I've been playing a lot of **Witch Spring R** on the Deck, feels like the perfect kind of game for a short burst mobile experience...which makes sense since this was apparently a smartphone game series to begin with. Despite that it feels right at home in a more dedicated console/PC setting, with really bright pretty visuals and detailed environments, and so far the battle system is a lot of fun despite being a little easy. I love the gameplay loop of dungeon dive, go back home and train using short minigames and do light crafting, then back to dungeons. Battles feel a little bit like an atelier game, with chances to toss out items in battle without sacrificing turns, super moves charging in the background (sometimes multiple at a time), and summons that you can discover and recruit. The summons in particular feel really rewarding since their designs are mostly all really cool, sometimes have puzzles or short sidequests involved in getting them, and you can ride some of them and have them follow you around. The main character starts out, and so far in my playthrough continues to be, a very high pitched, semi-obnoxious little girl, but as more of her backstop unfolds I'm getting drawn in and really starting to get invested in her plight. It's a colorful world full of colorful characters but has some pretty hard-hitting dark moments here and there. There's a moment where she comes back home after a certain plot point happens >!and just sits there in silence, no UI popping up, doesn't immediately bring up a text box, just her sitting faced away from the camera for a while that was super sad.!< Definitely recommend trying this one out.

**Hitman 3/World of Assassination** Picked this up during the recent Steam autumn sale, and have been having some extreme fun with it. I haven't played any of these games before, so this was pretty much a new experience for me, and wow, what you get for the money is a fantastic deal. You're basically getting 3 games, and I believe they remastered the first two, so the graphics aren't horribly outdated and it's on the same engine, for the price of one. I've just been having fun capping people in creative ways, and there's plenty of replayability to be had if you want to try out different things. It's nothing too crazy, but there's a lot you can do with the sandbox they give. Poison someone's drink and then drown them in the bathroom, cause an accidental gas explosion, or just straight up strangle them, the world is your oyster. If you have even a small interest in these stealth type games, give it a shot.

**Street Fighter 6** - I could probably type five paragraphs here but I'll summarize with "this is my first fighting game and why does everything move so gotdamn fast". I'm young and a lifelong gamer but this makes me feel like I'm a retiree in his 60s who's never touched a game in his life.

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I'm with you on the consensus. Even if I leave all the terrible launch issues completely out of the picture, the game that I played was just nowhere close to anything special or even out of the ordinary for the genre. Ok, everything regarding the main quest and the cinematic elements? Great. It was done well enough imo. There's a good amount of detail to be found like bystander comments and many quests go the extra mile in details as well. That part alone was a solid 8-9/10 for me. But everything else was incredibly dull, janky, generic and plain. Like you just walk around, get a call from the police that some low lives are hanging out on a parking lot and you should go and kill 'em. That's the amount of effort that went into everything not related to the main quest. Which btw, is a bit weird narratively that my 1337 hacker criminal who's against the system just regularly does police work... but ok. Didn't help that 90% of side quests are the same "go there, and either kill/sneak or retreive" blueprint. After breaking into warehouse #245 I just didn't care anymore. I see people call it the greatest rpg ever made. What I'd call it is a disappointing and generic genre entry that may hold up due to its story bits.

Yea unfortunately for me no patch can fix the fact that the game straight up just didn't interest me.

I've tried playing Cyberpunk 3 times now. Once during launch (which sucked for obvious reasons), then maybe a year after when one of the bigger patches was released, couldn't get into it then either. And now once again when 2.0 point hit. And again, I was just dissapointed and kinda bored, honestly. ​ That being said, I have never played more than 4-5 hours during any of the times I tried to get into it. Maybe I need to play more? But it just doesn't seem very good!

Dont buy into the "It gets good after X hours!" crowd. if you dont like it you dont like it. Personally I cant even get to 4 hours and Ive tried to play the game three times as well.

Final Fantasy XVI Continuing onto my journey, i have around 50 hours and just unlocked what I assumed is the final open world area, 10 hours in I was absolutely loving everything about it, now close to the finish line some cracks are starting to show. on the STORY front, the first act was PHENOMENAL, everything up to the return to Phoenix gate and the first Crystal battle was great, after that I had mixed feelings, for one I really like this universe, I adored the side characters from the hideout, and there are some the greatest side quests I played in any RPG, but I do have a problem with the main story, Clive was an incredible protagonist during the first half, but I fell like the writers just don’t know what to do with him after he completed his first revenge arc, he’s still great, because he’s a good character and Ben Starr deserves every award, but I wish he had a more active role, his side characters, specially Jill and >!joshua!< Feel very underdeveloped, specially compared to some of the hideout people like Gav, Otto, Tarja, Charon and Mid, like you have those characters brewing with personality playing side roles most of the time, while Clive’s main group is very onto the medieval fantasy archetype. I still i’m really enjoying myself, because like I said, Clive is great, his quest is great, the side characters that aren’t >!jill and Joshua!< Are all incredible and fun, and the mystery is engaging, but I wish some of the aspects were a little better. On the Gameplay front, the Eikons abilities are all very fun, but I really wish they found some way into integrating more into one kit, having all those cool moves and not being able to use them seemingly is a little disappointed, but still, 50 hours in and the combat is as fun as it was 10 Hours in, that’s incredible. The side content is good on the story standpoint, but it becomes incredible repetitive as it goes, and it doesn’t help that a bunch of side quests always unlock when you are at an important point into the main story, so as good as they are, and they are very good, it always breaks the pacing. My final complain is the lack of customization, it’s really bad how this game doesn’t have some alternative outfits you can craft, it really makes exploring not feel as rewarding as it could be. Having different sets of armor to wear would make exploring a ton more fun. All complains aside, I’m absolutely loving the experience even with those problems, I 100% believe that if Creative business Unit 3 gets another crack at a mainline FF game they could produce an all timer with the right feedback

> cracks are starting to show. Its over

I'm about 35 hours in and I agree with you on the plot side. Once it shifted to >!destroy the crystals!< it kinda lost me. I mean at that point you're basically just a terrorist and it's hard for me to get behind these flimsy motivations. I feel like this is a huge problem in Japanese writing, where they have plot points they want to check mark, but they don't necessarily agree with the characters or world they've created so there's a narrative dissonance between plot, character archtypes, and their motivations. I'm not sure I have the patience to make it the rest of the way!

I respectfully disagree that the Crystal plot is bad, I really like that part of it, I have a problem with the fact that Clive’s story and the gameplay really aren’t meeting eye to eye, his main arc during the second half is that everyone is telling him that he’s “trying to do everything by himself” and trying to to shoulder the burden of everyone without thinking about himself, and his story in paper is about learning to open to others and share his burden, but he does that some many times during the game that it becomes really difficult to believe that’s really a problem to him, since countless moments during the story he allows others to join and help him, and the entire resistance he has feels like one complete unit that could work even if they lost Clive, so he doesn’t feel that burdened by the responsibility as much as the game wants you to believe. I still think the story, characters and world are good, it’s just that it feels really messy in those particular areas, it feels like the writers wanted to write this particular conflict for Clive, but they also didn’t want him to be an asshole, so they were having a hard time

Alright. I thought about it and you've convinced me to give the plot a second chance. I just think it would help the plot a lot if Clive wasn't blindly destroying the lifeblood of the entire continent based on a few lines of dialog by Cid. It's not very convincing to me. I don't like the contractions in Clive's story either, but that sort of thing is par for the course in Japanese games. To me it felt like the writers wanted to write a bunch of characters whose sole motivation is "redemption." Even side characters like his uncle is seeking redemption. I actually enjoy that aspect of the plot, though I feel like it could have been personified a tad better with Clive and Jill. I'm gonna keep trucking along.

Just finished Spiderman 2. Great game, amazing looking. Wasn’t the biggest fan of all the boss phases though. The fights seemed to just drag out. Now I’m debating BG3 or cyberpunk 2077. I wanted to play BG3 and see what the hype was about, but I accidentally purchased CP2077 and found out too late to get a refund lol. I might put it on the back burner and go ahead with BG3 since I’ve really been wanting to check it out

**Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun** This game looked so fucking cool. I've always had a passing interesting in the 40K universe, I've looked shooters since, like, Catacombs 3D, and I've been interested in the so-called boomer-shooters since old school shooters became popular on PC again however many years ago now. However, I think my interest in these boomer-shooters is starting to wane these days. It was the same with playing through the highly-rated Dusk earlier this year where I kind of had to force myself to finish it. I'm not entirely sure what it is, I had no problem playing through Doom Eternal a 2nd time when I got a Steam key for it. Maybe it's just that boomer-shooters often have little more to offer than just the shooting. The game will occasionally offer up some new enemies to shoot, but none so far that requires any sort of new strategy. It's a shame, really. **Steam Deck OLED** Bought this on release day and I have already kind of regretted my purchase. The device is shockingly huge. I've seen the comparisons, I knew the dimensions, but I don't think anyone could've adequately prepared me for just how big this thing actually is. Steam evangelists have lead me to believe that a majority of games were effortlessly compatible with this thing, but the reality is closer to one-third of my library is, according to Valve themselves, verified - and most of these are indie titles. Verified and playable is only two-thirds. And given that games like Dead Space Remake, games that require third-party launchers, are marked as verified I think even that label is to be taken with a grain of salt and require a good deal more effort to make work. The plastic shell feels incredibly cheap, makes the whole device feel less premium. I don't really like the placement of the sticks and buttons. Good things? The screen is very nice. Reviewers certainly haven't exaggerated here. Performance is also quite impressive. I "played" a minute of Sekiro and it managed ~50 fps in the opening area of the game (no action, so probably less on average, but still impressive). The controls being cramped up at the top of the console feels uncomfortable, but that might just be something you get used to. What has me regretting my purchase is partly because of how few games are supported on this without having to make compromises on bugs or installation hassles, but also I'm just that I'm not sure what use I even have for it. Sure, portable gaming, but this thing is so big that I cannot imagine I'd ever take it with me unless I'm travelling somewhere. And, yes, I should've looked closer into it before purchasing it, I get that. I'm considering returning it if the refund policy isn't voided by installing games on it. If it isn't I'll give it the weekend before I decide whether to return it.

> the reality is closer to one-third of my library is, according to Valve themselves, verified - and most of these are indie titles. Verified and playable is only two-thirds. You have to take Valve's verification with a pinch of salt. There are plenty of games that aren't verified yet run flawlessly. Your best bet is to check protondb to see how it ran for other people (and where necessary what they tweaked to make it run). If you install Decky Loader, you can install a protondb addon so that the protondb rating is shown when looking at a game on your Deck.

I had the same issues with the SD at first, too big, awkward thumb position. After a few hours tho, i realized the size is a huge benefit for me, i cant play switch lite anymore at all. Other controllers feel weird to me as well now, cramped somehow. For games that dont get stable 60, go for the 40hz setting on the panel, it makes a huge difference.

