18
votes
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.
Control: Resonant. Superb vibes and atmosphere as with all Remedy games. Doesn't quite get to original Control's quality, at least yet.
I hate the game mechanics so far. Weird clickfest and bosses are way too powerful. Fortunately there were tuning options without needing external cheats so I can skip the bore and just enjoy everything else.
I rolled credits on Resonant yesterday and for me (and the people I've been playing it with fwiw) generally agree that it's much better than the first one. Combat is actually a high point for me because while yes, most of the bosses suck (in terms of gameplay; they all have excellent direction), it's a really fun, dynamic and strategic system in group fights, which is the majority of the game's content. And Dylan being an actual character (unlike Jesse who was, frankly, paper thin) gave the story a lot more weight at least for me. That said, though, I felt the open world was really uneven in quality and exploring often felt tedious and draining. The game also has like ten excellent set pieces so it never felt like a chore to play the story at least. I mean, Alan Wake 2 is my single favorite game and this isn't to that level at all but it's still great and, I think, Remedy's best gameplay by a lot.
I have the exact opposite reaction to game.
I actually stopped playing because I found the combat boring (I'm at ~13h of playtime). Maybe I did the wrong weapon choice (the scythe), because the strategy is mostly targeting the laser beam guys, then mindlessly clicking through each encounter..
And I would have gladly stayed for the story, but between the boring encounters and the repeated puzzles found in the open world, I was having the nice main story beats separated by often hours of mindless open world exploring/traversal.
I didn't really like the combat in CONTROL either, but at least with the more linear format, the game never felt repeating itself in its puzzles and the story beats were flowing into each other like in the way they expected.
In this one I always found myself completing side objective in the wrong order, so I've seen the conclusion before the first mystery pull. It felt so shallow by comparison.
I'd like to hear more about your experience here, because it contrasts with mine but I'm fairly comfortable with hack n slash games. Did the bosses feel like they had too much health or damage? Were you able to figure out the attacks to dodge them? Did you have upgrades to your weapons and talents? What weapons and abilities were you mostly using?
I think the problem is that I've played through games like this what feels like a thousand times and I just cannot be bothered to go through yet another learn-by-dying dodgefest. I don't see any fun in it anymore.
So if I die on a boss more than 3 times, I go to the menus and tweak my character and just go bash the boss.
I'm happy Remedy decided to supply those tweaks without resorting to hackery.
That's fair enough and to each their own. I'd just like to know more on why the bosses felt overly powerful for you because I mostly just mashed abilities and left click with some dodging and I think the only boss I died to was the very first one. That's going to come off as a humble brag but I really did just left mouse spam my way through most of the game, I don't think they meant for it to be anywhere near as challenging or mechanically demanding as the typical souls-like.
Same here.
Not really spoilers but still
The Artist was a bit confusing at first (first boss syndrome, mostly) but once I learnt the attack patterns it was fine.
For the Deserter I just ran around and waited for his attack where he slams himself on the floor, that gives you plenty of time to deal damage; also he's very slow with some attacks.
By the time I got to the Dancer I was so overleveled that I killed her too fast and I didn't get to properly enjoy Obsessive Compulsive Order (my favorite OST track, was also in the trailer) in its natural environment 😭
I expect to get destroyed by the Mold Resonant though considering how tough the Park is. We'll see.
Minor not really spoilers
I actually went straight to the Park as soon as I unlocked Central and I got so used to fighting them in the open world due to the huge level imbalance (everything had a skull next to their health bar) that the boss fight itself ended up being easier than some of the open world fights I had.
My advice is to get the molded bar artifact from the vendor there which makes dealing with mold way less of a hassle, and if you want to make it easy then do the Central resonant first. The combat ability you get from that trivializes mold fights, and it lets you open some locked doors too.
I did Central, I just wasn't able to complete the Resonant mission in the Park because I got killed too fast.
I finished West Incursion and I'm level 5 now. I'll go fetch that artifact from the vendor and give it a second try soon.
I more or less 100% completed CONTROL Resonant (missing like 2 achievements but that's w/e) and I gotta give it to Remedy, they know how to deliver a really solid and stunning audiovisual experience. There were some really great sections of the story missions that were trippy to look at but fun to navigate while an appropriately hype track played in the background and those were definitely the highlights of the game. Overall map design was pretty solid too, with the later areas that require the more advanced movement abilities being confusing initially but satisfying once you get the hang of it. Combat is actually very simple but importantly feels good and has a minimal amount of bullshit deaths. It's slightly challenging at the start and you can choose to make it harder if you beeline it for the tougher zones before you have upgrades, but overall the game's not hard, and ironically gets easier as you progress since the upgrades really do make a big difference. I really could just faceroll my way through most of the boss encounters after the first few. There's a healthy amount of story and content available without being too grindy or dragged out, as it took me only 40 hours to basically finish everything, side quests and collectibles included. Completely maxing out all the upgrades would be a much more tedious grind though, but you definitely don't need to which is good. It's very well made too, I only encountered one progression-breaking bug in a mission which I was able to workaround by reloading the game and coming back to that spot. As for the narrative itself, it's solid and the writing is good with believable characters, nothing revolutionary but consistently high quality. 8.5/10, worth the full price IMO. Now if only Remedy would release Alan Wake 2 on Steam...
Edit: Also started Wardogs earlier last week, so far it's been fun but annoying to unlock the gear at even "moderate" levels so I'm at a bit of a disadvantage compared to the folks that have been sweating it out for 2 weeks already and can buy the top tier gear. I still make it work but maybe it'll be a whole different game when everybody's inventory is wiped next season.
I wish, sadly it will never happen. If I could just have all my Remedy games in one place I would be a happy boy.
Wardogs can be a little tough when you face tier 4 armor with your starting rifle, but luckily there are plenty of opportunities to make money elsewhere. Grabbing some binoculars and proceed to rake in cash just spotting everything from a safe distance for one.
That said, it's not impossible. I once went in with just a pistol and got the drop on someone wearing T3 armor, a good rifle and a buttload of ammo. Which I then took of course.
Positioning, being aware of sound, and good spotting can help a lot.
In terms of jobs you have plenty that won't put you face first against a day 1 player. Doing logi or building fobs (and I do recommend beelining for the T3 hammer) can be relatively safe ways to make money.
Even so, the October wipe should level the playing field a bit. Besides those that are buying gold bars we'll see a more flat economy.
I've been playing the heck out of Graveyard Keeper 2, the sequel to the least historically accurate graveyard management game. The writing is as good as ever (deeply mediocre), graphics better than ever (due to a new 3d engine that is incredibly resource-hungry), and it's full of obtuse UI and hard locking bugs that seem to be randomly distributed such that no one experiences the same problem.
For all those critiques, the core experience is incredibly good. The diverse systems interlock beautifully, so your farming and mining and smithing and logging and autopsies and church development and town rebuilding and PR management and tower defense/rts sections to clear the town all ask you to develop all of the others. There's always something to do and a reason to develop all of the others, so it never feels like a box-ticking exercise, even as most quests boil down to "get me three of a thing you're close to developing." It all carries you through the experience really seamlessly. Assuming you dodge the bugs.
As compared to the release of Graveyard Keeper 1, this is a triumph of the highest order. It's a good game now and I really am looking forward to where it goes from here. GK1 had 4 DLC that took it from ok to excellent, and I'm looking forward to this going from excellent to wonderful.
How is the timing in this one? The first one never felt like you were under time pressure, aside from needing to talk to specific NPCs on their days, time wasn't a factor much at all.
I played a brief bit of the demo and it seemed like they were going to drop bodies every day which would put some pressure on to process them. I was running around talking to people for quests and had a body delivered and was like shit. In the first one you controlled when it happened by requesting bodies, so that was slightly concerning.
And I wonder with the defense horde stuff if you have to be ready by a certain time as well or you're screwed or something?
The timing is even more relaxed. The NPCs are around every day to turn in quests, though you can only take advantage of their special action on their day. Once you're a little way in you can adjust the rate of corpses as you wish, anywhere from none at all to double corpses every delivery. There's a little randomness to it, but there's no corpse decay so there isn't the same sort of "drop everything" rush as there was in the first game. The combat sections will wait for you; they're discrete missions you choose yo take on, and there's no downside to putting them off aside from whatever story or tech unlocks lie on the other side. It's very chill.
Oh wow, the opposite of what I expected, that's really good to know and glad to hear they kept the goint at your own pace element. Thanks for the breakdown!
Been playing Mega Dystopia Micro Architect. I got it like a year ago but only played it for the first time yesterday, as I thought it'd be, like, a city planning game, and while I'd heard it was good, that seemed like a commitment of brainpower.
Turns out it's actually kinda just a puzzle game with a city builder aesthetic. And it's really good and chill and I've been vibing out with it a ton. Highly recommend.
My friends and me have finished forst map in RV there yet?
This gane is abaolute multiplayer gem!
I played with my classmates, we know each other for 30 years and are good friends. The game is about gping back home from a camping trip.in your RV. And having played the game with those friends, it was actually like we were travelling together from camping trip. It was like we were there in real life but without consequences (yeah, we lost the RV many times and died a few times as well). Exploring the terrain together and each of us having some input on the situation and then choosing the solution and actually working together to make it - it was just great!
If you have friends like these and you can tolerate graphics of the game (as another friend of mine couldn't get over that, even if the game would be great for him), just buy it and have a go. We biught it in a sale, but even full price of 7-8€ or whatever is dirt cheap for how much fun you will get.
AC Valhalla
I'm a Viking. I loot, I raid, I play dice.
Beautiful to look at. Fun to kill in.
Unlike a lot of other games I tried during the last few Steam Next Fests, IGTAP: An Incremental Game That's Also A Platformer didn't disappoint. I'd say you could beat the game and see the full conclusion within about 10 hours of gameplay, and I would 100% recommend playing with a gamepad (and not a keyboard like I did) because keyboard controls are genuinely strenuous on your hand. If you're going for all achievements, maybe add an extra hour or two.
League of Legends has been a mixed bag for me lately. The only game mode I've been getting any enjoyment out of is ARAM Mayhem, and my enjoyment is wholly dependent on if I end up with a decent champion, a decent team-comp and decent augments.
Classic would be a good game mode if there was a serious ranked competitive ladder, if queue times weren't 5+ minutes long, and if there wasn't more draft-dodging going on in champion select than in the USA during Vietnam. Three games and a cumulative 90 minutes of dodged lobbies later and I just gave up trying to play this game mode. Not even OG Quinn coming in a future patch will likely make me want to try this mode again given its current state.
