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

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

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?

Nothing but Arc Raiders. Perfect, no notes.

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 stuff

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 if 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 if 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.