What have you all been playing!
I am back on my SMW ROM hack kick. Recently completed a plumber for all seasons. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in ROM hacks. Great traditional style hack with beautiful art
I can’t for the life of me stop playing Rimworld. Man that game is addicting.
I decided to buy a Switch yesterday. Don’t know why. Something piqued my interest to play Nintendo. I bought it with Super Mario Bros. Wonder. It’s fantastic and light and fun and my kid loves it too. I almost regret not buying it on launch. It is such a pleasure to play a cartridge-based game without load times or hearing a fan whirring.
There are definitely load times in that game.
You’re right, but it isn’t like some games I’ve tried with my son on PS4 where is has enough time to go to he toilet while the next level loads.
Minesweeper
I just finished replaying DMC V. After replaying DMC 1 - 4 + DmC in the past 6 months, made me realize that I don’t like playing as Nemo. He feels underpowered at times, and his skillset are kinda boring compared to Dante.
In DMC V, I enjoyed my time playing as Dante and V.
V is a change of pace, being slower and ranged, while Dante has really satisfying moves and weapons. I like Nemo’s robotic arm, but the idea that it’s a consumable and sometimes you might ended up picking up an arm that you are not familiar with, does disrupt the flow. Even his basic swordplay feels kinda lacking.
Isn’t his name Nero? Also I feel like he was meant to be an accessibility gateway for new comers.
I played DMC3 years ago and never really understood the genre. It was fun, but every other game like it felt exactly the same to me. Then Hi-Fi Rush came out this year, and it clicked, so before this year’s releases started really kicking off in summer, I played through DMC1-3 and half of 4. I’ll get back to it soon enough, but I really liked what I played of 4; it was the best one so far, honestly. Were your problems with Nero limited to how he plays in 5, or did that criticism also apply to 4?
IIRC, Nemo was bit unsatisfying to play in DMC4, and the issue kinda exacerbated in DMCV. He feels underpowered compared to others.
I also remember being really frustrated by the platforming for the secret stages in 4.
They are still good games though.
I started GTA V for the first time. Until now it seems pretty funny, even if controls feel clunky
I’m replaying of all things “Spyro” Reignited on Switch - a game that is so much more difficult than people ever admit. I’ve only made it through about half the first game and 60 percent or of the second game - I always have to quit them both because the mid-game boss battles are impossible and the stress makes me physically sick very quickly.
I have no idea what the rest of those first two games actually look like, I could never get that far. I’m battling through the third game (very very difficult game) and hoping I can make it to the end this time (but doubt it). It’s a fun game, but it’s not for casual gamers at all.
Finally finishing Celeste, after not playing it for a couple of years
Lately I’ve been playing Plants vs Zombies, and I was planning on playing Halo Infinite as soon as I can get the campaign to stop crashing when it first loads
Celeste is a wonderfully brutal game. I love the characters and the whole idea behind, “conquer a hard thing just to say I did it.” To be fair, that is what it feels like when climbing mountains or other large rock structures
Plants vs Zombies is the best tower defense game out there. Y’all can fight me on that.
Started Terra Nil today and it’s a lot of fun! I suck at strategy games so even the easy mode made me frustrated lol, but it’s so beautiful and clearing every stage is totally worth it.
I’ve been trying to finish up Backpack Hero, now that, after some meandering, I finally figured out how to progress the story mode. In a game all about UI, it’s kind of impressive how much the UI either isn’t very good or just breaks on a functional level, but the game is very fun. After I finish it, I’ll be heading back to Starfield and Wargroove 2.
Guilty Gear Strive also got a really great new patch, adding Elphelt and addressing some pretty glaring problems with the new mechanics they added. It feels like it’s in the best spot it’s ever been in.
I’ve still been on my Monster Hunter kick as well, playing through Rise’s endgame with my friend. And Lethal Company with my friend group, we got a modded lobby for 6 or so players. It’s been fun being scared together! However my interim games have been lots of indie games I’d be unlikely to play on PC, where the format fits better for the steam deck! I’ve been going through unsupported games since most tend to work.
Revita has been the core one, it’s a nice rogue like with a blend of Hollow Knight style play and The Binding of Isaac rng runs with a killer soundtrack. Highly recommended!
Other than that…
Dark Futures, a part real time part strategy game that revolves in an apocalyptic Twisted Metal style setting. You are a car/caravan taking on missions, it’s very unique and feels pretty 90’s through and through.
The Ascent, which isn’t really my kind of game but it’s a topdown isometric 2.5d (I can never remember the right term for this one) in a cyberpunk setting. It was interesting, I didn’t play much but I may go back to it which is more than I can say for most of that style.
And a small bout with the runner survive style games, Fotonica and Barrier X.
I also got my switch set back up so I briefly was playing Super Mario Maker 2 and F-Zero 99. The story mode for SMM2 was actually a pretty cool concept, and F-Zero 99 was alright. I also checked in on my villagers in Animal Crossing after over a year, they missed me and I had bedhead.
Spent some time with The Ascent, wish I liked it more than I did. I was looking for a good pick-up-and-play game, but the save mechanics in The Ascent are…not clear. If it supported a save anywhere/anytime feature I probably would have gone a lot further.
But never being quite certain where I’d pick back up killed my motivation to play too many times.
Oh shit, if that’s the case then I probably lost my progress! I didn’t get very far and definitely did not learn the save mechanic!
Sounds similar to how I felt for the grab and play and it clicked more than I was expecting but not enough to keep me in it
started a new terraria world and am grinding my way to moon lord again. definitely a comfort game for me.
Witch Spring R
Apparently this is an old series with a few other titles? I had never heard of it before.
Key features: cute tone, anime styled, Japanese/Korean voiceover, 3rd person travel, JRPG turn based fighting, lots of things to grind and craft for making items and upgrading things, visual novel style dialogue, low stress mood while playing
There’s a lot of good about it. Particularly I think the lead Japanese voice actress is good and the overall presentation of how screens transition, the flow of gameplay from section to section (exploration, story, combat, crafting, minigames) are executed well.
I am only about two hours in but I find myself feeling satisfied with just that much play. It’s less of an indictment on the game itself and more me feeling that the game is not personally for me. While the polish is nice and the relaxed feeling to WSR is very pleasant, I prefer stories with more tension and conflict.
Age of Wonders 4
Very nice polish, horrible tutorial, hated it immediately for reasons I am not even sure about. I have played too many 4x games, I guess. It struck me as a game that wasn’t bringing something new to the genre while also not excelling in a specific area either.
If you liked this game, try to sell me on it. I still have it installed and am open to changing my opinion on it.
Diablo 3: Season 29 - Completed the Guardian chapter! Now I have only one more objective/conquest to finish out the season. I was going to try to go for the one of completing the campaign under 1 hour, but I quickly realized I would not be good at that by any means. So I’m working on the one for going through a level 55 greater rift with 6 different set bonuses. Sounds easy enough, but since I usually only use one character per season, I’m having to level up another for their set run.
Diablo 4: Season 2 - Still working on reaching level 90.
Gray Dawn - I’ve played my fair share of bizarre games, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever said “wtf” so many times while playing a game. So much so that I just kind of gave up on trying to figure things out about halfway through and was there for the ride. Before I actually started it, I read it described as a “priest simulator”, and that it did seem to be at times. I’m not really into structured religion, so there were probably a lot of symbolism that went over my head and/or didn’t make sense. (I also got a strange feeling towards the end that I wasn’t actually the target audience? Like this was a horror game, but not for people like me.)
Apparently I got the “good” ending, which didn’t really seem that good at all, so I went and got the bad ending… which was just as much ‘meh’ as the other ending was. Overall, the pacing was a little slow and at times it seemed to drag on at times. Some of the voice acting also left something to be desired, but it wasn’t horrible, and the main redeeming factor is that the imagery was really cool.Rant
Even though some of the imagery isn’t explained? Like there is what looks like a bloody wax child with one eye in a glass case in this dude’s library, and it’s just… never talked about? I mean there’s a lot of things in this game where it’s just, oh something spooky! Satan’s out to get you! Blood and guts, bleh! But like I was sitting there wondering, is this dude just not going to mention it? Has it always been there? If it has, why? If it hasn’t, why isn’t he saying anything about it!
Also there’s a lot of Latin in this game that whenever I tried to look it up it just ended up being lyrics to old metal songs, which in itself is kind of hilarious to me, given the subject and themes of the game.I also did a quick run through the original Dead Space (2008) since I’ll be jumping into the remake soon. I’ve only heard good things, but I’m eager to see for myself how the new one compares, since it’s one of my favorite franchises. I’m stoked that they brought back Isaac’s voice actor from 2 and 3. I can’t imagine anyone else but Gunner Wright as Isaac Clarke.
Still conquering the Old World in “Total War: Warhammer”. I’m playing as Dwarves. I killed almost all greenskin tribes and conquered the Badlands. Now turning my attention north to the undead.
Pikmin 3