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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.
The Origins update for No Man's Sky was just released, so I returned to that game once again last night. Because of the risk of the update breaking my existing stuff (and because it's been ages since I've played) I started a new game from scratch. It's probably too soon to tell how different it will be, but so far I'm enjoying the more varied colors, terrain height, and animal life.
A friend gave me her physical copy of the game for PS4 shortly after its disappointing release. In the four years since, the game has continued to receive a ridiculous amount of high-quality free updates. It's almost unrecognizable in its current form from what shipped back in 2016. With caveats that it's a very unique sort of game, and certainly not for everyone, I personally love it so much. And I feel guilty because I've never spent a dime on it, and it just keeps getting better.
If Hello Games releases a remaster for the PS5, or a true sequel at some point down the road, I'll definitely pick it up at full price. Despite the horrible first impressions many still have toward the company, in my mind they've proven themselves to be worth supporting.
Still playing Eternal Card Game. Broke through in the Throne mode rankings: Went from my Silver I plateau all the way up to Diamond I! Yay me. Stalling there, though, as I try to get to the highest tier, which is Master. I got to within 1 win of Master! Haven't quite scaled this peak yet, though.
I've recently started graduate school, and since a lot of it is virtual for the time being it has been difficult to get ot know the others in my cohort. A lot of us have been playing Among Us, though, and it has been a lot of fun and also useful from a getting-to-know-each-other perspective.
HADES (PC/Steam): it’s the culmination and evolution of everything Supergiant has done. Great game, a rogue-like with a persistent story where dying doesn’t just reset everything, but rewards you with more story and item progression. Recommend.
Radio General (PC/Steam): A unique strategy game where you take control of Canadian forces (rare!) during WW2 operations but the catch is you’re just the general in the back of the lines. The fog of war is heavy and you only know what intel you’re given by the forces on the field, almost like playing a normal strategy game with your eyes closed! Has voice commands that work well enough so if you use a headset you can really role play it and get some immersion there.
Valkyria Chronicles Remastered (PS4): An anime strategy game similar to XCOM taking place in a fictionalized fantasy version of WW2. I’m enjoying it well enough but it’s not the best game. It’s just too easy, staying for the characters and I like the way it looks along with the setting. Otherwise I don’t really recommend it.
Gundam Battle Operation 2 (PS4): I like Gundam, stay away if you don’t. It’s a gatcha game that feels and looks like a launch PS3 title.
Spelunky 2 (PS4): What can I say? It’s a great sequel to the perfect platformer rogue-like. It’s much harder and has more variance to the levels and branching paths. I think the music is a step down, both in variety and composition. Hard to beat the first game though when there wasn’t much to improve.
It's nice to see/hear of people playing Radio General. I played a demo of it a few months back and it was really cool. I'm acquainted with Michael from Foolish Mortals, as we're from the same city, and the game dev community is small.
I would have never played it or heard of it without Austin Walker (formerly Vice Games) mentioning it and the cool concept it had on the Waypoint Radio podcast, so credit there.
That's awesome. Very cool to hear.
Untitled Goose Game. I bought two copies, because it just went up for sale on Steam and Itch.io drm-free. I beat the main sequence on Switch, and am working through again for fun, and may take on the "complete all tasks before the bell rings" challenge afterward.
It's just a fun game, to be honest, worth replaying again because you can always find new ways to do things, or go for the secret challenges on your main run if you know what they are. I'm just enjoying trying to find new ways to break behaviors and complete things, like locking the gardener outside of his garden without actually trapping yourself outside permanently, or shoving a bunch of stuff into the hole near where you start. I spent an hour on Switch trying to get one of the gardener's bags in there, for example.
I played The Last Of Us Part 2 and honestly I really enjoyed it. I loved the gameplay, enjoyed the story, and really dug the mechanics, even if they were bleak.
I completely get why reviewers didn’t really like the game, but from my perspective, it is TLOU, I don’t think anyone comes here for a “good time”. But still, it definitely made sense and I respect them. The whole Joel/Abby community outrage on the other hand was a load of nonsense. Seems like there people ready to get offended for the slightest things (oh how the tables have turned).
There is some gross stuff in there, 1 instance of deadnaming, 1 instance of homophobia. Not nice stuff, and I kind of wish they wouldn’t go there.
I’ve been also playing Horizon Zero Dawn. It’s a good game! A bit like The Witcher 3 mechanically. Haven’t got far but the story and animation is actually decent!
I bought Tropico 5 for the PS4 a few weeks back. It’s a fun game, and for the used price of £5 I can hardly complain.
I was playing Hotline Miami 2 on hard mode, but I have given up due to how much of a time sink it is and hours unrewarding it all is.
Slay the spirit is fun too! I’m not very good at it, but it makes a change of pace from the action games I have.
IMHO Hotline Miami 2 ruined the original formula by making the levels too long.
Decided to finally pick up dragon quest xi that I bought for my ex back when it first came out. Only a few hours in, but enjoying it so far. For anyone who already played it, any essential tips or things I should know?
I've found that searching "before I play (game name)" brings up a lot of helpful tips, and there's even a wiki dedicated to the topic.
https://beforeiplay.com/index.php?title=Dragon_Quest_XI:_Echoes_of_an_Elusive_Age
I don't use it for every game I play, but if I start a RPG, I'll give it a read. I don't think I've ever played a RPG more than once, so I want to go in informed about missable stuff.
