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

Been bouncing around quite a bit, as I haven't found anything that has really hooked me as of late. I have been playing Link to the Past for the CGA, though only really 10-15 minutes at a time every other day or so, I'd say. I'm enjoying it and trying to make my way through it without a guide and without looking stuff up, though I did just fail on that.

I got to the mountain section and turned into a Bunny. Wandered around forever and tried the various things in my inventory, but nothing did anything. Finally I relented and looked it up, seeing I had to use the Magic Mirror, which worked. But it's weird, I could have sworn I tried to use it prior to that and nothing happened. Ah well. I haven't been back since I finally figured that out yesterday, but I'll get back to it, as I would like to see if I can complete it.

I've also been playing Breath of the Wild via emulation. I do like it, completed the first dungeon or guardian or whatever and am making my way to the second. I do think I am starting to get a little bit bored with it though--although I've also been busy and therefore tired, which makes me lose interest in games of any type--because it does feel very "samey" no matter where you go. Climb the tower, do some shrines, find some Koroks, rinse repeat. I don't find the story particularly compelling or interesting, so that's not exactly pulling me through. I'll probably end-up going back to it again here, just to see if I am still compelled to play it. And I do need to say, it looks absolutely fabulous running at 1600p and 165Hz; I do still switch to my Steam Deck occasionally and play at 30ish FPS, which doesn't feel as nice, but at least the gyro controls work properly and it's nice to periodically suspend the game to come back to later.

Assassins Creed Odyssey

I mean. It's Assasins Creed Origins in greece. It's got boat travel like black flag. It's massive and full of HUD markers and it's exhausting. I really wish I had more to love. But it makes assassination the passenger in a vehicle that drives with regular combat.

Working through an exceptionally thick backlog of games (as always):

Bravely Default HD: Played this a bit on my 3DS last year, but kind of fell off of it due to everything taking a bit too long. Picked up a copy for my Switch 2 and the QOL from the HD version was very necessary as the pre-selected skill templates made farming a bit less painful. I say a bit less because at a certain part of the game (chapter 5?) you go through some annoying story beats that start to require real hands-on control which is fine, but lots of the instadeath and 1-shot mechanics started to wear on me. I'm technically at the near-end of the game, but put it down for...

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake: Had never played a DQ game just because I felt it was more "Final Fantasy"-lite. But hawt dog, just what I needed with some of the burgeoning systems and complicated setups I think is weighing down the recent FF entries. I loved the style and really think they did a great job using the 2d-3d mix to a pretty good effect (Ragnarok Online was ahead of its time apparently). Game was simple, but compelling with its music, auto-battle setup, and generally chill vibes to roll credits in about 25 hours with some post-game remaining. With so much left to play, little palate cleanser next...

Dragon Quest Builders: Same franchise, but technically a "What if" of Dragon Quest 1 if it doesn't pan out as the game intended and instead ending up with a Dark Version of the world where you have to rebuild the world Minecraft-style. The only open-world crafting games I've enjoyed, though, is Terraria (2D-Minecraft) but I actually fell in pretty well with this version of simpler building with a really whimsical atmosphere and structured story chapters. Where most open-world, crafting, survival games are more ludonarrative, build-your-own-story I really appreciated the chapter layout which imposed different situations (low-food start or other variation) in service of a story of rebuilding a broken world. Nothing ground breaking, but this game was originally released 10 years ago (2016!) on the PS Vita (dang!), so I'm impressed it was this polished and may try the second game at some point in the future.

Next up: Dragon Quest 1+2 Remake

I have lost myself to Age of Wonders 4. I started playing a month or two ago and already have... 130 hours in it which is crazy for me.

It checks a lot of the right boxes for me and I'm honestly annoyed I didn't try it sooner although that at least gives me an insane amount of content and DLC to consume.

Turned based, fantasy, endless possibilities for faction crafting, endless possibilities for map creation. An early game that is most similar to Disciples 2, a game I also dropped a ton of hours into over the years.

This game is the perfect baby of Might & Magic, Disciples 2 and a bit of Civ. Better combat than Civ but more simplistic than Total War.

So many other games to play yet all I play now is AOW4. If anyone here plays it and wants to further suck me in with some coop, let me know!

I've been playing two hacks of Pokémon Fire Red.

One is FRLG.ips. It lets you catch all the Pokémon, among some other things, and there is a new rock by the water. It's just like you remember. Would recommend to a certain subset of people. There is a new rock by the water.

