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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.
My internet went out over the weekend of 2025-03-09, so I ended up playing a couple offline games that I happened to have installed on my PC: Artis Impact (demo), Parcel Corps (demo), Haste: Broken Worlds (demo).
Artis Impact (demo)
Artis Impact's demo was the highlight of my weekend. My save says I spent 4 hours playing it, and I want to find the time to put in more. This game felt like someone took the template of a JRPG, took out the annoying parts, injected writing that makes you care about the characters, and then slapped on some of the most stylish presentation I've ever seen in a pixel art game.
The presentation of this game is off the charts.
The art style is very evocative of late 90s / early 2000s anime, both in the line work and color pallets (lots of pastels), crunched into top-down perspective pixel art. But the developer will often break that top-down perspective for emphasis in dramatic moments: wide pans over landscapes, a tracking shot as the main character races through the woods, a pitch black frame illuminated just by the light of robots and sparks flying off a sword, etc...
There is so much high quality animation in this game. Tons of objects or people you interact with come with illustrative animation (sweeping, cooking). There's so many interactions that most pixel art games avoid animating beyond a start and end frame, that get fully animated here (opening a door, sticking an object onto another, sitting down). And they're all so detailed and fluid that the developer can use them convey more about the characters: e.g. the main character has to climb onto the upgrade station to use it for her sword = she's probably not that tall. I don't understand how the solo developer was able to budget the time to make all of this, but I'm glad they did.
In the more important story moments, the game shifts to cutscenes told through manga panels. This impressed me both because of its effectiveness and its pragmatism. Fully animated cutscenes are insanely time consuming to make, but producing a cutscene with just still full-frames loses a lot of the expressiveness that video games offer. Manga paneling, especially used in concert with the techniques you gain in a digital medium, provide the dynamism that you lose with full still-frames, but are still way less time consuming to make than fully animated cutscenes. With the end product producing some of the demo's most striking moments.
I am a chronic dialogue skipper. There's games I've quit playing because they wouldn't let me speed through cutscenes and dialogue that were just diagetic exposition dumps and objective lists. There has yet to be a single piece of writing I've wanted to skip in Artis Impact.
Artis Impact's writing is relentlessly used as a vehicle to explore perspectives of its characters and its world. It's a sci-fi game that manages to not overwhelm you with exposition and technobabble. Conversations are so character driven, even in the main story, that I never wanted to skip and miss an interesting interaction that would round out my understanding of the main character or supporting cast.
I found this game really funny. At points, it had me laughing more than any game I can remember. The presentation plays a big part: the manga paneling in cutscenes lets the game play with timing and delivery in ways games without voice acting often can't. Letting the game more effectively explore the humor across the main character's silliness, her companion's snark, some satisfying schadenfreude, and even just some absurd situations you find yourself in.
If I had to point to a potential weakness in this games' writing, it'd be Billy. In a game with characters that are varying degrees of nuanced and well rounded, Billy is a flat caricature of a bro . He's so bro-y that interacting with him feels like jumping into a satire. The game does build on this for some payoffs that, admittedly, were pretty funny. But Billy sticks out as a character who is sometimes tonally dissonant, so much so that the things he says in his introduction left me with raised eyebrows and momentarily questioning whether I misjudged what kind of game I had been playing.
I think this game's pièce de résistance is how it rewards your curiosity.
Examples of the different ways the game rewards your curiosity. While they aren't groundbreaking, much of the joy I found was in discovering them myself. Marking the details as spoilers in case anyone ends up playing the game.
Like any other JRPG, you can walk up to items or NPCs and Artis Impact will give you the oneliner about that thing.
But fairly often , you get a bit more.
Walk up to a sack of flour, and you can give it a cathartic SLAP complete with animation and sound effects. If you see a chair or a stool, there's a good chance the game will let you sit down in it. Revisit an area you've been to, and you might see new people standing around having a conversation you can overhear.
The game is full of "micro-interactions" that go a long way in immersing you in the world and making it feel lived in.
But the well goes even deeper.
Talk to the right person, interact with an object the right way, or enter the right section of the map, and you might get a fully produced cutscene with manga panels. These cutscenes are some of the strongest moments in the game since the developer is able to use them as a playground to expand on anything they want with no obligations to advance the story.
The parts of this game that I remember giving me my hardest laughs, or my most profound insights into a character and the world were moments like this. Not to say that the game is otherwise devoid of these moments. But instead, the agency the game handed me to make these moments happen intensified my emotional response.
You never know how the game will respond to you poking around the world. Only that there's a good chance it will, and you'll be happy you put in the effort. Which reinforces the feedback loop that makes you want to keep poking.
The developer seems cognizant of how strong this loop is because they leverage it in a system I've never seen in another game: "slow travel". Sometimes, the game puts up a 1-2 minute timer and just makes you wait in the small playable area of your vehicle as you travel during the main story. I thought I would find this frustrating, since I usually bemoan forced pacing mechanisms in other games for keeping me from the content I enjoy. But the strength of the Artis Impact's interactivity made these moments worthwhile. The timer forcibly grounds you in the moment, building anticipation for your destination. And the only gameplay available to you is to walk around and enjoy interactions with the stuff or people around you.
The turn-based battles are by far the weakest part of the demo. I'm a random encounter hater, and love that there are none in this game. But the battle system had the depth of a puddle. It was just "use strongest move" in battle and "make stats go up" outside. In classic JRPG fashion, the skill descriptions don't adequately explain what moves do. The UI does suggest that there's a lot to the combat that just wasn't introduced in the demo, so I won't fully rule this out as a dud.
I've been aware of this game for almost a year, and probably had this demo on my computer for just as long. I'm kicking myself that I didn't play this sooner. It's exceeding rare for me to find a game, let alone a demo, that gives me the laughs, the feels, or the attachment to a cast as quickly as Artis Impact has. The game has soared to the top of my wishlist, because I think I could justify putting just the demo up on my list of favorite games I've ever played.
Parcel Corps (demo)
Nothing much to say, I didn't click with this demo at all. It's a bicycle courier game, that seems to have surprisingly deep mechanics for riding the bike. But neither the story, the writing, nor the art felt compelling enough to make me want to invest the time to master the bicycle mechanics. And I was running into pretty frequent stutters, which sucks in a game where the fun is in the movement.
Haste: Broken Worlds (demo)
I'd been aware of this game for a couple years now after seeing the developer post about it in early development. It's just a game about running fast across a track, and even back then the gameplay was something I knew I would enjoy. And I did! The running is the most fun I had with the demo. But that fun gets let down by the game they had to build around that mechanic, and also by some "legibility" issues during gameplay.
Haste: Broken Worlds is a roguelite whose structure feels heavily inspired by Hades, down to the randomized story NPC appearances during runs and even the art style of the character portraits in conversations. The comparison to Hades is not a favorable one for me though, since it highlights all the ways where I think borrowing from Hades' structure fails in Haste.
There's very little depth to the builds you can make, since the items you find are somewhat underwhelming and you lack any real ability to increase the chance of getting items that work well together. Many challenge rooms (timed search for an exit on a lava filled map, a map whose gimmick is how dark it is) are very frustrating to play and provide subpar rewards. The story through lines that thread across NPC interactions in Hades don't seem to have an analog in Haste: Broken Worlds.
Maybe the game succeeds more at being a roguelite in the full release, but the experience so far hasn't brought me the joy that I usually get from playing games of the genre.
The core gameplay loop of running, launching off slopes, and controlling your landing is very fun but also demands a lot of my attention. The game does an exceptionally poor job at communicating all the other important information that I need as I focus on controlling my character:
The demo teaser shows a bunch of content that I saw none of in the demo, but I don't know that I was inspired to pick this up at release. I might check it out again in a few years if it's on sale.
@feanne The art in Artis Impact reminded me of some of your itch.io games you shared on Tildes last year. Pinging you just in case you're interested.
Thanks so much for the recommendation and for the compliment! Artis Impact looks beautiful. As a chronic dialogue skipper myself, your feedback on the game has piqued my interest and I've added it to my wishlist.