Ranked is my other major peeve. Out of the last ten games which have gotten me demoted from Bronze 2 to Bronze 4, eight have been losses and all but three have been labelled "Unlucky" on my OP.GG, meaning I performed well but had inting assholes sabotage them. The kind I got in my matches (stats below are Kills/Deaths/Assists) have included:
I also bought the Skyborne Epic Pack and got beta access to World of Warcraft Forever that way. I'm impressed so far with what they've done to the game world. Paladin rework has been great and the new quests have been a nice addition for the most part. What I haven't liked is the push towards a realmless megaserver and how layering has worked. Megaservers are fine for retail because rules on tapping mobs are far more lenient to prevent kill-stealing, whereas Forever works on Classic's rules.
Wardogs: I've been playing this game for the past couple of weeks, mostly because almost all of my long term friends love milsim-esque open world shooters, even though they're not quite my speed generally. I prefer tighter, more precise movement based arena shooters. I have to compromise to ever get to play games with them, so I picked up wardogs when EA dropped.
My feelings on the game are very mixed. It's an interesting, novelish concept. I detest extraction shooters because of how much they impose on my life. I very briefly played tarkov before I decided it wasn't for me, and had a lot of fun with Arc raiders until the first wipe, when I realized truly how much I hate any sort of grind in a game.
Wardogs fixes a lot of those problems for me, while perpetuating other ones.
On the one hand, there are no stupid fetch quests that I need to complete under duress because every other player is trying to do them too. I think the persistent money system is interesting, if not a little kludgy in its current implementation, and new players aren't completely uncompetitive in the way they are in an extraction shooter.
On the other hand, the game is rife with unlocks, and a lot of them are pretty much required to counter certain (popular) styles of play. Getting harassed by an enemy helicopter? You'll need an rpg or machine gun to deal with that on foot effectively, and those require you to grind out levels in the support tree.
Getting sniped? Sorry, the sniper rifle that you're allowed to use to start is less than useless, and also, most people sniping have access to thermal spotting scopes that can see you through a lot of stuff very easily.
Want to fly an attack helicopter? Sorry, you need to do a lot of transport flying to be able to do that.
It continues ad nauseum, and a lot of the unlocks aren't just different ways to accomplish the same task, they're just straight up upgrades which are better in almost every way.
That wouldn't be so bad for me, because I like the gameplay generally, and even though I'm only playing for maybe 10 hours a week versus some of the people online that are playing the game for more time than I work at my full time job, I'd eventually get all the same unlocks. However, they're taking another cue from tarkov, and doing regular progression wipes.
Maybe that's just for early access, but it's become the norm for a lot of similar games in the genre, which personally, I feel is just a really lazy way to avoid having to actually balance your game.
I'd chalk the game up as "not for me", if there wasnt so much interest from my friends still, but I think their patience with the issues I have is waning still as well.
That said, I do still have fun with the game here and there, and it could easily become a game I really enjoy most of the time if they fixed some of those issues I have with it, which are easily fixable.
I just hate the idea that every game has to have this endless crawl of grind to appeal to the .01% of people that play it for hundreds of hours a week, and apparently can't be content with just playing a game because it's fun, rather than the endless dopamine trickle that comes from unlocking the same thing 5 times over rrhe course of a year.
I'm not sure if you're already aware but the devs are planning on having seasonal progress wipes which does partially fix the issue of gear and grind imbalance, but also means that you and others with less time to play may just never unlock most of the gear in the game. The devs have also said that they're planning on a whole bunch of balancing changes for the next season though, which hopefully translates into greatly reducing the grind and straight up removing some of the most problematic items (have you tried the infrared spotter? absolutely insane).
Well, that's honestly my main issue. Like, if there were no seasonal resets, eventually, I would get the top level gear, and I'd be at a level playing field. With resets though, the people with hundreds of hours per week to play will get top level gear in a couple of weeks, and I never will.
Personally, I think resets are a very lazy way to "solve" balance long term. If the game can't handle everyone running around with endgame gear, it's not well balanced. Resets are a bandaid that makes the whole situation worse and allows devs to not address the root cause of the issue.
I kind of find the idea of progression in general to be antithetical to the whole idea of a competitive shooter personally.
The wipes make sense if the devs plan on really changing things up between seasons, so it provides a clean break and makes it more fair for everybody to get used to the new changes as they all start fresh rather than some folks just having instant access to the new stuff and dumpstering others with it from day 1. Even then though, there should be some steps taken towards either reducing the grind or encouraging players to actually specialize in a role to make significant and rapid progress in it. A small daily xp stipend that ensures every player has at least the basic unlocks for each spec to play with by the send of the season, choosing one or two specs to target each season and get an xp multiplier for, and drastically lowering the xp curve so that hitting the max level of a spec doesn't require exploits or hardcore farming.
I'm not a dev though, nor do I provide feedback to the devs anywhere, so I'm just spitballing ideas into the wind.
What's interesting about resets in this setting isn't necessarily to level the playing field or to balance the game, it's to shake up the "meta". From day one until now has seen multiple different play styles emerge as people unlock certain items. In my mind, it helps keep it fresh. Or rather prevents it from going stale. It's a Little Bird Hydra fest right now (one of the vehicles that desperately need a nerf) but it wasn't like that all the time. In fact, when it started you saw a lot more sniping, which turned into tower camping with FOBs until mortars and artillery became ubiquitous. Which causes the game to change into manoeuvre warfare, which turned into combined arms when humvees came to the stage.
