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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.
Sunderfolk
I'm going to gush about this game, because it's great. Like: really, REALLY good.
Imagine if someone took the Jackbox model (one main game screen, everybody plays on their phones), subtracted out the comedy, and added in a full tabletop RPG campaign and rules. That's Sunderfolk.
It works fantastically well. It's clearly made to be played as a couch co-op experience with people in the same room, but my multiplayer group and I have been streaming it via Discord and it's just as good.
The rest of the people in my group are like, MEGA tabletop players. The kind of people who have been chaining campaigns back to back for well over a decade now. They're the kind of people who excitedly play Gloomhaven. They call this game "Gloomhaven-lite" (positively, not as a dig) by the way.
Meanwhile, I am someone who doesn't love TTRPGs for three reasons:
Sunderfolk pretty much solves all of these for me. The top Steam review captures this effect well:
Problem 1 is solved by the game being a digital gameboard, so I can see what's going on, get animations for attacks, etc.
Problem 2 is solved half by the game taking care of most of the rules for you (you won't forget to take certain actions, for example), and half by the fact that the phone app is great and has all of the need-to-know information on it. You can pull up all of your actions, click on key words to find out definitions (what does
Provokemean? Just tap it!), and see enemy actions as well.Problem 3 is solved partly by making the process smooth but also because the devs made a very vital design decision: there is no set turn order for you and your teammates. Each round, you get to decide who goes first, second, third, fourth. This means that, each and every round, the actions everyone takes become a communal discussion.
Pacing-wise, this does slow things down a bit (though it's still much faster than the D&D sessions I've done with them), but it changes combat to be much more cooperative because everybody can be involved in strategizing each round.
This last point is buttressed by the fact that the game gives each character a lot of options to support their allies. For example, any character can move into an enemy to push them to a different hex, with certain cards giving characters explicit ways to manipulate enemy placement. As the tank, I might move an enemy away from the rogue so that he can get bonuses, whereas the bard might move enemies towards me so that I can do an area attack on all of them at once.
The game isn't just "wait out my turn and take the same action I have for the past four rounds." Instead it's got a lot of variety with all sorts of different possibilities, all of which you as a team get to hash out together, live.
Between combats you return to a town, and there's a whole Persona-like RP system where you have a certain number of opportunities to talk to different townsfolk and build affinities with them. You can also spend resources you gain in combat to upgrade the town, giving you access to better stores and equipment and whatnot.
Narratively the game hasn't wowed me yet, though it's been a perfectly serviceable campaign so far. It does stand out as having a great narrator (one person narrates everything, using different voices for each character) and thus far being family-friendly. The whole game as a storybook quality to it, and I think it would be a genuinely awesome game to play with kids in a "family game night" situation.
Where the game shines the most, however, is in its slick implementation of combat using phones as controllers. My group tried another game like this (Eon Altar) which we found clunky and didn't continue playing after an hour or so. With this game, however, we played the demo, loved it, and immediately bought the full game.
This past Saturday we had a SIX HOUR Sunderfolk session. I'm someone who would be crawling out of my skin after even three to four hours of a regular D&D campaign session, but I was engrossed with this the whole time.
Wonderful to hear a good review for it! I've got it in my Steam library, installed and I'm trying to organise a regular night to play the thing with some friends but it's not worked out yet.
Glad that you're enjoying it!
This is great! I stumbled across it before it came out and sent it to my board game group as a possible option, but until now I had no idea whether it was actually any good or not. Thanks!
I beat two full games this week (granted they were short games, ha).
Firstly, I played Get to Work. I am unfortunately a fan of rage games such as this, Getting Over It, etc. I streamed my playthrough to some friends in discord and we had a fun time laughing at the social commentary and ridiculous gameplay. They had some laughs at my expense when I lost an hour of progress multiple times. I also did acquire the hat... if you know you know...
Secondly, I picked up and beat Pru the Pigeon in just over 90 minutes. It was definitely worth it for $2. It's a retro inspired 3d platformer with some fun movement mechanics. I felt that only the secret levels truly challenged me and even those only took me a few minutes each, but I did have fun with the game. I love getting smaller platformers like this when I want to fill up a couple of hours with gaming, but I don't want to jump back in to something bigger.
I did progress in Death Stranding and got to the second map and got the exo suit and the game did become significantly less annoying, but I still think it's not quite for me. I am not actively looking forward to another 20-30 hours and then also DS2, so I've pretty much dropped it for now. Maybe I'll come back to it later, but it's just not my game in some regards and that's perfectly okay.
I do have a few games coming that I am looking forward to: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 is coming out this week and I've been looking forward to it for months! I'm unsure if I'll get it on PS5 for couch gaming or PC for streaming to friends, but I'm getting it either way (and probably the deluxe edition). Besides that, Destiny 2: Edge of Fate and Donkey Kong Bananza are both out next week! I dropped off D2 for a while, but alas, the addiction strikes again and I'm likely getting the expansion. TBH it's only $40 and if that gets me a couple weeks of enjoyment, that's fine. I've absolutely gotten my money's worth out of the game, so even if I'm not playing it every other day these days, I'm still having fun jumping back in every few weeks. DK is the one I'm very much looking forward to, though, and the first game that will get me some good play time on the Switch 2. I did get Mario Kart World, but it just didn't grab me as much as other people. I enjoy jumping into online races, but it isn't a game I'm going to play all the time. Switch 2 will likely be like Switch 1 was for me, where I might only get a couple games a year I put real time into, but over the course of 6 years, the console is worth the price for me, even if I don't have a sizable library to play right away.
