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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.
So, since Thursday I have done nothing (gameplay wise) but play Mechwarrior 5, because I finally got around to installing the VR mod. It is absolutely incredible. I have been unable to tear myself away from it, nor stop thinking about it since I got it working and I'm a person who doesn't really like MW5 nor really care for VR. My VR headset generally sits in a cabinet unused for long periods.
But my God, I can't help but play this and just be completely enraptured, awed and absolutely stunned by how much more amazing MW5 is, in spite of its flaws (of which all are still true), just piloting a mech in VR and feeling like you are there. Playing my campaign, piloting my Griffin and looking over to the left of my cockpit to see my giant shoulder mounted missile launcher is unlike any other experience I've had in gaming up to this point.
The modders put in incredible work, remodeling great swaths of the game, including cockpits, the initial Home screen, the star map (which is awe inspiring to navigate) and all kinds of other things. The HUD, aside from stuff like your crosshair and heat, has been completely moved to be diegetic, so when you're in your mech, you're looking at screen readouts on your actual dash/cockpit panel. Your map, your weapons, your Lance, enemy targets, mission info, everything. Often, I've found myself in a mech I'm unfamiliar with cockpit wise and I have to look around to actually get my bearings and find where each of the screens are, so I can get that information as I run a mission.
Not just that, but being in different mechs actually feels different. My Griffin has this wide open windscreen where I can see around my instrument cluster, around my legs and have wide peripheral vision through the huge amount of glass. Other mechs can feel downright claustrophobic, like my little Commando's I have in my Lance, who just have a tiny windscreen in a part of the head, significantly decreasing battlefield awareness.
It's just incredible. I had been playing a lot of Darkest Dungeon 2 and was branching out into emulating Breath of the Wild again, but MW5VR has completely shut that down and I have zero motivation to play either of those games right now and simply want to exist within the Battletech universe.
One thing that is a little disappointing is that it doesn't work great with my HOTAS setup. The HOTAS itself works fine and brings an even further level of immersion, considering you can see your pilots hands on the stick and throttle, which move in-tune with your own inputs. This did make the game a lot harder for me, but it just felt so good I didn't want to stop using it.
Altogether an absolutely incredible experience. I showed my oldest, as he loves Battletech and MW5 as well and he's become similarly obsessed with it.
When I was younger, I put in countless hours in Mechwarrior games, especially MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries. I had a HOTAS setup then too, which was really awesome. Young me would have been thrilled to play a VR setup for the game they loved so much and really defined quite an era.
...which is all easier said by: I don't think my wife will appreciate me dropping ~$1,500 just on one game... though I think when the price of the headsets eventually (slowly) come down, there will be a laundry list of games like this that I would love to play through (Looking at you, Ace Combat 7, and likely 8 as well)
Well, if it's any consolation, my VR headset is an Oculus Quest 2, which I think my wife and I spent about $340 for maybe...a year? Two years ago? She uses it as an exercise method, playing Beat Saber and then we also play other stuff on it together, such as I Expect You To Die via Steam; so I sit on the couch and help spot things and talk through the puzzles with her while she has the headset on and is playing the game.
I actually barely used it until I discovered this VR mod, which again, is incredible. But Ace Combat 7 is also on my list of VR-Modded games to try. I've owned it for awhile now, but haven't actually touched it ever.
As coincidence would have it, I just started AC7 today because of the steep discount. Not in VR mind you, but it's enough to dissuade me from trying. It's disorienting enough as it is without VR.
I think it requires some to a lot of VR resiliency.
I have pretty good VR legs so I may be completely wrong but I find that cockpit games are less prone to motion sickness than other games. You always have a fixed point of reference in front of view (the cockpit) , so all the crazy twirling doesn't feel unnatural. Plus, the main gameplay is to get the little diamond in front of the little square, and that's where you main focus is.
I've been VR curious for years now, and reading about experiences like this always tempts me to jump in, particularly with how cheap entry level headsets like the Quest 3s are getting.
When I look into it, though, there are still a few caveats which are making me hesitate:
I wish I'd gone and tried one out before the pandemic when stores actually had test units. These days, it feels rare to even see them on shelves!
