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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.
I was excited to pick up Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 this week but several hours in I'm disappointed to find it's just not for me.
Partly my own fault for assuming a game described as "story rich RPG with turn based combat" would mean it would play at least something like Baldur's Gate 3. The key difference is that combat requires very precisely timed button pressing, which I really struggle with.
Another difference, although not as much of a deal breaker on its own, is there is no element of positional strategy (like, in BG3 characters can move around in combat, get to higher ground etc). I understand it's a JRPG though, and this is how they are. And I have enjoyed other games like this, I thought Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door was especially good.
I thought I could solve the button pressing problem by setting the difficulty to Story, and with mods that make button timing much more forgiving. But even on Story difficulty it seems you're forced to grind up the levels to be able to beat bosses. I think this is the most frustrating part of it, shouldn't Story difficulty mean literally I am just here for the story, if I am trying at all I shouldn't be able to fail?
The story is interesting, the voice acting is pretty good, and artistically I love it, which all just rubs salt in the wound. Perhaps I'll watch a playthrough on youtube.
Yeah, everything I've seen about the gameplay mechanics has screamed to me that I shouldn't even try it. But I hear its plot is good, so perhaps there'll be some good abridged version of it soon.
Oh damn, I happen to check the website right as this thread goes up and I'm due for a break anyways so time for me to go and gush about Arc Raiders some more!
First of all, I know this game isn't for everyone. I'm not going to say "Oh, everyone should play it" because that clearly is not the case. It's a special type of game that doesn't mesh with everyone's play style. That being said, I've had quite a bit of time to think about why I enjoy it so much.
The world building is beautiful. It's both empty and alive. The art team really understood the direction with the visual and audio aspects of the game. They absolutely nailed the 80's sci-fi experience and that alone is quite amazing. It actually is what caught my attention initially. That was when I then also initially passed on the game because of it being an Extraction Shooter. I'm glad I saw those videos of the game being played pre-launch to help change my mind.
The PvE enemies are always dangerous. They can't be taken lightly, as being too lax can quickly turn an encounter into a panic situation. Many are easy to take out one-on-one, but as soon as you start seeing multiples together, then you really need to think about avoiding the contact altogether. A group of 3+ bots and poor cover will be merciless in eliminating you and bringing your run to an end. (I got ganked by 7 last night, they came out of nowhere and destroyed me) The bigger enemies? Don't even bother unless you are specifically prepared for fighting them. The Rocketeer is my nemesis and I give it a very healthy, wide berth when I see one. It has ruined my run multiple times. Most recently? I was running to a raider hatch to escape when time had run out and right as I opened the hatch, it blew me off the hatch and I couldn't crawl back in time to get back in before the hatch closed on it's own.
Other players aren't as toxic as you would think for a game like this. I primarily play solo, and there is a general attitude of "Good luck out there" amongst 90% of people I meet. Very rarely do I come across someone going postal and trying to shoot up the lobby, but then they are quickly dispatched as they are just being reckless and people really do flock to raider flares when they jump someone. Everyone I've talked to has been friendly and helpful and I've only heard one instance when someone had just let a casual slur.
Losing your gear isn't actually the end of the world. Turns out, the base stuff you can craft right away is just as good as the high tier stuff. Yeah, the high tier stuff is more consistent, but you can still win fights with a small machine gun and a big, breach loaded battle rifle. When you die, it doesn't take much to get your kit right back to where you would like it to be. Thankfully, since people tend to play nice (for now) I can just hop into a map, gather what I need and usually be back to the same strength I was before. Additionally, a group of people even with simple weapons (and smart use of scavenged tools) can eventually bring down a the bigger enemies with minimal to no losses. I still haven't defeated a Queen yet, but I did get to see it nearly vaporize some guy who was stupid enough to poke it from near max distance. I learned a healthy respect for that mob (And the guy is lucky I had a Defib).
Solo and Squads are two different beasts. My wife was interested and we played together for a bit, but she got distracted with the new Pokemon game and the fact we kept running into trios as a duo. I do think the one QoL is that they can add a Duo queue for people like us so we aren't fighting down a person every time someone decides they want to fight. (which, unfortunately, is often)
Anyways, I love this game. It's the first time in ages where I've come across a game that does not have major bugs, no chronic performance issues on PC and very few server overload issues. It's about as close to perfect as anyone can ask for in this day an age. I also love what it's done for the genre in proving that it doesn't have to be a huge sweat fest like Tarkov. Between Ark Raiders and Duckov, I think there's a real possibility that we will be seeing some new extraction shooters that are not aimed at the sweaty market within the next 1-2 years and I'm genuinely curious about what that will be.
