Animal Well – I picked it back up lately on the Steam Deck and fully appreciated the layering of the puzzles. Unique dark 8-bit art style with modern physics/lighting. There’s practically no text in the game and no instructions at all.
I finished Outer Wilds a couple days ago, I really liked it a lot. I had heard everyone say to go in completely blind and I had the impression that there was going to be a major twist or change in gameplay, but the reason that’s good advice is the magic in the game is in the exploration and discovery. There are some moments that just made me feel awe and wonder. Progress is entirely in the form of understanding, so starting the game for the first time after reading up a lot about it could be like introducing yourself to mario on world 4.
The first few hours I wasn’t fully into it, but there was just so much to explore. By the time I actually needed to take a couple hours on something and smash my head against the wall, I was already hooked and was willing to take that time to make progress on my own.
I haven’t had the attention span for more than short pick-up-and-play sessions lately, so I’ve been trying out Psycho Pinball for the Sega Genesis on my handheld emulation console. I’m not very good at it, but I’m having fun!
Started up Final Fantasy VI T-Edition this week, very early in. Mog absolutely wrecked face on the guard boss fight, that was funny. It’ll be fun to use chars in different ways, and I don’t even know what all is different yet.
Still working my way through Monster Hunter Generations: Ultimate on Ryujinx. Old-school Monster Hunter just has something special about it, and I’m really loving my time with the game.
For this game I’ve expanded my weapon repertoire to include Great Sword, Longsword, Switch Axe, and Lance (and Prowler, of course). Weapons I’ve explored in other games and didn’t really click with are S&S, Boomstick, and Bow, so I’m not planning to use them for this playthrough.
200 hours in so far, and I’m not even out of Low Rank yet (though I am doing every normal quest, so…).
I picked Lance up when I played World and absolutely loved it. It’s a weird feeling to be essentially invincible in a Monster Hunter game of all things (as long as you don’t fuck up), and I am very much here for it.
But yeah, I love the slower, more methodical combat of the older games.
Next to Baldur’s Gate 2 and Icewind Dale, which will probably take several more months at least, I’ve also been playing through the Syberia series. I’m now on Syberia 3, and I must admit it’s frustrating at times. The controls are awful. As an example: I literally had to frantically rotate the mouse for several minutes to rotate a crank ever so slowly.
It’s a shame because the world of Syberia is one with real character, and even though that’s less apparent than in the previous games, it’s still there.
I have good hope that the next game, Syberia: The World Before, will be better again.
How are you liking BG2? It’s still one of my favourite games, even though I recognise nostalgia is a big part of it. Was one of my comfort game for years.
It’s great - I love both cRPGs and the Forgotten Realms (ever since the days of Eye of the Beholder and the gold box series). But it’s also a bit too much sometimes. You’ll be doing a quest, and you’re approached by an NPC starting a different quest while party members are nagging to do theirs first and as you’re standing there trying to decide what to do first, a group attacks you for yet another quest.
I’m exaggerating a bit, but I really had a moment where two events happened at the same time, while I was on another quest.
It can be a bit like that, for sure! It’s one of the spots where it shows its age I think, it was really the first western CRPG with these types of companion missions and I don’t think they had all the scripting and timings nailed down just yet.
Are you using any mods? And what’s your party composition?
It’s my favorite ‘conquest’ type of game. Been playing it off and on for many years. I would call it ‘simple but deep’ in the same sort of way chess is. I dare even call it elegant. I like how it forces you to take calculated risks, lest you be overrun by the enemy. But there’s still a time and place to turtle up.
There’s an excellent free, online clone called Konkr. I highly recommend checking it out of this interests you.
Look, I may have spent the past several weeks playing Path of Exile non-stop. But I’m back on SOMA now. Back to slowly walking on the ocean floor and being interrupted by monsters while I read lore notes.
It’s also time to start up TF2 again, since a new community MvM event has started on potato.tf.
I started replaying Klonoa: Moonlight Museum, this time with its fan translation so I get the story and RetroAchievements I missed before. The developers dealt with the WonderSwan’s terrible display by turning Klonoa into a chill little puzzle platformer, a design they repeated twice on the GBA.
I’ve not been particularly patient this week, because I’ve been playing Titanium Court. But I will claim to get away with it because they have a 20% launch sale, so I am at least adhering to part of the patient gaming ethos: don’t buy games at full price.
I will now attempt to talk about Titanium Court without actually telling you anything about it, because this is one of those games you should go into completely blind, if possible. And also because, well… this game is not particularly easy to describe. Here goes: Titanium Court answers the question “what if David Foster Wallace made a modern interpretation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a match-3 game?”. Okay, that was a little vague maybe. How about this (and knowing I’m likely to antagonise half the internet here): Titanium Court is like Undertale for adults.
It’s a game that delights in surprising you, and I recommend giving it the chance of doing so. Whether it’s a clever joke, a surprising emotional moment, a genuinely thought provoking piece of writing or a brilliant mechanical twist, the game has a lot of them in store for you. This is in my opinion a great use of the 2-hour Steam refund window policy. You will not have seen nearly everything of the game in that time, but you will almost certainly know if you vibe with it or not.
It’s a game where you have a grid of tiles, and if you slide one tile so that you line up 3 (or more) of the same symbol, they disappear - and you get some points, typically. Think Candy Crush, although there is multitude of other variations too.
Now, Titanium Court is a lot more than just that. It just uses the match-3 framework to riff on a sort of autobattler/tower defense roguelike gameplay loop, which works surprisingly well on a mechanical level.
That is also just the basic gameplay loop of it, however. There is a lot more to the game than that, but again all of that is best discovered first hand.
I managed to find a workaround for my Easy Anti-Cheat issue so I’m back to The Division 2. Well, kinda.
I once again ended up installing the first game and spent some time alternating between the two to compare them - it’s something I do pretty much every time I’m in the mood for TD.
As much as I like TD2, I refreshed my realisation that in many aspects I still prefer the first game. I actually made a simple list last night of what I like about each game and it turned out way more one sided than I thought it would.
TD1:
Atmosphere
Game world
Enemy factions
Writing
Slightly slower pace (movement, combat. looting)
Cosmetics (UI and items themselves)
Dark Zone
Exotic weapons (in regards to looks, TD2 ones are hideous)
TD2:
Improved cover system
Armour and weakpoint systems
There are also some things I keep going back and forth on, mainly: gunplay and skills. Which game I prefer for these elements depends on how I feel and what I’m looking for at the time. This week, the first game comes out on top as well but, again, it’s more of a temporary decision compared to everything listed above.
Anyway, this is just a simple comparison without much thought put into it. I’m sure I could get more into details of specific systems and add a ton of conditions on when one is better than the other but it was a fun time waster after finishing a day with both titles.
If only there was a way to play the first game on the updated engine…
I looked through my backlog and finally decided to play Heat Signature. It’s pretty fun, my only qualm is the lack of armor-piercing weapons and the abundance of armored guards.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
A gaming community free from the hype and oversaturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game. Whether it’s price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don’t meet the system requirements, or just haven’t had the time to keep up with the latest releases.
Animal Well – I picked it back up lately on the Steam Deck and fully appreciated the layering of the puzzles. Unique dark 8-bit art style with modern physics/lighting. There’s practically no text in the game and no instructions at all.
still bg3. so close to level 12 to see if my end game builds work out.
I finished Outer Wilds a couple days ago, I really liked it a lot. I had heard everyone say to go in completely blind and I had the impression that there was going to be a major twist or change in gameplay, but the reason that’s good advice is the magic in the game is in the exploration and discovery. There are some moments that just made me feel awe and wonder. Progress is entirely in the form of understanding, so starting the game for the first time after reading up a lot about it could be like introducing yourself to mario on world 4.
The first few hours I wasn’t fully into it, but there was just so much to explore. By the time I actually needed to take a couple hours on something and smash my head against the wall, I was already hooked and was willing to take that time to make progress on my own.
After spending way too much time walking about doing random stuff, I finally bit the bullet and joined the Stormcloaks. Yep, I’m still playing Skyrim.
I’m still playing Skyrim after 5k hours. I get it.
I haven’t had the attention span for more than short pick-up-and-play sessions lately, so I’ve been trying out Psycho Pinball for the Sega Genesis on my handheld emulation console. I’m not very good at it, but I’m having fun!
Started up Final Fantasy VI T-Edition this week, very early in. Mog absolutely wrecked face on the guard boss fight, that was funny. It’ll be fun to use chars in different ways, and I don’t even know what all is different yet.
Still working my way through Monster Hunter Generations: Ultimate on Ryujinx. Old-school Monster Hunter just has something special about it, and I’m really loving my time with the game.
For this game I’ve expanded my weapon repertoire to include Great Sword, Longsword, Switch Axe, and Lance (and Prowler, of course). Weapons I’ve explored in other games and didn’t really click with are S&S, Boomstick, and Bow, so I’m not planning to use them for this playthrough.
200 hours in so far, and I’m not even out of Low Rank yet (though I am doing every normal quest, so…).
Here’s to another 1k+ hours! :D
Oh man MHGU is the good stuff. I really like the deliberately slow/methodical game feel from that time period. I was always a lance/bow sort of guy.
I picked Lance up when I played World and absolutely loved it. It’s a weird feeling to be essentially invincible in a Monster Hunter game of all things (as long as you don’t fuck up), and I am very much here for it.
But yeah, I love the slower, more methodical combat of the older games.
Next to Baldur’s Gate 2 and Icewind Dale, which will probably take several more months at least, I’ve also been playing through the Syberia series. I’m now on Syberia 3, and I must admit it’s frustrating at times. The controls are awful. As an example: I literally had to frantically rotate the mouse for several minutes to rotate a crank ever so slowly.
It’s a shame because the world of Syberia is one with real character, and even though that’s less apparent than in the previous games, it’s still there.
I have good hope that the next game, Syberia: The World Before, will be better again.
How are you liking BG2? It’s still one of my favourite games, even though I recognise nostalgia is a big part of it. Was one of my comfort game for years.
It’s great - I love both cRPGs and the Forgotten Realms (ever since the days of Eye of the Beholder and the gold box series). But it’s also a bit too much sometimes. You’ll be doing a quest, and you’re approached by an NPC starting a different quest while party members are nagging to do theirs first and as you’re standing there trying to decide what to do first, a group attacks you for yet another quest.
I’m exaggerating a bit, but I really had a moment where two events happened at the same time, while I was on another quest.
It can be a bit like that, for sure! It’s one of the spots where it shows its age I think, it was really the first western CRPG with these types of companion missions and I don’t think they had all the scripting and timings nailed down just yet.
Are you using any mods? And what’s your party composition?
I’ve been playing a lot of Slay this week.
It’s my favorite ‘conquest’ type of game. Been playing it off and on for many years. I would call it ‘simple but deep’ in the same sort of way chess is. I dare even call it elegant. I like how it forces you to take calculated risks, lest you be overrun by the enemy. But there’s still a time and place to turtle up.
There’s an excellent free, online clone called Konkr. I highly recommend checking it out of this interests you.
Thank you for sharing. I just looked at the clock and it’s been three hours…
Look, I may have spent the past several weeks playing Path of Exile non-stop. But I’m back on SOMA now. Back to slowly walking on the ocean floor and being interrupted by monsters while I read lore notes.
It’s also time to start up TF2 again, since a new community MvM event has started on potato.tf.
I started replaying Klonoa: Moonlight Museum, this time with its fan translation so I get the story and RetroAchievements I missed before. The developers dealt with the WonderSwan’s terrible display by turning Klonoa into a chill little puzzle platformer, a design they repeated twice on the GBA.
I recently completed Mega Bomberman’s RetroAchievement set, then poked at its superior PC Engine version, Bomberman '94. It’s good classic Bomberman. I want to start playing the fantastic fan game Power Bomberman once my new MacBook Pro Linux Mint setup is more stable.
I’ve not been particularly patient this week, because I’ve been playing Titanium Court. But I will claim to get away with it because they have a 20% launch sale, so I am at least adhering to part of the patient gaming ethos: don’t buy games at full price.
I will now attempt to talk about Titanium Court without actually telling you anything about it, because this is one of those games you should go into completely blind, if possible. And also because, well… this game is not particularly easy to describe. Here goes: Titanium Court answers the question “what if David Foster Wallace made a modern interpretation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a match-3 game?”. Okay, that was a little vague maybe. How about this (and knowing I’m likely to antagonise half the internet here): Titanium Court is like Undertale for adults.
It’s a game that delights in surprising you, and I recommend giving it the chance of doing so. Whether it’s a clever joke, a surprising emotional moment, a genuinely thought provoking piece of writing or a brilliant mechanical twist, the game has a lot of them in store for you. This is in my opinion a great use of the 2-hour Steam refund window policy. You will not have seen nearly everything of the game in that time, but you will almost certainly know if you vibe with it or not.
For me, this is a frontrunner for GOTY.
What’s a match 3 game?
It’s a game where you have a grid of tiles, and if you slide one tile so that you line up 3 (or more) of the same symbol, they disappear - and you get some points, typically. Think Candy Crush, although there is multitude of other variations too.
Now, Titanium Court is a lot more than just that. It just uses the match-3 framework to riff on a sort of autobattler/tower defense roguelike gameplay loop, which works surprisingly well on a mechanical level.
That is also just the basic gameplay loop of it, however. There is a lot more to the game than that, but again all of that is best discovered first hand.
I managed to find a workaround for my Easy Anti-Cheat issue so I’m back to The Division 2. Well, kinda.
I once again ended up installing the first game and spent some time alternating between the two to compare them - it’s something I do pretty much every time I’m in the mood for TD.
As much as I like TD2, I refreshed my realisation that in many aspects I still prefer the first game. I actually made a simple list last night of what I like about each game and it turned out way more one sided than I thought it would.
TD1:
TD2:
There are also some things I keep going back and forth on, mainly: gunplay and skills. Which game I prefer for these elements depends on how I feel and what I’m looking for at the time. This week, the first game comes out on top as well but, again, it’s more of a temporary decision compared to everything listed above.
Anyway, this is just a simple comparison without much thought put into it. I’m sure I could get more into details of specific systems and add a ton of conditions on when one is better than the other but it was a fun time waster after finishing a day with both titles.
If only there was a way to play the first game on the updated engine…
I looked through my backlog and finally decided to play Heat Signature. It’s pretty fun, my only qualm is the lack of armor-piercing weapons and the abundance of armored guards.
This game is such a hidden gem.
Definitely working on 100%-ing Doom 2016
Either that or TF2 and Journey to the Savage Planet.
I’ve been playing some TF2 classified, which is mod that makes it like original TF2 back in the day. No lootboxes and such.
sick dude