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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.
This week I broke standard procedure and temporarily ignored my backlog in order to play a newly released game, MIO: Memories In Orbit. It was cheap enough that it didn't make sense to wait for it, especially with the 10% launch discount. There's a lot to say about this one (sorry)!
MIO is a 2.5D science fiction metroidvania created by a French studio, in which you play a little robot that exists in a vast spacefaring ark, the Vessel. The Vessel's original inhabitants, the Travelers (humans?) are long gone. They left behind their many ageing sentient robotic servants in a habitat that's slowly falling apart and being invaded by out of control vegetation, malfunctioning devices, etc. The Vessel is run by intelligent entities named after body parts related to the function they supervise, and at the start of the game - after a big tremor - the Spine, in charge of the network, claims they have lost contact with the others and can you please go check up on them?
Visually, the game is gorgeous. Clever shader use yielded a pencil-drawn, watercolor-painted aesthetic complete with some discreet cross-hatching that made me think of certain modern comic books. While at first deceptively stark, throughout the game various parts of the Vessel are revealed to have beautiful architecture and a consistent and polished style. The sound design is also good and there's voice acting for the bosses. The lore from conversations is supplemented by several written testimonials and visual storytelling as you slowly uncover the history of the Vessel. The various robots you encounter range from creepy and insect-like to adorable (which is unrelated to their friendliness). Many are dead (or "beyond repair" as the game puts it), but every single one has a unique name, adding to the immersion.
Gameplay-wise, this game is VERY HARD. Did you read what I wrote last week about how Afterimage failed to be a souls-like metroidvania? Well, the finger curled on that monkey's paw. Throughout the game (so far) Mio has had between 3 and 6 hitpoints, and not necessarily in that order, as the plot will occasionally (permanently) take one away from you just to keep things interesting. Running is not super fast, jumps are floaty (probably on purpose - the game does include ice sliding and low gravity physics) and most bosses are tanky and can zip across the screen in half a second, or have up to ten times your attack range. Patience, endurance, pattern learning and good timing are essential if you want to get anywhere at all. Or, if you don't feel up for that, there are assist options (which I don't plan on ever using), including one that makes fights progressively easier with each repetition. If you can, try doing it the hard way - despite the difficulty, fights have never felt impossible so far. This is the type of game that makes you want to beat each milestone out of spite, and will fill you with vengeful satisfaction when you do.
There is a parry mechanic which lets you tank damage from an attack for maybe one second (if the enemy attack lasts longer than a second - tough!) Confusingly, the game calls this the "dodge". It's not a dodge. It does not move the character. I don't know why they called it dodge. Must be french humor I don't understand!
Mio's move set is a little different from your traditional metroidvania's. Forget about the dash and ground pound, as Mio is more fragile than almost anything else in the Vessel. To the basic double jump and punch (slap?) they add an unlockable grapple that is pretty much Mio's only way of moving fast, a limited glide and - my favorite - what I can only call "spider"; less of a wall climb and more of a "if you see it, you can walk on it, yes, even upside down". The thing is, any single skill use requires Mio's full energy bar, after which they must land and rest for a second. Unless, that is, they punch something, which will reset the bar. Punching makes everything better! Platforming sections therefore involve a bunch of punching enemies or slapping flowers and bombs as you string together a bunch of ceiling walking, grapple launches and glides over hallways filled with poisonous fuel or buildings overrun by corrupted funghi, with fairly strict tolerances.
The UI and menus have that sci-fi computer "burnt yellow on black" look, with clean lines and text, and monochrome icons representing the various collectibles and modifiers - which are an extension system for Mio's abilities. There are many of these and each takes up way too many of Mio's limited memory slots, forcing you to respec for specific bosses and to make sacrifices. For example, I almost immediately found myself unplugging Mio's HUD in order to make room for an attack power boost (which removes everything from the game screen, including the hitpoints and energy, making it impossible to know how close you are to dying). Slots can be extended but this requires paying a currency that is lost on death unless it's deposited in specific locations (I assure you this game will never go easy on you). Finally, there is a very good explorable map system which shows accurate area sizes, (the many) doors, complete with lock status, unexplored exits, checkpoints and boss areas, and which can be extended with custom-placed icons.
MIOs real sins are few, but oh boy are they cardinal.
