and is not available for any other operating system, so I assumed that it would have all kinds of makeshift QOL that a program is allowed to do when it is built for just one operating system.
Everything about Retrobat is very easy and extremely well-documented. After more than a month of using it, I never had to ask a question to an actual human. I am not a computer wizard so that is a very good measure of the quality of a project and its documentation. The one thing I find unnecessarily complex is choosing in which folder are all my games, saves, and settings stored. I usually configure a lot of things to be inside my OneDrive, and I was planning to keep my games on a frontend agnostic folder. To achieve that one must use SymLinks on Windows, which are not as intuitive as on Linux. I used the command line for a while but ended up installing Link Shell Extension so I could more easily create symlinks via a command in the context menu. Having used Linux for years, managing symlinks is not an issue to me, but most Windows users would find that needlessly complicated. Retrobat could simply allow me to set my folders, and if it is essential for them to be within Retrobat install folders, it could just handle the symlinks for the user.
Because Retrobat is mostly a configurator for EmulationStation, it is not technically a frontend, but rather a set of tools and defaults for EmulationStation. EmulationStation/Retrobat will call whatever emulator runs the game you choose right after it overwrites all of the emulator settings to reflect the settings you made on Retrobat. If you never played a game for that system, the emulator will be downloaded and configured automatically.
To me, the greatest advantage of Retrobat is its large set of sensible defaults, saving the grunt work of looking up all the best settings to achieve ideal emulation. If you wish to do that yourself, it is possible to prevent Retroarch from overwriting changes made directly to the emulator. That is almost never necessary, as the Retrobat UI exposes most settings anyone cares about. Additionally, the default settings are marked as
AUTO, making it trivial to remember how to reset them to the defaults. When you scroll the menus, there will be a small text below each entry showing exactly what you altered.Looking at my games folder, I see
For most of those consoles, Retrobat will call Retroarch. They mostly run perfectly without any changes. The only exceptions are PS3 games, which require previous decryption and, later, live compilation of the shaders. A Google search showed me that this is unavoidable for technical reasons I can't explain. RPCS3 will compile shaders for as long as you play the game and the only way to render those shaders to cache would be to play the entirety of the game before you play a game -- which doesn't make any sense. Although that may be different on a more powerful machine, to me PS3 games are a drag, and many of the games I would play are either available on PC or are originally PS2 games. PS2 emulation is stellar, and I can easily upscale it to my 1080p monitor.
I have been working with my therapist to try to understand what I really want, as even in my leisure time I am always trying to achieve goals and fill gaps, and that is not fun. I started trying to like Persona 3, then Final Fantasy X. I found them rigid and claustrophobic. So I installed Fallout 4, then Fallout New Vegas on PC, but the joy wasn't there. Then I installed Turtle WoW, a World of Warcraft private server. I played quite a bit of it and then lost interest. I suddenly had the urge to play Grand Theft Auto San Andreas and decided to do so on PS2. The Steam version would require me to do some modding to restore the cut content (mostly songs), but I am a little tired of modding right now, and the Playstation 2 version was the one I failed to give a chance to back when I had an actual PS2. So I'm playing it now.
In the generation before the PS2, most games were weakly narrative. It was all about gameplay, and if a game had a cutscene, it was a cutscene I could skip. When the PS2 came up, I felt left behind. Suddenly all games had a relevant story, often unskippable. Unlike most gamers, I couldn't care less about intricate narratives and the notion that even a mere platformer now wanted to be a film was, to me, infuriating. I already watched films and TV shows, I didn't need my games to be in that space. For decades, I have rejected story games out of spite. I still think I was right, by the way. I don't care for cinematic games at all. They feel pretentious and stuffy. But maybe my rage prevented me from some valuable experiences. So yeah, I'm not skipping the cutscenes in San Andreas. Let's see how long that lasts.
EDIT: two caveats about Retrobat. (1) Remapping front-end level hotkeys is impossible unless you wish to create your own fork and messing with C#. That includes keybindings to create save states for example. And (2) remapping the gamepad for specific games and consoles will always require blacklisting it from Retrobat controller and remapping it in each particular emulator.
Zephon
Still love this. Again made by the team who did 40k gladius, so the combat is actually interesting. Helps that there's not just enemy players, but two super powerful neutrals (and a 3rd not as powerful one) that massively shift how you're going to approach games.
Magic Archery
Free incremental game on steam that takes less than an hour to finish. As with most games in the genre it struggles with finding depth/decision making for parts of the game, but it's still fun to mess with given it's quick and free.