Another point of solace is that the short season was supposed to be a test. They will use this short season to see how fast progression goes, how that impacts the game and where balance is problematic. The idea was to extend seasons into longer periods later on to give people more time to adjust and reach higher levels.
It's literally the first season since EA launch so I expect there to be many changes coming in the future seasons.
I don't mind the idea of a time-based evolving meta in theory. What bothers me is that I know I'll never be able to participate in it. Unless drastic changes are made, I'll never get to fly a hydra little bird. I don't have the time to devote to grinding out 40 hours of pilot gameplay every season.
That'd be fine if the hydra little bird was just one option for something that can fill a similar role which handles it in a slightly different way, but it isn't. It's way easier to get kills with than the machine gun helicopter, which straight up can't even destroy most vehicles.
On the infantry side, I have level 2 armor, and I'm not likely to get any higher. I don't have a weapon capable of killing people wearing the highest level armor fast enough that they can't just aim at me and kill me, no matter how quick I am, even if I hit all my shots at their head.
I just don't have the time to play the game enough to consistently be competitive late in the wipe. My skill level isn't fantastic, but I do quite well in FPS games when the playing field is leveled. I just don't love this trend started by the extraction shooter genre where you're on an infinite treadmill which demands you regularly sink hours into the game in order to have fun.
Like I said, that could just mean the game is not for me. Every game isn't for every person, and I'm sure there are a lot of people that both enjoy the constant grind and have the time to invest into it, but for my own sake, I'm hoping that something is changed longer term, otherwise I just don't see this game having legs for me after the first wipe.
A few weeks ago I beat Xenosaga Episode 1, and last week I beat Xenosaga Episode 2. I think you can guess what game I moved onto...
That's right, Xenosaga Pied Piper, the Japan-only mobile game that contains Ziggy's back story. Or more specifically, the fan remake on itchio. The story was surprisingly good. Very Matrix-y setting, and though the romance is rushed, it was still nice. But man, the villain was so obvious, it immediately recalls the ProZD Lysanderoth skit. Like, is none else listening to this guy?
Also, I don't think the Joachim here and Joachim Mizrahi are the same person?? But who knows with Xenosaga.
The game only took 5 hours, so I was able to quickly people to Xenosaga Epis-- nah, I needed to watch the janky English translation of A Missing Year on YouTube, which I think started as an audio drama. It turns out that it's really easy to make cry after becoming a dad. All you have to do is have a little girl cry a lot, and that's it, you've done it.
And finally after all of that, I started Xenosaga Episode 3 yesterday. Given that the game immediately started hitting me with macrophages and Doctus, I'm already glad I did my homework with those two spinoffs first.
As a gentleman of learning and taste, this week I played Kyle Thompson's Well Dweller, which was just released. He used purchasing power parity pricing which meant that it was outrageously cheap for a game that (if you're good at Metroidvanias, meaning, fast) has at least a solid 13 hours of gameplay in it.
The visuals and polish are the best they've ever been (comparing to Crypt Custodian this time), while retaining the same familiar art style and animal characters! This time you play as Glimmer, one of the last surviving birds in a fairytale kingdom ruled by a cartoonishly evil Queen who really loves to torture birds to death. Throughout the game you assemble various beautifully illustrated fairytales page by page which are linked to the various horrifying monsters (and horrifying people) you have to fight as you recover your siblings and mother, who have been kidnapped and lost.
At its core this is a very solid and satisfying classic indie metroidvania, with a huge map, many grunts for fighting, collectibles for finding, little platforming challenges, time trials and boss fights. Glimmer fights using a lit matchstick, which can also thrown into a wall and used as a slightly bouncy platform (like a diving board) which aids in reaching higher or farther spots. Pretty original! It's hard to innovate in the metroidvania space these days. Other abilities are also acquired over time, but there is no air dash and no double jump ;) Kyle also included some cool frustration-minimizing mechanics like the ability to eventually equip a lot of trinkets at the same time, and a system for paying for locations of missing collectibles - only in previously explored sections of the map.
Previous
That sounds delightful. I'll have to add it to my increasingly large wishlist of cool games to buy one day. Shakes fist at Steam's effective new game discovery algorithm
Anyone else playing through Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave? Been eagerly waiting for this game to release, and have been playing it for the last week or so. It takes up all my free gaming time, so nothing else. Took me about 60 hours to go through Cai's route. I did some backtracking because I originally let a recruit die, then regretted that decision.
This is my 3rd fire emblem game, and my first was Three Houses. So far I am enjoying it, but the game is much more overwhelming compared to other games. There's so much to do, constantly, and it's very easy to miss story events, supports, and feel like you've missed out on training someone up. I think that the developers did intend this for replayability and to make each playthrough feel unique, but the game is supposed to take about 200 hours, so I don't know how often I'll be able to replay this. Nonetheless, the fomo for me is very strong, and it does make the game somewhat uncomfortable to play. Amusingly, the game was supposed to have even more content at some point. The developers said in an interview just before the game released, that the original number of intended character routes was 8, and not just 4. You can even see this in the game itself, as there does seem to be missing story content for the cut lords and their retainers. Hoping they'll add this back in as dlc at some point, as I'm super curious to play them.
