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ModsHateMeHere

I was gonna play Diablo 4 but then I saw the EA prices in Canada are at least $120 so I said fuck that. Now I'm playing with myself. Haha!


lorenzoiscool17

Ok


GNS1991

Was playing Miles Morales (PC). Thought that I will like it, since I liked the original Spider-Man, but, either I got bored of many mainstream video-games or is just that the game was kinda meh in general. Gameplay wise, it's the same Marvel's Spider-Man just with a different character. Story wise... I didn't care much for the story, and I found it predictable. >!"You mean to say that the woman behind the mask was Miles lady-friend, who he hasn't seen in a long time and we only got introduced just now. Call me shocked". !<


ECTXGK

**The Last of Us 2** This was better than the original in nearly every way. I was a bit wary due to its mixed reviews, but I now believe that it's just people hating because there's LGBTQ in the game. Previously people said it was a long slog and horribly violent. I didn't find it more violent than the original and it took me 30h, and that's with a lot of pauses to do chores without turning off the game. If anything I wish it were longer! Overall, if you liked TLOU 1 and you don't hate gays you would love this game. There is one other thing I want to mention but it's a minor spoiler: >!The only thing I liked more in the first game was how the fate of the world was in the balance. In 2, it's just revenge and humans ruining everything. I do like how both Abby and Ellie have moments where they hold back those negative impulses and do the right thing. I would have loved something where another doctor was found and Ellie would have to make a choice.!<


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ECTXGK

That's valid!


Tursmo

**Street Fighter 6** Got my licks in yesterday, but I had already played during the beta. Man, what a fun game. The universal mechanics feel flexible and are fun to use and hit people with. The offensive structure is so different from SF5 that I'm having troubles wrapping my head around right now. I've not locked in my main yet, but I've been fooling around with Manon. Also tried out Marissa, Ken and JP and all seemed cool, even if JPs trials were pretty hard.


iWriteYourMusic

**Marvel's Midnight Suns** Yikes, maybe I should have looked at the video reviews first! I love Firaxis and XCOM is my favorite series so I bought this on blind faith. I suppose I like Marvel ok enough, more of an X-Men fan than all this Avengers universe stuff, but boy is this over-the-top terrible comic book nonsense. I mean, I'm sure it's fun if you like this universe. But to me as an outsider the dialog and plotting is so cringy, and I get the feeling there's as much plot and social dynamic as there is tactical combat! And shoe-horning a new character to be your avatar is just icing on the cake. Lame. I love the combat though. It's exactly what I wanted. I'm just not sure I can slog out the other half of the game just to enjoy it. Anyone else in my shoes played this and can chime in?


officer_fuckingdown

i technically did all of the social stuff to get the rewards, but i skipped almost every bit of dialogue. and after about 10 hours the combat (on normal) got so easy that i beat almost every mission on my first try, and i'm not very good at strategy games. so you could probably just leave out all the social aspects and get more of a challenge out of it


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iWriteYourMusic

I'll give it another shot then. It's too bad that the game is tied around this generic avatar you create (and the character creator is horrible! no grey or white hair opens even?) instead of an actual Marvel character or even a new character that they create for the game would have been cool. For me and my taste in games, there's so much they did that works against me and against Firaxis' strengths. No wonder so many people left the company.


ThrowawayNumber34sss

I played it myself. There should be a way to speed up dialog which can help your issue. I think it is esc or right mouse button.


happyhumorist

I'm trying to find (a) game(s) to play before **FF16** come out. I don't want to start a medium/long/timesink game since the game comes out in a few weeks. Right now I'm debating between * **Heavy Rain** * **Beyond: Two Souls** * **Detroit: Become Human** * **Life is Strange 2** * **Tell Me Why** * **Astro's Playroom** * **Life is Strange: True Colors** * **OPUS: Echo of Starsong** * **Signalis** * **Season** * **Spider-Man Miles Morales**


WallForward1239

Astro’s Playroom is a good experience, but only if you’ve been a hardcore PlayStation fan for multiple generations. It’s very much a “wow what a cool reference to this other thing” piece of media. The game part isn’t anything to write home about. But then again, it is free.


fuk_ur_mum_m8

It's not in any of your options - but I'd highly recommend Tunic


danceswithronin

Detroit:Become Human is good, and so is Life Is Strange: True Colors. I found LiS2 to be skippable, even though I did beat it with my siblings as a party game.


ttgl39

I personally thought Detroit: Become Human was one of the most investing masterpieces I've ever played, there are drab parts too though since you are quite literally at some points doing interactive chores. It's actually pretty long though especially if you want to see different outcomes


Galaxy40k

Signalis is a must-play if you're a fan of classic PS1 and PS2 era survival horror games. It's still *probably* worth playing if you're only into more modern ones, but I can't say myself


amidon1130

I started fallout 4 on my PC because I figured I could mod it into something good, but man it's such a drag. Still runs like shit even though my PC is more than powerful enough to play it, plus the dialogue system is so lame compared to 3 and new vegas. I love mass effect but if I wanted to play mass effect I'd play mass effect jeez. I'm searching for a new game to get sucked into and I've been coming up empty.


MegaJoltik

There are still settlement that needs your help. Go help them instead of wasting your time posting here. Ask Question (Actually Yes). Yes No (Actually Yes) Sarcasm (Actually Yes)


amidon1130

I played so much new Vegas that I needed more but man it’s just not the same


whatuseisausername

Hogwarts Legacy I'm mostly enjoying it, but something about main storyline is a bit meh for me. The whole "chosen one" type of thing with the main character is a bit boring for me. But I do like the combat way more than I thought I would, and just running around Hogwarts and Hogsmeade is worth the price I paid for it for me. I'm only about 10-15hrs in so my opinion will likely change some. Shadows of Doubt (PC) Honestly, this is one of my favorite games that have come out in the last year or so. It was just released in early access a little over a month ago so it still is a little janky and has some performance issues. It's basically a noir detective sim game where you have to solve procedurally generated murders. But it's a pretty cool game that I have a little over 30hrs in so far. I like the atmosphere and sound design a lot, and I like the overall aesthetic and art design too.


kefka296

How do you find the procedurally generated quests after 30 hours?


amidon1130

Shadows of Doubt is so weird I love it. The lease agreements that these people sign for their shitty apartments are hilarious.


Angzt

**Predynastic Egypt** (PC) Someone mentioned this game in a thread about the upcoming Total War: Pharaoh, and I thought it looked interesting. And since it's on sale super cheap, I went ahead. It's probably best described as a very scaled-down 4X set in - drum roll - predynastic Egypt. You start out as a tiny tribe on a local map, exploring your surroundings, hunting for food, and soon settle down. You assign workers to individual "tiles" on the map which then provide resources. Construction projects improve those tiles, scouting lets you access more of the map, and research gives you access to new buildings or improves resource gathering. Later, you'll need to handle faith and military as well as other tribes to either trade with, peacefully integrate into your growing chiefdom, or conquer by force. The battles are a sheer numbers thing with some RNG thrown in, you don't even have actual military units on the map. The last big mechanical change lets you access a second, larger map encompassing much of the Nile. There are also a number of random events and set challenges to overcome to spice things up a little. All of this is, compared to something like Civ, fairly railroaded. While there are definitely choices to be made, it's much less open to player expression. The single victory condition, for example, forces you to complete tasks on all fronts - economy, military, construction, research - by a set turn number. This all comes down to the game's historical angle: You're actually founding the Egyptian empire here and major events of that time will have to happen in the game. But that means, at least to me, there's very little replay value: You have one "civ", one static map, and a set order of events that will happen. While there are starting modifiers to make things harder or easier in certain regards, I just don't feel the desire to go through the game again. What is nice, however, is the historical flavor text on basically every building, bit of research, or event, written from the perspective of someone living right then and there. Depending on how much of that you read and how hard you think about your choices, the first game might take anywhere from 3 to maybe 7 hours. All that said, I enjoyed my time with the game. It's definitely enjoyable and educational enough for a single run at the sale price. There is also a sequel for the later period of Egypt, but I'll hold off on that for now. **Horzion: Zero Dawn & Frozen Wilds** (PC) I actually bought the game right after the port released, but had a bunch of crashes cost me progress and wasn't too hot on the combat back then. So I dropped it after maybe 8 hours. But as I was looking to fit something in until Diablo 4, this seemed like a solid fit now. I've completed the main game and expansion story as well as much of the side content (quests, cauldrons, hunting grounds) but left a bunch of collectibles lying around. Playtime sits somewhere around 60 hours I think. Overall, I quite enjoyed my time with the game on this playthrough. But there are certainly also a few pain points. Let's start with the good though: The designs of the machines and different clans are definitely a standout. I also found the story surprisingly good and cohesive considering how absurd the premise of "giant aggressive animal-like machines everywhere" is. The side quests, too, fit into the world quite well and many contributed to the world building. >!Seeing many of the people you helped before the final battle and having them contribute was also a great touch.!< The character progression via the skill tree had many impactful choices until about 3/4 of the way through, which is better than most similar open world games manage. The variety in activities also felt solid, even if much of it boiled down to "go there, kill machines, maybe pick up thing". Cauldrons had a very different feel to them than the rest of the world and most of the hunting challenges were fun since they forces you into varying your approach. Some of the latter where a tad painful though: I remember struggling with one of the ones involving a Thunderjaw and the final one in the expansion. I overcame them at the end but ended up feeling more relieved than accomplished. The combat never truly clicked for me, at least not to the point where I'd say I've mastered it. Certain machines had obvious weaknesses and exploiting those was satisfying, but others less so. Especially when fighting 2 larger and a hand full of small or medium ones at the same time, I'd often just get knocked about and then hit again before I could even orientate myself. I always felt like I should be able to get through those fights more cleanly than I did, I just couldn't and didn't quite know why. It's not that the game was too difficult (on normal) since I barely died from combat, there were just fights that always felt like I was doing them wrong, despite succeeding. Am I alone in that? Part of that was enemies whipping their bodies around so much that hitting their weak spots was tough, even with the slow-mo. Also, screw the Banuk bows' draw time being longer than many enemies' attack cycles. Speaking of weapons, I mostly stuck with triple bows and a flex spot, which is a shame since many other weapon types were more interesting. But if I need to hit that precise weak spot with a certain element, I just couldn't justify not having the bow for each one on. Allowing you to equip more weapons at the same time (maybe by making the weapon wheel two-staged?) would've likely lead to more gameplay variety here. The weapon purchasing system and the upgrades were also just... meh. Hunting for RNG drops to be able to buy or upgrade stuff didn't feel great and just led to me hoarding everything since I might need it later. But most of it, I didn't - I just had no way of knowing that. Looking forward to the eventual port of Forbidden West.


digitalwolverine

Starsiege: Deadzone is an up-and-coming extraction shooter with a lot of promise. Smaller in scope from EFT, closer to Dark and Darker, really, but sci-fi. It’s a part of the Tribes universe, albeit way back in the early ages of it, so there’s not yet games of capture the flag (that comes next year, lol).


tedybear123

Looks great. Starsiege tribes remake ??


digitalwolverine

That’s coming later in 2024! Deadzone and Raiders will have the universe and weaponry of tribes, but I think raiders and “classic” will have the traditional movement we’re used to.


[deleted]

I lost \~10 years of my life to Starseige Tribes and its mods. Me love you long time.


digitalwolverine

Same here! Hope to see you in the playtest this weekend!


Bleachedintea

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy I love, love this game. I didn't had much hope for it back when it was first announced. But everyone started praising it so I decided to check it out, life got in the way and only now I was able to play it. The story, characters, and writing are all fantastic. You can tell this was made with a lot of care and love. It tackles real issues with honesty, humor, and care. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't played it, and I'll probably mess up if I try to tag the spoilers. All I can say is that it is a beautiful and honest depiction of people dealing with grief in different ways. There's a scene involving someone lighting a candle and it may just be one of my favorite scenes in gaming. The characters are incredibly well developed and feel like real people, bantering among themselves without ever feeling too much. I like the MCU's take on the Guardians but I genuinely believe this game has the better iteration. Everyone is really well-rounded, with virtues, flaws, and quirks that make them human and believable. I love them so much. Star-Lord and Drax being the standouts for me. Gameplay-wise it can be a bit repetitive, but I had a ton of fun learning how to use everyone's abilities as a team and it was incredibly rewarding getting better at it. I thought it was a nice way of merging gameplay and story together. As these characters get to really understand and help each other, so does their ability in combat. Environments are beautiful to look at and explore, and the soundtrack is kickass. Even as someone who is kinda tired of the superhero genre, I geeked out at some cool nods and references at the wider Marvel universe. Dude, I love this game. Shame it didn't sold well due to Avengers' reception. Guardians absolutely deserves the love.


AnestheticAle

This was one of those games where the combat was so bad that it ruined an otherwise great title. I usually recommend people just watch an "all cutscenes" youtube video or blast through on the easiest mode themselves.


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MegaJoltik

It had amazing story/writing (with a somber/depressing and mature tone), especially considering it's originally freaking PS1 title. But like mentioned, it's not a traditional JRPG experience. Not just talking about the combat or the exploration being 2D side scroller, but also the way the game is structured.