The Roottrees Are Dead
A group of friends and I play detective style games on Mondays, so have nicknamed them Monday Games. The latest Monday Game is Roottrees and boy oh boy has it been living up to the hype.
You have to piece together a large family tree using a starting dossier of information, and the game's in-game internet and library systems. You get the information in a similar way to Her Story, by searching key phrases - phrases that you'll notice in other documents as you go. You'll begin by using the internet for everything, because it's an easy way to find details about notable family members.
Very quickly you discover, though, that the internet isn't perfect - and that's where the game starts becoming this incredible maze of cross-referencing. Maybe a person's name is too common to Google search, but you found out from their grandson's website that they lived in a certain city, so you delve into that local newspaper's archive - and find an advertisement for a company run by that person, which gives you enough to bounce back to the internet again and search the company name, and find out it has an 'our history' page with some of the details you're looking for.
The whole is a really great deductive experience and scratches the same itch that Obra Dinn did - very high praise as that's one of my favourite games.
I'm so glad someone played this, it's been on my list since I saw it a few weeks ago but it seems like a lot of these Monday games (as you call them!) get very well reviewed on Steam even if the quality is uh, not great.
But sounds like it's good! So I'm keen to give it a go with my partner. Thanks for posting.
How does it compare to something like Curse of the Golden Idol?
I loved Obra Dinn and was under the impression Curse was similar in regard to the logical piecing together of clues, but I ended up getting a little bored with that one after the 5th or so puzzle. Not exactly sure what it is, but maybe starting from scratch each time?
Not that it's a bad game, but just didn't entrance me the same way Obra Dinn did.
Hah, just began to play it myself yesterday! I hadn't heard of it before but it's a very interesting type of deduction game. I'm still early in but it doesn't take long to figure out the family has some interesting things going on.
I got through Wanderstop this week (a bit fast, I'll admit, but it definitely hooked me).
I think Davey Wreden is incredibly good at what he does, especially in the sense of games as art, especially in the way of art as I understand it at least. It made me feel, and it made me think and reflect, as his other games have too.
If you feel burned out, please play this game! I highly suggest it.
I just picked up Eternal Strands and I’ve been enjoying it so far.
It’s got an interesting physics-simulation combat, the magic system is interesting mechanically, letting you do things like freeze the creatures to the ground (in a different way than just a “freeze” spell, you’re basically creating an ice wall but drawing it in real time). Climbing on the giant creatures is fun, and I’m really liking the crafting system - the gear has the same “recipe” but the specific components you use affect the stats (and you can dismantle or reforge to change the stats and get what you put into back, losslessly which feels respectful).
It’s a little odd with the way it swaps dialogue styles (sometimes cutscenes, sometimes dialogue boxes, but both are well done). It’s the studios first game, and that does show I think, but not in a way that detracts from my enjoyment of the game.
Also their latest patch responded to player feedback regarding fall damage, so that dying to a fall no longer is treated the same as dying to a creature (and losing collected items), so that’s nice to see.
A couple things in the game could be more well-explained or telegraphed (I read the codex entry on how to harvest a dragon and still had to look it up after failing twice - the NPCs explained that I had screwed it up, but it would’ve been nice if the NPC had explained how I’d screwed it up; hindsight is 20/20 and now that I know how to do it it’s obvious what I was doing wrong, but I wish it had been slightly clearer in the telegraphing of what I was doing wrong).
Thanks, looks like I should get it after planned release on a GOG.
It's been after almost 11 years since I built an NVIDIA 970-based gaming PC and it is really showing its age. I tried to buy a new GPU - either an NVIDIA 5070Ti or an AMD 9700 XT for, or close to, the listed recommended retail prices. Unfortunately they all sold out in less than a minute in the UK which left me struggling to build a replacement gaming PC. So I decided to buy a prebuilt PC which didn't work out much more expensive than sourcing parts myself in this climate. I now have an NVIDIA 5070Ti GPU, AMD 9800X3D CPU and 32GB RAM gaming PC and can finally start to work through my backlog and wishlist of computer games.
