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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.
Hades: I got stuck not progressing, so watched videos for basically theory of the game to improve after being mad that a twitch streamer I watch started after me and finished it before me. Granted, she has a chat of 100-200 viewers but the jealousy was unreal. It was actually affecting my ability to enjoy the game significantly, as I was getting frustrated at what appeared to be a plateau.
I decided to git gud and focus on improving my play, so I got the Butterfly from Thanatos to work on no-hitting rooms at the advice of a video I watched. Now I am consistently getting past the Asterius/Theseus fight, and even clearing that Asterius miniboss fight without losing a life. In fact, I look forward to the Asterius fight to knock him down 1/5th in the main event. I got to Hades twice as well, so the improvements have been lasting, across weapons (still thinking of maining the spear for "serious" runs). I still get dud runs (either me or my drops) but am much more consistent and engaged with the game.
I picked up Cult of the Lamb but have been so locked on Hades I haven't settled in with it yet. But I like the gameplay loop and was worried the cult management stuff would be a distraction from the central dungeon mechanics. It's been fun, and the cute/eldritch thing really works.
Comparison really is the thief of joy. Online communities of any hobby can make you feel miserable about your own skills and achievements...
Interesting. I've been gaming for 30 years (and finished Hades) and never felt jealousy in relation to someone else playing a game. And believe me, I've experienced plenty of jealousy in my life. But I've also never used twitch.
It wasn't like a major issue, but it did dampen my enjoyment. My way of working through what I see to be bullshit is to just work through it, so I just focused on getting better and enjoying the game through that. I can totally own that it's a weird way to feel about a video game.
This makes me want to double back and play Hades again. I probably but 6 hours into it, but never really felt good at it. I did level up with some of those permanent upgrades before setting it down. I love the art and only kinda like the gameplay.
Was there something you learned about the combat that helped you overcome the plateau?
It was two things:
One video said "Make every move strategic, like you're playing chess." In the sense that everything should have a reason. They also stressed that you shouldn't just stand and wail on enemies unless you absolutely know you can do so.
Another point was understanding how to manage boons. Same video broke them into three categories:
I hadn't been buffing and stacking affects in any single area, instead picking nearly haphazardly. There was always intent, but I was spreading myself too thin, generally. Now I focus on one playstyle, usually built off of either an earlier boon (if I buff Attack, I try to lean into it, or Special, and always get damage buffs on Dash when I can).
I have pretty much chased effects from dash and attacks buffs, but I probably spread myself too thin by not developing a strat based off my early boons.
The biggest thing I've found helps between Hades and Slay the Spire is you have to take what you get and plan accordingly. Like if I get a Hammer that boosts attacks, that'll be my main strat, any secondary stuff is because it was there and I didn't want to or have re-rolls.
Honestly, it's weird to see someone with such an opposite style from me here in these comments! I personally found I enjoyed the game most when I made the combat as fast-paced as possible (I love the boxing gloves best weapon and I absolutely spam dash/dash-attack) and I suffered the most when in environments that punished me for little miscalculations (I get hit by traps a lot). The meticulous way you play is probably how you really master the game, but it definitely isn't something I'd ever be able to do myself. I just like going fast and smashing buttons 😁
Fortunately, you don't need to be that good to beat the game, even without God Mode -- I got well into the post-endgame content despite not ever playing well enough to ever fruitfully equip Thanatos's trinket. I got past 16 heat at least on my first save file, but I probably would've needed to learn a little more of that meticulousness to get to 32 heat (which afaik is the highest the game rewards you for, unless there's something secret after that). Currently I'm eking my way through Hades 2, but I took a break bc another game came out that demanded my attention.
Getting good synergies between boons is the real key to victory no matter what your strat, though. The right boon or combo can carry you very far -- I'm sure I'm not the only one who got their first successful run thanks to Athena Dash -- but choosing the right ones for your run is an important skill to cultivate for successfully completing runs.
I tend to play hard and fast in games, but there's definitely a balance to be struck between weapon, boons, and gameplay style. I prefer the spear for the range and speed, and the triple spear hammer. I almost beat Hades two nights ago (1/6 health left on phase 2, started with 3 Death Defiance!), so I'm like right at the cusp of victory here.
wait wait beating Asterius as a miniboss lowers his health in the boss fight??? TIL
I've put about 15 hours into the fantasy MMORPG Project: Gorgon, which was just released from Early Access a few days ago.
I randomly saw it on Steam, tried the demo, and I was hooked. It reminds me of playing RuneScape, WoW, and Star Wars: Galaxies twenty years ago.
It's quirky and old-school in a lot of ways. Players can and often do transform into animals, which affects what actions the player can take. There is no instancing. There are no classes, just skills like RuneScape. And combat skills combine in unique sandboxy ways, ex. With Unarmed and Psychology, you can bully your enemies with your words and your fists. It's grindy, but it does a good job of rewarding you often.
Quest markers don't exist. You have to read the quest description and sometimes think about it a bit. The dev likes to include little riddles to figure out. Things are clunky and not always optimized for quality-of-life, but I think in some ways that's the point. It's a handcrafted experience.
The bad part is the technical side. It's really unoptimized. The game looks like 2005 Oblivion, but runs like the heaviest modern games. And the launch has been unexpectedly successful, which means significant server lag in the first town (in the Drevas server at least). There seems to be a memory leak which causes my whole computer to soft crash and require a restart every couple hours.
It sounds ridiculous, but I don't even care. The dev is pretty active, so I think things will improve. It's a fun game, and I'm going to keep playing it.
