Just got to Act III in Baldur’s Gate 3, and god damnit is it good. I played and loved the original 2 games when they came out, but I didn’t have the time to devote time to it when it came out on consoles in the summer. Glad I waited, and even more pleased that it lived up to the hype (and then some)!
I also started the Valhalla DLC for God of War Ragnarok, and it’s OUTSTANDING. it’s a great palette cleanser in between BG3 or if I just want a short play session since the runs are only 20 minutes or so. The Roguelite formula is perfect for GoW, and I’m really hoping more AAA games try something similar to extend their lifespan. I highly recommend checking it out.
I actually really liked it, but I stopped playing a month or so ago because it was buggy as hell and had several instances of crashes that would cause you to lose an entire mission’s progress (sometimes up to an hour’s worth of investment). Also, the framerate is insanely bad, and for no discernible reason since the graphics don’t seem to be that intense. There is a good game hidden in it, and I’m hoping the patch helps, but I’m not holding my breath.
I will agree with the other poster that already replied and say it’s MUCH better in Remnant 2. Variety in stages, story, and enemies are all much better, and the bosses/mini-bosses are more fun than the first. I loved the first game as it was a really great small party game to play online, but the second is better in almost all aspects. If you have Xbox, it just went on gamepass, and I think it’s worth your time to check it out.
As a side note, I will say that the final bosses in both games are absolute bullshit. It’s the one thing that they didn’t seem to listen to as far as criticisms from the first game. If you have a party you’ll be fine, but soloing can be tough.
I really loved:
I really DIDN’T love:
I think there were some middling games and some really great games this year, and even the ones I didn’t enjoy were just not for me, as opposed to actively being bad games. I’m not going to board the hyperbole train and say it’s the best year for games ever, but I think it was very strong and had a lot of variety which is good for everyone. Looking forward to 2024 when I get to play everyone else’s favorites in this thread :)
This is the most precise presentation about what I hated about Starfield. I gave up about 5ish hours in when the 3rd planet I landed on to explore was literally the same as the first two. Maybe it was just me, maybe it was unlucky lottery, but the fast travel to multiple boxes with the same ingredients shaken up slightly was enough to make me walk away.
If people liked it, I’m very happy for them, it just didn’t do it for me and I feel like it’s starting to be diminishing returns with Bethesda after Fallout 3/Skyrim (though I’m sure someone will correct me with an older drop off point).
As an outside the box option, have you thought about a single player turn based RPG as an option?something like Persona 5 for instance would have a good story, cute cat, and you could trade off on the battles while your partner would have input on the story beats and battle selections. I know it’s not 2-player really, but it might give you both a chance to steer the narrative and the choices together and you wouldn’t need to worry about them being overwhelm with complicated actions and inputs.
I started Starfield and dropped it after about 3ish hours (happy for you if you liked it, I just couldn’t find anything interesting there), beat Lies of P (could be the best of the non-Bandai soulsbourne games), and just started up The Lamplighters League (a fun X-com style game that’s good, but REALLY poorly optimized, so buyer beware).
Looking forward to Spider-man 2 though, only a few more weeks!
I hate these filthy Neutrals Kiff. With enemies you know where they stand, but with Neutrals, who knows. It sickens me.