A few months ago I got back into Diablo 2 in an attempt to finally get to the late game/Uber stage. Unfortunately, I just don't have the patience to farm for runes and so I got burned out and decided to give D3 a try since it was included in the bundle. All in all, it's pretty fun. Unlike D2, there's a happy middle ground between the early stage and late stage that I can hop into for a few hours a week. Plus it's not a crazy overwhelming flurry of images and numbers like D4.
As I get older I'm starting to appreciate the streamlining of ARPG mechanics in D3. I don't have to restart a run because I misclicked adding a skill, fumbled a socket, can quickly rearrange my skills to try out a new legendary that dropped, and the Paragon levels help in jump starting new characters. Also barely finishing a Greater Rift in time with your skills pushed to the limit is an amazing experience.
Except for rune grinding, I still personally find D2 a bit better on the itemization front as you don't need to lean hard on very specific items to center a build around. A lot of builds in D2 are practically stacking +skill items so the power increase feels more natural and constant compared to hitting a wall then getting massive power jumps in D3 when say, your pet build finally gets a Tasker and Theo (one of the rarest legendaries in the game)
Did they ever go back and add controller support on PC for Diablo 3? I've played D2 Resurrected recently and I love the fact that it works well on my Deck with a controller, but I've always wanted to try D3 with a controller, but last I checked it wasn't an option on PC.
I'm not sure. I've been playing it on my switch
I've been playing Lego Horizon Adventures with the wife and it's been okay so far. It definitely feels like a baby's toy. You mostly walk around and point at stuff with your hands.
I think this video review is pretty thorough and I share many of the same thoughts: https://youtu.be/x7-Dc8p9u1s
The game is trying to do too many things at once. It seems like there's less brick-building compared to the Lego Star Wars games I guess because they're trying to preserve a lot of the game mechanics from Horizon Zero Dawn but they don't want to overwhelm the player with too many interaction points. Overall, it's an interesting experience but the lack of open-world really takes away a lot of the mystique...
I don't game that much, but HZD is one of my favorite games ever. I ... did not expect a horizon Lego game. It sounds like such a weird combination. I watched the video link you posted and the design seems amazing, but I think it mostly tripped my nostalgia for HZD. The feeling of encountering the tallnecks for the first time is just ... shivers.
I have Forbidden West on my to do list now that it's out for PC, so I'm most looking forward to that one. I hope you enjoy your play through.
I think I mentioned playing Trails in the Sky FC on another topic. I tried to play it before and I remember it being very dull and uninteresting. But it turns out that getting rid of the major source of anxiety in my life makes me able to appreciate it's relaxed pace quite a lot, and I'm really enjoying it. The music is fantastic in a way that I don't think any other soundtrack is in exactly the same way. I particularly love the jazzy battle theme.
That battle theme is one of my favorite JRPGs themes ever, and the following games have just as banger battle themes. I feel like a battle theme being fun to listen to is one of the most important parts of a JRPG.
I agree. And I think Jazz inspriration is especially salient for battle themes because they're going to be heard so often; it's good to have something that remains interesting on repeat listens.
I am still slowly building and expanding my factory in Factorio. I haven't even left the planet yet, as I want to feel that Nauvis is not pulled together with Bubblegum and duct tape and will fall apart the second I leave. To accomplish this, I decided to build a train focused base and I am quite enjoying the QoL on train logistics (interrupts make me so happy)
Someday I'll move on to other planets, but i only get roughly 2 hour sessions and i genuinely enjoy building this stability first. It's comforting.
My wife has been playing the Dragon Quest 3 HD2D remake. It looks great and she's been having a blast.
We also have been playing the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet DLC. Both parts have been quite fun, and it's good to get that pokemon fix from time to time. I honestly think as a long time fan, most of the criticism of the series as of late is overblown and borderline hyperbolic. The games are still good, they just aren't what you need right now.
I have been playing through the regular Megaman series. I'm close to finishing the 7th game in the seies and what a rollercoaster has it been.
I was surprised how the NES games ranked in my mind, i liked 6, 3, and the 4th game the most and found 2 and 5 to be average or below and the first game just not being very enjoyable at all. Controls, animations, everything just felt off to me.
Interested on seeing how the 16 bit era changes things.
I'm still playing ufo 50. I've had it since it came out and I've won about 10 of the games. So far I have over 130 hours in it. It's a tremendous value if you like retro games.
Some of the games are like an album that you don't like at first but later become your favorite.