In order to ensure that I don't get dragged between all of the games I decided to limit myself to just two games at a time. I created an ordered backlog of the games that I'm interested in playing afterwards.
So onto the games...
Avowed (via Game Pass)
I've been a huge fan of Obsidian Entertainment games ever since I played Fallout: New Vegas. I have almost 300 hours of playtime across countless playthroughs with many different modsets. Avowed is not New Vegas but it has an interesting story and the kind of engaging side quests that I've come to expect from Obsidian. The combat system is simple but fun and the exploration is very good albeit not quite Bethesda level. I think I'm around two thirds through the story and plan to finish both the side quests and main quest.
Deathloop
This game has been on my to-play list since it released late in 2021. Unfortunately I didn't have a suitable gaming PC until now and I wanted to wait until I could play it with a keyboard and mouse. I'm a huge fan of the time loop stories and Deathloop has a lot more story and worldbuilding to it than is immediately apparent. The day is split into four parts: morning, midday, afternoon and evening and there are four areas to visit. The day moves onto the next part when you leave an area. What's happening in each area varies based on the time of day that you visit and actions that you've taken in other areas earlier in the day. You can unlock and upgrade Dishonoured style special abilities which greatly influence how you approach things. This game is really fun and keeps pulling me away from finishing Avowed.
Ordered backlog (subject to change, order is merely indicative)
Here are the things that I'm currently thinking of playing next:
I'd be interested in hearing arguments for games within my ordered backlog - but please, no spoilers.
As for your backlog: Why not just go in order of "what's on sale when I go to buy"? I mean, Eternal Threads is on sale for $2.99. I don't know anything about it and I almost bought it based on it's existence on your list and that price! If that's not the strategy, however, I was a huge fan of Jedi:Fallen Order (and Jedi:Survivor!) and both games frequently go on sale for crazy cheap.
Both of those games are on my list to play! Avowed I'm sure I'll get eventually, and Deathloop is actually already in my collection, just need to find the time to play it. I didn't know it had much of a story to go along with the cool powers/skills. I should probably give it a go soon!
Of those, I've played Against the Storm and Shadow of War. Against the storm is super fun and unique. If you're into city-builders or roguelikes (or ideally both!) then you'll probably really like it. I found that the cities you build feel pretty interesting and if one ever starts feeling a bit boring or poorly-designed then I can just focus on completing the objectives and getting on to the next city asap. Highly recommend.
Shadow of War is a lot like Shadow of Mordor, but with more stuff. If you like the first one, which I did, then you'll probably like the second one, which I also did, though I never finished it. It's that kind of mindless fun where you just go around killing orcs and trying to chain combos together. There's a story and everything, I just can't for the life of me remember anything but killing orcs, lol.
Also I haven't played Far Cry 5, but in my opinion Far Cry peaked with the second game, so if you haven't played that I would humbly consider adding it to your list! A bit dated and can get repetitive at times, but the combat holds up surprisingly well and it has one of the most unique stories and settings I've ever played in a video game. Plus the immersive gameplay (things like healing your own wounds, fixing your car when it breaks down, paying for things with actual diamonds, and holding an actual map up to see where you are) were all pretty cool for the time, and years before other games made it cool (RDR2 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 1&2).
Edit: also wow that is quite the PC upgrade! Haha hope you're enjoying it!
We moved into our first home this weekend! Very exciting, very exhausting, had my first chance to play a video game last night.
Star of Providence (Steam Deck): This was released several years ago as Monolith, but Dunkey's Big Mode has taken over publication, renamed the game, and the game is getting/got some sort of big content update. It's a pretty traditional roguelite bullet hell. You progress from room to room clearing out a floor before fighting the boss of the floor. What I like is how immediate the game is. A room takes a couple seconds to clear, a boss takes maybe a minute. I can see becoming a go-to time filler with how easy it is to just spin up for 2 minutes.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2
I tried playing the original N64 version on an emulator but it kind of hurt my eyes to look at (wasn't an issue with a bunch of other N64 games I've revisited). I also gave #3 on PS2 emulator a little spin but the constant prompts to save to the memory card were super annoying.
I remember not being interested in the remake when it was announced because of the price and "I can just emulate." But with the revelation that I really wanted the benefits of the remake coupled with the Steam sale discount, I went for it.
It's good! I played through the tutorial (even though I didn't really need to) and the first few levels. So far it's given me everything I wanted. It's interesting that they back-ported some of the tricks from newer games to the old ones (reverts, manuals, lip tricks, maybe more?). They make chaining really big combos together much easier. They're fun, and the fact they're here means I probably won't feel compelled to pick up 3+4 for quite a while.
They've added a bunch of unlockable cosmetics and challenges that I don't really want to interact with, but I have a hard time ignoring orange ⚠️'s in the menus. Maybe great for others, not great for nostalgia "simpler times" gamers like me. But it's only a minor complaint.
Returnal
It lived up to its name (I refunded it).
Was interested in it since I like some roguelikes, shooters, sci fi, and it got good reviews. Was also on big discount in Steam sale. Initial launch was botched by some Epic Games online detection service getting stuck installing. After playing for about an hour (visuals were good, liked the boost mechanic and active reload, enemy designs reminded me of Edge of Tomorrow), I suspended my run and quit the game. It crashed in the process then wouldn't launch. Spent a while trouble-shooting, could get it to boot if I used a -nosound flag but I don't want to play without audio...apparently there were crashing issues on the PS5 as well for some people. It hasn't been updated in a while so unfortunately I don't know if it will ever be stable enough for me to play another time.
This bothered me about the remakes too. They nailed the feel of the moment-to-moment gameplay, but the menus and everything outside the gameplay itself feels a bit off and overcomplicated.
I've just about finished Monster Hunter Wilds, or at least did what I'd like to do while they bring on more content. Overall I had a fantastic time. I think the changes they've made to combat have made an already pretty phenomenal setup even better. I like the ways they've stepped up some aspects of the visual design, and despite its technical shortcomings I was able to work out, yet again, a halfway playable steam deck experience.
I don't care to write much about the technical end, it is what it is and it's on Capcom to fix it up. With respect to the game itself, imo it is a fantastic step forward. The player has been empowered in a major way, both with new movesets and the addition of Focus Mode. I completely forgot Focus Mode existed until I was nearly done with it, because I was just that into the standard combat. I mainly play Sword and Shield, and sometimes Long Sword, and both are just phenomenal. Sword and Shield in particular is everything I've wanted out of it - you can reposition constantly, in multiple ways and change orientation just as easily. With most large monsters I can maintain constant attacking, like a fighting game with an infinite combo, to a much greater extent than I could in World. Long Sword is similar, with new moves that allow near-instant turning and counters that allow you to just never stop attacking. With these two it's almost like playing Doom 2016/Doom Eternal - I can just sort of trance-state it and before I know it, monster dead, carve em up lol.
The big feature with Wilds was the interconnected maps, and it's actually with that I think it misses the mark. It just doesn't add much to the experience to be able to seamlessly transition - it looks cool, but there's hardly a use for it and most of the game is spent more or less exactly the same as prior entries. That said, each map is beautiful, absolutely stuffed with detail, endemic life, secret spots, and fantastical things. Especially toward the later parts of the game, they veer a little into a fantasy-horror sort of look that I thought looked awesome. The lighting and visual effects bring about a sort of cinematic quality that suits Monster Hunter perfectly. You feel at times like you are doing an action movie, like you are the action movie, and it fuckin rocks. I genuinely cannot wait to see what else is added to the game, because the design of stuff is just so cool to see.
Character building is as complex as ever, yet also as approachable as it's ever been, to me at least. It's tough to judge because I've been playing Monster Hunter for...twenty years...but I would assume a new player would figure Wilds out a lot faster with how everything is structured. You are given a lot of options, and the ability to carry two weapons changes in a good way how you go about planning a character. This time around I decided to specialize in critical hits and paralysis, using decorations and armor skills to make that as potent as I could, and it's just awesome how completely you can smash shit up doing that. Master Rank, when it comes I anticipate will be some of the best shit I've seen these games do, the combat is that good to me.
