Had a really weird few days with work and other stuff so I’m all mixed up now, sorry about the late post. My schedule is all over the place. Hopefully next week we’ll be back to normal.
I didn’t play much for a while due to life stuff, but lately I’ve been playing Shadow Hearts on the Odin 3 I bought last month. I’m like 18 hours in and probably past the first half of the game. It’s a PS1 RPG in execution but with higher quality assets and an interesting setting: it’s set in 1913, not many RPGs (or games in general) are set in that time.
I should probably finish Quantum Void, but it’s going to make me think of things I don’t want to, so I’ll probably leave it unfinished.
Playing some Tyr, believe it or not. Sci-fi Tank Game that is like a mix of Overwatch and WoT.
Also fired up my old copy of Freelancer.
I’m back on the Warframe grind, still working towards my original goal of playing 1999
I played through Portal for the first time and I found it kind of underwhelming. I can see why it was a big thing two decades ago, but as a new player today the experience doesn’t really feel special.
Have you played Portal 2? I found that one to be by far the better of the two. Though with that being said I did still really enjoy the first one.
I have not, but I have too many other things in my backlog to add that one.
The single-player (and lots more) update to Dune: Awakening released a few days ago, been wanting to try the game for a while but have no interest in multiplayer so had to wait for this. Started playing yesterday and it’s really fun so far! It’s certainly not a superb game but not bad either. Hopefully it stays interesting and fun.
I’ve been playing Dredge and Night in the Woods this week for some nice autumnal vibes. I also played Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping, and while it’s not quite as good as The Secret Salami, I still enjoyed my time with it and I hope there are more games in the series to come.
Also, I plan to be impatient this week and get the new Control game. I know, blasphemy, but the heart uh wants what it wants.
Brief off-topic aside: This recurring thread has been a bright spot, for me, in a sad Internet, this year. Thank you.
As for what I’m playing - mostly Palworld. The late game has allowed me to try to breed perfect pals while getting as deep as I like into farm management and interior decorating. It’s been very fun. Well worth the sticker price.
I’m glad you’ve been enjoying it. It’s been hard to be consistent lately but hopefully it’ll be back to normal again now.
Replaying A Hat in Time after about eight years. I decided to get some cheap DLC in place of more games during Steam’s summer sale, and that includes A Hat in Time’s Nyakuza Metro. With that, I thought it was worth a full replay of the game.
Still really liking the game. With more hindsight, I’ve realized the game’s plot makes barely any sense. And it has an oddly dark sense of humour that contrasts with the game’s otherwise kiddy presentation, even outside the spooky forest.
I love Hat. There are community-made levels in the Steam workshop that are worth trying if you want more content.
I played through Axiom Verge again. I enjoyed it a lot more than the first time I played it, which was years ago.
Love that game, the audio design is so special and memorable. Axiom Verge 2 was only ok IMO, doesn’t really have that spark the first has.
I haven’t played AV2 yet, but I’m planning on getting it. Bandcamp Friday is coming on 4 October, so I’m going to buy the soundtrack because it is quite good.
The dev is on fedi too I believe.
I just played through that for the first time a couple weeks ago! I thought it was great.
Does revisiting Civ 4 (again), originally released in 2005, count?
Have you tried 7? I’m really struggling to get into it. Been trying off and on for the last few months and finally hit the end of the first age but haven’t continued past it. I revisited 5 a while back (love it) but haven’t done 4 since it was the latest game. How’s it holding up?
My dead cells save disappeared so I’m working by my way through again
I’ve been playing through Metroid Prime 2. It’s been pretty good, though keeping track of both the light and dark worlds is a pain at times. And now I’ve unlocked all the power ups I need to do a treasure hunt across the whole map for 9 more keys!
I played through Metroid Prime 1 a couple of years back, and I’m not sure if it’s rose-tinted glasses but I seem to remember enjoying the map and bosses in that one slightly more.
I played through the whole trilogy recently and I can confirm, while the light/dark worlds gimmick of MP2 is quite cool, it’s a pain in the ass, mostly in the early game. Good luck finding those keys, I recall I had to use a guide for one or two of them because of how weirdly it was hidden.
If you can play Prime 3 be sure to do so, it neatly rounds up the story across the previous games and has some good gameplay changes that make it more enjoyable (not having a gazillion weapons and visors for one example).
I’m gonna try a few areas to search for keys based on the hints the game gives you, but if I don’t find them after a while I’m just gonna use a guide. It wouldn’t be so bad if the backtracking didn’t take so loooong
Yeah I’m definitely gonna play MP3 at some point after this! I’m using Primehack which has been really great.
I actually had 3 on Wii when it came out, but never finished it. Honestly can’t remember much about it, besides religiously scanning everything in the worry that I wouldn’t get another chance. It’ll be interesting to go back to it and see if any areas feel familiar. And yes I’ve heard it’s a bit more linear and streamlined, which I’m actually looking forward to!
religiously scanning everything
I love and hate this feature from the prime games. It makes an amazing way to give you the lore and setting the ambient, but it is so annoying to have the scan visor constantly on and worrying about missing a one-time scan I didn’t have time to check because I was trying to survive.
I guess I quite like the ‘risk’ aspect to it - if you want to collect all the lore you have this one chance to scan the boss. It reminds me a bit of getting the dog tags in MGS2. Where it gets annoying is when it’s not clear that a new scan is available, like the bosses with multiple stages.
I already knew I didn’t like soulslike combat because it’s slow and nearly all attacks are annoyingly high commitment so it relies more on pattern recognition, strategy, and patience than quick reflexes and high-speed improvisation.
Playing Stranger of Paradise this week made me realize why even Nioh was a bridge too far for me: stamina bar.
I just can’t help but see it as a made up problem: I’ll give you an arbitrary limitation that sucks the fun out of combat… and a bunch of advanced mechanics to overcome it and give you your fun back.
I just play these games and I wonder why these combat designers hate me, and why am I not playing action games that actually let me have fun without passing some arbitrary rhythm test.
I know the answer is curiosity, but I often wonder if it’s worth it.
It’s not even a question of difficulty: no permutation of factors will make Nioh or Stranger of Paradise as difficult as fighting Gracious and Glorious on Infinite Climax in Bayonetta. It’s gating fun behind arbitrary busy work… for reasons.
I know this isn’t a real response on your opinion of souls likes, but did you play Ninja Gaiden 4? Was a really, really fun action game. Based on your Bayonetta playtime it feels like you would enjoy it!
Not everyone has the same idea of fun, and not every game needs to be catered to every player. I happen to love soulslikes specifically because of their combat, but I get why others don’t like it.
I’d be curious if you’d like Sekiro.
I’d be curious if you’d like Sekiro.
Traversal was fun, but the rest not so much. Passive combat, limited offense, and it’s an action RPG with quest lines, loadouts, consumables, and a skill tree, so naturally I need to do a lot of exploration to squeeze all the juice out of combat. I consider all of this anti-fun, so not for me.
I’m a few hours into Pragmata. I had to jump through a few hoops to get ray tracing working on Linux but the game looks great and has me interested in where it’s going.
I’ve been playing Valheim now that its finally 1.0. Lots of new stuff i dont remember from my last game ~3 years ago. I finished the Black Forest and I have been searching all over for Swamps. I only find these dinky ones with none of the interesting stuff in them. Its been kinda frustrating.
The new Bear armor is great for exploring on land. Boosts to stamina and speed.