19
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.
Xenoblade Chronicles X via Cemu
Just finished up playing through XCX using Cemu emulator. And wow does both the game and emulator have some major issues. But finished up the main story and a large portion, probably 80% of the game in 113 hours.
Lets start with the game shall we, and the good parts.
Now the stuff I didn't find as good.
Also doesn't help that you basically don't understand anything that is happening for most of the game. Nothing gets explained until the very end, it doesn't compel you into hating them. You don't even understand why you are fighting at all.
But after level 30 when you get decent skells, stuff starts to fall apart. With a team of level 30 skells, you can take down enemies 10 levels higher than you pretty easily. And you start going from keeping up with quest levels, to just outpacing them by ridiculous amounts just by doing the mission board stuff. I was easily grinding out 10 levels in an hour just doing those mission board quests, which let me take on even more powerful stuff and again and again and the system is broken. Suddenly now the side quests are 20 levels under me, and I'm killing everything in 20 seconds. This continues until your pretty much max level which is 60, cause at that point you can't get any higher and the missions just slowly catch up to you again.
I really feel like you could have removed them from the game completely, and it would have been real easy to just replace them with other humans. The final battle only had a single alien I saw fighting in it, so it was just humans verse the enemy. So what was the point of getting these races to join the fight with humanity.
Overall I would say this is kinda an odd game for me coming right off of Xenoblade Chronicles 1. In XC1 I loved the main story, but really disliked everything else. But with this game, I dislike the main story but like everything else actually. It looks like I had a ton of issues, but at the end of the day I really enjoyed what I played. I kept coming back and wanting to play more, I would completely ignore the main quest just to keep beating things up in my skell. So as a story I would rank it much lower than XC1, but as a game I would rank it much higher. All I can say is, don't go into this game thinking it will be anything like XC1 at all. It is about as far from that game as possible.
Now lets get to the emulation bits. I played the game on my i5-6600k @4.5Ghz, a 980ti overclocked, and 16gigs of 2400MHz ram. And I was using cemu versions 1.15.12 - 1.15.15. Overall my performance was really good at the default 30fps using an internal resolution of 1080p. I didn't have any slow downs during game play, or performance issues at all most of the time. But that doesn't mean I was issue free. I was also using the following mods during my play; Anti-Aliasing Nvidias FXAA, Contrasty shadow lift, fancy fx 1440 - 2880, Resolution 1080p, Escape distance reducer 50%, gain tickets from dlc missions, offline tasks and missions, npc info bubbles, offline tag, brightness Nvidia. Possible some of my issues came from one of those mods?
Now some stuff that is a bit more game breaking that ruin the experience a fair bit. White boxs in cutscenes will completely take over the screen and make seeing what is happening impossible. They cover the screen in white squares, or muilt-color squares that seem to result from lights maybe. It kinda just ruins the cutscene when part of it was covered in this white box that you can't see through, or flickering lights.
Also the skell cockpit overlay doesn't go away at times depending on circumstance. It will keep showing up in the following cutscene so you have this odd image effecting the entire screen. It doesn't go away until the cutscene ends. It will also cause strange interactions with water and lava, with forests and nonexist images being reflected kinda in the surface until you teleport.
The one race your introduced to part way through the game also causes glitches, where they flicker and don't seem to render fully in cutscenes at times. But it doesn't always happen.
Overall on the emulation side of things, I can't recommend what I played to other people at all. Now it is fully possible some of the issues I had came from some mod I had enabled, but on a whole it wasn't an amazing experience. I feel Cemu definitely needs more time to develop and fix issues that it has. And I'm worried how long that will actually take, it still feels like this is just the BotW emulator by this point, with every guide & video in existence being how to run BotW. I'm hoping that with the work being done with Vulkan, it makes them look outside of BotW for things that need improvement and fixes. But besides that 3 - 4 hour slowdown issue, I didn't have any crashes at all. So that is definitely a massive positive.
Also minor complaint about Cemu, why they don't have save states and the ability to pause games yet is beyond me. It seems like such a normal thing for an emulator to have, to lacking it makes it feel like an incomplete program. Really annoying for a game like XCX with only a single save. A lack of save states means I can't save before a problem area, and easily try different fixes to see if something works or not. I can kinda only trial and error a bit, and hope I run into the issue quickly. Which is very possible I don't encounter it for another 10 hours.