Here are the games that I've played the most (enough to win):
There are a lot of other games that are quite popular but I don't care much for them. Like "Magic Garden". I'm just not good at it. I just started "Valbrace", which may be great, but I'm finding the early game to be pretty frustrating because you have to replay an entire floor if you die in battle.
I need to give this one more of a go. My buddy picked it up and gifted it to me and I've liked some of what I've played, but nothing has really entranced me too much yet. I am a big fan of retro games, but every time I'm playing something out of UFO, I have this feeling that I ought to be spending more time with my vast ROM library rather than trying something "illegitimate", if that makes sense.
I kind of understand your point. I see these more of like homages rather than substitutes for retro games. Like "Shovel Knight" is extremely retro but also something a little different. Most of the ufo 50 games have some quality of life improvement that wouldn't have been in an NES game. Like a continue without a password. Of course, if you are running ROMS in an emulator you have that kind of stuff with save states.
Your comment somehow reminds me of a lot of games that came out in the early 90s, at about the time when VGA cards and soundblaster cards were popular but before emulators really took off. There were a lot of homemade clones of games like Asteroids and Defender and Galaga. Then Microsoft came out with Microsoft Arcade. These were very good ports of original Atari games, not emulated. They were fun, but somehow they seemed like a waste of time because they were slightly easier or had weird controls like mouse support in Tempest.
Star Wars Outlaws. What a super safe bet from Ubisoft. So safe that it's barely interesting enough to play through. Skill unlocking is annoying and stuff like faster crouch walk is just... aren't we over this? Make the skill unlocks interesting and game changing, not just a bit better. If a bit fast crawl worth unlocking it's not worth locking behind a skill tree.
The story is okay but minimal, not enough time is spent with the characters. Open world is open world, you have random stuff to do.
It's an okay game if Star Wars open world sounds interesting but if not there's not a lot to miss. It's okay.
When this came out, I was so disappointed and I haven't even played it yet. At this point I'm waiting for a deep, deep sale and for all the DLC and updates to come out. I still want to experience it at some point, but like you said, the game is much too safe and much too "okay" for full price.
While doing the Backlog Burner, I did actually finish one of the games: The Gardens Between.
Cute little puzzle game, where you control time and space as the two characters navigate these little "memory islands." Basically just trying to get them from beginning to end of each level, solving the puzzles while doing so, to create paths for them. And these unlock the memories of their adventures together.
None of the levels are particularly hard, though some are move involved than others, nor are they long. The game is trying to tell a story of friendship more than anything. No audio, other than music and effects. No text dialog; only visuals. Story isn't particularly deep, but it's probably something we've all experienced at some point in our lives.
It's fun and relaxing, and not very long. I finished it in about 3.5hrs.
I’m still on my first run of Baldurs Gate 3. I don’t have much time to play and I just keep coming back to it every few weeks. It’s been a Very good value game!
Same here, I keep getting anxious about making wrong/stupid choices that could affect later on. Having never played DnD is quite interesting and overwhelming for me at certain times
There's no shame in saving before what feels like a big decision, and reloading if it doesn't turn out well. The game can be quite punishing in its choices, to the point where I can't ever imagine doing a single-save-slot playthrough.
Completely empathise even if though I play Dnd regularly! It can be rather overwhelming, although realistically it just means you have to have another play through to find out how things would otherwise.
I have been playing Tactical Breach Wizards, it is quite fun! At first I wasn't a fan of the humor, but it has grown on me and I enjoy the characters quite a bit. The gameplay is very fun and for a tactical game, very forgiving which I enjoy a lot as I am not good at them haha. The extra challenges feel honestly really rewarding for what is just unlocking cosmetic skins and really add to the game!!
Just finished Alan Wake 2 including all the DLCs. An amazing story with, I think, only very few weak spots. I decided early on that I don't care for the combat mechanic, so I played Story Mode -- still managed to die a few times, but ammo never really ran out.
Stalker 2 was just released, I'm gonna check that out. I haven't played the series at all, but I did read Roadside Picnic this summer.
I bought Balatro after hearing my friends rave about it for the past week. One of them told me even though I don't really vibe with deck builder card games I'd like Balatro.
Must be said, I'm not digging it. There doesn't seem to be anything that's hooking me, just the usual building decks and upgrading them thing that does nothing for me and the gameplay loop is boring in my opinion.
So I played it for just short of two hours this morning and refunded it, happy for folks who've found their game of the year and the solo dev who has no doubt become a multi-millionaire since release but 2024 continues to pale in comparison to 2023 for me.
See, it has the total opposite effect for me. It absolutely got me and I detest deck builders. But part of that is the imposed self challenge of only using the default deck and just hoping for good hands and jokers.
