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

So Football Manager 26 had a free weekend this past weekend, and I've been wondering whether to finally get it or just stick to FM24 like I have for the past two years. So figured I might as well try it out. And.... it kinda sucked, honestly. Pretty disappointing as a veteran of the series.

I love the series. it's given me so much joy over the years. It's a comfort game/series to me. And if you've never played a Football Manager game before, just know that it's like 95% menus and lists and spreadsheets and stats. My friends (who never played) used to joke with me that I was playing 'Spreadsheet Simulator' because that's what it looked like whenever I'd play FM. And that's the beauty of it. Think of it like a TTRPG, where you have the character sheets and maps and stories, yet the world still feels alive and the stories real.

But in FM26, they made the UI so clunky that it actively made things more difficult. The rest of the game is still nearly the same, but everything is just ever so slightly more annoying to click through. There's less information per page, which means you have to click around more, which is made more difficult by the UI being clunkier, which ends up being this self-repeating problem. It's like the game was designed with mobile in mind (which is nothing new as they've always skirted with the idea of being better for mobile, but seems like this time they took it a bit too far).

It's not like 'literally unplayable' or anything extreme like that, it's just harder to get immersed when you're constantly annoyed by things taking longer than they used to to find or load or click through. Everything is just a tiny bit slower, and every screen shows just a tiny bit less information. Doesn't sound like a lot, but when you multiply that by the thousands of times that you're clicking around looking at stats and teams and players, well it gets pretty annoying fast.

I really hope they fix it for future iterations of the game, but given their emphasis on graphics and flashy UI over speed and usability, it doesn't seem like that will be the case sadly. I'd take a text-only version of the game over this any day.

I’ve been playing the new Tomodachi Life (Nintendo Switch game) that came out last week, to the point that most days I’ve had to force myself to stop to go to bed. I thought that the sharing limitations would hurt my interest in this one (compared to the previous one), but for now at least my interest is still sky high. I’ve been especially enjoying having people I know irl as characters in-game, and then being able to tell them about silly/stupid/cute stuff their character gets up to. Nice excuse to be even more chatty than I already am, and silly to witness their characters get up to things even without it being something to chat about. I’m hoping I don’t overdose by playing too much too quickly like I do sometimes with games that I get into, would like to keep playing this in some capacity for a long while if I can (obviously not to the extent I am currently). Certainly not a game for everyone, but seemingly very much a game for me right now

I've been playing Double Fine's Keeper. I learned from Dan Floyd's Best Game Animation of 2025 video that we're supposed to be boycotting Microsoft, and I would definitely have considered joining in, but unfortunately by then I had already purchased this (during the spring sale).

Typically I play every Double Fine game (sooner or later). If you're familiar with them, you might know that they are fairly polished and stylistically consistent but they often choose deliberately simple or stylized art, with elements such as faux paper craft, cartoonish characters, etc. Without looking into it, I personally see Keeper as a massive, massive flex by Lee Petty and their entire art department. The game is gorgeous, with extremely intricate 3D sets rendered in clashing, psychadelic colors, excellent animation and camera work. Terrifying corruption monsters with all of the tentacles and spider legs give way to chunks of rock floating on cotton candy clouds or cities inhabited by clockwork creatures.

You go through all of this as a sentient lighthouse with legs (because of course you do) and her very smart bird companion. What are we trying to accomplish? I'm not fully sure yet. I can tell that there's world building behind all of this, but Keeper doesn't waste your time with something as crass as words. There is no inventory or dialogue, and everything that happens is fully immersive and conveyed through animation. The lighthouse seems to be at odds with the eldritch darkness, which makes sense. I'm sure I will find out what happens soon enough, since I suspect this is not a super long game. I'm thinking maybe 6 hours?

There are platforming elements as the lighthouse's capabilities change over time, and puzzle solving elements thanks to our bird companion's help, but I would hesitate to call this a puzzle-platformer. The world of Keeper feels very rich, but our traversal of it is also a carefully curated experience. You can shine your light on the many cute/odd insects, plants and mechanisms, all of which are animated for you, but exploration is limited, not only because the lighthouse's movement isn't super fluid by default, but also because you never really control the camera (the right analog stick is instead reserved for aiming your light). Fixed camera angles or automated cameras are very good at telling you where you should go - there isn't even a hint of incompetence in any aspect of this game's development - but if you try to defy them and go down a different path - even paths that don't seem all that obstructed - you invariably run into an invisible wall. Keep your hands inside the ride at all times!

This doesn't bother me. I enjoy a good quasi-walking simulator. If it doesn't bother you, either, then I recommend Keeper, for however much money you think it's worth (waiting for a sale is always an option!) If you play it, let me know what your favorite alien plant or creature was!

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