Whatcha all playing?
I’ve got a few on my list this week.
Ufo 50 continues to be one of my favorite purchases in a long time. It’s the best collection of games since the orange box imo.
The new Zelda has also been stellar. The frame rate issues are certainly unfortunate, and it may be worth it for some to wait on a more powerful switch 2 to play this title, but I highly recommend checking it out at some point. The game is really creative and the Hyrule you get to explore is super fun imo.
I want to get back to the plucky squire, but these games have kept me busy unfortunately
Been playing lots of The Finals Lately, and recently jumped back into Titanfall 2. Really enjoying the creative gameplay of the Finals, and Titanfall is just so damn good.
I should replay Titanfall 2, that story is so much fun
Is titanfall 2’s multiplayer still active?
Yeah always around 2k online. There was a jump to 5k lately because it was super on sale on steam. I can usually always find a match (anecdotally for me on steam anyways)
Cool that’s good to know, thanks!
Working on a last hurrah for Diablo 4: Season 5, just finishing up max leveling glyphs for my Scorcerer before I completely set it aside for next season.
Right when I was getting bored playing Sims 3 in my current save, my eldest… disappears. I mean, I saw her die, the Grim Reaper showed up and got her, but that means nothing to this buggy mess of a game. She left no tombstone or anything. So, my current save now is now at four generations, due to an adoption. But, I’m at a point where I want to play other stuff, so this game’s going back on the shelf for a while until I need another reset.
Finished Amnesia: The Bunker and managed to get a couple achievements out of it. I might do some serious achievement hunting, but I also kind of want to play a new game, so we’ll see how this week goes.
Darkwood and Disco Elysium, as games recommended by friends. Darkwood scares the crap out of me, maybe because I’m more alert to sounds in general. Disco Elysium is very interesting, but a tad slow, and not as engaging as other games.
Most of ny playtime now is Dark Souls 3. I only played 1 and 2 before, and this is about what I expected, more, slightly better and different Dark Souls. I’ll probably replay it more than DS 2, but that depends, because I might prefer 2’s less linear progression.
Also, still grinding supports I want to see (which is a lot) in Fire Emblem Revelations on bus rides.
I tried darkwood this weekend, and it’s left me torn. I really enjoy certain aspects about it, but I feel like the pacing is weird.
I finished Still wakes the deep the other day and I thought it was ok. It was an interesting environment to explore, but I didn’t think it was all too scary.
I’m off to find a different horror game to play now.
What’s up with Darkwood’s popularity recently? I know Pyrocynical made a video about a week ago, but I started it before that, because of a friend recommended it to me like a month ago. And I think I saw it mentioned elsewhere somehere inbetween too.
I generally don’t play horror games, so Darkwood scares me enough that I only play for maybe half an hour during daytime. Might take a month to get through.
My guess is that people are getting into the Halloween Spooky vibes already! But otherwise, I don’t know. Darkwood was free on Xbox games with gold a long time ago, and I snagged it then, but I just never got around to it until now
LOOOOVED darkwood! It took me a bit to get a feeling for the game, but after I got my daily rhythm I found the gameplay satisfying, tense, and occasionally scary.
Finished Limbo after it was sitting in my library for years and it was really emjoyable. I did not expect to like it as much as I did but the puzzles were all completely doable (
Tap for spoiler
except that one with the minecart and the electric rail grr)
.
Also played through Mouthwashing and was pleasantly disturbed. The lasst 20 minutes get a bit long in the teeth but overall a great experience.
I finished Doom II and some levels were an absolute pain. I gotta say though, this re-release (Doom + Doom II) is a bit disappointing. There are a bunch of glitches, although pretty minor, that are just annoying. The most frustrating one for me was, when you have the Pistol Start option activated (to automatically start all levels with just the Pistol), the Backpack is bugged and doesn’t give double ammo capacity. Once you die and restart the level it’s fixed, until the next level. I don’t know if it ever made the difference with me dying or not, but it just sucks.
Today I started Final Doom, specifically TNT:Evilution, which I’ve never played before. Just like before I’m trying UV, Pistol Start, no mid-level saves, but depending on how it goes I might start using saves. I’ll probably try a different source port though, since this KEX engine port isn’t the best.
I also played through Horizon Forbidden West: The Burning Shores DLC, although only the main quests and almost nothing else. It was kinda meh. The story was fine, but the final boss fight was complete garbage. The romance part also felt really rushed, especially since I went through everything over just two days/seven hours in total.
Then, I’m also kinda in-between games right now, since I’m waiting for the Diablo 4 expansion release in a bit over a week. There are a bunch of games I want to play, but probably won’t finish in time, so they have to wait. I tried Ace Combat 7, played through the first mission, but it didn’t really grab me (KB+M is definitely more playable than the Steam forums made it seem). I’ll probably play through one of the dozens of metroidvanias I bought, but never played.
The new Kex port is great for it’s accessibility for new players not used to the Doom sourceports scene, but I guess there’s still a few kinks to solve. I still end up preferring to play on my other sourceports (Woof! Is my favorite) but I gotta get back to it to actually finish Legacy of Rust later. At least this new port is MUCH better on the console versions now, if only the Switch version had proper access to the player uploaded addons…
In the meantime Ive been going through Freedoom 2, and I hear people are adapting the assets of the new mapping format into an open sourced version. Looking forward to that.
True, how easy it is to get into the games with this port, along with the mod browser, definitely outweighs the few minor issues.
I’ve actually downloaded Woof myself for my Final Doom playthrough. It takes a few minutes to read up on how to create a batch file to make launching the game more user friendly, but once you’re in, it’s has everything you’d want.
There’s even launchers that do the work of the batch files for you! I like using Doom Explorer or Doom Runner for that. You set it up with your ports, point it at your wads folder and then you can save preset combinations of mods, it’s so practical.
Good to know. If I get more into Doom an non-official stuff, I might look at those, but for now the batch file will do.
I made the mistake of starting Frostpunk (1) since I saw that 2 released. It’s an incredibly well-made game. The art style is beautiful, the game is intense, there is a lot of emotion, and it does its one thing just so well. Unlike a lot of modern games these days, Frostpunk wants you to lose, which is fitting for its setting. It sees that you’re behind, then kicks you in the shins for good measure rather than lending a helping hand. I’ve lost so many hours of my time to this game in the past week.
I’ve read that Frostpunk 2 is a completely different game. That one might be next on my list if I get to it before Factorio updates and the expansion for it comes out.
I’m about halfway through FP1 (I have the DLC). I want to go back and finish it, but like you said, it just kicks the shit out of you. It’s legitimately stressful for me to play it, so I’ve kinda been like “Ehhh…do I really wanna play right now?”
But I am hoping to eventually complete it. Because FP2 does look interesting.
This is so strange to hear. I loved Frostpunk, but found it to be the very opposite: Far too easy and forgiving, which made the finale in particular, as the music swells up dramatically and the storm reaches its peak, feel kind of anticlimactic, because everyone was well-fed and warm(ish) in my settlement on my first attempt of playing it. Not one person froze or starved to death, no kids were sent into the mines and we most certainly didn’t serve a 19th century spin on Soylent Green.
I know this sounds like I’m bragging, but I think the reason why this game felt so trivially easy to me is that I grew up with far more complex, challenging and punishing city builders, like Caesar 3, Pharaoh, The Settlers 2, 3 and 4, Anno 1602 and 1503, etc. I must have played many hundreds of hours of Caesar 3 alone, watching city after city succumb to fires, pestilence, barbarians and unrest until I figured out how to deal with these issues. There are so many more variables and difficult decisions in these games compared to Frostpunk, despite their idyllic presentation. Frostpunk’s core city building mechanics suffer from the very idea the narrative and the few scripted decisions aim to avoid: Pretty much every problem the player has to face when building the city has an ideal and obvious solution (if you know your city builders). It’s more of a puzzle game than an actual city builder. A very pretty and atmospheric one, which is why I enjoyed the brief campaign, but still.
I hope this encourages you to pick it up again. It may seem difficult at first glance, but once you figure it out, you can cruise your way through it with little effort and spend most of your time looking at the pretty graphics, waiting for the next scripted event.
So I’ve played a fair amount of the Settler games, as well as the more recent Anno entries: 2070, 2205, and 1800. I find those games super micromanage-y, especially the Anno games. But not stressful. Like in Anno, you can just kinda keep things on autopilot, not doing very much, and things will be OK (though the AIs might start getting stronger).
Anyway, that’s a good take that Frostpunk is more of a puzzle game. I hadn’t considered that. If that’s the case, that might explain some of my, aversion. Because that parallels somewhat an experience I had with another game: Wargroove. I was looking at Wargroove as a TRPG/SRPG (akin to Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics), where I have wide latitude to execute my own strategies. So in Wargroove, I kept trying to do my own thing, but kept losing the level. It took me awhile to realize the game wanted me to complete the level its way, not my way. And that’s when I realized it was more of a puzzle game and less a strategy game. Which is weird, because I played Advance Wars as a kid. Though maybe it’s because I was a kid I didn’t realize it was a puzzle game at the time.
It might be with Frostpunk that I’m doing something similar. Expecting a colony manager, a la Banished, but not seeing the puzzle game aspect. I’m making those narrative decisions based on nothing logical. Rather emotional: “Oh these kids are gonna starve! I better do this instead of helping the workers!”
Thanks for this; this was helpful, for real!
For what it’s worth, I feel the same way about normal settings for FP1 in that it’s pretty easy. Switching to extreme though, it felt as though I needed to play perfectly to finish a scenario. To me, I think it comes down to most of the difficulty being frontloaded. A solid start sets you up for the rest of the game, while a rough start can ruin a run as the game continues to kick you down with every temp drop, event, etc.