But did you get the second hat?
I didn’t. I saw there was an achievement and I figured they’d give me a second hat at the end of the game and they never did. I guess it was just doing the same method for the first one again?
I replayed DS1 for 100% last month, and I'd say if you got the non-mule truck and you don't like the gameplay, you will not like the gameplay. The only reason to play is Mads Mikkelsen's and BB's story which even when I wanted to skip all the cutscenes I still think it is worth stopping to watch. I don't like Higgs' story either.
Spoiler for main quests in 2nd map (no story spoiler)
In 2nd map, the terrain get harder and harder. You're strongly suggested to farm materials to build roads as some cliffs & river is a long detour without road (although I completed the game without building most of it - the game cap the community contributions until you completed the game so you can't freeload. At points it make backtracking a lot harder). At some levels you'll notice that the game get easier and you no longer stumble when you kick stray rocks.
You also get mandatory quests to deliver things to several preppers before able to continue to the next distro center. Once the game send you northwest, things get harder as the MULE become terrorists and combat difficulty goes up (they wear helmets so no headshots, use real weapons and sometimes even mounted machine guns). Then you go to Mountain Knot city, which the preppers around are up high in snowy mountain including near the highest peak in the game, making traversal in vehicle impossible (there are actually routes, but you'll need to know as they're all not in straight line anymore. Battery power also become an issue)
At this point the game asks you to backtrack up and down the mountain, or you can just fast travel but you'll drop everything but your equipped shoes.
The game then send you south, which the snowy mountain get a lot more punishing with more defined vehicle routes that may not be obvious, with one quest carrying a sensitive explosive that when your bike bump into rock 5 times the game is over. BT also is back in this area while the game remove your BB so you can't detect them other than that you're in BT area and when they're chasing you. (If you hate BT, fighting the catcher may be easier as it get rid of all BTs in the area but there might be up to 3 lions, each requiring 4 hematic grenades in very easy. Some quests also reset the area so backtracking maybe annoying). And you'll have to backtrack once or twice. Finally, you're send to the furthest end of the map through a back-to-back area of BT and terrorists which take you to the last map.
The last map has two cities which is connected by an area with jellyfish BT and then normal BT. If you get caught here by normal BT the game is over and you'll have to restart the entire map (since you can't save in dangerous zone). By this point you can stealth kill BT though by just walking under them and press F.
Once you complete the final map, you get send back to where you came from in map 2 and the quest is to backtrack throughout the entire game to the very first map and very first city. This time, they removed all your structures (online ones is still available) and if you walk into BT zone you instantly get catcher fight without stealth. I planned my routes to avoid all the BT areas, but it seems that the bottom left BT area and the mountain area in 1st map is unavoidable.
After that, one last delivery and the game is over. Unless you want to deliver some pizzas...
Longtime lurker, First time poster.
I have been playing Schedule 1 recently and loving it. It's gameplay was described as "playing breaking bad" to me by a friend. As that is one of my favorite shows, I felt I really wanted to give it a try.
I can now confirm that description is very accurate, but doesnt cover the full extent of why I like it. I dont know about later in the game, but the early game has you managing your weed growing operation, slowly expanding the customers you have and the amount of product your can grow/how its packaged. The game does a great job of slowly unlocking the different elements and tools so none of it feels too overwhelming. The aesthetic made me interested in the game, but the chill somewhat guided zen gameplay has got me really into booting it up among my hundreds of backlogged games, films and TV. This zen environment created by somewhat casually managing your operation is what I imagine people have really liked about games like Stardew Valley. The difference from those types of games (as I have tried to get into Stardew Valley before and wasn't too keen on it) is that Schedule 1 seems to more clearly give you goals to work towards. There is always a big "main quest" goal to work towards and your small tasks slowly build into bigger tasks that help you get there.
I've been playing Until Then, another narrative breath of fresh air! This game was in my list for a while before being released more than a year ago; I only got to it now.
You play as Mark, a Filipino teenager who was abandoned by his parents (who moved away for work) years prior and has been living alone in his childhood home ever since. Mark's world is defined by his various peers and classmates. He has a great deal of freedom and is not in any way an outcast or ostracized, but at the beginning of the story is very lost, unwilling to put any effort into anything other than trying to learn a piano song that his mother used to play (have you noticed how these heart-wrenching dramas always feature piano music?)