Thanks for a very detailed analysis.
How would you compare XC1, XC2, and XCX between them?
Unfortunately at the moment I've only played XC1 and XCX. XC2 is gonna be delayed for me until I get the money to buy a switch, or the yuzu emulator becomes much more developed. But just between XC1 and XCX I would say this.
Play time wise between XC1 and XCX was pretty close. XC1: 104 hours, XCX: 113 hours. Both still have extra content I haven't played. XC1 I never did the new game + mode to experience everything, I just couldn't really convince myself to spend another 100 hours playing the same game. I'm possibly going to replay it again once the XC1 DE comes out, though I'm unsure. XCX allows you to keep playing after the final boss, and I still have maybe 10 - 15 hours of side character stories I could do. Though much of that time will be me grinding affinity with characters, and that just gets really boring.
Quick mention about XC1 emulation via dolphin, it is about as issue free as a emulated game could be. I never experienced emulator related crashes, or visual bugs or glitches. It ran at a solid 30fps with the high resolution texture pack and increased view distance mod without any issues.
Now onto the story between the two games. XC1 has one of the best stories I've ever played. It is full of twists and surprises that you never saw coming. Something that helps the story immensely is how continuous the villains interact with you, they are constant threats to you and the world. You can't forget about them when they have already killed hundreds of people, and feel like they are on the march to destroy the next town in line. You also have villains being created from characters you already interacted with in other aspects, but can't say much without spoiling aspects of the story. Honestly it is tough to talk about XC1's story without spoiling it. Kinda a side note about XC1 and the story, don't look at the official Xenoblade Chronicles wiki ever for quest help because it contains many unmarked spoilers.
Now XCX's story did have some twists and shocks. But the villains never felt like this powerful force that is killing everyone you know. Part of it was the choice to have a custom main character without a backstory, so you don't feel the same connection. But also that the villains make one big move at the beginning, but because you as a character have no connection it doesn't feel all that big. And they never make any really big and bad attacks for the rest of the game.
One massive thing that sets XC1 apart from XCX is XC1's willingness to make massive changes to the world and towns and npcs. XC1 isn't afraid to kill off npcs when you make the wrong quest choice, or destroy a town to make a point, or cut you off from quests completely based on your progress with the story. The world feels like it is changing because of your choices and the actions of the villains, and you even play a direct role in rebuilding a city. The worry that the next main quest will destroy your town, or cut you off from a section of the map is a great experience, and makes your choices feel like they matter.
XCX didn't do any of that, and I expected it. You can't rebuilt parts of the city and expand upon it. You don't see the world grow and expand as a result of your actions, it feels fake with how little changes. Main quests don't destroy towns that you have spent hours in already, npcs can die but in very limited circumstances, they don't feel threatened at all. So the villains never feel like the immense threat they do in XC1.
World building and the different races and how their handled in very different in XCX than in XC1, and honestly npc's in general. In XC1 each race had their own area to live in. They all felt unique and interesting, they had different designs, homes, and cultures. So when you entered their zone, they felt different like they weren't humans at all, they were as far from human as possible. The npc's all had their own homes as well, you could follow their schedule from their shop back to their house each day and it made the world feel very alive.
XCX does away with all of that. In XCX their are a bunch of other races, but they all just feel like reskinned humans really. Sure their culture is expressed in their quests and conversations with them. But they don't have homes or towns, and you never feel like they have a place to exist. One massive issue I had was the question, where do they all sleep? By the end of the game you have meet like 6 different races, many of which live in your city. But when they moved to the city they didn't make their own city block with unique architecture and homes and businesses, they just kinda stand around. Really their are 4 main changes to the city in the game, 3 shop changes and a space ship. But those changes don't really feel that massive at all, and are almost after thoughts. The space ship is the biggest, and where they basically shove most of the alien races to just stand around. Something that is lost in the lack of homes and business, is you don't get the schedules from XC1. Npc's don't walk from their business to their house at night, instead they just fade from existence when the time changes. And the homes that do exist feel fake and empty, I didn't count but I don't think there are more than 25 actual homes in the game excluding the blade barracks which I don't count.
Combat in XC1 was much worse than XCX for me, it was slow and kinda awkward. It felt like a creation of its time, where that was more of the style of action jrpgs. The attacks you could do was really limited, and it felt like you couldn't be creative with it at all. Your AI companions where also incredible dumb, I finished many fights solo because the AI decided to stand in the middle of an aoe attack in a big bunch.
