32
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.
Finished my second game of Civilization VII over the weekend and I'm now at about 38 hours of play time. Given the history of Firaxis with prior entries in the series I expect it to eventually be polished into something great but it very much feels like it was rushed out the door to meet a deadline and many corners were cut to get something functional enough to ship. Given those shortcuts I think I'm good shelving it for now and I'll return to it after it's gotten more updates.
I more readily adjusted to the new mechanics of VII in comparison to V and VI where I immediately bounced off of them and went back to the previous entry for a few years before eventually loving the new game as well and putting hundreds of hours in, but there are enough small annoyances and issues with the UX of this one that I'm tired of working around.
Good to hear. I always hold off a year or so on new Civ, but I am interested in this one. I think some of the changes (like changing rulers in each age) could be divisive and I'm excited to give it a shot. Maybe Steam Winter Sale around Christmas will be a good time to pick it up.
If you're interested in the changes in CivVII but want a more polished product, try Humankind or Millenia. Most of the big changes to the Civ formula were those two of those two 4X games' twists.
Just like how endless legend made civ IV change it up?
Preface this with the fact I have not played Civ since Civ 4 and even then I wasn't that into it.
I've been following Civ 7 though, no idea how I got into it but it got on my YouTube feed. It seems a great deal more interesting to me than previous Civ games but they also seem to have really changed the formula in a big way this time around.
That said, I totally agree with you, the UI/UX looks horrendous. Honestly like programmer art level stuff you'd had make to test the game, I am blown away that UI made it to full release.
If they blast the UI and do what they normally do post launch I can see Civ 7 being a game that really appeals to a whole new audience (people like me lol) but I can see it really pissing off a lot of existing fans who play Civ for the role play rather than the gameplay.
What are the UX annoyances? I've heard a lot about the UI in this game (and seen the negative reviews) but not too many specifics.
And besides the big change of selecting a leader and nation separately and changing nations every era, are there any other huge differences compared to 5/6? I'm really interested in getting it, but I've heard plenty of negative things about it (like the unfinished-ness of it that you mentioned) so I'll probably wait a few months.
UX annoyances off the top of my head:
A lot of things don't correctly update in the city UI once you take an action until you close and reopen it, e.g. you can only buy one unit per turn but they remain listed after doing so and clicking on a second one doesn't do anything. Similarly repairing a damaged improvement isn't removed from the list after you've done it for all available targets.
There isn't a list of currently active trade routes so you have to select a merchant you haven't used to create one yet to see what routes are/aren't available and then the cities that aren't even listed are the active ones. Along those lines there's no way to see where you've placed specialists in a city unless you're in the middle of placing another one/growing the city.
Resources are unsorted so picking out multiples of the same kind (e.g. for factories that require specialization into a single resource) is more difficult. It's also not clear when a city can't take any resources because it's not connected to your trade network, you just fail to place a resource into it when trying.
As for other major changes, workers don't exist anymore and cities automatically build improvements when growing into a tile.
The era change has a lot more to it than changing which civilization you lead next, it feels like you're starting a new game on top of previous map in a lot of ways. Relations with other leaders are reset though they have a "previous age" modifier reflecting your previous state, wars and alliances automatically end and any existing city-states are replaced with new ones that you have to befriend again. All units get wiped outside of a small handful that stay in cities unless you have enough military commanders to slot them in (and trade routes are wiped entirely as a result).
Individual units don't have levels and gain experience anymore, just the commanders which can give bonuses to adjacent units and persist. There are also up to three tiers of military units per type/era and when the era changes they all turn into tier 1 units of the new era, so for example a slinger (antiquity tier 1 ranged) would turn into a heavy archer (exploration tier 1 ranged) if you kept them. So you'll no longer end up with a spearman fighting a tank in wildly unbalanced scenarios.
Buildings function in a similar manner and lose their adjacency bonus in the next age, and there's a new mechanic of "overbuilding" which replaces one of the two buildings per tile with a new one. There are a few "ageless" buildings which tend to give bonuses to rural tiles the city's grown into, and any buildings placed turn a rural tile into an urban one if they were already being used by the city.
Wow those are indeed some major changes! Thanks for the detailed writeup.
This one especially, holy shit. So much of my time in Civ 4/5/6 has been micromanaging worker tile improvements, so to see it completely removed is wild!
And yeah, as for the UX stuff, those all sound pretty bad and give off major rushed/unfinished vibes. Especially for a strategy game like Civ where maybe 90% of the gameplay is just different menus and numbers. I remember I couldn't really play vanilla Civ 5 again after trying the Enhanced User Interface mod, so hopefully modders come to the rescue again for this one (though they shouldn't have to).
I actually really enjoyed the shift away from workers - instead of having to focus on managing the city, the units, and the workers, I can just focus on growing the city as much as possible or running it all for productivity and let its growth establish how I build it up.
They also split it between towns and cities - you have a settlement cap, but towns exclusively generate GPT instead of building anything. You buy improvements as the town grows, and you can pay to turn it into a city that generates production like you'd normally expect.
At first that seems kind of silly, but the extra GPT really comes in handy, and being able to slow down on city management if you're in the middle of a war or something is actually pretty nice in my experience.
There's actually a bunch of other changes, overall I really enjoyed the flow of it, but I do want to see some updates because it was pretty rough to actually get through a game without having to restart so UI/UX worked.
Yeah the worker micromanagement gets too tedious towards the later stages of the game, so I'm glad they've removed it.
And that town/city split sounds pretty interesting too!
Could you explain what you mean by this?
Yeah shame the UI/UX is lacking. Hopefully it gets ironed out soon so more players can try it out.
Sorry for the late reply!
I mean that when I'm getting in wars I don't usually want to spend time micromanaging all my cities - so having towns which just kinda run on their own is a convenient change to the formula for me.
I started playing Spirittea on Saturday, and so far I'm in love. For those unaware, it's about going to a town and running a bathhouse for spirits. The opening sequence when I first arrived in town gave me flashbacks to the first time I played Stardew Valley, the atmosphere is so cozy and nice.
I'm almost done with the first spring, and so far, the game doesn't seem to have the time constraints/pressure that a lot of games with seasons have. There are shrines that require offering specific items that can be seasonal, but it isn't as strict as SDV was with farming crops. I had to catch a spring-only fish behind an area I needed to unlock, but that was easy enough.
It also has one of the better fishing minigames I've seen. You just press the reel button when the fish is facing towards you, and release when it flips so the line isn't weakened by fighting against its struggles. So far I haven't had a failed or stressful attempt, and it looks like I got all the spring fish.
The only major problem I've encountered so far was some weirdness getting Fae to upgrade the bathhouse where she didn't start work on it. Best I can tell, it's because she doesn't work on weekends and I ordered it on a Saturday. I thought I broke the game and would have to restart entirely, but I followed some advice on reddit to quit the game, relaunch and order a different upgrade, and it worked! So yay for that!
Overall, I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes cozy games in the vein of SDV, but are a bit tired of farming. It's just really nice.