Hey! I tried this too, but haven't put many hours in yet. I was shocked when I saw it had released out of Early Access and it turned out I owned it?? I remember playing the demo plus I love the idea of a smaller handcrafted indie MMO, but I'm usually into theme park style MMO's. Not sure what pushed me to buy it, but I'm glad I did. I'm going to give it a real chance. The only frustrating part last time I played was the sheer amount of people on the starting island. Tagging monsters so I could loot/bury/examine/etc felt impossible.
What skills and such have you put the most effort into so far? Have you done any particularly challenging content?
Ah yeah, slowdown on the tutorial island is rough. I started playing on the old server shortly after release, and it wasn't too laggy. But then I started a new character on Dreva once it launched, and just kinda speedran my way through the tutorial island. You can get to Serbule Hills (or Serbule directly? I forget) fairly quickly that way, and then your options open up. But I'm still avoiding Serbule (the first city/area), because of server lag. There is a new desert land that's just designed for beginners and to alleviate lag that I've been meaning to try.
Anyway, I'm kind of dabbling in everything and randomly bringing a lot of skills up to lvl 5/10 according to my whims. And according to the NPC favor quests that seem easy to do at the moment. I don't really have a game plan, and I'm really enjoying wandering around aimlessly and connecting the dots however I want! The only downside is that that scattershot approach tends to clutter up my inventory even more.
The challenges I run into are basically just encountering higher level mobs who can kill me in a few shots. It doesn't seem like there's a lot I can do to escape when that happens. But I'm kind of tempting fate by running around areas with higher level mobs in the first place.
Currently being sucked into Project Gorgon as well. I think I bought it on sale a few years ago and never got very far, but coming back on release, something about the gameplay loop in it has finally clicked. Lots of quirks and rough edges but I've really been enjoying myself.
It's definitely a very niche sort of game, partly due to the lack of graphical and technical polish, and partly due to the insanely detailed and varied skill leveling system that undergirds most of what would be strict combat and crafting progression systems in a typical MMO. It actually leans more towards being about crafting and community interaction, with combat sidelined into this fun thing you do to keep yourself stocked in mats for whatever new trade skill you're trying to grind up.
Lastly, the way combat skills work (picking two skills and being able to focus on empowering the abilities you like in them via mods in your gear) is fiddly but very satisfying if you've already played the standard mage/warrior/rogue/whatever for years in other MMOs and have always wondered how it'd feel to be able to build your own class. And then you've got animal classes as well that are their whole other thing.
I'm done with Memories in Orbit, having fully explored the Vessel and done almost everything there was to do - notable exceptions being one (unnecessary) boss and one platforming section that were so difficult and so obnoxiously far from the nearest save point they were registering as actual bullying, and the final boss of one of the endings that fell afoul of my "stupid difficult bosses gating no further content aren't worth the hassle" rule. I had fun during the 42 hours I spent beating the many other difficult bosses and platforming challenges in the game! If you've played, Dr. Halyn was a particularly satisfying victory, and yes, I did the Crucible (in a single evening!)
The following remarks about a beloved game are my own and should not be construed as a personal attack against everything you are and stand for. I'm happy to discuss the game with anyone, but I don't need enlightened pedants implying I "just don't get it". Sorry to be so blunt, but this has happened multiple times before.
Mouthwashing was a generous gift from @CptBluebear . I appreciate all the giveaway gifts and it's my pleasure to spend some time with them. It's a short (about 3 hours) psychological horror walking simulator. I played through it in a single session.
My first impressions of the game were good. It has a first person camera and a pixelated, vaguely PSX-like aesthetic (textured low poly) that has become popular among scary games lately, and it's understandable why - there were some pretty good horror games around that era. At first I thought I was in for a point and click adventure game, since there are some simple tasks demanding that you pick things up and use them somewhere, but it quickly became clear that I was at all times being railroaded into doing exactly one thing and couldn't do anything else during that time. The premise seems good, with a science fiction scenario with a dash of late stage capitalism and a small cast of interesting characters. The story is told in a series of vignettes out of chronological order, with the timeline jumping around more wildly than the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It's interesting to try to figure out what's going on and there's even a small plot twist.
Soon what's going on becomes more or less obvious, and the plot twist is outright revealed about half way through. No gameplay mechanics, such as the inventory or the food mixer, ever get enough use to justify their presence. At this point there are no more characters or dialogue to speak of. The hitherto rare delusion/horror sequences take over completely. The problem is that they are crap.
I was already aware that what passes for horror these days involves a combination of vaguely "disgusting" imagery and restricting player control such that you're required to plod veeery slowly through a scene. Time after time, Mouthwashing dropped me into some scenario in which I had control, but no possible way of knowing what my goal was, so all I could do was bumble around aimlessly. All of these scenes outstayed their welcome. I think my annoyance morphed into outright anger when there was a gun scene - because of course there have to be guns - in a maze with a teleporting opponent. There was no significance to this scene beyond the first ten seconds, but I still had to spend a few minutes wandering around killing or being killed. Deep.
I just don't see the point. These scenes never feel scary, tense or entertaining. They might have felt disgusting if I was 15. As an adult, it felt like someone had a bunch of stereotype boxes they wanted to tick so they just threw them all in there, good job, horror accomplished. There are pustules, childbirth, body horror, drunk people, creepy mascots, invisible monsters, delusions, hooray! I would have been happier with the game if they had skipped all this time-wasting crap and stuck with more grounded and character-related horror. After all - and the game does at least seem to understand this during the first half - in such a stressful situation, it's the people who make it scary!