XCX had combat that was much more refined. You have this massive collection of skills and arts to choose from and can combine them in many different ways to do whatever you feel like. Their is just so much more creativity and freedom in the combat. Skells added into the equation just make it all so much better yet. The AI feels smarter, with them moving around more and trying to get in better positions to use attacks though they can still be dumb.
One complaint I have of both XC1 and XCX is you can't dodge attacks at all. If somebody is attacking you, you will take that hit most of the time outside select aoe attacks. It just feels odd to take damage from a sword when your dozens of feet away from the weapon.
The music in both games was really good, though I think I like the music in XCX a bit more. Though both suffer from being 100 hour rpgs. That by the end of that 100 hours no matter how good the music is, you are just tired of hearing the same 5 minute song repeated again. Also XCXs city music is the worst thing possible, and I seriously question who thought that song matched the world.
Something Forgotten in OG Post
Now something I forgot to mention in my initial write up in about XCX that I'll throw in here. Is a confused tone that the game wants to use. What I mean is if the game wants to be a dark realistic game with consequences for your actions and choices, or a more lighthearted kid friendly game. Heres what I'm kinda taking about;
To me both these people are terrorists and spies, and both should be the same treatment. Both should die when you catch up to them, because they are working directly against humanity and trying to kill millions of people and commit genocide. Dark...sure, but to me it makes sense that is the choice made when one of the central points of the game is saving the human race. But here is where the difference between these two quests.
This quest bothered me immensely also because of how the game just stole my choice from me without even a fake choice given. This game was filled with fake dialogue choices, two options that lead to the same thing. But this quest didn't even do that, just did stuff without my input and annoyed the hell out of me.
This quest gets worse when you look at other similar side quests that have happened in the game. A couple times you have quests where somebody is going to do something terrible, shoot somebody or kill somebody, stuff like that. And after one or two times you realize that the only way to stop the event from happening is to jump in at the first chance and stop them. If you leave them around the choice has consequences that leave people dead. But not this main story one, no this choice has no bad repercussions and isn't even a choice at all.
Here is my confusion with the tone, it seems like it wanted to side quests to be dark and realistic showing that humanity is 2 wrong choices from complete destruction. But the main quest wants to be more light and happy, where everyone can be saved. Why is this happening? Did they have have two separate groups with separate views on how the game should be played when they were making it. Or was this a massive example of Nintendo interference with not wanting their headline JRPG on the platform being a really dark potentially tragic story?
Oh, wow, did not expect you to go on in so much detail. I really appreciate it.
I played Xenogears way back on an emulator, and XC2 is my first Xeno game after that, so I am very happy to hear XC1 coming to the Switch in a remastered version. I am far from finished with XC2, but very much enjoying it. (Apart from the jumping, that is just awful.)
I did make the mistake of checking too much on the wiki and had two big story twists spoiled for me. But the fighting system in XC2 is just so complex I needed to look it up again.
To in part answer myself, I found this spoler-free video comparing XC1 and XC2 very interesting.
Is Cemu more developed than Dolphin? I've been using Dolphin on Linux to play Mario Kart Double Dash, Smash Bros Meele and Batman and it is perfect.
But they are simpler games of course. I plan to play Paper Mario after.
Dolphin has been around much longer, and is much more compatible with most games I believe. Cemu atm is amazing at playing BotW, but has more issues with other games.
Quantum Break was decent, on the better side of middling. The graphics were top notch especially the moments when time freezes and you can interact with all the world objects. Having time freeze for some elements and not others was really impressive. The game is a technical feat, visually, and I'm amazed Remedy could pull things like this off while major AAA studios still haven't figured it out.
Something that underwhelmed me in the end was the quality of the actual gameplay mechanics. It wound up being very easy as a game, especially with a couple of key time powers. Maybe this game was built more for console but placing headshots on every enemy is trivial with a mouse and keyboard. The only times I had any trouble were the moments where there was a new enemy and I had to figure out how to beat them (turns out, there's always a weak point on their back). This also would have been fine if the weapon selection wasn't so bland. Couple of pistols, one crappy assault rifle, a "carbine" rifle (basically a scopeless sniper rifle), a LMG (that worked more like a proper assault rifle), and then three SMGs for some reason. Only a few of these guns are worth using, but there are so few kinds of weapons, and so many of them around, that it's trivial to keep them for the entire game.