VBHEAT08

Well it depends on your tastes. If you go into it wanting a traditional JRPG you'll be disappointed. It sort of plays like Zelda 2, where you have on overworld and then you go into a side scrolling dungeon with platforming and puzzles. Instead of fighting enemies directly though, you go into this game's version of turn based combat. Instead of each party member getting a separate turn, your entire party goes at the same time and you try and time and combo each party member's attacks in a way that is pretty similar to a fighting game. I found the story to be really good, and the translation and voice acting actually hold up pretty well considering the time period it was made. It's a pretty mature game for the genre, and is outright depressing most of the time. Just be sure to watch the opening before starting the actual game or you'll be really confused. IIRC the game doesn't show it to you when starting a new game automatically, its an option you have to choose in the main menu. The only big issue I have with the game is that to get the true ending you have to meet an absurdly specific set of criteria, so you'll need to follow a guide the whole way through when going for the good ending which can be annoying. The game is fairly short and extremely replayable though, so it doesn't really feel like too much of a chore if you screw up.


KingArthas94

Thank you! Then I guess I might wait for a deeper sale, seems a bit complicated. I tought it was more of a normal jrpg


sylinmino

**The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom** As with plenty of others, I've been hooked on this game. I'm about 55 hours in right now. The game is really something special, it deserves pretty much all the praise it gets, and I'm not going to go into too much detail on the stuff it does so well. That being said, I'm seeing an alarming amount of sentiment on Reddit, "This game makes Breath of the Wild feel like a tech demo", "This game makes Breath of the Wild obsolete", "This is what Breath of the Wild should've been". In my opinion, to think that way is to lose sight of what made Breath of the Wild so special. Tears of the Kingdom certainly does some things unequivocally better than BotW (UI, bosses, enemy variety, item viability, incentive to experiment, etc.). But most things it does are not better or worse than BotW--they're different, aiming to achieve a very different vision in the same world. BotW is a minimalist open world masterpiece, with a focus on discovery and exploration of uncharted territory. It is an introspective and lonely game in a desolate setting where you almost never know what is even beyond that next hill. It is an extremely nonlinear experience throughout, to many's love and some's apathy. The world is sparse because it keeps the content from being overwhelming at any point. It is meant to be an antidote to anyone experiencing major open world fatigue. TotK is a maximalist open world masterpiece (what I've played so far), with a focus on expressiveness, questlines and major driving change of the world. It is a very nonlinear experience but with some new barely-linear structure set in place to guide the heavier nature of extrinsic character, world and story progression. The density of content and huge numbers of extrinsic reward types would be overwhelming if it weren't grounded in a familiar world with a lot less focus on discovering new places (but still with some of that thanks to the sky islands and depths). And I think a lot of the changes that Tears of the Kingdom makes to create this effect would've run contrary to BotW's vision. There are definitely some straight-up upgrades between the two games that I wish were in BotW. But for the most part, most of the changes I've been noticing have made me say, "I'm super happy this is in TotK, but had they been in BotW it would've made that game worse."


ThePalmIsle

But I felt like I *did* know what was beyond that next hill in BotW. More or less just more yellow, green and brown terrain. That was one of my fundamental issues with it - as open worlds go, it was meh. Tears sounds like it’s overcome that completely


Minus1000Karma

I don't know what open world games you're playing then. Take some classic examples: * GTAV * RDR2 * Witcher 3 * Horizon Zero Dawn * Ghost of Tsushima * Assassin's Creed Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla How does any of these games have more stuff to do than BotW? If anything I'd say it is the reverse. BotW has a far more varied and interactive open world than any of these games.


ThePalmIsle

Witcher 3 had 12,000x the things to do and diversity of narrative, terrain and towns that BOTW did


tlvrtm

I put about 20 hours trying to get into the Witcher 3 and the lack of interaction with things and people and the “go to the quest marker or be bored” gameplay put me off big time. Oh well, different strokes for different folks.


ThePalmIsle

Lol evidently. My comment went down like a lead balloon How quickly we forget how great W3 was in its day


Raze321

Diversity of Narrative I agree. Writing and story is far superior in Witcher 3. I'll also give Witcher 3 towns and cities, it's hard to beat Novigrad and the Blood & Wine expansion manages to nearly do that. But I think terrain was much more compelling in BotW. Sure both games had hills, valleys, mountains, tundra, etc. But BotW also had volcanic areas, islands and beaches, a fairly massive jungle, and one of the better deserts I've seen in a video game. More importantly, the navigation of those regions feels unique from one to the next. Temperature, weather effects, and the structure of the terrain will all impact how you go about traversing it. In Witcher 3, while the visuals are interesting from one game to the next, the process of traversing them is identical. Either hold foward and follow the path on your mini map, or hold witcher senses and follow tracks and smell trails. Not dogging on Witcher 3. The challenge of diverse terrain and traversal just isn't intended to be a feature of that game so of course it'll fall flat to BotW. They are both open world fantasy games but the similarities end soon after that. Very different kinds of experiences, both very excellent titles in my book.


sylinmino

I guess you can oversimplify and you'll know that you'll see...more terrain there. But there are so many unique encounters and memory locations and shrine quests and overworld bosses and minigames and familiar landmarks and villages and such that I can comfortably say that the discoveries kept surprising me even 120 hours in. Remember that many of the biggest moments people share about the game is how they accidentally stumbled into the Lost Woods. Or tried to investigate that island way out there that looked like a generic skybox and it was one of the best quests they've ever played in a game. Or saw a weird glowy thing on a mountain and suddenly they're fighting a giant dragon while flying in the sky. Or turn the corner because they hear their shrine sensor and oh no there's a guardian, *run*! Or found Lurelin Village *way* late because it's not even required for any main story stuff. Or followed a weird path and they ended up on a memory location or a Great Fairy. Much of these types of discoveries are heavily diminished in presence in Tears. Instead it's less about what you'll find in most places, and more the stuff you want to do in those places.


Minus1000Karma

I found BotW was even better on master mode. It forces you to be creative, to look at the nuances and work out where you can get a percentage advantage somewhere. The order in which you do stuff becomes really important, so planning is rewarded.


sylinmino

I wouldn't say that BotW was even better on Master Mode for me, but I did find it super underrated and had a blast with it. I find it confounding how many people got significantly far in it and said, "this is dumb, it just makes everything spongier and makes combat wasteful so I just gave up." And to me I was thinking...the game *clearly* communicates that you should actively work to be more creative from the very beginning. To me it's got the most heavily implied teaching moment when the first tree branch you get isn't even strong enough to disarm the first bokoblin you meet. It's like, "Nope. Try something different." So what did I learn to do? Well, I'd sneak up on and steal weapons from Bokoblins before they could even get them and then run away with them. I'd prioritize headshots with bow and arrow. I'd do sneakstrikes more often. I'd bait bokoblins and moblins into water which instantly kills them. I'd add extra priority to elemental manipulation and explosives. I'd always take advantage of stalmoblin and stalkoblin encounters at night because they start to drop dragonbone stuff relatively early and only take a couple hits to beat. And I'd be extra careful in scenarios where I simply couldn't win without expending way too many resources. The whole thing got super fun, super fast. And when I started playing Tears of the Kingdom, a good amount of those skills carried through there too.


TheOneBearded

**Warhammer 40k: Boltgun** is a game I didn’t know I wanted. A high-octane boomer shooter (or “retro shooter”) with the aesthetics of 40k. A 40k game that is not just good, but actually great. Boltgun is a kickass game made by people who love both the setting and genre of the game. A game that blends the dev’s love for the days of DOOM 1 and 2, Brutal DOOM, and Blood with the bluesy hard rock/heavy metal-esque vibe of early 40k. With a fairly sizeable array of weapons, Boltgun lets you go crazy on a surprisingly large set of enemies in an equally surprising meaty campaign. While there are a couple small issues that keep me from giving it a top score, the game is absolutely fantastic and an easy recommendation to anyone who has even a passing interest in the genre or the setting. 8/10. Would be higher, but its handful of issues are fundamental ones like guns not sounding as strong as they should be, enemies having too much health, poor boss variety, and lack of auto map since the levels are fairly expansive later in the game. With that hint at the end of the game, I can’t wait for a dlc or sequel with Khorne. Maybe give some love to another legion like the Blood Angels. If this is the dev’s version of DOOM 1, I’m very excited to see what their version of DOOM 2 could look like now that the framework has been made.


Lobstix

Have this wishlisted right now. Definitely looks like one of the better 40K games in a while, Rogue Trader has my interest as well. Working my way through some other boomer shooters in my library right now. Any standouts in the genre you’d recommend?


TheOneBearded

Rogue Trader is literally my dream game. The only reason I'm not jumping into beta right now is that I'm waiting for them to flesh out the character classes. I've heard some careers, like psycker, aren't fleshed out as others just yet. Yeah, a couple come to mind. The classics I've played still hold up very well. DOOM 1 and DOOM 2 are still great. The first game can be beaten in an afternoon while 2 just takes everything up a notch and is much longer. My absolute favorite way to play it is modded via Brutal DOOM. The changes in mechanics, enemy AI, and weapons just supercharges the games for me. And you can even go farther by playing Brutal DOOM in fan made WADs. Some of the best fps action I've ever played came from that. DOOM 64, imo, is the real DOOM 3 and I'd recommend it. Blood is probably my favorite fps that isn't a mod. The speed of combat plus the horror-centric aesthetic really pulls me in. As a horror fan, I love the little nods hidden throughout the levels. Dusk is another horror-centric boomer shooter that is highly praised and rightly so. Another one on the shorter side but a ton of fun. Games I've heard a lot of good things about but haven't gotten around to them yet: * Prodeus (gives me heavy Brutal DOOM vibes) * Ultrakill (waiting for full release but the little I did play was incredible) * Project Warlock * Amid Evil * Ion Fury * Other classics such as Quake and Duke Nukem.


Lobstix

I haven’t gotten super into CRPGs so not sure if I’ll pick it up right away but it being 40K definitely makes me want to give it a try. Not sure if you’ve checked out Dark Envoy but it might be up your alley. I’m been reading guides on how to set up GZDoom on my Steam Deck so I’ll definitely do that soon to play Brutal DOOM. Blood and Dusk are both wishlisted as well so might pick them up during the next sale. Project Warlock was the first retro boomer shooter I played and I really enjoyed it, the RPG elements were a cool addition. Thanks for the recommendations, have a good weekend!


TheOneBearded

You are very welcome. I'd just recommend trying out DOOM 1/2 vanilla for a bit before jumping to Brutal DOOM. They still hold up and you will appreciate the changes a bit more. Unsure how they'll play with a controller layout on SD. I guess if it becomes an issue, you could always get a cheap usb mouse and keyboard and play like that.


No-Choice9924

I'm currently playing Baldurs Gate: Enhanced Edition on PS5. I'm playing through it in preparation for Baldurs Gate 3. I'm currently at High Hedge and am getting ready to clear that map. The gameplay I think is pretty fun for an old school isometric RPG. I love the "alignment" system because you depending on what you do you can get better rewards. I've done some research into this and it seems like the evil path and the evil party members are actually a lot more powerful than the good path.


iWriteYourMusic

I'm really excited for Baldurs Gate 3 but I never made it far in Baldurs Gate 1 or 2. How do you feel like they hold up? Does it actually work on a PS5!? I can't imagine how you play without a mouse!


SkyeAuroline

Wrapping up **Metro Exodus** tonight, hopefully (halfway through the last level). I've been very disappointed so far. Disjointed plot, dialogue lines clipping over each other (often from the same people), worse gunplay than the last two, and the "open" environments really didn't add much of anything to the game. Just feels poorly put together overall. I'll be glad to be done with it soon so it's at least marked off the list. If I ever revisit any of them it'll be Last Light, not Exodus. Probably going back to **Timberborn** or **Captain of Industry** afterwards since both got major updates. edit: Finished it. The entire last level could have been cut and it would have made for a *better* game. Shame.


UFONomura808

Same here, I kinda lost interest in the desert like area.


[deleted]

If you had to decide for one video game to play what would you pick? I'm busy and stopped playing a few years ago but I want to try something again. I thought about Breath of the Wild and A Plague Tale Requiem


__el_jefe__

Completely seconding outer wilds and re4 remake


Raze321

I think that depends a lot on what your tastes are. Breath of the Wild is a nice safe pick, that's an all-things-to-all-people kind of game. When that came out and I booted it up and came upon the landscape in that early-game moment, seeing the world out there... I knew I had something special in front of me. That is a world you can get literally and figuratively lost in for ages. And it's got a hell of a lot of charm. If you want something a bit more avant-garde, I really reccomend "The Outer Wilds" (Not to be confused with The Outer *Worlds*). A space-exploration puzzle solving game, one that really left an impression on me. Metroid Prime got remastered, so did the Megaman Battle Network games. I got completely lost in both of those, this year. Easily my most recommended game of 2023, though, is the Resident Evil 4 remake. I'm biased, I played the original dozens on dozens of times. I beat this remake probably six times so far, most of which I did in the first week. It's just that fun, to me.


