Elden Ring. Only the base game, and this is my first run. I have been very thorough with it, though. I'm currently trying to beat Malenia, then it's off to do the last boss
Victoria 2. Weekly multiplayer session with a couple of friends. It's 1915, and my people have just elected an anti-military party that is really hampering my efforts to swing a big imperialist stick around
Lorn's Lure. PS2 graphics, generous 3D platforming mechanics, and an impossibly vast and desolate megastructure to explore. Well I'm playing the demo of it, anyway. I am going to get the full version, it made a good impression.
My friend that really doesn’t play many games loved Elden Ring. And ive listened to a lot of lore videos from Dark Souls to Elden Ring. But my PC probably can’t handle the game. I can’t wait to eventually be horrible at it though.
It's great fun! So long as you're on board with the experience it is trying to create, of course. FromSoft are good at what they do and don't much care for whether or not what they do is everyone's cup of tea
I'd love to try Bloodborne, because that gameplay combined with a bit of cosmic horror sounds amazing to me. I'll have to either wait for a PC port or learn about emulation, though
The thing that stuck out to me more than I expected about it is how painterly it often feels. It's exceptionally good at framing its environments in a spectacular or pleasing way even while the player has full control of the camera. I'm not usually one to worry about visuals too much, but this game's environments really stuck out to me. And while it is very high-fidelity and nicely rendered, it's less about the actual graphical performance than it is about the design of the environments
Honestly… I would say that the game fits with the theme of the original post, and explaining it would ruin the magic.
I will say that not only do the mechanics change based on the story, but there is an entire asynchronous online system where users help other users (that they will never see or meet in game) to construct be infrastructure to make travel for others (they will never see or meet) easier.
Then those mechanics feed back into the actual story. It’s kind of wild.
I know it’s a divisive game, but I will say it’s a masterpiece imo. Even if only for those mechanics.
And yes, the controls change based on how the load you’re carrying is balanced. I believe the definitive way to play is the Definitive Edition on PS5 with the DualSense controller since the adaptive triggers become harder to press as your load increases.
sorry, badly phrased-- I was trying not to give away the mechanic. In the game the literal controls on your keyboard/controller get altered in order to advance the story
I’ve been getting back into boomer shooters and dungeon crawlers.
I’ve been playing more Selaco, and I’m excited for the next chapter to be released. Also Burger Flipper has taken my spare time in that game while I’m playing it (it’s the idle clicker game-within-a-game).
I reinstalled Lunacid to jump back in and hopefully finish that at some point soon. I’ve been playing fun demos like Mohrta and Hark the Ghoul too.
Honkai: Star Rail and Ys IX: Monstrum Nox. Took me multiple chapters to get into Ys IX (very unusual for me, I love the series) but I’m finally starting to enjoy it.
Heh. I love Ys, and yet EVERY SINGLE TIME I am initially disappointed, and I have to stick with it, and it eventually gets insanely good.
Just how Ys games are I guess. With Ys X I went into it knowing this and really overlooked a lot and told myself to ignore my criticisms cause I’ve been through this rodeo like 6 times now. 50 hours in, yeah it’s awesome. The story especially.
I don’t hate Monstrum Nox like so many do. It’s refreshing they will always try wildly different things.
That’s me with Atelier. Usually I’m good to go right away with Ys right from the start, even with the ones I don’t like as much. Ys VIII was especially good as soon as the island landing.
Half Life 2, I got a new laptop a couple of years ago and it was the first that could actually play it properly but I never got to it, then the big update came out and wow, so worth it, loving it.
TES IV Oblivion. Love it, so silly, I love thieving.
Autonauts vs Piratebots, such a fun and cute little programming game.
New ones I’ve finished and absolutely loved: Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Star Wars: Outlaws
Not new ones that I’m currently playing and really like so far: Days Gone and Mad Max
Not new ones that I’m currently playing that I’m unsure if I like, be it because of the game itself or technical issues: Enshrouded, Horizon Forbidden West, and Satisfactory
Ones I’ve played for some time and won’t stop playing anytime soon (and obviously love): Warframe and Minecraft
What’d you like about veilguard? Were you a big fan of the series before? I want to buy it but the changes from the first one put a pretty bad taste in my mouth.
Not OP, but it’s a very good game that gets better the longer you play it. It more like Mass Effect than Dragon Age in many ways though, but the final stretch especially was almost on the same level as the suicide mission of ME2 IMO. Characters and gameplay are great, dialogue and level design could have been better and the only element that really sucked for me are the godawful outfits and weapons and lack of variation thereof.
The most I will tell you is that it’s an adventure game with some minor tower defense elements. And that it is the best game I’ve ever played, and no game has ever topped it since.
I’ve recently been eyeing the case for that game on the shelf and thinking about going back to it, but it’s been so long since I last played that I 100% would need to start over again. I had gotten prob 20+ hours so it’s a lot to lose. But I remember the story being pretty mindbending.
I’ll also add The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC. I know there’s a remake coming out next year, but there’s a bunch of shady stuff surrounding how they’re gonna localize it. (Supposedly, they’re gonna use AI to try to do most of it and then have real people brush it up.)
So I’d recommend playing the original instead. It’s a 2.5D game with a mostly 360° camera. It uses turn-based combat, but not traditional turn-based combat. And it has a great story.
It’s also on sale for only US$9.99 on GOG (which is DRM-free) and Steam.
Oh no, are they really going to use AI to translate a Falcom RPG? That’s fucking heresy. The scripts in those games, are one of the things that set them apart from other JRPG schlock…
spoilerThe persistent/recurring NPCs having their own little side stories that you can miss or skip entirely if you don’t talk to literally every NPC twice every single day (I haven’t played a ton of Trails in the Sky series yet, was going to wait for the remake, but now I’m not sure… This take is based on Cold Steel and Zero/Azure), is one of the most charming aspects of these games imo… Each NPC has their own individual personality, and it remains consistent (or sometimes even changes through character growth. In the background and completely missable if you don’t exhaust all of their dialogue. Just off the top of my head, I’m thinking of Mint from Cold Steel I & II. What a little rascal! And her interactions with her uncle, Professor Makarov. Then Makarov’s budding romance with that other teacher after Mint sets them up… Lol, I remember this shit more than some of the main plot.
I love that shit!
And, typically, it seems as though they put a lot of care into the localization. This is super disappointing if true.
I get that these scripts must be massive but I’d rather wait an extra 6 months or whatever, if it means the NPC dialogue doesn’t read like ChatGPT.
Edit: I realized that this thread is all about going in blind, and my comment could be construed as ruining that. I despise spoilers of any kind (and my brain seems to seek them out so as to troll me), so I’m very sensitive to that. Apologies.
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