I know older titles are usually the topic in this community but a lot of the popular f2p games are getting pretty old now too, and if you're like me you've been curious about some of them and even pleasantly surprised now and again.

There are many examples like League of Legends, Apex Legends, Raid: Shadow Legends etc and I usually get hooked on one and play it for some months or more. I'm not really trying to get into the "business" side of things, I personally very rarely purchase anything but if you do that's absolutely fine too.

The current ones I play regularly:

• PC - Enlisted - A WW2 shooter with vehicles like the Battlefield games. Same publisher and game engine as War Thunder and has been in open beta for over 2 years now. Kinda janky still but regularly updated and enjoyable.
• Android - CUE cards universe everything (I forget exactly lol) - Fun deck builder but very grindy if you don't buy shit. Pretty unique concept for a deck builder what I've come across. Short games too so good for a smoke break or the bus or whatever.

So, what do you play?

I think my first Bethesda game was Skyrim and I love Skyrim. I’ve played through Skyrim when it first came out I played through it again in the DLC came out. I played through it again on the switch I have since played through it again on PC. I love Skyrim. I played it so many times and I know it’s a meme to keep re-releasing the game but it is just genuinely very good game.

I’ve played fallout three I tried to get into new Vegas. I played fallout four up to like level 40 just today actually and I’ve tried fallout 76. I know the gameplay is almost the same as the Skyrim game but I just can’t get into fallout and I don’t know what it is about that series . Maybe you can help me figure it out because I just don’t think this game is captivating.

It seems like there’s just less to do in the world enemies are Raiders or mutants and maybe some creatures and I guess sky rooms really the same it’s just different factions of humans but it just seems less copy and pasted than fallout does and of course Skyrim has the same dungeons, but so does fallout.

Is it just the genre of playing in a wasteland instead of a fantasy world the only real difference between the elder scrolls games in the fallout games? 

Summary

This game is firmly in the collectathon platformer genre of games and seeks to outright revive the soul of Banjo-Kazooie and extract it into a new body. The fresh coat of paint with all new characters and modern graphical styling is an attempt to distance itself from retro aesthetics while keeping some charming aspects. Gone are the convoluted controls and returning are the random chirping noises for dialog. But is the upgrade from collecting the jiggies to ordering the pagies enough to make this title distinct? The soul of the collectathon is here, lets find out if it was worth the cost of digging it up.

Controls

I want to get this out of the way really quick and head off my review here by saying that the controls are good. They aren't amazing but since I'm going to largely be comparing this to games that just had their 25th anniversaries, I think its fair to say that controls are a real highlight for innovation here. With a similar number of buttons to the old N64 titles, we've packed in a lot of moves here and the flow is miles better. They aren't perfect however.

My main gripe is just that they seem to have mapped controls in a retro way for nostalgia reasons and it holds the game back. Rather than triggering the moves organically through context, the left trigger is again used as a face button modifier. Jump with A, high jump with LT+A. Sonar ping with Y, Sonar explosion with LT+Y. They didn't need to do that but at least the animations are short to trigger so it isn't too painful.

Characters: What did the evil Bee ever do to you?

Lets talk about characters. This is par for the course if you're talking Banjo-Kazooie parody that the game NEEDS strong characters. So does this game have them? I'd argue it does not. It isn't even that I don't find the evil capitalist bee and his duck in a jar henchman to be unlikable, its just that they lack the personality and novelty that BK had. The evil witch in those games wasn't complicated, but the rhyming of their lines and personality really got sold in the dialog. Here you just have throwaway lines galore about money puns. I don't want to say that none of the characters have personality, but its a 7/10 effort for sure.

That carriers over throughout the various worlds and main characters themselves. Banjo-Kazooie had a way with its humor of being dumb but delightful fun and really didn't stop you to embellish stupid puns. I won't harp on how I didn't find this game funny, but man when games miss the mark on charm, they really miss it by a mile. Unfortunately that's kind of the case here so don't show up for the characters.

Gameplay: It blends right in

I'll also keep this brief like the controls section. The game is good and the levels are pretty well laid out. They struggle to feel as integrated as BK though in the sense that each pagie is in its own area with its own objects. I remember how BK would use the same large centerpiece snowman for 3 or 4 jiggies, that just isn't here though. So like I said, it ends up feeling like each level is just a bunch of puzzles adjacent to each other, not cohesive at all. The themes really don't help that either as the themes only play into the gameplay of the level half of the time.

Graphical Style: It looks like it plays, alright?

The graphics in this game are actually pretty good and the game ran really well during my time with it at 1440p. That makes it a very good game to run on a steam deck and that is how I played about 50% of this game. The colors are bright and vibrant and its just a shame that it isn't more stylized. Believe it or not, I don't think the extreme crispness of the graphics help the game here. If you're especially brave though, there is an N64 graphics mode in the game which is a nice touch and brings in some of that charm.

Wrapping this up

Normally I keep my thoughts organized here but I think this game really deserves discussion so here goes. I went into this game expecting for the developers to have really done something with the formula. Lets be honest, this genre died because of a lack of innovation and intrigue. I was very surprised to play this and find that not only had the formula not really grown since the BK days of 1997, but this game had regressed it by quite a bit and I just really had to push through to finish it.

The music isn't instantly classic like Banjo-Kazooie, instead it sounds mostly generic. The characters are much the same. BK always had a splash of absurdity but it also always had grounding in its world. Lacking that grounding here is absolutely killer and so each element of this game feels separate. The enemies in BK were always interesting. The obstacles also had personality. Banjo Kazooie had me fighting two dragons on the tops of volcanoes who both thought I was there to deliver them pizza. We never get anywhere close to those heights here sadly. You'll play through this game and without exaggerating I can say that you will wonder why there are even basic level enemies in this game at all.

So what we're left with in Yooka-Laylee is a shell of what these games used to be. That isn't to say this is a bad game. It belongs in the genre 100% and its what the genre is all about. If you love collectathons and you don't want to replay BK games or want a modern version of this, I'll recommend this to you. Most people would have an alright time with this game and especially kids I think would love this if their attention can be kept by it. Those are my thoughts though, the game is decidedly average for me and I wish I could say otherwise. I respect the developers immensely for their work here. It takes a lot of work to even put most of the soul of BK into a game like this and so even if it didn't entirely land for me, I applaud them. Hopefully I feel very differently as I move onto Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair.

Thanks for taking the time to read my review and let me know your thoughts in the comments!

I got into Civilization rather late with their fifth entry. I was hesitant because as I get older I need more time to game than I do new titles. Still I picked up six with all DLC during the last sale. I have to say I am liking the changes. It was good to wait because Civ does need its DLCs to feel complete.

On a side note, it runs quite nice on the Steam Deck (In desktop mode docked)

There's a certain cheesiness and non-political-correctness that's refreshing.

Also discovered a few mods like Shockwave that I wanna try.

As Cities Skylines II still isn't worth it (the sub has a regular thread about that, in summary: no it's not: https://old.reddit.com/r/CitiesSkylines/comments/1ch6lup/is_cities_skylines_ii_worth_it_megathread/) which games scratch your city building itch?

Having dropped New Vegas in the past due to lost interest, I decided to try this game out finally since a friend of mine was having a fallout 3 playthrough himself. It was it 8 bucks, so I figured why not. I have to say, I put way more hours into this game than both other Bethesda games I've played through (Skyrim and Oblivion) before even finishing the main quest line. The combat was excellent in my opinion, and I (seem to be in the minority of people who) really liked the story. The choices it forces you to make sometimes really had me feeling emotional at times. I also played it with some minor mods installed, just some custom outfits and real world guns for immersion. Nothing to break the story or anything, though there are a few DLC sized mods I'm eyeing up to play in the future. Overall I seriously enjoyed this game, I've noticed online it seems to be regarded as one of the least popular mainline games but I think it's become my favourite Bethesda game I've tried so far honestly. Seriously recommend anyone who hasn't played this yet to at least give it a try. It really pulled me in.

Edit: Since I'm done with F4, got New Vegas running with some nice mods to add gritty aesthetics and real world weapons. Giving it another try 6 years after I initially tried it and so far I'm way more into it!

Edit 2: more specific context

I had to take my GPU out to do some troubleshooting, so I figured why not try some games on the old Ryzen 5700G. Ray-traced Quake wasn't exactly playable at 3 fps, but I'm impressed that it could load and display correctly.

