Also, Merry Christmas tomorrow for anyone who celebrates!

Tell us what game you are currently, or recently played, greater than 6+ months old. If the game happens to be on sale, a link would be a plus.

This year I cleaned out my family's old PS2 and got really into playing tons of games from the era I missed! The PS1/PS2 lineup is truly spectacular & has so many heavy hitters from big names & super unknown developers. Here are some of my favorites. **God of War (2005)** I've only ever played God of War 2018 so I really had no idea what to expect from this one. The opening hydra level is an amazing intro, and the game manages to use its dynamic camera to always show the most exciting angle of the action. The story is a lot somber than I expected, leaning into it as a proper greek tragedy. Kratos is more introspective than purely angry, and I love how the story teased out reveals. The only real disappointment of the game was the 2nd to last area before the final boss. Some truly maddening platforming that felt more like a test of luck than skill. 8.5/10 **Parasite Eve** One of my favorite games I've played this year, and easily one of the best PS1 games for me alongside RE2 and MGS. The game tells an engaging story at a quick pace, and manages to deliver new combat challenges you'd typically see in a full length JRPG at a lightning fast rate. The soundtrack alone is one of my favorites from Yoko Shimomura, with the police station theme "Out of Phase" being a highlight. If you enjoy JRPGs or Survival Horror, you gotta check out Parasite Eve. 9/10 **Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal** My first Ratchet & Clank was a lot of fun. My partner knew more about the series than I did, so it was fun to see her relive & recognize iconic moments from this game. The shooting is a ton of fun, though some of the grindy challenges for upgrades got tiring after a bit. Also a huge difficulty spike at the final boss caught me off guard. Still, I enjoyed the experience. 7.5/10 **Disaster Report** This game really surprised me! I went in expecting a light hearted survival game, and what I got were some genuinely meaningful character moments, branching decisions that matter, and tons of exciting real-time setpieces that would make Uncharted jealous. This is an earthquake survival game where you play as Keith, a reporter investigating an ongoing disaster in Capital City. Through your adventure you'll meet other survivors, uncover a conspiracy, and make some narrow escapes. Unfortunately this game does have a frustrating gameplay shakeup near the end that you'll want a guide to get through, but other than that it was a great time. 8/10 **Raw Danger!** Okay I gotta tell y'all about Raw Danger, because I'm convinced this is **the** PS2 hidden gem. Holy shit. The developers took everything they learned from Disaster Report to deliver one of the most interesting survival games I've ever played. This game features six playable characters experiencing a massive flood in the city of Del Ray over the Christmas Holidays. You start as a waiter, Joshua Harwell, staffing a bigwig event held by the mayor when the disaster starts. The game does an astounding job putting you into the shoes of your character experiencing the signs of disaster to come. Seeing water slowly trickle into the venue, increasingly nervous fellow staff as you tend to your duties, electrical problems, and soon ankle deep water begins to seep in! The survival is a lot more in-depth than Disaster Report, allowing you to customize your character's whole outfit to maximise staying dry & warm (or looking goofy as hell). Heat management is crucial, and staying out in the rain too long can be deadly. The same real-time setpieces from Disaster Report return, with even greater scale. The most mechanically interesting part of this game is how it handles its 6 playable characters. Each character has tons of dialogue with those around them, and key decisions they make or say can end up influencing what happens in other playthroughs hours later. You might shove some rubble out of the way, desperate to save your companion - only to curse yourself a couple hours later when that rubble you pushed causes a massive flood to sweep away your current character into a desperate situation. The game delivers on some genuine emotion, while also capturing some truly **truly** off the walls insane dialogue (shoutout Amber Brazil, my favorite character for this). If you have any interest in adventure or survival games on the PS2, Raw Danger is an absolute must play. 9.5/10 (The graphics/water can look real jank at times)

