Had a really weird few days with work and other stuff so I’m all mixed up now, sorry about the late post. My schedule is all over the place. Hopefully next week we’ll be back to normal.
Brief off-topic aside: This recurring thread has been a bright spot, for me, in a sad Internet, this year. Thank you.
As for what I’m playing - mostly Palworld. The late game has allowed me to try to breed perfect pals while getting as deep as I like into farm management and interior decorating. It’s been very fun. Well worth the sticker price.
I’m glad you’ve been enjoying it. It’s been hard to be consistent lately but hopefully it’ll be back to normal again now.
Replaying A Hat in Time after about eight years. I decided to get some cheap DLC in place of more games during Steam’s summer sale, and that includes A Hat in Time’s Nyakuza Metro. With that, I thought it was worth a full replay of the game.
Still really liking the game. With more hindsight, I’ve realized the game’s plot makes barely any sense. And it has an oddly dark sense of humour that contrasts with the game’s otherwise kiddy presentation, even outside the spooky forest.
I love Hat. There are community-made levels in the Steam workshop that are worth trying if you want more content.
Oh yeah. I never got around to that on my first run.
Started playing Doom 3 and Avowed on the side.
Doom 3 is really scary, and immersive due to its PDA based story telling. The shooting is largely basic though. I love figuring out the codes for lockers.
Avowed, I just started to see if I like it, and so far I’m enjoying the looting in the game. Every nook is has some platforming puzzle to get to some treasure. I’ve not even done a single quest after reaching Paradis, but have looted maybe 50 chests alread!
I’ve been playing Dredge and Night in the Woods this week for some nice autumnal vibes. I also played Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping, and while it’s not quite as good as The Secret Salami, I still enjoyed my time with it and I hope there are more games in the series to come.
Also, I plan to be impatient this week and get the new Control game. I know, blasphemy, but the heart uh wants what it wants.
Sometimes you gotta be impatient. Remedy is one of the few developers I would be tempted by as well.
My dead cells save disappeared so I’m working by my way through again
Playing some Tyr, believe it or not. Sci-fi Tank Game that is like a mix of Overwatch and WoT.
Also fired up my old copy of Freelancer.
I’ve been playing Valheim now that its finally 1.0. Lots of new stuff i dont remember from my last game ~3 years ago. I finished the Black Forest and I have been searching all over for Swamps. I only find these dinky ones with none of the interesting stuff in them. Its been kinda frustrating.
The new Bear armor is great for exploring on land. Boosts to stamina and speed.
I’m a few hours into Pragmata. I had to jump through a few hoops to get ray tracing working on Linux but the game looks great and has me interested in where it’s going.
I’m back on the Warframe grind, still working towards my original goal of playing 1999
I played through Portal for the first time and I found it kind of underwhelming. I can see why it was a big thing two decades ago, but as a new player today the experience doesn’t really feel special.
Have you played Portal 2? I found that one to be by far the better of the two. Though with that being said I did still really enjoy the first one.
I have not, but I have too many other things in my backlog to add that one.
One thing worth keeping in mind is the fact that the first game was a small experimental project made as part of the Orange Box rather than a full-fledged title. It’s short and a bit simple but it was more of a neat bonus in a pack of other games, not a star of the show. That’s not to say your opinion is invalid, on the contrary, it’s just… between years of hype and the scope of the project, having Portal blow you away would be more surprising than your current feelings towards it, in my opinion.
As BurnWits said, Portal 2 is more of a full-fledged title in comparison. If you enjoyed the first game, there’s a high chance you’ll like the sequel. Will it be closer to the mind blowing expectations you had for the first one? I don’t know. It is however a bigger and more polished product so it might satisfy you more in that regard.
I do understand the unwillingness to increase your backlog though, I know this feeling really well too.
I didn’t play much for a while due to life stuff, but lately I’ve been playing Shadow Hearts on the Odin 3 I bought last month. I’m like 18 hours in and probably past the first half of the game. It’s a PS1 RPG in execution but with higher quality assets and an interesting setting: it’s set in 1913, not many RPGs (or games in general) are set in that time.
I should probably finish Quantum Void, but it’s going to make me think of things I don’t want to, so I’ll probably leave it unfinished.
I already knew I didn’t like soulslike combat because it’s slow and nearly all attacks are annoyingly high commitment so it relies more on pattern recognition, strategy, and patience than quick reflexes and high-speed improvisation.
Playing Stranger of Paradise this week made me realize why even Nioh was a bridge too far for me: stamina bar.
I just can’t help but see it as a made up problem: I’ll give you an arbitrary limitation that sucks the fun out of combat… and a bunch of advanced mechanics to overcome it and give you your fun back.
I just play these games and I wonder why these combat designers hate me, and why am I not playing action games that actually let me have fun without passing some arbitrary rhythm test.
I know the answer is curiosity, but I often wonder if it’s worth it.
It’s not even a question of difficulty: no permutation of factors will make Nioh or Stranger of Paradise as difficult as fighting Gracious and Glorious on Infinite Climax in Bayonetta. It’s gating fun behind arbitrary busy work… for reasons.
I know this isn’t a real response on your opinion of souls likes, but did you play Ninja Gaiden 4? Was a really, really fun action game. Based on your Bayonetta playtime it feels like you would enjoy it!
Patiently waiting for it to drop below $20 in my region. I love Ninja Gaiden and Platinum.
Thankfully, we got a bunch of new indie action games this year: Homura Hime, Mahou Arms, Dead As Disco, Jenny the Witch, and Kijutsu Rider, so waiting hasn’t been difficult.
Dead as Disco was fantastic, excited for more content. I’ve had Homura Hime on my wishlist for a while, not sure if it’ll ever go on a decently deep sale but it isn’t that expensive in the first place. Never heard of the others, I will check them out. Thanks!
Not everyone has the same idea of fun, and not every game needs to be catered to every player. I happen to love soulslikes specifically because of their combat, but I get why others don’t like it.
I’d be curious if you’d like Sekiro.
I’d be curious if you’d like Sekiro.
Traversal was fun, but the rest not so much. Passive combat, limited offense, and it’s an action RPG with quest lines, loadouts, consumables, and a skill tree, so naturally I need to do a lot of exploration to squeeze all the juice out of combat. I consider all of this anti-fun, so not for me.
So this is technically a new release, but Pokemon Ghost Grey. I think it’s the best romhack I’ve played in years. It’s so creepy and really shows off how Pokemon’s Gen III engine can really work for item-management survival horror. Lots of great psychological horror and dystopian themes. The protagonist looking intentionally different in his/her metagame character portrait vs. actual mirrors and photographs is, um, relatable 😅.
Oh, Summer is the best rival too.
The single-player (and lots more) update to Dune: Awakening released a few days ago, been wanting to try the game for a while but have no interest in multiplayer so had to wait for this. Started playing yesterday and it’s really fun so far! It’s certainly not a superb game but not bad either. Hopefully it stays interesting and fun.
Does revisiting Civ 4 (again), originally released in 2005, count?
Have you tried 7? I’m really struggling to get into it. Been trying off and on for the last few months and finally hit the end of the first age but haven’t continued past it. I revisited 5 a while back (love it) but haven’t done 4 since it was the latest game. How’s it holding up?