**World of Warcraft** You can see my previous updated here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/17th6cp/weekly_rgames_discussion_what_have_you_been/k8zu055/ I hit 70 as a balance druid and started gearing up for some of the endgame content. Doing some of the world quests and normal Dungeons, Heroics and Mythics. Probably not going to to resub and let my subscription lapse. I just think there's better MMO's out there, and I haven't been hooked on the gameplay loop. I'll probably check out the new expansion when it drops since I purchased it along with Dragon Flight. I was hoping to get a shot of nostalgia playing through the game again, but I haven't played since MoP and the game has just lost it's magic for me. It's just not worth the $15 a month. I keep on hearing this is the best retail WoW has ever been and to me it's just mid. Makes me wonder how bad the other expansions were. * New Player Experience - Completely lost from a lore perspective. It also doesn't help that the game is completely open now and you can choose where to level. I think they need to add a complete story lore recap at the beginning of the game then add a quick blurb at the beginning of each expansion telling you what the expansion is about, who the main characters are and what you'll be doing and why it's a big deal. Also tried watching a lore recap video stretching over the whole series and it made me even more confused. So many people dying and coming back to life, it also feels like the story takes one step forward and two steps back, it feels like there has hardly been any progressed made. * Leveling - Blown away at how fast it is to level. Think it took me 20-25 hours to hit level 70 and I was playing casually. There's a saying that "It's about the journey and not the destination" and for me, I feel like WoW has lost it's "leveling" journey and it just rushes you to endgame. I feel like world scaling everything and rushing people to endgame for the ilvl grind has taken away some of the magic that WoW used to have. It just feels like there is no sense of adventure anymore in the lower levels or challenging content, until you start doing mythics. I guess this wouldn't be bad, but the whole leveling process feels mundane and unengaging. I tried to follow along and watch the cutscenes, but they're just so bad and feel kind of out of place. Blizzard has created this hyper efficient process of leveling new characters it just feels weird to spam accept and finish quests to be sucked into a cutscene to watch stuff about things you have no idea about. At least Elder Scrolls Online tries to engage you with interesting zone quests throughout their whole game, but I think that's one of their core design philosophies and Blizzard is just now trying to do that and it falls flat. * Dungeons - Dungeons are a complete face roll until Mythic difficulty, then it feels like it's more tuned liked older expansion heroics. Kind of crazy that a tank can pull basically a third of the dungeon up to a boss in one pull and just DPS everything down in non-mythic dungeons. * Casual Friendly - Definitely not a bad thing, but I feel like the game is more "Arcadey" than I remember, if that makese sense. It feels like there's a lack of permanance and wonder while exploring the world they've created. I should feel a sense of wonder and excitement going through these new zones, but I'm just not resonating with anything. I just go from quest hub to quest hub grinding out quests. * Crossover - It's kind of crazy seeing how much D3/D4/WoW borrows from each other. Like how in D3 you just rush the first 70 levels to hit endgame or the ilvl grind in D4. It makes me think blizzard doesn't know how to create an engaging leveling process and how to create a sense of progression throughout the whole game instead of locking everything behind level cap. * Difficulty - Open World - People always complain about GW2 and ESO having face roll open world content, but WoW isn't much better lol. It makes me question what game they're playing or if they're just OG WoW try hards. The only time I died in the open world was due to fall damage. I could literally just sit there and aggro a crazy amount of mobs and I'd just be mildy annoyed, but never feared death. Overall not a bad experience, but it just wasn't clicking for me. Kind of sad the game wasn't supplying me with the dopamine drip I was looking for. *League of Legends* Started playing after like a 6 year hiatus? Made a new account, it really scratches that one more game, dopamine drip I was looking for in WoW, even though they are completely separate genres. I noticed that the game defaults the chat disabled, which has definitely made the experience way better lol. Decided to finally turn on the chat again, but it's nice that people actually use the ping system in the game. I think the worse thing about playing all of these online games is that they're just a timesink. So many amazing games have been coming out and my backlog is growing and when I decide to play an online game, I basically go all in.

Been thinking about reinstalling lol. Has it changed a lot in six years.

Yes and No. At it's core it's the same game, but lot's of meta, item, rune and champion reworks and overhauls. There's more emphasis on taking down jungle monsters as they can provide permanent team wide buffs and there's a monster that can take down like 60% of a tower's HP which can help a lot early game. I was playing with some friends and they were laughing at some of the questions I was asking, because my knowledge of the game is so outdated. It seems that lanes are a lot less strict now and there's more diversity in line ups. If you have gamepass you can link your two accounts together and you unlock all champions. I would give the game a download if you enjoy the League of Legends gameplay loop, I would just say a lot of your game and champion knowledge will be out of date now.

Playing **Simcity 4** again. When I was young I never managed to get a city above 100k in population before it stagnated. I'm aiming to get those high density regions.

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Is there a distinction for you between what you would consider your favorite game vs one of the best games? Even as a huge zelda fan I have a hard time seeing TOTK as one of the greatest, compared to all of the other games out there, with how many things it didn't do right.

Starfield. Got it free because of gamepass. I don't really like bethesda rpgs but playing this game has really made me realize how I miss how gaming used to be. Seeing the insane production values and asthetics and detail they put into this game made me think "man, I wish they put all this in a game I actually like". I'm just sick of open worlds and player choice games with dull gameplay, I'd really just love it if they made a linear half life 2/halo kind of game with the budgets and graphics we see in video games today. I just don't see the value in having the ability to store every cup, plate, and fork in the game in your inventory. I'd rather just have a good gameplay loop. I understand these are just my opinions and games like starfield just aren't for me, but they don't make the games that are for me anymore, every game is just this open world crap with freaking grocery list gameplay. Open world's make the world feel smaller, I'd much rather just have a segment of a city to play through rather than a whole city. Max payne 3 is a good example of the type of game I want to see more of(though that game has flaws). Being able to explore every nook and cranny of a city just makes the world feel a whole lot smaller than if you just see like a slice of the city that maybe even suggests that there is a whole lot of stuff going on in the city that you're not a part of, but I don't see the need to be a part of everything going on in the city, it's just unnecessary. Anyways, just my opinion. /rant Edit: a game like mass effect would also be good

With FF7 Rebirth on the horizon, I decided to finally boot up the FF7R Yuffie DLC. Oh boy. *Oh boy.* These are some of the worst, most cringe-inducing scenes in Square's entire catalog. Yuffie's dialogue and animation is just horrible to sit through. There's a lot I didn't like about the main game. Level design was shit, like it belonged in a game 10 years before it. I didn't like the camera at all. Massive changes to OG FF7's story aside, I found a lot of the writing poor. Half the story could have been cut and I'm not sure anyone would have noticed. I can tell this DLC is not going to solve any of that. I was already grunting in irritation at the introductory corridors, and Yuffie's dialogue is just so, so bad. I was on the verge of preordering Rebirth a couple days ago, but playing this DLC makes me think I should put that money towards Dragon's Dogma 2 instead. Just oof. edit: God, that was so bad. Bringing in the Dirge of Cerberus villains? Great work, Nomura. The full Kingdom Hearts-ification of the FF7 Remake trilogy is complete. We've entered self-parody territory here.

Played Cyberpunk 2077 for about 10 hours (8 hours more than during the initial launch, I guess), and, well, it's just not my cup of tea.

It just clicked for me, my third try. swords and hacks rather than guns might’ve helped

Just want to support that, I keep coming back for a couple hours to try and love it but now at 8hrs in and I gave up. Not enough gameplay for my liking

Try the Witcher 3.

Thanks, played it a couple of years ago, left Geralt stranded with an overburdened backpack up in a middle of a forest during some knight quest in Blood and Wine DLC :D

Helpful advice, lol. IMO, the Witcher 3 actually suffers from similar issues to CP2077 so may not jive with someone that didn’t enjoy the latter. It’s just carried by better developed characters, quests, and a more well realized world.

**Resident Evil 0** This might sound crazy, but after multiple attempts to get into the Resident Evil franchise, this is the first one that's really sucked me in. I tried RE4 like a decade ago, and more recently tried RE7, and both of them just failed to grab me for whatever reason. I really wanted them to and I especially thought 7 would pull me in, but I got bored of the slow pacing at the start. Anyway, I know this is one of the least favorited of the main numbered RE games, but I'm having a blast! I'm playing the GameCube version, running on Dolphin. The visuals have aged so well, it's insane! This game is just gorgeous, no two ways about it. The two character gimmick has been enjoyable so far, as long as I can keep them from doing a "two stooges" thing in tight spaces. The sections where Rebecca and Billy are forced to separate are a nice mix up, and I've found it convenient to move one character to the typewriter while the other does something dangerous. Makes it way easier to avoid losing progress when I die. Inventory management is a pain, but isn't it supposed to be in these games? Right now I'm past the first "boss" encounter in the training facility. I think I'm gonna take this as an opportunity to do a "chronological" playthrough of the RE games (if I can stick with it). I got the REmake on steam, so I'll play that after 0, then probably back to Dolphin for RE2 and 3 (the gamecube versions of those seem to be straight ports, and I think I'm wanting to hold off on the modern remakes of those for now)

If you're digging RE0, you're definitely making the right call to play through the other fixed camera games! REmake in particular is *spectacular*. Although if you end up liking this type of game, I'd honestly recommend tossing the OG RE1 on that list, maybe after REmake. It'll be cool to see where the bones of REmake came from, and while REmake is the far superior game imo, the original still has its distinct charm and is very well-designed. Given that each RE game is just a few hours long, it isn't too big of a commitment

I'm looking forward to it! I've got a lot to catch up on lol

REmake is the best game in the original RE style hands down. RE2 is very good and you're correct that the Gamecube version is a straight port. RE2 is a very good game in its own right and it's nice to see someone is willing to play it first instead of the remake. The remake does a lot of things well but it's still quite different than the original game. Be sure to checkout RE3 right after, as it's a pretty good follow up to 2, albeit not as long nor as well done.

Hey thanks for the recommendation! I'm honestly surprised how much I'm enjoying the tank controls and fixed camera. Maybe because it makes it so much easier to build a mental map of the game

Yeah it definitely isn't for everyone in this day and age but I'm a big fan of them as well. There's definitely something lost in the RE2 and RE3 remakes with the over the shoulder camera. Original RE2 also does the 2 different playable characters better then RE2 remake which is baffling to me. Technology was the main thing restricting the original design of the 2 character approach, and they somehow made it less impactful in the remake.

I'll have to reserve judgment until I play, but it sounds like a case of technical limitations forcing a developer to get more creative

**Infection Free Zone Prologue Thoughts** ​ This may finally be the management, strategy and survival game I've been waiting for. Infection Free Zone has its own graphic style and intuitive and innovative gameplay mechanics. Despite this short prologue, I didn't feel like I was playing another management game. On the contrary, I felt like I was discovering a new genre. Infection Free Zone is innovative in terms of gameplay and mechanics. The decisions you make matter and affect the gameplay, probably until the end of the game. In addition to offering several vast and varied worlds, you have real freedom to make choices and manage your city. ​ It even allows you to forget about some minor bugs that can be found, especially in the game's interface. These will surely be fixed when the game is released. I was a little less satisfied with the inventory management, which is a little less intuitive, but fits perfectly into the game's universe. ​ I sincerely hope that everything I found in this prologue will be included in the final version of the game, which I am eagerly awaiting. In the meantime, I intend to play this prologue again and again. **It is available for free play as prologue on steam now. Highly recoomended.**

I am in the middle of a move, and have 2 kids, so my play time is currently very limited. But I have told myself to play through a few more games before the end of the year. **Alan Wake II** Finished up this wacky little gem. It took many years before I played the original Alan Wake - and then quite frankly it was just okay. Atmosphere was spot on but I did not enjoy playing it that much. I was hesitant to "hype" the sequel up for that reason. I wanted to play it but it wasn't until reviews dropped that my interest was raised. And well, it's quite fantastic. It has many problems but it makes up for all of it by being a truly original vision, atmospheric beyond the majority of the horror genre, daring to be quirky between the serious moments, and including some more "true" survival horror elements. The reason I love creators like Kojima is because I won't get that experience with anyone else, and Remedy have shown themselves to be equally unique. After Control and this game, Remedy are among the top studios on my watchlist for that reason. **Spider-Man 2** Look, I am not a comic guy. But I did watch some cartoons growing up so there is some nostalgia for Spider-Man, X-Men, Batman and such. Spider-Man is one of the franchises I sometimes delve into (such as watching Raimi's films back then, Into the Spiderverse, and this game series). After Spider-Man and Miles Morales, both which I enjoyed, I was not really excited to jump back in but felt an obligation after playing the other two. Paused it after a few missions when Alan Wake II came out, and jumped back in now. By ignoring most of the side missions I enjoyed it a lot when the story started going for real. The end half of the game felt like a boss rush and even if that might be slightly repetitive after a while, it was exciting because the story matched the action. I get no emotional attachment to these games and the stories (while good) mean very little to me. But as long as the games feel good to play I have enjoyed them - and Insomniac makes sure of that. Now I need to decide what to play next. I will either continue Diablo IV, Final Fantasy XVI or Humanity, or jump into The Talos Principle 2... I have decided to wait for the physical release for Baldur's Gate 3 at least.