[**Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/435150/Divinity_Original_Sin_2__Definitive_Edition/)  I had bought this on GOG a couple years ago and had intended on getting back to it, it has taken me a few hours to wrap my head around what this game actually is as I was trying to complete all the quest for the first main area **Fort Joy**, but after watching [Divinity: Original Sin 2 is an RPG Lover's Dream](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2UYczfOkmM) by [Ghostcharm](https://www.youtube.com/@Ghostcharm) it's clicked and I am trying to be more open to not winning every situation as if it was a more genuine adventure. With a 93/100 on [OpenCritic](https://opencritic.com/game/3828/divinity-original-sin-2) for the original release, PCGamer had [this to say](https://www.pcgamer.com/divinity-original-sin-2-review/); >Playing Divinity: Original Sin 2 is uncannily like playing a tabletop RPG. The way that Larian’s sequel embraces player creativity immediately conjures up memories of days spent sitting around a table, asking the Dungeon Master if I can attempt the last stupid idea that floated into my head. And like a good DM, Original Sin 2 usually answers that question with “Yes, you can attempt it.” My only regret is that I got it on GOG as it was cheaper, which has made mods less friendly without the Steam Workshop, but it was a lot cheaper at the time and hasn't gone [below $15.74](https://steamdb.info/app/435150/) on Steam since.

(Re-upload) I’ve been playing CoD games since MW2 (though never the campaign), so I missed CoD4MW1, and after finding it for really cheap at my local used games store, I decided to pick it up and try it out. Despite being 2007, it looks great still. Mind you, I don’t care much about graphics, but I can still appreciate if something has aged well, and imo it still looks great. The mechanics are awesome too, and it’s super fun. The storyline was of course quite linear for the most part, but the missions were a ton of fun and I liked the characters. I’m now going through the rest of the MW series campaigns, and then I’m gonna go through the Black Ops campaigns, because MW1 impressed me that much. MW2 so far is a lot of fun too, but imo doesn’t quite compare to the ghillie mission or the AC130 (I think?) mission. If you’ve never played it before because, like me, you heard CoD games don’t have great campaigns, ignore those people and play through it. It’s a ton of fun, and that’s what video games are supposed to be

This game is amazing and stunningly beautiful even on older hardware. It runs surprisingly well on my older gaming laptop. The game really encourages me to try different things too. I'll be playing this for a while still, much to do. Next up also picked up on sale though is Outer Worlds, I'm excited for that.

