I should probably go to bed at this point. I typed up a short story of my arduous attempts at defending an outpost in the STALKER modpack GAMMA and how my game crashed when I turned in the quest. Sent off that post and woe-is-me, the entire text didn’t get submitted and I didn’t have it saved in copy-paste. It’s just so ironically fitting.
So ya, what’s something you’d like to ramble a bit about?
I’m hesitant to buy games at full price these days, but I had a bad day last weekend and bought the Resident Evil 4 remake on a whim, and I love it. Not looking forward to beating it, because then I’ll be in the void again where I can’t find anything to play.
I’ve definitely done that, where I like a game so much that it’s like a candy that I want to “save” and not completely devour.
Still haven’t gotten over my Elden Ring addiction, coming up on 250 hours. Experimenting with different builds is really fun, and I do like the fashionsouls / elden bling aspect too. Pretty excited about the DLC as well.
Other than that EU4 and some classic Halo multiplayer have been occupying the rest of my time.
Got to hit Street Fighter’s 6 training mode hard to learn some Cammy combos and also to practice some special moves (I’m not used to having a DP) and fundamentals. Getting bodied pretty hard by my friend lately, who mains Juri and plays JP on the side.
Also want to get back to Strive and play some ranked matches and, if I get enough free time, resume my Dragon Age: Origin’s playthrough.
I want to get it because it looks so nice, but I’m horrible at fighting games. DBZ fighterz was the only one I was mediocre at.
There’s a demo on Steam if you want to try it out. If you’re struggling with move inputs, the modern control scheme helps a lot with easing you in on the game. And, apparently, the single player mode World Tour is really well-made while teaching you some fundamental concepts effectively (I haven’t tried it yet, that’s what I read).
Unfortunately, I don’t really have a video or a review that describes the game in a newcomer-friendly yet succinct way. You can always search for rooflemonger’s street fighter 6 videos. He has a 30 minutes long review of the game if you can stomach it. He also has an hour-long beginner’s guide and a 2 hours-long(!!) character guide if you really want to get into it or if you just found a character you vibe with and want to know more about them.
I tried the demo earlier; I didn’t think much of it, but that’s probably more because of demo restrictions than actual game issues. The world tour never really got into very interesting tutorials of strategic dynamics, and I couldn’t try my hand against humans.
If they have a full free weekend at some point, that could be perfect for me.
Yeah, the demo could’ve had more stuff, I had way more fun in the open beta, to be honest. I still think it can give people a general idea of what it’s about and its new mechanics but yeah, I see your point.
I wouldn’t expect a full free weekend any time soon, unfortunately.
Jaded and burned out. AAA games are rarely worth the $60 anymore, and I’m finding that indie devs are outputting far superior experiences. AAA got too caught up in graphics rendering instead of core gameplay loop, and I can’t stand how many interactive movie games there are. They’re just not for me, and I sincerely hope more devs spin off their own studios from the AAA space so they can make the games they want instead if games the shareholders think everyone wants.
I’m having a ton of fun playing the remake of System Shock. Earlier I played Pentiment, which was amazing, and wasn’t able to get on other games until System Shock came out, which I must say that I’m having a blast with it.
When I finish System Shock, I’m planning on starting Deus Ex or something similar.
Deus Ex is one of my all time favorites. Haven’t played SS yet but I have the Steam bundle for it, so I just have to pick a time to give it a try. (Lots of games competing for my time, including multiple instances and versions of DX lol.)
Everspace 2 (om nom nom, loved it)
Was at a bit of a slow spot. Then I picked up Everspace 2 on a whim. OMG that is a fantastic game; also learned to use button style peddles for rolls. Everspace 2 combat sits at a pretty sweet spot between No Man’s Sky and Star Citizen (or ED). The combat is still arcade like but you can move your ship well in 3d space.
The Rift Breaker (surprise! it’s awesome)
Most recently I picked up The Rift Breaker and wasn’t expecting much… oops. Another fantastic game. Brings back some Total Annihilation memories and Empire Earth to some extent due to the massive build out of bases (if you want). The Rift Breaker somehow continues add in more resources in a way that doesn’t fatigue much. They also removed “it’s a running sim” issue for building your base. Can’t wait to see how multiplayer works out, whenever that happens. If multiplayer works well this will be a must play for our little game group.
Jagged Alliance 3 (like really? a real deal this time?)
Cautiously curious about Jagged Alliance 3. They brought in the director from JA 1&2 and looks like they have really tried to not screw up this installment. Could be good, I’ll likely roll the dice on that day one as I loved JA:1&2 and others in this genre.
Starfield (oh buddy!)
Finally, completely throwing caution to the wind… Starfield. This is the top game on my watch list and I cannot wait to see how it plays out. I classify Bethesda Fallout and Elder Scroll games as “clutter looters” and absolutely eat them up. Whatever Starfield may be, 1000 worlds for mods to drop content on is likely going to give it a very long life. Really looking forward to this one.
To be fair, I was expecting Diablo IV to be a complete fiasco considering Blizzard recent track record but things to be going really well here! The game is Solid!