Easy 10/10 in my view. Monster Hunter always delivers to some extent or another, but Wilds really delivered and I'm left eager for more. Can't ask for better. I'm gonna have to teach myself to remember Focus Mode but beyond that I really don't have any complaints. I like where it's gone, I hope it goes further. I look forward to getting even more sick armor and cool weapons, and fighting crazy shit in crazy places.
Edit: Music. Omg the music. It's great. The same composer did Wilds who did Monster Hunter 4, and they drop some cool shit in there. Nu Udra is my favorite example. When I first got to this, two minutes in I got it mad and it started to rear back, jerk around and spit out big explosive fireballs. My character is zigzagging through this and dodging as the music is swelling, I rush forward and smack that bastard right at the biggest moment, just awesome. I have always enjoyed the music in these games but damn if they didn't nail it with this one. Later on, when you meet with who was the flagship monster of MH4, not only is the monster's theme remade but it recalls that game's main theme in a kind of corrupted, frenzied way, stuff like that is always nice to hear. Even the more generic themes are good too - Iceshard Cliffs reminded me hard of Final Fantasy, I did tons of excursions out there purely because I loved that battle theme.
I played Ori and the Blind Forest, even though I don't like Metroidvanias (I hate backtracking), I liked this game a lot.
At the beginning it was just an ok game, but once you gain the main gimmick move of the game it gets much much fun, I also enjoyed the first escape sequence a lot, sadly it gets repetitive having 3 of them, but the game feels really nice and has very tight controls.
Tales and Tactics was a choice in the Humble February Choice which was actually already on my wishlist, and I've finally gotten some time to play it. It's a cool little squad building tactics game from the same people who made the "Downfall" mod for Slay the Spire, which is maybe the best mod for a game I've ever played. TandT has cute graphics, loads of units, a bunch of characters and options to unlock, and each individual battle is fairly short. I don't think I quite get the intricacies of the actual tactics so far; I tend to just put tanks at the front, healers at the back and hope for the best, but I think that placement actually matters quite a bit. I feel like I'm going to learn more as I play, but so far it is a fan, relatively simple game.
I've been in a bit of a gaming rut. Been hopping around my backlog and noting is really clicking.
Tried Wanderstop but I'm not exactly in the right headspace for that right now. Wanted to play the Ion Fury DLC and Echopoint Nova for faster shooters but it just turned out tedious. Slowed down with Railway Empire 2 and Airborne Empire but I got frustrated really quickly. Went back to my no-death Sifu run but the Artist is just maddeningly inconsistent. Got desperate enough to try a single round of Overwatch and its not any better than a few months ago.
There was a little luck with the most recent update to Sulfur. It's a very slow mix of rouge-like and extraction shooter with a fair share of immersive sim elements. It's more Tarkov than Doom and good runs become intense games of inventory juggling, risk management, optimal cooking techniques and situational awareness.
Unfortunately, I had a string of bad games that burnt a big hole in my gear stash and I decided to step away for a bit.
Think I'm just going to not game for a while and try something else for a few weeks.
This week I played more Derail Valley until I got a bunch of the museam trains, restored them and decided it was time to wait for the next update. Amazing game though, I really like it!
I also went back to Dark Souls 3 after bouncing off ds1 really hard. I've been having a great time! I really like it! I mean my friend told me I'm not at the hardest parts yet but I'm having a good time smashing shit with a big axe.
Also, probably more interesting, it's the first time I've gamed with ChatGPT at my side. It's been so good for sticking in "what the hell does this weird branch thing do?" and it explains it, with context. It's been great and much better than trolling a wiki. Think it's made it feel a lot less "ugh" having to study the wiki.
Monster Hunter Wilds has taken up most of my bandwidth since launch. Much like other posters have said, it's a great game. 10/10, would recommend.
I think the only thing I would have done differently is lessen the impact of status effects and wounds. As it is now, I feel it's easy to cheese the game. I've had to put away my paralysis dual blades because I didn't have fun beating up on a monster that was doing nothing half the time. Pulled out a switch axe to be more of a bruiser and god damn is the game even better. Also, I find the hit boxes more forgiving than past titles. There are plenty of times where I just seem to dance through the bullshit, and in the past I know I would have been yeeted across the arena.
