What are you playing?

[robthomasson]

I am level 25 with a mercenary and can also relate to the points made by @kennfusion - but am more enamoured of the game. I rarely die except when dealing with a boss - so maybe my build is better at crowd control than a single powerful enemy.

I have had bosses which seemed like an impassable obstacle but, so far, I have managed to get an increase in understanding of the game systems that ended up getting me through. But the boss fights are too long even when you understand what to do. I just got trashed by Azarian in the Buried Shrines and I am back at “how on earth will I beat him” and if I have to leave to get stronger it will be a long slog back to try him again. The same applies to Rathbreaker in the Trial of Sekhemas.

Right now I have no enthusiasm to try again - but tomorrow could well see hope resurface. I do marvel at the game - looks good, sounds good and so many game play/style options (and I have only tried the one character type).

[Mirefox]

I’ve been a Final Fantasy nut my whole life and have played all the games multiple times, going so far as to try to 100% them with all items, bosses, etc., etc. I’ve played a good chunk of the spinoffs, own many music albums…you get the idea.

I’ve also only dabbled a small bit in Dragon Quest. I played 8 and 11, and I think that’s it. I don’t like the series as much as FF; I don’t think it’s as epic, the characters aren’t as memorable, and the music pales in comparison. Yet I love classic JRPGs and recognize Dragon Quest as an important series historically and a heavy hitter in general in the genre. This is all to say that this year I think I’m going to play through them to the best of my ability, staring with the original. I probably won’t go into spinoff territory (though my son loves the Builders games) and will play on my phone for the most part, so I’ll be playing the classic 3 rather than the more recent HD remake.

I wish more classic series would make the jump to mobile. I’ve got Lunar, and I know there are other series in the SE library like Mana and SaGa (though I don’t know if those are complete), but how amazing would it be to see entire series like Breath of Fire or Suikoden available in our pockets?

[kennfusion]

Ok, so the end of my holiday break and let me share what I have been playing over the past couple weeks:

I can start with Path of Exile II. I am at 48 hours on the game now so clearly I am still playing. I am level 50ish and in Cruel (Act4). My current take on the game is that it is brutal starting, you have no resists, armor does not work well, you have no damage - the game is overtuned early on. It gets easier - but so far it never gets fun. It’s a challenge, and I am overcoming that challenge, bit by bit, but it is not fun. The parts where there should be a dopamine rush - there is just relief - you finally made it through that challenge, there was no reward worth mentioning, other than you get to proceed. I will keep playing for now.

Now Marvel Rivals on the other hand is just plain fun. If you liked Overwatch at all, there are 30+ Marvel heroes to play in this Hero Battler FPS that I highly recommend. Its Free to Play with only cosmetics to buy, so there is no reason to not try it. I really like a lot of the character designs in this game. I also have over 50 hours in there.

Nova Drift - Not usually something I would play, but I tried the demo and I thought it was a lot of fun. This is a Roguelite, Bullet Hell - let’s break our build - game with a lot to unlock and a lot of replayability. What I like about it is that it is no so fast that you have to be perfect at the twitch gaming, it is somewhat forgiving, and you can build each run to suit your own style. I recommend checking out the demo. It has a high score list, so you can keep trying to beat yourself.

Shogun Showdown - Another game with a demo to check out - this is more of a standard fare roguelite, it’s a 2d playing field Into the Breach type game with some really fun mechanics so far - I am not as far into this one yet, but plan to dive deeper over the next couple weeks. The thing about this game is that is oozes style. You have to check it out.

Last, but not least is Thronefall - This is just a fantastic little game. It’s a Roguelite, round-based RTS of sorts that just really works in interesting ways. Each round consists of spending your gold to build up your town, and you have limited gold and have to balance between building defenses and building economy. Then each night you are attacked. You can participate in the battles yourself, but you are often attacked from multiple sides, so you need to pick where you fight. There is a LOT to unlock here. It is also a high score game AND you can see your friends scores also. See, here is me beating @geigerm

[rinelk]

I will second that review of Marvel Rivals, from the other side. I really, really wanted to like Overwatch. It was so polished, with such character and a sense of fun! I played it for hours upon hours, always expecting to develop sufficient skill that I could finally start enjoying it any game now. If I hadn’t had that experience, I’d be hip-deep in Rivals now. Everything about it seems incredible, the game design, the art, the roster–just a top-tier product I have no chance of ever really enjoying. But I’m so glad it exists.