Tears of the Kingdom has kept me busy enough.
Bored with the feeling of nothing to play.
I finished TotK, as in finished all of the shrines. I was planning a pokemon fan game on my steam deck for about a week but finished that too. I was playing Melvoe Idle on my phone for the last 6+ months but just 100% it.
I feel like I am growing out of video games a bit. Work and young kids make it hard to put energy in a game unless I’m really into it.
I’m kind of in a spur of playing or replaying older games. Replayed Fallout 1 recently and I’m doing a low intelligence build for the first time ever.
Debating playing VTM Bloodlines or the original Deus Ex, because this is a sin- I’ve never played either.
I would like to hear how your low int build goes! I have heard that it will lock you out of most quests.
So far I am locked out of the Killian/Gizmo quest because both characters think I’m too dumb and dismiss me.
And big problem: I’m too stupid to use a slot machine. I had planned on using gambling as my money maker so this is a problem. Even with Mentats I’m still too dumb to gamble.
Oh dear. Are Fallout 1 & 2 like New Vegas in their gambling where you just need a high luck skill and the money will roll in? I’ve played the both of them once but I never did any gambling.
You have also inspired me: next time I go back to Fallout 2 (never completed it because I made it close to the endgame with a shitty build and it got too hard for me) I will do a low int run for a little while since I heard there is some unique dialogue with other dumb characters.
Tears of the Kingdom has been consuming my life at the moment. I have the final boss mission ready to go but havne’t commited to that yet. I want to explore more before “finishing” the game
Then I’ll follow it up with the Outer Wilds DLC
After that I want to dedicate myself to some platformers and indie games that everyone recommends.
Honestly, feel like I’m in a good place gaming-wise, just planning ahead so there isn’t a vacant hole in my life when I finish ToTK
TotK is amazing. I was put off the price point at first but with the sheer scope of the game I can’t complain. Flying around on the Wing device is my favorite.
100% There are so many things you can do with the Wing, I mean just so many things you can do in general with all the Zonai devices. So many solutions to so many problems. Everybody I talk to handles problems in unique ways. That uniqueness to everything is really fantastic
I initially got frustrated at them because they’re so hard to launch, but now I appreciate that they’re not a one-and-done tool. Something I still want to do is freeze a block of ice, then use that to shift one off a cliff.
I’m feeling the loss of Cryonis for sure. And Stasis.
I mean, Cryonis is the type of thing you never have to miss as long as you have ice enemy parts, to either throw or put on arrows.
Anytime a blue chu-chu attacks you, kill it with an elemental attack so its blobs convert to that color; very useful.
yo 👀I didn’t realize
So many games just want too much attention.
The single-player games are bloated with crafting, mission timers, levelling trees, giant worlds that required mounted traversal, etc. They all want to be 50+ hours game time each.
The multiplayer/Live service games are battlepasses, dailies/weeklies, limited-time content. They all want to be 6+ hours a week each.
When I decide to play a game after working, I’m not playing those games anymore. I want to, and I have a bunch of them installed, but they’re just sitting in my library. Games like that require me to choose to spend X hours at a time playing only that, and I’m probably not going to do that.
I love video games, and I enjoy playing those larger SP games when I do play them. But I had to dial back and stop playing a lot of ‘Live service’ games because the content was in passes that demanded too much time I couldn’t give them. I wasn’t playing enough to complete them, but their games were built around them that there wasn’t much point playing them if I couldn’t.
Each evening I feel like playing a game, and I just watch Youtube while playing something I can pickup and play for 30min instead - or fuck around on the internet and not play anything at all.
I decided to play Witcher 3 because it was so highly reviewed, and after playing it for ~5 hours, then going to bed and feeling like I was still in the ‘tutorial starting zone’, having mostly run around over empty ground. Barely any characterisation or story progression had actually occurred. With no meaningful progress or reason to continue, I just… didn’t. A few days later I decided to uninstall.
Gaming wise it’s probably the best period I’ve had. I’ve finished a lot of smaller games, found absolute gems such as Outer Wilds (+ the perfect DLC) and Devil Daggers, P-ranked my way through Ultrakill and I’m slowly going through Elden Ring, which is just so awful on many fronts, that I don’t think I’ll be playing any other soulslikes ever. I’ve got a nice long rant about it brewing inside me.
Celeste got a massive, high quality community map pack recently, so I’m slowly chipping away at the maps, and I finally found a “main game” that I’ll probably be playing forever - Trackmania.
I don’t think I’ll be running out of stuff to play anytime soon.
I’m honestly pretty positive around the number of games I get to play on Game Pass. Several major releases I was excited about are coming there this month, and even if they weren’t, I’d usually be able to find something.
What are some of the games coming?
Just started Amnesia: The Bunker, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre is supposed to come soon. Those are the big ones off the top of my head.
Oh…scary games eh? 😅
With SF6 being out I’m trying to get back into fighting games in a big way. The single player has been a ton of fun and I really appreciate how they introduce fundamentals of the genre as part of the mode’s challenges.
Marisa (bi poly muscle queen) and Honda (sumo chad) are my mains