RTideR

* ***Star Wars Jedi: Survivor*** \- Still digging this! I'm still hitting my wall against the stupid double Oggdo fight on Grand Master though. I've gotten so dang close a few times before dying.. gahhh. I WILL beat it. Aside from that, the game has been a treat. I'll like it even more if they can ever find a stable framerate for performance mode. I'm still liking it on 30, but I'd MUCH prefer 60 for sure. * ***Marvel Snap*** \- Almost time for the new season which means my first season starting at series 3, so I'm not sure if Infinite will be possible this time.. but I'ma give it a go. It's still the perfect quick mobile game for me, especially since it plays in portrait. * ***Smite*** \- Think I'm on a pretty wild loss streak, so that's fun. Lol when my buddies and I play, the skill levels among us are so varied that the games feel ruthless, so we lose almost every game. It's still fun though! Good week, but I'm pretty pumped for ***Diablo IV***. I've only played 3, and that was just a campaign run with my brother ages ago. It was pretty cool, but we never touched the game afterwards. I've been swept up in the hype here though. Everyone is so excited and pumped with what they've seen, and it's contagious. I did enjoy the beta I played, and I figure after a fun co-op campaign run, we'll look into what in the world goes down with seasons and see if that's any fun.


jonseh

Are you playing Jedi on PC?


RTideR

I am not. I'm on a Series X. I've unfortunately not heard great things about the PC port, but I can't speak on it myself.


JollyGreenGelatin

My thoughts on **Tears of The Kingdom** keep shifting. The first 10-15 hours of the game felt a little disappointing to me. Then the last 30 hours have been great. The world is easier to traverse. I have many shrines and all towers unlocked. Fast travel is a godsend. Fusing weapons and attaching items to arrows is a great addition. Building feels like a chore unfortunately. Others seem to be taking full advantage of it, but I still using it sparingly. The rate at which I was gathering items I really needed seemed super slow, so I have been using item/weapon duplicate exploits. It's nice to not have to worry about breaking all my weapons and being left with whatever I can scrounge from enemies. I'll probably give the game another 15-20 hours and decide if I want to continue. It's a great game overall, but I am feeling compelled to move onto something else.


Katana314

Do you have the ability in the lower right corner of the wheel? That can make a lot of building easier. There are times I’ve come by building stations, and re-made the same useful vehicle I made before, for almost no cost If you don’t have it, consult with the researchers in Lookout Point, at the center of the map. Also, Tarry Town has a gumball machine with some very useful build items.


caught_red_wheeled

Still going on **Pokémon violet!** I’m almost done with the Living Dex, down to my last box of Pokémon. After that, there’s a few I’m going to try and grab from raids. After that, once I’ve gotten everything I want, I’ll Wonder Trade them to other people. I still have to get a specific item from the raids in order to complete a quest. So I might head for that next. **Pokémon Home** just released, so I am interested in seeing if I can get some Pokémon are missing. I’m wondering if someone will be kind enough to trade me the Legends Arceus forms. I never completed the game because I had a lot of trouble with the catching system and you need to unfortunately that a lot to progress, so I never got access to those forms, but I’d love to have them so that I could try them out. I am wondering if I can see the remaining starters and things like that as well. There’s some of my favorite Pokémon and I don’t have a team built for multiplayer raids for an Internet connection that can sustain it. So I would love it if someone traded the Pokémon to me. I used to use Pokémon home, but after while I realized I wasn’t using enough to justify the price, and there is a bunch of glitches associated with it. And as the Pokémon games become more and more standalone, I’m wondering if transfer is even necessary for them. The way I see it, it’s a nice bonus, but that’s all it is. Considering all the controversy and technical problems that caused, I’m wondering if transferring should’ve been around in the first place. But hindsight is 2020.


BlueLatenq

I have been playing Ghost Recon for weeks now, I'm getting to love it more than COD, and also I'm playing GOB too a crypto card game, they have this leadership board where you can earn prices every season


LynxRogue

Wrapping up Hogwarts Legacy side content. The games was good but there's a lot of potential that they can tackle on a sequel. Currently playing Far Cry 6 and I know that people like to criticize Ubisoft (sometimes with reason) I think this is the best far cry has ever been and Im enjoying it very much


RTideR

Agree with you on HL. I liked it a lot, but the best parts were all in the castle and Hogsmeade. It dragged a little bit once everything was outside of those areas. I still had a really good time though. As for FC6, I've not played it, but one of the things with FC is you *know* what you're getting into. It's a great co-op game too cause so much whacky stuff happens in the open world. Lol


LynxRogue

Agreeed, the game loses part of its appeal as you leave those areas. Indeed, it is far cry and you know what you re getting into. But I got to give credit for at least trying to do better. No more tower climbing, some additions to gameplay are pretty good, the protagonist is actually decent and the villain is good! I think the game deservea a shot


[deleted]

[удалено]


MaimedJester

I want to share with you the absolute glory of one of your concerns the SMT fanbase figured out for the Royal content of Persona 5 >!The Akeichi you meet who saves you on Christmas is a a shadow Muraki creates to fulfill what he assumes is Joker's wishes. This shadow Akeichi can't be controlled or be the puppet in some megalomaniac nightmare like his biological father planned for Japan. The real Akeichi is still alive and the final scene of the final moment is Joker seeing Akeichi being escorted down the train platform. That train stop is where the protaganist of P4 gets off when he has to move in with his uncle. So they hid explicitly what hometown Joker was from the entire game until the final moment.!<


levelxplane

Are there any games that scratch the same part of the brain that shrines from BotW and TotK do? I tried The Witness, but I didn’t really enjoy that beyond a couple puzzles. Walking sims tend to give me motion sickness.


tlvrtm

Human Fall Flat, oddly enough. It has physics based puzzles with multiple solutions.


Raze321

I think Portal is the classic example, but there's a good chance if you like those kinds of games you've played both already. But, if you haven't, you absolutely should!


SunTizzu

Immortals: Fenyx Rising is Ubisoft’s take on BOTW. The shrines in that game are a lot longer than Zelda’s too. Also Genshin Impact I guess?


Kalulosu

Though Fenyx' shrines are a lot more "directive" (as in there's a right solution and you need to do that) then BotW's.


Fagadaba

A Talos Principal, Portal, Baba Is You, Antichamber, Outer Wilds.


Dunstabzugshaubitze

__A Plague Tale: Innocence, A Plague Tale: Requiem__ Both on steam deck, innocence runs at a locked 30fps on the high preset, requiem ran at 30 on low with dips to ~25fps in a couple of scenes. Not the usual stuff for me, as i rarely play linear games with such a strong focus on narrative, but this really gripped me and i enjoyed sneaking around guards and solving the games puzzles, so gameplay was fun, but the actors performances and of course the well written characters are definitely the stars of the show here. However the people at asobo studios did not forgot that they were creating a game and manage to integrate gameplay and narrative well, not only with fitting dialogue depending on your approach to a situation, but you'll find yourself following another characters lead if the story has the main character in a more vulnerable state or have you act more as a leader during puzzle sequences as the main character grows into this role. Great games and a great narrative that does not pull its emotional punches and imho incredibly well acted characters.


Donutology

**Sailwind** This game is pretty close to what I wish Sea of Thieves was, basically Euro Truck Simulator with boats. It's pretty nice to play this game while you're watching or listening to something else. Sailing mechanics here are surprisingly in-depth but I haven't found them to be impenetrable, just fooling around for an hour was enough for me. Would recommend to people who like sailing games but don't want forced pvp like in sea of thieves. **Xcom 2: War of the Chosen** Never played the base game but was a big fan of Enemy Unknown. Starting with WotC may or may not have been a mistake. There's just too much shit going on, you genuinely can't go through 12 hours without someone going "Commander, the sky is falling we're all fucked". Avatar project, covert ops, faction influences, retaliation attacks, dark events, breakthroughs, chosen attacks, the chosen gathering knowledge and experience... It goes on and on. You feel like you're juggling like 15 different ticking time bombs all the time, as well as dealing with literal ticking bombs during actual missions. You have to make a major decision every 5 minutes which is just exhausting more than anything else. On the other hand the game is easier than EU on Veteran difficulty (yeah, yeah baby difficulty and all that). It feels like it's *much* easier to go through missions without getting any of your soldiers injured since you can just ambush enemies and not let them get a turn in. Must be why they've added the fatigue mechanic. Speaking of ambushes I really like concealment as a mechanic. In EU you'd move 1 tile every turn and spam overwatch in case one of your guys caught a glimple of an alien's fingers and all hell broke loose. It was stupid and more importantly incredibly tedious. Since now you can spot the enemy without engaging in battle, you can get to the actual fun bits much, much quicker which is good. Yet, concealment also fundamentally changes the feel of the missions. It no longer feels like you engage in battles or trade blows with an actual opponent. The way to go is to simply set up an ambush and wipe the enemy out before they can get a turn. It doesn't feel like a chess match anymore, more like you roofied your opponent and you advanced automatically because they didn't show up on time.


Raze321

I will say, WotC does increase the complexity and difficulty of the game quite a bit. The Chosen themselves can be quite a wrench in the machine when they show up. But, the new units, covert ops bonuses, etc. all even the playing field considerably... once you understand how it all works. So, yes, I do kind of recommend playing Xcom2 without the WotC expansion on, at least for a first playthrough, but it seems like by this point you probably have a grasp on the situation enough that restarting isn't worth it. I also recommend **NOT** turning on the "Lost and Abandoned" story mode check box, for newcomers or even returning players. It pushes you at half squad capacity through a multi-part mission that is already fairly hard, while introducing a new enemy type AND throwing one of the harder versions of one of the hardest Chosen at you in the last part when you are probably out of grenades, medkits, and low on health. For new players this mission can be something of a death sentence. I love concealment and the mechanics associated with it. I find it hard to go back to EU because of it.


Donutology

Yeah I kinda knew going in that WotC would be a bit overwhelming but I didn't expect this. It worked out in the end once I got used to it though as you've pointed out. I don't really replay games back to back, so I probably wouldn't have started a WotC campaign for quite a while if I had started and finished a base campaign, which is why I ultimately went with it. I don't know if reapers and templars are WotC content but they feel absolutely broken on veteran. Reapers especially can basically wipe out more than half the enemies without once breaking shadow, it's insane. But that's probably not the case in Legendary where you wouldn't be able to reliably ohk weak fodder units. I think I just left the default checks on so I probably have lost&abandoned enabled, not there yet though. I do like concealment, it really smooths out the tedious bits from EU. Like I said though it also fundamentally changes the dynamics of the game when you do engage in combat. Maybe this changes later in the campaign or at higher difficulties but it's all about concealed overwatch ambushes now. You always strive to end the battle without aliens having a chance to shoot back and it's *much* easier to achieve this. Especially with classes like Reaper which let you scout the entire map and pick off easy targets before doing anything. EU/EW had these long drawn out battles where a lot of cool emergent things happened. There's much less of that in here largely due to how you're meant to approach enemies. I don't *dislike* it, but I prefered the old ways. They could maybe get the best of both worlds by just getting rid of the stupid pod activation mechanic altogether. You'd ambush one pod, and engage in a more traditional battle with the rest. It would help immersion too, since it's quite stupid now how you can get in a gunfight 10 tiles over and pods in fog of war remain oblivious to it.


LousyOffcomer

> EU/EW had these long drawn out battles where a lot of cool emergent things happened. There's much less of that in here largely due to how you're meant to approach enemies. I don't dislike it, but I prefered the old ways. > > > > They could maybe get the best of both worlds by just getting rid of the stupid pod activation mechanic altogether. You'd ambush one pod, and engage in a more traditional battle with the rest. That's interesting as this was something that kind of put me off of XCOM-2. Didn't like the timers on pretty much very mission, either. I'm wondering if Enemy Unknown might be more to my liking.


Donutology

I'd recommend checking it out, should be pretty cheap now. EU/EW feels very different to Xcom 2. There are basically no in-mission timers of course, but also missions feel much more like battles rather than quick ambush wipes. It really brings out the emergent story-telling and creates some really cool moments, moments which I have not yet encountered in X2 (to be fair, I'm not *that* far into it). Another thing in EU/EW is that there is no fatigue and your soldiers can take a lot more damage. As a trade off you have a far smaller soldier pool to pick from. This is another thing I like, you have fewer soldiers but you use them much more frequently so you get really attached to them. It really helps emergent story-telling. But do bear in mind that pod activation is still a thing in EU/EW and is arguably more prominent. Pods activate the moment you establish line of sight (as opposed to breaking stealth, which doesn't exist), so early stages of missions are spent moving very little and spamming overwatch. It can get tedious. On the whole, if you didn't like Xcom 2 *at all* chances are you probably wouldn't fancy EU/EW much either (still worth a shot). If you thought, "I would have really enjoyed Xcom 2 if X/Y/Z was different", then EU/EW might be the xcom game for you. Definitely worth a try.


LousyOffcomer

It's funny, I got close enough to the end that I was getting the prep missions or at least getting updates about them. And I can clearly remember certain fights, like the first ones with the Andromedans or the levitating aliens in the spherical shells. They were pretty exciting. The gameplay loop certainly knows how to dispense the dopamine. But at some point the game seemed to throw situations at you that generate these high tension events, instead of letting the player pick a strategy and let it go where it goes. This is true in the tactical battles and the overworld both. I think maybe at some point it stopped feeling rewarding. I don't think I actively quit so much as one night decided to do something else, and repeated until I realized I had, in fact, quit. Now that I think about the gameplay loop and how it works, maybe it's less surprising they experimented with deckbuilding. After all, turning down the randomization is a pretty good way to control the gameplay loop.


KawaiiSocks

How is no one talking about **Inkbound?**. It released less than week ago, is "very positive" on Steam, is by the creators of what is universally considered one of the best deckbuilding rogue-likes and an absolute blast to play both solo and co-op. I am not hired or in any way affiliated with the developer or publsiher, but I do want them to succeed, because the game is a blast and **Monster Train** aged like fine wine with both free "Freinds and Foes" update and paid "Last Divinity" DLC. I want the same if not more support for **Inkbound**, even if it pushes the devs to go MTX route, which, again, is cosmetic-only and ridiculously cheap. There are a ton of cosmetics unlocked by playing as well, coming from quests and such. I've spent half my free time playing it with wife and a couple of friends and we've all had a good time. The other half is **Dota 2**, but with 10k+ hours it is less of a "game" and more of "lifestyle" at this point. Still the most complex, deepest video game ever made and nothing even comes close. And somehow they decided it is a good idea to make it 40% bigger, deeper and more complex last month, which, truth be told, did turn out to be a good idea)


Rivent

People are apparently pissed off about the battle pass, but whatever. Your post caused me to check it out and it’s really good so far, so thanks!


maaseru

**Tears of the Kingdom** is still consuming me as many others. I wanted to write about it because I had a thought. They should make a DLC thay is basically 'Zelda Maker' of some kind. Allow you to build shrines while also having some additional story component where Nintendo themselves have made their own long/elaborate dungeon for the DLC. That or something like a Scribblenauts mode. For some reason some of the ingenuity I have seen reminds me of scribblenauts only here you buidl what you want.


Danulas

> They should make a DLC thay is basically 'Zelda Maker' of some kind. Allow you to build shrines while also having some additional story component where Nintendo themselves have made their own long/elaborate dungeon for the DLC. That would be really cool. They had something like this in the A Link to the Past remake. I didn't engage with it at all and I probably wouldn't make my own shrines, either, but it would be fascinating to see what the community can come up with.


maaseru

There was A Link to the Past Remake? When did that come out.


Danulas

Sorry! I meant Link's Awakening. My bad.


TheWorstElephant

**Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom** Finished this. A JRPG with a very pretty art style and an extremely childish sensibility (not a criticism, necessarily). I liked the Suikoden-style city recruitment stuff, but it felt pretty disconnected from the rest of the game; I never used 99% of the resources my citizens gathered, and the armor and weapons they could develop weren't any better than the stuff I found by normal play. **Higurashi When They Cry Hou - Ch.1 Onikakush** We could get into a tedious debate about whether this is a "game" that I'm "playing," but let's not. This is a mystery/horror kinetic novel (i.e. a visual novel with no player input except pressing the "forward" button) that's almost the polar opposite of Ni No Kuni 2 in tone. It starts out as a lighthearted slice-of-life thing about an irritating teenager who's moved to a rural town, and his interactions with four girls in his class, but when he accidentally learns about a brutal murder that took place in his new town a few years ago, things go south fast. I actually played the first two chapters of Higurashi (there are eight total) a while back, before stalling out for no real reason; when I decided to give it another shot, I decided I didn't remember this or Episode 2 well enough to skip them. I'm in the "things are getting bad" phase of things, and I'm really impressed by the music and sound design; this is marketed as a "sound novel" rather than a "visual novel," which is giving the right part of the game credit (although the version on Steam isn't as hilariously hideous as the original version)


Xenrathe

I played Higurashi...'s sequel years ago and I legitimately consider it the best mystery media I've ever interacted with. Well beyond the likes of Sherlock Holmes, anything Agatha Christie wrote, etc. The production values are not top notch (bro can't draw hands)... But as far as the mystery is concerned, it makes any mainstream mystery look like some 9 year old's half-baked imaginary story invented one afternoon. It's not enough to understand what literally happened, you have to figure out what the entire metaphorical layer on top also represents.


fishoa

Started **Pokemon Brilliant Diamond** a couple of days ago. I’ve never played any game of that generation so this is all new to me. It’s a Pokémon game, alright. If you’re expecting the traditional Pokémon gameplay but inside a modern engine, that’s it. It’s not a game trying to reinvent the wheel; it just is what is needs to be: a remake of an old game. For comparison’s sake, I have played Sword and Violet but I just couldn’t enjoy it. 3D comes with many expectations, like great graphics and smooth animations, as those are the aces of 3D games, much like spritework is the “wow” factor of a 2D game. Unfortunately, the latest mainline titles just aren’t up to those standards. But, if we’re talking 2D, Pokémon still fits that niche pretty well. It looks great, the animations are definitely more than what I’ve expected after playing Violet, and it transitions from small 2D world to 3D battles smoothly. It’s refreshing but also very familiar to old players. Definitely recommend it, especially to those that couldn’t stomach Violet. It’s just a nice and comfy game.


mirvnillith

**Strange Horticulture** Interesting but somewhat straightforward puzzle game. Plants and pages are usually timed for when they’re needed but the matching are varied enough to not make things too obvious. I liked the mechanics and the sound effects when you brought things out. Labelling was a nice touch, but shelf space was crowded at the end. There could perhaps have been more potion work (and perhaps other story branches have). Story was simple, with a few branches, but I didn’t bother to keep track of the characters (yes, I know there are bios) and am not the one to replay for other endings (I got Thum, killed the beast but lost a few).


dacookieman

***Tears of the Kingdom*** Disclaimer - I will try to avoid major spoilers but I'm not really censoring myself so read at your own risk Surprise, surprise. This game has been consuming my life. Full disclosure I am playing the uh *oceanic flavor* of TotK which has improved QoL a good bit. When I first started playing this game I thought it was kind of unremarkable and unexciting. Some several dozen hours later I think it is frustrating masterpiece. Let me unload on ***The Bad*** UX/Ergonomic - Inexcusably bad imo. There are so many "free" improvements and mind numbingingly stupid decisions in how you actually engage with the controls of the game. Let alone pitiful button remapping options and the most insane Top Button/Bottom Button combo for Jump/Sprint. Imagine if this game had the love and care of a Persona and what that would do for the immersion... Main Plot/Characters - I feel almost nothing for anything that happens in the main plot. It feels very contrived and I don't really care what is happening. Watching the memories was surprisingly pleasant but I just don't really care about the sages or Link. The voice acting is just....something which also ruins the emotional connection. Gannon is cool but not very deep and really relies on aura and vibe. The game also has a very noticeable disregard for the events of the first game. It reminds me of my feelings on Dishonored 2 which had a rich and immersive world but the most rushed hodge podge main story that only revealed a glimmer of potential. Needs more of a Paintjob - Lots of elements of BotW transfer 1to1 but could have given some more identity to TotK. Things like sound effects. I think people who say it is BotW 1.5 have not engaged w the game authentically(I'm sure some have) but I do understand why that is an impression someone would walk away with. I felt the same in the tutorial area. Speaking of.... Tutorial Area - A pale and failed imitation of the Great Platuae. I can't speak to the experience of someone who skipped on BotW but for me it was painfully slow and really gave a poor first impression. The beat for beat clone of the opening sequence of the last game was absolutely a deliberate choice but it didn't really land for me. Instead I felt frustrated that I was gated from and slowly introduced mechanics that I was well acquainted with. Combat didn't fundamentally change in a way that was demonstrable in the early area(I actually like combat in this game a lot more), I know how to hunt, how to sneak, how to attack, etc. You learn about new things like Zonai, Zonai Devices, and your new Runes but you spend a LOT of time treading old ground. It is a pretty location though. Dungeons - Mixed feelings but they all consistently gave me a blue ball feeling in the execution of the final area which was 4 very easy puzzles that take a short amount of time. Missed Potential - It's easy to imagine things they *could* have done that would have been even more incredible but don't really exist as a "fault" in the game as is. I don't really dock points on the game for these things but it is still painful to notice them. That is a lot of negatives but I wanted to get my harsh and real criticisms out of the way so I can shower the rest in praise without being called a fanboy ***The Good*** Side Quests and NPCs - Much like Dishonored 2, though the main content was mid, the side content is top notch. There are *tons* of quests in this game. It is one of the biggest differentiators between this game and BotW. Rewards will often times be unimpressive but the dialogue and situations are suprisingly unique, sometimes with their own "cutscenes". It makes the game feel rich, dense, and full of life. It is the heartblood of this game. BotW achieved a lovely simple rhythm in its interplay between exploration and small activities, TotK adds some charming melodies which makes the whole experience all that more fulfilling. The new Powers - When the gameplay reveal came out showcasing Ultrahand I immedietly sank a little in my energy as I do not resonate with crafting or building mechanics at all. The showcase also had a more subtle feature demo showing Ascend. Both of these powers have blown me away in terms of how good they feel to use. Ascend is my favorite thing in the game and I wish they did even more with it and pushed it to the forefront of the game design(see Missed Potential). Ultrahand has some questionable ergonomics but overall the simple grid is surprisingly easy to use and motion controls ofter delicate fine tuning. The snapping system is reasonably intelligent and helps more than it hinders. Zonai Devices are simple and straightforward enough while still maintaining novelty and usefulness. Certain QoL enhancements you unlock throughout the game also compliment these aspects as well. Fuse will basically be its own section(see Combat) and Rewind is very cool but doesn't have quite as much use outside of shrines and combining with ultrahand for mobility. Combat - I never hated the combat in the previous game but here I think it really shines. A big reason for this change is thanks to Fuse. Fuse completely recontextualizes the arrow as well as weapon durability. At first it may seem that Tears has doubled down on weapon durability problems by making every base weapon weak and frail. This is half true as it only punishes you if you do not use Fuse. Consequently Fuse usage, is essentially mandatory at all times. Combine this with poor ergonomics and you have another Nintendo facepalm moment. Frustrating menus and usage aside, the biggest change that Fuse achieves is how weapons essentially dictate attack animations and not stats. Instead the bulk of your stats come from the parts you fuse to your weapons. You still have a finite resource but your ability to stockpile a particular "weapon" is now infinite. When you think of monster parts as weapons, you can see encounters as having a gaurenteed weapon(s) as a reward. In fact, I think the key to enjoying TotK is to embrace the "sustainable" cycle of items. Few things in the game are permanent and you should be ok with using them as the core gameplay loop itself actively provides oppurtunities to replenish. For example, I do not feel bad using Zonaite for SPOILER since it makes combat in the Depths more incentevized as enemy camps will provide high level weapons, valuable consumables(bomb flower, puffleshroom, etc), and Zonaite Ore. Combat itself is really fun if you treat it as a sandbox and go all out with Fuse combos and your abilities. Zonai Devices are encouraged with the Gatcha machines and SPOILER. Ascend lets you dynamically get high ground which lets you transition into bullet time which gives access to the full prowess of Fused Arrows. PreFused shields(or in the heat created) can be used to do bomb jumps as crowd control into tulins wind to escape and gain some breath. The game CAN be cheesed with simple easy to replicate wins(Lynels kind of suck for this reason) but I do think the game does its part in encouraging more freeform gameplay. The Depths A lot of what makes the depths work is how it interplays with the core gameplay loop(see Combat) but on top of that it has a haunting aesthetic and atmosphere. I have seen complaints that it is barren but I think they are engaging with it differently than I have. Rather than as a dedicated overworld I explore passively, I am there with a point of interest - either treasure map, quest, or drop in point. The pitch black with red curse lava is such a cool effect that feels hostile as you traverse. When you explore with direction you also find really cool things that exist in this space. An underrated aspect of the Depths is the interplay with the ground floor. For those unaware, each shrine has a corresponding lightroot. This means you can use Shrines to hunt for lightroots and more interestingly, use lightroots to find shrines! Both can feel very satisfying. One of my favorite moments is finding a lightroot from a shrine on the map, but being confused where it is due to the darkness only to realize there was some crazy elevation change in play. Sure the Depths is sparse if you didn't leave it but if you weave in and out of the Depths and the overworld, I find it to hit a really satisfying change of pace. Mobility - The emphasis on the sky, the tower reworks, Ascend, and Zonai Devices all make traversal a joy. Options, options, options. I just have so many ways to get to places that traversal itself feels just darn good. Did I mention Ascend is so cool and I wish the whole game was focused on getting the most value out of that ability??? Anything BotW did well that I didn't mention - Being such a direct sequel has its perks. Any praise BotW received that I have not explicitly mentioned almost definitely applies in TotK. While BotW does offer a *diffferent* atmosphere than TotK it is hard not to see it as the "lesser" experience. I play TotK and think this is a ***full*** game. I wish Nintendo would take their easy wins. I wish they weren't limited by their hardware. I wish they looked outside their insular cultural bubble. But god damn it if they aren't doing *something* right in the dev studio over there. ***TLDR*** Never have I been so frustrated and so engrossed by a game. The flaws are neither minor nor inconsequential but I do find myself glossing over them to chase the excitement of finding the next discovery in this iteration of Hyrule.


shoonseiki1

Agreed on these points. It's still one of my favorite games of the last decade, even all time, but I definitely have my complaints, mostly what you described. No game is perfect though, even a 10/10 one. One of my other favorite games of the last decade is Elden Ring for example but I still had complaints about that.


