Single player (desktop): After finishing Red Faction Guerrilla, and trying Red Faction Armageddon but not really liking it, I settled on Just Cause 2 (again). Still as much fun as in 2013, when I last played it.
Single player (Deck): more Deep Rock Galactic:Survivor.
Co-op (desktop): Deep Rock Galactic, if my co-op buddies don’t bail, that is.
Persona 3 Reload - I’m not sure whether I like it or not just yet tbh. I’m about 20 hours in (or 2 months of “in-game time”) and the plot is very slow to unravel.
I don’t like turn-based RPGs usually, so combat is a bit of a chore and the exploration of Tartarus is very samey. Social sim aspects have been fine, but I guess I expected a bit more interactivity? I’m not sure. Its been nice to learn more about side characters, albeit ones not present in the “core” team.
The only somewhat similar game I’ve played before is Fire Emblem: Three Houses and I absolutely loved it, but I was much more interested in the gameplay (T-RPGs are 100% up my alley) and social sim was okay as well.
I think my primary issue with P3R is the setting - which I didn’t think would matter so much - I really don’t relate to high school life / issues anymore and it’s making it hard for me to get into the game…
The OST is absolutely S-tier though (and it has made exploring Tartarus much more bearable!)
7 Days To Die. It may have taken them 10 years, but the game is pretty solid now. This release has a huge number of quality of life changes, fixes and is extremely performant compared to many previous alphas. Great fun with friends.
I vaguely remember hearing something about them wanting to try and make it without the funding but as with many failed kickstarters I just forgot about it. Great to see that it happened, I’m gonna have a good old-fashioned nostalgia trip next weekend.
Sci-fi survival builder: you’re on a massive spacecraft that ends up crash landing on an ocean planet; your goal is to figure out wtf happened and find a way off the planet. This game is 80% feel-good tropical diving simulator; and 20% thalasaphobic deepsea horror. This has become one of my go-to “idk what to play” games that I keep returning to for a nice digital tropical vacation… with a dash of fleeing in terror from, uh… spoilers. No really though, if you don’t already know this game’s story, DO NOT start looking up videos and posts etc about it - just buy it and dive in.
Valheim is more combat oriented, but is probably my favourite survival crafting game after Subnautica. You’re playing vikings trying to earn their way into Valhalla. I die a lot. Very fun.
Planet Crafter is more chill, more jank, and more linear, but it’s a survival crafting game that is clearly heavily inspired by Subnautica. You are sent to a mars-like planet to terraform it as part of your prison sentence. It’s a great podcast game, just build and explore and watch numbers go up.
Less on the survival crafting side of things, the environmental storytelling is also really good in Outer Wilds and Return of the Obra Dinn. Very different games, but they were actually what I went to after Subnautica to scratch that itch and it worked weirdly well.
The audio in this game really seals the deal. You’re just swimming along collecting resources and hear a terrifying roar. But you look around and can’t see where it came from… Do you keep going or nope the fuck outta there and go take a breather in your life pod for 20 mins while your heart rate comes back down?
Depends on what you want. If you want more of Subnautica story then get it. If you want more Subnautica style going into the depths, Below Zero doesn’t go that deep and about half the game is actually above water. While I loved Subnautica I felt pretty disappointed by Below Zero.
Slick arcade-style twin-stick shooter with a pumpin’ soundtrack. Clear out arenas full of robots, build up combos, and go for a high score. A large roster of characters offer a wide variety of playstyles. There’s also 4-player local co-op.
Cactus is probably the single best mastery/arcade style twin-stick shooter out there. Don’t let the cute looks fool you, while this game is solid to just enjoy, the chaining and level design offer great challenge if you want it, and the way each character changes both the basic play and the way you chain a level show a just fantastic design level.
It usually goes $5 in sales, but it’s still crazy we can get games that good for so little.
If you really want a fresh experience and don’t wanna spend more time modding than actually playing, I cannot recommend more strongly Wabbajack. It’s a fully automated modlist installer with a huge gallery of available lists.
Some of the available modlists are foundational, giving you just the essentials (Engine tweaks, HD assets, community bug fixes, etc.), and some are total conversions, turning the game into a fully-realized modern third-person action game, with controls, animations, and graphics as good as any modern game.
It does everything for you, from installing Mod Organizer 2 to creating game launch shortcuts, and everything in between. All you have to do is log into Nexus (and whatever other mod sites your modlist of choice might use). It’s worth getting Nexus Premium at least temporarily to speed up the process.
Here is the Skyrim Special Edition modlist gallery.
It’s super dorky but I had a blast with SkyVoice - use your mic to say the shouts! It made the shouts way more fun and got me to use them more since you don’t have to go through the menu to equip a shout before using it.
There was a macro mod I paired it with that let me make voice macros - pick a word and key binding, then in game set the binding to whatever you wanted the voice line to do. Unfortunately I don’t remember the name of that mod, just wanted to point out that SkyVoice can do more than just the built in shouts
Go ahead and go to the Collections section and get one of the most downloaded mod collections. I added Gate to Sovngarde to my list but you can customize it however you wish!
While it’s not a gameplay mod, LORKHAN will freshen up your Skyrim experience all the same. It’s a complete soundtrack replacement mod created by the legendary young scrolls himself. It’s a stark departure from the original Skyrim’s soundtrack while still fitting in perfectly with the game.
There’s a mod that puts a museum in solitude and hundreds of unique collectables into the game as well as several small quests. The whole of it is comparable to the Thieves guild in content and the stories are well written. Plus it gives you a place to store all the beautiful unique items and radiant quests to go get them.
Personally I love it, it’s everything I want in Skyrim.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne