Whatcha all playing?
I’ve been diving deep into Blue Prince.
Really awesome roguelite puzzle game. Highly recommend checking it out!!!
A Mind Forever Voyaging, by Infocom.
It’s an old text adventure from the 80’s with a particularly cool and oddly relevant concept: You take the role of an AI that’s been meticulously raised in a simulation to truly become a general intelligence. The reason this project was undertaken was to eventually send you, the AI, into other simulations based in the near future to test the outcomes of various political policies of the new republican government, record your interactions, and report back to the engineers who created you.
The game’s designer said that he created the game in response to the despair he felt from Ronald Reagan being elected.
I haven’t gotten super far in it, but it has an incredibly well written short story in the manual that details all the events leading up to the start of the game, and so far the game itself is unlike anything else I’ve ever played.
How can I play this? It sounds really interesting!
You can play the game here on Archive.org, or you can download a copy from that page and play it in DOSBox Staging.
Here’s all the physical documentation you’ll need, such as the short story, how to play manual, and an in-world map (you’ll have to draw your own, but it’ll give you a rough idea of the land. If you find map making tedious, you could use a map someone else made).
Lastly, you’ll need this interactive copy protection wheel when it prompts you for a combination in game, right before entering a simulation.
Good luck! :D
Still trying Baldur’s Gate 3 solo Honor Mode. I’ve died a lot, to all kind of different enemies. Currently, I got a good run going, made it to level 6, still Act 1, but almost done. Hopefully I don’t turn off my brain again in a crucial moment and just eat dirt.
Cassette Beasts and soon Lost Records: Bloom and Rage, Tape 2
I’m playing Cassette Beasts lately too! It’s such a good monster collector. The low poly 3D+2D aesthetic is on point and it’s real cozy. They don’t hide their Pokémon inspiration but they do their own thing with it and I really like their take. It feels both kinder and more stimulating. I love that basically all battles are doubles.
Yeah. I never really got into pokémon as I didn’t like the idea of capturing creatures and forcing them to fight, but Cassette Beasts doesn’t have that problem. Oh yeah, good point about them being doubles. I do like the aesthetic/graphics and that it’s avaliable on every platform, unlike pokémon.
I’m also starting to lose myself in Blue prince. I was a bit hesitant in the starting hours, feeling like progress was limited, the puzzle element rather basic and the whole game too RNG based.
But now that I’m further in, I’m really starting to unravel the hidden depth of a lot of its mechanics and secrets. I’m keeping notes on my netbook and it’s starting to become more of a wiki. I’m currently unlocking and discovering new stuff at a very satisfying pace, and my opinion of the game is growing immensely.
If I remember correctly you were also a huge fan of Outer Wilds. While I do understand the comparisons, this does feel like a whole other thing to me. More mysterious and strange, but also a bit more sterile. Outer Wilds is just so filled with love and beauty on top of its mystery, that I cannot fathom any game ever pushing it from the top spot in my favorite games of all time.
Yeah I agree there so far. I’ll have to see once I beat it and peel back some of the layers. But yeah while it is scratching that same discovery itch for me, outer wilds is an unmatched experience. I will say though, while the rng is definitely different, there is a similar feeling to starting a new loop in OW and starting a new day in BP
True, that same “I wonder what I’m going to discover today?” feeling. Just had an insane run in BP with lots of new stuff an an absolute abondance of all resources. Sadly no antechamber, but I’m getting closer. Also starting to unravel the story, this too seems way more interesting than at first glance.
Morrowind.
Ages ago I got a new video card that came with bundled games, including the slightly-old Morrowind.
That was the intro for me to deep RPGs, and I fell hard.
A few weeks ago I decided to revisit it, and went with Open-MW and a vanilla experience.
So awesome.
Morrowind is clearly and by far the best TES game ever made. It’s old and it shows, but this doesn’t take anything from the quality of the game. It has one of the best executed and most interesting worlds in any game I’ve played, it has great main story that is still just a scratch among other stories hidden throughout the Vvardenfell, and lastly the soundtrack… It’s epic when it needs to be epic, it’s calm when it needs to be calm, great melodies very well tied to different areas and parts of the game, it’s just awesome.
I was trying for the second time to enjoy animal well. I kind of see how it’s a great game, but playing it feels like torture to me. I’m constantly second-guessing myself whenever I’m stuck, I don’t know if I haven’t figured out the puzzle, suck at platforming, or missing a tool.
Thinking about playing Hades again next week.
I basically stopped playing everything except chivalry 2. I don’t know why, but it’s the only thing I’ve been playing for months
Just saw a video on Blue Prince earlier. Would totally love to play it but I saw someone play through the demo enough to where I feel spoiled enough to not wanna play it because I know I’d probably just cheat. Probably a game I’d pick up in a few years, after I’ve forgotten it, similar to Baba Is You, which I’ve been stumped on certain levels of recently.
Otherwise I’ve mostly been absolutely addicted to Pokemon Rejuvenation because of debug mode making the game a lot more fun. Absolutely would not recommend it if you don’t like long pokemon games or edgier stories in your pokemon.
Same thing with Feudal Tactics on my phone/laptop. Very simple game. You have a map made up of coloured tiles. Six different colours. Two or more of the same make a city/kingdom(?). Get resources by having/taking over more connected tiles, buy/upgrade people, conquer land, defeat everyone else.
Starting Little Nightmares today… orrr at some point this week, depending on Life™️.
Lonely Mountains: Downhill. A voxel indie mountain bike riding game that basically has you trying to ride down various mountain trails in shorter times and with less crashes. Very chill game, good for parents who don’t have a lot of time to game anymore.
Minecraft via LabyMod launcher
Last Epoch and Diablo 4
Getting ready for the new content
Everquest. Can’t believe it was easy to get back into after 20+ years away.
Played Splatoon 3. The different modes are really fun, except for Turf War which kinda sucks. It’s the first time I’m trying to learn how to play a team game and I’m confused on how to improve, but I’m having fun with it.
For some reason tho Nintendo thought it was a good idea to do two day events (“Splatfests”) periodically which lock you out of any mode beside Turf War for their entire duration, so I went looking for other competitive games:
I went back to Guilty Gear Strive after dropping it for more than a year, but after playing it for a few hours, I still don’t like how sluggish the game feels and I’m not too happy with the modern design trends in fighting games (or in general the curent state of them). The biggest issue that stops me from playing tho is the terrible online experience which still hasn’t been fixed after 4 years.
Avowed and X4 depending on the mood. X4 started slow but I think I’ve started the process of getting the hang of the basics after 30 hours.