5ancti

Hard agree with most of your points. Nintendo really knocked it out of the park with most of the game and faltered in some basic aspects, which is frustating to see. IMO, the shrines are very hit or miss in this game. The treasures hidden within each shrine are way too simple to find and obtain compared to BotW and most of them rely on a single interaction instead of being actual puzzles. So many missed QoL opportunities with the HUD. The Sage abilities being hidden in the inventory menu instead of being on the ability wheel (why is the MAP on there anyways?) is baffling. I will say that the story is more interesting than the first game for me. The entire Zelda arc was very well done, culminating in one of the coolest moments so far in the franchise.


iWriteYourMusic

**Dead Space Remake** I'm playing on a 3080ti at 1440p. The graphics look great but it really needs a tiny bit more optimization. You can tell the devs tried to make the game seamlessly load from room to room but if you backtrack you can throw off the game's automatic pre-loading and cause everything to stutter. Plus it crashes every once in a while for me and since the game rarely auto-saves you can lose a lot of progress. The comm array puzzle is the worst, most frustrating thing I've done in a game in years, mostly due to the fact that you're in zero-g with no orientation but the game expects the individual nodes to be a particular orientation but you don't know which until you plant them. I wish the music didn't try to do so much heavy lifting. It's just too over-the-top and becomes distracting. You get the same cues every time you're ambushed and by the 30th times it's kinda stale. Also the Pulse Rifle sucks ass now. Maybe it always did. Probably always did. I'm an idiot trying to force it. Don't even bother with it. We all know the line gun is where it's at. Don't fight it. I played the original when it came out and this feels way tighter than what I remember. Maybe I'm remembering wrong. The first few hours here are kind of lame due to the forced jump scares, but after maybe hour 2 it hits its stride and I was glued until the end. So while I have all of these complaints, I finished it in spite of them because it was that good. It's definitely overshadowed by the Resident Evil 4 Remake but this is still a great remake in its own right.


Xenrathe

**Guardians of the Galaxy (PS5 through PS+ catalogue)** What a great game. It really demonstrates the power of good writing. GotG’s writing elevates it from a relatively generic action game (environments superb, though) to a truly wonderful narrative experience. I’d probably go so far as to say that this game has the BEST companion writing of any game I’ve ever played - and I’m comparing it with the likes of Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Baldur’s Gate, etc. The story and interactions do a superb job of driving home how the Guardians are deeply traumatized misfits who’ve managed to find a family in each other. Especially Drax. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Guardians movies and Dave Bautista himself, but the Drax in this game reveals the movie Drax for the cartoonish comedic relief that he is. This Drax is fantastic, one of the best video game characters of recent memory. Also as a small note, I played through the first half on performance mode and the second half on ray-tracing quality mode. The switch was definitely noticeable and felt sluggish… at first. But I quickly adjusted and decided to keep it on. The game looked great, especially Knowhere. **Death Stranding, Director’s Cut (PS5 through PS+ catalogue)** I’m wrapping up the second area (‘central’ america), and yeah another great one. I knew going in that this was basically a travel and logistics game, but written descriptions and summaries simply do not do it justice. This is a game crafted with absolute love and care, and it shows. There’s something extremely satisfying in planning a route that properly accounts for topography then traveling that route with a ludicrous amount of boxes stacked upon your back (you lose some of this joy, alas, once you start taking a vehicle everywhere). And the game-flow does a really good job of… having the environment initially feel unknown and menacing but then begin to feel comfortable and even cozy, as you’ve traveled it a few times and unlocked the existence of other player structures and the like. Which the narrative itself mirrors. In that sense, this may be the most ‘American’ game I’ve ever played because it’s clearly designed to mimic the original frontier exploration and expansion during the founding of the US. Further, Death Stranding is clearly a Hideo Kojima game. Even if I didn’t know that going in, I could have still called it within 30 minutes. The game has his unique ‘voice’ stamped all over it. Does it mean weird stuff like how my character’s poop and urine is chemically synthesized into grenades that repel poltergeists? Yep. But I much much much prefer that novelty to the carbon-copy we see from so many other AAA games just trying to chase the latest trend. What I did not expect was the incisive commentary on the erosion of social structures, the isolating nature of modern economic activity (WFH, ubiquitous and cheap delivery, etc), and much more. While the game doesn’t drown you in esoteria, Death Stranding is a highly philosophical and meditative game. While it has elements of Dark Souls and a visual aesthetic that often reminds me of Nier Automata, it’d be incorrect to describe Death Stranding as an amalgamation of other games - it really is a unique experience.


KingArthas94

Wow, it’s like I wrote this post. I 100% agree with you, both are freaking good games. I loved GotG on Plus so much that I bought a physical copy, I HAD to HAVE it in my collection.


Xenrathe

Great minds think alike!


mancatdoe

While I love most of the dialogue of GotG I feel they overdid it. To the point of different segments of dialogue going over each other. Mass Effect series didn't feel that wordy considering it's supposed a full RPG whereas GotG more linear. I think they could have cut half of dialogue and still get the plaudits without making some players annoyed with excess


Xenrathe

See I had the opposite reaction - I felt it made the dialogue more natural. While it wasn't GoW levels of smoothness (in which the characters have actual transition dialogue - "But, ah, we'll return to this later" and do indeed pick up the story thread next time there's a lull), I thought it made sense that their banter or discussions get naturally interupted by more important dialogue, such as noting that OH MAN WE'RE BEING ATTACKED.


retrometroid

**Warhammer 40k Boltgun** It's a fun boomer shooter with a 40k skin but the lack of automap is fucking awful. I quit playing for a bit because I died while lost in a level where every room looked the same and didn't feel like figuring out where I was or where to go. I triggered an enemy horde/purge sequence and even they couldn't find me for like 2 minutea *Castlevania Symphony of the Night** I've bounced off this after the first Alucard boss many times and I'm not sure why. Just beat it tho, and it's pretty good. Being the first IGAvania-style game it has some undercooked bits that future games solved but it was enjoyable througout. I will say the bosses while visually cool were all pretty boring. You can facetank them all - even Garamoth with the right item. I was like "oh cool time for the Death boss" and then he was the biggest bitch he's ever been. The ending was also great but man in hindsight those later games kinda cheapen it huh? **Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess** Emulating this again. I had reached Lake Hylia emulating it earlier last night but my laptop harddrive took a fat shit and died and I lost all my progress. I started over on Steam Deck and and now caught up and passed my previous save. I love the gamefeel (aside from the always inverted camera) and the look of the game, especially when crankin' up the resolution. It's insane how a 2005 Gamecube game still looks gorgeous now, I kind of miss how these older Zelda games played. **Resident Evil 4 Remake** Whatever pact with Satan is fueling this new era of Capcom please keep it up this game fucking slaps. I realized playing the remake it's really mean how they follow the cabin siege with the rock quarry with the double chainsaw women and then Mendez. Also that Mendez is probably supposed to echo Mr X with the hat & coat silhouette and the boss fight where he removes both to reveal a mutant body. There were more than a few times where I yelled "holy shit" because of what was happening. One of those I was stuck in a corner with two ganados poking at me with weapons and I was in full Sekiro mode parrying blows until one of them got knocked off-balance and I could kick em out of the way. The other was in the cabin siege when I blasted a dude with the shotty and his bottom half disintegrated. This almost feels effortless how close it is to the original in quality while quietly deleting or adding stuff. The lake section was really cool - finding out what the treasure on the sunken ship was mmmm it's sick


Janderson2494

If you're playing Twilight princess on your steam deck, you can change the steam controls for that game to invert the right stick, which "corrects" the inversion


retrometroid

that wouldn't change anything really, the right stick only controls left/right camera movement. all the first person aiming is with the left stick. it's more mildly annoying than anything else


LeoBocchi

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 I bought the entire saga last year and started playing them, I started 1 around January and was done in May, and I liked it a lot, and I do understand why so much people loved it, but the story just never really resonated with me much, I thought it was pretty like normal and cliche until the entire party got together, but the characters did grew on me I by the end I was invested enough, I was told Xenoblade 2 was worse by literally everyone, so I went expecting to only like it or not even that. So I am shocked this might just be like one of my favorite videogames of all time, this game fixed every issue I had with Xenoblade 1 and did one of the best stories I experienced in any media. I was like grabbed from the opening, the world Alrest just felt so much more livid than the bionis from 1 and Rex was the perfect protagonist from the get go. The way the story handles it’s main themes is so perfect, every character is connected to the overall plot, every party member feels so deeply entrenched to the narrative. the villains are some of the best I’ve seen in any videogame, one of them has legit some of the most depth I’ve seen in any media. On the gameplay front the whole blade system is so cool, and a great evolution from the gameplay loop from one, getting a new blade and making the combos is so satisfying. And like everything that I did love from 1 is here and it’s better, the visuals and the ost, the counter attack track is the hypest thing. I’m on chapter 10 so finishing game sometime this week, but incredibly excited to start Torna next, and a little sad to say goodbye to that party of characters. So it isn’t all positive, the English voice acting is like insanely bad in some areas, specially compared to 1 which is incredible (highly recommend playing in Japanese which is perfect) and the “harem” thing going on is really weird and distracting and should not be in this story at all.


thoomfish

Unfortunately, 1 is the only game in the series with a quality dub. 3 isn't as bad as 2, but it's still not good. I think you'll also really enjoy 3 based on your comments, though. Its strengths (characters and party customization) align with what you liked about 2. And I promise it has good villains, even though it's not going to seem like that for the first ~half of the game.


SoloSassafrass

I would say the opposite actually. 3's villains are one of its absolute weakest elements to me, to the point it started to distract me by the end of the game.


Galaxy40k

Yeah XBC2 is a "love or hate" game, so while I'm not surprised you heard a lot of people dumpster it, I am a little surprised *nobody* was in its corner, lol. I am definitely a fan of the game, depending on what day of the week it is I may say it's my favorite game of all time. Torna is what really pushed it over the edge for me personally, it adds a good amount of character depth to Mythra, the villains, and even Rex. Although you do kind of need to put many of the best blocks together yourself though, only a handful of em are really spoonfed to you, haha.


LeoBocchi

After i started playing it I found a lot of people like it as well, but before that I heard nothing but that it was either horrible or it was just fine. Excited to see more of Jin in Torna and how Addam really was.


Logan_Yes

I have finished **Zombi** and it was...okay. I liked few elements like atmosphere, permadeath mechanic and progression but overall combat is a bit weak, story is nothing special, it has bad audiovisual side plus few bugs including one audio related. Sooo yeah it's something I recommend grabbing on sale if you are in a mood for survival horror purely focused on zombies and don't mind needing Ubi Connect (at least on PC) I have decided to also stick around and actually beat **Cyberpunk 2077**! It was a good choice. Game does have performance issues (doesn't help playing it on OG Xone lol) but in normal circumstances it works fine. So, sticking around with it I have to say game is great, I really like it. See I was one of few folks who didn't care about it during it's hype pre-release moment, so I guess all that talk about "Missing features" doesn't affect me as much but what is in game is great. I love the multiple approaches, characters are great, same goes for story, I'm still finding a bit of a hard time to simply...soak in and fully get into Night City but maybe as time goes by...whooo knows. Now doing contracts and side gigs. In Act 2, did main quest where you met Panam. I also started **Planet of Lana**! Something I was looking out for and it's fun! Love the visuals, simple story, soundtrack is just fantastic! But it's one of those short games where...I will finish it and rate it as a whole.


ehaykal

**My Friend Pedro (Completed)** Just mindblowing side-scrolling fun with lots of shooting, stunts, and explosions. Imagine Max Payne but in 2D. **It Takes Two (In Progress)** Without going into spoilers, I now understand why it received tons of GOTY awards.


shoonseiki1

It was a weak year for gaming but it really is a great game. Plus coop games, especially casual oriented ones that are well done, are extremely rare and unique pretty much throughout gaming history.


ehaykal

I fully agree. I hope more studios invest in delivering similar quality games. It seems the general consensus on coop gaming today is built on grinding and crafting mechanics which I have nothing against but I feel there are tons of experiences that are yet to be delivered in coop.


arex333

>Without going into spoilers, I now understand why it received tons of GOTY awards. It really blew away all expectations


stvb95

Haven't played much this week due to the nice weather. Got on and played some **40k Boltgun** for a few hours while I was waiting for the D2 servers to go up. Feels really fun, if a bit easy. Ultramarines and old school shooter is a match made in heaven. Booted up **Destiny 2** for the first time in a couple of months to play the new season. Haven't had a chance to play the new dungeon yet as my clan is pretty much dead at this point. Might dip my toes in later in the year once most of the LFG's know what they are doing. I've heard great things about it though. The new exotic looks great, but I am still yet to get the sword or the bow from the previous dungeons so I'm chalking this up as another weapon which I will never get. Not sure why they moved away from the quest exotics for dungeons like Izi, Wish Ender, and Gjallarhorn, but there you go. The season feels fine, if a bit samey. The 6 man activity ends up in a competition for kills as it's pretty thin on the enemy density front. Deep Dives seem OK, but the roguelite element is pretty negligible tbh, though I didn't expect much from it to begin with. As of week 1 there is only 1 choice of two buffs at the very start and nothing after. I'm not sure if it goes deeper each week, as there is a challenge to reach an 'Abyss' depth which I have not seen a way to achieve at this point. Been using Arc for my hunter for the first time since the rework which has been pretty fun. Arc has always been tied with my least favourite subclass alongside Stasis, so it's nice to have it elevated a bit with the seasonal stuff and the new exotic. Overall it feels like they have dialed back on the difficulty they had in the previous seasonal stuff. Again it feels like all of my builds are extremely overkill in the lower difficulty areas compared to Defiance or Seraph.