I should say upfront that this game lands close to the far end of the "Gameplay vs Narrative" spectrum - it's a walking simulator, albeit an atypical one. While there are dialogue choices, minigames and other interactive mechanics, and you must walk Mark around the various sets, the predetermined story of Mark and his friends is told as a long, linear succession of vignettes. Good thing it's a great story! The pacing is very good, all the various activities and small moments making the world of the game pop out (at one point Mark plays, inside the game, what is obviously Doki Doki Literature Club, and you get a brief shot of his horrified face before he decides not to continue). The cast is immediately captivating, each a fully realized character with their own interests and issues. The banter is great; Mark stutters, jokes and flirts depending on what's going on. Like any teenager, Mark spends a lot of time on his phone, using social media or instant messaging, and the game simulates these apps for you, allowing you to share, like and comment on posts. (As an older person, I felt a little smothered early on by all the alert chimes and clashing conversations. People live like this?)
Visually, the game is 2.5D, pixelated and reminiscent of a 90s arcade fighting game or beat em' up (no one's getting beaten though!) Every single character has that "bouncy" breathing cycle animation from those types of games, which can be a little goofy at first, before you get used to it and stop noticing. Even though the art is so pixelated, the artists did an excellent job of being expressive there as well, with characters' smirks, pensive expressions and blushes conveyed to perfection. Cutscenes are animated in higher resolution.
The story is suffused with a pervasive sense of dread. In the backdrop, what appears to have been an earthquake of catastrophic proportions is affecting all public discouse, social media posts, news, etc. You learn that all major roads were destroyed and wounded or displaced refugees are roaming the country, overwhelming hospitals and other infrastructure. Meanwhile, some of the characters appear to be suffering from hallucinations. Others are clearly depressed. This is the kind of game that introduces you to a whole bunch of lovely people and strongly conveys that something horrible is going to happen to someone. I'm still playing, so I don't know if this is true or not. I hope not!
I think I'm going to use this week's post to also talk about two duds that I encountered in 2025.
Albatroz is a game about backpacking in south america, or at least it's supposed to be. Protagonist Isla leaves her boring repetitive job and her city full of indistinguishable people (they really lay it on thick right from the start) to go find her brother, a climber and free spirit who was last seen years prior.
At the start of the game, you are driving a (crappy) car. You also have a crappy map. It's immediately obvious that you need to orienteer a bit, take care not to damage the car and to keep the fuel tank from going all the way empty between gas stations. Cool! The car can't go up very steep inclines but it's still possible to go off road, which I did almost immediately. OK! Eventually I find a sign indicating I'm near the village of Fort Condor. I have to abandon my car and start backpacking now! More cool systems here; Isla's walking speed depends on the inclination of the ground, and you have to forage for fruit and water, which you carry in your limited capacity backpack, and to manage your arm and leg tiredness, and even your body temperature, using clothing and food! And all stats are upgradeable! You have directions for reaching Fort Condor based on compass directions and geographic features. So far so good!
But suddenly you run into a magical fog. You see the ghost of your brother, which you're required to chase for way too long (at some point I camped, right in the middle of this scripted sequence) before a scripted passing out. You wake up in the village, where you meet a shaman who is clumsily forced into being your love interest, I think, and now you're doing clunky fetch quests. You need to feed the bridge guard before he'll let you leave. You can't sleep before you do this quest, but you can't do this quest at night, so if night falls you're doomed to a long period of boredom. The game is full of did-anyone-actually-test-this moments like that. It's also very... Unity. It takes like 15 seconds to go in or out of houses in Fort Condor because a trillion assets have to be loaded or unloaded. It's visually kind of pretty, but not in an efficient, well optimized way.
You leave the town, backpack a little more and now you're in the middle of a magical thunderstorm in the mountains! You're forced to do a very long, confusing platforming sequence with no guidance. Don't go the wrong way or you'll get stuck between the mountainside and incongruously placed invisible walls! Don't fall, or you have to start over! You finish this, there's a cutscene, and just as I was wondering damn, I'm so far away from my car, I'll never see it again, why did they even bother to implement it? there's a cutscene and bam, back in the car, no need to bother actually crossing the distance back. I move into the next "region", even though I never actually visited anything marked in my map and I don't know if I was supposed to. In the next region, there are no gas pumps, so I max out my fuel tank's capacity, upgrading it all the way. I shouldn't have bothered, because at one point the game forces the car out of gas anyway. Oops!
I backpack to a campfire. The campfire is on top of a boulder that must be reached by jumping. The game forcefully injures one of my characters' leg and then tells me to go to the campfire. It's Fort Condor all over again. I cheesed this by switching between characters in such a way that the gap was magically crossed without using leg strength. Then I was forced to collect 3 healing herbs, except since I had 1 at the start, and 3 is the backpack maximum, I was stuck.
At this point I'd had enough. This game has a cool foundation and people clearly put a lot of actual work into it. At the same time, it's horribly balanced and horribly designed. It doesn't know what it wants to be. It constantly gets in its own way. It forces you to be bored and waste time instead of letting you actually backpack. Why the hell does it take 30 minutes to pump fuel into the car? Why does an apple's worth of food meter last almost no distance? The developers, clearly inexperienced, do not understand how the instructions and level design must be sufficient for the player not to be totally lost - or if the game is supposed to be survival open world, let that happen instead of mixing impossible to overcome limitations with annoying, cookie cutter cutscenes.