This game was such a mixed experience. I loved the anime and decided to try one of the Visual Novels to see more of this world I came to love. When I looked at ratings on VNDB. It was a 50/50 between 6/10 and 8/10. Of course, ratings aren’t a defining factor if you will enjoy it or not. But a plot like that was really telling that this was an experience you either enjoyed or didn’t. So how did I find the game? Well initially I really enjoyed the experience. It’s set a day before the cultural festival. With you playing as Kyon having to finish the film, he helps Haruhi record during the original Manga. As the game continues you get to meet and interact with many of the characters from the show. While these are mostly main characters. Some background characters do make an appearance as well with short interactions. However, where this game sets itself apart from other visual novel experiences is a mechanic that allows for a question-and-answer type minigame between each character. In these scenes you were given a list of dialogue options. With you being encouraged to choose statements that each character would enjoy. For example, Haruhi will have a positive reaction towards statements praising her work or related to supernatural things. While she will have negative reactions to negative statements about her interests or the SOS brigade. There is a hidden ranking system to each conversation, and these will affect your outcomes of the story. That initially surprised me. You are almost encouraged to fish for negative reactions because it changes how the story plays out. But for the true ending this generally is not advised. An ending I didn’t get and don’t feel the motivation to get for reasons I’ll say later.  Now the thing is that’s really all I can say about the gameplay. If you enjoy the world and characters of the game, then initially this could be a positive experience. Until the final act there isn’t much of a story, but these are entirely new interactions with these characters that you have control over to some extent. However, the largest issue is mentioned in the title. When you think of the Anime for this series what’s the first thing that comes to mind? For most it’s the endless eight. It’s probably the most notorious stunt performed in animation. For people reading this who aren’t aware. The second season of the anime this game is based on had 8 episodes of what was largely the same episode without any major change. Unsurprisingly fans were upset, and this became a whole controversy. I’m sure you can piece together the issue here. The game goes for up to 7 days and each day is a time loop. Now at first this does feel like a blessing. You get multiple chances at interactions with characters. You don’t need to save scum to experience all the dialogue. The issue is that by day 3 it’s entirely the same conversations with only a few scenes changing. Ironically it only took me 6 hours to beat this game simply because by about day 4 it’s just auto skipping dialogue for almost the entire day. This is not fun. Like at all. For people who want to play this. If you play this, I recommend a guide so you can get the good ending. It’s the most interesting ending and all the time looping will probably make you sick of seeing the exact same conversation 4 times over. ::: spoiler spoiler I’ve not seen every ending. But there is one that’s particularly bad. There’s an ending where everything is declared as a dream and then the game just ends. Ironically this was the one I got so it felt like I had just wasted 6 hours for nothing. ::: At least you get unlockables as the game continues. Some of them were a little strange. One is an alarm clock where Nagato will count until a certain hour and then alert you. She can also wish you a happy birthday. I find this funny because I don’t think the PSP has a battery life long enough for any of that to ever be used. But I hope someone out there had Nagato wish them a happy birthday. There’s way more that’s just the only one I played around with. Infact because we are on Lemmy I can show a Screenshot of this.  So, yea time looping is not a fun mechanic. Maybe once but this game goes for 7 days. I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to base an entire game around the most controversial thing from your media. But outside of this issue. It’s enjoyable to have a Haruhi VN experience that lets you interact with the characters in a more open and casual way. Next, I think I’ll try the PS2 one. My Japanese isn’t fantastic but that one seems to have a lot more fun with itself so maybe that will be a more positive experience.


Feel free to let everyone know what you're currently playing, recommend some great titles from yesteryear (especially on sale).

Can't believe I ignored this series for years. The first game has aged a bit since it was released in 2011, and the sequel in 2019 has held up and is loads of fun. Lots of carnage, cool weapons, and the environment is a hell of a lot like Mad Max. Would definitely recommend picking up especially now with the Steam summer sales. They really are hidden gems!

Ive been loving this game. Its a card game with lots of depth to the optimization and some RNG but its not overly punishing. If youre looking for a fun casual game try it out! Its less than $10 on sale right now.

I’ve played Diablo 1 and world of Warcraft which is slightly similar, but just tried d3 a week ago. I play most games on my switch, I grabbed the eternal edition a while back. The spec system looks really basic, but it gets fairly deep with runes and legendary items. What amazes me the most is the speed, there are a ton of graphical effects popping on high level gameplay, and zero slowdown even with 100+ enemies casting spells constantly. I’ve maxxed two characters so far and gearing them now.

So I posted recently about something with Hollow Knight and how I was too fat fingered to do the white palace Well before I wrote that I got as far as the room that has the secret wall to the Path of Pain. I resigned myself after going at the normal way it for hours and getting stuck there. After writing , I tried to have a go at it again and reading guides to what to do, I finally got through it after an embarrasing amount of hours... now I know it is a skill issue I have with platformers and I was hating myself the whole way through while using a keyboard. I hated doing it, felt like the game was going to break me but I carried on cursing the game for every inch of progress I made. I can acknowledge that the White Palace was well made ( although the saws and spear mechanisms will probably give me nightmares) , felt a bit overtuned on the timings, but again what do I know I am horrible with platforming in general. If the normal white palace gave me this much trouble, then I will probably get aneurysms trying to do the path of pain and give respect to those that have will to do it I don't wish to discourage anyone from playing the game though, my embarrasing amount of hours I put into completing the White Place is more an effect of me literally brute forcing my brain to get timings right and then playing a section at a time that the many sections on an obstacle becomes one set piece action when I stop thinking and let muscle memory take over

I'm really only now getting heavy into emulators and I've been playing a lot of PS2 titles on my android phone. That's rocky enough that I know 360 emulation on a phone would be trash. But how is it on PCs? Program recommendations? Advice? Thanks! Totally not doing this just because I'm finishing up RDR2 and I need to know the rest of the story from the original, nope not at all.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/706764 > So I consider myself a very casual Pikmin fan. I haven't played the first 2 since they came out for the GameCube, and have only played some of the 3rd one back on WiiU. So with Pikmin 4 around the corner and Nintendo shadow dropping the first two on Switch, I figured it was time for a replay. > > I just completed Pikmin 1, and what an absolutely fantastic experience. I think back when I was a kid playing the first one may have been just a bit too much strategy for me to comprehend. But now may years later, I just absorbed myself into it. > > Pacing out every day to explore the areas and devise a strategy of what I could reasonably tackle, judging if I should spend the day going straight for ship parts or doing pikmin harvesting... It all comes together with such an incredible sense of flow. The 30 Day time limit really makes you consider all of your actions. And it seemed like an intimidating limit at first, but the 30 Day cycle was much more forgiving than I expected. Even if I had a rough day, I could at least put my Pikmin away and just run around and assess the areas as Olimar. > > And even as just an upscale, the visuals are brilliant. I love that early GameCube era look of games like this and Luigis Mansion.The way the environments and camera are designed do a great job making you feel like a tiny man in a big strange world. > > I feel like I've fallen in love with a franchise all over again. I'm starting Pikmin 2 tonight, and can't wait to play 4 next month. If you haven't tried out this series, please do yourself a favor and grab at least the first game on the eshop. It's a perfect slice of pure Nintendo.

All three games are on sale on steam for the first time since January 2022 (to the best of my knowledge). If you’ve never given them a shot, now is the best time to do so as they don’t go on sale very often at all

A little over a year ago, my wife and I finished playing persona 5 Royal and were eager to find another big rpg to play together. We went to the store and this bold, yellow game case covered in wild imagery sat on the shelf. It was yakuza like a dragon. This would be our first time entering the like a dragon franchise and it certainly wasn’t the last. Since then, we’ve played like a dragon 7, 0, Kiwami, Ishin and the spin offs Judgement and Lost Judgement. All of the games fabulous and, importantly, all games have independent enough narratives that it doesn’t really matter where you choose to get on board. If you like big, narrative games, chaotic characters, eclectic and deep gameplay, and you don’t shy away from some intense tonal whiplash, DO NOT sleep on this franchise any longer. Where I live, most of the games are on PlayStation plus, so you don’t have to go out of your way to buy them if you’re a subscriber. Otherwise they’re on frequent sale.

A wonderful rougelike that does not get talked about as much as it deserves, give it a shot now that it is on sale! the combat system is wonderful with tons of spells and ability to chain them together, it feels really fluid. spells feel a lot like avatar lol

I tried a couple of times to make https://www.reddit.com/r/cuttingedgegaming/ happen, but never reached many people. This community seems to mostly folks playing 1-2 year old games, I wonder if there are more of us who are playing older (but not "retro") games, particularly PC games?

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/740791 > When I got into HLL back in 2021, it was a one of a kind experience of strong community, teamwork, and a balance of realism, strategy, and "arcadey" enough to not get boring. I am fairly concerned that T17 will not be able to maintain the games popularity / enjoy-ability going forward. > > My hope is that they can turn it around, but knowing how modern game development goes from larger studios, it's not looking good imo. > > **Anyone who's lurking around here, I'd like to hear your thoughts on what you think the future holds for this game, whether it still has a chance or is really doomed.**