To address some of your questions and caveats, here's my experience with it:
Glasses are no problem with my Quest 2. I wear thick ones, have been wearing glasses since Kindergarten and my vision has only gotten worse, so I get the highest index available when I get new ones. No trouble at all there.
Haven't had any issue with the framerate on either of my machines I've used VR on and both are exceptionally midrange. The main one I use it with is a Ryzen 5 5600, 32Gb RAM and 6700XT. I've also used it on my HTPC, which is an i7-7700, 16Gb RAM, 6650XT. So far, no issues at all getting sick. For myself I can feel a bit sick/woozy if I'm playing a game where movement is by a stick or WASD, such as Half-Life.
Frame seems like a solid piece of hardware and I'm excited about it if only for the potential compatibility between ARM and x86. But yeah, a Frame would be much appreciated over the Meta stuff. I find the Quest 2 can be a bit fussy and I intentionally avoid doing much with it that would allow Meta to harvest the data. I've bought three pieces of software on it and I don't intend to buy a single one more; I primarily use it to connect to my PC's and play my Steam library.
Yeah, ours doesn't get used much. It's nice to have around for those rare times you see something that looks cool (such as MW5), but I'm glad we didn't spend more than $400 on it, because it's just generally too much of a faff to use with any regularity. I might use it more if I had more native VR games, but ultimately, I haven't found anything that really speaks to me as a lifelong gamer. Plus it's just...most of the time I don't feel like sitting down and putting a headset on, sequestering myself from the world and being immersed like that. I'd rather just jump on my laptop or Steam Deck and play something, as I tend to play games in short bursts and then am done for awhile. I have a family, so it's like locking myself off from them. But it works for me in this case because I rarely use my desktop for the same reason, so it's basically like setting aside time to do that, I just happen to be able to use the VR while I'm also using the desktop.
I will say it's been fun to play stuff like I Expect You to Die with my wife. We've also been meaning to get back to Half-Life: Alyx, but by the time the kids are in bed, I don't particularly feel like standing for an hour to play a game, especially considering I have bad knees, so it just...hurts.
I very much was in your position before we bought this headset and I won't say I regret it, but it certainly doesn't feel essential.
Thanks for the detailed responses!
The last point does seem to be the real sticker for adoption. As good as VR can be for providing unique experiences in specific cases like this one, it's always competing with just doing the same thing on your existing screen with less cost / friction.
Yeah I remember starting MW5 with the HOTAS, by God it was painful but too danged fun feeling like I'm really piloting the beast. VR is the next step, hyped to hear it is a good experience!! Thanks for sharing.
Yeah, I feel like I should work and get better with HOTAS, but it stings when I'm playing the career mode and it actually costs me a fortune to repair my Mechs, because they're so heavily damaged, since I suck with HOTAS. I also have a very old Logitech G13 macro pad, which I need to use when I'm playing with HOTAS, because there's lots of keyboard functions you need access to.
It ends-up just being better for me to play with keyboard and mouse, since I'm significantly better at the game, as well as just having an intimate understanding of where all the keys on the keyboard are, so I can easily hit them while I've got the headset covering my eyes. Not so simple and quick with the Macro pad and HOTAS.
Anyway, highly recommended if you have access to a VR headset. It actually got me into the game for the first time. I really disliked MW5, but now having played it with VR, it's actually got me playing on my Steam Deck or laptop when I can't afford the time to use my desktop and VR.
I loved my Logitech g13! Even coded some cute widgets for it. Unfortunately Spirit lost it along with all my luggage a bit back. But yeah does seem the big limitation for a lot of HOTAS setups is your key availability. Hoping to finally get in on VR next year with the new Valve headset.
Our podacst on roguelike/lite games just wrapped up its 2025 GOTY episode, revisiting the best ones we played for the year.
In short:
Blue Prince: Great, unique experience that felt quite grindy at the end. I only barely made it to Room 46, and after hearing theres like 60% more stuff to do still, leaves me somewhat interested, but also terrified.
Caves of Qud: Our 2025 GOTY, I was a BIG Qud hater when I first tried it in 2023. I've come around on it significantly and now it's one of my favorite RPG games of all time. Incredible ending and payoff to such a one of a kind thing that it is.