(EDIT: I thought this was hilarious on re-read and was going to let it stand but for the sake of accuracy... Fort Condor is of course a location in Final Fantasy VII. It's El Condor.)
I left the most controversial one for last. Unsighted is a game people generally seem to like, so I'll keep it brief. It's a cool top-down pixelated cyberpunk action game. Nothing wrong with the visuals! There's combat, including with guns, some environmental puzzle solving, and dialogue cutscenes with various characters. I did not dislike any of this, strictly speaking.
I did dislike that once you reach the hub/camp area you have to swim through an overwhelming amount of enemies that are way too strong for you to even go anywhere, unless you're extremely accurate with your weapons. It was frustrating and didn't feel well balanced. I died several times, got bored and gave up.
Previous
I'm from Thailand and I'd describe Until Then as an Asian Life is Strange (although without the teen issues).
There's something weird about seeing somewhat familiar landscape and culture in the game. I don't know if Americans would feel the same for LiS, or maybe nothing because there are already too many games set in America, although another post in this thread describe it as Twin Peaks (which doesn't relate with me - I never know of that show). For me, the scene with Cath at the convenient store look just like convenient store near my home - and I can't pinpoint why it felt that way when 7-11 supposed to look the same everywhere. It hits differently. And the game doesn't feel like it try so hard to present the Philippines culture - people play it because of the story, not because it immerse you in the culture. It's a trap that I think Thai game companies fell into when trying to make a local game. Games like "Home Sweet Home" just outright says that this is a horror game based on Thai myths, and I think it would only appeal to the local people mostly.
The sets in Until Then feel very cozy and genuine, setting aside how some of them are colored by Mark's feelings at the time (happy, neutral or panicking). The school is awesome, for instance; that principal's office is so damn extra! And I can feel the texture of those plastic tablecloths. There is some cultural confusion - some of the fairground attractions were very confusing for instance. But otherwise you don't need to be asian to feel at home in this game. Quite a feat when the picture frames on the furniture have a two digit amount of pixels.
It took me some time to understand what country I was in, so you're right - they're subtle about it.
When I played the principal room section I think they captured how people feel about private school just right. The principal of my elementary school has a stretch limousine. Of course the student would talk about the principal's spending compared to school lunch.
My high school is a public school, I haven't been to the principal's room but externally the principal's room and the rooms next to his room (meeting room and general affairs) are the only ones with wood wall panels.
Diablo IV with it being on the PS+ monthly game list I finally gave it a shot. This being my first Diablo game, I somehow knew but didn’t know I’d love it so much. Rock Paper Shotgun has said that it’s mindless fun, but I’m enjoying the story, and even more the gameplay and sound design. With headphones, it’s even more apparent how great the sound effects and voice acting are. The versatility of creative builds, which I can only assume is a cornerstone to a Diablo game is also astounding. Playing it casually on normal difficulty keeps my attention even when I only have 30 mins to play and clear a dungeon. RPS also likened it to Vampire Survivors and I do get that train of thought, but I end up thinking more about Hades and not just because they both deal with hell. The random encounters with other online players is also a plus.
FBC Firebreak I’ve fallen in love with Remedy’s games and while this one is somewhat at the bottom of that list, I still enjoy it. Matchmaking can be difficult sometimes, and the progress slow, but if you find two other competent players who aren’t too selfish in finding just the collectibles, it can be an amazing hour. There’s definitely a lot worth griping about though. Being set on fire and it just slowly killing you happens way more often than you’d want, and until you can reload quickly, most guns aren’t fast enough to even justify using. Man, this sure doesn’t make it sound fun, but I do dig it.
Life is Strange (PS5 Playstation+):
I've never played one of these but started it with my non-gamer partner on the couch. I think the narrative and choice based gameplay pulled us both in.
Rouch sketch of the game: you play as budding photographer Max who recently moved to her hometown for school. I'm a bit unclear on what type of institute this is but it feels like college. It's a narrative game with light puzzle solving. Max begins seeing visions of a dangerous storm and also finds she has the ability to rewind time a bit. This is a nice touch for a narrative game to retry different choices. You also use this baility to do some sluething into the town drama and what is happening.
It's giving twin peaks sort of small town with weird stuff happening. What worked really well for us is how well it ellicits that transitional feeling of young adulthood. Everyone feels a bit cooler, a bit more grown up, and like you just missed some kind of memo. But Max is a good character that is easy to empathize with. I expect we'll play another episode.
Avowed (PC Xbox Game Pass):
Avowed really impressed me earlier this year but I dropped off when i got to the third zone: "Scatterscarp." Not for any reason other that I played a bunch and lost interest. But it was wonderful to come back to. The combat continues to hit, it's punchy and crunch. Dodging and parrying feels great. The party members are effective in combat. Their personalities also provide good perspectives and altenrate motivations. The environment really is beautiful and I enjoy exploring the dungeons because of how vibrant and interesting they are. This game really delivers the gameplay I enjoy in Skyrim and other western first person RPGs.