Games included: - [The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition](https://store.steampowered.com/app/578650/The_Outer_Worlds/) - [Temtem](https://store.steampowered.com/app/745920/Temtem/) - [Yakuza 4 Remastered](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1105500/Yakuza_4_Remastered/) - [Roadwarden](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1155970/Roadwarden/) - [Kraken Academy!!](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1158220/Kraken_Academy/) - [Merchant of the Skies](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1040070/Merchant_of_the_Skies/) - [Ozymandias: Bronze Age Empire Sim](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1768280/Ozymandias_Bronze_Age_Empire_Sim/) - [Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1972440/Shotgun_King_The_Final_Checkmate/)

- [BioShock Remastered](https://store.steampowered.com/app/409710/BioShock_Remastered/) $4.99 / A$4.98 (-75%) - [Bioshock: The Collection](https://store.steampowered.com/sub/127633/) $11.99 / A$15.99 (-80%)

**Update:** As pointed out by Twitter user @videotechx, Rockstar actually spoke to releasing two “new iterations of previously-released titles” that are strictly ports or remastered titles (and not sequels) in Rockstar’s FY 2024, which is any time between March 2023 and March 2024.

Hello fellow patient gamers, this is a cheeky self-plug for [email protected], a community I've created to post limited-time full-game free giveaways. The reward for being patient is that sometimes you get freebies; post them here if you spot them first, or comment to say whether it's a must play for everyone or if zero cost is still too expensive!

TL:DR at the bottom for the impatient. When I sit down to play a game, I want to be completely immersed. I want to completely forget about the world I'm in, and believe, for just a few hours, that the world I'm experiencing in the game is genuine. I want to care so much about the characters and environment that I feel actual emotion as the story progresses because in that moment, it's all really happening. And no game has ever accomplished this in the same way that OneShot does. Somehow OneShot achieves this with a fairly short, 5-10 hour session. The game is a pixel-style top-down RPG that details the adventures of a young child named Niko that has been trusted with the sun of a dying world. The mission you're given is to make sure Niko arrives home safely. Her memories are gone, so her only guide through this land is you. Together, you and Niko must return the sun and restore life to the world. Now, if what I described sounds pretty underwhelming, it's because that's not even 10% of what the story has to offer. I will attempt to refrain from any spoilers, but OneShot is a game best experienced completely blind. If you're even a tiny tiny bit interested, stop reading now and go buy it. It's currently $6 on Steam. Throughout the story, the game continues to demonstrate that the world is not just a game. Niko speaks about motives and desires with a naivety that I'd expect from a real human child, while the game continues to remind you that she is, in fact, very real. As the game progresses, it becomes more and more alive, until the program itself is breaking boundaries and lashing out through the screen. All of this is done in an effort to make sure Niko goes home safely. The game culminates in a terrible choice that will leave you crushed. And if the game ended there, then I'd say this was an amazing, 9/10 game that you should really play. But the game doesn't end there. You're in fact, only halfway done with a story that will make you question everything you thought you knew about what a game can be. And once you complete that, then you've completed what I believe to be one of the greatest games ever made. TL;DR: OneShot is a game that will throw you for a loop by saying and doing things that I guarantee you've never seen in a video game. Immersion is not something that is talked about a lot in the medium, but it goes a long way in selling how truly real a world feels. In that respect, OneShot is easily the most immersive game I've ever played, with characters and plot threads and dialogue that will have you question if what you're experiencing is just a simple game. OneShot is tied with Stardew Valley for my favorite game of all time, so of course in my book this game is an absolute perfect 10/10. You'll never look at pancakes the same way again.

For example, I didn't fall in love with Titanfall 2's environmental art design---it felt a bit generic to me, like it was meant to be the backdrop for a shooter, as opposed to the Sevastopol in A:I or the station in SOMA that felt like existing locations. Ditto BioShock: Infinite. The world felt like it was built around the premise of being an arena shooter, not the other way around. BioShock 1 & 2 are exactly what I'm talking about though. Even Borderlands 2 has great world-building: the corporate history that can be inferred from the level design, the weapons & the NPCs makes it one of the richer games I've played. Would love to hear others' thoughts on your favorite FPS environments!

I thought this was a really intriguing video essay on how the old Thief games from decades ago stack up against more modern (at the time, anyway, the video is nearly 10 years old itself!) AAA Games.

Sekiro is possibly the most well-made game I’ve ever played. I know that’s a bit of a high praise, and I’d like to point out that I’m going to be going through the Dark Souls trilogy again soon, and getting 100% completion on all of them for the first time, so my opinion may change in the future, but for now, Sekiro remains the best game I’ve played. It’s also the closest thing to perfect I’ve ever played as well. I’ll be honest, when I first played Sekiro, I thought it looked awesome but was just too frustrating to play. Being a Souls veteran, I found the deflection mechanic too difficult to figure out and my dodge instincts were too strong to undo. I quit it for a while. But eventually I was drawn back to it, and I gave it a real chance. I’m glad I did. Once it finally clicked, it quickly became an obsession. 100 hours later and I had all achievements, played through a number of NG+ and did almost everything I could do in the game other than challenge runs or modding. I’ve played it more since then and it’s never gotten boring, despite not being an RPG which is the only genre I’d usually replay. The combat is immensely satisfying, and the rush I felt after killing bosses is unlike anything I’ve felt in another game, Souls or otherwise. I think that’s largely due to the combat really requiring you to be good at the game. With Souls games you can sort of get away with dodging away and only attacking when you’re ready and then backing off. If you’re patient you can beat the game without needing to become tuned into the game. With Sekiro it demands you to git gud or you’re not getting anywhere. What this means is that once you finally do beat a tough boss, you know it’s because you’re good at the game. There’s no over-leveling or upgrading your sword or anything like that. The only way you’re beating the boss is by getting better at the game. Another point to touch on that I’ve only briefly mentioned so far is the visuals. Man, this game is stunning. It’s only 4 years old so the graphics are obviously still holding up, but the art style is also just so good (though, that’s no surprise, FromSoft are masters of art design). I won’t spoil anything but assuming you do the good ending, the last area of the game has one of the most breathtakingly beautiful scenes I’ve ever seen. The colour palate is just incredible. If you’ve ever played Elden Ring and can remember that first time seeing the royal capital, when the music kicks in and the area message pops up, it’s like that, but somehow sustains that feeling all the while you’re exploring. Truly incredible. I could count the flaws of this game on one hand, and none are very big, which I think is the only time I could ever say that about a video game. As I already mentioned, the closest to perfect I’ve ever experienced. I could go on but at some point people would probably stop reading, so I’ll wrap things up here, but if you’re reading this just after I’ve posted it, the game is currently on sale on Steam for half price and I’d highly highly highly suggest picking it up. I’d also be more than happy to help out anyone with this game if you’re stuck, I’ve got a good amount of experience playing it. I’d also be happy to answer any questions anyone has. I’m making the poor decision to post this shortly before going to bed so I might take a few hours to respond but I suppose that isn’t too bad for a patient community, eh?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1977735 > Wow. What an experience. > > It wasn't all smooth sailing. I even took a month break thinking I might not come back to it, but boy I'm glad I did. > > I'm new to souls like, only having played Elden Ring before this (which was amazing). Sekiro was a game that I picked up afterwards, and struggled with early on. It felt like a departure to everything I'd learned in gaming to this point. You don't want to dodge, you want to deflect. Holding block helps you recover. Parrying will beat a boss quicker than trying to drive down their health. Once these things start to click, defeating bosses feels like a true accomplishment. > > Fighting the end game bosses had my heart rate going like no other boss battles I can remember. Elden Ring had some memorable and awe inspiring bosses, but the feeling in Sekiro when you're about to break the posture of a boss for a final deathblow was indescribable. > > If there's anyone left who hasn't given Sekiro a go, do yourself a favour. It takes some time for it to click, but when it does, it's something special.