Fantastic resource, thanks!
Man, thanks for posting this website. Don’t know how many times I’ve gone looking for something like that and some how it never came up.
I am an old. So for me, the best thing I did was switch to the classic, pixel mode and switch the soundtrack from orchestra to midi. Made me feel like I was playing a new SNES Dragon Warrior and really scratched a hard to reach itch.
Did you get it on switch? I think 'classic' mode is only available on XI S which is not the edition I have.
Oh, yes. I did. Didn't realize it was only on the switch. That's kind of a shame.
For posterity, that version is coming to Steam in December.
I know, it's also coming to other platforms, but I'm not re-buying the game just to play an updated version with some QOL improvements.
Yes, I was leaving that for anyone who may be interested in it but doesn't have a Switch so they know that it won't be Switch-only much longer.
I may have also replied to the wrong message.
While I do think Royal is a slightly more definitive version of the game, you’re not hugely missing out by not playing it. The new story elements are not essential (and in some ways seem harmful) to the main theme of the story and the journey of the characters. I can give slight spoilers if you like to give an idea of how non-essential it is to the overall story, but that’s up to you.
Overall, you’re still in for a great experience. 10/10 game in my book.
The new confidants have new archetypes, so that affects fusion a bit and other things like that. There are new "Showtime" moves that two characters will do together when an enemy gets low on life that makes the game a little easier. One more dungeon, and so higher level cap as well, with new baddies in it so you find some Persona more easily without having to do New Game+. The new section is also basically another month or so of game time, so you can more easily max out confidants.
There's a couple other things, like taking the Twin Wardens out to see the world (like Persona 3) and then they give you items and skill cards, that just make the game a little easier in general as well.
Resident Evil Revelations - I started this as something to do between Hades runs, and it sort of took over my free time. I can't say it's a good game. It feels every bit of a portable Resident Evil in the style of RE5 jumped up to a non-portable platform. But it's also a bit fascinating because of that. They took the style of RE5 and put it into a Nintendo 3DS. Big maps full of enemies are now small-ish rooms with maybe 3 enemies. Most of the action is in corridors, but it's unmistakably RE4/5/6 style action. But since it's a 3DS game, it has a second screen that's a scanner. It's used for finding hidden items and collectibles.
But then they've gone and blown it back up again to fit a modern console and PC port, which introduces all sorts of weirdness. Yep, the game is still mostly corridors. It seems they didn't change the action at all, which is fine because it works. But they replaced the second screen with a Metroid Prime-esque environment scanner view. This is terribly annoying. It's still a RE game, and finding additional ammo and health is not an opportunity that should be passed up. So an awful lot of the game is action broken up by tediously looking around in scanner view to try to find hidden items.
I would also contend that calling this game "revelatory" is awfully misleading. TBH, I don't remember a damn thing about RE lore, but this is very much a side story. New enemies, new antagonist, very little connection to the other games. I'm not finished yet but this is supposed to dovetail into RE5 as a prequel and I'm guessing it's just going to put people where they are at the start of RE5 without much explanation.
The thing it is doing for me is giving me a playable RE game that I haven't finished yet. I am going to follow it up with Revelations 2 before I try to finish RE7 again, or start the remake of RE2. I just can't really recommend this but I won't put it down. I'm near the end and it's not going to frustrate me so I may as well finish it.
Bought some games in Fanatical sales. KOTOR II is awesome. Eagle Island is nice rouge lite platformer, my new favorite. Pony island was short but enjoyed playing it. Completed in about four hours. I've yet to try Hob and Tesla V Lovercraft.
I loved Tesla vs. Lovecraft! Very mindless and satisfying. A great game to play as background for audiobooks/podcasts, IMO.
KoTOR II is really good. The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod is pretty much a must use mod though. There was a lot of barely unfinished stuff in the game that some folks took the time to put the finishing touches on that give you a lot more content.
A group of friends and I have been playing Deep Rock Galactic - this game is an honest hoot.
Incredible co-op, great procedural generation to keep things fresh, and a fun progression through leveling.
This is the best $20 I've spent in a decade on a game and I can't recommend it enough.
ROCK AND STONE!
I've been teaching myself to shuffle cards, and I learned to play Solitaire. I always carry a deck of cards with me, but until a couple of weeks ago, I didn't even know a single game to play with them or how to shuffle them.
Space Engineers. I played it lots in the earlier days then didn’t touch it for a year or more (since before they added all the actual objection/mission/economy/NPC stuff) and it’s such an amazing game now. I think it got a bad rap for not having much to do when it first got “popular” (in its genre) so everyone abandoned it, but these days there’s plenty of great scenarios and lots in the open world to keep me entertained for a few hundred hours of gameplay now. The modding community is also absolutely incredible, and with some carefully selected mods you can turn your game into a thriving universe of factions, objectives/activities, and fun.
Also starting to get into Stationeers which is so far really good too. Very different despite being the same genre, way more about hardcore (mostly-)realistic survival and complex systems. I like the attention to detail with having to worry about room pressures, balance of gassed/pollutants in farming, energy management, etc.