It's very pleasant to just sit there and semi-absent-mindedly roll through a run or two. Totally get how it doesn't click for everyone but I enjoy it a lot.
Booted up Remnant 2 for the first time in a year to play through all of the DLC and having quit Destiny 2 a few months ago, this game really does scratch that buildcrafting itch again. The new amulets, rings, and weapons open up the already expansive build variety even more and I've only unlocked one of the three new archetypes so far but I'll give those a whirl when I get them too. I've completed one run of The Awakened King and though it was short, I did like how they expanded on the Victorian London/fantasy elf castle map design in a few ways.
Boss design is still very hit or miss though, and there was that one boss with a scripted one hit kill which was a real pain in the ass, though at least it was incredibly telegraphed so not hard to dodge once you learned the tell. Would still rather not have those though, that's not fun difficulty, that's some Ninja Gaiden shit and not very fitting in a game that lets you build to increase survivability significantly only to get deleted anyway.
Well @kaffo, I'm sorry but I've abandoned Drova for the time being. Not that it's bad or anything, but I got a bit of "Big Town Syndrome" when I arrived in Nemeton. Just kind of had this prevailing feeling that I didn't really feel like talking to everyone at the moment and getting more story and more quests, so I ended-up setting it aside for now. I'm sure I'll go back, as I was enjoying what I was playing, but some switch in my brain flipped and I just started feeling overwhelmed with the game.
I saw Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D 3D Super Mega Remake Much Improved Graphics finally launched and I'm damn curious about it, having put something like 20-hours into DQ3 on Gameboy Color over the summer while traveling. Unfortunately, the game is $60 and I just can't fit that into my budget at the moment, especially when I have so much else to play. I did end-up trying to go back to DQ3 on GBC, but at the same time that I'm excited about the new release, I'm feeling rather bored with the GBC release; I'm at the point where I've received the boat and the game is now encouraging me to wander, which just isn't doing it for me. I ought to consult a guide and figure out where to go next, but wandering around and doing countless random battles has quickly become tedious and is one of my least favorite parts of a JRPG. That said...
I've started another JRPG in Dragon Quest V on PS2. I figured I'd see if my mid-range handheld system can handle PS2 and while I know it can't run the entire PS2 library, it's running Dragon Quest 5 absolutely fantastic. I flitted around with the DS version for awhile, but ultimately I just don't want to play on such antiquated hardware and lose Fast Forward and Save States, plus the PS2 version just looks utterly fantastic and has its orchestral soundtrack to boot. So far, I've only put about 3 hours into it, but I'm hoping this one really enraptures me for the long term. I've played a lot of Dragon Quest games, but the only one I've ever actually finished is 4, decades ago at this point and I'm hoping 5 ends-up being similar for me.
I've also been playing a good amount of Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront and the new US Airborne DLC. It's basically hewing pretty closely to the Band of Brothers HBO show, but I'm fine with that and it's been fun to have a campaign to go through. It's challenging as usual and well..I'm not sure what else to say other than the fact that there's nothing else like this series (and Men of War, for that matter) and I'm enjoying the hell out of it. I just wish they wouldn't disable repairing enemy vehicles and turning them on the enemy in some of the missions, because that's one of my favorite parts of the series.
Haha, don't worry! I know the feeling, I've been there many times myself. I'm glad you gave it a try though!
Still mostly playing Black Ops 6. The new season started, so it's nice to have a few new maps, weapons, and perks, with more coming through an in-season event. This is comfortably my "I just wanna play a game, but not start something thick" game and I still love it. I'm already prestige 3, though, and need help, I have played waaaaay too much. I finally started the campaign as well. I'm only three missions in, but I like it so far. Also, this game has pretty much replaced Destiny 2 in my rotation now. I keep going back to D2 for new content drops, but it's hard for me to stay interested in that as a daily or even weekly game. I've kind of just been there done that. I'll probably still keep up with the game since it is my favorite franchise right now all together (the lore is just ridiculously good), but I don't think I'll be sinking in hundreds of hours a year anymore.
I finally booted up UFO 50! I've only played about 6 of the games so far, but it's super charming and genuinely does feel like you're playing old NES games. I don't have that much to share yet because so far it's not super deep, but it's a great collection of games that give you a nostalgic feeling, are simple to play, but some are up to date with modern gameplay standards and are surprisingly deep for only having two buttons and a d-pad.