Deadzone: Rogue: I also bounced hard off this initially during a Steam Next Fest demo, thinking it was super boring, but I had a great time with it overall for the podcast episode. A new major update adds a new final act to the game (an epilogue?) that I'm quite excited to check out now.
Elden Ring Nightreign: Maybe the most unexpected entry for the year, I'm super glad it exists but it feels like the first test of the concept of a FromSoft Smash Bros "gangs all here" idea. Whatever the SSBM version of Nightreign that comes out in the future is, I'll be first in line.
Hades: An all time classic, so long as you're on board for 100 hours of visual novel style family drama. Not for everyone, but I loved every minute of it after maybe the first 2 hours, which were very confusing for me.
Halls of Torment: Maybe the best Survivor-like out there? A great mashup of Diablo 1 aesthetic with bullet heaven gameplay. Incredible value for at even the default, hilarious price point of $6.66
Noita: Incredible game and maybe the most user friendly version of something like a modern NetHack. The spell and wand crafting system seems like an impossible challenge to learn, but fumbling with the daily practice mode helped a lot.
Path of Achra: Brilliant design and aesthetic for a solo-dev game. I love the dark, Conan-like fanatasy setting, the music, the variety, and most importantly, the search box. Being able to search for keywords to figure out what will synergize with your setup is some galaxy brain level design and I wish it was more common.
Spiritfall: Our #1 hidden gem game of the year. The mashup of Smash Bros gameplay with roguelite mechanics is like a peanut butter / chocolate combination that I desperately need more of.
The King is Watching: Very interesting design and approach to town building and auto-battler combat. Very tense fights and great art direction.
I got fed up with the boss fights which were so much harder than what came before.
I have been playing The Outer Wilds. It is very good, I think in my top 3 that I've played this year, with a minor quibble. I'm not going to say much about the story or anything, because I think it's actually best to know very little about it when you play, but there is a very minor story spoiler that is required for me to talk about one thing, so this is all behind a spoiler tag. Be warned, this is an exceptionally minor spoiler, to the point that I am very confident that anyone could read this, then play the game, then not feel that I have really spoiled much of anything because it has almost nothing to do with the story at all, but I experienced the game blind and you can too by not clicking on this.
Minor spoilers for The Outer Wilds
So the game is an exploration game where you are an alien doing alien exploration in a tiny solar system. Right at the beginning one of the first things that you do, before you get in your spaceship and explore, is come across what is effectively a training mission; you have a little model ship that you can practice flying on. It is presented as a sort of "learn before you do it for real" opportunity.
I could not for the life of me fly the model ship. I went off course, I toppled and went into water, I could not move it in the right direction. I fiddled with it for a bit and then I just put the game aside. If I couldn't even fly the easy mode tutorial, or if the tutorial wasn't actually a good faith tutorial, did I even want to play? No, not really. So I put it down and went back to another comfort game.
That didn't quite sit well with me, because I had read more than one comment on Tildes talking about how the game was great, and I generally trust the overall opinions of people here, so I gave it another shot the next day. I tried out flying the model again and still couldn't really do it, but I finished the other pre-flight checks, and decided I'd go and crash my big ship. I got the launch codes, got in the ship, blasted off and had zero problems with the controls. They're intuitive and easy, and the autopilot generally works.
It wasn't what I was expecting at all, and it, even now, left me feeling sour about that specific issue. I found some comments and watched a bit of a documentary, and it seems it was a specific design choice to make getting in the "real" ship feel big and scary, and holy smokes do I ever disagree with that as a design choice. Introductions should be introductory, they should not ever encourage people to put the game down. If it wasn't for other people having told me that the game was great, I would have bounced off this introduction and not played it at all.
Other than this one issue, it is a delightful game.
I think you're being over-cautious with your spoiler tag, but as I have two cents I want to chip in, I'll play along:
spoiler?
I think the biggest hurdle with the RC ship is the fixed camera angle. I understand why they did it that way, as it fits the tech level of the Hearthians better than a remote first-person view would in that situation (the remote probe being able to take only static images and all).