And in the end, there's just not all that many moments of actual gunplay. They happen often enough to be fun but they're over very quickly as there are very few enemies in each. You get your time powers very quickly, and then not much opportunity to make use of all of them significantly because there are so few overall opportunities to use them.
Most of the appeal of this game is in changing the story, and going through the "TV show" that's interspersed through each chapter. Surprisingly good production value in the show component, actually. The lore you can find around the game is pretty well done too, about the same quality and amount as a Deus Ex game. Unfortunately the main plot is what is the weakest thing, and almost exists independently of all the lore—for example, the main character is making discoveries two acts after he should have read an email literally telling him that exact same thing. The main character really sucks, though. You get introduced to this babyface seemingly quiet, good boy archetype, and then get told that he's some kind of violent rebel with combat experience which is why he's the perfect protagonist for a shooter, and then he spends the rest of the story just pigheadedly fumbling forwards because, for some fucking reason, the bad guys don't factor him into their plans even though they're aware of him and his influence and effect the entire time??? I don't know, the main story is just stupid and melodramatic, but it's overall inoffensive and fine. It's not as aggressively bad as, say, a Call of Duty story.
Overall, worth a playthrough if you're itching for a shooter. But after I finished it up, I uninstalled it and reinstalled Max Payne 3.
Untitled Goose Game is a fun little game. It's a lot smaller than I thought it would be, and is more of a sandbox playground than much else. It's wonderfully charming, with great art, music, presentation. The controls are simple and fun. The way the NPCs react is a blast too. It really reminds me of Katamari Damacy in many ways.
There's not really all that much to say about it. A trailer gives you everything you need to know. If this seems like fun to you, the game will be fun to you. If it doesn't, then it won't. But it's a fun game that I think many people will spend 5-10 hours with enjoyably. Getting to the credits only takes about 2 hours or so. The post-credits activities are far more expansive.
I will say that I'm already tired of the response around this game, but that's not at all this game's fault. It's a wonderful little title whose biggest threat is overexposure.
I would say that Remedy is a AAA studio; they just don't self-publish like the others do. They just have a different business model (and vastly superior ethics, considering they aren't as crazy about DLC and never bothered with loot boxes).
My idea of AAA studios are more the ones that command billions behind them and can put insane resources into their games, orders of magnitudes beyond what Remedy can conjure up. Yet their graphical technologies are rarely ever big leaps forward.
Just bought the untitled goose game on switch. It's a fun, and charming little game. Definitely worth the price.
And I found out that the original developer of cookie clicker just released an official version of the game on Android. It's cookie clicker, not much too say about the game lol
My buddy bought Untitled Goose Game and streamed it... it was hilarious and a lot of fun trying to figure all the puzzles out with him and some other people in chat. Even though I haven't technically played it myself, I would definitely recommend it.
I'm so glad you've asked this question. I've been dying to talk to someone about
M Y S T
For those not familiar, it's a point-and-click puzzle game that drops you on an island without any instruction or obvious information. You travel in time and space by using clues to solve puzzles throughout the game. The story focuses on collecting journal pages for two journals in the main library. Each page unfolds more information about the backstory.
It's a game that I played years ago, probably around 2000, on a Windows 97 laptop. I was unable to get the right drivers to make all the video content work in the game, so it was largely unplayable. I was also pretty young and I think I just didn't have the intelligence or creativity to figure out the game.
My father mentioned to me recently that he had booted up an old computer (I think to track down an old client file) and had started playing MYST. I recalled that the game was remade recently, so I searched for it on Steam. Little did I know there were several remasters and sequels that have been made since then.
Because I wanted to relive the original experience (and because I'm a cheap bastard) I downloaded the $6 port of the original game. Nothing was changed, other than the fact that it can run on modern computers without messing around with drivers.
I guess this has largely become a story about how I found the game again, but the point is that I'm totally engrossed in the gameplay. It's incredibly innovative, creative, and definitely eerie. There's a fantastic blend of music and ambient sound, and a certain depth to the storyline that I didn't remember from when I played it originally.
I would definitely recommend checking out this game. It moves incredibly slowly compared to most modern video games, but I really love that. It's a nice change of pace that I'm really into.