Other games I tried; Portal RTX wouldn't start at all. Spider-Man remastered did start, but I can't get past the load menu, not related to the Ryzen APU. Most of my library is 10+ years old, so pretty much everything else runs fine on the APU.

Have a win 7 mouseless laptop I'd like to put a game on and play for funs. Typically my go to game for olden computers is Heroes of Might and Magic 3 or maybe Civ 4. Any recommendations?

Diablo2, WC3, and RTSs would be tricky because lack of mouse and I'd prefer no rush to my actions so I can simultaneously be coding and just do minibreaks taking a turn or part of a turn here and there

Era can be defined as a console generation, a decade, one specific year, whatever you want. I’d encourage you to give a list of your favourite games from the generation of choice and why it was the best to you. Nostalgia is a totally viable reason too.

I’ll go first. For me, the 360 era is my GOAT. As someone in their 20s, I grew up with the 360 so nostalgia is definitely a big factor. But on top of that, I still feel like the games during that time were some of the best we’ve had. 2011 alone was a fantastic year, with Dark Souls, Skyrim, Portal 2 and many more great games. I was going to list out my favourite games from 2005-2013 but I love so many it would be far too long of a post.

I’d love to hear some of you talk about your favourite time period of games too, whether it’s agreeing with my choice or giving different opinions

Summary

TOEM is a pretty short indie game that revolves around taking pictures in order to complete quests in connected levels. The art and customization of both your character and the game world really stand out and this is an amazing title to play on the Steam Deck.

A Camera Game???

I cannot sing high enough praises for the use of cameras in video games when done properly. Whether its Dead Rising 1 or Pokemon Snap, cameras tend to be very engaging and this game handles it in a very unique way. This game somehow blends elements of integrating the world with your camera instead of the usual way of slapping on the feature.

Most of what you'll be doing is just finding objects to snap a photo of and then doing so. The difference here is that the game both encourages and demands creativity. For instance, the photo filters and camera tripod are mechanics that must be engaged with to complete quests. The various hats your character can wear usually have gameplay elements.

I'm not creative, does this game love me?

I'm not a very creative person, I'm the type that wouldn't play this game just for the fun of taking pictures. I tend to be utilitarian in completing game objectives and yet I found myself exploring with TOEM and taking photos just for fun. There is no score on the photos and no point to taking random pics and yet there I was photographing myself with the incredibly cute characters.

You'll start this game off thinking nothing of a lot of the photos you take and by the end you're really exploring. The levels progress in complexity which lets you take more interesting photos. You'll spend time collecting photos of every adorable animal in each level. Or maybe you'll be searching for hidden clues. Maybe you'll find a wacky character and strike a pose with them. This game actually makes you want to do those things and just have dumb fun with it.

The kind of fetch quest photographers crave

To tie it all together, the quests come in to really flesh out the experience and showcase fun and inviting things to do in the world of TOEM. Each level has very unique quests that range from finding ancient cave drawings to spotting mysterious monsters. None of the quests are too hard and none take too much time or overstay their welcome. Each level of 20 or so quests can be done in less than half an hour so you always feel like you're making progress.

Final Thoughts

If any of the above concepts sound at all interesting to you, go play this game. It's a short experience and you'll spend around 5 or so hours with it, all of the time having fun pushing forward through the quests. The art is amazing, the sound is just right and often relaxing, and I don't think you'll regret your time with this one. Tell me about your experiences with cameras in other games and what you think of it here. Also pick up the free demo on steam for the game if you're interested!

How do you like to approach writing about games?

I've noticed there are some folks writing at length here on their experiences playing games, so this felt like a good place to ask. Do you take notes as you play, and/or after each session, then write out full thoughts upon completing a game?

Or are your reflections compiled only after finishing a game, no notes?

I've dabbled with different approaches, and haven't really settled on a consistent process personally.

@patientgamers

TL;DR: Mediocre and flawed game, still had fun.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is a PS2 action game developed by Cavia. Those familiar with that name might already know what to expect and those who don't... let's just say this studio isn't known for their masterpieces.

Post doesn't contain spoilers.