Finished Deus Ex: Human Revolution last week, and I while i enjoyed it I didn’t want to jump into Mankind Divided right away. It was a fine game but I felt like going back for more straight away might make me burn out.
Decided instead to finally get through Metro: Last Light. I really enjoyed 2033, but when I started LL right after I just couldn’t get into it. This time it’s going better and I’m having a good time playing it - very immersive on Ranger Hardcore. I still prefer the first game so far though, I think. Still not thrilled about the way checkpoint saving interacts with the moral points system (you sometimes have to sit for minutes on end rewatching the same conversation), but it’s not enough to completely sour me on it. Looking forward to eventually getting to Exodus.
Also playing some Deadlock games, though despite loving the game I’m already noticing it’s not always great for my mood.
Mostly random indie titles, such as nova drift, rollscape, and peglin.
Nova drift and peglin both recently came out of early access, both are rogue lite games that offer unique scenarios each time you play, one is a top down shmup with loads of customizations and interesting builds to try out, the other being a bit of a deck builder with interesting setups to keep the ball bouncing.
Rollscape is a relaxing random number generator with some decision making guesses along to the way to attempt to get further. It’s way too random to be truly skill based, but knowing more of the game does diminish a bit of the random.
On mobile it has been egg, inc. and idle cave miner.
Egg, inc. used to be a very player friendly idle incremental game that offered years of play time in a very relaxed setting. It didn’t require spending money on it unless you really wanted to speed things up… Until a bit ago when they took away one mission a week, which was the catch up mission players kind of need to progress and locked it behind a subscription service. I’m still playing because as much as I don’t appreciate that change, I’ve been playing long enough that I don’t need the catch up mission. I still don’t suggest it for new players though.
Idle Cave Miner is a basic incremental idle game, you set your little dudes to mine a cave and see how deep they can get. It does have a bunch of micro transactions, including premium characters that probably mine harder than the rest. I don’t really care about that though. Spending money really isn’t needed on this one, but since it’s a single dev and I’d rather not deal with ads, I’m happy to toss a few bucks to remove those and help out.
Otherwise, I’ve been enjoying helldivers 2 every couple days to keep the medals rolling in, and the samples collected. The latest patch has been quite game changing. It’s nice to have more options to handle the opponents, but I finally had to change armors as my paper thin light armor wasn’t doing the job it had been from previous versions of the game
Resident Evil 1 for the first time. The voice acting is very silly.
Don’t oPen that door!
Chris is our old partner ya knoow.
Currently? Potionomics. I just wanted something that I can finish quickly, because of the upcoming release of House of Light, but now I am still not done with my play-through, so I kinda cannot start House of Light just yet.
But in a couple of days, as soon as I am done with Potionomics?
House of Light. And that for quite some time, I expect.
Lorn’s Lure - This game absolutely enthralled me over the past 2 weeks. It’s a parkour/exploration game, one developer, and it’s just so well designed. Punches way over it’s price for $15.
The maps are these enormous sprawling runes of an ancient machine, and there so much to find and see in each level. Then after beating the game you can go back with all upgrades and there are so many new paths, new secrets. There’s this special feeling when a developer adds so much in just for their love of the game. Things that don’t unlock new content, don’t satisfy any goals, just more fun and interesting stuff to look at and play around in, if you want. Then you get to the last level and it’s such an emotional peak. It’s like the dev spent 7 chapters just teaching us, preparing the player for the final level, and then doesn’t hold anything back.
AND it relates to both Hatch and Kill the K.O.T.H., Hatch specifically could be a lesson in pacing, I recommend that as well for anyone interested.
I feel like I’m ranting but I just want to talk about this game so much. The game is basically linear, but if you find a random hidden path you’re rewarded with a tiny bit of environmental storytelling. If you work your way off the main path, you find entire sections of jump challenges that have no purpose to the game. It’s like the game is saying “Look at this thing I built! Come jump around for a while!”
Echoes of Wisdom
Making my way through Like a dragon: Infinite wealth Loving it so far, and think this might actually be the first Yakuza/LAD game I finish, always got distracted in the past.
Cult of the Lamb - Got this for my birthday from my buddy and it’s been very solid. I see why the reviews hype this game up; it’s a weird rpg with base building elements and that’s right up my alley. I’ve been playing it on the steam deck with a conservative power profile and it’s been a lot of fun.
Tactics Ogre Reborn - I’m a FF Tactics fan and I was told this game would scratch the itch. So far I can say it’s at got a captivating story. It’s great that my choices matter in this game and that character development is based on those choices. The gameplay is familiar and fluid. The AI also seems to scale well with the difficulty setting. I’d say fans of FF Tactics should definitely pick this up.