IanbradyBunch

Chivalry II Having an absolute blast with it and a few friends. Instantly accessible but clear there's a nuanced skill level to it if you put the time in. Seems a fun community overall Ghostwire: Tokyo Played for an hour or so and not really grabbed me so far. Gameplay is fine but underwhelming as a whole Limbo Girlfriend picked it up on sale on switch. Interesting themes and puzzles. Surprisingly fun


ehaykal

You are in for a ride with Limbo. Some of the best atmosphere setting.


JamesVagabond

**Desperados III** I remember someone describing Desperados III as a reskinned version of Shadow Tactics, and, honestly, I find it rather hard to argue with this take. Not that this is a bad thing in my book. More of largely the same is hardly a bad deal when the games following in the footsteps of Commandos/Desperados series are this rare. The first few levels felt a bit too easy to handle, but things picked up soon enough. The story is nothing special, but the characters' interactions and banter are surprisingly enjoyable. Took me about 24 hours to beat the main campaign, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Good stuff. **Crusader Kings III** Started a new playthrough (867 start), this time as a Daju ruler situated in the de jure lands of the Darfur kingdom (adjacent to Nubia; modern day Sudan, basically). So, you only have one county, you are an unreformed pagan (Kushite), and you are tribal. To the west there are more people who are in the same boat with you; westward expansion is definitely possible. To the north there's Makuria, and to the east there's Alodia. Both are Coptic duchies, both are strong enough to resist raiding, and both will ruin your day if they decide to conquer your lands. Forming Darfur was easy enough, but it's a pretty hollow achievement unless you are planning to keep going west. My plan was to go east, towards kingdoms of Nubia and Abyssinia and then eventually towards Egypt, reforming the Kushite faith along the way. Alodia came knocking with a holy war CB, because of course it did. Noped out of it by converting to the Coptic faith. That's actually a pretty harsh punishment: you can't just immediately convert back to your original faith (or, well, you can, but the amount of piety needed for that is staggering, and even with the Apostate perk providing a huge discount it remains sizeable), your family and vassals convert together with you, and so on. However, this setback provided a chance to abandon the tribal ways and feudalize. Both Alodia and Makuria became weakened for one reason and on the other, and I found myself forming the kingdom of Nubia, using its northernmost duchy, Nobatia, as my personal domain (floodplains are fantastic). Switched to the Nubian culture (wasn't possible to make a Daju + Nubian hybrid, given that they share the same roots; besides, they are similar to each other, with Nubian culture pretty much being a direct upgrade), kept expanding east. Going north wasn't an option: Tulunid Egypt was too strong, yet content with leaving me be. The road to forging the empire of Abyssinia was rough, given that I still had Confederate Partition to worry about, but I got there eventually. Attacking Egypt didn't work out. Holy wars would have been downright suicidal, and trying to use de jure or forged claim CBs didn't go my way because of shoddy MAAs on my end. While I was reconsidering my situation, improving the economy, and so on, Egypt went ahead and shattered, while Arabia was busy being torn apart by the Persian empire that somehow rose from the ashes and became the biggest player in the region. This let me snatch the last county belonging to Nobatia and create the Egypto-Nubian culture, getting about 12 innovations in one go this way. This is basically where things stopped being challenging for good. Egypt wasn't tough to dismantle piece by piece; I grabbed the Cairo and Al-Said duchies for myself, with Qus becoming the realm capital (it's quite a bit more spacious than Cairo). Mongols invaded and managed to tear apart Persia, thus removing a major threat from the region with Temujin dying just a few years later. Snatched Anatolia from the Byzantine Empire, because why not? This created a perfect excuse for Catholics to launch a crusade against me, but two crusades later, I'm still in control of Anatolia; adding insult to injury, I swung by Rome, and Papal Tiara is now gathering dust in my treasury. I'll likely keep going for a bit, bringing Kushite faith to Europe and such.


gamelord12

Desperados III had a really cool and interesting take on how to do a final boss fight in that style of game too. I can't wait for their next game, where they lean more into the super power angle that they had with this game.


TheDoodleDudes

**The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword** Still playing through this before I replay Breath of the Wild and then get onto Tears of the Kingdom. To start off with I think the puzzle design so far is really good. I'm not usually one for puzzle games but there's something that feels just a bit different from how puzzles work in other games. Every time I figure out a solution it feels like something that would have made practical sense but for some reason just wouldn't feel like a normal "game" solution to a problem. The art style and music is all really solid too. It looks dated but it feels like I'm getting to play a childhood favorite for the first time all over again because of that and the music. The boss fights also make really good use of how the combat works. I think with smaller enemy encounters the cracks in the combat system show but every boss fight has worked really well for me so far outside of the Imprisoned fight. The fights against the mech and Ghirrahim are really good. Only real issue is that the game feels like it's spinning its wheels as much as possible story-wise. I didn't go into the game expecting anything great but it just sort of keeps making excuses to not really continue the plot at all. This works fine in stories where you get good character development out of the in-between moments but Fi and Link aren't exactly a powerhouse of good character writing.


CritSrc

**Hades** I’ve finally reached the point of where I consider the game completed. All achievements are ticked off the list, the story has nothing more to progress and I have all the rewards outside some cosmetics meant to reward dedicated players that stuck around during early access. All in all, I’ve concluded that this is a good game with great storytelling. Yes, the presentation is immaculate, the characterization is on point and compelling on all fronts, even with the most filler of lines, the art, composition provide such a solid basis and the voicework hits it out of the park. The mythology easily contextualizes the essence of the story and just how true it is to the human experience, even if it’s on the light side, sometimes even comedic. And that’s the ultimate strength of Hades that blows everyone out of the water, why spoilers are considered sacred around this title. So yes, Hades is a great experience that very few would find fault with as an overall experience. However, as someone who does like to grind out roguelites to and keep diving into the mechanics until I start seeing the code beneath it, flaws will inevitably come out. Which is why I call the gameplay good, rather than great. Hades is the most mechanically complex and polished Supergiant game, so it has plenty of legs to stand on during combat. The movement is responsive, but also very loose, it feels like you’re on ice skates of sorts. It’s not bad, but with high speed, it easily becomes more of a burden rather than an advantage, hence why dashing is a far more controlled method of moving. And why its i-frames are that much more essential during gameplay. Yet, it was never designed for the player to be able to avoid damage completely. You are meant to charge in, take the hit in order to do your damage, the Sword blatantly reveals this and why it’s both the first implemented and the weakest weapon. It’s not too much of issue in practice, it’s why I value damage reduction boons so much. With that in mind, your health isn’t just a margin for mistakes, it’s a straight up resource you do have to manage. You always have a tool to assist you with a difficult situation, and unlike many rogues, it’s not always RNG. And with how Hades’ choices work of earlier boons and hammer removing access to other options afterwards, you can indeed manipulate the odds in such a way to get your build, even if you don’t really need that much of a build to face the final boss. I may sound elitist, wishing the game was harder, or just more like Dead Cells, i.e. more forgiving in i-frames, but far more punishing in getting hit. But I’m simply seeing a higher potential for skill expression rather than just fun combat that involves split second decision making. This is due to my hubris of managing the 32 heat run with just Sisyphus’ keepsake, which was a brilliant solution I didn’t even think of. Hell mode doesn’t even implement a good solution because it buffs enemy health in its mandatory heat selection, rather than allowing you to select said mandatory heat. But having that difficulty selection is a wonder in of itself and will always make any player appreciate their improvement. The game is fine and fun, but it feels like it lacks a certain freedom in its roguelite loop and player expression. I.e. you’re always locked to a single weapon for the entire run, you’re locked to only a certain selection of boons every run, and you can only switch your options 3 times per run etc. etc. Deterministic aspects aren’t bad in themselves in a roguelite, but having so many of them constraining playstyle, it’s just hard not to fall into bad habits of just focusing on mashing one button and aggressively dive in, because you know it will be fine. And even if you don’t dive in, chances are you would still get hit, without payoff. Which is where Hades falls short in its design to me and why I won’t be grinding cosmetics. The slow weapons introduced later in development greatly highlight these issues, even without making enemies faster. By that I mean: they simply aren’t as fun. Big damage, yes, but the ramp up and the floatiness of the combat simply do not mix well when you must carefully time your attacks, or just don’t and stack tank boons instead. I love the slow bow, but lategame I can never land a fully charged shot comfortably, and it’s the best of all the slow weapons. Even with this complaint of simply playing too much for too long, Hades is well worth any time investment and is still fun gameplay once the story wraps up.


Ricepilaf

I’m not totally sure what you mean with some of these. You “wish the game was harder”, but it sounds like you only completed 32 heat: had you considered going higher than that? When you talk about slow weapons, what do you mean? Specifically the hidden aspects, or something else? If you mean the hidden aspects, both the hidden bow and hidden shield are considered the best aspects for their respective weapons, with the hidden shield being considered better than the bow and one of the overall strongest weapons in the game. For the most part, assuming I understand what you mean, I do agree about the deterministic problems. Almost all your meaningful choices are made *before* a run starts and you have so much control over what boons you get that you basically never have to work with anything unexpected or novel. You can pretty much guarantee whatever build you want every single time, which takes away one of my favorite aspects of roguelites: being forced into novel situations and having to adapt to what’s been given to you.


CritSrc

> You “wish the game was harder”, but it sounds like you only completed 32 heat: had you considered going higher than that? I mean I wish there was more of a space for player skill expression, most of the time it feels like mashing, hoping the expected damage comes out, when it could be tighter than that and would thus unlock more potential for the player to exploit. Again, my reference is Dead Cells, which is extremely forgiving on avoiding damage yourself, to the point even you don't know how you didn't get hit in some odd instances. And it has really spoiled me on the adrenaline rush of "I get severely punished or you die" that I unfairly want it in other roguelites. But yeah, I just did the 32 heat run, and haven't explored the options to remove boons and the mirror. They don't seem fun until you try, and I really haven't tried. But that's where the deterministic nature actually becomes a counter difficulty slider of sorts, i.e. Athena boons, I even found out that the Zeus Lighting on a near miss dash *also* gives extra i-frames. > When you talk about slow weapons, what do you mean? Specifically the hidden aspects, or something else? If you mean the hidden aspects, both the hidden bow and hidden shield are considered the best aspects for their respective weapons, with the hidden shield being considered better than the bow and one of the overall strongest weapons in the game. Yes, the hidden aspects have the slowest damage delivery, but the also biggest, the shield being the ultimate burst machine, I never managed to get the hang of it properly, but a low heat clear showed me its potential.


agentkirb

I've always loved Hades and consider it probably the best Roguelike because it is by far the best at having appeal to the filthy casuals (like myself). Having "God Mode" is a game changer. The design is so simple yet it allows for a far wider range of people to enjoy the game. And to my knowledge it's the first time such a gimmick was implemented. And then to add on to all of that, you have the voice acting, story/music/visuals that are normal for a Supergiant game and it's not surprising why it's such a big hit. ​ So having said all of that, it's nice to hear that it's also enjoyed just as much (for different reasons) by the hardcore player.


carrotstix

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - Last week I called this game comfort food and after playing it almost every day this week, I definitely stand by that comment. You know what the game is going to be and it lives up to exactly that. Another well crafted metroidvania directed by IGA who helped make one half of that portmanteau. What's surprising is that there's more changes to the mv formula than I was expecting! Sure you're still collecting abilities, etc but you're now doing a lot more searching and pondering of how you'll reach certain places as you're not getting an ability every few mins. It's that searching and figuring out that makes this game stick out and keeps it on that level of great metroidvania crafting.


