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

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War

I was hoping this game would be a significant improvement over Shadow of Mordor but basically the same game instead. At the very least, I just wanted a prettier version of the first game since it was a pretty ugly game with muted drab colours and an overly busy world layout where you can't walk 10 ft. without running into a group of enemies. War doesn't address this at all, it feels more like an expansion to it. Overall it's fine but a pretty uninspired game, somehow coming across like a soulless Assassin's Creed. The Nemesis system is better, I suppose, but not by too much. It's still the only reason to play this game at all as opposed to any other Assassin's Creed instead.

It's also one of the few games where I just cannot bring myself to care about its story at all so I'm skipping the cutscenes. Between basing itself in the LotR lore and then taking huge liberties like having sexy Shelob(!!!) as the main antagonist who stole your Bigger, Better One Ring because Tallion just didn't use it against her instead of offering it up immediately, I just can't bring myself to care about this as a LotR fan. It's so obviously non-canon fanfiction, even if it wants to not be. Also a focus of blah side characters who are just there to be emotional sponges, not of any real import, that serves to test your patience rather than give you more to invest yourself in.

I'm basically only going to play this until the Nemsis system gets boring.

EDIT: I ended up uninstalling it about ten hours after this comment was first posted, about eight hours of game time.

Control

Fantastic, so far. I'm really glad Remedy came back hard and hit a home run with this game. It's the best of all their previous experience, combining the visceral action of Max Payne with their aspirations of unease and heady metaphor-heavy storytelling from Max Payne and Alan Wake. I always felt Alan Wake was underrated, and especially the experimental smaller Alan Wake's American Nightmare. Quantum Break was a bit of a boring misfire, probably due to the TV show tie-in. Control hits it just right. The setting and premise is surprisingly inventive for a not-entirely-unfamiliar concept of a government agency that deals with the paranormal, echoing shades of X-Files, Cabin in the Woods and the SCP Project. Combining it with a Metroidvania-style approach is a stroke of brilliance, especially for Remedy. They've never done a Metroidvania before but it really allows them to flex their creative muscles much more than an open-world would let them.

I also really like the visual storytelling. It's so easy for a game whose overwhelming colour is grey to look drab and boring but the artists at Remedy really are world-class. The splashes of colour are used boldly and purposefully, and the way they decorate the setting is done expertly enough to tweak the feeling of unease or comfort just right.

I can understand how this became such a big GotY contender for 2019, there's so much more to this game than it seems.

I’m replaying Breath of the Wild. I never finished the first time, plus I forgot how I solved most of the puzzles.

It’s easier overall, but a bit frustrating to remember that you used to be able to do something, but have entirely forgotten how.

I finally finished up Return of the Obra Dinn. It was delightful. Very well put together. I've played a few other mystery games, and the mechanics were a lot worse. I do wish that moving around from scene to scene were a bit easier, but overall, I think it worked.

I had asked previously what would happen if you got off the boat early. It turns out you can copy your save game to another slot and try stuff out, so I tried that when I had only about 18 fates solved. The answer is that you essentially lose. You send off your report, and you get back a letter telling you how terrible you are at your job with not much more information. Whereas if you solve all the fates, you learn 2 additional fates and you learn what happened in the missing chapter of the book. Well worth it to stick to it! In some ways it gets easier as you solve more fates because there are fewer to choose from.

Here's the answer nobody wants to hear: I replaced video games this weekend with knitting. I wanted something mindless to do and Daiso was selling those hat-making loom thing-a-ma-jigs and really soft yarn, so I picked it up and almost completed a really basic hat. I've basically been too busy to play video games lately, and spending what little extra time I have on this mindless task ended up being super therapeutic.

And then the very next day, I had so much to do that I basically fainted at bedtime. Fun.

Oh, I also forgot to mention that I bought Control now that it's on Steam. I already played it on PS4, but I've always wanted to play it on my PC. I was really afraid of my graphics card would be obsolete because the new generation is such a leap in performance, but seeing how well it ran on my computer combined with the DigitalFoundry overview of the new PS5 release makes me believe that what I have will certainly be more than enough for the next few years. Even with all the fancy tech that went into getting that game to look good without it, the extra raytracing effects make it look really nice.

I’m on a “sneak around and ice people” bender playing Hitman 3 and Sniper Elite 3. There’s not much to say other than they’re both games about sneaking around killing your targets using stealth or just going loud. Sniper Elite is way less replayable but I like the WWII setting and I’m a sucker for the slow-mo x-ray bullet cams. A weird thing about Sniper Elite is that other than the grossly detailed x-ray cam the game is surprisingly tame and lacks any gore so if that bugs you then turn off the cam and it’s a relatively bloodless Nazi killing romp.

My next moves are Outer Wilds, Sniper Elite 4, and continuing in vain to find fun in Elite Dangerous.

I am playing Divinity II: Original Sin and I am loving it.