I wouldn't put much credit into it being a conscious narrative decision because I don't think that small bit of the tutorial is really all that impactful. You jump into the big ship immediately after the tutorial and proceed to spend a ton of time navigating it around, so if the scenario writers were trying to heighten tension, they chose an odd feature to stake player goodwill upon. If there is a conscious narrative choice being made by complicating the tutorial, it is probably intended to underscore the "figure it out by yourself" philosophy of game design that's the game's soul.
I'm glad you were able to power through it, though. For its flaws–and it has a fair few–it's a singular experience.
It's become a tradition for me to play through games in December. I had a really old code for Gamepass
available, so I working through games in that catalog that interest me.
Ball x Pit
I was looking for a "brain-off" game, had heard very good things about Ball x Pit, and decided to give it a try.
I can see what people enjoy about it, but I ended up bouncing off really quickly. I think it was because it felt like my success in a run was strongly gated by RNG. When I think to other roguelites that I enjoyed more (e.g. Hades, Skul, Moonlighter 2), I enjoyed the feeling that I could beat a run with no upgrades and that the RNG acted as a supplement as I built my skill. With Ball x Pit, every run felt like I got to a point that was impossible to pass unless I got godly RNG during a run, or spent time grinding out in the city builder part of the game that I really didn't like.
It may be that "being good" at Ball x Pit lies less in mechanical skill and more in managing the RNG to get better upgrades. I definitely wasn't in the headspace to appreciate that when I played nor did I want to stick with the game to get better at that.
Metaphor Refantazio
Metaphor Refantazio has been on my list of JRPGs to play since it came out. Whenever people talked about Metaphor, it came across as one of those JRPGs that is outstanding in all areas (plot, gameplay, graphics) that only comes by once a decade.
I've put in ~15 hours into it so far, and I think my expectations going in were set so high that the mismatch with reality has dampened what would've otherwise been a great experience.
The expectation gap was probably the biggest with the plot; I was expecting a great plot, but I got a great plot for a JRPG. The distinction primarily lying with the countless shonen-isms that have made me go "HUH?!" or sigh disappointingly: main characters leaking a nation-destabilizing secret in the open multiple times, insane coincidences, Grius' asinine plan for Louis, tournament arc, etc...
This isn't to say that Metaphor's story is bad. On the contrary, the story is pretty interesting and has layers that I'm very interested in seeing through (e.g. 4th wall). I guess my issues came from expecting a story with the quality of a Breaking Bad or a Sopranos, but ending up with a How I Met Your Mother: still great with a lot to appreciate, but definitely has flaws.
On the whole, definitely enjoying the game and will probably end up rolling credits.
I'm curious if you could recommend a modern JRPG with a story that does meet your expectations. I am looking for one that I can play through with my partner watching that will till engage their attention and be interesting. Metaphor was on my list, along with Star Ocean, but I'd love additional recommendations.
Honestly, I think Metaphor is a JRPG that would offer a pretty good viewing experience for your partner. My original comment sounds as negative as it does mainly because my expectations for the game were unrealistically high. Metaphor is a very good game, and I'd imagine the production quality (especially in-game and anime cutscenes) would probably go a long way to making a watchalong enjoyable.
Octopath Traveler 2 might be decent. But everything I said about shonen-isms in Metaphor go eight-fold for Octopath.
Basically other JRPG I've played in the past couple years is either really old or 2-D pixel art, so I'm not sure if either category fits the bill here.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 might be a good shout, but I say that purely off of vibes and not from playing the game.
I've been playing Spirit City: Lofi Sessions recently. It is not something I would normally play, but it's been a great tool to throw on the monitor and force myself to go do chores or what have you. Very simple but effective, especially with the spirit animal hunting mechanic which creates a great introductory pull to explore the different functions and cosmetics of the game early on. It's hard to find a productivity game that gives you enough of a distraction to be a game while also stepping out of the way for productivity to happen. I feel like this does that so well in a very ambient way.