Then people were pointing me to Celia's Stupid ROMHack afterwards. I've played four sessions in the last three days with some friends in Discord, and every time I come out in physical pain from laughing too hard. Celia's feels like Undertale in how meticulous it is at trying to get you to interact with everything and reward you with humor for doing it. Every Pokémon, move, ability, item, NPC, fight, or corner of the map, text box in the game is the opportunity for a quip, cheap or not. My friend mentioned it's like Airplane! in joke delivery, except Airplane! wasn't 30+ hours long. And somehow I'm still not tired of this. The sheer effort behind some of these bits is insane.

If you consider yourself a Pokémon fan in pretty much any regard - even if you've fallen out of love with it - or especially if you ever enjoyed Pokémon Red / Blue or Fire Red / Leaf Green, and you don't mind the hit-or-miss nature of a comedy game, I recommend this. Terribly. It's so stupid. I can't guarantee every joke is going to land; some of these are some real deep cuts that my friends had to explain along the way. But I can probably guarantee there will be at least one joke in the first ten minutes that will slam into your gut and make you too curious to stop.

I played Trombone Champ, a gift from everyone's favorite wizzard @rincewind . For all my life I've been deaf to the truth, but this excellent rhythm game has taught me the real history of trombones, classical composers, hot dogs and baboons. It's packed with educational, 100% legit information. Trust me, swear to Babi and hope to toot.

The core gameplay is very simple: Levels require pressing and holding a key (or clicking) to the tune of a song. But in order to succeed you need to use your mouse to align an on-screen target up and down to match the pitch of each note, the resulting arm movement presumably evoking the motion of operating the slide of a trombone. It's a really neat idea, very fun, not too punishing for the most part, and the trombone sound generation works really well! During the level, on-screen elements and musical arrangement plot twists will try to distract you, typically by making you laugh. The laughter is compounded by trombones naturally sounding funny when you play them poorly, which you will. There are a whopping 75 levels in the base game (plus several DLCs I don't own for things like Celeste and Deltarune, a level editor and many free user-published levels on Steam workshop.)

The game also features a meta-story-progression that ties in with unlockable content such as new trombone sounds, trombone colors, characters and a card collecting minigame featuring classical composers and other things. I had a lot of fun completing all of this. Trombone Champ is a charming game whose base content can be completed in 5-6 hours and which definitely doesn't overstay its welcome; I can understand why people wanted more of it.

Even though it's not Steam Deck certified, Trombone Champ runs perfectly on Linux. The reason it can't be certified is the mouse requirement. This game was designed to be played with a mouse - and which mouse you use does impact your experience (my shitty mouse had a tendency to be in the wrong place in my desk half way through the song and there is no time to reset it; I recommend a decent, big mouse you can rest your whole hand on). I read reports of it playing poorly on gamepads and touchpads, and promises of improvements from the devs, but didn't investigate further.

Before this I finished Deer & Boy. This game took 4h30m in total. In my first impressions, I highlighted the many similarities with Planet of Lana, but toward the end the game gets more abstract and melancholic. So there's your warning - this game may make you sad. Onions and all.

There are missable achievements for not doing certain things perfectly, but you can return to any point in the story later on using the main menu.

I've been playing Big Walk with a group of friends that overlaps those who played the Lingo games, Blue Prince, Neyyah and Windblown with me. Basically this is currently on my multiplayer slot. I was interested in this game, which was made by the devs of Untitled Goose Game, from the very first weird trailer, so I pushed for us to start this ASAP.

Since the game is actually blowing up you may already know this, but Big Walk is a multiplayer-ONLY game for 2 to 12 people designed around cooperative puzzle solving or challenge solving. Each player inhabits a goofy looking ant made of three spheres with stick limbs. Ants can only talk to other ants who are standing very close to them (you're not supposed to be on a voice call!), raise their arms, squat, push buttons, hold one item at a time, or hold another ant standing on their shoulders. Puzzles are peppered throughout a rough-terrained world, but the ants are bad at climbing and tend to get stuck on things, slip and fall on their asses when going downhill and drop what they're carrying. There's a day-night cycle, and nights are pitch black unless you carry a light source or leave beacons around. Puzzle solutions tend to require timing, describing images, matching patterns, sound recognition, opening shortcuts, bridging distances, tossing items and generally operating the many gadgets you find in your Big Walk, which include but are very much not limited to flashlights, cameras, laser pointers, walkie talkies, binoculars, maps, radios, compasses, etc.

All puzzles require 2 to 4 people each, with world generation not including certain types of puzzles if you tell it only have 2 or 3 players at time of generation. Having more than 4 players justs adds to the chaotic fun though! There's no minimap or any global way of synchronizing with your friends, so you're supposed to plan ahead and make use of things like radio communication, fireworks and landmarks or you risk getting completely lost.

I suspect it will be quite a while until we finish our run as we battle the hardest puzzle of all, scheduling timeslots when 6-ish people can all be available at the same time. But we will persevere!

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