Pretty much did the same a few years ago, also sticking with the original, clunky prerendered version. It's a pretty good game but god do they like their 3-pixel-wide hidden buttons and whatnot.
I won't get tired of mentioning it, so: If you like the vibes of Myst, check out The Witness.
Thanks, I definitely will check it out!
Have you played any of Cyan's newer games? They're much more palatable for modern tastes, I feel. I've played a little bit of Obduction recently. While it's not the type of game I would typically play (part of the reason why I haven't talked about it in one of these threads), it's given me a really good impression, and I'm likely to go back to it over and over again until I solve all of the puzzles. They are really good at designing crazy and interesting worlds.
If you like the games, make sure to check out the novels as well. There's three of them(also available as trilogy) and they greatly enhance the games' storyline.
And check out Uru: Ages Beyond Myst as well, it's a bit dated but still very good.
My favorite game from the series is Riven (2nd game) alongside Exile (3rd). Graphics and sound design are fantastic(for the time) and the illusion of being on an island still holds up decades later.
I really need to try to play Riven some time soon. I have a copy of the original but I have only played for a few seconds (I honestly don't think I even solved any puzzles). But even from that small taste it's kind of amazing at what an improvement in visuals and storytelling it is over Myst.
I bought in to that Humble Monthly service because of this month's early unlocks, particularly the Spyro and Crash Bandicoot trilogies.
I have been loving Spyro so far. It's an excellent remake of the first game (the only one I have played), giving lots more detail to the characters and environment without making the design too busy.
I must say that with all of these unique dragon designs It's a shame there is no Saturday morning cartoon.
Dominion (tabletop)
I bought a new expansion pack; Hinterlands. And it's been a blast to play with new cards, for the first time in years. Also, it's been a better experience than the last couple of expansions I played. As I've mentioned before; I prefer the older expansions, because they don't slow down the game much.
Dungeons & Dragons (tabletop)
My players finished Waterdeep: Dragon Heist last week with a masquerade party at Remallia Haventree's villa, where they were trying to root out a spy who had infiltrated the party. It was my first time doing that kind of game session, and it went quite well. For help, I used The Alexandrian's guide to party planning and universal NPC roleplaying template. Turned out I'd made a few too many NPCs though, and it was a bit of a hassle to keep track of them all. I'll try to limit myself to 10-12 guests next time I do something like this.
Next week we're starting their next adventure; Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage. It's the 5e version of Undermountain, which is a bit intimidating, but after reading through one and a half levels of the dungeon, it seems like manageable fun.
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden (Switch)
I finished the main story. The ending raised more questions than it answered, but I have the Seed of Evil expansion, and am looking forward to continuing the story. A recent patch improved performance and seems to have made the game more stable, so now I can finally recommend the game also on Switch.
Sid Meier's Civilization VI (Linux)
I finally beat the game on Immortal difficulty as Tamar of Georgia. Which was actually surprisingly easy with domination victory on a tiny map with as many civilisations as the map size allows. I enjoy playing crowded maps. Two takeaways from this experience:
And of course I immediately started a new game, this time as Robert the Bruce of Scotland. I'm currently in the renaissance era, and winning a naval war against Norway, because those silly Vikings hadn't bothered building city walls in their capital city.
Trackmania 2: Canyon (Linux)
Back in college I used to play Trackmania Nations with some friends, and it was loads of fun. While I don't really have anyone to play multiplayer with these days, I decided to pick up this sequel now that it's easy to play on Linux. It's still loads of fun, even though the tracks feel a bit less inspired than those in Nations. I played through most of the single-player tracks (some of them are really hard to unlock, so I haven't played all of them), then tried my hand at multiplayer, which thankfully always seems to have a few populated servers, despite the game's age and several newer versions. The greatest strength of this franchise has always been the amazing map editor and the many wonderful user-generated tracks. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys silly racing games.
So happy to see someone else enjoying Trackmania! The series is my absolute favorite of all time -- they play like nothing else out there!
If you liked Nations, Trackmania 2: Stadium is basically a remaster of that. The fact that each environment is a different game is a little absurd, but I've put hundreds of hours into Canyon and Stadium and love each for different reasons.
The new expansion for Destiny 2, Shadowkeep, has dropped so I've been playing that.