Throughout the Vessel, there exist a few save points. These are where Mio will resume the game when you die or load from the menu, and also the only places where modifiers can be re-slotted and where your map will update with newly explored areas (did you think the map system deviated from the game's pervasive difficulty? Nope! Can't see where you are while exploring a new area!) It's also possible to fast travel between them as long as their robot "overseer", which has been torn off and dumped somewhere else, is found and "mended". There are relatively few of these save points - few enough, in fact, that for the whole first section of the game you have exactly one. And there are no other checkpoints whatsoever. That means whenever you die fighting a boss - which could happen within, say, ten seconds - you can expect to spend sometimes longer than a minute making your way back to the boss fight. This might require dealing with smaller enemies or platforming challenges through hazards which might kill your boss fight attempt before it even starts by taking away one of your precious hitpoints. If you overcome this, you then get to watch the boss fight's introduction animation again, during which you can punch the boss if it makes you happier, but they will take no damage. You cannot skip it - you can't skip any cutscenes, and at times will have to hear the same voice line many times as you repeat a fight. There are almost no concessions to your time - there isn't even a way to return to a save point deliberately other than exiting the game and re-loading.
This is mitigated by a fairly good shortcut system. In fact, the Vessel is pretty well designed as a whole, and shortcuts are many and an integral part of your progress in the game. But there is no world in which I will ever find this sort of player-hostile nonsense acceptable in 2026 (and neither do any other players, as far as I can tell). There is no reason why they couldn't checkpoint just before the bosses and shorten their introduction after the first time. I felt genuine anger at first, and this could have made me drop what is otherwise a fairly good game. It's "bad" enough that rooms can be vast and hallways long, and Mio can take a while to cross them at their not super fast, dash-free running pace.
I think I kind of get it. The developers had an artistic vision - a pretty good one - about this immersive arkship, with consistent distances, reasonable physics and a realistic aesthetic and they're uncompromisingly faithful to it. Based on their website, this seems to have been an artist-led endeavor, which is almost unbelievable given how polished and major-bug-free the gameplay seems to be. But if that's the case, I sure hope they will start listening to their players and patch more reasonable checkpointing in. It would be a pity if MIO failed to get the recognition it deserves out of pointless stubbornness.
If you're a really good gamer and manage to train yourself to never actually die, I can see MIO becoming an attractive speedrun game. I'd be interested in watching that!
Previous
As a huge fan of the hollow knight games I’ll be picking this up ASAP!
Thanks for the detailed review!
Finished Tactical Breach Wizards probably one of the best tactical turn based games I've played in years. Great story, characters, and gameplay. Highly recommended.
Dispatch
The TV series equivalent of a VN, with a couple of minigames thrown in. Feels perfectly paced for playing an episode a day over a week or so.
Most of the decisions don't majorly impact the story (and similarly, it doesn't really matter how well you do in the minigames), but I liked this as it removes any pressure to optimise or 'play well' and just encourages you to make whatever decisions you want.
There were a few places where the delivery didn't quite match what I had in mind when picking an option, and the tone of the conversation would sometimes abruptly change as it went from a decision branch back to the main script, but overall it felt pretty polished with a decent range of choices. I also appreciated that you don't have to pursue the romance options (although there a lot of pushes in that direction), because I just wanted to do my job and avoid office drama.
The animation looks quite nice and reminded me a bit of that animated MCU show What If...?. However, there are times where it feels like the framerate is inconsistent even within the same scene, which is weird because the game is pre-rendered. Maybe some quirk of how the animation was produced?
Dragon Quest Builders
Gave this a shot to see if I'd enjoy the upcoming Pokemon Pokopia which is supposedly in the same style. Man, I can't say that I love it:
The exploration is fun and rewards you with all sorts of new items and even new mechanics, but so far the building doesn't seem to tie into the gameplay in a way which makes me want to try building new stuff or optimising my layout. Why should I build some plates if all it'll do is give me 30 points?
All your items are keyed to a gigantic bar. Need to equip something? Use something? Have to find it on the giant bar first.
You can't just pick up and place stuff like in Animal Crossing. If you want to turn furniture back into item form, you have to bash it until it breaks (and pray you aren't breaking anything else in the vicinity in the process).
This game suffers from the same god-awful faux ye olde English translation that Square Enix is shoving into all of its recent DQ games. Just... why? Do they think Western audiences want this extremely Japanese game with happy slimes and big anime hair to sound like that? I switched it to Japanese in a heartbeat.
I'm now in "wait and see" mode for Pokopia.
I also played a bunch of free games on Steam. I do this once in a while just because I find it fascinating what people make when they:
Catgirl
Very enjoyable short JRPG with a lovely colourful visual style, cracking music and a dry sense of humor reminiscent of Undertale. No grinding involved and lots of gameplay twists throughout to mix things up.
Mawaru! Hacker Tantei
Puzzle game about being a hacker detective searching for his lost brother. You solve mysteries by hacking into computers, but the system security is all in the form of abstract puzzles.
Many of these puzzles are brutal and it's not uncommon at all to just be thrown into a screen filled with numbers, letters and empty boxes and expected to just work it out from there via leaps of intuition. The game does give you hints every 60 seconds if you can't progress, but the difficulty is such that I often had no idea where to even begin until I had exhausted all of the hints.
Definitely one that calls for pen and paper.
Hyoutenka 30-do no Zetsubou
Horror VN about being trapped inside a meat freezer with your co-worker while working for a pharmaceutical company. But why does a pharmaceutical company have a meat freezer?
Very dark, but with some nice human moments.
Z.A.T.O. // I Love the World and Everything In It
Drama / mystery VN about a pensive girl looking into the disappearance of her classmate in 80s small town USSR.
It's a very slow burn, but the presentation, visuals (particularly the clean and expressive character art) and music are all great.
Hey you made it a lot further in DQ Builders than me. It's been awhile so it's a bit fuzzy but I seem to remember spending over an hour in the introduction and never actually getting to play the game. The fact I lasted even that long is a testament to how much I wanted to like the game. Anyway I uninstalled it right after that.
DQB 1 has a really rough start IMO. They handled it much better in the sequel. If you ever see it on sale and are willing to give it another go, it might be worth your time.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 is IMO much more enjoyable that the first game and may be worth your time if you enjoyed the first game. I was saddened they decided not to make a third game seeing as each game was tied somewhat to the story of the equivalent Dragon Quest game and DQ 3 has always been my favorite.
So Blue Prince has pretty much consumed me to this point. I've got pages of notes, have played about 18ish hours and solved a bunch of puzzles though I feel like I've only scratched the surface. Finally unlocked the Apple Orchard last night, and I've got 3 safes open.
I've had to look up a couple of solutions and I am pretty confident I could not have solved those specific puzzles without assistance, but for the most part I'm avoiding finding solutions.
(Will happily accept hints, however! I've figured out the pictures in the rooms and mapped out that solution which is what I've spent a lot of time doing to this point, and now I'm trying to figure out what my next steps should be. Have been bumping up my allowance and just unlocked the outer room area last night as well.)
It's incredible how versatile the design of Blue Prince is. We got to the basement (T. entrance; there are several) and Apple Orchard really early (first 10 runs?), yet we're 89 hours - steam time - in and still not done! (though there's an added time cost due to being 3 players, which means a lot of discussion).
Recently we finally
Spoilers for people who have finished the game
got the deed to the property! We're also down to 2 missing red letters, but we have no idea where they are. In fact, we're pretty much (finally) out of things to do right now, except looking into the new closed exhibit room. We have one missing room and there are a couple unsolved book puzzles.
Trophy-wise we are missing the 7 rarest. It's fairly clear how to get all of them except one; we have yet to put any serious effort into drafting strategy sweepstakes.
Good work with the pictures puzzle, that one took me ages.
Have you made it to Room 46 yet, out of curiosity? If you're ever feeling a bit aimless and unsure what to work towards I'd say that's a good objective and it leads into some more threads for you to pull on, it's not the final goal.
Oh, hopefully this isn't spoilery but it's something I would have wanted to know.
The first time you make it there it'll immediately end the day. If you go back to Room 46 on a subsequent day it'll actually let you explore it.
See my comment here!
Have you reached the Antechamber outside Room 46 yet? That would probably be the next big goal, which will set you up for more goals.
Last night I got a 4th safe open, lit the 4th flame and explored down there, reached the antechamber/
basement
I'd made it to the antechamber several times on past runs, but never on a run where I'd been able to pull the lever at some point. I spent a while recently trying to find the last two shops which had never popped up for me so finally I googled what they were last night to find out they're basically endgame rooms, so I've set that aside for the time being. I think I have 3 regular rooms to find but have otherwise found all the hallways, bedrooms, red rooms and green rooms.
Last night I also started taking notes on the chess pieces in rooms. I think I understand what I'm supposed to do with that info now that I have the four flames lit but I could be wrong. We'll see.
Ok, you've got a lot opened up to you with the basement. Lot of avenues to go down. The chess puzzle is a good one, you may be on the right track with that or may not (you are correct in connecting it with the flames being lit if you mean what I think you mean)
I'll also tell you there are multiple ways into the basement and it's very helpful to have several open to you so when you do get a good run to the Antechamber you can get the lever pulled and finally get to Room 46 (which itself leads to more puzzles if your inclined after "beating" the game)
So I finally finished Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony last night. I thought I'd complete it Friday night, while I was watching the first half of the 24hrs of Daytona, yet somehow the race ended 12+ hrs later and I was still working on hours beyond the end of the race!
(Pinging @Well_known_bear because I think they were the last person I talked to about this game)
Spoilers and more in-depth complaining
What a slog. And for a wholly unsatisfying ending. Aggravating, even. I just don't care for meta endings. "None of this is actually real! It's all just a 'game'!" Oh. So does that mean the first two games were just part of said "game"?" What does that mean for all the lore and worldbuilding from the first two games, anime, manga, spin-off games, etc?
I've seen some of the fanbase justifications. That V3 is non-canonical or it's in an alternate universe, that takes places separate from DR1 and DR2. But that's not stated anywhere. That's just an assumption, again, a justification.
Let me refocus. If you saw any of my previous comments from earlier in the month, I mentioned that I didn't like this game because of the characters mostly being pretty awful; one-dimensional. I still hold that belief (except for probably Kokichi). But I came back to the game because I wanted to see if there was a narrative reason for that. And I guess technically there is: it's because they're all unknowingly participants in a reality TV show, so their personalities are "scripted." Since they're not "real" people, their personalities and backstories are entirely fictional, that's why they're not deep and have weird or offputting personalities. They're bad because they were intentionally written to be that way.
Oh. OK. That's actually not said at any point; I'm just connecting possible dots. It could be that there's no reason at all why they're just not as good as DR1 and DR2 characters.
I also think the end comes off way too preachy and accusatory. The creator is definitely assigning blame to us players. There's no other way to take it, I don't think. "Why are these killing games happening? Because you the audience, the actual IRL players [such as me], wanted it! You wanted more Danganronpa video games, so that's why these high schoolers keep killing each other and dying gruesome deaths! YOU are killing them, all for your entertainment! So you can feel good about hope triumphing over despair!" Alright, buddy, relax.
Idk, this is absolutely, IMO, the worst game of the three mainline entries. By far. That's not to say there weren't some funny moments. That the style and art wasn't good; it was quite good. And that there weren't some moments that I enjoyed that were poignant and did make me rethink some of my thoughts on the characters. Again, that's mostly focused on Kokichi, but even on our MC, Shuichi though to a far lesser extent. But the characters overall, the pacing, the length of the game, and the terrible ending outweigh everything else.
I'm glad it's done. That was an instant uninstall after the credits finished. I think there's some other gamemode, but I have zero to desire to touch this game ever again.
Hey, might be good to add some spoiler tags to this one.
Well done on soldiering through it and sorry to hear it didn't land. I definitely get the impression that it's a divisive one. To give my quick perspective on the ending, I didn't see it as any more insane than the ending to the second game (which was really not that dissimilar in terms of the twist), and insofar as it criticises people enjoying death games - hey, I enjoy death game fiction and given this writer's other work, I suspect they do too :P I just can't interpret it as genuine criticism when the game and the society it's set in is already so silly.
If you do end up playing the side story games (which I think are set in the storyline from the first 2 games), I'd be interested to hear if you enjoy them more!
Good call on the spoiler tag!
I don't mind a twist; and having played many of these detective games as some around here know I do, yeah, there's always a twist. You have reminded me that, yes, DR2's twist is somewhat similar. And I did have similar-ish feelings about it at the time. But, crucially to me, it stays "in-character." Whereas DR3's twist does not.
I'm reminded of the first time I came across a game that had an ending like DR3: "Star Ocean: Till the End of Time." Which is also the third game in that JRPG series. And the ending is very similar. I'll admit, I didn't finish SO3, instead I read ahead in a player's guide I had because I was a dumb teenager. But when I read the ending I was so like...Ugh, really? SO3's ending is a little more nuanced than that, but it still was enough to make me not want to actually finish the game. Because it's such a lazy ending to me. Like I know it's not real. I don't need to be told it's not real. Probably a good thing I was too young to watch the TV show drama St. Elsewhere and their then-infamous "snow globe" ending scene!
Ah well, enough bitching. I am glad to have played it and finished it. It's my first finished game of 2026! I probably won't play any of the spin-off games, but I likely will watch some of the anime series. My understanding is that those stay "in-character," and do help explain some of the stuff with regards to the Future Foundation and what happened after Junko Enoshima and all that.
ARC Raiders
Online multiplayer games scare me. I usually don't engage because I fear the level of skill that a lot of folks seem to have for some of these games like Call of Duty, Battlefield, or even Fortnite. It feels like I'm back to being considered a child and end up getting punished for my lack of time to devote to said games. Don't forget the toxicity of the general communication between players I've encountered. It all seems like too much, so I stick to one player games, or just Fifa (sorry, FC or whatever EA calls that "new phone who dis" game they keep crapping out.)
That's not even remotely apparent in ARC Raiders. I've been blasting through missions, and finding the community to not only be positive, but helpful and genuinely nice. The amount of times I've experienced a whole group of us defeating a Matriarch, or any large machine, to the little things like a blueprint being dropped from another who has doubles. Bandages being traded mid run. Stuff like that. It's incredible to experience, and with Proximity chat, I've had some incredible moments where it made me double over with laughter...
At the top of the launch towers in Spaceport, there's a gap with platforms to jump between. I'm up there some 600 feet above the Earth with someone else, and he asks, "You gonna do it?" I run to the edge and jump only to barely hang onto the edge of the other slowly pulling myself up. He exclaims, "Well ghaddamn... I don't think I wanna try..." but yet he does, and he fails, falls, screaming "Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" while I stand there watching. It was straight out of Looney Tunes, the scream fading with his fall. This kind of thing has happened in different scenarios throughout my playtime. Sincerely it's some of the best gaming experiences I've had with a community of others from around the world.
That all being said, when someone does finally shoot to kill you, particularly in the back while you're looting some random machine, it does hurt. It stings like you really got punched in the gut. Most of the time I just say, "Well that's enough for today," after these very rare encounters.
You pretty much summed up my experience with the game. I run around accomplishing either quests, acheivements or personal goals. Solos for me are delightfully friendly and I've had numerous occasions where someone has come by to either revive me or at least escort me to the exit when I get knocked. (mk3 survivor for the win) and I rarely have issues where people shoot at me. A few people try, but they tend to not be as good of PvP players as those set in the PvP lobbies.
I would be interested in trying out some duos, given that our time and region matches up. Im not against PvP, I just naturally avoid it and thats how I ended up in friendly lobbies.
Just a word of warning, queueing in a group significantly increases player aggression. Especially queueing in 3s has an unspoken rule that it's shoot on sight.
I'm aware. I'm not adverse to PvP at all, I just naturally avoid it when by myself. Best way to not lose a fight is to not to get into a fight in thr first place.
I have been starting to play Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon and I am... conflicted.
I had seen it described as a modern, indie take on a dark fantasy Skyrim and that's certainly not wrong, but some things have been clear to me:
Other than that, it's more muddy. Granted, I haven't played a ton yet, so I'll see what I think later, but it's a solid "meh" from me in ways I didn't expect from the very good rating on Steam.
The game certainly is moody and atmospheric and in a fun way if you're okay with a bit of "heavy metal edgelord", which I am. The actual real Danheim music they use for a soundtrack is good, but stretched very thin, lacking variety almost immediately and un-immersing me, since I happen to listen to that music.
The graphics aren't great on Playstation and I feel they overdid it some with a generic "dark" feel, contributing to a pretty sad environment to walk around in for a start.
The combat is more fluid than something like Skyrim, but pretty janky too, I'm not all that great at dashing in a first person game and regularly get semi stuck in combat, because I obviously can't see behind me. Also it appears like it also might get repetitive and feels a little cheap, but I'll see more when I unlock more spells and weapons.
The characters seem great, though the writing and voices sometimes give me an impression of "overacting" and the voices especially are of varying quality, from great to that guy with a terrible microphone.
Quests have been somewhat funny in their topics, but very "kill that, talk to them, get me that" in inplementation.
My visceral reaction, though I'm not sure if that's fair yet, is: this game was made for me as a thirteen year old edgelord. Would've lapped that stuff up.
Now, I'm a bit more unsure, but I'll continue to give it a go, although a little disgruntled.
I can see there's a bunch of passion and fun and sense for adventure and "wouldn't it be epic if..." in this game, but I wish there were more technical excellence (or manpower) to back that up fully.
I wouldn't recommend it on Playstation and I would be a bit reserved on PC. It might be for you if you've been craving something in this genre, because it seems underserved. But it ain't a masterpiece -- there's too much jank -- though perhaps with more resources, a second attempt from this team could be one.
I played through and beat the game and got most of the endings (this was before the recent DLC) and other than a few bugs, I was very pleasantly surprised. I also played it on PC (in Linux if that matters) where performance was much less of an issue. It felt like they made an Elder Scrolls game without all the TES trappings.
That's good to hear. The Steam ratings might have given me a wrong impressive though.
Did the combat get more... diverse than it is at the start? Especially as a mage, I felt very limited by just having one spell and also by my dagger dishing out more damage than said spell.
Not that diverse, but there are at least two dozen spells, not to mention summons and other stuff for mages. That being said, a lot of the spells are simply bigger/better versions of earlier spells and weirdly you don't get them in an ascending order e.g. I got the strongest fire ball spell super early on, a single cast took my entire mana bar and was hilarious to use and then run away like a scared bunny.
Hm, alright, I feared that might be so.
Then again, few games really nail spellcasting anyway.
I only played it a little, but Morrowind was perhaps one that really made you feel like a magician out of combat too.
That sounds quite funny in for a while, but would probably be more of a negative for me once I realize "that's it".
All of the earlier TES games really nailed magic feeling arcane and powerful. It basically loses features every game. You could make argue that Daggerfall didn't lose much (just the spells that let you create or destroy walls because of the engine), but they kept taking away cool stuff from then on. Can you even still make custom spells in Skyrim? It's been so long that I don't remember.
How's the story? And does it have a lot of side quests? I'm always hesitant when games are compared to Skyrim/Oblivion because those two have SOOOO much content and interesting locations and quests and characters and things to do. It's hard to replicate that amount of content with an indie/AA budget.
The story is actually pretty good, much more so than most of the TES games IMO (I might give Morrowind the nod since it had an actually decent story).
Well I finished this game yesterday, Decollate Decoration. I don't usually buy games at launch, but I figured why not? It's a short game (I think I 100%'ed it in about three to four hours?) about a ghost girl who wants to kill her love interest so he can join her in the afterlife. It's fairly straightforward and simple, but it's charming.
The big pros: the pixel art and music. The main song is CATCHY, had it stuck in my head all day yesterday. There's also an unlockable prologue, and that really fleshes out the characters and made me really like them. I think it did a good job at portraying the protagonist as a fairly typical teenage girl developing her first real crush. She's a bit shallow and a bit of an airhead, but in the way a lot of teenage girls are rather than a caricature. It felt like a fairly grounded and realistic depiction compared to a lot of the typical romance setups in fiction.
Honestly, my only complaint is that it left me wanting more. The prologue added a whole host of friends who we barely got to see, and I wanted to learn more about them. I kind of hope the developer returns to the universe with more games, or updates the game with some more endings and side stories.
I have been playing the Assassins Creed: Ezio Collection which consists of the 3 games in the Assassins Creed II trilogy(confusing, right?).
I finished ACII a couple weeks ago and just finished AC:Brotherhood, which means Im onto the final game, AC:Revelations.
ACII was very fun and I enjoyed it a lot, but I felt the plot was hard to get into. Ezio wants to get revenge for his family, which is a good motivation, but most of the game is following breadcrumbs to unravel a conspiracy that you dont really understand the meaning of until near the end. So most of your assassination targets kind of end up not mattering much.
AC:Brotherhood was better in this regard, because you have a clear upfront goal of going to war with the Borgias, and everything makes sense in that context. I also liked how they fleshed out the side plots better. The stories concerning Ezios sister joining the assassins and Machiavelli being suspected as a traitor were interesting mini plots. I also liked the new ability to train assassin recruits, although I found myself not using the feature often.
The biggest change in AC:Brotherhood was the new kill streak mechanic, which allows you to rapidly chain kills if you manage to do a counter, which is made much easier in this game by widening the timing window for a counter. On the one hand, this does kind of trivialize combat, as even without most gear or armor you can easily take out a whole army with just the hidden blade. On the other hand, it really does amp up the badass factor for Ezio as an unstoppable master assassin. Plus it makes sense narratively, AC:II was Ezios story of learning to be an assassin, but Brotherhood is Ezio in his prime as the leader of the Order.
So far in AC:Revelations I havent seen much gameplay improvements. The hookblade and new bombs are decent additions but dont really feel like they add that much. Im still early on though, so more may come.
As it stands now I think Brotherhood is my favorite of the games, but AC2 still has good appeal with the older combat system, and I really like the aesthetics of the first one the most.
AC2 and Brotherhood are far and away the best two games in the whole series in my opinion (but to be fair I have not played a majority of the series lol). I did not love Revelations and so actively disliked AC3 that I bounced off the series right there.
I remember doing the same when I played the games as a kid, but now I can hardly remember what it was I disliked about AC3. I just knew that the series started diverging farther away from the stealth action stuff I liked.
For me: I wasn't really feeling the story or the gameplay all that much but what clinched it was the final mission. A long chase mission with few if any checkpoints and a single stumble, misclick or moment of disorientation meant you failed the mission and had to start all the way over. I hate chase missions to begin with but this particular chase mission made my blood boil.
And to make matters worse, once you finally catch up to your target, a cutscene is triggered in which you get injured. And then you have to limp across the map, continuing your pursuit. If there's anything I hate more than chase missions, it's being forced to move slowly with no other gameplay input or purpose except to demonstrate that I'm injured. I get it! I'd get it if it was a cutscene -- which, we were just in a cutscene! Did I need to actually play this part where all I do is limp from one end of town to the other?
Finally, finally, you catch up to this guy in a bar in a different area. Finally you get to kill him.
Except: cutscene! Yep, you don't even get the satisfaction of pulling the trigger yourself. Jesus Christ why did you make me endure the chase, the limping, just to rob me of the final cathartic moment in the game?
I was so angry by the end of the game, but that wasn't even the end of it. There were ten full minutes of unskippable cutscenes, after which the game had the audacity to introduce an open world endgame section as if I'd want to keep spending my time here.
I hate AC3 lol
That does ring a bell. I seem to remember there being a lot of exposition that took up a lot of time in 3.
I was thinking of playing some of the rest of the series after I finish this game, but Im not sure which one I would want to play next because the series has a reputation of having fallen off as time went on. I know the most recent game AC:Shadows is about ninjas, which sounds like exactly what I wanted an assassin game to be, but Ive heard very mixed reviews on that one.
I was thinking I might play Odyssey or Unity next, as those seem to be pretty well regarded games in the newer style.
Came back to the permanent Deadman world in Old School RuneScape, partially to scratch the itch left behind by the lack of temporary game modes. Literally spent an evening fighting NPCs around Varrock, thieving from the town's Tea Stall and pickpocketing guards, because I knew the moment I stepped outside the safe zone, I'd be griefed by a pure unless I made it to the 75 - 85 combat bracket that hardly anyone was in.
I felt like I've made good progress.
Speaking of MMOs that are in my Steam library but I hardly touched, I installed and gave Winds of Valen a go. It's another point & click MMORPG, its main mechanic seems to be switching shields to mitigate enemy attacks in a way akin to prayer flicking in RuneScape, and changing your weapon to counter enemy armor weaknesses. Other than that, the game is incredibly barebones, lacks a world map and much of the QoL that other games like it has. Definitely one to keep an eye out for.
World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Anniversary is a lot better when you aren't trying to level a Blood Elf or Draenei. The other starting zones seem a lot more empty and I've actually been able to make some good progress on a few alts. I think my approach is to semi-casually level alts to max and exploit rested XP gain as much as possible, at least aiming to get a 70 character midway through Phase 1.
I just recently started playing Cult of the Lamb after looking for a cozy game that I can latch my ADHD onto when my executive function is having issues.
I'm liking it so far, however it's not exactly what I thought it was. I think I've gotten the hang of it but I feel like I'm missing some mechanics.
I like the artstyle, but I do wish there was an option that could make it ever so slightly less positive.
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood I managed to miss playing this between the first and second game somehow. Current events made Nazi killing desirable.
The changes are interesting. They clearly tried to tell a more focused story with more "choices". It is nice not constantly having to go back to a hub. This game is a lot more focused. I hope the third one takes more from the Old Blood than the second game.
Still just playing Arc Raiders. This game is my crack. My kids and I will do a couple runs after I finish work almost every day. So good.
Put some more hours into Starrupture and I have a nice and very compact omni-factory that can make every item currently available, the only issue being it's basically impossible to scale up any individual item's production because of how densely packed it is, so I'll probably end up making a whole new, much more spread out factory later on. I think I've otherwise exhausted all the content currently available, which is pretty good considering I put a couple dozen hours into it. Looking forward to more updates.
Also tried No Rest For the Wicked since they had a free weekend and sale to celebrate the launch of their co-op mode, been playing that with a friend and it's been a pretty good time so far. This one's a third person soulslike (yes I know that term's overused but this game really does lean into the difficulty) from the studio that made the Ori series. There's a good weight to attacking and moving, stamina usage is hefty and enemies are punishing. Haven't run into too many bugs yet, mainly loading issue things. The game also recommends you play with a controller, and after trying KBM and controller out I can confirm that controller is indeed a much better experience.
I don't even know if it even counts as playing, but I've been using Sprocket a lot lately to build tanks. There's not even much that you can do with them ingame. I guess I just like looking at them. I publish them on the subreddit sometimes. Started on them 4 years ago, and decided to go back and give them a makeover after the game's long awaited 0.2 update that overhauled the whole tank editor system. Think I have become quite decent at it, though nowhere near "Blender-level" that some seem to be.
Since COVID I've been very attracted towards games that let you build things with little restriction or guidance. X4 station builder, Starfield spaceship builder, Sprocket tank builder. Also coincided with my proper venture into modding.
I started playing Planet Crafter recently and have really been enjoying it. It feels far more laid back than most of the survival/base building games. Other than making sure you have air, food, and water, there isn't much stress in the game. They have added new worlds/moons through DLC, some free and some paid, and it sounds like they plan to add more.
Yeah there's currently the main starting planet and two moons with the base game, and 2 DLCs that have a new planet each.
And they announced they'll be adding another free moon sometime this year.
It's an amazing game, I started a new playthrough since I've done everything in my main save, and it's hard starting over. So I can't wait for the new moon to have a reason to come back.
Amazing game
Z.A.T.O. // I Love the World and Everything In It
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4122860/ZATO__I_Love_the_World_and_Everything_In_It/
Very good visual novel, short but very well made. I love the art style so much. It's the kind of story that really sticks with you. It's free, so if you like reading and interesting "mysterious" stories you should definitely try it!
Posted a bit last time about how much I sucked at Spiritfall. Well I'm happy to report that I suck a little bit less on it. In true roguelike fashion, once I started getting a few decent runs in, I was able to unlock more abilities and buffs and weapons, which in turn made future runs easier, which allowed me to go further and collect more resources, which allowed me to upgrade even more.... and you can see where this is going.
Great game, very satisfying feeling when you complete a run. Still have a bunch of stuff to unlock and am now working my way through the harder difficulties (like ascension levels in Slay the Spire). Started off a little slow, but that's probably on me for having the wrong expectations. I went in thinking it would be like Super Smash Bros (because that's what a lot of reviews mentioned), but really I should have went in thinking it would be like Dead Cells, because that's a lot closer to the truth. Oh, and 10/10 game for the Steam Deck. Feels like it was made for the deck.
Beyond Citadel
Whew, this is a game that is...... unapologetically horny, and unapologetically gory. But otherwise it is a fantastic doom style 2.5D shooter with interesting and crunchy weapon mechanics. I just finished the game for the first time, and it's definitely worth the play if you like this style of game and/or are okay with the risque content. I would say that it just starts to overstay it's welcome by the time you finish it, and the boss fights are a bit too straightforward. But from a solo dev, with a reasonably interesting story, and very detailed sprite work, and fantastic vibes with old-school level design and music. It's not necessarily a 10/10, but it's a 8/10 that's interesting and worth the play. But it's also a game made by and for perverts, either gun ones or anime ones or guro ones. And the creator has some peculiar tastes. I have not played The Citadel, the game that preceded it, and didn't feel like I was missing anything
Blightstone -
Probably the best thing to happen to tactics in a LONG time. It's still EA, and I have no idea if they'll deliver beyond this, but it's SUCH a strong foundation. The combat is extremely clean with a LOT of ways to mess with the environment/skills to get unusual outcomes, and it's got a bit of the darkest dungeon "resources MATTER" thing without the annoying grinding overhead.
If it never improves i'm more than happy to have gotten it, if it does it could be a Slay the Spire level game.