Otherwise, really enjoying the world building, music is fantastic, and there are plenty of great character designs and supports. Cai's story was simple, but well done. Doing Leda now, and I'm enjoying her tale of revenge much more so far, though I'm only in chapter 5 I think. I both like the world map and think it's poorly implemented. And unfortunately bird time, exploring the dungeons and clashes are pretty boring, but at least they have good rewards and can be done quickly. The skirmishes are also pretty boring, but otherwise I've been enjoying the maps and variety of objectives compared to Three Houses. I'm sure I'll have more to say as I get further into the game, only about 70 hours in so far.
I am also playing through Fortune's Weave. I played Three Houses earlier this year and really enjoyed it - I hadn't played a Fire Emblem since the GBA games.
I want to say that I am really enjoying the game. The highlight to me so far is the story (Completed Cai's 1st act path and Theodora's 1st act path, and halfway through Dietrich's 1st act Path). I find that traditionally there are not a lot of Japanese RPGs where I enjoy the story. But it has been amazing so far. I will also say the lore of this game has really captivated me as well, with some sci fi elements introduced right off the bat (literally in the prologue a character has a laser gun).
I do have a lot of complaints. This game does NOT respect your time. The bird time is essentially the same as the tea minigame in Three Houses, which is that a character says three things and you respond to each of these things with one of three statements to make the support bar go up a tiny bit (FYI, 90% of the time if an answer is Tilt Head or Gaze Intently, that is the right answer). There literally nothing gleaned from this.
The dungeon clashes are so bad and require no real thought - after doing two of them I just learned to auto complete them. Its not like the dungeons are interesting either. They do give a crazy amount of XP, including to members not participating in the battle, so they are benificial. But it is literally five minutes of walking around in a boring environment, destroying boxes for items, looting a chest, and starting battles that you just hold the plus button to skip.
The map/weekly progression is...okay. On the one hand, I like the idea in concept. Going around the world, exploring places, doing quests, etc. But you need to check in reguarly back in the city to do your weekly tasks. And things like paralogues are timed and do not have a great alert, and some are TERRIBLY placed where you have a very tight window to do multiple at one time.
I will say I am very dissapointed in the support conversations so far. I feel like there aren't enough of them - I don't know or care nearly as much about many characters compared to Three Houses
Finally, the difficulty. I know that Fire Emblem is now a popular series attempting to reach a large audience. This is laughably easy, particuarly when you find that you can do Dungeon Clashes that are several levels ahead of you. They just give an absolute ton of XP. On my second route with Theodora I had multiple characters in the mid forties. This is somewhat my own doing because I tend to try to optimize as much as possible, and I have the boons that increase XP turned on. But other than my first route with Cai when I would extend my characters forward a bit too aggressively, I basically don't die. With Dietrich, if I want to win in any situation, I can just throw him up as far as I can and watch enemies attack him and die. But most of the time I don't do that, keep him behind my troops and finish off any stranglers that could inflict damage on the next turn, so the other units can get experience.
I hated this. I don't want guns in my medieval fantasy games. As far as I know there have never been guns in FE before, so why start now.
I bought a Switch 2 before they announced Fortune's Weave specifically in anticipation of a new FE title, but so far I've only played a few hours and they haven't been that fun. I'm hoping it clicks soon because this was a very expensive game.
I can't tell you the last time I paid full retail for a video game...probably back in 2020 for Cyberpunk 2077 and we all know how that turned out.Edit: not true I bought Elden Ring and FE: Engage day one
The guns definitely stand out. Still not sure how I feel about it.
I have to agree with all of your criticisms. I'm torn, because there's a lot to like about this game. But a lot of the systems here need more refinement, especially the world map. Very much hoping the missing story content is added via dlc, supports are one of my favorite parts of FE. Here's hoping they add maddening too.
I've been playing some old-ish games from my younger days again, I didn't finish any of these so I wanted to finally give them a proper play-through.
Advance Wars 1 on GBA: man, I didn't remember this game being this difficult, one of the hardest game on the GBA for sure.
Paper Mario: The Thousand Years Door on Switch, I still have the Gamecube version, but the portability is one the things I like the most about handheld consoles.
Plays Vs Zombies on PC (Steam), PvZ is so addictive I want to 100% it already.
Paper Mario is a favorite of mine. One of the things I love about it is that it's really well paced as long as you don't avoid battles, and never requires grinding to get past a certain part. I'm interested in other RPGs like this, it makes the game feel more tightly designed and well crafted to me, which counts for a lot when the difficulty ramps up for example.
That is true, the pacing is really well calculated.
I feel that Chrono Trigger is similar in that vein, unless you try to fight Lavos before you should, most of the boss battles work more like a puzzle rather than a strength test.
But still I wouldn't mind having to grind a bit in Paper Mario (or Chrono Trigger) because both have really fun battle systems.
Advance Wars was really good, but it eventually turns into a sort of chess puzzle, where there is pretty much one way to finish a stage, and if you don't discover it you're toast. Similar to those "how can you get check mate in 4 moves?" puzzles, only with lots more moving parts. I had the second one on GBA too, which rarely gets mentioned nowadays and I can't remember anything about it either, heh. I think the baddies from the first game team up with you to fight a new mysterious threat. The GBA Fire Emblems are similar, they can be very difficult. I eventually stopped following the series because all that brain strain just wore me down.
Completely agree with this. It's great when you can throw funny units against the wall and laugh at the blowing away animation when you shoot at things, but it becomes a chore when you have to brutally optimize every move. I don't mind difficult games, but I do mind when there is no reprieve from the intensity. Advance Wars lures you in with somewhat casual play and then at some point on no longer lets up. Perhaps if it signposted its intensity more through other means it wouldn't feel so incongruent.
