I’m trying to get back into Elden Ring, but I forgot how late I was into the game when I stopped playing last time, so I’m getting my ass handed to me. But the DLC trailer got my hyped to play again, and I never finished my first playthrough, so I have to beat the game. I am also working on Animal Crossing: New Leaf on my 3DS. No idea what I’m doing, but I’ll take the challenge.
I may also load up Tears of the Kingdom on my Steam Deck if I feel so inclined this week.
I’m also struggling with the itch to go back to ER, busy in a similar boat (around the Haligtree entrance, but it’s been around a year and I don’t think I have the chops anymore). I think I’m going to try and hold out until there’s more info on the expansion.
I'm going through some more of The Outer Worlds. Still really enjoying it. It's got a good pace to it.
Palworld is still my second screen game for podcasts and such. It needs some tweaking in the progression, but I'm at the point now where I can expand to additional bases.
I picked up Penny's Big Breakaway. It feels great to play. The boss fights are really interesting. This could and should have been one of the best platformers I've ever played, and maybe it still is, but some bugs and jank occasionally get in the way. If you're swinging from your yo-yo and hit a wall, you're supposed to do a small climbing animation, but it doesn't always work. Sometimes when riding your yo-yo, you'll kind of just skip and jump off with poor feedback for why. Sometimes you get stuck in a wall. The design for air dashing by pressing the button twice can often get eaten by other inputs, and that doesn't feel great. The bugs and jank are not the most prevalent part of the experience, but they happen enough to bring down my opinion of the game a peg or two. I'd highly recommend this game, but maybe wait a few months for a couple of patches.
My friends and I beat the main campaign of Quake II in co-op. It's much faster in co-op and with the compass feature than they intended, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Next we'll move on to the expansions.
Still labbing some stuff in Skullgirls for my Combo Breaker grind. It's painful going through replays for my losses, but it's necessary, and I took good notes.
I had been dipping my toes into the waters of loot games with Titan Quest, and I think I'm at the point now where I can say I see the appeal with the genre and I'll stick with it. For this game in particular, I do wish the bosses were more involved, because they don't really hit a crescendo that a boss fight should have. Due to what defensive options the game gives you and doesn't give you, they often just end up being running away from the guy in a circle until you can land some hits. Still, it's fun. After this game, I might check out the sequel, Grim Dawn, or V Rising.
I did finish it. Liked it, really enjoyed the presentation. There was a bit of abstract in the ending, which isn't really my bag, but I'm on board for the sequel.
Did you end up playing around anything further with the combat and the combos? I ended up really enjoying fighting in the game, I just wish the bosses were a little more refined maybe. The feeling of being in sync with the voices and dodging instinctively when they yell a warning is really cool, and unlike any other game I’ve played.
The ending didn’t click for me immediately either, but I ended up replaying it and giving it some more thought and I think I get what they’re going for. Really looking forward to the sequel.
And sorry again that I spoiled that trial! I hope you enjoyed it anyway, it’s still my favourite part I think.
No worries. I was not really able to deduce any more depth out of the combat, really. There were some defensive options that seem to always cancel into offense options to feel snappier, but I think it was really a matter of what the game bothered to teach me and what I needed to do in order to make it through the game. If they want to make it a priority on the sequel, I trust them to know how to do that.
Yeah, the combat has some depth to it but it’s never really explained nor needed. I guess the only truly useful one is the melee button pommel smash after a parry which stuns the enemy for like 15 seconds, very useful against the horde fights. I liked playing around with it and the animations and combos are satisfying, but that’s about it.
They had enough of a foundation there though that I’m hopeful for the sequel.
Halls Of Torment. It’s a simple game on the surface, but has some surprising depth I wasn’t expecting that I like. Plus when you do a completely broken build and your frame rate drops because of all the damage your causing to the entire screen, it makes me laugh.
Plus killing the skeletons makes the most satisfying crunchy sound. Similar satisfaction to Vampire Survivors when you have enough garlic to “pop” enemies by walking into them.
Probably Civilization V (with the difficulty set below maximum so you’re not too restricted and don’t have to play so sweaty). I like just seeing whatever the Planet Simulator map spits out, putz around with half my brain turned off, trying out niche civs and basically just playing it like solitaire.
I don’t play it even every week anymore, but when I need some distraction and relaxation that’s a comfort game go-to.
I used to collect various systems and games but nowadays don’t have much left apart from my Dreamcast stuff. Cost, storage space and just the risk of something becoming unplayable mean emulation is my go to now.
PS1 is probably my most played system, I used ePSXe for years but recently switched to Duckstation and so far so good. Some of my all time favourites are GT2, Future Cop LAPD, Devil Dice, Colin McRae Rally 1/2.
If you want something to play on Dolphin then the GameCube version of Skies of Arcadia is excellent.
Dragon Age: Origins is pretty gory (for an RPG from that era.) Their whole marketing campaign was basically “look how bloody this game is—even our logo is made out of blood.”
Edit: I would recommend Wildermyth as a whimsical, party-based RPG that doesn’t include stuff like this.
I think Fallout 1 & 2 have a lot of parallels. The first two fallouts are a lot more like ttrpgs, it was when Bethesda bought them they became FPS rpgs.
Oviously older, but they hold up pretty well and certainly a different setting.
There are plenty of other CRPGs (good search term) that are fine with a mouse/keyboard. Larian kind of stands alone in terms of how well they handle with a controller though. Divinity Original Sin 2 is still dark, but not as in your face about it.
Other terms that have similar battles (but generally more closed maps) are tactical RPGs, strategy RPGs, turn based tactics or turn based strategy. I can’t break down the lines between any of those sub-genres, but they’re all kind of in the neighborhood. A lot of them are also dark, though.
Was just thinking about My Time at Portia. Pretty new gamer friendly and when things start feeling tedious, a new mechanic is introduced to make everything you were doing easier. Haven’t played My Time at Sandrock, so can’t speak for the sequel.
Portia is way better on PC than Switch. I have it on Switch and got to late game but haven’t beaten it yet - the lag got too annoying but for me it wasn’t quite good enough to justify buying twice. It was pretty good though and if they ever put it on deep discount I’d consider spending $5 or so to buy it again.
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