The post Activision Bungie seems to be finding it's groove for what it wants Destiny to be. It grieves me because I think Destiny could've really lived up to its potential had Activision not meddled since Destiny 1. The individual story lines haven't always been the strongest and the various activities can be hit or miss but the overall game play is strong and the writing has, albeit in small increments, has gotten better as the game has gone on.
Shadowkeep is the first expansion following the Bungie-Activision split and, so far, seems to be a strong entry overall. Still a ways to go in the main story line before I can offer up much of an opinion on it but I'm excited for it
Epic Seven, a mobile rpg gacha game. It can also be played thru Nox on the computer.
I rarely play a game for longer than a month but this one is an exception. This has great graphics, cut scenes, a lot of story that is interesting to read, and many goals to focus on.
For Epic Seven, it has retained my interest for over two months and there are still many things to do that I can set a goal for then progress. I am still in the mid game of progression and having fun.
For a new player there is one mechanic that if you are new to gacha games to learn, rerolling, which entails doing the intro part of the game until you receive selective summon (complete map 1-10). You want to get a 5 star hero from selective summon, or click cancel and try again. They give 20+ retries before you need to start completely over but really that is just for especially picky people. On my third retry I was happy and over the past two months, I have summoned several 5 star(max grade) heroes for free.
Here is a guide to get started if anyone is interested: http://nazr.in/12Gh
I've been playing Rocket League and I'm getting pretty good at it!
At first, I just went for the ball like everyone else and it felt very random, but with time you learn to pace yourself and move around the field in a more strategic way. IDK if those are my Brazilian genes kicking in, but Rocket League is not as different from soccer as it seems. You can transfer a lot of strategies. I bet most top Rocket Leaguers played soccer at some point in their lives.
To me, it's a good way to play soccer because nowadays actual, official soccer games became way too involved and realistic for my taste.
Tabletop: I've been playing and enjoying Gloomhaven. It's intricate like a Swiss watch but fascinating in execution, and the hexboards could make for a wonderful GURPS or Fantasy Trip scenario.
I also really like how failure is possible and likely, which brings me back to OSR days.
Tabletop: I've been DMing a D&D 5E campaign but am in the process of winding it down.
I'll freely admit that I find 5e to be frustrating as a system.. very easy to teach, very easy to run, but it feels like everything's been rounded off and pureed to a single consistency, hard to design anything besides Pink Slime Fantasy.
Video gaming: Recently broke down and got the Diablo III collection for the Xbox One and it has been a genuine pleasure.
It reminds me a little of D&D 4th or perhaps Earthdawn, where all the characters have similar types of abilities with different flavoring, but then it's nice to be able to do something other than 'hit monster very hard' and I get the feeling that when you hit 70 you can select whatever abilities feel best and do just fine with them.. nothing feels completely useless.
Gta v is my main game I play nearly every day and have for the last 6 years, but recently started playing Rainbow six siege and apex legends I also play red dead redemption 2 when there is an update
Two weeks ago @moocow1452 clued me into a site that will randomly select games for you from your Steam library. I decided I'm going to embrace the random for a bit and play what it brings up (with rerolls for games that I've played or ones that I'm simply not in the mood to start). I began doing this last week, and my goal is to go the whole month of October selecting games in this way. Here's what the RNG has had me play so far:
Random Game #1: The Little Acre
I actually talked about this in my post last week, but since it was my first randomly selected game I'm re-mentioning it here so I don't start my list at 2. It's a short, charming point-and-click adventure game aimed at kids. Lovely artwork and animation.
Random Game #2: JYDGE
Pronounced in the game as "judge" and in my head exactly as it's spelled, JYDGE is a sort of cyberpunk vaporwave Robocop-does-Hotline Miami game. It's by the same developers as Crimsonland and Neon Chrome, and it actually shares the same universe as the latter. Each level has one main objective and two sub-objectives, and you replay the levels to complete the tasks, gaining credits and unlocking upgrades to tackle later levels. As you go, further difficulty levels will open up, giving you new challenges for old levels you've already done.
Where Neon Chrome felt grindy in a bad way to me, JYDGE feels like it gets it just right. Play sessions are short, and I've never had to grind levels just to get cash. Instead, I've accrued it slowly over time as I plug away at the different missions. While it's got a great soundtrack, I've admittedly been listening to an audiobook most of the time, as the game is perfect for that. Though I've beat the last mission, I plan to keep diving in to finish up some of the missions that I've missed and max out some more of the unlocks.
