- 0 Posts
- 17 Comments
Still playing through 2016 Doom. In my defense, this hasn’t been a great year for carving out time for gaming. I realized a couple days ago that I hadn’t even played anything in over a week (Dec 30th was the last day I’d played a game). Sad times being an adult with responsibilities.
Anyway, I’m hoping I finish the game soon. I don’t know if it qualifies as “patient gaming”, but I bought the Castlevania Dominus collection in 2024, which is the PC/Steam collection of DS Metroidvania Castlevania games. I played these games on the DS back in the day, still have them and my old DS, but I’m looking forward to playing them again. I mostly game on the Steam Deck these days and I think these games are a good fit for that hardware. They’re all really fun games that I look back on fondly, so here’s hoping I can get started on at least one of them in the next few weeks or so before my gaming season comes to an end.
During the few months of the year I consider to be my “gaming season”, I mostly stick to 1 game at a time as my primary focus, but I’ll often have a game or few on the back burner that I’ll work into the schedule now and then.
This year I’m focusing on the Doom remake (Doom 2016) as my main game. To be honest, the game is stressful for me, so even though it’s been an absolute blast for me to play, it’s nice to have some alternative games to switch over to after I’m done with Doom.
I agree, it’s very hard to keep up with the stories when juggling multiple games at the same time. Almost as hard for me, if not harder, is keeping up with the controls. Every game is different. Games in the same genre can and will have vastly different control set-ups. Even games in the same franchise / series can have different controls from game to game. Yuck.
So, the control aspect and the story aspect are part of my inspiration for my secondary games. Right now I’m playing Halls of Torment. I guess there’s a story? But it doesn’t seem super relevant or necessary to keep up with. This game is in the same genre as another secondary game I play (and the main one from last year) called Vampire Survivors. Controls for both of these games is super basic. As I mentioned, if there’s even a story line to them, it’s irrelevant to my enjoyment of them.
I also have the Castlevania Dominus Collection which is includes all the metroidvania-style Castlevania games from the Nintendo DS. I played all of them back in the day on original hardware, so there’s a great deal of “recall” in terms of controls and story. And this is probably one of my favorite genres of game.
I’m still trying to finish 2016 Doom, but life has been literally Deck blocking me for the past few months, so it’s been slow going.
If i finish that game in the next few weeks, I’m going to go back and give Doom Eternal another second chance again once more. I’ve given it a try a number of times, just like I gave 2016 Doom a try numerous times with no luck. However, this year Doom suddenly clicked for me, and I’ve been playing it every chance I get (which is not much or often), so I’m thinking that may translate into finding a bit of love for Doom Eternal, even though I know they are very different games with different approaches to game play.
If that doesn’t work out, then I’ve got a few games that I’ve technically “started”, but I haven’t gotten very far in. So, if and when I decide to pick them up again, I’ll either restart them because I’m not far along enough for it to make much difference OR I’ll continue playing but it’s so early in the game that it’s basically the same as starting from the beginning.
One game I’ve just recently been dabbling with is a slightly older game called “Halls of Torment”. Similarish in game play to one of my other favorites “Vampire Survivors”, it seems like a lot of fun. I’ve also recently purchased the Resident Evil 4 remake and it’s a nice dose of nostalgia even though I much prefer the wiimote controls of the Wii version that I first played it on.
I’m going to be honest, Hades II hasn’t really clicked for me yet and I’ve given it lots of tries. The first game had me hooked almost instantly, so I was hoping to find that same connection with the sequel. So far, it’s not happened. Having said that, I saw that there’s a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game in a similar style as Hades, so I got that to play. So far I like the game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Splintered Fate, but I’m not far enough along in it to have a strong opinion.
And my trusty, reliable back-up plan if nothing else works out? Castlevania Dominus Collection. The Castlevania “Metroidvanias” are my favorites. I’ve played all of these DS games on the original hardware, but it’s been so long since I played them, it will be like starting anew. Except in this case, there will be no question as to whether I will enjoy the game or not since I played them all before and loved them.
That’s too bad. No doubt I appreciate it Steam for what it is, even knowing that I don’t actually own any of the software I buy from them. That being said, I try to support GOG where/when I can.
Is there any “easy” way to get GOG games running on a Steam Deck? It’s been awhile since I last tried to look into it, but back then it seemed like a lot of steps and a lot of places to potentially mess up the process. I believe I kind of got something working at one point, but I’d honestly have to go back and double check.
Over the past year? Probably Vampire Survivors.
As of late? Doom (the 2016 reboot).
Of all time? I’m actually not sure, especially if you include my pre-internet / pre-always-being-spied-on-and-tracked history. But probably it would be one of the Street Fighter 2 iterations.
I don’t think I’ve even played 450 hours total of games in the past 25+ years, though. So, I’m probably a bit of an outlier around here.
From what I gather, the general consensus is that Doom Eternal is the better of the two most current (at this time) Doom games. That opinion is fairly consistent from reviews and posts I’ve read.
Doom Eternal is a go-go-go-go-go never stop moving always be shooting kind of game, as far as I can tell. IIRC there are even in-game hints that pretty much say “don’t sit still”. I’m just a super casual occasional gamer, so the always under attack game play in Eternal is a bit much while I’m also grappling with learning the controls since I don’t really play first person shooters.
So for that reason, Doom is currently a better fit for me and my preferences. The game play is broken up into exploration that’s punctuated with enemy encounters. And the encounters are largely set-up so that I can take on enemies at my own pace. Slower, more calculated, gives me time to think things through and consider strategy.
Also for some reason, the gyroscopic aiming wasn’t enabled by default on the Steam Deck when I tried Doom Eternal. There are some settings I can adjust that are supposed to enable it, but I haven’t spent much time testing those out. If I can make those work for me, then I suspect I’ll have a much better experience with Eternal than I’ve had thus far.
Currently I’m playing Doom (2016).
I have had it in my Steam library for years at this point and I have tried to pick it up and play it many times in the past. My attempts to get into it never worked out.
Earlier this year I remember reading some posts comparing Doom and Doom Eternal (plus there’s been some excitement about the new Doom game in development), so based on that, I decided to give Eternal another chance. Still wasn’t getting into the game but I remembered reading suggestions that Doom is a little more laid back and more of a take it at your own pace kind of game. So, once again I fired it up, and it drew me in this time.
It really helps that this is the first time I’ve tried playing it on the Steam Deck. Not only does it run decently well on the hardware, this is the first game I’ve played that takes advantage of the gyroscopic aiming. That has vastly improved my enjoyment since it makes aiming so much easier for me and takes a lot of the frustration out of the battles for me.
I don’t get much time to game, so I probably won’t be finishing the game for awhile. After I’m done, I may give Eternal another try. Then again, I’ve been itching for some Resident Evil game play and I have several of those waiting for my attention.
As a kid, by the time I started hearing about the system via video game magazines, which were kind of like miniature websites but printed on paper and then distributed via mail and stores, I was convinced it would be the next big thing. By the time it was launched, I knew it was going to be the new top dog in the industry. When I finally got my hands on one, it was (pardon the pun) game changing for me.
The system definitely had its flaws, but it was an evolutionary step up and order of magnitude bigger than anything I’d ever experienced before.
And go figure, it was the last system I owned before I stepped away from the gaming hobby for nearly 2 decades. Life, uh, got in the way.
Have you tried the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate game? I have not played it much at this point, but what little I piddled with it seemed enjoyable. For what it’s worth, I’ve played Hades and Cult of the Lamb and really enjoyed them both. I have not played Slay the Spire, though.