The story is interesting but it honestly is a game where I've kinda lost track of what is happening. Mostly because I like playing this with a podcast or music on. Though the smaller quests and storylines do grab me. I often will mute stuff to hear these minor characters stories. It will easily be on my top 10 of the year, I do worry it will have dropped off most people's radar by end of year.
I loved Life is Strange, and I highly recommend looking for the soundtrack once you finish the game!
I've been playing Date Everything the dating sim where you're dating your household furniture. It's a love letter to voice acting, and at the same time you can be in love with your bed, your air fryer, your water heater, etc. You get special glasses that turn household objects into people... Ish. There are some odd ones too, I've only flirted with my nightmares and not met my existential dread yet.
It's really fun and not my usual genre at all, but where else would all the books in my house fall in love with me, and my D20 try to set up a game with my desk and I, while I try to set up my desk and my tables and the chair is too busy to talk to me?
And if you are a fan of any voice actors they're probably in this game (it feels like everyone is)
Hah, been playing it myself and the experience is pretty much the same. You can just tell the devs really loved(heh) working on it. The variety of characters alone is something else!
3 recent steam sale writeups and 1 backlog (Boltgun).
Yet Another Killing Game
A visual novel which is exactly what it says, 3 girls wake up in an unfamiliar house and find a message on the entrance door saying that it won't open until one of them dies. Took me almost 3 hours to reach the end continuing where my demo save data left off, but I thought it was well worth my steam sale money. I just like the vibes and think it's a clear work of love. Since the game goes fast with spoilers, I think I'll separate my thoughts into different layers of spoilers.
Kinda spoiling game structure/gameplay
I think Zero Time Dilemma is probably the closest comparison in how progression works? You have to go through the bad ends before the protagonist has enough deja vu to progress (kinda like that specific AB game that needed to be repeated with different choices). The core cast is also just 3 people like a team.
The rooms aren't a crime scene investigation or puzzle/escape rooms, but just point-and-clicking things for flavor text and banter until you've examined the right things because there really aren't much relevant clues to discover. There is a (very) hidden explanation for it, but it means there isn't that feeling of "I solved the shit out of that puzzle!" though it can instead be taken as the unnerving feeling of "oh there really isn't any hidden thing to solve, someone's gonna have to die." In that vein, there isn't really any lengthy exposition aside from some optional occult stuff in one or two specific rooms. I suppose to that end, it means the game is very much up to how receptive you are to the characters.
Spoilers up to the demo/Part 1
Well I like how the bad ends happen immediately at night time when everyone agrees to sleep. I hit the Chaos ending first with Cece, so next cycle I investigated with Ria first and said nobody's dying only for the protagonist to get a bad feeling about it. It was at that point I realized "Oh all three memory shards are gonna result in death because you can't have both of them peaceful" and then I guess that feeling of "Oh, there isn't a wrong decision to make here, the mental time travel is a part of the plot, let's get through all those endings". And I did. And I liked everyone communicating at the end of Part 1 which got me to buy the full game.
Disjointed spoilers for the entire game
Honestly my thoughts are pretty jumbled. After hitting all the reveals, I'm been replaying when grabbing achievements and there's just all the little details to notice.
Mega spoilers for Achievement #60
Oh wait nevermind she's watching she kno-
Aliya: Timelink
Not what I was looking for. It's basically a fake chatbox from you to Aliya who is a space explorer from 1000 years in the future and you have control over some of her spaceship stuff. While having to wait real time between her responses is definitely immersive, it also means you're just putting this game in the background and then having bursts of "must respond back when she does otherwise you'll miss the conversation prompts". I'll admit the 1st ending was emotional, but some of the later conversations I could tell were just illusion of choice where she'll respond the same way. I got the 5th ending just by being honest and helpful with her in the beginning and then missing all the conversations because of work followed by getting awarded the ending achievement once I checked in again. While I don't plan to refund it, I apparently have 5 hours on it which is way past the no questions refund time limit for just a handful of dialogue.
Pawnbarian
Still need to find my groove (2.6 hours), but this game is being upfront about its annoying enemy types. It's a draw 3 cards, 2 energy game, but with no deck editing besides buying upgrades for the cards between floors. The obvious best upgrade type is cantrips which is "no energy, draw another card", but the 2nd dungeon hard counters it. Some enemy types also persistently drop blight which is a stacking damage poison that'll make a lot of tiles lethal to end turn on if you don't manage to kill them first. Other enemies are immune to damage unless you're next to them/not next to them and a PITA enemy type basically has a regenerating shield which generally means you have to hit them twice to kill them. It's a lot to learn I guess, but that might also be on me for not looking at the remaining cards in the deck. I don't think I'm feeling the X-factor anymore? It's starting to feel more and more like damage is unavoidable which the game might be trying to signal with its one hp recovery on floor completion. Think I might have to focus more on the AoE upgrades to offensively and efficiently take out enemies.