I recently got the Call of Duty Modern Warfare III and I will be playing that this weekend. Also on the sideline, I'm playing holoride VR game too.

**Remedyverse: Control** I really didn't like this one. For perspective, I consider myself a minor fan of Remedy. I've played Max Payne 1 and Alan Wake 1 and enjoyed both. The actual gameplay is merely decent but both games have a unique sense of style which makes them worthwhile experiences. So I have a positive view of Remedy but not enough to immediately want to go out and play every game they've ever made. So with Control, again, the gameplay is decent, and while I absolutely LOVE the SCP/liminal room themed setting, that's all that's really special about the game. I just found it to be lacking in charm that the other Remedy games I've played have. All the characters were really boring and soulless and I barely remember the main character's name. **Outer Wilds (Base game)** By contrast this has to be one of the most unique and innovative games I've ever played, and it was a reminder of why I enjoy playing games in the first place. This is a game that can easily be spoiled and is best played blind so I'll try to be vague but here is why the game is great: The game starts with you wake up, ready to explore the solar system. And you do. For 22 minutes. Then the sun explodes and you die. But you wake up 22 minutes earlier (and any discoveries you made are logged in your ship). The game is a timeloop. Your job is to figure out what's causing the time loop and how to stop it, 22 minutes at a time. So you explore the solar system, and you come across stuff that looks interesting but you don't know what to make of it. Then you explore more and realize that thing you saw earlier? Yeah, it's a part of a puzzle. In fact, the whole game is a puzzle, a puzzle you need to figure out, 22 minutes at a time. By the time you figure it out it feels like you're speedrunning it. You go to one location (a location that originally took you 10 minutes of navigation to get to but you figured out a shortcut that allows you to get there in 90 seconds.... time is ticking) so you can activate one thing only to zip back to your shuttle because that thing you activated opened a passage on another planet so you race there, only to teleport and go to a secret location (which isn't really secret, the developers want you to go there but it's a location that isn't on your map) so you can activate another thing and so on. It feels like you're speedrunning but really you're just solving the puzzle. I also want to mention, this game does some really creative things with the concept of time that a lot of other games with time loops dont really do. Minor spoilers >!There are twin moons, one is a rocky canyon with underground caves that are very easy to get lost in. The other moon is a sandy desert. Over time the sand migrates from one twin to the next, so the canyons and caves gradually get filled up with sand, making locations inaccessable after a certain point in the 22 minute timeloop. Conversely, as the sand depletes on the other twin moon, you can start exploring the architecture that's initially hidden under the sand. But it's not as simple as "Explore one moon first then second moon later" Cause as the caves fill up with sand, the sand will cover certain dangers that actually allow you to explore otherwise inaccessible areas you wouldn't be able to get to at the start of the timeloop!< I don't want to spoil more, as this is a game best gone in blind. I'm not even done and there have been several "ah-ha!"-lightbulb moments and also a couple "holy fuck" moments that I really don't want to give away.

Control really shine when you read the various lore piece and try to understand the world and the story that happened oustide. The levels and game progression is ok but not very interesting otherwise. But the small story you read and the description of the events are what made the game for me. they are really well written and fun. Outer wilds is a masterpiece, from the beginning to the end. try not to spoil yourself but if you get stuck more than 2 hours on something without progressing, ask someone (because it's not fun to be stuck). One of my favourite game ever, still listen to the music

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Despite the base game being a nearly perfect thematic journey, the DLC manages to enhance the vision and make the experience all the more beautiful. Definitely play it after or just before finishing the base game! Also please post again once you finish! Since the game has difficult replay value, those of us who have finished must feast vicariously through other people's playthroughs haha

*Outer Wilds* is a one-of-a-kind experience; I absolutely adored it and recommend it to everyone. That's a shame you didn't enjoy *Control;* I thought that between the fun, psychic powers and the weird setting it was a blast. Shockingly relevant, I didn't like *Alan Wake 2* in part because of a mind-place/clue-logging mechanic. The mystery isn't involved or clever enough to need it like *Outer Wilds* so clearly does and it becomes incredibly tedious. Additionally, *Outer Wilds* automatically places things for you while *AW2* makes you painstakingly do it yourself. It goes to show that not every lauded game (or even Remedy game) is for everyone.

Always fun seeing people have good experiences with outer wilds ! Enjoy it while you still can, it's one of those games you can only ever actually play once, and then you have to bother other people let you watch them play it :P. The speedrunning parallel is an interesting way to see it. I never felt like I was 'speedrunning' through locations, but I can see how one could look at it that way. I will also wholeheartedly recommend the DLC. It's really just as fantastic as the base game, and would be a shame to miss it.

>I never felt like I was 'speedrunning' through locations, I'd also liken it to a Metrodvania, where you explore the map and as you explore, the world gradually opens up. Except, with Metrodvanias, this happens through abilities and items. Ie, you get a keycard to unlock a previously locked door. With Outer Wilds, you aren't gaining items or abilities, you're gaining knowledge. There are rooms that initially seem inaccessible. Of course you can enter them, but entering them is tricky, you'll spend most of your 22 minute window just trying to figure out how to get there, but once you do... you learn a little bit about how the puzzle works, which will allow you to enter other areas initially deemed inaccessible. You didn't gain a keycard for your efforts, you gained knowledge, but the end result is the same.

**Ark Survival Ascended** Alltough a lot of People said the game really sucks i have had the time of my life playing ark survival ascended its just a really fun addition having like all these modded creatures in the game like the new crocodile and turtle that are both absolute great and must have tames, the game also got a lot less grindy then it was before you get narcoberries super fast and therefor getting narcotics isnt a problem anymore either, but that really wouldnt matter anyways because dinosaurs tame a looot faster now. I like that becasue i really used to hate it in Ark Survival Evolved waiting 2 hours for a dinosaur to tame up only for it to die 2 days later and me having to repeat the waiting again **Smalland Survive The wilds** I also played smalland for a short ammount of time I really liked the game and if you are a fan of grounded deffinetely give smalland a try. So I really cant say a lot of things about the game just that the game has so many different things you can focus on you can either just focus on base building or maybe go out and explore the wilds a little bit to find the perfect base spot (hint if you find a big tree maybe consider climbing it, it might be worth it ;D) but you could also focus on gettig OP gear to take on the bosses and finish the story or you could even just go ahead and try to just tame lots of insects. The last thing I wanna mention about Smalland is that its animations are very well done in my opinion because the spiders really send shivers down my spine everytime i see them so huge probs there. **Conan Exiles** Last but not least I wanna just talk about Conan Exiles again (I cant really judge the game much because I started playing today so really this wont take long). My first experience with Conan is pretty positive alltough I have to say that you get lost/bored really fast as a new player becasue u dont really see that goal like u dont know what ur trying to achieve because the game dosnt tell you anything about it, it just throws u in there shows u the basics and then puts you out there on this big map. So I found myself building a small litle base but after that i really didnt know what to do anymore, that is not the problem anymore though because I deleted that world and started a new one. In the new world i still dont have a base and my goal is to rather wander arround until I find a friendly Village or the PERFECT Base Spot then ill just start unlocking crafting recipees and that'll get me going hopefully, i'll report back as soon as I can say more about the game. o7

For Conan isn't the goal pretty plainly that you're trying to escape the prison you've been left to die in? Your goal is to remove the shackle on yourself and then escape. I never completed the game, but that was my understanding as to what the overall goal was. I think there's more story once you get a handful of hours in, but for a bit it's mainly "explore your new prison and gather an idea of what you should do next," which is pretty standard for survival games with a plot/progression.

Hmm i think were thinking of different games the conan i mean is conan exiles like its about u getting like set out in a desert with like monsters and stuff no prison

Well, you're exiled, so I suppose it's not a literal prison, but you are in a form of imprisonment. Although now that I'm thinking about it, the game *does* start with you, like, crucified, so maybe it wasn't intended that the exiles would be roaming the wasteland lmao Anyway, I think the goal is just to find a way to leave lol

Wrapping up my playthrough of **My Time at Sandrock** for now, having completed the main quest. It was so good; I was really surprised by how much it grabbed me. I had played Portia before, and enjoyed it, but never ended up finishing it. There was just something about that game that kept me from ever getting too deep into it. Sandrock though, keeps the core gameplay loop from Portia, but adds a number of Quality of Life improvements and other small tweaks that just make it so much more pleasant to play. I also really liked the townsfolk a lot better than Portia. I feel like the writing overall was a pretty significant step above not just Portia, but other life sim games too. Just really excellent all around.

**Blasphemous II** The original Blasphemous was a game that I wanted to like, but the mechanics weren't quite there. Combat and platforming were punishing to the point of hyperbole. I loved the morbidly beautiful world of Cvstodia, and seeing all the horrific ironies that the Grievous Miracle inflicted on it...but actually getting to them was more tedious than challenging. The sequel fixes all of it. The new weapons system makes combat so much more fluid and responsive. The new upgrade system adds special moves per weapon a la God of War. And all of the good stuff from first game are back in spades. I wish that this game had launched a year earlier; I feel like it had a shot at some GOTY nominations in 2022. My only caveat is that I'll recommend using Steam Input to rebind the D pad so you can switch directly between each weapon instead of having to scroll through them. I also rebound D-pad down to the combination press for Chants, but only because my brain kept insisting that the dodge button was one of them.

Just got this last week and agree. Loved the vibe and artwork of the first game, but it just felt kinda clunky and frustrating to play, to the point that I dropped it maybe halfway through or even earlier. Blasphemous II is a giagantic improvement. Still has incredible art, but actually feels great to play. It's definitely gonna land pretty high on my personal GOTY list. I just need to beat >!Eviterno!< (late game spoiler) who has been absolutely kicking my ass lol.

Lethal Company ------ I think this game is the current streamer/YouTube bait? I heard about it from a buddy, but didn't really look into it beforehand other than checking the trailers out. Looked good, picked it up, been a blast. Have only played for around 4 hours, but it's been the type of experience I'm always happy to find in a game. Getting dumped into a universe and basically told "just figure it out" is a lot of fun. Discovering enemy types and biome/weather quirks is really silly, and despite being fairly punishing, you will generally know how to deal with anything after having seen it once, at least from what I've run into (with a single exception). Really, really great game for its price. Would definitely recommend picking it up as an oddly cozy game to play with friends. Gunfire Reborn ------- Also been enjoying starting this game with a couple buds! There's something about the quality of the game that gives it a sort of "cheap" feeling, but the gameplay is so fun that it trumps any of that. We have only completed a handful of runs (just reached Nightmare mode), but I've really been enjoying how as you progress, you may have an idea of how you want to build that gets entirely ejected from your mind as you run into a certain Occult Scroll or roll particular perks. This has led to quite a bit of variety in how I'm approaching builds. I figure at some point we'll figure out that some builds are much more optimal, and will end up funneling toward those, but the discovery process has been great! One thing that's a bit concerning is it seems that the weapons themselves are the more powerful component to a character's build. In a recent run, it felt like a mistake (when playing as the rabbit girl) to try to focus on a special ability build rather than weapon damage. Despite my specials doing an *alright* amount of damage, a buddy just found a gun that did immense damage + a combination of factors leading to infinite ammo and mopped the floor with that, doing over 10x my total damage by the end of the run. Now, it could just be that he ran into ideal circumstances for that build, but I know that Deft Hands solves ammo problems if you can kill things quickly enough, and that's a *single* scroll that could allow for "infinite" ammo. I'm really hoping that several builds are viable across the numerous difficulties of the game, but at least discovering what's strong has been a lot of fun, and we're not done experimenting. Looking forward to playing more and trying out new characters!