Anyways, I'm still having fun. The monsters are an absolute joy to fight, the new ones are incredibly creative and unique. The returning ones are always fun (I love fighting Odogarons) and I look forward to the insanity that the next couple TUs will bring to the table.
It does make me a bit frustrated for the community though...
Hidden counter-rant for courtesy
Look, I get it. This game didn't turn out to be Elden Ring + Monsters. You all hyped yourself up for it, and nothing form the press materials (that I remember) mislead on what this game was. Yeah, the game is "Easier" but every god damn MonHun game is easy on launch except your first one. I remember my first one was World, and I got the shit beat out of me by a Kulu-Ya-Ku before hitting an Anjanath wall. You know what happens now when I play that game again from scratch? I destroy them. I beat the ever loving pulp out of them because I know how to play the game. The game is easier mostly because you got better at it.Honestly this rant mostly is a complaint about gaming communities in general, I see the same shit over with other games I play: Helldivers and FFXIV. Players play and optimize a game to death and then complain that they are bored and everything is too easy. Then, the devs will often make the mistake of releasing a piece of hard content and everyone loses their mind at the difficulty. Rinse and repeat. You can't please everyone, but god damn is it tiring watching the yin and yang of gaming communities go through the same shit. Now the Mon Hun community is doing this. Optimizing the shit out of status effects and wounds and then complaining that the monster doesn't fight back. How about trying to do something off meta for once in your gaming life, would you?
Amusingly, this has had an interesting and unexpected effect: Everyone is going back to Mon Hun: Rise and reevaluating it with a fresh set of eyes. Apparently now? They love it. Back when it launched? Everyone absolutely ragged on it over and over (Wirebugs make the game too easy! The spirit of the game is gone! What actually even is the endgame at launch, it's so boring) and now that they're going back because they're bored, apparently they love it for what it is. I'm just ready for the inevitable "Wilds is actually better than I remember" chats in ~6 years when they launch the next mainline title.
Started playing Slay the Spire again. I saw the latest news post for Slay the Spire 2, and it made me want to play again. Super easy to play on my phone when I have a few minutes, and I still have a ways to go to get everyone to A20 on my phone.
I chatted with my friend about this, and if Slay the Spire 2 is as good as 1 I'll be playing it off and on for the next 10-20 and probably longer with mods.
I didn't like The Watcher when she came out and realized I hadn't unlocked her relics on my phone. I'm having fun playing with her, and I am trying to figure out good builds for this character without looking any up online
Been playing through Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice again, after having gotten all the way to the final boss before taking a short break for 5 years. After shaking off a little of the rust, i have been moving through this game like an unstoppable force. As a longtime Souls player, the first time i played Sekiro was probably tens of hours of trying to untrain dodge rolling as my instinct and learning to parry instead, which i remember being supremely frustrating. But when it clicks oh boy does it click. The parrying is generous enough but when you get a proper deflect, the sound is so satisfying and clean, and then when you really get into a flow state with the boss/enemy it really is a high all of its own. A lot people compare Sekiro to a rhythm game which defenitely has merit, as a lot of the boss fights feel like a dance, a back and forth between you and your opponent until one of you makes a fatal slip. After learning a boss, you start to instinctively feel out the patterns and upcoming keypresses in your song, leading to an intense exchange that feels choreographed. Few other games can make you consistently feel like you are in a choreographed anime swordfight quite like this one does.
Its also been REALLY satisfying to trounce on these early bosses that took me hours my first time around. Lady Butterfly on my third attempt, and Genichiro i was able to learn and conquer in an evening instead a week. Most recently, after struggling a bit with No. 1 on my hit list, the Guardian Ape, i proceeded to go further down and take on the follow up 2 on 1 Ape Battle on my first try. Believe me when i tell i have not experienced natural highs of that caliber in a long time. FromSoft games tend to have themes of Determination and Perseverance in the face of overwhelming adversity, and i think Sekiro exemplifies that well in both story and gameplay, which resonates a lot with me as an American staring down an uncertain and dark future.
