What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?

A couple additional remarks about Bittersweet Birthday.

The game had a total of three chapters (you go back to the main menu after each of them). The first two were fine. The third one was painful. Gameplay almost completely gives way to an on-rails series of cutscenes that last a good four hours (if you speed through the dialogue). The characters go on and on about the world building/"magic system" of the game, in a conversational, high friction, endlessly repetitive manner. Someone is listed in the credits as "editor"; they needed a better editor. It was by far the most masturbatory video game writing I've seen in a long time.

It's not like the ideas in the game were bad, or anything. It was a fine game with a fine foundation. But I'd gotten it by then. I'd gotten it when the game gave me a notebook that neatly explains all the concepts - life comes from and goes to another dimension, there's a horizon between them, people are being made immortal by coating them in psychic shrinkwrap that keeps life from escaping, this means everybody else will keel over and die, end of the world, cool. I don't want to read about it for another four damn hours. I want to play a game!

I wish they'd focused more on the combat portions and on adding more locations.

So, here's a riddle. In what game can you flood a desert, ride a menagerie of aquatic mammals, do skateboard tricks, surf up a mountain and bitchslap a giant serpent lava god? Why, it's Sword of the Sea, which I played this week. Thanks, Secret Santa!

This is the newest game by Giant Squid, the studio founded by Journey art director Matt Nava, released earlier this year. Previously, they released Abzu, a beautiful game that takes place under the waters of the ocean, and which features a massive variety of aquatic life. Then they released The Pathless, a vast "open world" adventure game featuring archery, puzzle solving and cinematic boss fights. Sword of the Sea feels like it brings all of these games together - Nava has publicly confirmed they take place in the same world! Even Journey is alluded to by scarves and pennants, and the rolling, sandy dunes of the desert.

Some reviewers mention Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, which I found amusing. Tony Hawk's Pro Journey? The Wraith you control doesn't walk, but rather surfs on his giant sword. He can glide on anything, though most of the time you'll be on sand, snow, water or (try not to linger) lava. There are button combinations for doing "tricks", and rewards for doing combos. Level design even includes half-pipes here and there! Even without that, movement is really satisfying. Minor movement-related abilities are unlocked gradually during your playthrough - SotS is largely an exploration game.

The world of Sword of the Sea is gorgeous in a vaguely surreal way. You are attempting to bring "the ocean" back to the world of the surface after mean lava god Tor Namun fought ocean gods the Dolphin and the Shark to a standstill, a story told in free verse through small monuments found throughout the game. You can never quite tell if you're on land or on the ocean, though - sandy dunes will undulate like the high seas, and water will cover the hilltops without flowing downslope. Fish and aquatic mammals will swim freely through the skies. It all works, somehow! The musical atmosphere of the game is, in my humble opinion, top tier. One of the best I've ever heard in a videogame, and it deserves more mainstream recognition (though the game has won a whole bunch of awards already!)

The game is a bit more narrow in scope than The Pathless, a bit more focused and less gameplay-oriented. There is an achievement for finishing in 2 hours, which you can take as a reference for a speedrun. A normal run might take you 6 hours or so, while a thorough run (there are collectibles, some of which are very well hidden) might exceed 10 hours. I loved this game and am looking forward to playing more games by this studio!

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Hey it's me, back at it again refusing to play normal games.

Been playing Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu over the past 3 days. It's a Super Famicom title that never reached the West, but has an English patch.

Man, I wish there were other DBZ games.liie this. The time period covers Raditz to Freeza, and the battle system is a turn-based with cards. Its so cool/cute to see the little sprites do the DBZ battles, slam each other into rocks or the water, dodge, do their signature attacks,.etc.

You have a lot of freedom in the game. For example, if you finish King Kai's training early, Goku can arrive pretty early on, and even before the Nappa fight. If the Z fighters survive the battle with the saiyans (minus Piccolo, he always dies), then you bring the whole gang to Namek, where they even have little lines of dialogue. My absolute favourite instance of this is that, of Ginyu changes bikes with you, you can use the frog card to follow the normal route to change back. Or... maybe Yamcha doesn't need his body back. Maybe you kill Ginyu rhe normal way, and now you have Ginyu in the party going forward.

The game is also nostalgic in that, because it never came to the West and not a lot of people played it, it's not that fully researched. There's no consensus on whether you can influence the gravity training at all, or if it's just RNG. Most of the guides say you need to press specific buttons. Some people say it's comp random, and I agree. It feels like playing in the 90s, where there's actually not a lot of information and I have to figure it out.

A big minus is the grinding, because the game takes its power levels seriously. Your 3,000 power level Chiaotzu isn't going to put a scratch on 18,000 Kui. Thankfully, there's an auto battle button and emulators have speed up, so it wasn't unbearable with a good podcast.

I'm not sure I'd recommend it per se, but I'm kinda in love with this game right now.

Got around to playing Deathloop, which I recall seeming very interesting back when I saw the trailer before release in 2021. It's a nice looking game, with good controls, interesting story, funny dialogue, etc. etc. for all of that I do recommend it.
For me, didn't really work out. I don't like grinding loops and the game is literally a repeat the same things over and over until you know every possible thing in order to find the one way to do all the things in a single day without dying or you start over grind loop. I expected a loop because of death and I enjoy roguelikes, I did not expect to literally need to repeat the game multiple times just to finish it once. Even speedruns of the game require looping 6 times.

Still playing Blue Prince. After a week, I feel like I've made a lot of progress and none at all 🤣

Honestly i was feeling a bit down on the lack of progress I was making. But a few nights ago I got so far. Finished a puzzle, picked up clues to another, reached some new rooms, and unlocked a new ability. One run seemed to open up the game again for me. Joy of a good roguelite I suppose.

Still don't feel close to finishing, but I see light at the end of tunnel. Will probably be playing this for the rest of the year