And this is by no means an indictment. I like the games and if someone hasn't played them I definitely recommend it. Just be aware that the campaign missions turn into well designed but rather long slog fests.
yes, that's actually what I love about it, I remember I only played the first one and Dual Strike, I managed to finish Dual Strike (don't know how), but it difficulty curve is more linear in that one.
For Fire Emblem I played and finished them all from the GBA, DS and 3ds (I have Three Houses but I haven't started it yet).
I completed the current early access build of Alabaster Dawn in about 10 hours and really enjoyed it. The combat is fun and engaging (I find it similar to Hades), the graphics are really good for a 2.5D game in EA, and it scratches a niche itch have about playing RPGs with changing worlds. The game is from the same creators as CrossCode, which I didn't play but have heard many good things about. Because the game is still in v0.1 of early access, there's not a lot to do, and I expect the full game will probably on be out in (at least) 3 years?
I also checked out Drova - Forsaken Kin, another souls-like action RPG with pixel graphics. I only played about 3 hours of this, so maybe I needed to give it some more time, but I found it pretty slow paced and the combat to be quite challenging. I don't think its a bad game but not what I'm into playing at the moment. I might come back to this in the future.
Finally, I played my first ever JRPG - Octopath Traveler Zero. When I was looking for RPGs with some element of changing worlds, I saw that this prequel has some town building quests (unlike the first 2 games) and decided to give the demo a shot. I never played any JRPGs before, not even Final Fantasy, but I very quickly cleared 3 hour time limit of the demo, and then bought the full game. I'm really surprised by how good the voice acting is, some cut scenes can last up to 5 minutes and I feel like I'm watching a movie sometimes lol. I don't hate the turn based combat system, but I'm still getting used to having to manage 8 people in a party all at once. I saw there's at least 80-100 hours of gameplay so I'll probably be playing this for awhile.
Regarding Drova, I played it some time ago and from what I remember the combat was super difficult at the start but once you get some skills and equipment it gets a lot easier.
Also on CONTROL Resonant like a lot of folks here.
I've taken it a bit more slow, combing over every nook and cranny of Altered Manhattan to make sure I don't miss anything (and I still found out online I did miss some stuff I will immediately go find tonight).
I did make a minor error going into The Park at level 4 and was steamrolled by the Mold. I was confused how to get strong enough to beat them because I already did all the World Feats, found all the accessible crates and the random encounters in the other areas were too sparse.
Then I realized the West Incursion Zone is actually reachable (I thought I needed the gravity abilities to get to it) and that area is level 3-4 and it all made sense. The Resonant there is down, all the World Feats reset, all is good. Today we slaughter some Hiss and get strong enough for the Park.
I've been playing No Man's Sky on the Switch. I know a lot of people hate on this game, but I am really enjoying it so far. I first played it for "free" in the Switch Online trial a few weeks ago, then bought it when it went on offer. I thought it wouldn't be my type of game, but for some reason it totally clicked with me. Despite it having a kind of variety of repetitiveness to its worlds and game structure, it's still compelling.
I really like the part where you take off from a planet, fly through the clouds into space, then zoom over to a space station, and seemlessly dock. Then you hop out and talk to the NPCs. All without the game stopping. Yeah, there are massive pauses when you travel between systems, but that has been fairly rare so far.
The music is surprisingly great. I wasn't expecting it to make such a difference, but the soundtrack is varied, minimalist, and fits the vibe very well.
I don't know how long I'll play it for until it wears out its welcome. So far the planets haven't been super varied, I feel like I've both barely scratched the surface of the game, while also seeing how the structure can sort of pointlessly expand into grinding. I mean, I can see the criticism - while there is infinite variety, it tends to be lots of different shades of green crabs. They all have unique species names, and you can scan them, and some will attack you while others can be befriended and ridden. Then you go to a totally new world in a new star system, and there are slightly different blue-green crabs now. That's a slight exaggeration for comedic effect, but you get the idea.
While the algorithms keep throwing up new scenarios though it'll probably hold my attention. The mysterious structures and the main story arc seem fairly interesting at least. The rest of the game reminds me of Elite in some ways, the original one, mostly because it does a very magical procedural trick to pretend to contain much more than there really is. You can sometimes sort of see behind the curtain, like those crabs, and the repetition is obvious. But if you just enjoy the moment to moment gameplay and go with the flow of it all, it can be a pretty cool game IMO.
I've got around 500 hours in the game and once you've explored a bunch the experience gets really thin, yeah. If you're only starting you still have a lot of exotic and unique environments to visit, as well as the special systems that need upgrades to reach, but then its just more of the same.
I'd highly recommend doing the various storylines, though! While I have my opinions on the writing, they're neat to play through and expose you to areas of the game that aren't obvious at first.
After finishing the latest expedition I've been focusing on upgrading my settlements, which involved travelling to several types of systems for resources only available there... Should have enough now, though!
Basically only playing two games at the moment: Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel and FFXIV.
FFXIV is a bit...maddening, as of late. It's probably because there's a "Mogstone" event. Basically grind specific dungeons and you get time-limited in-game currency to spend on junk like special mounts and such. And this time, there's super-duper special mount available. Which likely means there are a lot of people who are running these instances who don't normally do so.