Otherwise, both Flight Simulator 2024 and Stalker 2 come out this week! I'm looking forward to both! I'm going to wait to see if FS2024 is stable on launch before buying, since I likely will be buying the $130 premium deluxe and want to make sure the darn thing works first. With Stalker, I'm probably buying it either way since the devs have been through hell, but I think I'll also thoroughly enjoy it as long as it doesn't turn out to be a dud or something.
With Stardew Valley 1.6 released for Android, I started a fresh play through. It's a nice combo of being familiar enough with the tricks to get things done efficiently, but enough new things to be interesting.
And, I am able to unlock local coop for the first time! I haven't tried it yet, but I set it up for my daughter and one of her friends this afternoon. Looking forward to starting a family game.
I bought Trading Card Shop Simulator the other day and have been having a blast with it.
I love building up my shop, buying trading card booster packs, toys, board games, D20's etc. and having people buy tons and tons of stuff. Putting tables in as well so people come in and play against each other for a bit is cool. Funniest thing is having to spray smelly customers with deodorant.
Also the dopamine hit you get after buying packs of cards, opening them rather than putting them on the shelf and finding rare cards is fun.
Whole games a blast, seems like the dev is really communicative as well and has a great roadmap planned for the game, including eventually allowing you to play the actual card game "Terramon" at some point.
I've not installed any mods yet but I've heard there's mods to change the card game to Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, or Magic the Gathering.
Grime
An indie metroidvania with a soft souls-like feel to it.
Usually I like to keep a walkthrough handy, to prevent myself from getting lost and missing important items. Also I like to search for weapons I want to have (I just love rapiers).
For this game I went in completely blind and I did not regret it at all. I hit a brickwall in the beggining, because I overlooked that I have to equip the first weapon manually. I did try way too many times to open a breakable wall without having the ability to strike it...
After getting over that hurdle it was so much fun. All bosses are completely fair, you just have to learn their rythms. What I found refreshing that a lot of bosses don't just require you to stay close to it, spamming attacks and dodging/parrying at the right moments. You have to dance and move with their patterns. Especially the previous to last boss was perfect in that way and was a delight to fight against (the performance one).
So 9/10 would recommend.
The one point minus is for not having a rapier!
I'm about halfway through the new Dragon Quest 3 remake. It's doing a great job of scratching the old NES-style JRPG itch while still looking very polished and having a bunch of QOL features.
Factorio: I played less. I burned out a bit but have been refactoring to build little malls to have things like belts and pipes ready for harvest. I need to get oil processing in full swing but have been too tired for it.
Balatro: I just bought it on PC after it got the Golden Joystick award. I decided if it's that good I might find it fun, and it's actually really relaxing. Because of the video poker aspect, and lack of enemies and conflict it's like a long game of randomized solitaire. It's more fun than any description of it made it out to be.
Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (or Retribution now?) I come back to BoI but am now actually looking to play it for progression to see how it is. It's been a favorite of mine that I didn't play much for a long time.
Vampire Survivors: Still chipping away at this on PC with all the DLC. I have some broken characters thanks to the Sammy -> Golden egg pipeline, but generally try to keep things tougher so I can actually feel like I'm progressing.
I started an FTL run after seeing Void War's announcement and alpha. I don't have extra cash for games these days and FTL is always a great choice.
I'll give Multiverse a shot one day, but I could still easily put in another few hundred hours in the base game.
I wish they'd release FTL for Android as I don't get much time to sit down and play these days on my computer. If Void War releases on Android I'd probably pick it up, but I also want to get Balatro as well. Too many good games out these days!
What game is "FTL"?
My apologies, I should have included the full title: FTL: Faster Than Light
I believe it goes on sale occasionally for 75% off and is worth every penny even at full price imo.
FTL is the name of the game.
I've been alternating between Helldivers 2 and World of Warcraft.
Helldivers has been absolutely amazing since the devs decided to more seriously consider community feedback about balancing and other gameplay gripes. Difficulty 10 feels SUPER rewarding when you and your team manage to eek out a victory against what sometimes feels like an unending horde of bots or bugs.
As for WoW I've been dipping between The War Within, playing mostly solo, and the variations of classic. TWW is the best feeling expansion in a long time for a solo player, but the modern game as a whole just doesn't have the same... Social spark I guess? People seem to be much more toxic in the modern game compared to Classic.
The launch of fresh Classic progression servers this week has been great, old friends from the original run of Classic are all playing together again and I actually recognize people's character names from three years ago. I'm over the moon with excitement and I'm going to take things a bit slower this time so I can hopefully make it through all the content of TBC And Wotlk without burning out like a did post expansion launches.