I've also sunk quite a lot of time this week into Arc Raiders and I've reached a point where I'm basically comfortable playing it. I'm comfortable with going solo, actually much more so than in a squad, which is already a huge plus for casual play and player retention in general. I could only play Hunt in short bursts since it was bloody stressful but I can just hop into Dam Battlegrounds and go for a nice stroll, kill a few drones, say hi to passing strangers and maybe get into a firefight now and then. Getting a very cheap but functional loadout is easy so I'm not constantly pressured to run free loadouts and put myself at a steep disadvantage, and it's usually no big deal if I do lose it, especially with the safe pocket. The atmosphere's also great and has only gotten even better with the introduction of the Electromagnetic Storm event, with the rain drowning out your footsteps and the very close lightning strikes keeping you on edge. Most solos are still fairly non-confrontational, if not outright friendly. Heck, I went to the launch tower in Spaceport and someone was already looting the place so I asked them if they found any cooling fans and they just gave me one for free. I'm cautiously optimistic now that when they add more very PVE-focused events, players will actually cooperate and not betray each other at the end. Though it's still important that you get shot by another raider now and then, can't have people getting TOO comfortable.
In Herdling, you play a homeless person in a city who is awoken in the middle of the night by the noise caused by a lost, er, magical fantasy yak? You pick up a stick, guide the animal out of the city and before you know it you are now a herder shaman person. The game has you care for a steadily growing herd of animals, each one visually unique. You name them, groom them, pet them, feed them and play with them, and if you're careful and responsible, you will guide them mostly unharmed through vast plains, what must have been Ori's blind forest judging by the terrifying giant owl birds in it, and up treacherous slopes across a steep mountain range (Himalayan-inspired, probably? Big central asian vibes anyway) to magical fantasy yak paradise!
The game is beautiful, with fantastic musical ambience and a melancholic vibe (no other humans are ever seen) that quickly reminded me of the FAR games, so it was rewarding to find out that these are indeed the same developers, although Herdling is in full 3D. It's more of the kind of game they do so well - a short (about 5 hours) but sweet journey featuring exploration and some puzzle mechanics that are never very difficult to figure out. The yaks (or calicorns, as they are known in game) are not as complicated to drive as the boat-submarine, but they can get hurt and apparently can die (I'm happy to say all of mine survived the trip). Guiding them safely requires swift reactions and stealth to avoid collapsing paths, creepy giant owl eggs and spiky hazards, as well as managing their speed, which is tied to the flowers and fruits they eat on the way.
I also played a full campaign of Deck of Haunts (on normal - this matters, since it's shorter on easy). In this game, you play as a haunted house, and your objective is to lure in humans and devour them in order to increase your power. The influence of the classic but still awesome Dungeon Keeper is plain to see, as you have a pulsating "heart room" which, if reached, visitors can use to damage you. After each level, you get to use your power to build more rooms, hiding your heart deep inside a maze of living rooms, guest rooms, kitchens and an increasingly greater assortment of specialized rooms, some of which come with resident monsters that will roam you and help you put those uppity humans in their place.
The second half of the game comes into play during the levels themselves. Visitors will come, each with one or more (usually several) specialized traits from a vast assortment ranging from "panicky" to "doctor" to "has a gun". In order to defeat them you have to use your, well, deck of haunts! That's right, the core gameplay is that of a deck builder a la Slay the Spire. During their turns, visitors move from room to room, using their abilities, looking for the heart. During your turn you play haunts from your deck in an attempt to either kill them (by lowering their health to zero) or scare them insane (by lowering their sanity to zero). Both options have their drawbacks as most visitors will attempt to flee the house when they see a corpse, depriving you of power and increasing the strength of visitors in the next level, while insane visitors hang around until the end of the level and prevent you from using haunts that require empty rooms or solo visitors (in other words, it's less scary with more people around!)
The deck building mechanics are pretty decent, as in other games in the deck building genre. There's a system of "tension" counters that boosts future attacks, and there are combos and synergies. You get to choose cards that you add to your deck, and cards in your deck can be upgraded. You can also occasionally expend power to remove cards from your deck. I had fun playing through the campaign, and since I recall there were other types of campaings that unlocked after beating this one I will probably pick the game up again, though I'm not sure how replayable the game will be until I'm bored. In any event, I got a solid 8 hours of entertainment from it so far. Honestly, I think it's an underrated game.
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Herdling looks rather unique! I've wishlisted it, thanks for reviewing it
Yeah, it was pretty good. It's the type of experience that makes me happy I pick up so many indie games. Like FAR: Changing Tides, it does not overstay its welcome; quite the contrary, as after both of them I felt like I could have played a lot more of the same. But I also thought the way you travel towards a destination you can see in the distance even at the beginning of the game - the cohesion of the experience of the journey as a whole - adds to what made it satisfying for me. I suppose I'll just have to buy the devs' fourth game when they make it.
This week we concluded our special two-part on Caves of Qud for our podcast on roguelike/lite games, this time focusing on the gameplay and mechanics of the game.
I was a supreme Qud skeptic when I first touched it two years ago. I wasn’t impressed by the menus, the verbiage and terminology was super alien and hard to understand, but 150 hours later it’s become one of my favorite RPG games of all time.
Taking the time to slow burn the game, learn the systems, and understand the mechanics really turned me around on Qud. The amount of polish the devs put in for 1.0 really shine and separate it to be far ahead of any other traditional roguelike in terms of accessibility.
I think my only major gripe at this point is that it’s not a good roguelike for the learning process. It’s much better to play the game on Roleplay (checkpoints at villages) or Wander (most enemies start neutral) to learn the game before trying the first couple dungeons. I feel like the roguelike mode is better once you’ve gotten very far or beaten the game once.
Overall: highly recommended. It’s a super unique game and experience that is coming to Switch soon and I think folks who are interested are in for a real treat of an experience and one of the most rewarding endings to a game I’ve played in many years.
I started playing WoW Classic Mists of Pandaria the other week. It's been an interesting reminder of how god-awful leveling up used to be in that game. 1-60 Cataclysm-era Azeroth, 60-70 Outlands, 70-80 Northerend, 80-85 Cataclysm-era Azeroth again. And only then do you get to the "current" expansion content -- Pandaria.
And it's such a big skill curve going from Cata to Pandaria with Cata quest blue/green armor. I remember it fondly from when Pandaria first came out. I didn't really perfect my ability to CC and survive encounters as a Mage until Pandaria because it was so much more challenging than Cata content was.
I'm getting a little burned out already though. I chose a Retribution Paladin and I'm very tired of him. And usually I'd just roll an alt and have fun with that, but I lack the motivation to redo the 1-85 experience again.
Skate Story (demo)
Skate Story has been my most anticipated game since it was featured in Summer Games Fest back in 2022 (!!!). After 2 delays, it finally got a release date and dropped a demo.
I am not a skater. I have no attachment to the sport, the culture, or any of the cult classic skateboarding video games. What I wanted out of Skate Story was for it to deliver on the vibes that it sold me in its 2022 trailer :
My biggest worry going into the demo was that the actual skateboarding would get in the way of me enjoying the rest of the game.
It was immediately clear to me in the first 10 minutes that worry was going to be a non issue, and that Skate Story delivers. So much so that I put the demo down midway through the tutorial, so that I could just enjoy the game in its entirety when it releases.
Detective Instinct: Farewell, My Beloved (Demo)
I was browsing through Steam for demos to try, and ended up stumbling on Detective Instinct: Farewell, My Beloved. I don't remember what prompted me to click on it, maybe it was that it reminded me a bit of an anime I liked (Monster). Either way, I ended up playing through the demo and really enjoying it.
It made me nostalgic for anime/manga I've enjoyed in the past (the art of Monster, the detective work in Detective Conan, etc...). I really liked the music. The point-and-click gameplay seems fine, and the story seems compelling enough to make me want to see it through.
Battlefield 6
Sharing my buddy's recent text:
Lot to love, though. Best BF in the franchise for me, thus far. But I'm a new recruit!