I picked it up because of your comment and I’ve only played about an hour so far, but wow! It’s so cute and I really love the art! I caught myself a few times laughing at the cat mascot (his name escapes me) and how much he likes to insult your character.
Seems like a very charming game! Thank you for mentioning it.
Glad to hear it! It's pretty laid back compared to most games in this genre/style. I'm about to start fall.
One tip: repair the bridge as soon as you can. I was surprised at how easy it was to raise 15000 moolang, usually getting money in these sort of games takes a while but the bathhouse pays pretty well. Also helps that purifying elixirs are so cheap to make and sell for 1000.
Wow, great tip! Never heard about it but the writing is good. Gameplay too. I’m hooked. Thanks!
Avowed (PC Game Pass)
This game only really registered on my radar as being written off ahead of time. But this past week I've heard some conflicting reactions to the game's early access release ($20 this weekend, free on 2/18). Tamoor Hussain (massive From fan) has been mid on it due to story while Dan Ryckert has been raving about its exploration and combat.
I'm only about 1.5 hours in but I quite like it so far. Combat is excellent, the world is vibrant and interesting to explore, and the story takes an interesting perspective. As the emperor's envoy to this new land, you are a representative of the colonial forces. The locals do not like or trust your presence. Like Dark Souls or Elden Ring, you are not the hero, at least not until you've proven who you are. Further, you are some kind of "god touched" soul, meaning you have frickin' fungus on your face and look stupid. As expected people have their opinions on your face.
This sort of storytelling draws me in. And while it's full of fantasy styled Proper Nouns I'm not really letting it overwhelm me. There is a toggleable encyclopedia you can have displayed next to dialog that provides background on the world and its inhabitants. I haven't really used it though, I'm just rolling with it as it comes. The points comes across regardless as long as you know the key terms.
The combat though, excellent. First person RPG combat is notoriously hard. Here they've made is punchy as hell. Striking with your melee weapon packs a punch visually and audibly. The bow, actually pretty fun and great to use as well. And magic is awesome: you can wield wands and grimoires. A wand just shoots a blast of whatever force or spell it contains. A grimoire is actually a collection of several spells that you pull up by right-clicking and then pressing a hotkey to cast one of the spells. It works really well, especially since you can have two weapon loadouts easily swapped with a button (PC:left alt). So you are highly encouraged to try different weapons and adapt situationally.
I'm going to keep playing. I don't know if the story will really impress, but the world, exploration, and game play are worth the time.
Returnal (PS5 Playstation+)
In Playstation State of Play the studio Housemarque unveiled their next game Saros. It was a compelling trailer. So when I saw the developed Returnal, I wanted to check it out. Fortunately it is on Playstation+ so I was able to spend several hours in it this weekend.
For those like me who have heard the name but haven't looked into it at all: it's touted as the "Triple-A Roguelike". Meaning it's a sci-fi story about an astronaut that crashes on a planet. She quickly discovers that she's been groundhog dayed, and dying on the planet just means waking back up at her crash site.
Gameplay is pretty great, it's a third person shooter, weapons feel good, controls are intuitive. I quite enjoy the vibe, it has some Denis Villenueve feeling to the sci-fi world, but also some Geiger/Aliens aesthetics with the "xeno technology."
The story is pretty interesting, I hope the roguelike gameplay doesn't cause pacing issues because I'd love to understand what is happening in this world.
Speaking of, I was spoiled on the story. It is quite cerebral, but it has only encouraged me to play through and experience for myself.
The First Berserker: Khazan (Steam Deck demo)
A game I've been looking forward to for a while. Only played a bit but it feels pretty good and runs pretty good on Steam Deck. I think I'm up to the first boss or mini-boss. I failed a couple times but I'm learning the tempo and correct level of aggression for this game. Intrigued and hope to play some more.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (PS5 Physical Media)
The current From game I'm working on. Not very far, but I'm enjoying my time and getting better. Very much enjoying it.
Thanks for the details about Avowed. I've been interested in checking it out (love me some Obsidian story-telling), so it's good to hear that the other aspects of the game look and feel good too!
And thanks for introducing me to Returnal, looks right up my alley.
Good to see that Avowed is getting a generally positive reception. I played the first Pillars of Eternity and enjoyed the old Infinity engine-esque gameplay, but I wasn't crazy on the story or the weird lore (seems divisive as others seem to love it). The premise for Avowed is sounding a lot like Tyranny which interests me a lot more.
I picked it up early as well. Already cracked the 19 hour mark last night. That's 19 out of the previous 72 hours sucked into it. Love the colorful world and combat. I'm pretty strictly sticking to wizardry for now.
It is not perfect though. There is a certain ethereal voice that is really annoying. Not the voice itself, but the dialogue with it. I don't enjoy the cryptic babbling I have to endure.
I put in several more hours last night and am really enjoying it.
I am running into the issue where I've progressed faster than my gear. enemies suddenly spiked in difficulty so I'm going to have to go back and explore more and level up some armor.
This is a complaint I'm hearing a bit more. The game goes to pretty great lengths to explain the importance of upgrading armor but it really is more important than other games of this style.
That ethereal voice is getting a bit played out already. I do like the visuals that accompany it occasionally.
I have some additional negative criticism. Please keep in mind, I'm still having a lot of fun. I've made it past 23 hours, and I am a good ways into the second main region, Emerald Stair. I'm not a consistent gamer, so that I've playedthis many hours in four days is rare.
The non-interactive NPCs in the background seem like they are from an older generation game. There is almost nothing to them. They just kinda stand wherever they are and do a loop of the same actions on repeat.
The lack of a reputation system leaves things feeling a little thin. I can steal any item in front of anyone in any location. Although there are the occasional decision to be made in dialogue that affects the world and quest outcomes, the vast majority of dialogue choices have no impact on anyone. I think the lack of a reputation system is outdated.
Can't imagine developing a game like this and not having those things on the roadmap. So I'm wondering if they ran out of time and runway to complete those features.
With those things in mind, the game feels almost incomplete.
I also find myself hitting that wall with stats and gear to the point where I have to drop a quest and go grind on easier quests or seek out random enemies to grind for experience, equipment, upgrade materials, or funds for better gear. It sometimes gets tedious for a couple hours.
It's interesting how this game is highlighting differences in what is important for players. I've been listening to and reading a lot of reviews and many point out exactly the opportunities that you see.
But for me, the first two are really non-issues. I don't pay attention to what NPCs are doing other than when I blow past them at full sprint. That the cities are populated, have lots of nooks to explore, and tons of verticality make them a win in my book.
Similarly, I don't care about reputations or crime systems much at all. Other do and I'm glad that games implement them for those players. For me, it feels like an experience that has streamlined certain systems and focused on complexity in others.
I think the gearing is poorly communicated. I did run into one of those difficulty spikes and last night ran around exploring some more and saved up for a higher quality weapon. I've read that your item quality is much more important to insuring that the items you find are appropriately strong for continued progress.
Man do I wish Housemarque stuck with twinstick shooters. Returnal is actually a really good game, but there's a Dead Nation/Resogun/Alienation sized hole left in its wake.