I have around 140 hours in the game at this point and I haven't finished the playthrough Isstareted at the start. I have been playing tactician mode, so it ocmplicates the battles and I have to try some over and over again to get them right. Plus, I am a bit of a completionist, so I am doing as many quests as I can, for as long as I can.

Although, I have had to take long breaks occasionally. It can get very exhausting to keep playing games like this, especially continuously. But I intend to finish it as soon as I can.

I started playing Ghost of Tsushima (GoT) about 3 weeks ago once I saw several of my friends were playing. Previously I had been playing Valhalla and I'm so glad that I switched. GoT has almost all the same gameplay elements as Valhalla, but is a much more refined game. I'm almost done with Act 1, but am starting to get an itch to try a new game. I bought Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order on the Epic winter sale and want to try it.

I've also been playing Legends, which is the co-op multiplayer in GoT. I have been pleasantly surprised with how well they implemented multiplayer in an excellent single player game.

I've been playing through Baldur's Gate again -- going to try and make it across the entire saga including SoD.

While AD&D 2E is definitely different by modern standards, I really do think THAC0 hasn't really earned the infamy it has. Is subtraction too much to ask? I guess it's probably a lesson in game design when your defining your game -- players like to make their numbers bigger not smaller!

It's also amusing to me when searching for things to run across some sorcerers.net forum posts from 2000. Just a moment frozen in time. :P

Been playing The Outer Wilds over the last few weeks. It's a delightful little game, and the 22-minute time loop is addicting ("Just one more try! This time I'll be able to land on the Sun Station!"). Unfortunately, I get quite a bit of motion sickness if playing for longer than an hour or two, due to the abrupt gravity changes/360 degree rolls, and in some cases the nausea persists for hours after I put away the controller. But it's a great game and I'm glad I got it.

I've been playing Halo CE on the Master Chief Collection. I'm not a huge fan of sci-fi shooters, something that can easily seem sterile, but this game has a soul. I'm constantly switching for the old graphics, and instead of thinking they're crude and outdated, I am in awe that someone could make a game with that scope for the original Xbox in 2001. I'm having a blast.

Downloaded a recommendation from my app thread that's been hanging around for the past week. Turns out, Slay the Spire is quite addicting. I've already played other games that are very similar (or took much inspiration from it), like Meteorfall. Either way, it's a fuggin' BLAST. I know I'm gonna ruin my phone battery today and tomorrow playing this. And probably for the coming months too :D

Great Suggestion @moocow1452 !

I've been a fan of roguelikes for a long time, but also never committed to playing one. In coming to terms with this, I wanted to find an easy coffee break roguelike, and saw Desktop Dungeons recommended, and decided to give it a shot. It's good. I had to follow the tutorial to get the gist of the game, as it's quite a bit different from other roguelikes (stationary enemies, for example), but if I wanted to introduce somebody to something akin to traditional roguelikes, this would be the game. It's pretty goofy, but fun and has some depth to it's combat. It's also extremely accessible, and has more of a Mystery Dungeon vibe where you go through a series of smaller dungeons rather than one big one.

So I picked up Dirt Rally 2.0. I haven't done much with it all yet other than navigate the menus, set some settings, and do a free roam for a few minutes. Looks good. I had to find the right balance between frame rate and good graphics with my 4k monitor and not-so-cutting-edge graphics card. I'm able to use my PS4 controller (finally, after quite a bit of fiddling). However, I am quite disappointed that my Logitech Driving Force Pro isn't detected by Steam. It seems like such a pity, and the controller, while better than a keyboard experience, doesn't hold a candle to actually turning a steering wheel and pressing on pedals. Hopefully I can get that sorted out.

cc: @scrambo

I have been continuing to make daily use of my new Nintendo Switch.

I'm still playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons for a few hours every day, and now my nephew has also even started playing whenever he comes over (which is a few times a week due to lockdown/remote school, and his parents being busy with work). He loves that both our characters live on the same island, and he really seems to enjoy just running around collecting things for hours at a time. He is still a bit too young and new to videogames to totally understand all the mechanics, so I have had to do a lot of stuff for him (like unlocking everything, and crafting tools for him), but he seems to be enjoying himself in spite of me having to step in every few minutes to help him.

I also bought Monster Jam: Steel Titans for him, since he is a huge fan of monster trucks (he has the full set of Monster Jam Hot Wheels, Monster Jam bedding, and posters). He can't drive well enough to do the races, but enjoys just driving around jumping off things and doing tricks in the free roam and arena maps. It's actually a surprisingly solid game considering its age demographic, and I have even been enjoying playing it as well, in order to unlock more stuff for him.

And two new games I have also added to my rotation of daily plays are Picross S5, and Sudoku Relax 4. Neither are particularly difficult puzzle games, but they are both relaxing and a nice way to wind down the day.