Meanwhile, I’ve been playing a bunch of PSVR2 games. There’ve been a bunch of frustrations associated with getting started, including that some of the games advertised with the little PS+ premium icon are included in PS+ premium only as half-hour trials. As a device, I’d say it’s … okay. Latency is good, it feels really nice, but (especially outside of the spot directly in front of you) there’s a good deal of blur, and the lensing is inconsistent enough to make it feel like using an old pair of glasses which aren’t quite your prescription anymore. It’s also pretty nausea-inducing even in people just following along on TV in a lot of games.

Gamewise, What the Bat is exactly what you’d expect from the What the Golf people–short, sometimes obscure challenges with an element of puzzle and utterly delightful surprises. It feels like it shouldn’t work to play a game expecting to be surprised, but I had a lot of moments of pure, Untitled-Goose-Game level delight. Horizon Call of the Mountain seems both very good and also more complete than I expected–I thought I was going to basically be getting a tech demo climbing mini game. There’s a good deal more to it. Synth Riders seems like basically what I was looking for out of Beat Saber–a simple rhythm game that’s fun to move to. While I like the electro-swing, I’ll likely buy Beat Saber in a bit, anyway, simply for a more familiar tracklist. I’ve only played a bit of that half-hour trial of Moss, but it seems absolutely terrific. The sense of scale works really well in VR.

The Last Clockwinder is a very neat gameplay concept, but I may not go back to it. Imagine a factory-sim style game, where you record yourself taking actions, create duplicates to do those actions repetitively, and then try to string them together efficiently. The problem is, doing things efficiently involves stuff like moving berries across the room with as few duplicates as possible, which means tossing them with precision, which is very tough (at least for me) in VR. So I record myself grabbing and tossing a berry only to watch it go astray, over and over and over. Almost glorious, but that really poisons the experience for me.

[Mirefox]

Does anyone have any Occulus VR recommendations (I’m not yet at the point where I’ve set up any PC link). We have Beat Saber, Walkabout Mini Golf, the Batman game, Vader Immortal, and some space RTS.

I want the PGA game and I’m also very curious if there are any games out there that can give me a sense of movement or flying/falling.

I’m open to anything that is just cool and fun, though.

[js619]

Just grabbed Thronefall and other than wishing it were on iOS I can’t find any faults! Great find.

[geigerm]

Sheesh, thanks for the callout @kennfusion. Thronefall is pretty great. IIRC, I grabbed that and Shogun Showdown in the same sale when both were in early access. I’ve got to give both games another try now that they’re complete.

Also a big fan of Nova Drift for all the same reasons. I did manage to actually win one run but still enjoy the ones I lose.

I bought BG3 in the Steam winter sale. I’ve barely dipped my toe in and think it’s very cool; I just hope I have the patience to see it through. Probably the first western RPG I’ve played, if not ever certainly in a long time.

[Snotty128]

@geigerm

Sheesh, thanks for the callout

Its an effective advertising strategy. Im sure Im not the only one who checked the game out so I could try and beat your score too

[Private_Prinny]

@Mirefox

am looking forward to trying an RPG of some sort

I heard that Triangle Strategy is now on VR, which is some insane batshit-next-level SquareEnix testing the water strategy if I ever heard one.

They acquire Western Studios,
they are disappointed that games are not meeting financial targets.

They sell off Western studios and bring out a ton of mid-level double AA Japanese games,
they are disappointed that games are not meeting financial targets.

The CEO spouts some bullshit about refocussing on key triple AAA franchises,
they are disappointed that games are not meeting financial targets.

They outsource some of their key franchises to other developers (Visions of Mana, Front Mission)
They may be disappointed that the games are not meeting financial targets.