They're doing great work but nobody is picking up the twinstick slack in a way that would satisfy me. Dead Nation specifically hit the right notes for me.
I get you there. I’m not a big fan of twin stick style games but i do like shmups and so I was dumbfounded when I heard that this game came from housemarque and they also did Returnal. It was like, ah, so that’s where they’ve been.
Better than if they had gone bankrupt at least!
Can I ask for requests or advice?
I’ve been an avid gamer since pong. Now I have a steam deck that has only been gathering dust for nine months. I don’t know why I can’t seem to get into it. I think I’m playing the wrong games Like monster Hunter and BGIII, when they should be on larger formats.
So much of my diet the last 20 years have been FPS battles like TF2 or the original MOH. But I’ve learned that I hate aiming a weapon using a joystick instead of a keyboard/mouse.
So I think steam deck would be better for simple games? Arcade games? I like word games and some card games but I don’t care for puzzles, nor do I care if a game has high production value or cut scenes or a well written story and voice acting.
Please give me your recommendations and I will go check them out.
Edit: thank you everyone for all the suggestions!
For me the steam deck's utility is more about where you can play than what you can play. For me, it's primarily kept by my bed where I can get cozy and prop the deck on my chest/pillow with some good headphones.
Within this context I recommend:
Why do I keep hearing people talking about mouthwashing? Is it something you can explain without massive spoilers?
Mouthwashing is just a really taut, well-written game. It's kind of a horror walking sim, not much gameplay, but the character-driven story is so strong (and so unsettling) that it really sticks with you. It's a twisty and grueling experience that only takes like 3 hours. If you've played SOMA or Signalis, those are the closest comparisons I know of.
Ah cool. I really enjoyed SOMA so I might pick this up the next time it’s on sale. I don’t really have the income to justify it right now.
It's a short effective story that uses the medium well. As others have said it's mostly a walking sim and its moments of real gameplay make their point but take a little bit more time than they need to. But with a runtime of 2.5-3 hours, I'd put it up there with watching a quality film.
Here's some of my favorites I've played (almost) exclusively on my Deck this year:
Felvidek
Peglin
Skald
Snowrunner
Abiotic Factor this one is first person, but shooting isnt hugely important.
Aliens: Dark Descent
Yakiza: Like a Dragon
If you're an avid gamer, but aren't playing it much, it might just be your circumstances. I have a powerful gaming PC, but choose to play on my Ultrabook or my Deck because I can do it around my house and for shorter periods of time.
I think it depends on what you're into, imo.
Monster Hunter Rise was literally built for the Switch, so I feel like it's fine on the smaller screen, if you're into that game I feel like it's fin! World has a bit more going on at a time so it might be a bit harder, but that's just personal preference.
My favorite types of games on the Steam deck are games that are easy to bring around, so I have all my Jackbox games, Plate Up, and other games that I can play with friends.
I played through about half of Metaphor: Refantazio on the Steam Deck, if you're into RPG's, that and Persona 5, 4, and 3 are all great on the deck for some "bigger experiences"
Smaller roguelikes like Slay the Spire, Enter the Gungeon, Hades or Dead Cells are also great on the Deck.
If you like those types of games too I'd suggest Metroidvanias like Hollow Knight and Nine Sols.
Simple indie games I've also enjoyed on the deck are Stardew and Celeste.
It's great for 2D platforming games, e.g. Celeste, BZZZT, Super Meat Boy
Already mentioned but I second Balatro and Slay the Spire. However, you might just prefer to play them on your PC or phone.
If you are interested in revisiting some classic console games, there's a whole world of emulation available. I used Emudeck to help me set up a bunch of systems. Retrodeck is a newer one that I haven't tried but it looks even easier to use.
A friend of mine who also rarely uses his Deck likes Furi.
I see so many posts, comments, and articles talking about how incredible it is that the Steam Deck runs this new huge AAA game... At 14fps
And while it's impressive, it's hardly what makes the Steam Deck appealing. I'm having the most fun on the Deck if I'm playing Peggle or Balatro. Something simple I can pick up and put down when I want, like during a commute or when I don't want to lock myself in my room to play games and rather stick close to my wife.
Ooh, deck fan here. I've found since I had my deck that I've migrated most, if not quite all of my non-Nintendo gaming to deck. I'm generally not a fan of AAA games, so the lack of available performance isn't a problem for me, and all the games I choose to run work just fine. Yes, Elden Ring looks nicer at 4K, but I can kill bosses in bed! :)
Here's a variety of games for you to look at that all work well on deck:
I don't FPS anymore cos I'm old, but if you want to try, you can use Steam Input to modify controls to take advantage of the touch pads, which I use in more complex games to enable faster control inputs than you can get by default using standard controller settings.
EDIT: Argh, can't believe I forgot Cuphead!
I haven't had much of a chance to play with a Deck, but when I tried PowerWash Simulator it felt so awkward compared to the mouse&keyboard controls. (This is generally how I feel about first person games, really.) Curious to know how you recommend playing it; is it something you can make better with gyro controls, for instance?
I haven't played Hades on a Deck, but I've played it on a Switch, and can heartily second the handheld recommendation there!
I was happy with the standard controls so didn't mess with them I'm afraid. There were a few times where I felt that a keyboard/mouse combo would have made stuff a bit easier, but it's such a brain-off game that it felt wrong spending compute cycles making it more efficient :)
I love my Steam Deck! My most-played games on it tend to be turn-based RPGs, puzzles, roguelikes, and often more indie or AA titles - which tend to both run better on Steam Deck, but also be more legible on the smaller screen.
For card games, there's the classics: Slay the Spire, Balatro, Inscryption. For some lesser-known games, I really love Cross Blitz - even though it's still in Early Access, it's already fantastic fun, and quite replayable. There's also Card City Nights 1 & 2, both of which are often on-sale for very cheap and are really fun. Lastly, I'd recommend Isle of Swaps, which is a game built to replicate the 'playground trading card game' experience, in the style of Pokemon.
I hope that helps a bit!
I gave my Deck to my SO, because I've always been more of a desktop gamer than a handheld/platform one. I originally bought a bunch of recommended-for-Deck games (and a couple I wanted that were ranked great for it) when I got it, and interestingly enough I didn't care for most of them in the long run (that is, played on the desktop). The top were Ryse Son of Rome (I actually think I'd like it if I played on desktop, just haven't tried yet... 2 years later haha. I actually did try but the controls were a bit much for keyboard so I tried on the Deck a bit to figure what was what then lost interest), Horizon Zero Dawn (watched the SO play it but the vibe is just so... I dunno, not jiving with me - even on desktop. On the Deck I couldn't read the text, which was blurry, despite it being verified), and Hollow Knight/Braid. Also I learned I really just don't like platformers.
I also got Super Blood Hockey which was basically all I played, but I'd have to make an effort to do so. Kind of lame overall, which is why I gave it up.
As @notcoffeetable stated, it's a where, not what. I got into PSX and Xbox/Xbox2 a bit, but I've never really been into the portable options, except when my cousins would bring their Game Boys at Christmas and we'd play Tetris.