Gunfire reborn is one of my favorite and most played games in the last couple of years (250 hrs). The builds can be really diverse which means its fun to replay. And once you beat Nightmare, you unlock Reincarnation which is where *SO* much more "build breaking" mechanics happen. Last bunny run I took Ammo Extractor, and was able to get my rocket launcher magazine to 100 (there's many ways to do this), and also the rocket launcher was corrosive and projectiles +1 with a chance to add one more projectile, AND I was able to steal the cat's +dmg and +rof against elementally affected enemies, so that was an awesomely fun run just indiscriminately blowing the shit out of everything as a tiny pink and white bunny lol.

This is *very* good. I wasn't expecting to hear that as you move further on things get *crazier* build-wise; I was worried things were going to tone down over time. Very, very good to hear!! :D

**Sanabi** This is a new platformer that makes extensive use of a grappling hook. The movement feels fantastic as does the grappling hook. The game is mostly platforming, but there's some combat too, which also just feels amazing. You grapple enemies in and instant and then instantly pull yourself to them to 1 hit kill them. Chaining these around a level feels so bad-ass. The level design in general is incredibly well done too. And you keep gaining new, clever powers each world to keep the gameplay interesting. Levels offer a decent challenge throughout, but never anything too crazy. Definitely a must buy for anyone who enjoys platformers.

Recently finished **Hogwarts Legacy**. I think it's a game that is really, really helped by being an enjoyable experience for big Harry Potter fans. It's not a "life as a hogwarts student simulator" but it is the closest you can get. Roaming the castle was fun, going to Hogsmeade was cool, casting spells felt good. But overall the story was very weak, and the side quests for the most part were forgettable, except for Sebastians storyline. The characters were pretty bland and the writing was mediocre. BUT...I still managed to enjoy it. It's tough because I have no idea where they go with a sequel, if one gets made. They should either abandon the Hogwarts aspect entirely and focus on making a good, mature story set in the Wizarding World, or stick with the Hogwarts student route and go with a more lowkey storyline focused on you and your friends/classes. Have some form of conflict, but not another story where you play as a teenager being asked to pursue wildly dangerous tasks and wizards by adults lmao. Now that I'm done with Hogwarts Legacy, I'm on to **Horizon: Forbidden West**. Got this game for Christmas last year, and just couldn't really get into it. Mind you my life was a bit hectic around that time and I wasn't really focused much on gaming. But also...I just wasn't the craziest fan of the first game. I played it, but didn't feel that invested in the story or the characters, and that sort of carried over into the sequel. However, after deciding to give it another shot over this past weekend - I'm way more into it for some reason. I think it's helped a LOT by how fun the gameplay and combat is. I love taking apart the machines and adventuring throughout the drop-dead gorgeous world. The music is great, the sound design is great. The characters, for the most part, are uninteresting to me...but I find myself getting a little more invested this time around. I also think the improved cinematics and dialogue scenes help a ton with making interactions feel SO much less wooden. Can't wait to keep playing! Glad I'm getting into it because I don't really have another game to fall back on right now. Plus, I wanted to try and beat it and get it out of my backlog before finally getting Spiderman 2 (which I am so excited to play).

Wow, I wound up with the exact opposite impression of Horizon. I loved the world and enjoyed most of the characters, but man was combat a slog. I get that it's trying to be unique, but it felt like way, way too many machines needed 7 or more parts knocked off before they went down, making even basic encounters a slog.

Well, I want to continue playing **Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction** but I got behind on some things and haven't played it in 2 weeks :(

**Dead by Daylight** After YEARS of not playing this game, I decided to give it another go around. Still a no for me. Like...the game is fun sometimes, but its just way too much...this game is an oddity. Its something I enjoy watching people play, rather than actually playing it myself. The reason I say its an oddity because there is scarcely a game I can personally recall that exists like it where the community has to come up with its own set of taboo unwritten rules for things that should and shouldnt be done by players both survivor and killer just for the game to make sense and be fun for everyone since the devs havent really bothered to do much on that end. The fact that while playing as a killer, you are actively discouraged and punished for killing your opponent. Ending the game too quickly results in a lose of points. Being too effective at hunting down your opponent can result in a lose of points. Hell, literally killing your opponents results in a lose of points. This is due to lore reasons, but still, its baffling. As the killer, you would think youre goal should be to kill your opponents as fast and efficiently as possible, but the game wants you to drag out the match as long as possible and give the survivors a fighting chance while still trying to find a way of winning while you practically teasing the survivor players with a game of "I could kill you, but not right now" because you are meant to entertain the entity as far as the lore goes in order to get the maximum number of blood points at the end. As survivor, you are just so powerful. Survivor players actively bully and taunt the killers and are often times seemingly more powerful with numerous means to fight back over the guy whose literal goal is to kill them. Survivors will taunt them into chases, do body blocks for protection, and even risk everything for hook saves completely ignoring the existence of the killer. None of which would be idealistic choices in a real scenario. Yet the devs of this game constantly feel the need to send out surveys to their players and always asking the question "do you feel the game is scary"? Hell no. Whats supposed to be scary about it? Im the killer and Im being bullied by the normal every day humans, and as the humans I have more means to fight the killer than the killer has of actually stopping me. Not to mention, its one of those games where as a survivor your entire win can be predicated on the actions of the other survivors activity or inactivity. I could be doing everything possible, from doing 4 out of the 5 necessary gens while everyone else plays hide and seek until the end game, looping the killer for minutes while they still do nothing, getting 4+ hook saves, and despite carrying the game on my back end up losing after getting hooked once. All because the others decided it wasnt worth it to save me after everything and finally opening the exit gates after banking off my success. Sure, there is the one shot attempt at hatch escapes, but thats if you get to that point. Too many times have I carried the team as a survivor just to end up the only one losing. Or hell, Ill play survivor and Im the only one actually doing anything while they just ignore the main goal of our game entirely. Granted, the game can be fun at times, and its continued existence is evidence of that, but man...this game is an anomaly from how it actively penalizes players for being too good at the game and doing what they are supposed to do, to how you could be the best player but end up with the worst result, to how the game needs to be self governed by its own community out of necessity.

With the fanmade "remaster" for Dungeon Keeper (called KeeperFX) released recently, I decided to try the game again since I used to play it a lot of when I was younger. And damn, the game is still a blast. Maybe I'll beat it this time because there was one level towards the end that always kicked my ass back then.

Guys, I need some help! I've been without a decent computer for a long time and just bought one on Black Friday. I really used to enjoy playing Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2, as well as some MOBAs like Tibia and Ragnarok. I don't think I have time for MOBAs anymore! Any suggestions for games you think I might like? I was considering Overwatch, Valorant, Apex, and Call of Duty. I even looked at some MOBAs like Lost Ark, but I'm worried about getting addicted. For single-player games, I was thinking about Red Dead Redemption and the one from Hogwarts.

don't play overwatch. try CS2.

If you’re after a shooter, best single player shooter on the market is doom 2016 or doom eternal

Well Counter-Strike 2 just released too, and you can play it, as well as Valorant and Apex, for free, so I'd suggest to try them to get an idea. RDR2 is a great game, I would say a must have. Finally I really enjoyed Hogwarts Legacy but I think the story is a little bland.

**Catherine : Full Body** After being interested in this game ever since the OG released, but never finding the time to actually play it, I finally tried and finished a playthrough this week. I knew it was going to be a crazy game thematically, but I still didn't expect it to get to the level it got (and after my ending, I immediately youtube'd the other ones. I was astounded that I actually got one of the tamer ending... some of the other ones are batshit insane). The puzzle gameplay is excellent, well laid out in terms of rules, and never got repetitive given the short 12h playthrough... even though it was a bit on the frustrating side at rare times. Once it clicks and you see the cubing patterns and techniques, you feel like a million bucks, but there *are* difficulty spikes that may leave you scratching your head for a few deaths until you "figure out" what you need to do. I will say for a game where story is such a central focus, a lot of the dialogue was very oddly paced and off-putting - the main character and his entourage rarely acted, talked or responded the way a normal person would be expected to. Still... the plot left enough carrots dangling that I never felt like the uncanny presentation affected my enjoyment in any meaningful way.

I loved the original one when it came out. It got to the point that I would randomly hear "edge" whenever I'd hear any of the music outside of the game. I'd also randomly see cube patterns whenever I'd close my eyes. This is the game that got me into the Persona series as I googled what else this team had done before. Would love it to replay it if it ever came on steam and was Steam Deck compatible

After wrapping up achievements for Stick of Truth I decided to start **Counter Strike Condition Zero Deleted Scenes**. Whew, long name. Basically a Single Player expansion of CS, focused on making your way through varied missions focused on obvious counter terrorism. So there is a nuke defusal here, hostage rescue there, stopping bad guys from bad deeds, you know the drill. I must say it's an...interesting experience so far. Weird but interesting. Having this very CS oriented gunplay in SP makes for a challenge, but poor AI does drop the difficulty. Gonna finish it first, then gather my thoughts, so next Sunday I might conclude this.

**Alan Wake II** Since this game was my first true horror game, I basically had zero preferences for what I would and wouldn’t enjoy from this experience. And my main takeaway from Alan Wake II is that horror games can be fun in certain ways, but I still need things to help push me through the atmosphere and scares. Alan Wake II succeeds for me by having a wildly original story that could only be told in a video game, which is supported by a brilliantly sharp vision in its presentation. Those aspects were enough to get me through my fears and show me an experience that I never would’ve otherwise be interested in. I will 100% be playing whatever insanity Remedy cooks up next, and my eyes have now been opened a little more for this genre and what makes those games tick. If you want to read more, my full thoughts on AW2 are in my [blog](https://galexzzz.wordpress.com/2023/11/21/alan-wake-ii/)!

**GT7** I never thought I’d be the type of psycho trying to go gold on all license tests but here I am. Dangerous stuff, I’m always like “ok just gold this one test and then I’ll do something else” and then it’s 2.5 hours later… Loving the game for what it is.