Put another dozen hours or so into the Fractured Utopias DLC for Frostpunk 2 and now that I've tried out each of the new hubs and skill trees for all the factions I gotta say 11-bit did a good job with this one. Just one faction's hub and skill tree can drastically change city planning and policy, but the fact that you can also invest in the opposing faction's hub and skill tree at the same time adds a whole extra layer of options and complexity since investing deep in one faction will inevitably anger and stall progress with the other, but both have huge potential benefits to take advantage of. Out of all the factions, the one that I had the most fun with was probably the Venturers (libertarian hyper capitalists basically), where my personal goal was to create an economic bubble by artificially driving up goods demand as much as possible. My approach on the run very quickly went from "I have a heatstamps problem" to "How can I make this a heatstamps problem", and true to life, you CAN solve most problems with overwhelming amounts of capital.
Think I'm done with FP2 again til the next DLC comes out though, I've gotten way too much mileage out of it already. Title update 4 for Monster Hunter: Wilds recently dropped and supposedly they fixed some of the devastating performance issues, so maybe I'll shake the rust off my artian switch axe. Can't believe they're adding even more layers of RNG to artian weapons though, Capcom really wants people to be rolling the monhun slot machine forever.
Last night I beat Cthulhu Saves Christmas!! It's an RPG game about, well, Cthulhu saving Christmas. Mainly because his powers were stolen by the League of Christmas Evil, and Santa's granddaughter promises she'll convince him to return them if he saves Santa so he can destroy the world.
I'd bought it in a Fanatical bundle last year (on December 31) and found the key when looking through my orders for the giveaway. So, of course I had to drop what I was playing (Omori for the record, which I might return to this week) and play that instead!
So, gameplay wise, it's nothing super special. It feels like a fairly standard 16-bit RPG, though with some fun twists like inflicting insanity (which reverses foes' weaknesses), three "insanity" move slots which are randomized in reach battle, and a battle meter. It fills up as you walk around, and you can press A to avoid the battle. Once you hit the quota (10 for early dungeons, 15 for the rest) no more random battles will happen. It was nicely paced so I'd usually run out of battles right before bosses.
Honestly, the combat is fairly repetitive overall and gets tedious when dealing with enemies with 1,700+ HP. My other big gripe is that I couldn't find a guide for the icons for weaknesses and ailments. The tutorial showed pictures next to the names when it first appeared, but when checking the tutorial from my menu there were no icons. So, I ended up having to work out some on my own (still not sure what one particular icon means). Also I totally forgot what Chicken and the Chicken Meter do and don't think the tutorial mentioned it.
That brings me to the good part: the writing.
This game is a parody of the RPG genre, with the characters fully aware they're in a game and breaking the fourth wall. It leans into super cheesy humor, like how the first party member speaks in Christmas-themed puns ("yule" instead of "you'll"), commentary on tropes like friendship, repeated references and reminders of the title, Cthulhu wreaking havoc on Christmas Town during free time, and enemy descriptions. Pretty sure the mobs are just from the developer's other games or some generic monster asset pack(s) because they're out of place, but the descriptions are just fun. I think the Cyber Elf, which looked like a mecha, said "feels like it belongs in another game". My favorite was the Lab Experiment, which "Got tired of hanging out in our other game".
Also, the sound track is surprisingly catchy? Seriously some of it is stuck in my head as I write this. I especially liked the Carol of the Bel tracks, that song has always felt more "epic" compared to other Christmas music.
Overall a fairly short but fun game. There's even room for different character builds since the characters can have multiple specialties. There's also a New Game+, but... Well, like I said, the combat does get tedious towards the end so I'm done for now. Maybe I'll play again next year.
Ive been enjoying the new Path of Exile 2 league! The league mechanic is fun, all the changes and additions are nice, and I'm finding myself really paying attention to the dialogue and lore, you can really tell they've got someone actually trying to bring some coherence to it
With the recent Steam sales I picked up GTA 4, Slay the Spire, and Easy Delivery Co.!
GTA 4: Classic for a reason. I've played about 7-8 hours of this game over the last few days, which is a lot for me, and I've really been enjoying it. Having last played GTA San Andreas and GTA 5 before that, it's cool seeing the transition between the generations. I'm about a third of the way through the story so far and I've been enjoying it.
Slay the Spire: I got this game since I saw many people recommending it after I played Balatro. So far, I'm fairly ambivalent to the game, but I also haven't played it too much. I can see the potential though so I'll keep at it.