Touchpad + gyro! Try some slower FPSes like Half-Life 2 maybe, and why not buy Doom 2016 when it's on sale. I also used to play Deep Rock Galactic on solo and low difficulty.
Other games I've enjoyed almost exclusively on the Deck: Binding of Isaac, Dead Cells, Balatro, Diablo II Resurrected, Diablo IV, Jupiter Hell, No Man's Sky, Batman Arkham series, Hollow Knight, Assassin's Creed Origins.
Those are mostly games that are easy to pick up and play, and can be put on sleep and resumed. Except Diablo IV, shame on it.
Have you looked st Stardew Valley? I never have any time to game, but this one really sucked me in. It's surprisingly deep and interesting both for the story and the gameplay. It's very casual, so it should be easy to do on the steam deck.
I don't have a stream deck, so I can't speak to the experience there, but other people say it's fine. I play it on my phone, and we run it on several computers, including some pretty basic chrome books. Nice thing is you can do local co-op across devices, as long as they are running the same version.
Thanks. I did try it and it didn't suck me in. Not sure why. I'm generally in favor of everything it represents. Perhaps too saccharine. But hopefully your comment makes some other folks try!
You're welcome! I hope you find something that reignites your joy for gaming.
I often use the Steam Deck in docked mode on my couch with a mouse and keyboard. With the dock, your screen is as big as your TV, and you can run your games with KB+M controls. The games that work while docked are really different from the ones that work in handheld formats.
Thanks. I got a dock but I have yet to make it work. When it asks for a code to be entered into the deck, the deck won’t turn on. Haven’t solved that yet. It was one of the reasons I shelved the unit for the last few months.
Been kind of addicted Old School RuneScape again lately. I don’t think anything will ever match the magic of playing it back in the day (just like the magic of Minecraft circa 2011), but I’ve been having fun. I even like RS3, but all the built-in FOMO in RS3 is too much for me. In OSRS I’ve just been doing what I want to do and it’s nice
I've been trying to learn Dwarf Fortress. It is very complex and deep. That's the reason why I love it but also the reason why it is so difficult to learn:) On my first game play, I made a huge stockpile underground. Gathered tons of sources thinking it was a very rich start. I was dreaming how awesome my base was gonna be. Then, the water started leaking to my stockpile and from there to my dormitory. I did everything to stop it, made tons of wall but in the end, I lost everything and everyone and did a rage quit :(
I'm also playing Rimworld and I can say I'm not bad at it. But Dwarf Fortress is just another level at complexity.
Besides these games, another favorite games of mine are Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour and Europa Universalis IV.
I've been playing Generals Zero Hour online for like 15 years, I guess? It has a very good and active community. Games are always fun. There are lots of tournaments.
Thanks to the Europa Universalis IV, I know the most of the city names in Europe and Middle East. I know main events, incidents in the history very well. EU IV is just love, guys. Please play it. Such a cultural piece of diamond.
iirc accidentally flooding your base is very common for new players, so don't beat yourself up about it. it's practically a right of passage. Embarking on a tile with no aquifer can be helpful as a new player on that front.
I dug 1 level down, thought I'd open a well to the river beside me, dug out a 1 level pit and opened the wall.
And learned they have water pressure that works the same way as in real life, for the most part. It will continue filling up until it's the same y-level as the source.
Ah yep well-building is the other classic way to get your first flooding problem 😁 Learning by doing!
Dwarf Fortress is a game that I've read so much about, downloaded and tried multiple times, and just cannot get into it. And it's a game that's right up my alley!
I have yet to try the version that isn't just text based and maybe that would bring me in, but I also kind of don't want to get that involved lol
@xavdid was kind enough to give away Steamworld Dig a while back with the only ask that whomever reports back on how they liked it. Well, I am finally doing that. It is one of those games where you immediately understand the game loop, and that is either a good thing or a bad thing. For me, it was a bad thing. Dig, sell, upgrade, repeat. I found myself having no appetite for this type of game currently. Who knows, maybe I would have back in 2014. I played it a couple hours and just could not draw the energy to keep going, Maybe I'll go back to it in the future.
I was finally able to put a decent number of hours into Kunitsu-Gami Path of Goddess and I have to say, the game is awesome and scratches the right itch. The story is nuts although it never gets old for everyone to dance at the end like crazy people when you beat a round. I'm still super early, but looking forward to playing more. However, I made a mistake of starting an ARPG.
With Last Epoch having no new content or updates until April, I was looking for that ARPG feel and somehow landed on Grim Dawn again. I'm not sure how I did that, but it is all I have played most of the past week when I had time to game. I Kickstarted it back in the day and beat it once, but fell off. I own the DLC and want to get around to actually playing the DLC. I made a fun Necro vitality caster that has good single target and AOE and I'm just wrecking shop. I also completely missed that they had done a big 1.2 update which added a ton of quality of life improvements, like loot filters. I also somehow completely missed that Crate entertainment announced new DLC for sometime in 2025 so feels like a great time to get back in Grim Dawn. It definitely has me hooked for right now!
I also really enjoyed Kunitsu-Gami, but then i spent much of my teens playing tower defense games on Warcraft 3.
Hah, same!
I've been playing the hell out of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on PC after hitting my usual wall on Satisfactory (fluid logistics, why you be like that‽). I tried writing up something about Rebirth for last week's scheduled topic, but it quickly descended into a novella-length critique that was too big and unwieldy to inflict upon you all. I'll try harder to keep it concise.
Oceans of proverbial ink have been spilled regarding the original and its place in videogaming canon, so I'll refrain from writing too much about it. Suffice it to say, the original holds a special place in my heart. I never delved into the more monomaniacal fringes of the fandom (no toxic cosplay living situation for me, a la the infamous "Final Fantasy House"), but it's accurate to say that the original was the title that opened my eyes to the possibility of videogames as a literary medium. It felt fresh and innovative not only in a technical sense, but in the way it leveraged the medium itself for the ends of storytelling.
Rebirth is not that, and neither was Remake. I struggle to think of any element of these titles that's truly unique or innovative. Story progression follows a distinct formula that becomes fairly predictable after a zone or two (though the formula differs between the two). Combat in Rebirth is a refinement on Remake's, which itself was something of an adaptation of Final Fantasy XV's system, which in turn owes a great deal to Final Fantasy XII's hybrid real-time/turn-based system. Even exploration in the more open zones feels reminiscent of Ubisoft's open world formula, down to tower-climbing to reveal points of interest on the map.
That said, everything that feels derivative or "inspired by" something else is executed really, really well. I can't help but feel there's some merit in taking concepts innovated by other titles and implementing them perfectly, and Rebirth comes damned close. The combat, while iterative, is fluid and tight. Rebirth improves on some of the quibbles I had with Remake's system in that it's much easier to charge the ATB gauges of characters not under your direct control through the use of synergy moves and cooperative commands (the proper name of which escapes me right now). I still find myself using Cloud most often for his damage-dealing and crowd management abilities, but I'm making more use of the other characters this time around.