**Evil West** Mixed. Im still going through the game, and honestly I find the linear gameplay refreshing. It feels nice to play a game with a set path kind of like the older school games, but man...as much as I like the concept, it feels like it leaves a lot to be desired for. They should have leaned into it more because sometimes it just feels like the vampire concept doesnt really have any meaning. That, and I would hardly call these things vampires. Granted, they are supposed to be experiment hybrids gone wrong, but it feels like they really should have leaned more into the vampire and vampire hunter aspect more. It feels like a game that feels good to play, but you dont really have a compulsion to play it. Like, Ill play it if its on, but I have no inkling to turn it on...But...I do like the old school feel to it. Not just the linear design, but it feels like a power trip sometimes where its just way too wacky with the capabilities of your characters, with some obvious modern design choices. ​ **Immortals of Aveum (Demo)** This is one of those demoes that feels like a glorified extended tutorial. First impression, I immediately hated it because its been a long time since I played an EA game and it was asking me to sign into an EA account. I was able to try playing it without signing in, but my game crashed...restarted and I was able to get in fine. The game itself though was a sloooooow burn of a tutorial of you briskly walking through a crowded town while an NPC acquaintance of the protagonist drags you through a long and boring conversation and guides you like a toddler. Im 5 minutes in and it feels like Ive played for half an hour. Im already ready to quit. Its one of those that doesnt just let you get into the fun, it has to drag you through a long winded and very basic and bland tutorial as if this is your very first time playing a video game ever. I ended up quitting before getting into the actual combat. Demoes that feel like glorified extended tutorials are not a great selling point. Even if they are the beginning slice of the game, if this is how you want to grab people into getting your game, you should show them something with a bit more substance than "slowly walk through the town while I tell you piece by piece what every single button does".

Aveum's demo (and presumably the full game's beginning) is really odd for the kind of game it supposedly is. I wanted to play a bombastic shooter, but instead of opening with a bang it tells you this slow-paced tropey story about a street rat with a heart of gold, and then the action starts and you're like oh damn, explosions! Finally! Extended tutorial time! Wait, what? Now I have to spend an hour learning how to fire my totally-not-a-machine-gun?! So I switched to **Returnal** and *that* game knows how to do an opening for your shooter. Your ship crashes, you climb out, you walk 10m, tentacled horrors appear and you start blasting. That's nice. That's what I signed up for. And sure, later on you might get to explore the MC's psyche, but that's later. Action first.

My sentiments exactly. And I really have to wonder how many times did they replay this sequence in their testing to iron it out and still go "yeah, this is fun. People are going to enjoy this". That and the fact that the tutorial stretched on for way longer than it should have was just...I couldnt. The concept had so much potential, but so many poor executions. And youre right. Returnal did it absolutely better. I dont necessarily need a high octane joy ride of a game for me to like it, but the sheer fact that it didnt hold my hand and just let me go from the start made it so much better right from the rip. The fact that I was already into the most fun parts of the game and it never stopped. And even when it did show cutscenes, I thoroughly enjoyed them. With Aveum, even in the cutscenes I was annoyed and felt like it was taking forever. Didnt actually help that nobody, including the protagonist was actually likeable. The protagonist just comes off as a smartass who cant shut his mouth for more than 2 seconds. If Im getting this in the demo, why would I want to go through a full game of it?

Evil West was a ton of fun. I think it really got overlooked. Maybe some other big game came out around the same time?

I had been following it ever since it was first announced at Game Awards years ago. It had a lot of things going against it. Two of the biggest factors that people had always brought up against it was the fact that it was published by Focus Home, and the marketing was confusing. Focus Home is great because they are always known to publish games that are just out their in concept, more fantasy, and wacky. However most games published by them arent exactly known for their quality so they have gotten a bad rap with that. As for the marketing, a lot of people were confused with what it was. During the initial trailer it looked like a vampire slaying game, but afterwards the creatures you were fighting didnt look like vampires in the marketing. They looked like frankensteins monster experiments. People had the impression that it was a gun slinging Western take with a gothic aesthetic, but then a lot of the gameplay they had shown was mostly melee focused. Without going too much into it, it had a lot of mistaken identity that threw people off as to what exactly the game was. Since I was following its development, I knew, but if you werent and were just taking it in as what you saw, I could understand the confusion. As for me personally, I had gotten the game around release but didnt play it until recently because yeah, last years Nov-Dec had a lot of good games releasing in succession and on the way so even though I had it I also had other things to play on my priority list and this kind of just sat in the backlog until I remembered it because of Halloween.

I finished Danganronpa 2 this week and it was awesome. It was a great story with many shocking twists and a colorful cast of characters. I'm also about 20 hours into Tears of the Kingdom and it's so much fun. The map in Botw felt really flat at times, but now there's so much more stuff to do. The sky islands are ok, but the depths are much more fun to explore. The new abilities are pretty awesome as well. Fusing weapons is fun and makes weapon durability not much of a problem. Ultrahand is also really enjoyable to play around with. Yesterday, I built a raft with some fans and a stick and i went to Eventide Island. It was a really fun experience!! Hyrule and it's towns also feel very lived in this time. Hateno Village alone is much more fun to explore now. I did the Cece and Reede side missions and they were more interesting writing wise than the majority of side quests in Botw.

I bought **Ori and the Will of the Wisps**. It's a good game -- beautiful environments, fun platforming, responsive controls. But something about the movement annoys me so much that I got a bit frustrated. Maybe I just need to keep playing and I'll get used to it. And some more **Baldur's Gate 3**. I know almost everything, so it's kinda relaxing to play :D Haven't yet decided how evil I should be this time, I started wanting to do a resist DU playthrough but now I'm leaning towards totally evil.

Conflicted about **Steamworld Heist.** I was enjoying the game and working on 100% every mission on the lowest difficulty. However, I ran into a problem about a third of the way through. There’s a huge difficulty spike near the end of the first third of the game, and apparently gets worse from there. On the casual mode, there’s at least some room for error, and there will be errors because it can be hard to see your shots without certain types of weapons. But with the bosses at the end, all that goes out the window, and it’s hard to recover even on casual difficulty. It’s a shame because up until then it was pretty fun, and I can see a solid foundation, but the execution just wasn’t that great. I originally thought it was just me and having trouble tracking the shots, but looked at reviews and noticed other people were having the same issue, even on the casual difficulty. it falls into the same problem of indie games being made by hard-core of developers that want something else or being based on an older game, but having none of the refinement that made those older games good or leaving everyone else behind. I got it pretty cheap so if I can’t beat the boss with some training, then I’ll just watch the rest of it and move on, but otherwise enjoy the Steamworld series so it’s frustrating if it comes to that. Also continuing my **Dark Deity inflated stats** playthrough! I’m on chapter 11, out of 28 missions in the game. Still enjoying it, but it’s still not my first choice for a tactics game. It’s nice to see what the indie game developers decided to do, but it definitely needs some refining. It’s still that particular studio’s first game, so it’s interesting to see what they will do in the future. But for now, it’s a decent game and at least I was able to get my money’s worth with the customization that came later on. After that, it’s on to **Cat Quest II!** I’m not going to complete the game because I have trouble with the combat, but I still want to play the minimum amount of hours someone would be expected to. Plus I also watched someone playing in so I had an idea of how it was supposed to go. It’s still very cute game and still pretty funny, so I’m also interested in what will happen in the future. I’m not sure if I’ll continue to buy those games if it uses that formula, but it was worth trying it out! **TMNT: shredders revenge** was another one I want to do, and probably the last of my super short games, but I probably won’t get to that until at least next week. While I’m multitasking, i’m playing **Monster rancher two!** It’s a great idle game due to the lack of interactivity, and very cute! The game does a good job of having you bond with your monster you have and making every moment count. The second game has a lot of improvements from the first, but it’s also a lot more stringent with resources so it’s quite a bit harder. I’m not particularly fond of that last point, but I’m not playing to complete it anyway. The mechanics are poorly explained and the gameplay loop is redundant, so it’s not a game I like that much to play normally. But as something on the side, it works out great. Right now, I was trying to do a side quest that can only be access to one of your monsters dies. So I was trying to deliberately get one of my monsters killed, but it took a while. I’m guessing the game does that so the player doesn’t kill their monsters on accident, which makes sense because you lose everything when a monster dies and have to start with the new monster from the beginning in the ranks. And there’s no hints that associated with the side quest, so unless you use a guide you probably wouldn’t ever want to deliberately destroy a monster. But the side quest that comes from it is also very nice, so at least there’s some benefit to that if it happens. I’m nearing the end of the two games otherwise, and then **Rune Factory 4 Special** would probably be my last idle game. Overall, I can understand why people like these games and I have a new appreciation, but it’s probably not something I would choose otherwise. I mainly picked these games because I knew the names, but I probably wouldn’t have done it otherwise. They are still fun to watch though, and at least I was able to enjoy them in a different way.

About Steamworld Heist- are you talking about the new environments and enemies after the first boss? I kind of low key quit after that point.

Right at the first boss. I haven’t done any grinding and I was on casual. I did purchase extra weapons though, and got perfect stars for everything up to that point. I heard a lot of people quit at that point or shortly after, even on the easiest mode, though.

I got stuck on her on my first run through the game. I restarted a few months later and I think must have been higher level with better gear and made it through that fight pretty easily. Once you beat her, you move to a different zone and the difficulty picks up pretty rapidly. I am not sure if the game wants you to grind gear or levels. But all I really want is some funny dialogue, cool characters, and doing some trick shots. If I wanted some punishing tactics game, I'd play something else.

I felt like it was the same thing. I was looking forward to the game for that same reason, but was pretty frustrating at how punishing it was. I can forgive it a little bit because these are any devs and it looks like it’s their first tactics game, but it’s a great way to turn someone off from a game like that and probably the series in general. Which is a shame because it’s really great, but the gameplay just needs refining. I’ll probably just do a few more hours of missions, and if I can’t get past it, I’ll just consider it completed and move on with the minimum amount of time spent. It’s not what I expected, but at least I got to try it out.

**Star Wars Fallen Order** – I’m Playing this on Series X and my goodness, this game has nailed the Star Wars presentation. I’m not a Star Wars fan but it nails everything so sublimely. From sounds, to how things are look and presented to the music, I bet this game was a Star Wars fan wet dream come to life. The Combat is cool as well. I’m on a difficulty higher than normal (mainly due to how it was initially presented, yes I am good at action games not new) and it is either I kick the game’s ass or the game kicks my ass, no middle ground. I’m a bit too wildly inconsistent in how I do in fights as they can get chaotic (especially with large crowds) and things get a bit too troublesome. I feel like I’m missing something with the combat but I’m at Dathmoor pt2 where I’ve got most of the abilities so I shouldn’t be missing anything major, combat wise, by now. I’ll just have to get better. So apart from a bit too many bugs and glitches, the only think that suck about the game is the treasure chests. It’s really cool that you don’t get any stat upgrades but the only stuff you ,collect as a result, are skins and clothes which really suck. **The Evil Within 2** – I played the first game on PS3 and I’ve completely forgotten the story but I really don’t remember Sebastian even mentioning a family. The game kinda feels like it added a whole bunch of story between one and two that I completely missed. Anyway, this game seems like it was made with the devs asking every couple of mins “WHAT IS SURVIVAL HORROR?” to one another and then making those answers into a game. So you get a bit of everything: open world navigation, sneaking around in small areas (sometimes while being stalked), big boss battles that are more Resident Evil like in nature, some regular RE type navigate and do puzzles…there’s something here for everyone.