The CEO spouts some bullshit about going full-in on NFT craze,
they are disappointed that the craze has died of (not fast enough IMHO).

They bring out Triangle Strategy on VR,
they will (?) be disappointed that games are not meeting financial targets.

Man…this company makes it so hard to be a fan of their work. what a trainwreck in the making 2 decades along and still going strong.

[Baelnor]

I have pretty much checked out of their work.

Triangle strategy didn’t grab me, haven’t played a Final Fantasy since, maybe, 12 (the one on ps3 where you rotate classes during battle)…

Others are doing it better- Atlus, symphony of war, fell seal, fire emblem…

Anyways, I am sure they will come back, but seems they spend more time on remakes than new stuff

[Mirefox]

13 is what you are thinking of. Which makes me think that we need a new version of that with all the games bundled…

[Mirefox]

Has anyone played the new Echoes of Wisdom? I’m curious if it actually feels like a good Zelda game or if it is something else entirely. I don’t mind playing as Zelda and I don’t mind the cutesy graphics since they worked in Link’s Awakening (I’d honestly like every 2D Zelda remade with that art). My concern is that Nintendo has a habit of dumbing down their franchises sometimes and I worry that EoW is an attempt to make Zelda playable by everyone, including the 5-year-old girls that think it looks cute. Does that make sense without being insulting?

[js619]

Haven’t played, as I haven’t been a fan of Zelda games since the original (I know, I know, gather ye pitchforks and light the torches), but my buddy who stans Zelda games just the other day remarked how his 9 year old daughter was loving EoW and “killing the puzzles”, so… I think he meant it as a reflection of look how smart my kid is rather than look how easy this game is, but my takeaway was the former.

[Mirefox]

That’s my concern. I’m also not a huge fan of how Zelda games have morphed into puzzle games. They used to have secrets to solve and small puzzles here and there, but they didn’t focus on all this building and puzzle solving that permeates the newer games in the series.

[js619]

I have a feeling it’s not for you - he’s raved about the puzzle aspect

[Hustlertwo]

Just finished all challenge runs on Balatro. All jokers are unlocked after that pesky Glass Joker finally showed. I guess all that is left is to get Gold Stake difficulty on all decks. Still a ways to go on that grind. I don’t care about getting stamps on all the jokers. That way lies madness. Jokerless was a fun one to end the challenges on, what a crazy ride to see the game without its defining component.

[Snotty128]

High Frontier 4 All (hereafter HF4A) released on the mobile stores at a premium price. When it is feature complete (more on that later) it will also release on steam after a ui overhaul.

HF4A is a board game about exploiting the solar system. The 4 in its name refers to it being the 4th iteration in the series. Its a heavy sci fi game in that all of its fi has some basis in existing sci. I think people here will love an app of this game.

BUT.

(and thats a big but, if I hadnt made that abundantly clear)

The app has been pushed out the door in a beta state, and thats being generous. No tutorial, no solo mode. Only live multiplayer or a single player mode thats just multiplayer but with no opponents. A slew of basic game rules are missing. The app rules are like a simplified version of the board game.The devs talk of dedicated servers like in their other apps, but we shall see if that enables async.

That being said, the dev team is an in house dev team and I feel they genuinely want to deliver the product they envision. Its not their first app and theyre cognisant of mobile specific issues like app switching.

[Baelnor]

Downloaded the new DLC for Reus 2 (my New Year’s resolution is now that I won’t buy any brand new games in 2025, extra content for games I already own is fine).

Looking forward to getting some hours in

[rinelk]

Y’all might have heard of Lok from Dan Thurot or Tom Brewster. It began life as a book, then went to steam, and is now on iOS (as Lok Digital). It’s the best puzzle game I’ve played in years, and has a free trial.

[Blackfyre]

Wow… I have the book and it’s great…I would’ve never guessed they’d make a digital version. I am not sure I want to play it digitally though, the experience of holding the small book and filling the boxes with your pen is just so much fun. But, as you’ve said, it’s free, so no harm in downloading it.