Previous
Thanks for pinging me and letting me know about your experience, I'm sorry it didn't quite hit the mark. Perhaps you'll hit a banger on the next giveaway!
Body/grotesque horror seems to be all the rage and it doesn't work for me either, so I think I understand why you bounced off. I'll pick a game with a stifling horror ambience over grotesque horror every day of the week!
One of the more memorable horror sequences I've played through is in Dead Space 2, and not one single enemy spawns until you're almost through. They nailed the ambience and had you roam the area you played through in part 1. I was on edge more than any point in the game and nothing even happened.
The "what if" is much more powerful.
Kinda foolin around on South Park: The Fractured but Whole
There was clearly a lot of the same work ethic involved in this game as the first one (Stick of Truth) to try and make a good RPG first and a south park homage second.
It's pretty much more polished in every other way compared to its predecessor, but..I can't help but miss the simplicity of the first.
The first one had such an abundance of junk to collect and sell and it was kind of insane to set your gear and then get better stuff after basically battle. Exhausting almost. But it still had a charm.
FbW has a lot to like, but maybe the content from later seasons just didn't make it into my brain like the earlier seasons.
Will continue playing though, of course.
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD
As part of January 2026's Colossal Game Adventure, I planned to start a fresh file for the HD remaster of The Wind Waker. Unfortunately, some late holiday gatherings, and my own tendency to procrastinate through endless web browsing, pushed that plan off course.
Luckily, my decade-old Wii U save file still worked, so I picked up where I left off and was just a few hours away from the credits.
In this cel-shaded high-seas adventure, The Wind Waker expands the classic 3D Zelda formula from Ocarina of Time into a wide-open ocean dotted with tiny islands. At the time, it felt like Link's biggest quest yet. The bold, cartoon art direction gives the game a cozy charm, even with the divisive bloom effects added to the HD remaster.
The remake itself remains faithful to the GameCube original but improves the experience with several welcome quality-of-life changes. The biggest are the faster "Swift Sail", which automatically adjusts the wind direction, and the reworked Triforce quest that converts five of the eight Triforce charts into actual shards, shortening that infamously tedious segment.
Incoming Triforce quest rant
On GameCube, that Triforce hunt existed because the developers ran out of time and resources. When Wind Waker HD came around more than a decade later, you'd think Nintendo would finally replace it with the two missing dungeons originally planned, but nope.
Instead, they simply streamlined it: fewer charts, faster progress. I'll admit, using GameFAQs helped speed things up even more, especially since I already had a full rupee wallet and plenty of joy pendants from casual battles.
While it's great that fans' feedback was heard, this still feels like a missed opportunity. The issue wasn't the length of the quest, it was the lack of variety and meaningful challenges. The ocean can feel more empty than mysterious, and most sailing trips between points A and B are uneventful.
If those smaller side quests and fetch tasks were spread throughout the story instead of dumped near the end, the game's pacing would feel much smoother, and that portion might even shine as one of its highlights.
On the gameplay side, Normal Mode makes enemies weaker than in the original, while Hero Mode removes heart and refill drops entirely. The Wii U version also fully integrates the GamePad: you can organize your inventory in real time and view maps while sailing. It's a neat idea, but glancing down at the controller mid-action feels more awkward than using a DS or 3DS.
Most of my frustrations came from occasional camera hiccups, touchy platforming controls, and simply relearning the mechanics. Still, I somehow never died once.
In the end, I'm glad I returned to this unique, oceanic adventure. I wrapped it up in under 30 hours (with some walkthrough help), but I doubt I'll be diving back in for another run anytime soon.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
I've stopped playing New Horizons much earlier than usual after its initial release, even though the Happy Home Paradise DLC kept me hooked for a little while. My issues were, as I mentioned before, the heavy focus on customization came at the expense of what once made life with the villagers so special. The lack of permanent, infinitely durable tools also took away the late-game sense of accomplishment and made day-to-day play feel more like maintenance than relaxation.
Over four years later, this "too little, too late" update finally got me revisiting my island, but 16 days in and I've already wrapped it for good. It doesn't address any of the issues I mentioned, and the new hotel building feels like a watered-down version of Happy Home Paradise, with less space to design and fewer rewards to earn. Thanks to the huge stockpile of crafting materials I'd gathered over a year or so, I was able to craft enough items to max out every hotel-exclusive reward in under two weeks.
After nearly half a decade, we finally got bulk crafting, something that should have been there from the start! It's a great quality-of-life addition for anyone still playing regularly, especially with the Switch 2 version that bundles in everything from the v3 update plus a few minor hardware upgrades. But as someone who moved on from New Horizons a long time ago, it's not enough to pull me back in.
That said, I can't help but appreciate how far my island has come since March 20, 2020. New Horizons captured something magical, the feeling of building a thriving town from scratch, rather than stepping into one that already existed. Watching it grow over time has been incredibly rewarding, and seeing tourists visit through the new hotel system feels like a small but sweet addition.
The wait for the next Animal Crossing installment continues, and hopefully, it won't be much longer.
In case you're curious about my charming mess of an island, here's my Dream Address if you'd like to visit: DA-8791-7782-4604
Kirby Air Riders
Ah yes, Kirby Air Ride on the GameCube, an unconventional racing game that felt right at home on a platform known for experimentation. It's remarkable how much depth it pulled off using just one joystick and a single button.
Your vehicle constantly moves forward on its own, unless you hold the button, that applies the brakes, lets you drift through corners, and stores up a boost for release. Amazingly, that same button handles a lot more:
The joystick steers your vehicle, and if you rapidly alternate left and right, you'll spin to knock away anyone who gets too close. That's the basic control setup, simple but surprisingly deep.
Each vehicle has its own stats and unique quirks that make them feel completely different. For example, the Swerve Star instantly reaches its top speed but handles unlike anything else; you can only steer it while stopped completely, then boost off again.
The game includes three main modes:
Many players criticized the lack of a Grand Prix or story mode, but I'd argue Air Ride's real strength lies in its replayability, much like Star Fox. Each mode comes with a massive grid of 100+ challenges that push you to explore every mechanic, from simple tasks to absurd feats. Completing them unlocks new vehicles, tracks, music, and even "free checkmarks" that let you skip overly annoying objectives.
Now, enter Kirby Air Riders, the long-awaited sequel that builds on nearly everything the original did right. It's still not a massive AAA epic, but it addresses all of the major complaints while keeping its charm intact. Honestly, it's a strong contender for Switch 2's Game of the Year in 2025.
The "rs" in the title and the box art full of characters aren't just for show; we finally have more playable racers than just Kirby. Each character has unique stats, attributes, and a special ability mapped to an extra button, adding more depth without overwhelming the formula. For instance, Susie can automatically gain altitude after lifting off the ground, while Marx boasts excellent stats balanced by low durability.
The sequel also brings a ton of upgrades: higher player counts, new and smarter track design, new vehicles, a Road Trip mode that ties all three gameplay styles into a single-player campaign, and perhaps most importantly, online multiplayer.
If the original was addictive enough, Kirby Air Riders might just become a permanent fixture on my playlist for the entire Switch 2 generation.
Yoshi's Crafted World
The ever-charming green dino is back, and once again, Yoshi's latest adventure has its own unique art style. Every Yoshi title has stood out visually: Yoshi's Island had its crayon-like visuals, Yoshi's Story its colorful toybox feel, New Island mixed 2D and 3D elements, and Woolly World brought a soft, fabric-based aesthetic.
Developed by Good-Feel (the team behind Yoshi's Woolly World and Kirby's Epic Yarn), Yoshi's Crafted World hit the Switch in 2019 with a handmade look that's both charming and clever. The game's entire world is made from everyday craft materials, cardboard, paper, tape, buttons, sometimes brought to life with subtle stop-motion animation. It's honestly one of the best-looking games on the console, right up there with Luigi's Mansion 3.
One of its neatest ideas is the "flip side" of each level. After collecting Poochy's pups, you get to explore the reverse side of the stage, seeing how each backdrop and decoration was pieced together. It's a small but fascinating peek behind the curtain that really sells the crafted theme.
Of course, visuals aren't everything. What keeps me coming back to the Yoshi series is the balance between laid-back platforming and sneaky layers of complexity, and Crafted World absolutely delivers.
The core mechanics are familiar: Yoshi swallows enemies to make eggs, then tosses them toward targets. But this time, you can freely aim eggs into both foreground and background objects, adding some welcome depth to each level. Yoshi can even walk along paths in the Z-axis from time to time, though it's still mostly a 2D platformer at heart.
Levels aren't hard, but they're cleverly built. Each one introduces a central gimmick and gradually builds on it, much like Super Mario Bros. does. The game keeps the tone light and accessible; definitely on the easier side, but it's still fun to experiment.
Yoshi is tough to take down, with generous recovery options, infinite lives, and collectible costumes that act as beefy extra armor. If that's not enough, there's also Mellow Mode, which essentially turns the game into a breezy sightseeing tour: Yoshi can hover indefinitely, take less damage, and automatically spot most hidden items.
That said, hunting for collectibles can get tedious. Red coins and flowers are scattered everywhere, often hidden inside clouds. Even though the game saves what you've found, missing just one or two can mean replaying an entire stage.
After each world, NPCs also hand out fetch quests that ask you to find specific crafted objects like cardboard cows or paper fish. It's a fun excuse to look at the scenery again, but the fact that you can only tackle one request at a time makes the process feel pretty grindy.
Progression is tied to how many flowers you collect, so completionists (like me) will end up replaying most levels multiple times. It's a slight pace-breaker, even if the journey itself stays delightful.
In the end, though, Yoshi's Crafted World is a joy to revisit for its creativity and charm alone. The handcrafted stages never stop surprising, and even with its easygoing difficulty, it's a game that rewards slow, appreciative playthroughs. Sometimes, that's exactly what I want from Yoshi.
Atomic Heart: this game had some controversy when it first launched, but it was quickly forgotten, and I kinda see why. Got it on sale for super cheap, and was looking for a BioShock esque game to play. It's just mostly very meh. The English voice actor isn't very good, I'm currently playing with Ukrainian voices and somehow that makes the main character less of an asshole to those around him. The gameplay is ok, but the fact that the robots get endlessly repaired/ respawn means I avoid a lot of fights just to not get bored/ frustrated, and the stealth options are not overwhelming.
Morrowind: I'm back baby! Played this game for the first time last year or so, and loved it. Intentionally didn't complete every quest so I'd have stuff to go back to. Now I'm trying to finish the Tribunal DLC to see what that's all about. It's not as good as the base game so far imo, as I'm mostly stuck in the sewers and most enemies are just artificially hard. I get they have to do something to challenge late game characters though. The Bosmer in full ebony armor has been kicking my ass but I'll kill him eventually.
Persona 3 Reload Episode Aigis: I love P3R, it's my favorite Atlus game so far, but this DLC has been a slog of tough combat (as I was warned) so I've been taking it slow. I like the story ideas they've got cooking, just wish there was more story and a little less combat.
Yeah, this was too much for me. Not a game I could easily come back to after long pauses (as in days) because I would forget the gameplay mechanics too.
I thought I was gonna take a break from mystery/detective games...Nope, just continued onto the next one.
Which is Nina Aquila: Legal Eagle, Season One. It's an RPG Maker-based (or if not actually made in RPG Maker, definitely made to look like it) indie game very much in the vein of Ace Attorney. But two of the three cases have their own little minigames to shake things up, such as a Pokemon-esque battle system in one case, then in another, a "turn-based streetcar racing" minigame. I like that the creator has tried to make their entry into this genre their own, adding in their own flavor.
The setting is great, the characters are fun and funny, and the backstory underneath it all definitely has me intrigued. I also like that the game doesn't take itself too seriously. Like it here's to be a good time. Like Ace Attorney. I've played some of these detective games where it's all super serious. That's fine; I just think they're more enjoyable when there's some levity and humor to it all.
The cases and court battles aren't at all difficult. In fact, there's a lot of prompting the player when a witness says something contradictory ("Huh, that sounded strange...does that match with the evidence?"). Unlike Ace Attorney games, Nina Aquila wants to tell a story first and foremost.
Anyway, I finished it last night and started up the fourth case -- which is a separate game altogether -- Nina Aquila: Legal Eagle, Chapter IV today. I imagine I can finish that up tonight or by tomorrow. The mystery/detective marathon continues 🕵🏽♂️
I've been playing Fire Emblem: Awakening the past few weeks. The only other FE game I've played was Blazing Blade on the gameboy. I am on Chapter 18 playing Hard Classic. It's fun, but I do find myself burning out and wishing I played Normal Casual. Now that I have played for almost 30 hours and wrapped the first storyline I am starting to feel the slog. The same thing happened with Blazing Blade - I just dropped it after the first Act because you get a satisfying ending with one Lord and then you pick right back up with a different one.
I finally have Cordelia as a Dark Flier with Galeforce and I've poured a lot of permanent stat buff items into her and Sumia. I basically can dominate the field with those two and Robin/Chrom. I like that I am able to recruit our time travelling children and I hear they are OP, but I don't think I have the stomach to level any of them meaningfully to get them up-to-speed. It also seems like some of these later chapters are Defeat Commander objectives and with a strong Cordelia I can usually just rush them... IDK it's a fun game, but overly long and since I am playing on Hard I worry that just rushing the boss with Cordelia is going to leave my other units underpowered for the last act of the game.
Has anyone ever played Awakening? Should I just solo with Cordelia lol or will I be forced to grind later to get my team stats up?
I've started Cairn and so far it's been really good (I'm like three hours in). Very frustrating too but I guess that's also one sort of motivation?
For me, Cairn is in many ways a dream game made reality. Since i was a kid, i longed for a game that let me climb all these cool mountains and cliff faces int the games I played. I could see how it could be done if I were to do it myself, but the games were never built for that so it remained this far off wish in my head for years. Other games have come close, and captured some of the magic I've been seeking, like Jusant, but as Protected said, the climbing felt limited, or to express it myself, very on rails. More an avenue to express the art and story it santed to express, rather than anything mechanically or cognitively demanding.
Cairn captures that magic i've been seeking, without question. Every wall and climb you do is a fun logic/physics puzzle of moving Aava's body in a way to keep her moving up without straining her too much. As you play on and face tougher and tougher climbs, you learn new techniques to overcome them, just by naturally coming to efficient ways to move and position her. Scouting a route and then on the fly overcoming it, it satisfies some deep primal part of my brain to keep climbing, and keep reaching ever higher. The auto selection for the limbs does sometimes feel like it's trying to kill me, but in the end its just something more for me to overcome with deliberate intent on my movement using the manual selection. (I do not see how you could do these harder climbs without manual selection, its wild to me that the devs recommended keeping it off and just using the auto selection.)
I also love how my obsession with the game is mirrored in Aava's characterization as a climbing prodigy who has a single minded obsession of climbing Kami, even at the detriment of those she holds dear. "One more climb, to the top of this segment of the cliff, and then I'll rest." But when you reach the top, the elation you feel for having overcome something difficult is replaced with the craving to push yourself further and further. I wont comment too much on Aava's continued characterization, but it does continue to he interesting to me the more she unfolds, the more i see of who she truly is. Every rare line of dialogue she speaks a tantalizing glimmer of who she is as a person, and makes me want to peer even deeper into her soul. And while it hasn't fully crystalized, I think the games themes are going to resonate with me in a big way, if it keeps up its current quality trajectory.
I would to hear your thoughts as you get deeper in, there are some cool moments I want to discuss with others but its still fresh so I'm trying to give it time.
I'm looking forward to picking that up later this year. It's good to know people are enjoying it. Jusant was really cool in a lot of ways but ended up feeling very limited with regard to the climbing you do.
Bought Cult of the Lamb on my Switch 2 since it was on sale. I don't usually play roguelites, but I'd played it during an NSO game trial a long while back and had fun. Started a new save, and am currently at Anura.
It's just as addicting as I remember. It's easy for hours to pass without noticing. I am not the best at the Crusades (in fact, I just lowered the difficulty before bed last night since I keep dying), but the combat is pretty satisfying. Sometimes the RNG just seems to be working against me by not really giving me many chances to heal, and/or giving me undesirable weapons. I strongly favor the bane/poison weapons, I am dependent on the damage from those.
I'm going to force myself to take a break and play Legends Z-A some more, though. I also ended up buying the DLC for that game, so I want to check it out!
and it's easier to put that down compared to Cult of the Lamb, so better for doing other stuffI want a Switch 2 real bad, but Legends ZA is the only thing out there right now that I want to play on it. Do you think it's worth it? I mean I have a switch 1 and could just buy it for that but idk, Scarlet already ran like crap and I have to imagine this will be even worse.
To start, I'm looking at it as a more long-term investment right now. I'll inevitably play all future Pokémon games, and the eventual Animal Crossing release, so I am firmly guaranteed to always get a Nintendo console. I usually wait until more exclusives are released, but rumors about the price potentially raising this year due to the impending chip shortage made us decide to grab one now. And by "us", I mean my mom graciously paid for it as a Christmas gift. Not sure I would've gotten it this so soon otherwise. Currently Mario Kart World is the only exclusive I have.
That said, one big pro I've noticed: the graphics in handheld mode are considerably better. I don't usually pay that much attention to graphics like some people, but it's still different enough for me to notice. Another shocking pro I recently discovered: reviews say Cyberpunk 2077 is better on Switch 2 than on Steam Deck OLED (and I have an LCD model, so already at a disadvantage). So now that and other future ports of similarly big games feel like they're much more viable options.
So for now, I have limited use for the Switch 2 specifically over the original. I just happened to get it earlier than I planned. If you don't have any pressing Switch 2 games you want and your original Switch still runs fine, I'd say you're fine to wait until the library builds a bit.
In regards to Pokémon Legends Z-A specifically though, I played the main story entirely on Switch 1 and can safely say it runs fine! There can be some stuttering at intense moments, but it was rare enough that I actually can't really recall that happening. It was really smooth for me, and absolutely runs better than Scarlet/Violet. (I still can't believe a cut scene in a classroom had stuttering. The stuttering issues in the regular gameplay are almost understandable compared to a scene in a single room. Like... how!?)
So I can heartily recommend Legends Z-A on the original Switch!
Ended up playing another game tonight: Maneater for the PS4! Would you believe I'd kept an eye out for it after seeing it in a Game Informer magazine years ago? I got it last summer at a local used media store.
I'm not far into it (only a couple hours, the shark is still a teen), and my impression so far: I am not that good at the combat. I'm at level six, and I am amazed I have yet to die. Fighting the alligators is hard. I keep missing lunges and tail whips, and my strategy involves a lot of fleeing to eat fish to refill the HP. Just lots of button mashing because I keep missing hits.
Actually, I'm amazed I survived the tutorial where I took out three boats. Like... For a second I couldn't tell if the end was scripted or if I'd just gotten killed. I did not do a good job dodging bullets.
Yeah... It's going to be a lot of grinding. It probably gets easier as I level up and presumably do more damage, but right now gaining EXP seems slow going because regular fish don't give much. So, I'll be in the starting swamp (and the next lake over) for a little bit yet.
So, it's a bit early to give my full impression. But I do appreciate the documentary-style narration, and look forward to all the quips about the various upgrades! I saw mentions of unlocking electric body and tail upgrades from taking out bounty hunters in the Infamy tab, so I've got that to look forward to!
Thanks to @CannibalisticApple, I've been enjoying Say No! More, and it is simply phenomenal. It's short, it features very limited gameplay, but it offers a sublime interactive experience that can not be duplicated with other mediums, putting it on a golden-narrative standard as Bioshock, Braid, and The Stanley Parable.
Say No! More can probably be best be described as an anti-visual novel in that your input limits the content you see. And yet, your singular verbal communication action is so wonderful to use, you'll be "Heavy-Rain-Shauning" with glee during the extended cutscenes.
This is an uplifting, empowering story that is not afraid to be political. It successfully melding its warning against toxic positive with gameplay in the same way as Hardspace: Shipbreaker does with pro-union talk or the Terror of Hemasaurus does with environmental catastrophe. Say No! More features an incredible presentation and enjoyable destruction physics that you don't need to care about the evils of climbing the ladder of corporate culture; it's enjoyable all the same.
One more tip: Although you can not change the story audio that is exclusively English, one thing you can do is change the MC's speaking language, meaning you can say "No!" in a dozen languages, standout of which include the female Chinese one and the male German one, who starts singing Ride of the Valkyries when powering up his wacky "No!"
The only other thing I can add is only the double barreled shotgun from DOOM is as satisfying to use as a weapon than a "No!" from this tour-de-force.
Glad you enjoyed it! That was one I'd planned to redeem myself if no one else wanted it in the giveaway. It seemed fun, but with my massive backlog I had no clue when/if I'd get around to playing it.
So I'm glad to hear that it IS fun! Especially the bit about the languages and the German version singing. That makes me want to play it myself just to discover all the potential Easter eggs. I'll need to keep an eye out for it in sales or bundles in the future!
I'm sorry to have deprived you of this wonderful game! All I can say is that it is a genuinely self-affirming experience, ideologically relevant to our times, and is a type of fun that I wish more games had. Here's wishing more people get to experience this great game!
Nothing but Arc Raiders. Perfect, no notes.
So true! I have 225+ hours topside (started a week after it came out). I can't wait to get back in each night.
I'm curious what kind of lobbies you get? I'm pretty much PvE only with the occasional PvP battle when someone shoots me first. I mostly find the PvP gameplay to be subpar, and being a console player I'm at a huge disadvantage against the PC players. I leave crossplay on though, because there's something about having to pay attention to what other players are doing and their cues to see how they might behave.
I think the entire game is a really interesting social experiment/sandbox. Just last night me and two friends were in a raid, and one of my teammates made an offhand comment about "doing the raider shuffle" (the funny little dance you can get your character to do by wiggling your joystick) and within 20 seconds another person not in our group was blasting the Electric Slide and 6 of us were doing it in game. Interactions like that really just make the game something special. Even getting shot in the back every now and then is fun!
I agree with you 100%. It's a perfect game that involves careful spacial audio, PvP and PvE. I would never personally kill another player, but as I've levelled up I've been killed a lot. I play with my kids a ton and personally would never attack another player, I'd rather deal with all the Arcs, but my kids have different opinions.
The Excavation of Hob's Barrow
Old school mystery / folk horror point and click adventure about an archeologist who comes to the remote countryside to excavate a burial mound.
It looks and plays very much like the Sierra/Lucasarts classics, but they've sanded the rough edges off with welcome QOL changes like:
Pretty fun so far! The protagonist can be pretty sassy for an upper crust Victorian-era lady, and I enjoy giving scoundrels a piece of my mind Austen heroine style.
I got bored pretty early in, I think I should give it another try.
I've had my eye on this one for quite some time. Still haven't picked it up, but every time it's on sale I'm eyeballing it, thinking maybe now's the time...
I had been playing Schedule I, but I think I've about reached the end of the content that's available at the moment. It's a pretty basic management sim in which you manufacture, mix, package and sell illegal drugs (well, about half the drugs are illegal where I live). You can sling by yourself or delegate product to dealers to sling for you for 20% of the revenue.
The game is in early access, but I rate it as just barely in beta. Progression is pretty barebones as yet, and many aspects are poorly tutorialized. For instance, I spent maybe two or three play sessions just building capital because the game never bothered to mention that I needed to engage with a turf war mechanic before I could progress. It had introduced a rival cartel, but it never explicitly explained that I needed to build influence to open new regions.
It's also pretty buggy, especially as regards worker assignments. You can hire chemists, botanists, handlers/packagers and janitors in addition to dealers, but often they will simply stop working with little or no explanation given as to why. Sometimes it's a problem with pathing, sometimes their assignments are invalid, and sometimes it seems it's just because they feel like it. There is a mechanic where you're supposed to beat your workers to get them working again (which I could entirely do without), but it's no help if they bug out or their pathing is screwed.
I've also experienced really frustrating bugs involving police. There are a couple of sections of road that will be blocked by police checkpoints about every other day. If you want to pass, you have to submit to a frisking (which involves a minigame that allows you to hide contraband on your person) and a vehicle search. If the cops don't find anything they're supposed to let you pass, except sometimes the cops' AI bugs out and they tell you everything's good, but when you go to leave they alert Metal Gear Solid-style and whip out the tasers. You can run and hide until they think it must've been the wind, but the "stealth" mechanic seems kinda busted and in bad need of balancing. It's also far too easy to reset the cops' alerts, such that they end up spotting you from the next ZIP code and begin the countdown over again.
All in all, I've put about 30 hours in, which is actually pretty good for my 21st century attention span. The primary gameplay loop is fun if a little repetitive. It's got a ways to go before it's ready for release, but the devs are active and engaged. I feel pretty good about having grabbed it in EA.
Currently working on three big games.
Ghost of Yotei (PS5) - It's very similar to Ghost of Tsushima, although there are some new abilities such as being disarmed in a sword fight and throwing smoke in an enemy's face. The story is about revenge as Atsu's family is killed and she is left for dead by Lord Saito. 16 years later, she embarks on a mission of revenge to kill him and his lieutenants (The Yotei Six? I forget the name) for what they did to her family. I'm loving the game so far as it has everything from the first game in it, but more. It's a sequel, and it's a terrific one.
Final Fantasy VII (Switch) - It's not the Remake released in 2020, but a port of the original game for PS1. While this one lets you disable enemy encounters, enable 9999 damage to enemies, and speed the game up 3x, I am trying to play it as close to the original as possible. I'm enjoying it thus far, but I had progress on my copy on the Vita/PS3, but both crashed at the same time (long story) so I've restarted the journey on the Switch. I do like the game and I like JRPGs, but I truly despise random encounters. They are the enemy of everything good about video games, IMO. I am glad the more recent games in the series have abandoned this.
Blue Dragon (Xbox Series X) - I've started this game twice or so since 2007, but I never got too far into it before I stopped playing. It's a JRPG by the studio behind The Last Story (Wii) and Lost Odyssey (Xbox 360), and the characters were designed by the late Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball, Chrono Trigger). It has a beautiful score by Nobuo Uematsu (of Final Fantasy VII) and is genuinely fun. I'm playing on my Series X, though, and it never received a patch for forward compatibility to gain a better framerate and improved graphics. So, I'm stuck playing it at 30 FPS and at 720p. That said, it is a fun game. There are no random encounters as you can see all of the enemies in the area and you choose if you want to fight (unless they bump into you first), and it's interesting. I really hope to play this all the way to the end this time.
Well into act 4 of Rogue Trader! I've already
act 4 spoilers
killed both of the other Rogue Traders (Corda by aiding with Vladym, Winterscale by revealing his pal's demonic-ness and finishing him off after on grounds of heresy), and have landed on Eufrates.
I've also wrapped up (I believe) the two story arcs related to the DLCs. As a note, the DLCs are amazing value, both added tons of missions with unique settings and quirks, and they also did a good job of weaving the DLC companions and stories into the base storyline seamlessly.
Hoping to finish by the 10th to play Mewgenics, but I'm definitely coming back for another run, maybe once more DLC releases this year
I started playing Path of Exile 2 again.
When the beta first came out on PS5 (or early access, whatever they’re calling it), I gave it a go because I liked the first PoE but it wasn’t quite as fun. There were random difficulty spikes and the first act was such a slog I stopped playing.
They’ve added new characters and clearly lots of balancing because it’s so fun to play now! This will be a game I pick up off and on for years, like Diablo II was.
So I played all the way through Cult of the Lamb and was pretty disappointed with how quickly I reached the endgame.
I unlocked everything for the cult, all the buildings, and was walking around thinking "What else is there to do?"
I guess I could max out the hack and slash part of the game but what's the point?
Anyways, I started playing Dredge afterwards, and it's a fun game just slow. The time of day mechanic's a bit odd and is taking me some time to get used to. I also wish that Dredge had a waypoint system. Usually I have a good sense of direction, but I'm always finding myself lost in this game for some reason.
I'm also not sure what I'm doing at this point in Dredge. I've been trying to finish objectives as I come across them but I've stopped coming across them so I've just been upgrading my boat.
I decided to fire up The Godfather (2006) on the emudeck. It's a bit one dimensional by today's standards and the controls are a little clunky, but other than that, it holds up! I'm about 14 hours in and haven't gotten bored from all the extortion.
I remember thinking the graphics were incredible back then, and the faces are still very detailed compared to some of the other PS2 games I've played. I wouldnt recommend it to a youngster with higher standards, but it's not bad for the geezers.
This is one of my favorite games of all time and have never found anything that scratches the same itch as slowly taking over New York and defeating all the other families
I wish there was a remake or similar style of game made in modern day
I recently picked up Car Dealer Simulator and honestly I’ve had quite more fun with it than I thought I would. It’s a neat little game to unwind. Still actively developed with a dlc releasing some time in Q1 2026
Which is surprising overall to me because most simulator games suck. The gameplay loop is simple and it has its jank, within 2-3 hours you see most of the gameplay loop but nevertheless, having fun.
Finally started playing Cyberpunk 2077 on PC. I'm maybe 15 hours in so far, and I like the story! I didn't expect the twist with your companion at the beginning of the game. I really like the art style of the game and the attention to detail has been really cool. I have been following interesting NPCs around to see how they interact with the world. I like to get food as well just to appreciate the textures.
Weapon upgrades feel good as well, and I like the vast skill trees in the game as well. Makes it seem like there are a lot of different play styles this game can accommodate.
My major gripe with the game is driving, I am having such a hard time getting the hang of it. Generally, I am pretty good at adapting to the driving style in these types of games, but this feels impossible! Seems like there is a lot of over and under steer at the same time. Everywhere I look for tweaks, there's someone saying to "get good or use a controller." I guess I'll just stick to fast traveling
There's a mod that changes driving enough that it's much more reliable. I floated all over the place until I got that mod.
I can't look it up now but I'll link it later.
In my opinion, driving used to feel much better before they updated it with post-release patches. But everything else has gotten better, so I guess it's a good trade-off.
Enjoy the rest of the game! It's one of my favorites!
Wait. It was better before the update? When I played it several years ago, the only gameplay mod I had was a driving one because the vehicles were all so light they all had a complete inability to turn if you weren't at a complete stop and would get launched 6 feet in the air from a crack in the asphalt while going as little as 15km/h. And I don't think that's really even hyperbole; it genuinely felt like the vehicles would have been heavier if they were made out of paper.
We recently covered MT2 for our podcast on roguelike/lite games
Overall it really felt like a DLC for Monster Train 1 to us. Like, it’s good it’s a well made game but it looks and feels exactly like the original as far as we could tell. There are a handful of new game mechanics like adding equipment to characters or activated abilities, but the premise and style just felt like a copy paste from the original.
MT1 is in our top 10 games since we started in 2022, I think largely because of how different and unique it was compared to what else we had covered at the time. My suspicion is that the devs went ultra conservative after the handling of Inkbound and went back to the Monster Train universe that was a known success for them.
I think we wanted MT2 to be more original than MT1, but doing sequels is hard (maybe more so for rogue games specifically?). Sometimes sequel design works out well, like with Hades 2 or Risk of Rain 2. Other times it does NOT work out so well like with Darkest Dungeon 2. In some sense, I can overlook a flop if a sequel at least tries to do something new, even if it doesn't quite stick the landing. Monster Train 2 just felt like a very safe expansion to the MT1 systems.
So overall, we liked MT2, it's a good game and people who LOVED the first will also enjoy the second. There seems to be a split in deckbuilder fandom camps between Spire-heads and Train-fans, and I think we're more in the Spire end of the spectrum. We definitely plan on covering StS2 later this year, so it will be very interesting to compare how MT2 and StS2 are in terms of their approach to sequels.
I also tried MT2 for the first time a few days ago. I think they managed to make a very nice upgrade, which is, indeed, MT1+more stuff. The team absolutely knows how to make a great card battler game.
I really prefer the looks of MT1. I think they aimed for a better steamdeck experience, with everything being bigger on screen, but the first one is much clearer, imho.
Inkbound was a great game, while it was actively developed. Having a game like that co-op is rare. Really too bad it didn't work out.
Terraformental was a fantastic adventure. Much like Asbury Pines, it's a semi-incremental time loop story, where you balance resources while trying to discover what's happening, but it's a lonelier, more puzzley story. In many ways I'd describe it as a metroidvania, where the unlocks are the information you've gathered about your situation along the way. Once you know the route to a location you can head there in a new loop, if you have the resources to make the trek. If you've hacked a door and know the code, you can just enter the code next time, etc. I strongly suggest checking it out. Version 0.5 just came out, so the story isn't complete as of yet, but it was good enough for me to put a couple dozen hours into playing what is available.