Whatcha all playing!
I’ve been going hard in Pikmin 4. Also been playing shattered pixel dungeon and recently ascended for the first time which was super fun.
I just completed fallout 4 after 4 years!
Started the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, after wanting to replay the ME Trilogy for a couple years. Haven’t played them since they originally released.
Just started ME3 yesterday, and it is nice to experience the gameplay changes from 1 to 3 in such a short time. I had completely forgotten how terrible that Mako in ME1 was. Made it almost unbearable for me. The Hammerhead in ME2 was so much better in every way.
I was offered a month of PC Game Pass for $1, so I took MS up on it. I’ve mostly been playing Forza Horizon 4(my computer can’t handle 5) so far, the game’s really fun.
I’m open to suggestions on games in the PC Game Pass library, btw. I plan to cancel before Aug 26th, so I want to get my gaming in before then. I honestly do prefer straightforward action games and RPGs(and strategy as well). Things I prefer to avoid are puzzle solving and super open world stuff. I generally strongly prefer single-player experiences, too.
Don’t know if you’ve played/heard of these, but some good short singleplayer stuff on gamepass that might fit the types of games you like and you could easily finish before then:
A Short Hike is getting added today and is something I’d recommend to anyone if you haven’t played it. Very pleasant game, and as the name suggests it’s very short, you can complete it in an afternoon.
Celeste is on there and is one of the best 2D platformers, if you enjoy those and haven’t played it definitely try it out.
Death’s Door is a top-down zelda-like, and one of my favorite takes by indies on that type of game.
Doom 1/2 are classics that are still very much worth playing and hold up well.
Mirror’s Edge is a first person platforming/parkour game, a bit older at this point but holds up pretty well.
Monster Train is a deckbuilder roguelite, which I know is a polarizing genre, but if you’re either into those or open to the idea of trying them it’s one of the best. Might not fit as a shorter game depending on how much of the stuff in it you want to do, but you could at least get a good taste for it and see if you like it.
Both of the Ori games are good metroidvanias that are relatively short.
Prey is a great immersive sim/fps/stealth game, if you’ve tried other Arkane stuff like Dishonored, or the Deus Ex games, it’s similar to those.
Both of the Psychonauts games are great 3D platformers. 2 is especially good and a big step up in gameplay, as you might expect with the time gap between them.
Tinykin is a 3D platformer with some Pikmin inspiration, where you’re a tiny person exploring a giant house, very fun if you like platforming and collectathon type stuff.
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. Gotta clear those last quests before Baldurs Gate 3 release.
#JusticeForLagi
3U is still my favorite MH. Don’t care what anyone says about the underwater combat. I loved it.
Underwater combat is great and the game itself is good but the monster roster… Plesioth, Agnaktor, Uragaan, and the worst ones: Stygian Zinogre and Lucent Nargacuga. #JusticeForLagi though.
Me and my spouse are getting back into Elden Ring. Created a new character and chosen a build that’s enjoyable for both of us, so we sit on a couch, passing the controller back and forth, exploring, doing quests, reading lore and praising the Erdtree. Good Times!
I’ve been playing a couple of neat games.
Time Bandit is a really unique mix of genres focused on real time-based interactions. There’s puzzles you solve that take hours and you have to leave machines running and check back later, people you meet at certain times, stores that have different schedules. It’s a dystopian setting where you work in a factory, and there’s this guy you meet early on who’s with a rebellion group that teaches you about communism. It’s really neat, and less of a time commitment than it might sound like, most of my sessions have been like 10 minutes just checking in on stuff, sort of like a very weird animal crossing. It’s pretty cheap and getting a criminally low amount of attention for how cool it is.
The Void Rains Upon Her Heart is a roguelite boss rush shmup. Really approachable for that genre. I got interested in it because the dev got hired by the Revita team (one of my favorite games from last year) to work on the expansion for that, and it definitely has some similarities to that, also kinda reminds me of Undertale combat. It’s got a ton of content and does a great job at pacing the unlocks and stuff.
Last, Pseudoregalia is a 3D movement focused metroidvania. It’s very N64 inspired in style. You’re exploring a big castle, with a lot of platforming and interesting movement abilities. There’s no map, so it definitely requires some patience with that, but it’s a really neat game overall. Seems to allow a lot of sequence breaking. It’s looking to be fairly short as well, which is nice.
I’ve just finished FF XVI, and while it’s certainly not a perfect game, I really had a fantastic time with it.
Now onto either of Soul Blazer, Parasite Eve or Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered, I’ve yet to decide which to start with.
I’m deep into TOTK, though I’m looking forward to getting started with Don’t Starve on my Deck.
Played Dredge on the Steam Deck, which was a nice, relaxing experience.
Besides that I’ve been playing Blood: Fresh Supply on my beefy gaming pc. Great fun, much glee when blowing up hordes of cultists.
Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart. It finally came out on PC and it feels so good to have a R&C game again.
Yesterday finally bought Remnant: From the Ashes on sale after seeing the new one all over Twitch. Played 6h of coop with my brother and hell was it a lot of fun. There seem to be less and less good coop games, but this one does a good job. Of course there are many small issues though (e.g. a memory leak crashing the game every few hours on Xbox lol). Glad there is a second one already waiting after we’re done.
Discovered Car Mechanic Simulator and it’s so so so satisfying. I know (knew?) absolutely nothing about the mechanical systems of cars, but it just clicks.
Factorio again. Maybe one day I’ll move on.
I just bought Sun Haven to play with my girlfriend. I’m enjoying it so far, we kinda lost track of time playing lol. Though it seems like whatever job the host has, the players that join will have that job too which kinda sucks. Maybe I messed something up though. It doesn’t seem to matter much because you can kinda just ignore your job and do other things.
Still Final Fantasy 14, I’m near the end of the Stormblood base story (some general spoilers in the comment).
This expansion has been a massive disappointment so far, and this time it’s not even about all the time-wasting (of which there’s still plenty). It’s about a war to end the occupation of two different regions / nations, but it’s just not executed well at all.
The scale of the fights, that are supposed to drive out the invaders, have like a dozen people on either side, so they are just really lame. The villains are not compelling at all and have a really dumb reason for fighting you. Some of your companions, that should play a bigger role, basically don’t matter at all. It’s just not interesting at all.
I can’t wait for this to be over, hopefully the post-game patch content can improve things somewhat. I should at least get a bunch of dungeon unlocks, probably a raid, maybe more, which will most likely be a good time.
As for jobs I’ve played this week, at the start all Summoner, to get it to 80, afterward I switched to Dancer. Both are really fun and I liked them. I want to check out Red Mage a bit more, and have done some duties with it, but I need more practice with it. I leveled Dark Knight to ~50, but I’m just not really that much into playing tanks. I’ll do some duties here and there, but not much more for now. Same with healer, which I’m leveling a White Mage a bit, for now slowly trying to get it to 50.