Exploration is a bigger component of this title over the last one, as one of the zone types you encounter is something more like an open world than in Remake. In that game there were several zones that let you pursue side quests in whichever order you chose, but the environments and opportunities for exploration were much more constrained. This makes sense from a simple plot standpoint, as that first game was just a reimagining of the Midgar section of the story, while this one concerns itself with those sections of the original that took place in the wider world.
Speaking of reimagining, that's where this remade series really shines. The world is absolutely beautiful, and does a good job of feeling like a living world. Cities are incredibly detailed, even if the majority of the things you see are only set dressing. Each of the environments feels distinct, and are gorgeously detailed elaborations on the simply executed concepts of the original game. Under Junon, the old fishing city atop which Shinra has built a ginormous fuck-off gun, feels like a depressed community living in the literal shadow of a militaristic corporatocracy. Kalm feels like a slice of southern France plopped into this weird techno-fantasy world. I'm only now in Costa del Sol, but I expect the rest of the zones to feel similarly alive and detailed.
Another point of praise I have for Rebirth over Remake is that the side characters, many of which were first introduced in Remake, are on the whole welcome and entertaining additions to the world. Andrea Rhodea and Madam M from Wall Market make amusing appearances, as does Johnny from Sector 7 and Roche the batshit motorcyclist SOLDIER. My one complaint in this regard is Kyrie, whom I had completely forgotten from Remake, who in Rebirth is a wannabe merc causing the party repeated grief. She's obnoxious, and her theme song makes me want to claw my inner ears out of my skull. I'm sure she ticks the box of some anime girl trope or other, but whichever it is, the world would be better off without it.
The biggest complaints I see from people online regarding Rebirth regard the minigames. There are a ton of minigames–at least two or three distinct minigames per open zone. Off the top of my head, there's Queen's Blood (a simplified sort of Gwent-like card game that I actually really like, in contrast to Triple Triad from FFVIII or the abhorrent Blitzball from FFX), Fort Condor makes a reappearance (which I did not like in Remake nor Rebirth, though thankfully there's an option to reduce difficulty in this one), button-input minigames to "scan" data of Lifestream founts and Summon shrines (which open up combat challenges for new materia), Moogle wrangling, a four-team Rocket-league-esque football game played with Red XIII, piano playing, a shooting gallery, a photography scavenger hunt (distinct from the optional photography side quests), and a dolphin-riding slalom course. Those are just what I can recall offhand. I'm sure I'm missing some.
It's a lot. Most of them are one-off for story progression, with the option to return and play again for fun or to scratch that completionist itch. I think many of the people who complain about these are forgetting just how many minigames were in the original. At the very least, these are more polished than most of the minigames from the Golden Saucer. Each of this game's challenges feels attainable with a little practice, and I actually find myself looking forward to some of them, such as Queen's Blood and even the strange piano challenge. In most FF games I pretty much write off the rewards from some of the side games as too arduous, but I can easily see collecting all the goodies from these.
Well, I see I've failed in my goal of keeping it concise. I'll do an update if I ever manage to finish the game and give a fuller, hopefully more restrained review. In any case, if you liked the original and/or Remake, I recommend Rebirth. It's an improvement over Remake in many ways–though I still enjoyed that one as well–and for fans of the original, it's definitely worth revisiting this world in its reimagining.
I appreciate your writeup. The original holds a special place in my heart as well. Like you, it really triggered a heightened appreciation for video games.
I tried hard to get into Remake, but I felt like I was always struggling with the combat system, even after turning it on easy (wait mode?). I'm glad to hear Rebirth has made it easier to fill ATB gauges, because I think that was one of my main complaints. I did really love how they transformed Midgar into something so immersive, though, and made so many callbacks while introducing new elements as well. I hope one day I can finish Remake (I haven't really been spoiled on it, though I hear things take an unexpected turn, which is really all I know) and get into the next one.
And ha, as soon as you said people were complaining about all the minigames, I was just flooded with memories of hours spent at the Gold Saucer. I spent so much time snowboarding. Minigames are part of FFVII's legacy. Not to mention the ones that didn't make it to a rehashing in the Gold Saucer, like the CPR one or squats one (which is good, because neither one of those needed to come back).
Lol. Squats did make a comeback in Remake. I think you're misremembering though, as it was a Wall Market minigame, not a Gold Saucer one. I'm guessing you didn't make it that far in Remake.
The thing to remember about the combat in both Remake and Rebirth is that you're expected to constantly be switching characters not only to exploit enemy weaknesses, but to build up ATB and learn weapon skills. Once you appreciate that it isn't the menu-navigated turn-based combat of the original, it's much easier to get the hang of. It can actually be quite satisfying to work once you figure it out.
Ah no, I meant, some of the minigames in the original reappeared later in the game, in the Gold Saucer. I was glad those ones I named didn't make another appearance! Not even as an optional minigame. :-)
Actually Wall Market was about where I gave up in the Remake, yeah. I did try switching characters in combat, but it honestly felt pretty tedious. Switch to another character, and then do some ineffectual nominal attacks to build up the ATB gauge in order to do something more interesting, rinse and repeat. And I kept having to spend those hard-won ATB gauges on using items to heal up, which felt infuriating. Not to mention I've just never meshed well with the spectacle fighter style of game in the first place. (I'm not sure Remake really counts as one of those, but it sure felt similar.) When you're constantly spending all your best moves to chip away slowly at an enormous health bar, I'm done with the fight at about 25% in.
I'm not opposed to moving away from menu-driven combat in general. I can appreciate something fresher and more kinesthetic. I just didn't click with that style, personally.
Gotcha.
Yeah, I can see that about the combat. Remake was worse about it than Rebirth, for sure, partly because there just wasn't as much materia or stuff to do with it in Remake. Rebirth has tons more, which makes sense considering the portion of the original it covers. The synergy mechanics help a lot as well, since you don't need to actually switch characters or build ATB to use them. The regular synergy moves are kind of between regular attacks and weapons skills in the effects they have–for instance, they might increase pressure by more than a strong attack, but less than a focused weapon skill. I still haven't figured out synergy fully yet, so there's probably more to it that I'm omitting.
I've only just finished my own first playthrough of Rebirth on PC after 3 weeks of playing it basically every day, having done every single available piece of side content possible. I was going to make a mini-essay post of my own but you beat me to the punch, so I'll just leave a few thoughts on what really stood out to me the most.
This game feels so intensely like a love letter to all the fans of the series. All the locations, music, characters, and pivotal moments fans have grown to love over the past 28 years are revisited and re-imagined with such an absurdly high level of quality and care. It's also ridiculously content-dense without being stale - with new minigames and mechanics being introduced with each region you travel to it rarely gets old or repetitive, choosing to do all the minigames, side quests, and exploration content can easily double the playtime of a run, and just the main story quest itself is rather lengthy and healthily populated with unique bosses, gorgeous cutscenes that don't last too long, and sometimes a minigame, which mercifully doesn't require you to score well in to proceed but rewards you if you do.