Easy Delivery Co.: Got this game after seeing it on Twitter. It's got a cute aesthetic but I found the gameplay to be a bit simple and boring. Maybe I need to progress more for it to be exciting but so far I'm not the biggest fan.
Slay the Spire, Balatro, and Monster Train are my holy trinity of roguelike deckbuilders. I hope you stick with Slay the Spire because it's really incredible once you get more familiar with all the cards and items and enemies. And if you like it, then definitely check out Monster Train next (or its sequel that recently came out).
Yeah I've only gotten a small taste of StS so far so I'll give it just under 2 hours before I finally make my decision if I need to refund it.
I reached the end of Armored Core: Verdict Day. As it is with the other titles, once you've settled on your style and have a persistent idea of your build, the game just flies by.
In any AC game my favorite style is something I think of like being a mosquito. Tiny, fast, persistence over power, accuracy matters more than strength. Dodgy dogfighting is what I like to do, so the build I stick with optimizes for doing that as much as possible. It's harder in Verdict Day to stick with a single build due to the introduction of damage types, but with time and patience I powered through and ended up with "Redneck". The shoulder bit intercepts missiles, while the frame is made to jump really high and zip back and forth. I basically ignored defensive stats, it's all about less weight and good boosters.
The game's emphasis on terrain means doing a lot of wall jumping, the legs have extra force for that so in many missions it was super fun zig zagging off buildings and catching folks unaware. Though some missions were wicked hard, what I couldn't do charging in I could get done taking cover and springing out. Lots of moments springing around from thing to thing in ways other games just don't do. The final fight was one of the best imo, a real test of dogfighting skill for a build like this one. Blasting forward while the interception missiles fly out, guns blazing, barely holding the reticule in place, the intensity of it was just fantastic. AC is at its best IMO when it takes its guardrails off and pushes you to go all in. That fight takes place in an open field, there is no real cover to utilize and the enemy will never let up, so the answer becomes, as it usually is, to be hyper aggressive and out-gun the thing.
After the game is done, you unlock "Hardcore Mode", which imo should be in every one of these. Hardcore Mode lets you select from a list of options, basically different themed rule changes. You pick your new rules, and then have to complete the game with limited lives. For example, one of them is called "Gambler" - damage dealt is 10x, damage taken is 5x, everything else normal. Another one, "Mr. Confident", reduces damage taken to 0.7, but you only have one attempt. In my ideal world, a new AC would do this + the Hard Mode of the previous generation - same missions, new enemy deployments, new objectives.
Thinking about it from the standpoint of a new player, perhaps strangely I would put Verdict Day pretty low on a recommendation list. It has a certain roughness and clunk that I can imagine would feel pretty weird/off putting if what you're expecting is to fly around and blow shit up in a slick vehicle. You can get to doing that, but the process of getting there can be pretty involved and the demand on your attention steadily increases as the game throws bigger stuff at you. If though you like vehicular combat games, or if you ever played Chromehounds and want something like that, instant recommendation, absolutely hit it up.
I was lucky enough to finally play NORCO, and here's what I thought about it:
Based on true events, NORCO is a video game full of suffering, anguish, and despair. It is not beautiful. What is beautiful is it as a work of fiction, a masterful creation that is exactly what it needs to be: a bold examination of the human experience under oppression and injustice.
NORCO takes the ugly and taboo and makes it palatable. It is a profane dive into magic realism, a heady concoction that permits the handing of uncomfortable truths. It distills the sacrilegious and the impossible into a playable adventure game through digestible genre tropes like fetch quests and boss battles, readily challenging players to confront themes like grief and alienation at the same time as pitting us against more familiar enemies like homicidal robots and ninjas.
But this is no typical video game; without any heroes, NORCO does not permit a hero's ending.
The game's antagonist is so big that only small personal battles can be won. It offers only temporary reprieves against a big bad whose real-life transgressions are already fulfilling its own dystopian prophecy. far from the fancy stylizations of a cyberpunk playground, NORCO is grounded in the mundane grind of a technoserf present.
NORCO is weird. NORCO is obtuse and cryptic. But should you finish it, NORCO has a way of staying in your heart and brain, just as the real one has for generations.
I bought Crawl on Nintendo Switch, for like 2 or 3€.
It's a dungeon-crawler-slash-party-game where 1 player controls a hero, and 3 friends control ghosts that can spawn and become monsters. When the hero dies, the monster killing them becomes the hero, the dead hero becomes a ghost, and the cycle continues. When a hero reaches level 10, they can face the big boss where each part is controlled by a ghost.
What's interesting is that the game self-balances itself: hero levels mean nothing in terms of stats, but when the hero gains a level, the ghosts gain wrath points they can distribute to evolve their monsters à la Pokémon. The only way for a hero to become more powerful is by spending gold to buy weapons, trinkets, and special powers (only 1 weapon and 1 power can be active at the same time).
Nice little game if you have friends or kids to play with you on the couch.
As a gamer who atrociously SUCKS at all manners of games, Crawl is a wonderful way to feel included throughout : my playing poorly is not humiliating or isolating; I am not dragging down teammates; my feeding the Hero is helpful to the current winner of which everyone (else) gets a chance to become; and I get to pick monsterlings between rounds. The balancing is such that sometimes I even very briefly make a killing blow on the Hero. "HUMANITY REGAINED!!" is a thing I say often in real life.
Excellent for larger parties with vastly different skill levels.
of the Devil - Episode 2
Episode 2 launched on Tuesday and what a thrill it is. Now personally speaking, I thought Episode 1 was a bit... softened? After Episode 0's twist, it felt like everyone, Morgan especially, was given sympathetic points so as to gently ease newcomers into the world rather than throw them into the deep end. Or perhaps I'm looking at it the wrong way and that installment was meant to show the best in everyone? Either way, I think Episode 1 was more Morgan reacting to the events rather than delving into her hobbies.
Episode 2 though? Oh yes, Morgan practically kicks a small hornet's nest with the beginning and it is enticing to see how she handles the fallout of it. While I think the cases so far are never a question of who, the scenes being telegraphed/foreshadowed properly, it is always pleasant to see the characters' commentary on how the world evolved to the way it is and the twists are generally presented properly: as an "Of course it's like that," rather than a twist for the sake of it.
Brief Spoilers - Episode 0 end / Episode 2 Start
We finally see Morgan in her other element: she walks into a gangster den, reads everyone and bluffs her way into learning what they have and leaving them unprepared before dealing with them and walking out of the situation smelling like roses. When she has to take the defense case, she already knows what cards are on the table; issue is that someone else dealt some more cards around when she wasn't looking.
Okay discounting the metaphor: we get to see Morgan as a perfect serial killer in action as she killed everyone there, got the treasure she was there for, and closed it off by framing the defendant. The issue for her is that someone added a dead cop after she was done and she has to help the defendant to make sure no one finds her presence there because the police care a lot more about actually investigating what happened to one of their own rather than dead gangsters. It adds a lot to the atmosphere that we know exactly what happened and have a hidden advantage through the additional evidence commentary Morgan adds, yet also have to puzzle out the unknowns and Morgan has to watch what she says to avoid incriminating herself (in-character, not as a gameplay mechanic) while stringing the connections together to provide enough doubt and get from Point A to Point B in her logic.
Definitely a favorite Ace Attorney-styled game even with only 2.5 cases out.
Intravenous 2
It's a top-down stealth/tactical shooter game with an edgy revenge story like the first game. Now what I did like most was the presence of 2 player characters with the game's achievements and story pushing towards playing Sean as a pacifist and playing Steve as a kill everyone vigilante so that the player is encouraged to engage with all aspects of the game and its weapon modding/collecting system. There's also only 1 achievement for completing a level with no alerts and limited saves per mission level, so the systems encourage actually playing through the mistakes (or perfecting everything through repeated quicksaves).
Now I did have my personal issues with the game or maybe the game's just not to my taste.
Not a bad game, it's got a lot of praise, but it's not one I really connect with?