Random Game #3: Shoppe Keep
If you're familiar with Recettear, this is a similar concept, only it's in first-person and there's no adventuring gameplay. Instead the entire focus of the game is setting up your own item shop and selling items to adventurers. The game is rough around the edges and a little buggy, and it also has a terrible onboarding with a very slow start. I didn't think I was going to play past my first hour, but ended up sticking with it, hoping that the game would reach its potential. It did, and I've now got quite a lively shop going, with bots that autostock my shelves for me.
The reviews for the game on Steam are quite negative, as apparently there was some drama with the devs and leaving the game unfinished. I think these are unnecessarily harsh, as it seems pretty complete to me and the bugs I've encountered have been minor. I've enjoyed my time in the game as a very low-stakes, easy-going grind. It's another great audiobook game for me.
Random Game #4: The Last Door
This is a horror-themed point-and-click adventure game. It has four episodes, and I'm part of the way through the third. I've been impressed by the game's production values and pacing. It doesn't overstay its welcome and has a story that, while not exceptional, is nonetheless interesting and original. I can't give it a thorough rundown until I'm finished with it, but I'm liking it so far.
I'm replaying one of my favourites rpg of all time. Final Fantasy XII. Played originally on PS2, now i'm playing the Zodiac Age remaster.
I love it and i think the job/classes work better than everybody having the same license board like the original. The fast forward is a nice addition and the graphics are really good. The game didn't age at all.
Hearthstone, the single player stuff is out. It's fun, more of the Slay The Spire like system and friendly encounters. It allows you the option to replay runs to unlock more treasures that are available for you in a final battle, which is helpful, but I eventually got lucky some tokens stick, then buffing and facing until the guy gave up.
The next couple months they have an event going with all sorts of Wild Card's that have previously rotated out being allowed to use in decks again, and EVERYBODY is getting copies for the duration of an event. In addition to the degenerate legendaries and key combo pieces, is a Warlock card called Renounce Darkness, which changes every Warlock card in your deck to a random card of another class with a one Mana discount. It's not going to be competitive, but it's lol random and I'm a little tempted to make Gold copies of the card just to be That Guy and have my entire deck turn Golden.
After playing the oh-so-short first DLC for Ace Combat 7 I've had a try and finished Ace Combat 5 (emulated). It's holding up surprisingly well, and in some regards better than 7.
First of all, black livery on fighter jets is insanely cool (which is very important when flying death machine with dozen and dozen of missiles on-board). Second maybe I feel there's more variety in the missions design compared to 7, but maybe it's just me; either way we destroy more absurd super weapon which feels cooler. The story feel similar though. I do understand that 7 is also fueled by nostalgia and call-back, and I'm not against that. It's also more difficult to hit things with missiles. I found 7's standard missile precision greater.
Next stop: the Belkan War !
About a week before the new Shadowkeep expansion came out, I got back into Destiny 2 on PC. I wrapped up my Forsaken missions and did enough of the quest/bounty stuff to hold me over. I just finished the main quests for Shadowkeep last night.
Going back to the moon and seeing Archer's Line, Anchor of Light, Hellmouth, and some of the other areas of the game that were copied over and spruced up from Destiny was almost triggering. I spent so much time in those areas because that game had so few destinations. The new quests in Shadowkeep are fun, though they mainly serve to kick off a new series of quests yet to come. What's more wild was seeing the change from everything Destiny 2 was before, to New Light and Shadowkeep. I didn't get the new player experience, but it was a bit of a shock to see all my equipment pulled up to the current baseline.
Team Fortress 2, as always. Stardew Valley in Korean to practice and learn daily vocabulary / idiomatic expressions.
Tabletop: Splendor since my eldest daughter likes it as she is just getting old enough to be "good" at full boardgames. I find the overall play balance of the game fun and rewarding. And it plays quick enough if you all pay attention. We also do Clue (Cluedo outside NA) a lot. We should watch the movie...
Videogame: Untitled Goose Game Fun! I don't have a ton of time so I'm probably the only person who has played it who hasn't finished. Reminds me in away of Octodad: Dadliest Catch which is also a great game.
Mobile game: Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp I maybe play this too much, but I like the art and some of the neat items.