I enjoyed Remake but I did have a number of complaints about it, namely the confusing narrative and the lack of opportunity to really master the otherwise excellent combat before going into hard mode due to how linear and relatively short the story was. By having so much more room and time to tell the story and let players fight, Rebirth solved these problems and then some. In fact, I think the only big gripe I have about Rebirth is that it took so long for me to finish my first playthrough that it's delayed me from playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 for 2 weeks.
I'm still playing a bit of Destiny 2: Heresy. It's good fun and I imagine I'll be in and out of it for the rest of the season with probably a month break at some point. The new dungeon is rad and I've heard the Trials of Osiris rework is excellent, but I didn't play it over the weekend.
I also resumed my playthrough of Assassin's Creed: Mirage. Despite me looking forward to Avowed, it's yet another game on my wishlist that is aggressively mid on release and that I don't really want to pay $70 for. I have been trending more towards playing games months or years after they come out, I just can't stomach paying $70 anymore for games that are either unfinished, are just alright to good, etc. By all accounts, Avowed seems finished, it just isn't a large enough scale game for me to want to pay the money.
Anyways, with Ass Creed, I forgot how much I love this series, it's kind of a guilty pleasure. I just really enjoy walking through ancient worlds, reading codex entries, and getting some sense of what life is like in older cities and cultures (obviously it is not historically accurate in many regards, but the vibes are good). I do really like the return to the more classic AC gameplay with Mirage. I did vastly enjoy Valhalla, but part of that was that the vast open world and RPG like gameplay fit a viking adventure pretty well and for a few years of my life I was super into viking stuff and was part of a reenactment group, so the game vibed with me. I did not like the same system in Origins and I have yet to play through Odyssey, but I've heard it's good.
Shadows looks to be kind of in between, where it will have less of the RPG systems that Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla had, but will be a fairly large world? I am still a little burned out on the japan setting after spending 50 hours in Ghost of Tsushima recently, but I'm sure I'll pick up Shadows at some point. For now, Mirage is hitting all my buttons. I reckon I'm about halfway through and looking forward to the rest of it (and looking forward to it being only a 20-30 hour game instead of a 120 hour slog).
Out of curiosity, what didn't you like about the open-worldness of Origins? Did you just vibe more with the viking setting rather than Egypt, or was there something else about the game? I loved the setting of Origins, but haven't really played much of Odyssey or Valhalla to compare. I didn't know they went back to their roots instead of the open-world gameplay they had been doing with Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla.
I think it's mostly that I don't really have interest in spending 100 hours in a game like that to "complete" it usually. I know you can just do the main story and skip a bunch of side stuff, but the game also tries to ferry you into the side stuff, too. I think with Valhalla, I put up with it because I'm a viking nerd, if I wasn't, I think I would have bounced off after 20 hours like many other people.
I'm also less of a fan of chasing stats on gear in the three open world games, I prefer the other AC games where you have your tools and cosmetic items and can maybe upgrade some stuff, but you don't have to go looking at a new sword because it does 50 damage and your old one does 40. Mirage does have a bit of the gear chase for your swords specifically, but you also spend so little time fighting (almost everything is stealth/assassination) that I never felt like I needed to go find better weapons. I think Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla are all perfectly fine games, I've just been sick of that style of open world for a while now.
Fair enough. Those three open world Assassin's Creed games definitely feel much more like that classic Ubisoft open-world formula rather than the earlier AC games.
I'm about 20 hours into Dragon Age: Origins, which is my first contact with any of the games of the series. Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2 are some of my favorite games of all time, so I was looking forward to this. I'm surprised how different it feels from KOTOR. The tactics/combat in general took quite a bit of adjustment time before I felt somewhat comfortable with how to approach things, which was also true when I picked up Baldur's Gate 3 last year.
I think one of my biggest "complaints" so far is the party system and how it differs from KOTOR. In KOTOR, using the ship as a navigation tool also gave you time to interact with your whole party, but in DAO, I haven't really found many reasons to go to the camp, so I've really only interacted with the 3 party members that seem most useful to me in combat. It could be that I'm just playing wrong, but I would think the game would find more reasons to send me to the camp as a natural part of gameplay, like what happens in BG3.
I grew up with KotOR 1 and 2 and when DA:O released it felt like coming home. I must have played through it at least 4 times. It's been years now and I don't remember a whole lot about it. Anyway, if you end up liking it and haven't played Inquisition, I wouldn't even bother. DA:2 was okay even though they completely changed the gameplay, but Inquisition is straight up soulless garbage. I haven't played the most recent one but in my mind there's no possible chance that it could be good after all these years.
I think it just took me a while to settle into the rhythm of the game. And remembering to save frequently because I've already lost hours of time more than once from expecting the game to have auto saved between loading screens.
I think I'm more invested in the KOTOR story because I was a huge star wars nerd growing up, but I see the charm in this game's story too.
IMHO Kotor had genuinely good story, even for someone who didn't care much for Star Wars (me).
Been spending a decent amount of time on Turtle WoW again. My friends and I decided to start new characters for whatever reason, so I started a Warrior for the first time since 2004. It's challenging, but I'm enjoying it and getting kudos for how well I'm doing with tanking. It also gives me incentive to really use cooking, fishing and first aid. I normally do these things on my characters, but use them rarely, where on the Warrior it feels like it gives me just that little bit of an edge to make good food and eat it for the stamina buff. And first aid keeps me going when I'm out grinding. I haven't been playing a ton, mostly here and there, occasionally getting a level and mostly just doing dungeons over the weekends with my friends.
Also jumped back in to Aliens: Dark Descent after taking a break for a week or so. I'm 20 hours in and still very much liking it, but also finding it quite stressful the further I get into it. My Marines are higher level and there's also considerably more Xenos around the levels, so it can be very challenging to try and stealth around them. My guys are very capable of dealing with the threats, but stress is an absolute killer, though I've managed to manage it well and avoid traumas for quite some time at this point, but I'm maybe too militant about it and that's what's causing my stress over the game.
In the evenings, in bed, I've been playing Advance Wars: Dual Strike, which has been pretty fun after completing the previous GBA games over the last couple of years. I'm not sure I like it quite as much as the very first game, but I did just complete mission 21, so I am plowing through it pretty well. It's actually motivated me to finally tackle putting a USB-C plug into my DSi, which I will be attempting next week. The overall project doesn't seem too hard, though there's some small joins, but I did just get a significant upgrade to my soldering station in preparation for it. I'm stoked to finally be rid of the proprietary connector, especially because the DSi doesn't show exact battery percentages (fuck you, Nintendo), so it can often just be a guess when it's going to start blinking at me. It'll be very nice to just be able to plug it in whenever, wherever.
I've been playing Stellaris a lot lately. It's not a perfect game, but it's fun and has a fair amount of detail without becoming too much of a micromanagement slog.
I wish the UI was more sophisticated, like, you should have a screen where you can search colonies based on characteristics. Same with space stations, fleets, and basically everything that there are a lot of. Like, "show me all the space stations that don't have a an anchorage but do have a hydroponic farm... now, replace the hydroponic farms with anchorages" would be amazing!
