Typically only 1 story game (first playthrough) like Blasphemous or Outer Wilds. And then only roguelites or sandboxes on top of that like Factorio or Slay the Spire.
I barely played the AC games as they came out, but recently decided to give Unity a try. It’s a really stunning presentation much of the time, but I find myself setting the game aside quite regularly as the quests / missions can be rather dull. I should perhaps try to do better at picking what to do in the game, as the immersion can be compelling.
For a long time 3 was my favorite. But I started playing black flag and damn dat shit is good. I think I just didn’t like it back then because it was different from 2 and 3.
I had to stop playing when I saw the review for AC 3 (I think) from Zero punctuation.
He pointed out that the quests were almost entirely “gofer” quests… You know, you go over there and get that, then go fer that other thing and go…
I started the game not long after and I have to say, he was right. And every time I was given a quest to go somewhere only to talk to someone with little to no reason for doing so other than, I have nothing better to do in the game… When that happened, I heard his voice in my head talking about how annoying gofer quests were.
It annoyed me, and I stopped playing as a result. Never got past the first chapter.
Slay the spire, FTL, and Into the Breach probably have the most hours from me because the controls are entirely cursor driven and can be paused indefinitely.
Balatro is quickly taking the space that the built-in Windows solitaire game used to.
Those are the ones that I open when my brain can’t brain.
At least one idle game. I just finished antimatter dimensions after a year or so. Starting on NGU idle next.
And one “100% attention” game like outer wilds or hollow knight.
I loved the original and the Ezio titles, found the American Revolution one ran a little too much on rails (here you ride with Paul Revere, and here’s an unskippable ghost-train ride of a sequence where you have to shoot some goons; meh), and found the Victorian London one a bit dull. I haven’t yet played Black Flag, but may do so next, given that people rate it, though am not excited by any more recent ones.
Unity is really good, contrary to its reputation (at least on PC). The parkour flies flows nicely and doesn’t suffer from the grappling hook bypass of Syndicate, it’s still the best-looking game in the series, there’s a lot of attention to detail and the story doesn’t overstay its welcome, even if it sometimes annoys with time jumps and the series habit of having to cram in historic events that you already mentioned. Yes, the map is overflowing with icons, but at that point in the series, that’s to be expected.
Compared to Black Flag, parkour, combat, stealth (especially stealth), presentation, architecture and NPCs are vastly superior, but it’s less whimsical and of course doesn’t have those fun (if repetitive and far too easy, unless you go for the big ships right in the beginning) arcadey ship battles and boarding attacks. Black Flag is definitely better at hiding and spreading its collectibles out, making discovering them a bit more of an occasion instead of an (admittedly still highly addictive) checklist chore due to its larger and more varied game world as well as the novelty of being able to leave your ship at any time, even in the middle of the ocean or near a tiny sand bank to go out and explore.
I separate games into two categories basically: Games I can play any time/in-between other games, and games I need to follow until the end or I forget everything and have to start over.
I only play 1 big game at a time if I can help it until I either finish it or lose interest. That said, I can play as many secondary games as I want like Binding of Isaac, UFO 50, Balatro, and whatever multiplayer game I’m into right now.
Especially as I got more busy IRL it became really annoying to play a bunch of big games at once. I ended up restarting Ori Will of the Wisps because I came back to it later and forgot where I was and what I was doing.
Add on to this: Slay the Spire, Rouge Legacy 2, that card game… Balatro? Pretty much any rogue like. Hades… Etc.
Secondary games are my main. Sometimes I will play a good story game but it gets broken down into like 1-2 hr segments and only if I can stay awake after everyone goes to bed.
When it comes to "games I need to follow until the end or I forget everything and have to start over" that's when I really focus down the games.
Story heavy games like the Ace Attorney series or Danganronpa are best marathoned so you don't forget the small details that matter (at least until you clear the chaper). Likewise, puzzle heavy games, specially ones that build on your knowledge like The Witness, Tunic, Return of the Obra Dinn or Chants of Senaar are ones I also focus down so I don't forget vital info involved in even playing them.
A few. I’m playing through the bonus campaigns of Etherfields, while looking longingly at ISS Vanguard which I haven’t picked up in a week, while playing one-shot games of stuff like Twinfold and Harmonies and Balatro and Slay the Spire (both table and phone). Finished Silent Hill 2R recently and that was awesome. Sometimes when I’m up to it I’ll break out some sort of random Final Girl game.
I know this isn’t true for everyone, but narrative solo board gaming is really, really good for me, and lets me do a lot of gaming that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to do, what with my brain being all busted with stroke damage.
I work a full time job, but I don't have responsibilities like children, so I have way more free time to play games.
I'm currently playing, Kingdom Hearts 2 and Bug Fables, alongside some friends so we can talk about it together.
With my partner, I'm playing, I was a Teenage Exocolonist, discussing our choices and how our game diverged.
I'm also playing solo: Octopath Traveler 2 and Lies of P.
I'm basically hopping around the various games constantly. I'll play one chapter of Bug Fables, then hop over to Lies of P and clear an area and defeat the boss, then jump over to Octopath Traveler 2 to clear a chapter or two from some characters.
Typically I play Marvel Rivals with my friend group, as it is one of the few multiplayer games these days that supports at least 5 people on a team (we already tried League, Paladins, etc and got tired of that real quick).
On my own, I sometimes feel like playing a retro game, so I have been playing Legend of Dragoon, but recently my save file got corrupted somehow so I haven’t restarted. Instead I switched to playing a less retro game, Need for Speed Carbon. Its been maybe 10 years since I played it last, so it has been interesting dealing with the horrendous rubberbanding and random crashing on PC. I also like to play Goddess of Victory NIKKE as a mobile game whenever I have down time but am away from home.
But I don’t think it is atypical to really focus on playing one game at a time. I’d say that would actually be quite unusual and likely only done by people who have a job playing multiple games per day (a not so good reviewer, streamer, etc).
I mean, you should always check your backups and make 2 for good measure, but supposedly some of these newer ones are made for archival and claim between 10-100 years. Never trust such claims without verification but if true could be the best thing for archival besides punching bits in stone.
heck yeah! my buddies were making fun of me for trying to get an old BD rom to play nice with proxmox, and i have a stack of old bdr’s from 10 years ago lol
I play at most 2-3 games at the same time. 1 story game that requires concentration (currently "Pentiment"), one game I play online with friends (currently "Return to Moria") and one simple game when I don't want to think too much (currently nothing, I just finished "Vampire Survivors")
I'm also a dad with a full time job. As for how I pick my games, if I do the same thing too long I get bored and don't finish the game. And I like finishing games. So I don't do two horror games back-to-back, or two survival games, or two FPS, etc. I like to switch up. Before "Pentiment" my focus games were "SOMA", "Astroneer", "Conarium", "Green Hell", "The Talos Principle" and "Prey". So, quite varied I think.
If you get paralyzed picking which story game to play next, maybe getting really picky about which ones make the list and then literally roll the dice or use an RNG generator to pick one. If they are all good, and your gameplay spread across a long time with work and kids, then any "mood" you are in, in the moment, will be averaged out over time. If you get into a game and find it really just isn't for you, give yourself permission to move on.
In short, make the decision less consequential to avoid paralysis. That was my method anyway, being in similar situation with life time constraints.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne