That’s great to hear. I don’t mind a hard challenge now and then, but it’s also nice to just have an easygoing narrative and more cinematic experience in between so you don’t get exhausted.

If you want another roguelike deckbuilder addiction to substitute (or tide you over until StS 2 drops) I can’t recommend Chrono Ark enough.

Sounds good to me! Is it difficult or just a “going along with the ride” type of experience? Trying to get a feel for when to schedule it in.

Patent trolls are absolute scum of the earth.

How are you liking A Plague Tale? I have it on my docket for sometime this year.

Chrono Ark

I’m at the “end” of the story. I have one more run to get the first ending, and then an uncertain amount of optional grind to get the true ending. I will probably reserve my final thoughts for when I see the endings, but overall this game has been fantastic. Regardless of what you think of the story I’d say the gameplay is solid enough to be worth giving it a shot if you enjoy the genre, and if the story interests you then that is just a cherry on top. Despite not really being that into anime I found myself enjoying several of the characters and getting pretty interested in the plot once it got going, and I’m intrigued to see how it closes out. Mechanically I think it’s just really great, with both solid core gameplay and some really fun and interesting boss designs.

Ninja Gaiden 4

I haven’t played a whole lot this week, but I finished another chapter. Still very early on in the game. It’s very good. I have some issues with it (and it’s one of the most egregious offenders of “yellow paint” in recent years) but overall it’s a great Character Action Game. In some ways it feels more like a cousin to the earlier entries than a core family member - removal of specific combo strings combined with addition of parrying and stance switching has altered the DNA quite a bit. That being said it’s fantastic in its own way and really fun and fluid. Plus the bosses are actually good in this game (so far), which is… not really something you can say about previous games.

Ninja Gaiden 2 Black

The fantastic “White” mod is about to get a huge update with more or less 1:1 recreated spawns of the original NG2, and at the same time a Modified Moveset Mod released, so I had to to back and play some of the best chapters. NG2 combat still is really something special, and the moveset mod really makes it even better.

Totally agree with you about the Alan/Saga stories: Saga’s side is a very competent survival horror with great gameplay, but Alan’s side is just so brilliant - especially the reality re-writing with scenes and light shifts.

Also surprised this was the first time you watched the short film!

Huh, had no idea that game existed but that does look pretty different from what we usually see.

I’m glad to hear it’s in a good spot, at least. I will always have a soft spot for EVE and how unique it is, and all the emergent stories and player-driven action it creates. So I want it to thrive again.

For me though, I am not sure I have another EVE stint in me. It’s not so much a game as it is a hobby, and I am content these days with being able to actually play and finish concrete narrative games that have a beginning and end, you know?

Plus the social aspect of getting to know new people is daunting, and my old crew has all quit and disbanded sadly. Large wars are always fun though, and I do miss gatecrashing battles and doing bombing runs…

Well no, I’m mostly interested in games with a side of romance. I would expect to be able to hold actual romance games and visual novels etc to a higher standard. Though actually it would be interesting to compare the best romance game/visual novel romance to the best “video game romance”.

This brings me to an interesting question, only briefly touched upon in the article (and with too few examples): which is the best video game romance so far?

Yes. If you can play it maxed out it’s one of the best looking games ever, still. Hell, even on medium settings it will look good. Not only a phenomenal graphics engine with great ray tracing and visual fidelity but also a superb HDR implementation. And on top of all that the art direction is absolutely top shelf stuff.

Plus, of course, one of the best narrative experiences ever while simultaneously playing like a really tight and solid survival horror.

It’s in my top 3 games of all time.

How is it, these days? Playerbase healthy? Game balance any better lately? It went downhill for a few years after the change of ownership, but I haven’t been plugged in for a few years now.

I’m pretty sure OD Diner is meant to be both. Doesn’t it say Alan has “various addictions under his belt” in one of the manuscript pages somewhere?

Chrono Ark

I’m decently deep into it now, and I keep enjoying it immensely. The only unfortunate thing about it (depending on how you look at it) is that it’s really rather long. I had for some reason thought this could be a medium-length game I could get through in a reasonable time frame and feel good about finishing. Instead it’s probably something of a 100-hour affair if you want the true ending - which is on par for the JRPG influences I suppose. I am also in finding that each run being around 3 hours in total is maybe a tad long: if you ever fail against the end boss it’s easy to get frustrated as you need to beat it every time in order to progress the story. And the story is quite important to the game, while the meta progression (which happens even on failed runs) is rather limited. So it can sometimes feel like you wasted 3 hours if you experimented with a new team and didn’t get there.

In the end though, this is more telling of the fact that the story is actually quite interesting, since the frustration is more stemming from the fact that I want to progress further in it and get impatient at a failed run. Otherwise not much to say about gameplay, it’s a really solid and fun roguelike deckbuilder. Every character is very well designed and unique, there are many combos and synergies and there is a lot of variety in every run with various unlocks, card upgrades and so on. If you like the genre, you would love this. Really can’t recommend it enough.

Ninja Gaiden 4

Played a couple of chapters so far, still on the Hard difficulty. Really liking the bosses so far, this has previously been a weak point in the series but have delivered here so far. I am pushing myself a bit playing on Hard, but I have been able to manage it thus far. I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of adding parrying and deflecting to a Ninja Gaiden game, but it really does make the bosses a lot more fun.

The general combat (outside of bosses) feels really good, but it’s still somewhat weird to not have fighting game style specific strings to work with, and I don’t know how to feel about that. On the one hand it’s much more dynamic and free flowing than ever, but I still miss memorising specific strings like “okay, XX->XY with the dual katanas is a guaranteed decapitation against humanoids, I’ll use it here” etc.

Overall though it’s the best Character Action Game in years and if you like the genre you should definitely play it.

Aren’t inflation-adjusted prices for video games quite low, comparatively? Charts like this comes up in a quick search: https://infographicsite.com/infographic/console-game-prices-inflation-adjusted/

Had no idea this existed. Saving your comment for the future, and that idea sounds kind of fun. If I could get over the anxiety of playing with strangers, at least.

Why take a risk on new IPs when you can milk existing ones for guaranteed profits? That’s just basic capitalism. Speaking of, I wonder if we’re due for another Last Of Us remake soon.

The reason no other alternative has taken off is that there is no other alternative. I hate Discord too, but there just isn’t a drop-in replacement.

Looks like an incredibly generic fantasy game with mediocre combat. I know that Gothic is more than that, but they’ve really not emphasized those bits in this trailer. If I didn’t know about Gothic already from other sources this trailer would give me absolutely zero desire to play the game.

Chaos Theory is an absolute all-timer and a must play for anyone even remotely interested in stealth games. Double Agent (Xbox version) is also quite good.

I never played Blacklist as I couldn’t get over the recasting of Sam and how different it looked, but I heard good things about the co-op in it. Always wanted to try it but never had anyone to play it with, so didn’t bother.

Yeah, that’s pretty much exactly it. It’s very good, and I say that as someone not really all that into anime.

If you’re looking for another roguelike deckbuilder while you’re waiting for STS2, may I recommend Chrono Ark? I am finally playing it right now after having it heavily recommended to me for a while, and it’s really excellent. Very fun gameplay and a surprisingly interesting story, once it gets going.

It’s been really cool watching the project evolve, it started out feeling like a cool kind of “oh yeah, I guess this is public domain now so you can do something like this” kind of vibe, and slowly it evolved and grew its own distinct identity. It’s so much more interesting now than the initial concept trailers.

Ultimately as an FPS it will live and die by its gunplay, but as long as it’s at least “good enough” I think the art direction and creativity will get it the rest of the way. Sort of the same as with Bioshock (which clearly was a big inspiration for the developers).

My backlog is so long that I don’t tend to look forward all that much, I just wishlist and move on and then check in around release for reviews to see if they’re worth keeping wishlisted or not. So I don’t have a huge handle on the exact titles that are slated to be released this year.

I have been following Mouse: PI For Hire for a long time, though, so I am quite looking forward to that one (provided it turns out good).

First time watching that clip and making the connection hit like a ton of bricks. Both Matt and Ilka really knocked it out of the park with the acting in that one, too.

Two of my favourite things in AW2 are the grafitti and

You know I’m usually against Australia’s insane video game censorships, but this time they may be on to something.

Believe me, if I knew I would tell you.

spent up to $10,000 on certain backer rewards from the game.

Dang people have way too much money.

Millennials with too much disposable income who want to recapture their childhood as they’re nostalgic for playing WoW around launch 20 years ago and are desperate for another MMO to release that will capture the magic (nothing will).

Source: a childhood friend who is sadly this exact person, and also got scammed by Ashes or Creation.

This comment is nine months old…

You seem to like Character Action Games so why not give the Ninja Gaiden series a go? You can emulate Ninja Gaiden Black for free on Xemu and even enjoy using save states to save yourself some frustration with unnecessary runbacks (this was removed in later entries). I think NGB is an all time classic, although it leans a little bit more into the adventure game style than later titles, that are pure action. You have some exploration, platforming and even an almost Metroidvania-like hub area you backtrack back and forth through and unlock new branches of.

Or if you want something more modern and pure high octane action you can start with Ninja Gaiden 4. More free flowing combos as opposed to specific fighting-game style strings like in previous games, but still fun. I’m only a few chapters deep but any fan of DMC or CAGs in general would enjoy it I think.

There is a great mod called ACUFixes you should look into.

Can’t wait for Alex Jones future rant:

They’re puttin’ Flourite in the engines turnin’ the friggin’ cars gay!

Shame, I feel like stealth co-op can be a really fun gameplay setup. Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven was the go-to game for me and my childhood friend whenever we went for couch co-op. I also had some fun with Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow back in the day

I’ve heard about people enjoying the co-op missions in AC: Unity, but unfortunately I personally never had any friends to play that game with, and I don’t really want to team up with strangers. But I feel like a co-op Assassin’s Creed could be good.

Damn, a Rooks and Kings reference in 2026? You’re making me want to go back too. Anatomy of a Fight was always my favourite vid of theirs, personally.

You were pretty much there for its peak, then. Those were the good days. I don’t know that I would be up for the time commitment these days, but I still miss those times now and then.

In most cases I can think of using DLSS with higher graphics settings will provide both better performance and a better image quality than turning down graphics settings and rendering natively. Also there is nothing “fake” about the DLSS frame rate. You might be conflating it with Frame Generation, which is a much less useful technology than DLSS and has much more noticeable drawbacks.

Return of the Obra Dinn would be a good fit, I think. A library setting would be a great reason to get players looking up books on nautical history.

Yeah I haven’t played it but I heard the stories. I haven’t played every year, but in general I would recommend either

• FM 2024 The latest “classic” version, has the most support, mods, relevant player database etc. Probably recommended for most players. Most feature-rich while still not being completely fucked like 2026 apparently is.

• FM 2017 I have this game still installed, though I haven’t played it in over a year now I think. I have my longest running save on this edition. Often comes up on top in votes for which FM has the best match engine. It still has some exploits if you look for them hard enough (every edition does), but for the most part all tactics are viable, the match engine feels good and you’re not forced into any one archetype.