I've been rather enjoying Command & Conquer: Remastered. Specifically, I've been playing the add-on missions from the Counterstrike and Aftermath expansion packs for Red Alert. They represent, in my opinion, the high water mark out of all the official custom missions I've played. There are so many interesting concepts in there, from moving a cybernetic soldier and dog around a map to essentially blow up a shield generator before your allied base is destroyed, to using teleporting prototype tanks to neutralize another island's defences, to putting down a local rebellion that literally goes nuclear because the townspeople have been supplied with crazily heavy weaponry. That last one was a great twist.

Because I was trying to get my Logitech Driving Force Pro (steering wheel) working under Linux and Steam for the first time, I went and downloaded Euro Truck Simulator 2, because I had read that some people had success (well, more like lack of trouble) using various steering wheels with this game, and I saw that it had a demo version which wouldn't cost me anything to try out. I figured I could download the demo, and test if my steering wheel worked with it. Well, it turns out it does. But ...

I ended up getting intrigued by this game. When I saw it in the Steam listings, I was like: "Okay, come on, how boring is that? The whole premise of the game is doing something which people are paid to do because of how boring it is to drive for a long time? Who wants to play a game like that?" Well, it turns out, my interest got piqued after I did the first little tutorial job.

It's obvious and silly to say it, but until you try it, you don't really consider how different it is maneouvering a huge, multi-part vehicle (truck + trailer) compared to a regular consumer vehicle. Even just going forwards was tricky, trying not to hit or even scratch the vehicle on anything (fences, posts, curbs, walls), and trying to cleanly perform a left or right turn. I ended up jumping the curb and running onto a sidewalk on my first left turn, though, in fairness, that was partly because I was trying to manage the camera angle (look direction) at the same time as handling the steering wheel. You also have to handle other traffic on the road, including: trying to find a gap to make a turn; staying in your lane; changing lanes. I was trying to use my turn signal every time, at all the times you would in real life, and also trying to be respectful and not cut people off when changing lanes. But these big vehicles don't exactly handle like a sedan! Sometimes, you just have to do what you have to do, and change lanes anyway, because your heavy weight has so much momentum, and you're running out of merge lane. Another funny thing: I guess they nailed the immersion, because I was constantly turning my head (in real life) to check my blind spot whenever I changed lanes. And I felt silly every time because I'd end up looking around my room instead of actually checking the in-game blind spot. :D I'm still getting into the habit of just relying on the mirrors for that.

Backing up the truck is a whole other ball game. With some practice, I can see how I could get better at it, but dang, the first time I tried backing up to a loading dock, it probably took me 10 minutes wall clock time. I probably went back and forth 12 times. And the parking areas that I had to maneouver in were small, with some tight spots, and various obstacles.

It's on sale right now on Steam for a few more days. I'm gonna keep playing the demo, to see whether I'll still like it, and then I'll decide on a purchase on the last sale day. But I think I can see what the big draw is (this game is very popular, it seems).

And I'm glad the steering wheel that I used to use on console won't just be a paperweight with Linux.

[update] I got to the end of the demo. Just purchased the full game (at 75% off). I'm not sure I'll spend dozens of hours on this, but I had fun with the 2 or 3 hours I spent with it so far, and that's probably worth the price I paid for it already. So now I'll try to progress deeper into the career. It seems to allow me to continue where I left off from the demo, which is nice.

Hey @TheJorro, you remember how I said I wasn't going to go through with beating "A Dark Room" without using "factories"............? Well I did. It actually made for a much more upbeat (though ultimately tragic) ending. Surprisingly, I even beat the game faster than I did in my first play-through! 124 minutes

I'm not sure if there are different stories in between the two extremes that I've played, but the two extremes at least have much different stories in the mid-game. It's not that much of a time sink, so I'd recommend going through the "second half" of the story if it interests you at all still.

Wreckfest

It’s a modern version of FlatOut and Destruction Derby. Very mindless. Great as background for audiobooks. I don’t know how much time I’ll put into it — I’m 4 hours in and it’s already a little samey to me.

Lonely Mountains: Downhill

It’s basically an isometric version of Descenders, which is a good thing. It’s very smooth and relaxing so far. I expect the difficulty to ramp up, but I’m liking it as a calm stress break right now.

I also like finding additional paths down the mountain. It seems like the kind of game where you can get out as much as you want to put in.

Also great as background for audiobooks.

Opus Magnum

I literally haven’t touched the main game since my last update and have instead played hours of the Sigmar’s Garden mini-game.

AC: Valhalla

I'm about 25 hours in. Initially, I was a bit disappointed, but the more I play it, the more I'm enjoying it. I played Odyssey as well, and I did enjoy that one - they both seem pretty focused on fighting, but you can absolutely play through with a lot of stealth and assassinations. I tend to do a mix of both - it's a lot of fun to slink around a fort assassinating a big chunk, then call your crew to raid the rest.