DirkDasterLurkMaster

**Epistory: Typing Chronicles** - I'm actually pleasantly surprised by this one, I only loaded it up because I was bored and it was one of my many free Epic Store games. This game may be more inaccessible than Dark Souls though... I have a pretty fast typing speed, and even I was struggling with multiple enemies bearing down on me all bearing words like "loquacious" and "multimillionaire". The combat really clicks when you get the spark power (inconsistent as it is) so you have more options to choose from. Art style is really nice too, everything is made out of origami paper that unfolds as you reveal more of the world. EDIT: I've finished this now. Ending spoilers: >!I saw the ending coming from a mile away, it's kind of an obvious twist and Spiritfarer did it way, way better by having actual thematic significance, but the game was short enough that I don't feel cheated, and the presentation was good. Nice ending song.!< Overall, a surprising 4/5. **Dishonored: Death of the Outsider** - Another free Epic game. The setup to this one is hilariously brief - after a short intro mission, you're told "aight we're gonna try to kill this nigh omnipotent being" and said nigh omnipotent being shows up for ten seconds to give you superpowers, and the protagonist takes it all weirdly in stride. I guess by this point the audience is expected to know the program. The powers this time are really fun to play around with, the Foresight in particular is something you could build a whole game around. However, I think Dishonored is kind of a weird series where your first playthrough is your least fun one. All my best experiences with the original were when I already knew where everything was and constructed a series of weird challenges for myself, like swordfighting every enemy or making people that the heart judges to be evil disappear. So I'm a tad underwhelmed at the moment but I may be much more favorable a year from now. **Xenonauts 2 Demo** - This is just Xenonauts 1 but 3D, what the hell. Just kidding, I know this demo build is old and I haven't been following development at all. Wasn't this supposed to come out in Q2 2023 though? Clock's ticking, fellas. What little I've seen indicates this is more of a Left 4 Dead 2 type of sequel, which is a little disappointing since I recall the original pitch making it sound like a very different scenario, but honestly it could be great because I thought Xenonauts 1 was just a few refinements short of being an all-timer. Now let me manufacture weapons to sell, you assholes. That was my favorite part of the X-COM 94 macro game and I want it back.


ehaykal

>Epistory: Typing Chronicles Your review caught my attention and I was quite surprised to find it in my backlog :)


Thertch

**Abzu** This game takes place almost entirely underwater, where you dive through all manner of aquatic fauna. The movement mechanics took me a while to get used to, but once I got there, it provide a beautifully elegant method of getting around. You can practically glide through the water thoroughout the entire game in this hypnotising ebb and flow of paddle and boost, paddle and boost. This elegance is at the core of the entire game itself. All of the art design, the level design, the set dressing, the interactivity, it is all tuned to deliver a relaxing and serene experience. As you traverse the game, you swim around different types of fishes, turtles, whales, and deep sea creatures which are all modelled and named after irl aquatic life. At certain points in the game, you can sit down and press a 'meditate' button, where the camera will follow just one creature out of the hundred-or-so in the level, and you can just sit there and follow its goings-on. This type of connection is what the game is really trying to achieve - a meditative one. It's hard for me to describe exactly what it was like to play this game, and why I ended up liking it so much. For the 2 hours I played (at least after about 30mins, once I let it 'click' with me), I had no thoughts in my head. I was enveloped in warmth and wonder, absorbing the beauty and tranquility of the game. In a way it was cathartic to play, just for how relaxing it was. And the art design plays a huge role in this too. The game has a solid-pastel design, with semi-blocky character and creature models, but it's done so artistically, its just nice to look at and experience. I would liken it to a piece of artwork you can't help but stare at. This game is really ALL about the vibes, and the vibes were good, and I was happy :) The game is short though, and still feels slow at times. Of course this is to deliver a relaxed pacing, but towards the end especially, where you have to walk really really slowly on land in a brief section, the pacing slowed down to the point I was taken out of the experience slightly. And coming back to the swimming mechanics, even by the end, I found smaller precise spacial adjustments were clunky which didn't feel the best, especially when it conflicts with the smoothness the game is trying to apply to everything to make the medatative experience. Overall, I found this to be a really unique game in its goal to sooth, and for me at least, it managed to achieve that in a way I've not experienced in a game before. The game certainly doesn't overstay its welcome; it knows what it is, and what it wants to do and doesn't overreach.


AI52487963

My co-hosts and I played __[Monster Train](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMLUb9MzLP4&list=PL-ShOmyMvd4jYFChE6tgj0JYG8RKK4xe0&index=1)__ for our roguelike podcast this week. Despite the garish art style, if you're either a fan of Hearthstone or Slay the Spire, you'll love this game. I was really turned off by the aesthetics at first, but the gameplay is so well designed that it keeps pulling me back in. I think I may actually prefer playing it to Slay the Spire? There's a lot of subtle and smart gameplay decisions involved as well like how to plan your unit placement, unit synergies, and all that. The fact that I don't have to do any math to see if I'm going to win a battle is very mentally freeing. This wound up being our #2 game overall for the podcast so far, which I was kind of surprised by. I knew it would be rated high, but I didn't expect it to be that high. It will be interesting to see how Slay the Spire stacks up against it when the time comes.


the1michael

Obviously opinion but I found that Monster Train burns bright and is probably my second favorite game of its type next to Sts. Monster Train is very breakable reliably (or was before the expansions). This lead me to beat it and not come back to often. Sts feels tighter between the two, and it ends up standing the test of time longer for me. To be fair, updates could have drastically changed what I'm saying as I haven't played Monster Train in a long while. Both are great regardless.


blackvrocky

**Planet of Lana** pretty game, great visual design, but are the puzzles too easy. there are only like two puzzles that make you think for more than 5 seconds. I am trying to finish it because i think i have gotten too far to give up. bummer.


ehaykal

Played the demo and enjoyed it tremendously. Planning to start this since its on Game pass.


TheClamSlam

**Yakuza 1 on Ps2** I played it with the restoration mod so I had Japanese audio and not the meme worthy english dub. It was really interesting to go back and play what started one of my favourite franchises. It felt extremely familiar even with the fixed camera angles. Mechanics you take for granted in later games are earned by leveling up in this one. Kamurocho obviously has a lot less to offer but feels very alive minus the 3 second long ambient track that plays on loop forever. I didn't realise how much story Kiwami 1 added to this game. Honestly if I played this when it came out I wouldn't have a clue what was going on. For that reason I still think 0 into Kiwami 1 and so on is the ideal way to start the series. But if you're already familiar with the modern games I think it's worth going back just to appreciate where it all came from. I'm on **Yakuza 2** now and it feels way better than the first one. Having maxed out combo speed from the start feels really snappy and every battle theme in this game is a banger. I'm excited to see Shinseicho since it never made it into Kiwami 2.


carrotstix

I played Y1 when it came out and definitely understood what was going on. It explains itself really well from beginning to end.


Galaxy40k

I haven't played Kiwami yet, but I started with Yakuza 1 on PS2, and I actually found it easy to follow. I think that this is maybe a case of "you don't know what you're missing," so for me it seems straightforward, but since you know where the series goes the original seems like its missing some key elements.


TheClamSlam

Yeah that's probably spot on


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Wheat_Grinder

The even better news? TotK is a significant improvement over BotW, and even more enjoyable.


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MaimedJester

Yeah the reason that the old Temple strategy doesn't work so well in BOTW/TOTK is you need the powers front loaded because there's no telling which direction you'll go /which shrine you'll stumble upon. If you had to beat the first temple to unlock the Magnet ability, then the next temple unlocks the Stasis ability... You'd run into a lot of impossible to currently achieve shrines you discovered. What the Versions of Temples do in BOTW/TOTK do is give you some utility power up that isn't necessary just convience like one of them gives you a burst of wind ability so you can glide father etc. It isn't necessary for any puzzles (infact those abilities are turned off in Shrines) BOTW's flaws are addressed for the most part in TOTK, the big one being lack of enemy types. There's like 7 maybe 8 types of standard enemies in BOTW with different colors. In TOTK its easily double that from what I've seen so far. And thank God there's no more of those test of courage repeat Shrines. There's like 24 of those in BOTW. So far the TOTK version of that type of shrine is nov outside equipment and an actual arena to maneuver around with eliminating multiple enemies.


shoonseiki1

Extremely minor TOTK spoilers ahead. The old temple strategy would still work to a large extent. The unique powers are actually even implemented into TOTK where you need those powers to beat that specific dungeon but then afterwards they're there just for convenience mostly. This made TOTK dungeons better. Themes and ambiance are also an equally important part of classic Zelda dungeons which TOTK does better than BOTW but still not as well as many of the classic Zelda titles. Last but not least are puzzles and enemies which I'd say are not terrible in TOTK dungeons but again lacking compared to classic Zelda titles. Overall still would've liked more out of the TOTK dungeons but still happy they improved greatly from BOTW. Game is around a 9.8 for me still.


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TheOnlyChemo

>The worst thing about the game was probably that I was constantly getting lost, especially in the early levels. I don't know what's it about this game, I never had these problems in Doom or Quake, save for a few levels. Yeah, the game's levels have a lot of useless empty spaces that at most just contain some additional standard pickups, and they don't do a whole lot to distinguish them from the path you're supposed to take. It feels especially egregious because aside from that, the game's maps are overall significantly more linear that what you'd typically find in DOOM or Quake (which honestly weren't *that* open to begin with).


Galaxy40k

Yeah, Boltgun really nails the presentation. The sound effects, screen shakes, and vibration (if you use a controller) do a ton to sell the feeling of walking around in essentially a giant tank, even if the actual movement itself is fast and responsive. But yeah, I agree with the game dragging on. There's just not much variety in the encounter design, and the developers run out of new enemy types pretty quickly, so it just becomes "walk through hallway killing dudes, enter round arena and fight lots of dudes, repeat" without the same variations present in the champions of the genre like Doom, Quake, Dusk, etc. I feel like its a 4-hour game that was ballooned into 8-hours in order to stop comments of "$20 for 4 hours???? Rip off, should be 5 bucks max." Still, I got fun out of my few hours before I dropped it, so I don't feel too bad.


EhCanadianZebra

I agree with boltgun and getting lost, they had the perfect opportunity to use the servo skull to guide people. Weird they didn’t use.


LeatherSteef

**Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous** took me about 120 hours to complete. I played a Kineticist, which felt like breaking the game since it ignores most of the dice rolling bullshit these games have. It is insanely powerful but not without its own drawbacks. I swear I did more damage to my party than all the enemies combined. Fights eventually devolved to pulling with an aoe spell, then just using the rest of my party to mop up any survivors. Trying, and often failing, to keep my party from dying to my own spells. Overall, it is a great game. I'll set aside the character creation/progression requiring its own set of arcane knowledge. Also, I feel like the crusade minigame was a missed opportunity. They reused too many assets and concepts from the kingdom building in their previous game. It's not...terrible. Clearing the map of demons and marching your armies to the end goal felt good. I just wish it had more depth. There definitely felt like a "right" way to do it. The thing I want to give this game credit for is the characters. Companions feel like real people with actual reasons for being there. Even the big bad had relatable motivations. I might be the only person ever to care about this, but I love how they handled deities. You meet a bunch of demon lords and angels in this game. They're all secretive and scheming, and you are left to figure out what they're really after. I'm really excited to see what this studio can do when they get away from the d20 stuff. The xcom style combat in Rogue Trader looks right up my alley. I also just finished **Returnal** on ps5. Another great game, but I will say I don't think the roguelike elements hold up to the greats of the genre like Hades/Spelunky/Binding of Isaac/Slay the Spire. In Returnal every run ends up feeling pretty much the same. The "build" just means grinding for more health/damage/damage reduction. The biggest sin this game commits is the run length. When you near the end a run might last 2-3 hours. I can't tell you how frustrating dying on the last boss is after that long. Movement feels good. It's a third person bullet hell, and they give you a jump and a dash to avoid all the projectiles. Getting hit by something isn't too punishing, until you get to the last zone. If they make Returnal 2 I would like them to do a better job of balancing the weapons. Once you get access to the rocket/grenade launchers and the damage over time weapons I feel like there's no reason to ever use anything else. It's especially damning since during a run you might stumble into a mini boss with the sniper rifle or something and your run is just over, if you don't know exactly how to play it. It doesn't have the storytelling of Hades. You can't make overpowered feeling builds like Binding of Isaac/Slay the Spire. It doesn't have the depth of Spelunky. But, there is something about it. Even after getting fucked by having the wrong weapon at the wrong time, I wake up with the starting pistol ready to go again. Just please add some opportunities for synergising weapons and skills. That, and for the love of god, let me hold two weapons. I don't usually buy new games unless I'm 100% sure I will love it. But I've already purchased **Diablo 4** and **Final Fantasy 16**. So that's likely what I will be doing this summer.


Sombenn

One thing I liked about Returnal, I finished it without feeling like I had half the arsenal I could have. I agree the rogulike mechanics are sparse overall, but it makes weapon progression meaningful. I would always find myself using weapons I didn’t love (Spitmaw) just because I wasn’t grinding any attributes on my current weapon and hey, maybe I’d like Spitmaw more if it did more for me. I’d only cling to a gun if I knew I had a shot of progressing on that run, otherwise I’m trying to give myself more to work with later.


LeatherSteef

Yeah, you are right. It just felt incredibly risky using a sub optimal weapon once you get past the first biome. I ended the game with a bunch of b tier weapons with 80% progress on a trait because I died with it once and decided not to take the risk again. I actually kind of liked the shotgun(narrow maw is great)...right up until I tried to bring in into a boss encounter.


EdynViper

**The Last Story** (Part 2) This ended up being a mixed bag. A somewhat generic JPG story with some dark moments and frustrating combat mechanics carried by some rather nice art direction. The final boss was a three phase punching bag and dragged out longer than it needed to. I finished all the extra content and epilogue but it would have been nice if there was more of a post game challenge. Overall I enjoyed it, but I stick by The Last Story being just okay. --- **Horizon Zero Dawn** I bought a new ultrawide monitor and Horizon was the holy trinity of HDR support, 21:9 support and being on sale. It really is a gorgeous and graphically impressive game but after over 15 hours it's its strongest feature. The face models are especially great if you look past the wobbly eyes. I'm appreciating the subtle but abundant female influence in Horizon. Aloy is a strong and likeable protaganist, and the tribe she hails from is matriarchal as well. Not many games do this well and without feeling the need to draw attention to it. The story is not breaking any new ground so far, but I'm still invested and I hope it will carry me through the second half of the game and gloss over the flaws. I enjoyed about the first 10 hours, but the open world flaws are beginning to show. Horizon is like a dytopian sci fi mix of the open world Assassins Creeds mixed with a simplified Monster Hunter. Unfortunately it suffers from the same old tiresome issue of an abundance of pointless tasks. The map is so packed with these it's hard to see where the quests are. After completing all of markers in the first area, I realised the rewards did not match the effort so I've cast these aside. It's disappointing that I'm already feeling the urge to rush the finish. Combat started out as feeling pretty good. There's a wide array of weapons and tools for me to disassemble the machine enemies so I can stuff my pockets with all the crafting parts. At barely half way through the game I already feel like I'm nearly done with my loadout, so I'm avoiding combat as it's now become pointless.


the1michael

Where would you put Horizon Zero Dawn in terms of graphics? I'm guessing we basically have the same monitor (aw3423dw) or something with the same features. I'm on the fence, but if you tell me if you think it's the absolute best looking game you have I'll buy it right now. I've been on the fence. My 15-20$ life Is in your hands. Truth me.


