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.
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.
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.
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.
I remember being young and going over to one of our neighbor's house to watch him play Phantasy Star Online (PSO) on his Dreamcast with other people over the Internet which blew my mind as a kid. I also remember getting my parents to rent a copy of PSO for Gamecube to play it some, but since we had to return it, I didn't get very far or get to experience much of it. Though the memory of it being awesome never went away.
When I was in high school, one of my best friends at the time loved the Gamecube version and played it a ton with his dad and brother growing up. He found a private server to play the PC version, Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst, which includes both episodes 1 and 2 along with the PC only episode 4. ["Where is episode 3?" you might ask, that was released as a card game that was also set after the events of episodes 1, 2, and 4] and asked me if I wanted to play with him and his brother. We ended up playing together, usually once or twice a week, depending on our schedules. Sometimes we would play all evening and just chat while grinding and leveling up our characters. I think I ended up getting to level 50 out of a maximum of 200. I could easily have seen myself continuing to play for years as a way to keep up with that friend if we had stayed in touch.
That game has sat in the back of my head for years, I'd occasionally think about it, and have the urge to play it, but never would since I usually have other stuff going on, and I couldn't remember what server my character was on or my login information. I recently saw some videos about it on YouTube, since it was the 25th anniversary that has got me looking in to it again. I think later in the year I may look in to setting it up to play on my Android phone.
PSO has an interesting place in video game history, and something I didn't know until watching a retrospective was that the Monster Hunter series took inspiration from PSO.
There were follow-up games made, like Phantasy Star Universe, and Phantasy Star Online 2, but I only played PSO2 for a brief period when it was Japanese only, and I kept having my translation patches breaking every few days due to updates and never went back to revisit it after it was released in the West.
It made me curious if any Tilders played it back in the day or still play it now?
Do you have any fond memories of the game, or stories you might want to share?
Did you play or enjoy any of the follow-up games to the original PSO?
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.
I have stolen this idea from a Reddit thread and thought it would be a good discussion here. I am placing these in approximate order of favorite to least favorite.
Caves of Qud - Probably a top ten game of all time. Greatest environmental flavor I have ever experienced. Great soundtrack. This was the very first traditional rogue-like I played for more than a few hours
Wildermyth - I think the character creation/progression is my favorite of any game ever. Character age, befriend each other, fall in love, die, have children, and more. Also this is my favorite soundtrack of the decade, a very dreamlike and melancholic track that suits the game perfectly.
Jupiter Hell - The second traditional rogue-like i played for a few hours. Incredible tactical gameplay
Balder's Gate III - While not my favorite RPG (Wildermyth) probably the one I have played the most considering all the different ways you can play with story choices and character builds.
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - The game has many flaws, particularly the poorly designed combat scenarios and a story that differs quite a bit in quality throughout. But the combat adds a bit more crunch then BG3 and the variety of choices and builds is multitudes larger than BG3.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020/2024 - Not much to say other than the flying mechanics are good and the entire Earth being mapped and populated is maybe my favorite technological feature in a video game ever.
Dorf Romantik - Cute puzzle game. Released in 2022 but was a game that I am 99% sure I played in early access during the pandemic and was warm and quiet in a terrible year
Spiderman Remastered/Spiderman Miles Morales
Total War: Warhammer III - On one hand a culmination of all the Total Warhammer games. On the other hand by the time I had played it I had played so many Total War games that the formula wore on me and I found myself auto-resolving battles more often then playing them.
Far Cry 6 - A step down from Far Cry 5 as far as I am concerned, but there is no FPS game with an open world that lets you approach things in any way you want. Guns blazing? Sure. Stealth? Four or five ways to approach a location? Yep. The only thing I did not like was the base design, which i felt was much more poor then in previous Far Cry games
Starfield - On the one hand, a game with a lot of flaws that make it a hard game to love. Tons of loading screens that break immersion. A lack of depth in systems. A story with little/no sense of morale choices. On the other hand, no one does open world like Bethesda and their formula is like crack for me. Good gun play. Best stories Bethesda has told in years. The ending and new game + hit really hard for me as well.