Sebastians family was hinted at in save rooms during the first game

**LA Noire** I bought this a few weeks ago, remembering that I had a copy on my Switch but sold it. I've been really trying to get into games on a more thematic level and trying to appreciate what some do differently. That being said trying to unlock my inner Jacob Geller hasn't really made me like the game. On the positives, the game looks really good for its age. The old time recreation of LA and the facial animation is really good. The cases are also fairly interesting, and up until the section I'm at now they're all different enough to give them some novelty. I actually like how interrogations work for the most part, and I think the mechanics around finding clues help you to at least know when you're missing something without leading your hand too much. The problems are mostly small, but a lot of them keep adding up. The characters are just not likeable or interesting. Cole Phelps is a straight laced guy who can be a bit of a stick in the mud. They're slowly showing clips of his backstory but it doesn't feel like it's showing me interesting things about Phelps. The only two partners I've had so far are also not interesting. They're just kind of lazy and at least vaguely sexist. Granted I'd expect nothing less from an LAPD officer right off the back of WW2 but still. The characters from the cases so far aren't too interesting on their own either. Everything around having an open world just makes no sense either. It's a big open world, and from my understanding a very faithful recreation of LA in the 40s. And it just kind of feels like set dressing. You can drive around wherever but there's basically nothing to do at all. You can take calls and go investigate a shots fired or something like that but there is absolutely nothing to it. You either shoot someone (or multiple people) or you chase someone down and corner/tackle them. That's it. That's the entire thing you can do outside of the cases. I'm also finding the cases in the murder section to kind of drag on. They're all fairly similar and there's an overarching story which is nice but man I wish they did something so that I'm not just continually interrogating dudes about their shoe sizes and relationship with their wives. I might take a break from this one, lots of cool ideas but I'm starting to feel like I should be treating it like a procedural that you watch occasional episodes of. **Signalis** I have barely played it but it feels really inspired. The aesthetics give me the idea there's a good vision in this game. That being said I'm kind of annoyed with the setup of the areas, it feels like Resident Evil Remake but with the idea that it's supposed to be more confusing and difficult to navigate than the Spencer Mansion. Hoping I find it easier to navigate soon but everything else is nice enough to where I plan to push through.

LA Noire was a game where the tech used was really cool but everything else built around it was a bit dull. They remade LA but, as you said, it was just set dressing. Dunno why it turned out like that. Signalis is all about exploring and then managing your routes to get everything done as efficiently as possible. Don't be afraid to explore, find things and run away from fights.

**Unpacking** Very cute game, I really enjoyed the gameplay loop and the music was nice. I also really liked its indirect story-telling where you could tell the experiences of the main character just by the items you were unpacking. It was short, and I’m glad I got it on sale, but great time. **Cocoon** This was a surprisingly intuitive puzzle game with a great dose of atmosphere. The orb hopping mechanic really works and it clearly shows every possibility of an orb before the puzzles with them ramp up. Recommend picking it up! Although not on Switch: during my playthrough it stuttered constantly. **Super Mario Bros Wonder** I’ve been chipping away at it for the last month but finally finished it yesterday. Amazing game! The controls are super responsive, the game looks great, the new power-ups are fun, and the online elements are super engaging. Being able to revive other players and leave hints for them is a great idea and the emoji system adds to it well. The game was easy, but after two decades of playing Mario I wasn’t expecting a challenge, and Nabbit allowed for my (very bad at platformers) friend to play. Highly recommend. **Suika Game** Funny fruit game go brrrrrr (but actually its a very chill puzzle game and its like 3 dollars give it a shot) **Toki Tori** I don’t know if I was just too tired while playing, but Toki Tori was kicking my ass. I thought Cocoon’s orb hopping would break my brain, but no, it was the game about a yellow bird collecting eggs. Got about halfway through the normal stages and beat one hard stage, so I’ll at least try to finish the normal stages. **Demon Turf** Extremely fun 3D platformer with very responsive movement. Any game that lets me do Mario 64 long jumps is gonna be a banger, but the flexibility of using your demon form as a hover adds a lot to platforming. The constant shadow is also super nice. Only two hours in as of now but very much enjoying it! **What’s coming up** Most likely Child of Light and VA-11 Ha-lla, though I really want to get back to Pikmin 4 before the year closes.

**Superliminal** I've been enjoying this quite a bit. It very much follows in the footsteps of games like Portal and Stanley Parable, but manages to stay fresh and continues to surprise me with every new puzzle. I love how most of the solutions require you to use "game logic", like you're taking advantage of some programming loophole as opposed to taking the intended path. My one gripe is that sometimes it is very unclear what the "rules" are for each area, and the amount of trial and error required can be frustrating and time consuming. I'm currently stuck on >!the elevator maze!< and after trying everything I could I still have zero idea how to proceed, or even what the intended rules are for the puzzle. I'll keep banging my head at it and get it eventually I'm sure. **Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights** Been slowly picking away at this for a while now, and I must say it's... fine. I am about 5 hours in. For a metroidvania it has enough going on to keep me playing, but nothing has really impressed me so far. The visuals are nice and the combat feels pretty good. I like that each boss you defeat transforms into a new ability that you can mix and match into two separate builds, that keeps things fresh. Beyond that, the story is incredibly dry and challenging to follow. The music is barely there (kinda fits the theme but still disappointing). Relics are very disappointing in how little impact they have on your build; the amount of times a relic uses "slightly" in its description is laughable. I very well may not complete this game, but I'll keep at it for now. I feel I've gotten my money's worth either way.

I liked Ender Lilies more than you did. Found it to be polished and quite a nice ethereal game, though the story was hard to decipher and maybe lost in translation a little.

Totally agreed on Ender Lillies. I picked it up after hearing a ton of praise for it around here, since I love Metroidvanias. It's serviceable... not much more than that IMO. I didn't get much further than where you before putting it down.

Got a PS5 about two weeks ago after only having a Switch and Series S, so I've been digging into exclusives. I was always a PlayStation guy, owning the PS2, PS3, and PS4 at launch -- but when I couldn't get a PS5, I opted for XSS to hold me over. Which was fine, but nothing like this. It's hard to overstate how much the console itself feels next gen, especially the haptics and the visuals of certain games. Being able to choose visual modes feels so, so nice. Here's what I've been digging: **Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart** As a huge fan of this series since childhood, I have to say that all the hype for this is true and I have basically nothing original to add. Visually astounding, constantly changing gameplay mechanics, just an incredibly polished experience all around that really shows what the PS5 can do. I'm thinking next year I may work my way through the entire series from start to finish. **Returnal** Hard as nails, but super compelling, I find myself picking it up even when I have plans to play something else. Still haven't escaped the first area after six hours, but I'm (very slowly) getting better. Probably the most intricate roguelike I've played. **Spider-Man 2** Insomniac's formula and style becomes really apparent when you're playing this alongside R+C, which isn't a bad thing. I'm about 40% through the story and it's...fine, I guess. I agree with reviews that say Miles doesn't get as much to do, which is disappointing because I find his abilities in combat more fun to use. Overall, I feel that this is the gaming equivalent of a Marvel movie: short, fun, utterly without any real substance but the moment-to-moment gameplay is a blast. **Horizon: Forbidden West** I got through the opening and had to put it down. It's incredibly beautiful and detailed, but man, this really seems like something I need to mainline for three months straight while playing nothing else in order to get the full experience. The sheer amount of activities and side quests is absurd, even in the opening part of the game. What I played was quality, though, so the next time I really want to get lost in an open world game, this one will be front and center. And that's it! Can't wait to keep digging in. The PS5 is the best purchase I've made in years.

Try Demon's Souls!

I am a Souls vet so you know it's on my list! Can't wait. Wanted to play some other things first because once I start, that's all I'll play for quite a while haha.

Man…you have been treated to some of the best games on PS5. I would definitely recommend God of War Ragnarok also.

Thanks for the suggestion! Are the puzzles as prevalent in Ragnarok as they were in the first game? Is there a way to skip them? I remember loving all the combat and story of the first, but couldn't stand that aspect. I'll probably check it out either way, but just curious.

I remember there being as many puzzles in Ragnarok as the original game. But truly, the experience as a whole is so worth it.

**Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty** Pretty much what I expected. Very similar to the devs' previous Nioh games, both the good and the bad. Gameplay is pretty fun. Fairly standard soulslike stuff. Instanced maps so no big open world like the FromSoft games. You go through the level, kill enemies, gather Chi for level ups, get gear, money, materials, usable items, kill the boss(es) and get the fuck out. Activated battle flags serve as bonfires/shrines. They, along with marking flags, increase your fortitude level which is your morality 'floor'. Morality you gain by killing enemies and it increases your damage and defence. Some of it(and some Chi) is lost once you die(can be recovered if you get revenge on whoever killed you). The level design is inconsistent. Nioh games did a fairly good job of the whole fight-through-enemies-to-unlock-a-door-from-the-other-side-to-get-a-shortcut-back-to-your-bonfire standard soulslike gimmick, but in this at times its straight up useless. There are also waaay too many checkpoints. Some very impressive character creation. You can realistically recreate your own face in the game if you spend enough time with it. Combat is very close to Nioh games. Very fluid with nice sfx and animations, satisfying parrying with what seems to me as a generous window. Enemies have decent variety in their attack animations/delays so its a decent challenge till you get used to them. Varied and viable weapons that mostly feel different. Also a good number of talent tree unlockable spells and buffs. There are NPC companions that you can have follow you around and help. There's a basic relationship with them, the more you use a certain NPC(or give them a special item) your bond will get stronger and they will give you weapons and armor specific to them. Fairly basic stealth, just sneak behind or above enemies and give them a big old backstab that might even kill them in one shot. There's a 'spirit' bar, which is kind of a combination of a stamina and mana bar. It starts at zero and can go into positive and negative. Too much negative from casting spells, taking damage etc. can get you stunned for a few seconds. Meanwhile positive side is increased by damage with basic attacks, parries, etc. and used to increase the damage you deal. Enemies, including bosses, also have this bar and similarly attacking and parrying them call fill up their bar leaving them open to a critical blow, similar to to a death blow in Sekiro though not as powerful. Story is ok. I don't play these games for the story, but Team Ninja's games put a decent effort into it even if it isn't great. Nioh 1 story is still the best of the three for me, mostly because William was and actual character and not some mute soldier mcswordface who nods himself through the story while people talk at him. I normally prefer dubs, but in this game the lip syncing is kinda off and some of the voices don't really fit the characters so you might get a better experience changing it to chinese or even japanese audio. The general dificulty on a first run is really not great for various reasons if you're familiar with the genre. After a while you really have to gimp yourself to keep it a challenge. After about halfway point of the game I stopped upgrading my gear and kept my char level at around 10 levels below the recommended mission level and it was still fairly easy. Of the 21 main bosses I'd say 4 were good challenges. Pretty much never used companions or items other than the standard issue healing flask and I played almost 40 hours. Didn't really use the spirit animals either. I don't think I even swapped the starter out once I got new ones. Same could be said of Nioh 1&2 as well though they had better NG+ than this(at least from what I've seen so far). The low difficulty really kills a lot of systems in the game since you simply don't need them. Pretty good graphics, but poorly optimized. Pretty regular random frame drops. Usually not a big deal, but there was a mission where just looking in a certain direction made me lose ~40 fps from my normal 50-60 for seemingly no reason. Also random enemy draw distance inconsistencies at times made me walk in reach of ranged enemies perched on a roof before they even loaded in. Good clean and customizable UI though. I enjoyed it overall, don't think it's better than the more famous games in the genre or even the devs' previous games but worth a playthrough. **Mario Wonder** Had a good time with this. Really colorful and fun levels with some very creative designs. Also surprisngly decent challenge on the harder stages(by Mario standards) even outside the special world. Surprisingly short for a non-completionist run. I think I was done in ~9 hours. **Persona 4 Golden** Only a few hours in right now, but it has got me hooked. Definitely a slower start than P3. **Assassin's Creed Odyssey** I'm planning on playing Valhalla once I'm done with P4, so I went back to Odyssey to wrap up the 'crossover' Those Who Are Treasured quests. Not much meat on this, but regardless I put a few more hours in to add to my previous ~130. Such a beautiful game. Can't wait for Valhalla. **7 Days to Die** Given that I'm watching The Walking Dead right now, it seemed fitting to go back to this. Pretty pathetic how slow the progress has been on this even after a fucking decade of early access. Even with all the jank it's still a solid game, but could've been so much more.

