Hey y’all, what have you been playing?
I have been playing quite a bit of lies of p, and I started cocoon as well. Both super solid games. I’m getting my PC back tomorrow so I think I’m going to finally start Alan wake 2 as well!
Picked up Palworld and started it today. It is pretty fun and, as long as they patch it and support it, it could be a fantastic time waster.
We bought Palworld yesterday, probably play that most of the week. It mashes up a lot of games and has some nice QoL updates from similar games (like Ark)
My son and I are like 95% done the end-game content in the Super Mario RPG remake, only Culex 3D remains! It’s been a total blast. My biggest struggle is finding more games like this.
We’ve loved all the Paper Mario games we’ve been able to play (original, Super, TYD, and Origami King…. unless I’m forgetting one), but trying out miscellaneous JRPGs hasn’t had any success with him yet. He’s too young for a lot of games, but seeing things from that pre-tween point of view I also feel like we all could do with more games that aren’t fueled by adolescent angst or grim brooding. Bright, fun adventure on a foundation of silliness paired with great music is such a good recipe.
Have you played Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling yet?
We tried it once, but it didn’t grab my son’s interest at the outset. I’m going to have us try again as I’ve heard nothing but praise for it.
The Mario & Luigi games are similarly approachable and good RPGs, Superstar Saga (the first one) especially. They are handheld games so maybe a bit more difficult to play together with someone, though you could emulate them very easily to play on a more suitable device.
Sea of Stars also might be worth a try. Takes a lot of inspiration from Paper Mario.
Dave the Diver! It looks so goofy but give it a shot. It’s got hilarious cutscenes, and a really well executed blend of roguelike, restaurant game, resource management, and story RPG.
Tried out Palworld a couple of days ago on Game Pass.
Not really my thing. People focused on the monster catching “Pokémon with guns” stuff, but it’s still a survival/crafting/building game at its core, and I rarely ever enjoy those (there are like three exceptions total). Glad other people are enjoying it, though.
Might go back and replay Cassette Beasts at some point. Also, buy the deluxe edition with the DLC and all (I know it’s small and short, but I don’t mind) because the devs deserve every cent. Soundtrack as well, because it’s fucking awesome.
Kind of funny how I never cared about “catching 'em all” when it came to any of the Pokémon games, but I was more than happy to record everything in CB given the right motivation.
EDIT: Yeah, Cassette Beasts has been fun again. Also, I really like the DLC monsters. It is short, but it’s still a fun little experience. Started a new run with randomised monster locations and types and it feels like a different game entirely. Had to try a few times due to RNG fucking me on the first two runs, but third one is going well so far (although I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to Telekitty not being lightning).
I just finished Spider-Man Miles Morales. So I’m gonna be starting Spider-Man 2 soon.
My time I’d normally use for gaming has gone in to starting to learn FreeCAD, which I guess I could argue is an open world builder game.
I just finished Portal Revolution. Puzzles were high quality. Story, script and voice acting was meh. Now I’m playing Outriders, which I bought during the winter sale. Super mid game, very formulaic gameplay. Story and visuals are kinda cool.
I’m playing through portal rev now. Every time I finish a section of traveling I feel like I’m a genius solving all the little 2 or 3 step puzzles. Then the path opens up into one of the huge puzzle rooms and I’m like shit where do I even start this looks impossible.
I’m getting through it all and enjoying the journey.
Started Palworld today.
I never realized how much I needed shotgun wielding sheep in my life.
I started playing unsighted. Its the first game I’ve been seriously playing since november 😅
Currently, I play Alwa’s Awakening on the Evercade. Very cute and hard, at times, metroidvania.
Currently into Triangle Strategy’s New Game+. I’m enjoying that game way more than I thought I would. It’s a fun, charming successor to the strategy JRPG. It has few tropes and the mechanics have been streamlined while maintaining challenge. Surprisingly low magic as well. I mean there are plenty of magic users, but no monster, no supernatural armageddon and the end game is not “kill god”. It does have that peculiar JPRG theatricality, so you need to be fine with that.
I’ve missed this thread for a few weeks already (as in, I didn’t see it). Completed Disco Elysium twice since then, amazing game! Very sad that there’s not going to be a sequel; the world is fascinating, as is the style of gameplay.
Just finished Cyberpunk 2077 for the first time. I had it since release but it grew on me very slowly. Focused more on it after the release of 2.0 and it quickly became one of my favorite games ever made. Highly recommend.
I wanted something more linear so I finally started playing God of War (2018) with the intention to finish it. I started it back in 2018 a few months after it came out but it was hard to get into since the combat didn’t feel as free or open-ended as the games I was used to like Spider-man, the Arkham games, or Dark Souls but it’s okay imo. I’m hoping the story has better payoff than the combat does.
I had the same reaction to God of War, with reverence for the combat in those other games you listed as well. Do you typically enjoy character action games? They all kind of felt the same to me, and I couldn’t really get into the combat in them even though I ought to be into it on paper. Then Hi-Fi Rush came along and made that genre make sense to me. Now I’ve gone back through most of the Devil May Cry series and plan on giving God of War another shot when I find the time.
I’m not sure I know what a character action game is. God of War feels a little grating to me because there are enough enemies who feel like they’re programmed to be challenging and aren’t naturally challenging. I know some enemies from the Spider-man and Arkham games are technically the same, but they ride the other side of the line that defines immersion. DOOM 2016 and DOOM: Eternal are better examples of games with combat mechanics which encourage you (sometimes very strongly) to play the game a specific way, but lets you try to play it your way if you want, or can’t play the way it encourages.
A character action game is something like God of War, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, or Hi-Fi Rush. Combo-based, juggle-based, score chasers, but different than the rhythm-based combat in Batman: Arkham or Spider-Man.
Oooh gotcha. Yeah, when I was a kid I enjoyed that sort of game, like The Force Unleashed was one of my favorites. But as I’ve gotten older they just haven’t been fun. I tried Darksiders when I was in college and it was mind-numbingly boring.
If God of War (2018) didn’t grant me the flexibility to chuck Kratos’ axe whenever I want and switch up styles between axed and hands/shield on the fly I would probably get too bored of this game to continue. But I do get a lot of enjoyment out of hucking that axe into someone’s noggin then bum-rushing them and beating the shit out of them with godlike aggression. That’s pretty cool.
About 40% through Hogwarts Legacy at the moment. It’s been great so far, very impressive especially coming from the old HP games on PC. Fixed up some performance issues with the Ascendio mod, and all works fairly well on my (ancient, circa 2014) rig.