Story

Story was written with the help of staff from Production I.G, studio responsible for Ghost in the Shell anime (and many other series), and feels like an alright secondary arc from the SAC show - not an original one mind you, but still floating around some of the themes tackled there.

Beyond the lack of originality it also suffers from how it is presented: each stage starts with an audio briefing, followed by a short cutscene and another call after loading into the stage proper. It's not a great system and it feels like a budgetary restriction rather than anything else however it still a part of the game and affects how it's received.

All in all, it's nothing mind blowing but decent enough.

Gameplay

As mentioned before, GitS: SAC is an action game - it has shooting, melee combat and platforming, with most of the play time focused on the first one.

Control scheme is weird and unintuitive for anyone used to playing modern action games with homogenized button layouts but it's not unplayable or even a huge problem once you get used to it.

Movement feels rather stiff but not painfully so. It suffers from janky and limited animations that not only look dated but also unpolished at times.

Jumping is a bit floaty which might make the platforming sections a bit more challenging than they should be. I didn't have too many issues with that (except in like two places focused on wall jumping) but I've seen people struggle with those parts so I guess it's worth a mention.

There's a dodge move but it's kind of useless - Major does cool acrobatic jumps that look good (the only good animations in the game) but also makes the camera focus on her and follow her movement which can lead to losing track of an enemy you're trying to avoid. Batou does a slow dive that neither protects him from damage nor moves you far enough to scatter away from danger.

Shooting doesn't provide a lot of "oomph" and can feel a bit bullet spongy depending on where you aim (there is a damage multiplier depending on body parts, even for mechanical units).

You have access to two weapons and up to three gadgets at once - gadgets use melee button to throw so you have to switch between them and unarmed attacks. It's easy to blow yourself up if you're not careful.

One big issue here is bad camera control - it's slow and feels sticky in a way that makes smooth aiming almost impossible. I'm not sure if it's just a screw up or an attempt at some kind of auto-aim/target-snapping but it's not great.

Melee is pretty limited, with just a few basic attacks flowing into a simple combo. It's also pretty situational as running head first into a group of enemies can be extremely deadly.

There's also a simple hacking minigame which allows you to take over an enemy for 20-30 seconds. It's not particularly useful but can help with killing few enemies if you're fast enough.

All those elements are pretty basic in a way familiar to anyone experienced with budget titles from that era. They work well enough to not be a chore or make the game unplayable. Not only that, I had a decent amount of fun throughout.

Graphics

Surprisingly decent. While some of the interior locations can feel samey at times there's also a decent amount of nice looking vistas and backgrounds

Two playable characters, Major and Batou, look good. I wasn't entirely sold on Major's design initially but ended up liking it quite a lot (especially when equipped with a "stun unit" which gives her big Shadow the Hedgehog shoes). Batou looks pretty close to his anime version.

Enemies have distinct designs that let you know what's you're going to deal with - as long as you can see them that is. The big problem with enemies is a stupidly short draw distance which can lead to situations where you end up shooting into an empty space because the reticle turned red.

As mentioned before, animations are very limited. Most of them look like placeholders rather than an intended end result. The only exception for this is Major's air ballet when dodging - these moves feel like the only set animators spent some actual time on.

Finally, there are prerendered cutscenes. They appear at the beginning of every stage and are quite good - both from graphical and composition standpoints. They're also pretty short so we don't get to watch much of them.

Sound

Music is a mixed bag. Some tracks sound a bit GitS-like (without reaching the quality of anime unfortunately), some (mainly combat ones) can be a bit repetitive and dull. None of them got on my nerves so at least there's that.

Characters are voiced by their anime VAs which is neat. Their performances are alright if a little flat - that might be because of the direction or due to the fact I'm more familiar with the JP cast of GitS, not sure about that one. They're good enough for the most part.

What's not good enough? Tachikomas. I like those muppets both in English and Japanese versions of the anime, here on the other hand they went a little too far into the annoying and silly aspects of their characterization.

There's not much to write about the sound effects - they're about what you'd expect from a mediocre shooter from that era. They neither break nor enhance the experience in any significant way.

Summary

I didn't have high expectations starting this game. I've seen plenty of opinions about it being "not great" to say the least and knowing the devs behind the project didn't do much to alleviate my worries.

Despite all the jank, mediocrity and a couple of frustrating sections (mainly focused on wall jumping) I had a surprising amount of fun. It wasn't a fantastic experience I'll remember for the rest of my life but it was enjoyable enough I managed to stick with it to the end - that's more than I can say about some of the critically acclaimed classics in my library.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/227200/Waking_Mars

Waking Mars is a small, relaxing, but never boring game that features a pretty fun mechanic and an engaging story about a science researcher that is stranded on Mars.

I got it in a Humble Bundle years ago and I don't want this game to be overlooked or forgotten. If you like space, and the mystery surrounding Mars' past, this is a great game for you. It is available on mobile and Steam!

Give it a try! The Steam version is the best one, the keys are a bit expensive now (they are on sale sometimes) but you may find other ways to get a key. Or maybe you have it lying around from an old bundle? If anyone else has played it too, I'd be happy to discuss it!

https://isthereanydeal.com/game/waking-mars/info/

Xenoblade Chronicles has been one of the broadly popular JRPG series as of late, particularly within my own social circles. I have heard mostly good things about the games, and some vocal criticisms about the second game in particular. After finally picking up a Switch last year, I have now made my way through most of the series.

Before trying Xenoblade myself, I had a mixed history with Xeno series creator Tetsuya Takahashi. He’s had quite a career, having worked on games in the Ys, Final Fantasy, SaGa, Mana, and Chrono series. Xenogears was his first project as a director, and I knew next to nothing about the game when I picked it up at release in 1998. It surprised me in a lot of ways, being my first real dip into the mecha genre, accompanied by a truly massive and thought-provoking script (both big changes from the SNES’s smaller scripts and censorship). My continuing experience with Xeno was less successful. Xenosaga’s move to a more cinematic style gave it a plodding pace, packed with jargon and word salad. I also didn’t connect with most of the trilogy’s characters, I found most of the gameplay boring, and I’d somehow missed the memo that Xenosaga was a reboot and not directly connected to Xenogears, souring me on the experience in general.

I didn’t have a lot of success with Xenoblade Chronicles for a while. I came to the first game late in 2017, spurred by positive word-of-mouth that had resurfaced after the announcement of XC2. While I got along with the characters better than I did in Xenosaga and enjoyed the excellent setting, I ultimately had to make an effort to avoid the game’s numerous sidequests. Being an MMO player, they would have felt dated to me even back at the game’s release in 2010, and their supporting elements in the UI were extremely basic. The game’s saving grace for me would be the gameplay, a fun romp with a squad that I enjoyed tinkering with.

My experience with Xeno changed with XC2. I had a rough start at first when I picked the game up last year, not really sure what to make of the main character and light-hearted tone of the game, a huge departure from the previous games in the series. But when the conversations with Pyra started, a deep hook set in. I immediately connected with this character, someone that seemed eminently competent but had a pensive demeanor, hinting at a darkness within. After I learned more about this character as her whole story unfolded in both XC2 and its DLC Torna, Pyra became my favorite character in the series. For the first time in 25 years, Xeno was finally starting to hit some of those same emotional notes it did for me in Xenogears. Hitting on that nostalgia also led to me thinking about interesting similarities between Fei from Xenogears and Pyra and Mythra.

In hindsight, making those connections across the series seems to be half the fun. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Future Redeemed are packed with little (and not-so-little) nods to much of past Xeno. I had a good time with this aspect of XC3, and in some ways it picked up where XC2 left off with getting me to be interested in this cast and world. I also really enjoyed the gameplay, seeing the results of refinements to the UI in particular that were sorely needed, culminating in my being thrilled at controlling A and seeing her flip around the battlefield in the DLC. An impressive achievement, considering I almost always hate playing healers in this type of gameplay!

I know fans of Xenoblade Chronicles have strong opinions about their favorites, but there were things that I loved (the setting in XC1, the cast in 2, the gameplay and Xeno callbacks in 3), and there were things that drove me nuts in each of the games. I’ve given up on the stories getting some much-needed pruning (every Xeno game and DLC I’ve played has padding or spots that just don’t work), so I can roll with that. I also don’t know if I’ll ever get to XCX or Future Connected. Xeno isn’t exactly my top ongoing series at the moment, but I’m still interested in what Takahashi is cooking up next.