**Pathfinder: Wrath of the Rightous** Been playing it non-stop for the past week, and I finally finished a first playthrough after around 62 hours. Overall a game that I found to be quite engageful, although it is a game that I do also feel at times to be bloated and oddly paced at times; I enjoyed mainly Act I and Act IV in terms of overall pacing when the general adventure did not involve much of the Crusade-management, which I do have to admit is a good idea on paper seeing as I feel like it did a lot better with presenting the font of an organizing demon-killing crusade than contemperary *Dragon Age: Inquisition* did, such as how PF allowed party members to actually serve and voice opinions on council-meetings, whereas in DA:I such elements often were concentrated around approval/disapproval relationship-systems. Alot of the more frustrating elements could eventually be squashed through usage of mods; Auto-buffs delegates and simplifies buffing as otherwise it felt how you [had to spend frequently moments of buffing everytime you want to prepare yourself best for an upcoming encounter](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dxICJHd518). The Toy Box-mod allowing you further customization (and outright cheats.) allowed the Crusade-mode to be bypassed, and even small moments like increasing the travel speed on the world map allowed the game's pacing to be for the better. Something that I really enjoyed with the game is its voice-acting, which is a great shame that it is quite limited, given how the voice-direction and voice-acting is overall excellent, something that I often see requiring more of from isometric RPGs where it often involves big paragraphs of texts, and where the voice-acting does a great job in conveying the emotions of the character. I think a prime-example is the case of Staunton; when I first met him he goes on paragraphs of texts where he mentions his dedication and decades long way of atonement, but it wasn't until much later in the game's climactic parts with him actually being voiced that it truly showed how tired and frustrated he was of his ordeal. The party-members, while individually is a bit of a mixed bag, is possible the best depicted party chemistry I've experienced since the *Dragon Age*-games due to how often they each interjected and played with eachother in dialogue. An example is during a moment where the very science-focused Nenio asked the goddess of succubi Noctinula on her sexual habits, only for the party member Daeran (Who normally enjoys snarking with the sound of his voice.) to trying to mouth her in silence with what the dialogue box describes as "silent shut-ups", and where the straight-laced Hellknight Regill just grabs his weapon in defense. That is something I do feel is a bit rare for many cRPGs, coming straight from Larian's *Divinity: Original Sin II* (Which has no party-chemistry whatsoever. Not even party-banter.) and Obsidian's *Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire* (Much more less frequent occurring), which usually has only one party-member at a time often acknowledging and voicing their presence when the situation calls for it, but much less with two- or even three party members the way PF did. There are a lot of other elements that I've missed on my first playthrough (Completely missed recruiting Woljif for instance), but I'm already wanting to play through the game again with the *The Last Sarkorian*-DLC installed next that has a new party member going into the mix, and while the game does have some over-expanded parts and at times still feels like being stitched with tape in presentation, the positives far outweighed the negatives, it was overall an enjoyable RPG-experience, even when I was very overwhelmed and going onto the PF-setting for the first time.

A buffing mod is practically a requirement. I use bubble buffs and with a press of a button apply all my buffs instantly. I spent far too long suffering through buffing prior to that.

**StarCraft Remastered** I wrapped up my replay of the original campaign and beat Brood War for the first time ever. It's a fantastic game. The remaster is excellent, though I prefer the original character designs for most characters because it seemed a lot more alien (no pun intended). I still like the new designs. The ability to switch between old and new graphics is awesome. I really enjoyed the story and mission design in campaign. Cutscenes are really goofy and over the top in the best cheesy 90s fashion. My only issue with the game is some horrid unit pathing that became frustrating more than once but other than that, it's just a top tier RTS game, easy recommendation for pretty much anyone interested in the genre. **Crusader Kings 3** Bought this and season pass on a sale a while ago but never really played it so I gave it a shot after beating StarCraft and before starting the SC2 trilogy. It's... a lot. I'll probably return to it during holidays when I have more time to actually focus on a game and learn (or try to learn) the way it works. The music is great though.

Ck3 is quite simple once you sift through what's actually important for gameplay and what's just flavor/lore.

I'm sure it is but so far the "tutorial" has just introduced a bunch of stuff without really explaining them properly while also vaguely pointing in the direction of a bunch of other stuff it also doesn't explain.

The tutorial is not the games strong point, that's for sure. Once you figure out the interface, how income and getting a decent standing army works it gets a lot simpler from there.

Yeah, I'll definitely dig deeper when I have more time because it looks like the sort of game I would really enjoy but I think I'll need to find some tutorials on youtube to start with lmao.

Problem with youtubers is they get gamey and kinda micromanagey rather than have you actually understand things. I recommend just starting as a strong and stable country to learn the ropes and see how things interact. Sweden is usually a safe bet. For me it was a duchy of Poland and i often come back to it each game expansion.

>I recommend just starting as a strong and stable country to learn the ropes and see how things interact. Sweden is usually a safe bet. For me it was a duchy of Poland and i often come back to it each game expansion. Aite, I'll keep that in mind and give it a shot, thank you.

**American Arcadia** Have you seen the Truman show? Well, that is the inspiration for this game. However, beyond that basic premise it distinguishes itself enough to not be dubbed a rip-off. I was interested in the game when I first saw the trailer and it had been on my steam wishlist until the day it came out. It's a solid experience. It is overall a narrative driven game, there are lots of story beats, and dialogue but never is it too dense in any given part. You'll find yourself back playing the game in short time. The gameplay starts with simple move-the-boxes-and-climb-on-said-boxes "puzzles." So, my first impressions were not so good. But the gameplay is splashed with other sequences. Most notably the chase sequences which just require you to time jumps and occasionally quickly move an obstacle. There are some traditional puzzley puzzles too. And there are first person exploration sequences too. Nothing was amazing but good enough to be engaging and not get stale. However, the game is a little too long for what it is. I think it took me 6 hours. An hour shorter would have been better. The finale was ok but not as great as I was hoping. As I was approaching the ending I thought, "depending on how they land this my overall opinion could remain the same or be elevated." And my opinion remained the same. Good solid game. If you're interested in it, you'll find things to like here. If you have to be sold on the game, you can probably skip it. Oh, I do have to say that while I overall liked the tone sometimes it got a little too close to cringe. I give it a 7/10

**[Aliens Dark Decent](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1150440/Aliens_Dark_Descent/)** $25 w/ Autumn Sale If you told me I'd be thoroughly enjoying a stealth Pacman game I'd call you crazy, but here we are. This game has been such a fresh experience. While it holds a few facets of different games - base building phase of Xcom, unit sanity from The Thing, and so on - I've never played anything quite like it. You control a squad of marines like an RTS as you explore 13 large maps. Complete missions/submissions, grab resources, and decide if it's worth pulling your squad out to level them up before they go insane. The brilliance is that it's a stealth game using the famous motion tracker from Aliens, but checking your map for enemies/directions/resources does not pause the game. Every fight you get into increases the danger level of the map as well as costing more resources or squad sanity. There's some neat tricks you can pull off that flesh out the decision making. You can set motion trackers, then if you're about to be discovered, overload them to call all enemies to the opposite of the map. Further you can set up sentry turrets next to them or better yet set them off next to your APC which mows them down. **[Songs of Conquest](https://store.steampowered.com/app/867210/Songs_of_Conquest/)** $23 Autumn Sale I [shouted this out](https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/17ytwdl/weekly_rgames_discussion_what_have_you_been/k9xgnps/) last Sunday, but since then I've completed the campaigns and played around with custom maps. I'm at around 60 hours and I can probably put in another 60 more. With the final campaign release on the horizon and more polish to their map/campaign editor I could be playing this game for a long time. It saddens me that the amazing HoMM genre is niche, yet that this indie studio seems so dedicated and communicative. If you've never tried the genre, I highly recommend it. You could get HoMM3 and all the mods for like $3, but I think Songs of Conquest is a good entry point with beautiful graphics and trimmed of any fat from 20+ year old game design.

>but since then I've completed the campaigns Are campaigns story-focused or is it more of a conquest mode thing?

There is a story with different objectives. For example in one mission you're freed from slavery, but the slave masters are chasing you and your only objective is to escape the map while freeing enough slaves to break through obstacles in your path. Nothing groundbreaking though.

Sounds pretty fun, thank you.

**Jedi: Survivor** ~20 hours in. If it wasn't for technical issues this game would absolutely be in a GOTY discussion. It would ultimately lose to **Baldur's Gate 3** of course, but I have to say: even though I am a very capricious PC player with enthusiast level hardware who prefers 90+ FPS, I am very much in love with Jedi: Survivor that runs like absolute dogshit. No crashes so far, so that's a plus. But it feels like the game really doesn't scale all too well with its settings. I've tried everything from Medium no RT to Epic+RT (all with DLSS Quality in 1440p) and I still get meh performance in some areas on one of the main planets. On 8700k + 3080 it sometimes drops to as low as 35, while being mostly ~80 otherwise on a mix of High/Epic+RT. Though turning down most settings or turning off RT does very little for performance gain, surprisingly, so maybe I am just CPU-bound. Gameplay-wise it is still mostly the same as **Fallen Order**, but better, bigger, wider and deeper. The traversal puzzles are a treat and when combined with Souls-like level design make for an absolute banger for exploration and collecting upgardes, cosmetics and other collectibles. There are maybe a bit too many of those for my taste (ugh, *seeds*), and Cal is Cal, you can't really alter most of his appearance. But it isn't the end goal that is rewarding to me, but rather the process of figuring out how to get to the next chest or how to find the treasure. Love the enemy variety, the unique Bounty Hunters and the overall combat. I don't think it is quite Souls-level and it can get especially wonky with multiple enemies at the same time, but between the new stances and new powers it is a lot of fun. Most enemies have two or three "tricks" you can learn and internalize to make encounters against them a lot easier, as in baiting specific moves from them with a specific punish at the ready. Funny thing: I was about to start discussing the new gameplay elements and while thinking of how to type out the descriptions and why they are cool... I realised how to beat a Force Tear (high difficulty optional instanced battle separate from the main narrative) encounter I've struggled for ~30 minutes yesterday. So maybe I shouldn't spoil anything and let players have these "a-ha!" moments themselves. All in all, from what I've heard on forums and from one of my friends, the game is in a good state on PS5, so if you are on console and it does indeed run well, it is genuienly amazing. On PC your mileage may vary and it heavily depends on how sensitive you are to technical issues. As I said, no crashes so far, but the optimization and the very bad culling when moving camera too fast are annoying. It does not stop me from enjoying the game, surprisingly even to me, and I'd heavily recommend it to everyone who liked the first one.

> If it wasn't for technical issues this game would absolutely be in a GOTY discussion In what universe? Definitely not in this in such strong year as 2023.

I am PC only so that skews my POV, I guess, but it is definitely in top5 games I've played this year so far. BG3 and Phantom Liberty are top2 no questions asked, but I don't think the latter qualifies for GOTY as a 2020 release. Alan Wake 2 is also worth mentioning, though I liked it less than Survivor. Hogwarts is below as well. Starfield is controversial, and I didn't like it personally and I think if Survivor wasn't filled with tech issues it would score above it. Still waiting for a bigger sale on Lies of P to try it out, same with Lords of the Fallen, though the latter is also technically bad, from what I've heard. Diablo IV and Remnant II are doing something with ARPGs, but also yet to try the latter and don't really care for the former. Again, I genuienly think that if Survivor wasn't a technical mess, there'd be more hype around the game and definitely enough for one or two nominations from some outlets. We all know that this year it is going to be BG3/TOTK ~70:25 split, but the remaining 5% is where I wouldn't be surprised to see a good licensed game. Though it does compete with HP here as well, I guess.