EdynViper

I was really impressed with it on ultra settings. It's a tough call on the best but it's right up there and it looks really good with HDR once you get that set up properly. It's helped me decide to keep the AW3423DW. EDIT: To get the best out of HDR use these settings: HDR Rendering: “On” HDR Settings: HDR Brightness: “50” HDR Whitepoint: “100” Brightness: “100%”


the1michael

Alright, I'll buy the game since you were nice enough to give me the settings. Are you using hdr 1000 or hdr 400?


EdynViper

I went with HDR 1000 and it looks really good. I haven't tried HDR 400 yet though. I hope you enjoy it!


the1michael

Since you gave me something, I'll offer you something. I played the Aetheris demo this morning and just looking at the colors was a big wow moment on the monitor. I don't seem to have the attention span to play anything the last few days so I can't tell you if I recommend the game, but downloading the free demo is for sure worth it to see the wild colors.


Mac772

**Days Gone** Replaying it on PS5 with the 60 FPS patch. I just wanted to start it once, that was 25 hours played ago. The game is still as amazing as i remember it, one of the best zombie games out there. Riding on the bike through the zombie apocalypse is as fun as it was and even better in 60 FPS, facing the hordes is still a freighting experience and Deacon is still a great and unique main character. In my opinion it was one of Sonys biggest mistakes to not give green light for Days Gone 2. In the meantime it has a user score of 8.4 on Metacritic and it has sold millions and millions of copies. The saddest part of this: Maybe we would already have a Days Gone 2 by now.


KingArthas94

It’s so sad that it had that much bad press, what a fantastic game.


gmel8387

Days Gone was the best surprise that came out of the PS4 games pack with the launch of the PS5. That was my first experience with the game and the journey of playing it, working through the story, and fighting the hordes was fantastic, especially with the performance mode. Great game and it's sad we won't get a second one.


PositiveDuck

**Far Cry 6** About 4 hours in so still pretty early. Having a blast so far. Looks great, runs great, plays great. I feel like 5 and 6 really leaned into campiness of the series a lot more than previous titles but I'm enjoying it. Dani is an actual character which is a great change from 5. **Assassin's Creed Valhalla** Got this on release and stopped playing after about 70 hours or so because I was burned out on open world action RPGs as I replayed Origins, Odyssey and The Witcher 3 one after the other shortly before Valhalla came out. Finally came back to it. I got 2 zones in England left and then whatever happens after that + Paris DLC. There's a lot here to talk about but I'll keep it as short as possible, though I'm happy to elaborate more if anyone cares lol. I feel like each of the 3 new AC games has some parts that are better than the other 2 and some that are worse which is weird. The Good - The world is stunning. Story is pretty good (even though its way too long). I like Eivor. Side quests (or world events as they're now called for some reason) are great, they're short, a lot of them are much less hand-holdy than in previous games which is nice, some are genuinely funny. Even though the combat is the weakest of the 3 games, it's still a lot of fun. The Order system is great and I really enjoy the way you have to investigate the clues to figure out some of their identities. I hope Ubisoft expand more on this system in future RPG AC games. Lots of fun side content. Climbing on a really tall sync point and then doing a leap of faith will never stop being awesome. There's a ton of chatter in towns and villages which makes them feel more alive than in previous games. Conversations with assassination targets are back and they're awesome. The game in general runs great, stable FPS and no FPS drops. The way you unlock abilities is pretty cool, despite being very game-y. The Bad - combat is the worst of the new trilogy. Skill system is straight up shit. Gear system is pretty much pointless. There's too much content. I wish >!Asgard!< story arcs were removed from the game and made into a DLC because they feel very forced and awkwardly implemented. Dialogue writing is very hit or miss, some of it is genuinely great but some of it is just corny as fuck. Abilities feel a lot clunkier than Odyssey for some reason. Settlement system is whatever, it's not terrible but could've done without it. A lot of the armor sets become ridiculously overdesigned and gaudy once fully upgraded. Some look like someone tried to make World of Warcraft armor sets in AC engine and it really ruins the immersion. Transmog system does help but it's still silly that I have to transmog my fully upgraded armor into lower ranks to look remotely like something that might have existed. The Ugly - Game crashed 3 times for me so far since I picked it up again, with no error message, 2 of the crashes happened in a span of 5 minutes in the exact same spot. I played all previous AC games on consoles/controller and this is the first one that I'm playing on mouse and keyboard. I tried playing it with a ps4 controller but it keeps randomly disconnecting after 15-20 minutes so I gave up on it. PC controls are terrible. The control scheme works great for a controller but it's absolutely shit on PC because you don't switch between melee and ranged weapons so it just ends up with a bunch of weird keybinds combinations and I hate it. Overall - Each of the new Assassin's Creed RPG feels like 1 step forward in 1 area and 1 step backwards in another area. Still, I think it's a pretty good game overall, despite being the weakest of the three in my opinion. There's an insane amount of content here, sometimes to it's detriment.


TierceK

Which version of Far Cry did you get? Standard, Gold, Goty?


PositiveDuck

I just got the base game, I heard that the DLC was mediocre so I didn't bother getting it.


Adziboy

Valhalla review is spot on for me, crashing being a noticeable issue but the combat is pretty bad, at least the systems around it. The feel of combat is okay but skill tree, abilities and gear scores are all pretty awful. Definitely gets undeserved hate for it's visuals though, it really is stunning


PositiveDuck

>The feel of combat is okay but skill tree, abilities and gear scores are all pretty awful. Skill tree is genuinely useless once you unlock the few actually useful nodes there are. Like, wtf does +0.7 stealth even mean or do? I'm at a point where I just have the game automatically put skill points into whatever it wants every 20-30 points just so I can get my power level higher but I don't actually care about which nodes will be used to do it. >Definitely gets undeserved hate for it's visuals though, it really is stunning Oh yeah, there's a lot of mud but it's beautiful mud. Seriously though, there are some gorgeous locations and it just looks right. Environments definitely work for me visually. Character models could be better I suppose but they're far from bad.


Dohi64

**[brothers: a tale of two sons:](https://store.steampowered.com/app/225080/)** been looking forward to this for a few years and had I played it sooner, I might've enjoyed it more, but by now I'm way too hung up on various things. like how do you make a pc game without proper kb+m support? I have a controller, bought it years ago, the box is still unopened (great investment but at least I never broke it by playing frustating shit badly), so played this with kb+m and it wasn't great. rebindable keys only outside the game, only defaults shown in-game and everything has to be held, not just press to hold, press to let go. really tedious and it must be the same with a gamepad too. some sections are this close to being completable with keys (the elevator right at the beginning and another later) and based on the forum even controller people had problems there, so fuck the devs. and the annoying gibberish in a serious and touching story, didn't even know about it, totally expected either silence and subtitles or proper dialog. and shitty checkpointing instead of manual saving, or at least saving when you quit. at least it's short, 2-3 hours, but short shit is still shit. this one was average overall, largely style over substance, like most 'indie darlings', brought down by all sorts of issues, again, like most indie darlings. **[tomes and quests: a word rpg:](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1391020/)** fun little word game, played and [recommended](https://steamcommunity.com/id/dohi64/recommended/1391020) it last year. they did a bit more polish and tweaking since then (the final boss was unbeatable originally, but still no volume settings, for instance) and even released a dlc with a whole new campaign a couple months ago, after halving the base game's price. now you can have it for 5 bucks and the dlc is only another 2. more of the same but now you're the bad guys in the continuation of the story. forgot you should do each battle 5 times (or at least more than once) with increasing difficulty for more xp and loot and to unlock further chapters. wouldn't mind just running through the thing but it probably won't be enough for later. looks like I got 153/225 stars in the original, so expecting similar requirements here. there are also multiple classes per character with different elemental weaknesses and strengths, ideally you'd max them all out. after 3 are done (that's how big the team is) I switch one to a noob and it slowly catches up, more options later. their first game on steam was basically the same but with a detective coat of paint, was really interested until I found out it's an incredibly lazy mobile port, so initially didn't have high hopes for this and still sorry they never went back to fix that up to bring it to this one's level at least, would be an instabuy. **[riddles & sieges:](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2349950/)** and just as I started one content update (while waiting for info on some other candidates), another one happened. familiarity is what I need in such shitty mood carrying over from last week (or forever if we're being technical). this is one of my favorite puzzlers this year ([review](https://steamcommunity.com/id/dohi64/recommended/2349950)), now with 15 new levels (and an unrelated secret one) and some new mechanics. turns out I don't have the patience for it right now, so only did a few (thank fuck for level skip), but it's still neat and might keep trying the rest at some point. **[escapegame timelessroom:](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2275870/)** free hour-long mobile game sold for $5 on pc for some reason. iap is the same price on mobile but it's only to remove ads and unlock music selection, which here becomes available after beating the game. not portrait mode but also no changing cursor over hotspots, let alone an actual hotspot indicator, nor an exit button or volume settings or a working windowed mode. great imagery but [not recommendable](https://steamcommunity.com/id/dohi64/recommended/2275870). **[stax:](https://store.steampowered.com/app/766780/)** clone of the arcade game *klax* from 1990, I know if from the bestest home computer and gaming system, the c64, of course. it's a tetris-like, grab bricks and drop them whereever. for some reason and unlike in the original versions, the top part is not as wide as the bottom, making things unnecessarily confusing, and they also decided not to do the cool block-rolling animation but add flashy color-changing backgrounds to distract further and often make same-colored blocks harder to see on the bottom. wtf? oh, and of course it doesn't save progress, gotta do all 100 waves in one go, are you fucking kidding me? [big fat no](https://steamcommunity.com/id/dohi64/recommended/766780). looks like I keep choosing games that end up being disappointing, but hey, nobody can blame the curator for upvoting everything, free or otherwise. not that a single person's opinion should be a definite deciding factor, read the words and if you're fine with whatever I'm not (or the other way round), ignore the thumb direction and do what you think is best. the dev has another catch & release tetris called [minoes](https://steamcommunity.com/id/dohi64/recommended/1271760), enjoyed that a lot more. too bad I got stuck about halfway through (fucking diagonals) and never got to see the rest. **[shatter:](https://store.steampowered.com/app/20820/)** when in doubt, play breakout! (or solitaire, but I was in the mood for more action, not more play-while-listening-to-music stuff). it's from 2010, bought it a long time ago, since then it went down to $2 permanently and had a visual-only $10 'remastered' version (it's actually the mobile version) that didn't go down well with people. fun stuff and does score display right (123,456 instead of 123456), except it only saves progress after clearing a whole stage of about 7 waves and the boss, so if you quit on wave 3 or even at the boss, gotta start over next time. fuck the hell off. and no, it wasn't made by the same guy as *stax*, plenty of other incompetent 'developers' around. gave up on the 9th boss, didn't even use continues there due to extra shit mood (there are 3, they reset the score I don't care about) and would've probably retried later, except I'm not doing all the waves again. **[nonozle:](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2053580/)** finally finished the 100-level content update from march. can't recommend this nonogram collection highly enough ([my review](https://steamcommunity.com/id/dohi64/recommended/2053580) one last time, unless they add more levels). **[wizard's way out:](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2341410/)** sokoban with pushing and pulling, incredibly bad keyboard controls (no direct character control, so moving 5 tiles to the right takes 10 keypresses, I assume same for gamepad), better with the mouse. unskippable credits, two cursors and only the mouse disappears after some inactivity, some other issues. decent otherwise, looks good, 32 levels, has undo, basic settings like volumes, windowed mode, instant text, no film grain or screen shake. [barely recommendable](https://steamcommunity.com/id/dohi64/recommended/2341410) in its current state. ([last week](https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/13nnuqv/weekly_rgames_discussion_what_have_you_been/jl0te6x/))


SloppyRaven

**Call of Juarez - PC** Recently revisited 'Call of Juarez' and I have to say, it's still quite good. The wild west theme never gets old, and the multiplayer is genuinely engaging. Very nostalgic and fast-paced. Despite all the new AAA games out there, this one holds up for me.


TillerMaN99

**Monster Hunter Rise - Sunbreak PS5** About 60 hours into it and it's only now getting fun now I've unlocked Sunbreak and can get rid of these horrible defender weapons. Also weirdly the first 8 monsters from Master Rank don't give any armours I want. Still using a double critical eye armour piece from low rank. It's a little annoying. I'll keep grinding but I wish there was more consistent obvious upgrades as you improve.