Separate from the gaming, I have dual-booted Bazzite this week after my Windows 10 takes forever to start up, the whole end of life thing, and the repeated crashes (or I really need to replace my graphics card given that watching streams + playing games shoots over the 8GB Vram). Previously I tried openSUSE Tumbleweed a few years back, but due to needing to access Windows for remote work, I never ingrained the habit (along with steadily breaking it). Now though? I don't want to jinx it by saying that it just works, but so far my setup has been carried over: Firefox, Steam, Heroic, itch, Discord, Betterbird. Forest Heroes runs much smoother on it, and there's a certain freedom of choice now that I don't have everything already installed and can make the pronounced choice to choose what I want to download to play right now (also my steam download rate shooting way up). I haven't replaced windows completely in case there's some obscure file I can only find by booting up windows again (like how my firefox setup before had some sort of extension or script that remembered where I left off from a video, I really do need to find it), or how it's on a dying SSD and part of me wants to use it as a sign for when it finally goes down (even though writing that out, the best thing to do would probably be remove it before it takes the rest of the system down). After that I guess would be the hard commitment to backing up and reformatting my drives as BTRFS if only so that automounting them is an easier task.
Firstly, I've been playing Nubby's Number Factory. For $2.49, it's a perfect "number go up" roguelike. It's odd and absurd and has a wonderful y2k internet vibe and I'm here for it. This is a heavy recommend to any roguelike or peggle fans.
The other game I played I'm going to have to write a novel about, and that's because I finally rolled credits on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Holy moly, a game has not captured me this thoroughly since Baldur's Gate 3. The game world is just so unique and original and the story just hit all the right emotional beats for me. The gameplay was also incredibly engaging. I'm not a turned based RPG enjoyer, but the dodge and parry mechanics in this game made for an excellent combat experience. I did really enjoy the almost soulslike feeling to being on defense in combat, while getting to take my time to plan my offense on my turns. This is a 10/10 and easily my game of the year. The second half of the game was just completely bonkers and I loved it.
Now to gush about the story, do not read these spoilers if you ever plan on playing the game, it's best for you to go in 100% blind.
Expedition 33 full story spoilers
So, when playing through the game, I did connect some dots. I did figure out that Renoir and Aline were essentially gods of the world. I did also think that Maelle = Alicia, though through some time travel means or something. I was also somewhat skeptical of myself because this game didn't have the highest budget, so part of me thought they were just re-using the same body and they weren't actually the same character in any way.
Well... I was right in my theories, but completely 1000000% wrong in everything else. In no damn way would I have ever expected that this world was just within a canvas of a larger world. Renoir and Aline (and Alicia) are gods, but not to themselves. To themselves, they're just painters, this is just a canvas, and the people within aren't people, they're subjects. The themes the game explored after this reveal were intense and uncomfortable, but I very much enjoyed that. It got me thinking a lot about our own world and what I would feel like if I found out there is a god, but they just view everyone as less than ants and I can't really do anything to stop them if they decide to just erase our canvas.
Ultimately, I did choose Maelle's ending, but I watched both. I appreciate that this game didn't cave and give a happy ending. Both endings are depressing, but in a good way. No character was completely right or wrong in their approach to the situation. Renoir was right that the canvas was destroying his family and that Alicia would lose herself in it, but he failed to see that he was committing genocide on real, actual people. He also failed to recognize that even if he erased this canvas, that Alicia's quality of life is so poor, that she would likely just lose herself in another canvas later on.
Maelle was right to defend those within the canvas, as they are living beings with independent thought and existences, but she also failed to see the larger picture on how much she was hurting her family, though partly, her family is really shitty, themselves. I don't blame her for wanting an escape, especially since her family blames her for Verso's death, but she definitely needs to live in the canvas in moderation, if anything.
Verso was right to seek an end to his existence and he was right that neither Maelle nor Renoir have the right to control destiny for those within the canvas, but he was selfish in seeking an end to his existence, since his method would erase everyone's existence.
Just... holy cow, the characters' choices and motivations were such a complex, tangled web, and it did really feel like there wasn't a great way to resolve the situation for everyone involved, which I loved, even though it made me feel sad, but I love when a piece of media is able to make me feel negative emotions just as much as positive ones.
I could just gush and gush and gush about the story, but I have to cut myself off here. If you're a fan of RPGs or story rich games, even if you aren't into turn based RPGs specifically, give this game a shot. It surprised me with how much it hooked me. The gameplay and story were not something I thought I'd initially be into and I decided to give the game a try on a whim and I'm very glad that I did.