I also wish there was more of a penalty to empire size. The first half of most games turn into a huge land grab, it'd be cool if there was a game mode where claiming a lot of systems was actually really hard to do.
I love Stellaris, playing as a mega corp adds a 50% empire size and forces you into some other builds besides sprawl around.
I generally go in waves, I get super into then abstain for a while. I wish the crisis had some more nuance.
One of the things that Stellaris has going for it is the very enthusiastic modding scene. There isn't a mod that lets you search and mass-replace quite like you're describing, (especially not for space stations, management of which is probably 50% of my late-game play time due to their lack of automation,) but there's a lot of good stuff out there to streamline the experience. Gigastructural Engineering & More is especially good for opening up the endgame some, and includes a delightful origin that locks you to a single frameworld forever. You can expand your borders, and put down little outposts for benefits to your home planet, but it entirely does away with planet management.
I tried it some time ago and my main problem(aside from the business model) was the insane late game lag due to which I never finished a single game while still playing on at most medium sized maps. Did it get better or are they still expecting the player to posses a supercomputer?
Apparently the next major release (4.0) is supposed to fix this by changing the way pops work so they don't have to be evaluated individually.
I've been travelling for work and leisure recently so most of my game time these last two weeks have been on TeamFight Tactics on my phone! I feel like the set revival is really fun especially for someone who only started on this most recent Set 13. I should probaly get back to the main set though, since I stopped climbing at Silver and I feel like I should get higher, but I also feel like I can only play ranked on my PC for some reason
Did a bunch of hunts in the Monster Hunter Wilds beta as well, I'm really looking forwards to the game! Arkveld is a tough hunt, timing wise, but it's fun and the monster animations are just so epic!
Since I have my 3DS within reach as I'm nap-locked with a baby, I was looking for stuff to play on it. I ended up on Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.
I'm a slightly old FE head who got in with Blazing Sword (just Fire Emblem on the GBA, or FE7, for anyone out of the know), and I'm of the opinion that the open map setups are a detriment to the series. Awakening in particular is really awful; the supports where anyone has to talk to anyone lead to fluff garbage, the mix of reclass plus free maps makes units into stat blobs with no definition, the pair up system was broken, and the maps were a total whatever. Personally, Shadow Dragon is a much more engaging game than the other post-DS games I'd played. Unfortunately I'm also not in the popular position there, since Awakening more or less saved the series, so I'm kinda miffed since it had a huge impact on some of the following entries. But my friend recommended Echoes after I'd been whining about Awakening (yet again), so I finally got around to it.
I'm writing up a whole review for backloggd, so I won't go into it too hard, but something that floors me here is how good the bones were for the original Gaiden in 1992. Most of the classes, items, stats, maps, and overworld gameplay were really just polished and ported. Then the stuff they worked around to improve that is impressive; the supports are laser-targeted towards specific pairings and provide actual fuckin character growth, the villages provide a place to do world-building and some extra character content, the two-party dynamic help provide some gameplay relief from each other... And then on top of all that it's really just a beautiful package. Even with the open map style it feels less detrimental to the pacing and difficulty. I'm falling back in love with the series, it's great.
Banished !
It’s a fun settler game. No war. You build a nice Forrest community and watch your city grow!
It’s cheap on steam. Highly recommend if you like base building and planning games.
Good strategy video
Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers, a game I can sell with a single sentence: Balatro but for blackjack. Though I think I read that it predates Balatro. It's a good pick-up-put-down kind of game, the only flaw is it isn't available on mobile.
Last week I was on holiday so no games for me.
I only got a little time to play some more Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
I was excited to come back and play after my holiday but I'll be honest, interest is waning a little. I've been following the main story and it's fine enough. I guess with big, chunky games like this normally I have a goal. Something I want to see, do or a skill or mechanic I want to master, but this game I know nothing. The main story hasn't really gripped me enough yet to make me want to dive into it.
Maybe there's some incredible quests or activities I don't know anything about, but I'm struggling on what I'm going on. If anyone has any carrots on a stick without spoilers to get me going, I'd be keen to know!
Otherwise I played like a couple of hours of Derail Valley which is just outright fun train game madness. I derailed my train twice in those two hours and I regret nothing, it was very fun lol.
My superpower is determining what the main questline is then avoiding it like the plague. I've always hated being railroaded, and KCD was amazing to play for me. Obviously your mileage seems to vary, but if that's an aspect that appeals to you, it does well.
Thing is, that's how I normally play RPGs too (esp the likes of Elder Scrolls) but I had it on good authority, from multiple unrelated sources to stick at the main quest at least a little in KD:C to learn some of the basic skills. And yeah, I see that, even immediately I learned some useful combat skills among other things.
I dunno maybe I do feel railroaded and should just do my own thing!
I strongly recommend sticking with the main plot at least until the horse barn quest, having simple access to a mount makes it way easier to fuck around and explore. If you're fine being a criminal then you can just steal horses instead, or just run around but obviously that takes longer and you're more vulnerable to bandits.
If you're not progressing the main story yet, then you could probably do a bit of grinding to level up your skills, choose your paths in the perk/skill tree(s), and
earngain money. The world map is quite big, too, especially without a horse, so there's plenty to explore.For basic quests, you can try to talk to innkeepers and bailiffs and such. On normal mode, the map has icons for NPCs that can give sideline quests.
A whole lot of games I have never been exposed to, and that I've missed out sorely:
Resident Evil 1/2
I'm ashamed to admit I never tried the first two, so I downloaded and installed the PC version (which was pretty good for the era and if you buy the GOG version you aint missing out) and they were surprisingly, really good. Both games (especially the first) are a good mix of old-school adventure game shenanigans and alot of very meta-gamey inventory management and survival. It does put the "survival" in survival horror. I'm still going through RE2 but I'm surprised to say they're both great. In the first game I found that drawing a map of the locations was extremely helpful to find items and puzzles, though I kinda stopped doing this for the second game since I was getting relatively tired of continuously drawing. It would be interesting to experiment with feelies where I have fill-ins of each mansion floor and only use them when I 'obtain' the map. My only complaint with the first game is that they use too much CGI when they could have maybe used more live-action scenes (i.e, for cutscenes - and yeah I know alot of FMV games used live-action actors interlaced with CGI scenes for some reason), and the voice acting while hilarious is just... I know people love the comedy of the scenes but to sell the villains it would have been amazing if they went the extra route. With that being said I loved the friend dynamic between both storylines, both with Barry and Rebecca. Apparently the real-life live actors are back into the Resident Evil fanbase and they seem to like it alot.
Alone in the Dark
Since I tried RE1/2, I also had to try the original Alone in the Dark. It's a DOS game and unfortunately since it's one of those DOS games it doesn't run properly even on mid-90s hardware, you need to slow down your machine to get it working correctly. When you do, the game is very much a proto-resident evil in more ways than one, and it's still quite scary granted you turn off the music. Not a huge fan of the music, I know this was the progenitor of horror games with jumpscares and scary ambience and as such they weren't huge tropes, so much of the horror aspect is only in novelty. This was also during the era of synthesized music, so you have some relatively funny exploration/action tracks which are more gamey than genuinely terrifying. But once you turn off the music, the sound effects are quite disturbing and you'll be jumping at every little sound since they have the same effect of Minecraft Cave ambience. The game itself is also very similar to RE1, you explore a mansion, and go deep into the depths where you battle an ancient conspiracy. Here, the story is very much based off of HP Lovecraft, with direct references to his work scattered throughout. It's also more moon-logic riddled since it takes from Adventure Games of the era, so expect some out-of-the-box thinking.