I did a run of the 24-man alliance raid, "Windhurst - The Third Walk" late last week. Normally takes like 20-25min. It took us an hour. We wiped three times, two at the same boss. Several people had 10+ deaths. I was like Top 5 damage as DPS (Red Mage), which practically never happens in 24-man; I'm usually middle of the pack. There are other DPS classes that put out way more damage, and I never have BIS gear. I'm a casual, though probably above average.
Had a similar, though not as bad, situation last night. First two alliance raids went fine (different raids, same series). But the last one, back on "The Third Walk," we almost wiped once. All healers except one were dead, but the remaining healer was AFK! Luckily somehow everyone in my party got revived, then we were able to pick everyone else up. Same thing: Top 5 damage.
Idk. I know it's the Duty Finder (matchmaker) system, so you never know what you're gonna get. But jeez, people. Learn how to play the game...
And then on Trails of Cold Steel. The game starts you in media res, as part of the prologue. Then it brings you several months back to where it all began and you play from there. Well, I've finally gotten back to that point at the very start. 60hrs later. Pretty sure I still have at least 20hrs to go. And that's with using a guide to do all the things. Which admittedly, does extend things out some since I'm doing sidequests. But still...60hrs. I like these games a lot, but boy is the time committment brutal.
Regarding play time, I'm definitely of the opinion that if a game costs 60-70 euros, it should provide at least 60-70 hours of playtime. There's wiggle room with replayability and such, of course, but I want my money's worth
My perpetually-lagging gaming habits finally brought me to The Case of the Golden Idol this week. I completed the main game in two sittings over the weekend and completed one of the two DLC entries today.
What a great experience. I’m not huge on puzzle games but it had me feeling like a bonafide detective. I appreciated that the gameplay loop was not at all interested in forcing the player to clue-hunt. Everything is highlighted so you can focus on deduction. I also appreciated that there were several optional challenges which almost always served to help the player deduce what happened in a given scenario.
I felt like, across hundreds of puzzles and questions to be deduced, I only really had to “guess” at a blank a single time, and I’m sure that was a shortcoming of my own, not the game’s. The internal logic is that tight - really no moon logic to be found.
I’m excited to pick up the second DLC and buy the sequel sooner than later!
I am pretty hyped for an excuse to do another playthrough of Witcher 3 and its DLCs now that the remastered version is out. I had bought it on the Switch back during an early sale, but never actually played it on that platform, and since the update was a free upgrade for me on the Switch 2 it's a total no-brainer. I also bought it on GOG (and also never played that one) so I have that option as well if I want even prettier graphics. First (and only) time I played it was on the Xbox One within a year or two of when it got released so it's probably been close to a decade.
Also excited for Transport Fever 3 which also just got released, though I'll probably wait for a sale on GOG before picking that one up.
I've also been playing Outbound on my Switch 2, and really enjoying the relaxed vibes, but after putting around 10 hours or so my saves all started crashing the whole game whenever I try to continue, so my only option seems to be starting a whole new game from scratch, which completely kills any enthusiasm I have to keep going. I've seen various threads online that this is a common problem, and reached out to support to see what they say. Hopefully they can fix it in an update and I can resume some day. Big time bummer.
I am officially finished with Castlevania: Lament of Innocence after spending a good amount more time with it than I expected to. The reason for that is there's actually a good amount of content in the form of two additional playable characters. One is sort of just a slightly different version of the main character, but the other has a completely different playstyle. It almost feels like playing Devil May Cry as a shooter, and it's far more well considered and fun than it has any right to be. I ended up playing the whole game three times, once with each character, which I never would have expected to be doing after I rolled credits the first time.
In short, it's a very small game with a lot of asset reuse, not very much to do, low enemy variety, but with a fun enough core combat system that I'd consider it passable, though it would struggle to hold anyone's attention without the license and the incredible soundtrack. The third playable character may just turn it into a Halloween staple for me, though, for a bit of mindless fun and some fitting sound and visuals. Seriously listen to this soundtrack if you aren't familiar, but maybe don't rush to play this one even (or especially) if you're a big Castlevania fan.
Already started the sequel, Curse of Darkness, and it's got some interesting differences, so I'm invested in seeing where it goes. Nothing amazing, but good enough for what it is so far, I'll be interested to see if that changes at all over its duration.
Hell Let Loose: Vietnam has been a lot of fun recently, but I feel like the issues it has with AMD cards and the hype dying down, it's starting to fall off a bit. I still really enjoy it but I feel the same way I did with the original: You boot it up and find a game where your whole squad is communicating and it's an amazing experience that's tons of fun, and then you spend the next two weeks chasing that same experience and either getting half baked communication, or none at all. Then you move on for a few months. I've been struggling to find a reason to play. Hopefully the next update fixes AMD cards and adds FSR 4.1
I've been finding lots of time to play games on my Steam Deck recently, whether that's streaming games like Skate. (won't run natively on the Steam Deck) or emulating older consoles like PS2 and GBA. Skate. is fun but falls victim to the same tropes as all other live service games: Drip-feed content, paywall early access, and battle-passes. The biggest issue with the game is they release new parks for paid early access, yet the main play area is the most bland, boring open world I've ever seen. Skate 2 surpasses it by miles, and Skate 3 is imo worse than Skate 2 but is still fun with areas to lay down lines and gain speed and airtime.