Here are other games that I play but are more of a 'annual series', so I am placing them separately
Pokemon - Arceus was my favorite Pokemon game, with Scarlet being my favorite 'traditional' Pokemon game
NBA 2K Series
Madden NFL Series
Out of the Park Baseball series
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.
I'm planning to launch Tildes Minecraft season 3 some time mid November. What mods should we add or remove? Any other recommendations or requests?
Edit: As per the majority of the feedback, season 3 will be delayed until the beginning of January.
Edit 2: Server goes online January 3rd, 2026 at 11am Pacific time.
Edit 3:
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.
I know Steam Replay isn’t out yet, but I figure it’s still a good enough time to get the ball rolling.
This is your place to share any and all thoughts on your gaming for 2025.
Games you talk about do NOT have to be limited to this year’s releases.
Feel free to share:
Let us know how your gaming for 2025 went.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I get the feeling that, outside its own communities, Overwatch has mostly slipped out of the wider conversation.
We've had:
Blizzard’s various incidents/controversies
The shift to OW2 and all the confusion/anger around that
The battle pass / shop pricing / F2P monetization complaints
Cancellation of PVE mode
General live-service fatigue
Most of that hasn’t really been “fixed”, but I'm not seeing nearly as much noise about it anymore, good or bad.
As a now free-to-play, live-service game with ongoing updates and "events", I feel like OW2's cosmetic pricing is (unfortunately) pretty standard compared to similar big titles. I'm not saying that's good, I think aggressive monetization is a wider industry problem, but within that landscape, the model itself doesn't feel uniquely outrageous to me if the goal is keeping a big, polished game running long-term.
I also doubt the actual dev team has much control over pricing, so that part lands more on Blizzard/ABK as a company (shocker).
Setting that aside: purely in terms of gameplay, the game currently feels the best it ever has to me. There's a good variety of modes, and things like the new Stadium mode feel very different from the usual Quick Play/Comp loop while still keeping the core of what makes Overwatch fun: the heroes, the readability, how smooth and well-designed everything feels.
Especially if you're not deep in the OW ecosystem anymore (or never were):
Do you think about Overwatch at all these days?
Did you drop it because of Blizzard, OW2’s launch, monetization, balance, something else?
From the outside, does it feel “fine now”, “permanently tainted”, “kind of irrelevant”, or just background noise?
If you never really played it: is there anything that would actually make you try Overwatch 2 in its current state?
And if you are still playing or following it closely, I'm also interested in how you feel about the state of the game vs peak OW1 / early OW2, especially whether it's earned back any trust or enthusiasm.
Not trying to rehash every incident in detail, just curious how the game and its reputation land for people who aren’t immersed in it every day.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I never played Hollow Knights: Silksong, but a question, anyone has tried the game for the first time and when?
A "Silksong" = a game that you waited a long time for and that met your very high expectations.
(And yes, Silksong can be your "Silksong")
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.
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.
Wondering if we have tilde fellows playing it. I’ve become addicted since last year and it’s fully taken over my regular board game nights… I’ve been storytelling and doing custom scripts and characters.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
When I made my post about Chex Quest, it got me thinking about the classic Doom games released from 1993-1997, and I thought it would be great hearing some fellows Tilders thoughts about these classic games that can run on just about anything.
I thought of some questions, but please share anything Doom related! I think it's awesome seeing how this game has had such a lasting impact over the last 30+ years and how people continue to push this game in new and surprising ways.
Hi everyone,
I was never so lucky as a kid to have a gaming console (forbidden by my parents) so I could only be jealous of my school friends getting gameboys and super nintendos. But I’m an adult now, so I got myself a RG35XX H to try all these games out, and enjoying myself.
So I was thinking why not create something like a book club but for these old games? We’d play (and attempt to beat) one game per month or something along these lines and then discuss the game itself, the story, context around how and when it was made, etc.
I’m looking to share this hobby with others (as it is rather solitary otherwise), and create a social aspect around it.
What do you think? Would anyone be interested?
I moved across the world from my friends, and as a dad I don't have much time for gaming. I really enjoy the idea of play by email (PBEM) or cloud format games, and got into playing ranked Advance Wars by Web for a little while that goes in that format. I then stopped playing as much due to spending more time than I had set aside for gaming thinking through my turns to try and improve my ELO.
Sadly, I haven't been able to get my friends to buy into playing a game in this format yet, but I'm holding out hope that when my kids are older, and I have a bit more time to game regularly, I can start up a game in this format with some internet strangers.
What got me thinking of this topic was remembering that I had bought Shadow Empires for my birthday with a Steam Gift card my brother gave me after my oldest was born, and it has been sitting in my library with 8 minutes of gameplay since then. I know it support PBEM, and I think my friends would enjoy it if I could get them to give it a try.
I'd thought I'd see what my fellow Tilders think about this style of game.
Do you have a favorite game you play in this format?
Any long-running games that you've had going on with a group? I know games in this format can take years to finish.
Are there any games that you wish would adopt this format?
Anything else/stories you felt like sharing about this kind of games?
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.
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 concept of achievements in games has existed for quite a while now. According to Wikipedia's article on video game achievements, they were first programmed into some games in the 90s, and perhaps first made it big with the Xbox 360 in 2005. Steam achievements shortly followed in 2007.
Some of them are very easy - "Complete the tutorial" is a comment achievement. Some of them are silly - "Pet all the dogs in the game" has become a bit of a meme. But some require an incredible amount of patience, luck, and/or skill.
What are some achievements that you or others you know have put time into that felt significant? Or perhaps even ones that stand out for being a clever addition by the game developers.
I saw that @Deimos had made a post about the history of Chex Quest about this game in 2019, and since it has been over 6 years since then, and I felt the urge to play it again, I figured I'd see if anyone else had any memories of this game.
Note: The video that was included in the original link appears to have been taken down, I found a re-upload here: https://youtu.be/pxu1cq_vRUw
My dad brought a copy of this home with him one day from work that he got from a coworker whose kids enjoyed it. My brother and I played it a solid amount and it was an awesome game, and also my first exposure to a game that ran in the Doom engine. I also had a distinct memory of seeing the game play of the original Doom for the first time and thinking "hey that looks like Chex Quest!".
Chex Quest is a shareware title so you're able to download the files and play the game for free. I can't remember where I got them, but I have the first three Chex Quest games as .wad files that I was playing with Chocolate Doom. There are also fan made .wad files in the Chex Quest style that I've yet to play, but maybe one day! I even remember there being a Doom randomizer that included the ability to generate random Chex Quest levels, but I can't seem to find it while doing some quick searching online.
Edit: I found the random level generator a few minutes after posting this: https://github.com/obsidian-level-maker/Obsidian
They also released a Chex Quest HD on Steam that I remember got me to go back and play the original game 5 years ago.
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.
Do you base it solely on age? On the year/console of release? Graphical style? Vibes? Divination?
Additionally: based on your criteria, what are some complicated edge cases?
For example: is DOOM 3 "retro" because it's over 20 years old and its series was rebooted, or is it modern because it's got nice 3D graphics and lighting and whatnot? Is Crow Country retro even though it came out last year?
The point of this isn't to find the hard line of what is/isn't retro -- it's to play around in the gray areas for what "retro" potentially does or doesn't describe.
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.
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.
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.
Maybe you spoiled the story.
Maybe you min-maxed the fun out of it.
Maybe you played it SO much that eventually its tiny little flaws were all you could see.
Maybe you spent so much time excitedly modding it that, when it came time to finally play it, the fire was out.
Whatever the reason: what was the game, and how did you ruin it for yourself?
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.
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.
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.
Which one wins for you? Zero Hour easily wins for me. Very active community. Lots of tournaments and excellent game play. Not slow like AoE2, not fast like RA2. Just the sweeet spot.
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.
Hey, gamer tilderinos. I've followed our Minecraft server threads but I've never participated.
Any interest in a Tildes Satisfactory server?
Do you think that game lends itself well to a shared server for this scale of people?