Whenever I hear someone talking about Alone in the Dark, I often jokingly describe the 2008 reboot game as the least buggy one.
Oh god, I kinda just forget they even made 5 or 6 games and assume they only made one DOS game
I've heard 2 and 3 just aren't scary at all (then again the first wasn't scary either as said)
Well, “they” are very different people making those games. Both the New Nightmare and 2008 were the only games in the series by the teams who made it, and after making them they more or less disappeared.
There’s something about French horror games from that rough era that resonates with me. Dark Works made half of a game after their AitD game that I really liked too (it got “finished” by Ubisoft Shanghai, but even then it doesn’t have an ending), and there’s another series that came out a bit before from another developer called Obscure, which has become something of a cult classic since then. But I liked it before it was cool, man. I might still have the retail CD release of the first game somewhere.
But Alone in the Dark 2008 is actually, unironically my favorite game in the series. Olivier Derivier’s music is fantastic and he has The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices backing him up. Beyond that it’s just such an interesting game to play, bugs and all.
I took a look at the New Nightmare and was surprised to see it seems relatively similar to the original and is obviously much similar to Resident Evil - there's also the gameboy demake which is probably just very similar to AITD 1 at that point.
Not sure if it's good.
I’m playing Marvelous, A.K.A. That game that Eiji Aonuma made before he became a Zelda machine. It’s a quirky little adventure game that is reminiscent of Zelda, but a lot of that feel comes from how simelar the puzzles are to the Aonuma titles in the series (especially the DS games). It’s got a childish sense of humor and the fan translation is pretty rough, but both of those just add to the charm. In spite of the kid-friendly design there is still some adventure game moon logic. At one point you will need to move a cow, and the game implies you need to make it sneeze. The way you do it is by using the little girl that is in one of your party member’s pocket, who enters the cow’s nostril and tickles it with a feather.
The unique thing about this game is that there is no self-insert character for this game because you actually play a team of three boys. It’s a cool idea because it opens the door for some interesting puzzles, but it can be a pain because the boys are so easy to accidentally leave behind. Any time you select a different leader they break formation and you have to blow the whistle, which usually also summons an annoying bird that is there for you to flag down and get hints from if you are stuck.
Compared to Zelda, combat is de-emphasized but it is there. There are even boss fights. Most of them are defeated the same way; have one or two boys distract them, switch the leader and have them hit them.
But the one thing I for sure like about the game over Zelda is that it is split into chapters. It really does a lot to keep it fresh, because you never really know what to expect every time you launch your ship. When you eventually reach something that you find slow or frustrating, the variety and exploration will motivate you to slog through it.
What else can I say? It’s just a really good time. I wholeheartedly recommend picking up the fan translation and giving it a go.
Ender Magnolia. It’s a great metroidvania and a pleasant surprise that it showed up in the store out of the blue for me.
I will say I’m tired of game mechanics where regardless of how massive the health bar gets, enemies always chop off half the bar from a single hit.
Oh no, there's a sequel to Ender Lilies?
To the top of my list!
I recently picked up Enshrouded. It's been a ton of fun! While it doesn't really bring anything new to the table, it combines dozens of individual features from other games I love into one package. It also (smartly) drops some annoying features of the survival genre, like hunger meters and procedural maps.
Off the top of my head, Enshrouded has
BOTW's exploration (complete with a glider)
FromSoft's combat mechanics (not difficulty)
Minecraft's voxel-based building
Valheim's prefab-style building
Assassin's Creed Odyssey's loot system
All these individual things synthesize into what I would consider damn close to my "perfect" video game. I've spent a dozen hours building my base, only to decide I want a basement and then physically dug into the terrain to build it. There's tons of loot, weapons, and gear to find (not just wood > iron > steel > gold > etc. you see in other survival games). The developers are extremely hardworking, with a 2025 roadmap already published that's overflowing with content (1.0 release is planned for early 2026). It is an extremely rare example of an Early Access game done right.
Still playing Cyberpunk 2077, but I'm not using fast travel and I shut off HUD markers so the GPS is only on the mini-map. I get a better feel for the city this way and it feels more immersive. I really enjoy playing it this way. Also mixing in Pinball FX2 and FX3 with pinch of PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+
My wife and I finally finished up our Baldur's Gate 3 run after 6 months of evenings spent playing together. Spoilers in my thoughts here:
(Half-Orc Oathbreaker Paladin Tav) The game was 99% brilliant, with minimal lag in the narrative or gameplay all the way up to the end. But the end was absolute trash. We had become Illithid to save Orpheus and romanced Lae'zel, and she had been talking glowingly about making a life for us in Faerun just a few hours before, but when Orpheus asked her what she wanted to do, we left it up to her. This was a huge fucking mistake. She chose to leave and take me with her, and we immediately jumped into dragonback and left, removing all other companion interactions. No farewell, no input on other pending things (Like Karlach's fucking death!) Nothing. Immediate jump to the epilogue they pasted on because people were furious with the original ending. We were attending via projection from the Astral plane, but somehow my Illithid Tav was still so hungry that, upon failing a constitution save halfway through engaging in smalltalk with my companions we immediately went hostile and Withers banished us. Absolute bullshit. We didn't even care enough to reload and try to get something different. 99% of the way to the finish line, and the game flopped so bad. It soured my feelings on what came before.
Ive gotten into the flight-sim-lite game nuclear option. Ive tried to get into DCS in the past, but the need for an expensive HOTAS setup and the amount of manual-reading needed to get off the ground turned me off of it. Nuclear Option has a full fledged flight model, making flying around satisfying, and enough realism that it doesnt feel arcadey, but is still acessible enough that you can learn the basics in an hour and can play with a controller or mouse+keyboard.
What, you don’t want to read a 700 page manual for the F-18C or AH-64D and then spend dozens of hours becoming barely competent?
I’ll have to check out nuclear option. I’ve had a hankering for planes again lately and I did reinstall DCS after a hiatus of a couple of years, but I haven’t booted it up yet. I did want to try the F4 out at some point though…
This looks neat!
Though I still haven't played the Ace Combat I have in my library, so maybe I should start there. That said, I'm hoping the sim-lite genre makes a comeback. Feels like it was a staple of PC gaming in the 90s, but it's kind of died out in the last 15 years, everything becoming very heavy on the niche simulation aspects.
NO is a bit more realistic than ace combat, your not gonna be carrying 100 A2A missiles in your dogfighting fighter jet. I think it falls directly in the middle between ace combat and DCS.
Fine by me. I like Ace Combat, but definitely prefer a little more realism. Would love to have a modem WW2 air combat game like that.