Also picked up the new Castlevania title. (Belmont’s Curse)
It, like Dead Cells, is gorgeous visually, plays very well, and is good fun. It does not stick to the OG Castlevania formula, but is more of a souls-like, and that’s not a bad thing.
The only major downer is I don’t like the music, so I’ve muted that and just have the OG Castlevania soundtrack playing on random while I play.
Fire Emblem Fortunes Weave!
Fantastic game love me some fantasy Persona.
I’ve recently started Metro 2033 (I don’t think I have played any of the rest of the series).
It’s been fun so far, and is the right age to have some pretty normal keyboard and mouse controls (which can be a problem if you go back too far).
Im playing Ender Lillies, it’s a p cool metroidvania, I got it a while ago on sale but finally started it. So far I like it a lot, lots of exploring and reexploring, and some cool boss fights.
Cyberpunk 2077
Lots and lots and lots of Cyberpunk. To an obsessive degree, really.
I’ve put more than 60 hours into the game in the span of 5 days and don’t plan to stop any time soon. I do have an excuse since I’m a bit sick and have to rest but still… it’s been a while since I dove into a game like this.
I’ve been jumping between finishing some last pieces of side content I never touched before and just driving around, taking pictures and functioning as an actual part of the world rather than “the player”. I’ll probably finish this playthrough within the next few days so I’ll finally be able to say I finished the game but I’m already thinking about setting everything from scratch, with a new mod list (this time using a mod manager) and a new character meant not for beating the story but to play pretend as a normal no-name living in Night City.
Game is far from perfect but for some reason I just can’t help but love and keep going back to it despite its flaws. I can only hope the mod scene will keep growing and keeping it alive for years to come - I’m far from being done with this world.
I recently played through it. It was good but I’m not sure how much it was my kind of game. I hate the boss fights when they are way too hard, then you search for help online and they say “just use a melee weapon” and then it’s way too easy. I want a boss that adjusts to my play style, or at least has checkpoints if I die.
I also couldn’t get used to the driving cameras. I just want a camera that is above the car but follows me as I turn. Is that too much to ask 😭
I honestly don’t even remember how the vanilla game feels at this point since I always play it with a ton of mods (including ones focused on damage rebalance and restoring missing mechanics from pre-2.0 days). With the right build you can break the difficulty in half regardless of the weapon type but I feel like some sections didn’t handle the skill and gameplay rework as well as the rest of the game, leading to some rough parts if you’re not prepared.
If you’re on PC there are some mods that might help with your camera issue. If not, I can only sympathise. I’m sure they’ll get it right one day…
I really miss the days I could sink that kind of time into a game, I’m incredibly jealous. I’m glad you’re having a great time with it.
Getting sick did give me an excuse to double down on lazing around and going ham with the game but yeah, I can imagine living a proper “adult” lifestyle would make this more of a challenge.
I think some of my love for it has to do with the fact there aren’t many alternatives that would support my kind of playthrough. Skyrim has a huge modding scene but it’s fantasy, plus I never really managed to get into its version of the setting. GTA V has pre-made characters in solo and kinda crappy character customisation and limited peaceful gameplay in multiplayer (not to mention blocking linux players outside of private sessions). There are Five M servers but many require Discord use and I’ve read about issues with playing it on linux. Lastly, there’s Saints Row 2 but that has a pretty limited mod scene as well.
Cyberpunk is the perfect mix of modern(ish) setting, gameplay which allows for more immersive approach and big enough mod library to get me hooked. Still, it IS a fun combo.
Yeah, between a full time job and having a family of my own, especially since my little one is only a year old, I’m lucky to get 1-2 hours in a week, and many weeks I won’t even have time to play at all. I might go a month or two without touching a game.
That’s fair. I’m more into medieval fantasy games, so I mostly play Elder Scrolls, SoulsBorne, etc games. But I do love other genres too, just not as much.
Well, you win some, you lose some. I can only imagine how fulfilling having a kid can be (or at least seems to be based on watching my friends). Besides, kids grow up fast - you’ll have plenty of time for games before you know it.
While I prefer modern/light sci-fi settings, I don’t really mind fantasy in general. I just don’t really vibe with Skyrim specifically and, unfortunately for me, it has the biggest mod scene within the series so it’s much easier to find mods I like compared to older titles.
Very true. The first year has been incredibly fulfilling, I can only imagine how it’ll continue to feel as the years go on. My nephew is 5 years old, and my father-in-law recently said to my sister-in-law that if her son moves out at 20, she’s now 25% done. That’s kind of nuts to me, I never really thought of it that way before.
Totally fair. Not every game will be for everyone, I think Skyrim hit me in a time where I had lots of free time to play games, and it was also around the time I moved from my childhood home (not too far away but just far enough to be inconvenient to see friends on a regular basis) so I spent a lot more time playing single player games. I now have over 5k hours in the game, so it’s sort of become a comfort game now. But if I didn’t have that experience with it first, I could see how coming to it now wouldn’t do much for me. I actually prefer Oblivion to it these days, and I’m constantly trying to get into Morrowind too because I’m confident I’d love it. I have some time today, maybe I’ll boot up Morrowind again.
TES is a weird series for me since I started on the Gothic side of things. By the time I gave TES games a try there was always something blocking me from enjoying them in full. Not that any of them are bad, they just didn’t shape my tastes like other games did.
I actually started writing a full post going in detail about all of the titles I played but the truth is all I want is a modern Daggerfall with a big modding scene. That would be my dream come true in terms of sandbox fantasy RPGs.
That sounds familiar, I feel like we’ve talked about this before. I’m pretty sure you got me to try Daggerfall Unity. Someone on here definitely did.
For what it’s worth, I played a bit of Morrowind today using OpenMW and had a ton of fun with it. I really hope this time it sticks for more than a week.
It was impatient of me, but I picked up Control: Resonant and, while it seems cool, I don’t think it’s the time for this game, so I’ll shelve it and come back to it at a later date. Right now I’m considering playing going through the Alan Wake games or buckling down and giving Baldur’s Gate 3 a fair shot. Much more likely, I might just spend my time modding the heck out of Resident Evil 4 (2005). Nobodies going to bingo on my watch.
I am, once again, playing Noita.
I have come to really like this game. A lot of it is how the procedurally-generated levels are always interesting, the spells are randomized, so literally every run is different. I also end up killing my wizard in fun, weird ways, like summoning a giga black hole and being sucked into it.
I’m playing Alan Wake 2.
My review of the first game wasn’t too favourable, and if I’m honest, the second game seems to be shaping up similarly despite what I’ve heard about it.
The gameplay in this series isn’t really good. I enjoy the mind palace stuff and how that can change the world and narrative, but it’s also not that hard to sort through. The combat mechanics I don’t consider fun. This is the first game I’ve turned on the easy mode accessibility options for.
Now, the world and narrative and other artistic decisions they’ve done are great and why I’m sticking through it. I just feel like a game should be fun to interact with, which generally I don’t think AW2 has been. Would love to hear others thoughts.
The gameplay in Alan wake 2 is whatever and I also lowered the difficulty to get it out of the way, but the story, and how it unfolds is superbly done, it’s so worth sticking to it. It’s a truly well crafted piece of art. Creative, visually stricking with fantastic atmosphere, great narrative moments, and excellent acting. My only other critique were the puzzles (boring af) and the side content, (unnecessary padding but easily ignored).
Yea, I agree. I’m at the
spoiler
carnival section
right now and I agree with all that you’ve said. Atmosphere, narrative, the set pieces - they’ve made something really intriguing. Unfortunately the actual game aspect of it is so damn boring and pointless.
I was hoping for more since I enjoyed Control so much. I know Alan Wake is a different kind of game than that, but my hope was that they could fix my issues with the first Alan Wake. That is not the case. But I still appreciate the story and other things they’ve done. It kind of reminds me of the first Senua/Hellblade game, but I actually enjoyed the combat in that and the game was like ~5 hours long.
I didn’t finish the second Alan Wake, but I was kind of getting the impression that I was towards the back third or quarter of the game, but like you said, the gameplay didn’t really do too much for me and I eventually just got tired of playing it so I put it down. That being said, I do kind of have a hankering to pick it back up and give it a fair shot, especially with it being spooky season and Remedy being on my mind due to all of the buzz that the Control sequel has gotten.
I borrowed Crimson Desert for the PS from the library this week to see if I’d like it. I really enjoy it & my husband does too. We are gonna watch for deals for the PC so I can mod it.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-reckoning
Got it on sale recently after reading somewhere some time ago it could scratch a similar itch to Skyrim, and I didn’t realize until booting it up it was a cleanup of an old XBox game. Hits that sweet spot between fun, interesting, and juuust familiar enough mechanics-wise to shut my brain off after a long workday.
Highly recommend if you enjoyed the on-rails-ish-but-open-world-ish console feeling of the early 2010s 😄
Oh and it runs frickin beautifully on Steam Deck - 90fps OOB
Slime Rancher
Played it for a few hours and that’s my limit. It a charming game but then it gets too repetitive and grindy for my liking.
I did install Machinarium ready for another platform after many many years :)
Came across Diablo 2 resurrected while hacking my playstation 4. Gotta say, it didn’t need the reboot, I still have my pristine battle box from back in the day and replacing the character select with animation from the 2007 Beowulf movie added absolutely nothing of value.
Damn fun game though, nothing like having an army of skeletons to flood every square inch of the screen.
I’m very slowly playing Valheim again since 1.0 released. Technically “new” but I’ve had it for years.
It seems I can finally play some games without losing interest immediately. Depression sucks.
I’m playing Signalis and I think I’m quite advanced,
spoiler
I’m Nowhere (literally what the game calls that area) and running out of things to do in the area. Not sure whether I missed something or the game just doesn’t want you to have a map of the place, but it’s a bit annoying having to run around without it. Fortunately my memory is still good enough. I have more than 30 revolver bullets plus some rifle ammo and a few grenades for a grenade launcher I still haven’t found. I’m running out of healing objects though.
Also playing Divinity: Original Sin at times.
spoiler
I think I’m level 4 and close to solving the murder case.
The combat is fun and I can see the base upon which Baldur’s Gate 3’s was built.
I also like the sense of humour.
Alright, looks like it’s my turn to be “that guy”, but as a certified, heavily medicated sad boi, I really can’t recommend Souls games enough. They’re tough, but they got me to redefine what success and personal improvement could look like and was slowly able to apply that to other facets of my life.
I am near the end of Signalis (I think, based on how long to beat data) and was also stuck in the nowhere map for way longer than I should’ve. I ran around everywhere looking for the last hexagonal stone for the door and finally had to look up what I missed. I’m not sure how to do spoilers but it ended up being completely obvious what I was overlooking. There was a puzzle that needed some rearranging but I thought I was still missing a piece.
I don’t think I’m stuck yet, although I haven’t found
spoiler
where to put the hexagonal stones.
The hand is wearing 2 rings and I know where there is another, I think I need 4 if I understood the nearby text correctly.
Ocarina of Time
I’ve never gotten this far before. Didn’t realize the back half was so dungeon heavy. I miss the more open world stuff