It also looks and plays very well on the Steam Deck, which alongside playing GTAIV on there, were the first games to really make me feel like i was living in the future my kid self wanted, to play amazing console games in a handheld form factor. Playing a good looking console GTA game on a handheld was truly a trip, even if it is from 2008, but a face paced game like Sekiro from 2019 is more impressive.
On the other end of the gaming spectrum, I have been playing Caves of Qud, an RPG Roguelike that plays almost like a bespoke dwarf fortress adventure mode, or an old Brogue/Nethack Style game but with an interesting setting and expansive world map full of mutated monstrosities. The character building mainly comes in the form of Mutations which drastically change how you play. Physical mutations like Wings that let you fly in the air to avoid some melee attacks and travel the overworld more efficiently, but cant be used underground where most of the major dungeons are. Carapace that replaces your body armor slot with a turtle shell or other natural armor, in which you can hunker down to raise your armor value and with enough investment can be on par with some of the best armor in the game, at the cost of useful secondary effects. Burrowing claws that let you have natural claw weapons which scale with your strength stat and let you burrow through terrain and walls. And then there are mental mutations like Clairvoyance that lets you see through walls and hidden enemies nearby, sunder mind which makes targets head explode, mental mirror to raise your own mental defences and reflect a mental attack back at the sender.
Its a lot fun to spin up a build and see what works, and though i havent really left the starting biome yet, i have already found a lot of interesting locales and mutants to keep me interested. The writing is also alien and poetic, really provocative but economical with its word count, which is a really impressive feat to pull off in a game with such a colossal scale where just about everything you can look at has a unique description. Truly a triump in fictional writing in an expansive interactive medium such as this.
And suprisingly enough this game also plays great on the deck, due to the devs implementing some masterful controller support. Its a little complicated at first, though even off the bat its leagues better than other controller implementations in games of similar complexity i have tried in the past. But once you get it internalized, it becomes very comfortable, to the point that im almost starting to prefer it to KB+M. A lot of the keybinds are spread out and harder to remember on KB+M, but on controller, its often just a variation of one of the triggers and a face button. And the menus just feel better to navigate with stick than the arrow keys, as an arrow keys hater (mainly just for when its replacing wasd as a form of movement both character and menu based.)
Finally Nubby's Number Factory. The game is a Balatro-esque plinko roguelike where you shoot our leading lad Nubby at a bunch of numbered pegs which when hit give you their score towards a round goal you have to clear, and bounce Nubby rapidly. Hitting a peg will also halve it down to one where it will then pop and Nubby will pass through and if he falls through the bottom of the stage, he dies. Clearing a round goal gives you a gold and restocks your board, adding new pegs and doubling the ones you have left, as well as giving you a life, and these stack if you clear the goal multiple times over. The balatro part comes in the form of perks and items you get/buy that interact with and manipulate all these mechanics. A finger puppet that every time nubby bounces, adds a score equal to the number of times nubby has bounced that round. Kazoo which will double a random peg every 1.5 seconds. A sea cucumber which when nubby dies will give points equal to the total number of pegs popped that round for each empty space on the board. There are tons more items that all play off similar effects, as well perks that will force trigger items in specific slots at specific times. There are also black market items that are rarer to find but substantially more powerful, like King Baby who turns the lowest value peg into the highest peg every 1.5 seconds or a pregnancy test that on the first peg hit will spawn a copy of nubby. These items cant be force triggered, but can be upgraded like the normal items to get more powerful affects. So all the systemic fun is there and satisfying, but then its wrapped in this late 90s claymation/flash game aesthetic, with a truly juicy soundtrack that brings to mind vaporwave and operating system beats. Its a really good time and only 4.99, and as is the theme for this post plays great on the deck. Trackpad works wonderfully for the aiming and cursor interactions, and the form factor turns it into feeling like a random DS cartridge you found in a bin that turned out to be a true gem.
I also recently picked up the Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece and Art of Rally on the steam sale, so i plan to start playing through those after i wrap up some other loose ends.