Warhammer 40k: Boltgun
Played for 13 hours on normal for the campaign + DLC + some horde mode. My knowledge of W40k amounts to "Purge heretics for the Emperor" and the Orks' WAAAAGH field, but I very much like the stomping feel from just moving around in the ultramarine armor, it feels right. I feel like I had to play in bursts though; like as cool as being a walking tank charging into enemies while mashing the taunt button feels amazing, it also feels like the TTK for non-cultist enemies was on the higher end for how many there were, especially when enemies respawn in locked fight rooms where you have the kill the elite/boss enemies to finish. I did dedicate every weapon past the heavy boltgun as a elite/boss slaying weapon, so that might be a me issue, but also the regular and heavy boltgun were all-rounders that just took care of everything. I thought the normal shotgun felt weak for a videogame shotty with a lot of fall-off damage, slow fire rate, and 2 shotting demons at best while the plasma gun felt a lot better after learning I could hold down the fire button and release 5 blasts without recoil damage. I'm not the best judge of retro-style shooters, but I think the enemy health felt exhausting and especially so in the DLC.
I guess it should be mentioned that there's an autorun and perma objective point options in the settings since those are helpful, though enemies are pretty good at tracking. I did wish there was an enemy tracker due to the chapter select keeping track of whether every enemy was killed in a level.
I went back to Kerbal Space Program which is as overwhelming as ever. I still didn't learn manual docking and rendezvous and consider MechJeb to be an essential mod.
The range of mods around it is still very strong but also a lot of them bring their own problems and large number of them has a tendency to vastly overcomplicate things without the necessary guardrails, in game manuals and examples to make it workable instead of a second job. Though it has given me a very basic overview of orbital mechanics which I consider pretty cool result of simply playing a game.
The game without mods is incredibly limiting and in parts infuriating*. From the tech tree to contracts to building to lack of necessary information to various engine problems resulting in exploding parts and weird behavior to ion engines being theoretically cool but practically unusable do to hour long burns to lack of sane possibilities of quickly testing vessels. Personally I am running as core mods:
I would really love some universal resize mod which I even think existed at some point I can't find it anymore.
I'm also trying Progressive Colonization Systems, USI colonization system and Konstruction but again unchecked complexity which in my opinion game as KSP which has that plenty in unmodded state does not need.
*not to even mention the various publisher shenanigans. The game is permanently offline and it would be really nice if it was not needed though practically it is for a vast range of games
TweakScale is probably what you're looking for; it's the only essential mod for me.
Friends started up a temporary Project Zomboid server (temp as in, we tend to burn through a game for a few weeks and then interest peters out quickly - so the expectation here is for the server to only last a few weeks). I only played the tutorial before then, so I was pretty lost with all the menus and context actions. So I tried to see how playing solo on the Steam Deck would be.
I think the controls are a little wonky and I'm too lazy to look up how to get to every menu option without the touch screen. But I can interact with things and touch screen as needed, whatever.
And not going to lie, the "regular experience" of this game is fascinating but not something I can probably deal with long term. So after going through some solo files where I'd die anywhere between 2 hours and 9 days, I decided that actually I want to turn this into a horrible Stardew Valley, remove all zombies and crank up any and all settings that help living a chill life as the last person on earth. Which is kind of how I play solo Minecraft sometimes, where I'm not interested in actually building things, but just walking in random directions and eating what I find on the way...
Yeah sounds about right for Zomboid really. Of course, you're welcome to play the game however you wish, if you're enjoying your farming experience go for it!
I just wanted to jump in and say that Zomboid has a knowledge/skill gate where at some point you just "get it" and suddenly it's basically impossible to die unless you're not paying attention.
It's actually kinda a problem because it flips from extremely annoying to extremely boring in a snap of the fingers.
I read that they made some effort in recent patches to make the zombies more diverse and give some more challenge, but I don't really buy it until we get more "special" zombie variants like left for dead.
The thing that I found really mixed things up was recurring helicopters. A singular heli is more understandable given the lore, but recurring helicopters means that at any moment you might have to deal with a horde converging on your location.
After a long day of work, there's nothing like coming home, plopping yourself in front of your game experience provider, and spending your free time working some more. Yes, games that require you to perform repetitive tasks at the behest of a talking badger, but they don't pay anything -- unless you accept payment in the form of a chill, meditative experience that comes from power washing dirty driveways, driving long distances hauling freight, or dismantling derelict space craft in outer space.
Job games have been instrumental in making us all into honest gamers. And to help, there's another type of job game that has been woefully under-represented; a job game that neither cozy nor offers a transcendental experience; a job game not about the rewards, but about the grind of iteration.
Pack your lunchbox, pay up your union dues. It's time to head to work at Robocop: Rogue City.
This licensed game based on 2/3rd of the R-rated, hyper-violent 80s action movie franchise that was fit to be repurposed as a children's cartoon is an odd-duck experience. It features a first-person perspective from which you can shoot green-silhouetted, cover-adverse bad guys -- just like from the movie. And yet, you're let loose upon a decaying and crime-ridden Old Detroit not to explode head cavities with a satisfying pop, but to issue tickets, sweep for clues, and help solve cases.