I've also been playing Metroid: Zero Fusion, honestly the only Metroid experience I've ever had but it's such a good game. I own Dread, I just haven't gotten around to it. Speaking of GBA, I've been trying to complete the Pokedex for Pokemon: Modern Emerald. It's a modernized version of Emerald that adds new Pokemon. I've gotten my Pokedex to 302 so far.
I do love a good pokemon romhack. Are the new pokemon fakemon or simply others from the national dex?
They're official Pokemon from the national dex, mostly Gen IV I believe. The one that stood out to me the most was Regigigas
Would certainly make sense to have regigigas in, with all the other regis. Thanks. Will check it out.
ParaWorld it is an old strategy game taking place in a paralel world with dinosaurs.
There are different factions with meaningfully different mechanics the player plays as at different points of the campaign.
A mechanic I personally didn't see elsewhere is that there can only be a limited number of units of a tier with different units having different base tier and it being possible to upgrade units.
Next I may try the mod expansion.
I unfortunately haven't been able to do much of any serious gaming lately, and when I do get to splurge, my gaming choices definitely appeal to the luddite in me, being that they are all visual novels. It's a change, it suits me for the time that I'm in, and while it's a departure from the type of gaming I'm more familiar with, they're appealing in their own way.
Blue Night Laundromat
Click for more
One location. Two characters. Three rooms. This free-to-play escape room is scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to its bare bone assets, but it punches well above its weight but creating an experience that is worth more than the sum of its parts.
Stop me if you've heard something like this before: a milquetoast MC gets his humdrum life turned upside down when a boring, ordinary trip to the late-night laundromat takes a turn for the unexpected. Very TV Guide synopsis. But developer polte doesn't resign himself to reusing tropes as he avoids using the ubiquitous underground secret lab to instead weave a story that economically ties all of its story points together. It's a very tight package of storytelling that avoids cliches while challenging the player with immersive point-and-click puzzles.
It's not GTAVI, there's no revolutionary weather system, but Blue Night Laundromat doesn't disappoint with its succinctness.
SurroundedByBoys
Click for more
As New York is to Marvel superheroes, Asian schoolgirls are the mainstay of any genre story. They've been fetishized as harem groupies, served as the unlikely disguise of thousand-year-old demons, and been the go-to starting background for many a zombie hunter. But the Asian schoolboy--where is his story?Answering a call that absolutely no one is calling, it turns out that the boys are getting it done by themselves. This "dating" game knowingly turns the convention on its head by gender-swapping a title that could be easily be mistaken for porn. With the gooners gone and no one watching, it turns out that this
appropriation of a genre that ignored has something to say.
Amateurishly made by schoolboys who do away with coquettish manga illustrations in favor of mugging snapshots, Surrounded by Boys is a personal look at the growing pains of Chinese elementary schoolboys.
If you can get past the preening exaggerations, this game shows the importance of loyalty and brotherhood in a world where adolescence is constantly overshadowed by the gaokao, the national examinations that will determine the course of the rest of their lives. Slogans at the front of the class urge them towards excellence; heaps of books pile on their desks containing the multiple choice answers that they need to extract from them. And yet, between all the studying and the rounds of Valorant they sneak in, they somehow made this game.
This game does contain a rather horrendous piece of homophobia in it. It serves as a big part of the story and can't be easily removed, which may explain why the game has been removed from the Steam store despite its success as a free game. It's too bad; I hope Steam will give them a chance to change the game and make amends. It's a shameful mistake; they should be able to apologize for it and be able to grow from it.
The visual novel is a lot more jokey than these words would suggest, but this emotional core resonates with you with the final "good" ending. All this time, you're trying to make friends, and when you finally do, the nostalgia hits you. You may not be ignored like an Asian schoolboy, you may not have grown up in China, but you do remember what it's like to have friends. Good friends, among which your shared friendship is the greatest thing each of you own at that time.
('Elementary' mode finished; 'University' mode is a weird mess that lacks a emotional punch).
Buy a Croquette!
Click for more
Didn't finish it. Just wanted to share my disgust at a free game that has its beginning inundated with disclaimers and warnings not to copy its illegal behavior.
The game is a point-and-click game about a woman who wants to buy a croquette, and needs to perform in-game tasks to do so. That's it.
Could not get over the disappointment. Charming, but toothless, gutless, and self-effacing. Even the most juvenile of kid stories need a backbone. Or else how would the characters burp, vomit, and fart as needed?
I played Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories for the PSP, this is the only GTA game that I had left to play, not sure how it went completely of the radar.
I'm impressed with how much gameplay they were able to pack for the PSP, the radio had some great songs, but it is what it is, don't expect something like San Andreas, it will be much more lacking and something in between Vice City and Sand Andreas.
On the side of missions, I guess I'm getting too old for the kind of humor in the game, all missions are basically to meet a guy who would make a dugs/sex joke, reach a point, kill a bunch of guys and get paid a misery, for real some missions got you murder 20 guys for a mere 200$ there must be better ways to make money in that city.
The highlight of the game is Phil Collins, I can't believe they managed to make it a character with his own missions, I love how in his last one In the air tonight he plays the song and if he dies, the losing screen says "Phil definitely felt it coming in the air tonight..."
Sniper Elite: Resistance despite being the most recent in the series, this is the first one I've played due to it being included in PS Plus for September.
Once I got used to the mechanics around sound masking gun fire to not give away your location I got on with it well.
The broad variation in the level map design was interesting enough, since you can approach them in whatever way you prefer.