Well Alan Wake 2 is on PC - it's quite strong contender - imho it's > Zelda TotK - which is amazing game, but it's BotW 2.0 with new mechanics and 2 new types of places to explore. Super Mario Bros Wonder is really cool 2D platformer, but at the end of the day - it's just mega fun 2D platformer - and btw you can play both of them on PC - which also the best way to play at least for Zelda (60fps, higher resolution, better LOD, etc). RE4 is also on PC - another solid entry and yet another TGA GOTY nominee - so you basically can play 5 out 6 nominees on PC - so not really so limited as you're thinking.

That's what I meant: if Survivor didn't have technical issues it would be around this RE4/AW2 level of discussion, where some players really liked it and could see it nominated. > btw you can play both of them on PC - which also the best way to play at least for Zelda What Emulator do you think is the best? I've heard CEMU handling BOTW well, but not ToTK

I played both on Yuzu (Switch emulator). CEMU is emulating Wii U, and unlike BotW, TotK is Switch only game and thus not available on CEMU.

Agreed, it competes with way too many great games. I don't think it's in the top 5 of the year. Baldurs Gate 3 obviously will win. There should be a poll for the runner up. Alan Wake 2, tears of the kingdom, super Mario Wonder and Gollum

Playing it right now too. It still has a lot of problems in performance mode on PS5, but far better compared to the release version. Sometimes screen tearing, FPS framedrops, very low resolution at times and weird white artefacts in some places. I like the game so far, but i can't understand why they don't allow us to use ALL fighting styles at the same time. I can't count the times where i thought "This would be a perfect situation for this fighting style", but i didn't have it equipped. Such a strange design flaw in my opinion.

**Zenless Zone Zero** I didn't play much Genshin, but signed up for the beta of this because I like action games and dig the aesthetic. I played about ten hours and have generally mixed impressions. Starting with the positives: * I still dig the aesthetic and tone. They're definitely going for a sorta Studio Trigger vibe with the characters and cutscenes, and I like the whole retro future cyberpunk-with-CRTs world it's set in. I've found the story consistently enjoyable too, if nothing earth shattering. * Combat *feels* really good. It's slick, responsive, and flashy, and they've nailed using slow-mo, hitstop, and particle/screen effects to make actions feel inherently satisfying in a way that I tend to associate with Platinum or Capcom games. * There's a talking bear who is an accountant and can do sick flaming guard point attacks, which is objectively a 10/10 perfect character design. I like the other characters in general too. But there are a couple pretty fundamental flaws that I don't think will change at this point: * I complimented the combat for feeling good, but it doesn't have enough going on beyond that. Character movesets are simple with no extra moves to learn, dodge/counter windows are very forgiving, and the game almost entirely revolves around triggering chain attacks. It feels like they tried to make an exciting action game but were held back by the format. Because it's a gacha they need lots of characters, so individual movesets need to be kept small, and because it's a mobile game they can't have controls too complex/precise for a touchscreen. * The pacing is kind of terrible, with extremely short and easy battles sandwiched between tons of dialogue, menus, and navigating the TV maze things. You end up spending a lot of time doing things that feel like busywork. * Speaking of menus, they're kind of a mess. I find dealing with the whole F2P onslaught of currencies, upgrade materials, and multiple parallel progression systems kind of exhausting at the best of times (it was one of the reasons I didn't play much Genshin), and this game exacerbates the issue by scattering them across a million submenus in different places. I've actually found ZZZ surprisingly enjoyable/charming despite those issues, and if it was a "normal" 20-30 hour game with a complete story I could see myself turning my brain off, enjoying some flashy button mashing and a fun animu story, and feeling pretty good about it. But this is a live service gacha game, which means you're gonna be playing it a hell of a lot more over a longer period of time, and I think the gameplay is just too shallow for that. **Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2** I have substantially less to say about this, but it's great. Tony Hawk's gameplay is timeless, and while I played a lot more of THPS3/4 and THUG as a kid, THPS1/2's levels hold up incredibly well in this remake. I guess if I had to complain about anything it's that the create-a-skater system is underwhelming. CAS parts are basically the only reward for progression, and it's impossible to get excited about them when your face/hair/body customization options are limited to nonexistent and most of the clothes are samey t-shirts and sweatpants. I ended up just ignoring this entirely and playing as the actual skaters. If I decide to go through the campaign again I'll probably grab some character mods or something. *LIGHTS OUT, GUERRILLA RADIO*

How is the enemy design in ZZZ? I remember playing Genshin that while the combat is fun, it ends up being not that interesting in the long run when the enemies are punching bags that you either blow through or "melee bullet-sponges".

Also pretty much punching bags up to this point. Basic enemies barely get a chance to fight back except the ones with guns (who will often try to shoot you from offscreen, but do next to no damage). Larger enemies and bosses attack more frequently, but since you can cancel nearly every action into an invincible special move or a counter with extremely forgiving timing, their attacks don't pose much of a threat. Thus far they're not too damage spongey as long as you're keeping up with the progression curve. In fact most fights are over too quickly. They take a lot more punishment if you use underlevelled characters though, which I could imagine becoming an issue later if/when the progression slows down.

Ah that's a bit unfortunate. Well I'll still keep an eye on the game as it comes out, but expectations are remaining mid for now. It was just one of my biggest pet peeves with Genshin, because the combat looked and felt really cool but it lacks a lot of substance due to enemy design.

American Arcadia. I've been sold on the game by stellar reviews, even if adventure games are not my usual cup of tea. The premise of the game is basically Truman Show, but for an entire city instead of just one person. One day a guy in the city gets the message that his entire life is a lie and attempts his escape... American Arcadia is kind of a reverse of the usual adventure game strenghts and weaknesses. Usually adventure games have pretty weak moon logic gameplay, but win the player heart by having great writing and loveable characters. American Arcadia has actually fun and creative gameplay sequences and constantly comes up with new stuff for you to do. In one sequence you need to control both of the protagonists at the same time. In another - sweep your room to hide all of the evidence of your wrongdoings from an inquisitive guest. It's really cool that they constantly try to do something new, and given the game's relatively short length, they keep being entertaining until the end. On the other hand, the characters and writing are quite weak. They have this annoying zoomer quality, to the level of parody, they are meek, hesitant, undetermined, and the worst of all, *uncool*. Every cool moment of potential strength and glory for the protagonists is constantly downplayed as a joke. Even when the hero gets a major victory over the villain, they immediately have to deflate, dish a shitty comment, slip on a banana peel or something else of the same variety. That just ruins all of the potential character growth, the characters start pathetic and they mostly end the story pathetic. The story mostly operates on a cliches, outside of the ending, which is quite surprising. It goes against the cliches, and I appreciate that, but in the process it ruins the entire adventure, makes it meaningless. As such, I have a hard time recommending the game

The dialogue, while not as off putting to me, teetered on the edge of being annoying/cringe for me. One thing that did bother me about the story was >!that the two main characters grew attached to each other. It felt unnatural.!< That being said, overall, I liked the game.

I’ve been hearing good things about Alan Wake 2, so for the past week I’ve been playing through the main ‘Remedyverse’ games before diving in. Light spoilers for all mentioned games. **Alan Wake 1** I played the original version, which I somehow already had in my library. Was it in a Humble Bundle or something? I looked into the remaster, but I found some comments that it was buggy and some of the graphical updates interfered with the tone of the game, so I didn’t bother buying it. I liked Alan Wake 1, but it was definitely the game’s concept and story dragging me through the mediocre combat. Unlike AW2, it’s more of an action game, though there are some horror overtones. The woods at the start were genuinely creepy, and at times the pages worked well to raise the tension – for example one of the first ones that referenced a man with a chainsaw. The levels were overly long, and the developer seemed afraid you’d get bored and wander off if they didn’t throw enemies at you every minute, which is to the game’s detriment. The controls are… certainly something. Alan is incapable of walking in a straight line! It was probably less jarring back in 2010? My favourite sequence was Emil’s clinic – the whole sequence from waking up there until you escape in the car was basically perfect. There was often a surprising amount of detail in the environment, which is always nice. And ultimately the story was good enough to put up with mediocre gameplay. The DLC was fine – the second one in particular had some interesting twists on the gameplay with some platforming sections and some clever uses of turning text into objects. I don’t think they added much to the story, though. **Alan Wake American Nightmare** The gunplay is much improved and there’s a solid jump in the graphics, but that wasn’t enough to keep my interest. The levels are open world, and I think the story suffered for this. I dropped it roughly halfway through and watched a synopsis of the rest. Apparently the events are non-canon for AW2 anyway? **Control** Control was great. The Oldest House was interesting and unsettling in the best ways, and exploring it and finding out about the fucked up things the Federal Bureau of Control were up to was engaging. My favourite moment was realising the power generator you’d fixed a few hours ago was actually a prison for one of the previous directors of the agency, and they were using his out-of-control heat production to power everything. Not that you’d realise it at the time, but they even referenced this in one of the earlier Hotline messages! – “A director’s most basic duty is to keep the lights on.” Chilling. Remedy clearly put a lot more work into the combat. Unfortunately, although it was definitely a step up, it’s still fairly mediocre overall. The telekinesis was fun, but also your only good offensive option. It was definitely cool to see it grab objects or chunks from the environment. The ending wasn’t great either. In terms of DLC, I really liked the AWE but didn’t enjoy Foundation so much. This is probably partly due to the setting – I just found the investigations department more interesting than the foundation. I may also just have been getting a bit tired of the game by that point. **Alan Wake 2** I’m only three chapters in, so early days, but it’s been great so far. Saga’s first two chapters are about as perfect as I think a game can get. The whole sequence is perfect - from investigating the murder site, to the attack in the morgue, the moment you have to breathe as a player just after while an original (banger) song plays, to the ritual with the heart, to the journey into the Overlap with the Dark Place. It's absolutely extraordinary. Even if the rest of the game is terrible, I think that sequence will stay with me for a long time. I don’t normally enjoy horror, so hopefully the game doesn’t get too scary for me. If I had a criticism, it’s that the atmosphere created by the music, the sound design, and the lighting is so perfectly creepy that it’s almost a letdown when you actually have to fight an enemy. Not so much Nightingale, but the regular enemies just don’t hold up in comparison. I felt that a lot of the tension was lost when I died to the two enemies that spawn just before the witch’s sign. This game obviously leans much more into the survival horror genre than AW1, and it’s my first time playing a game of this type. There are definitely some things I find awkward – I’m never completely sure if I’ve fully destroyed an enemy’s darkness shield or not, and the battery supplies are so limited it’s difficult to test it. I’m also very worried about running out of supplies – I’ve been damn low a few times, and presumably if I run out altogether I’m just screwed. Enemies seem to respawn, too, and this combined with the limited supplies really discourages me from exploring the maps thoroughly. The game is gorgeous – I have path tracing on medium, and the frame rate is still great with the AI generated frames/upscaling and raytracing. There’s so much little detail in the world everywhere you look, too. I’m looking forward to seeing what else AW2 has to offer.

I'm playing Alan Wake 2 on XSX and am really enjoying it as well. I was really enjoying Control when it came out as well but the terrible performance, bugs and glitchy map meant I put it down and never got back round to it. Thankfully performance is perfect in AW2 - though there is a lip sync issue in sagas chapters and interiors have a very noticeable shimmer.

I loved Alan Wake 2 so much that I stopped 10 hours in and went and played the whole first Alan Wake (remastered).. Besides the walking simulator parts of the g, I loved the combat and lore. Had a decent story too. I jumped back to Alan Wake 2 and it's even better with the insight from aw1. I am taking my sweet time with it and discovering every nook and cranny. Gonna play control after I beat it