Unlike the fast pace and notable quotes of the movie, the video game version of Robocop is all drudge and minutia. It's pacing back and forth between fetch quests. It's all the boring stuff trimmed out of the running time of the theatrical cut. And I love it.
As slow-paced and grounded as it is, Robocop: Rogue City is the perfect companion to the movie in that it offers the player the experience of policing the mean streets of Old Detroit as its favorite son. And what makes the experience compelling is that to Robocop, this is his job. He does this because it's what he does. He has to track down car thieves and drug dealers (and shoot them to death) because it's something that has to be done. It's a dirty job, and you are the one to do it.
While a game starring Judge Dredd would be better able to explore themes of fascism and free will, Robocop delights in its premise of policing as a blue-collar vocation. Our hero serves as both role model and lackey to the other police officers who seem genuinely appreciative of Robocop's efforts as though he is some kind of Roomba/tank hybrid. With the policing situation so dire, and so few cops to go around, this is one job that demands to be done.
Spare observations:
I started Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 this weekend after picking it up on the Steam sale.
I just finished the second zone after the prologue last night, and so far, I'm enjoying it! As someone who grew up playing SNES-era JRPGs it's been fun seeing a truly modern take on the genre. The last FF that I played was FF8, though for something a bit more recent I've enjoyed the GBA's Golden Sun and Falcom's Trails in the Sky.
The graphics are gorgeous, and it runs great at 4k on my 4090. Interestingly, I realized that parts gave me Guild Wars 2 vibes -- mostly in terms of the impressionist digital art style with the brushstroke backgrounds in the UI, not to mention the pictures in The Manor. I've also really been enjoying the soundtrack so far. Some of the early battles have had way more epic music than I'd expected.
I do wish that there was a difficulty setting somewhere between Story and Expeditioner. I've never been great with timing, so I greatly appreciate the more forgiving dodge an parry windows of Story mode. But then the enemy damage feels a little too nerfed and I've been kind of face rolling everything, including optional bosses. I think if I could have the enemy damage of Expeditioner mode (since I'm fairly experienced at managing turns in JRPGs), but the timing window of Story mode it would be just about perfect.
It does seem pretty linear so far. Mostly a single long winding corridor with the odd path branching off to a dead end with a fight and some loot. That does make it easier to make sure that I explore everywhere and and grab everything without missing anything. But I won't deny that it's become a bit predictable (even when it is prettied up a bit with grapples, ropes, and jump puzzles).
I've been trying to play cold and avoid spoilers so far, but I'm definitely curious to see where the story goes!
Soooo many questions so far...
Roughly in order as I've been playing:
Hopefully, I'll get some answers by the end. Though I have a feeling that I'll have loads more questions before then, too.
ETA: I do also like how there's no magic points to worry about. In other games, MP attrition for spell casters can often feel like the limiting factor for how long you can reasonably spend in a dungeon. The fact that it's all off of action points, and those regenerate in battle is quite nice.
I'm pretty sure there's a mod for PC to increase the dodge and parry timer in Expeditioner mode without changing enemy difficulty. I don't know what it's called as I didn't need it myself but I've heard people talk about it on here and Reddit.
Wonderful game though, enjoy, absolutely my GOTY.
I just like to play Cryzen. Its a browser FPS game. During my childhood days I used to play Counter Strike this seems similar and fun to play. Short 5 mins matches , the maps are also very easy to learn. I randomly checked the same site in mobile , seems we can play it in mobile browser as well.
Magic is the primary game I play, but because of their recent collab with Final Fantasy, I found some motivation to find and emulator and ROMs and get some nostalgia from the FF games I've never played.
Even the GBA remakes show their age now, but damn does it feel pure to the intent of what I want, and that's good enough for me.
MechaBREAK just got it's actual release on July 02. Its a hero shooter with a mecha skin, but damn is it a good version of it. I've been asked a few times if I'm a paid shill, and no, I'm just s mecha slut. It feels Gundam if you want that, Armored Core if you want that, and lots of game modes.
Ok ok, don't judge me...
Parcel Simulator
This game is great. It's like Factorio but.... For boxes instead of iron plates.
It's heavily driven by automation, you'll be buying new conveyors and automated scanners every day to replace manual process and it's really well paced.
Right now I've just unlocked all the different types of validation, so I've automated most of them but the newest type, and all the package submission is all still manual. But I have plans!
Great game, would recommend to anyone who likes automation games.
RoadCraft
I'm still playing this when my friend and I both have time, it's certainly a niche game that's for sure. It's got a laundry list as long as my arm of little things that are annoying, very similar to Snowrunner when it came out, so I have faith the developers will improve a lot of the small stuff.
The main gameplay loop of making roads in gross terrain then later having a large number of vehicles drive over it I quite enjoy, and it's fun to do logistics with my friend.
I'm really keen to see what they do in some of the later levels, and especially the DLC levels. In Snowrunner they really got interesting and adventurous with the level design as time went on and I think they have a lot more scope to do really interesting stuff with RoadCraft.
I'm slowly playing through the remaster of Ever17, the second game in the Infinity visual novel series.
This game is a marked departure from the traditional renai game structure of Never7 and introduces a number of elements which would end up being built out further in the Zero Escape series:
A premise featuring a group of strangers trapped together and seeking to escape before they die (pretty unusual for a Japanese VN from this period - the vast majority were set in or around a school).
A complex overarching plot which has to be unravelled layer by layer by completing each route (each of which, taken individually, often leaves a lot of questions unresolved).
A much heavier emphasis on science fiction over character development / relationships, to the point where the characters are often just vehicles for delivering the author's ideas.
It's interesting enough to me as someone who is specifically diving in to see the 'missing link' between Uchikoshi's roots writing vanilla galge like Memories Off and his more high profile later career, but it's also pretty slow paced, repetitive (you'll be seeing most of the events play out in the same way in each playthrough, to the point where you can start anticipating them like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day) and honestly a bit difficult to recommend to anyone else (especially if they can just go and play Zero Escape instead).
I picked up NBA 2k25 on sale months ago and realized yesterday why I hadn't purchased this bullshit game in almost 10 years. For the past few weeks, I was under the impression that once you get a player past 90 overall, you can create a new player of the same level, therefore bypassing the brutal grind necessary to earn enough virtual currency to improve your skills. I was really looking forward to this because I was getting tired of blocking shots and rim running with my center and was ready to pull off some nasty step-back threes with a new guy.
NOPE. Instead, you get the opportunity to purchase VC with real dollars because your "rebirth" let's you bypass something called MyPlayer points, which mean absolutely nothing to anyone who isn't buying their stupid fucking virtual currency. You might be thinking, "Ok, that sucks, but it can't be that bad." It is that bad. I can either sink another 50-100 hours into grinding out another player, or, I can pay 50-75 dollars to skip the process. The audacity. It is one of the most shameless money grabs I've seen on a non-mobile game. I'm shocked by how many people put up with this nonsense, considering how most players who might fall for that shit buy the game at release for 70 bucks. On top of all that, they constantly try to sell you a season pass for 20 bucks every few months. All sports games kind of suck nowadays, but at least the baseball and football ones let you progress players somewhat quickly.
You’ve highlighted why I don’t play 2k, even as a massively obsessed basketball fan. Not only do they try to rob you blind at every corner, the game itself is also overly complex these days. I found myself going back to older games like 2k5 rather than put up with the bullshit of modern basketball games. I’d love to find modern roster files for an older game, I think one of the more recent ones like 2k12 or something still has an active modding community, but I have to do more research.
Oh my god it's so complicated. Everything involves the right joystick these days. I have like three moves and that's it, otherwise I'm just mashing stuff randomly.
I know MVP Baseball and Madden 05 have versions with updated rosters and uniforms that run somewhat smoothly but I've never looked for an NBA game. It's a bummer because there are some good qualities in 2k, like the ability to run a franchise through different eras. Still, it doesn't make up for the gratuitous profiteering.
Just finished Promise Mascot Agency as a Yakuza / Like a Dragon fan and I don't recommend it:
Overall, if you need any level challenge in your game, move on. If you are fine with a casual idle game with fun Like a Dragon references, give it a go with a steep discount.
I started playing Broken Sword The Shadow of the Templars – Director's Cut today and im hooked! I figured i'd give it a try, but about 4ish hours of gameplay later and, i'm having to pull myself away from the screen. The story is ticking all the right boxes for adventure and mystery with just enough comedy and goofiness to not ruin the vibe. The game has all the good elements of Davinci code/ national treasure/ PotC. The puzzles are also fun and offer just enough of a challenge to keep me wanting more. I have not strayed far into the point n click genre but everytime I do play one its always a good time.
I seem to have amassed a small collection over the years on GOG,I assume its the giveaways, so once im done with broken sword I will move onto the second instalment and then Grim Fandango. I might have to put the second playthrough of the witcher 3 on hold for a few weeks while I scratch this itch.
I abandoned Rocket League a while back and have been looking for something to replace it. I have been thoroughly enjoying REMATCH. I never picked up SIFU (same developer) but liked their approach to kinetic gameplay, and their take on football feels awesome. It gives me the same feeling that EA Skate would back in the day, where after you played some with friends you'd get the urge to pick up the boards and go practice kickflips.
I also played my first actual games of Magic the Gathering over the weekend (commander). I had learned the very basics from my SO, and decided to dive into a couple full games with a borrowed deck. I can't say I had a great time because I get irrationally angry if I forget a step or rule and feel stressed out because of it, but I was glad to take a first step into with a good group that was great at explaining all the card functions.
edit: mobile butchered the word 'while'. corrected.
I'm still playing No Man's Sky this week, as I have been for several weeks now. I'm mostly satisfied with my new settlements, and my interest in them has started to wane, but I still find myself loading up the game just to wander the universe in search of neat things. I imagine I'll eventually lose interest (until the next update), but for now it's keeping my attention. I have also been thinking about "borrowing" my son's Quest in the evenings to see how the VR experience is with that device. I tried VR with my older less capable laptop with a Valve Index and found it a bit too choppy, but might have a better experience this time around.
Edit: Just for fun, here's a picture of me riding my new favorite companion