Any thoughts on Xenoblade Chronicles? Or the Xeno series at large?

After writing a lot about it referencing my last playthroughs, I started it once again via OpenMW with official expansions and nude mode only, for it became kind of a habit.

So, initially it looks like an RPG, and we see these stacks of numbers in a character sheet affecting our speaking capabilities or our impotency to kill a crab, okay. If we dive more into it, we'd learn our ways not only around that, but also to become the most potent mass killer Nirn ever had. Alchemy loops to boost your intelligence and brew a better potion of intelligence are known for 20 years already, even in Skyrim, and the ways this game is completely broken are meta-knowledge making us love it even more.

But is it only an RPG?

More, than in other TES games, I encountered a lot of NSFL content. No, I don't talk about Suran's harlots, but about customs of danmers and the Sixth House.

We can go back to the Planescape: Torment, the game that starts in a morgue that people don't play these days (sorrely), russian Pathologic that hbomberguy praised and where kids with dog heads exchange stuff for razors and drugs, or that cringe project called Hatred, but non of them combined have the same amount of what is now considered non-publishable.

Besides encountering racism and cop's attention at any step (even if you are a dunmer, because you are still not a native), we have stories of imperials coming from Ilunibi and dying horribly due to corprus, that seems like a radiation poisoning. We have a cult that eats flesh and is one second from overthrowing the government, killing everyone who doesn't meet their criteria. We have all dunmers having dreams that make them insane and irrate, one step from starting a murder spree. We have gods, who by a treachery took their powers, and the center of the island being guarded by their weakening powers and literal bone ash from local funerals. We have a real gestapo from local officials, and we can participate in glory kills that are a custom of this wicked land, with us still be a member of churches and guilds. And don't even start talkimg about Fyr cloning himself into daughers, fucking them, and having a whole dungeon for adventurers to find either their award or a sudden death. Or that one quest when you search for a sex slave. And that all continues in a completely corrupt world where a duel or a bribe can significantly change the political landscape.

There's so much I can put Horror, Thriller, Grindhouse lables on, or those I don't even know. I'm glad it happened in my life and I can replay it now on any system, even on mobile phone. But it's even more vile than Fallout and it's one of the reasons it clicked with me. Morrowind is very russian, and it's popularity on our 4chan clones cements this. If your friend ever get vocal about moving here, get them Morrowind as a testing experience and then ask, if they still want that. Guess, they wouldn't, for their own good.

I would love to hear your stories about how beautiful or grim this game is.

TMB has been on my wishlist for years but the price tag has been too high... this week I noticed it was in stock and a bit of extra funds had came in as well so I decided it was time to finally buy a copy.

The game arrived today and I'm super impressed with the component quality. Even the tuck boxes and other component containers are well beyond the quality I've come to expect in a high quality board game.

Hopefully will find time in an upcoming busy weekend to squeeze in a first play.

I’ve been very busy with work the last few months so I haven’t really played any games, but things are finally starting to get back to normal a bit and I wanted to try this RPG. I played it a bit when it came out but decided to really dive into it this time. Just wondering if there’s anyone here who’s played it and has any advice? I’ve had the game spoiled for me already so don’t worry about spoilers.

Heia all! Do you have some recommendations on any strategy roguelites where you get bonuses that you keep between games?

I used to be a PC-only gamer but the older I get the more I gravitate toward very 'simple' platforms.

Because my gaming time slots can be unpredictable and sometimes short I can't take too much time setting things up.

I was surprised to find that I use the Nintendo Switch a lot because the games are on cartridges (usually few to no downloading needed) and I can continue playing the game when I am away from home. Really surprising, considering I bought it out of curiosity in 2017 and that it is in some ways underpowered compared to my other devices- I never had a Nintendo 'home' console before that.

I thought of adding the PS4 to this mention however recently I've been avoiding playing it due to the constant updates. The worst example was when my SO bought me Red Dead Redemption 2. I sat down, excited to play it, when suddenly it pormpted me to download a HUGE update . It really kind of ruined my first session.

What are your experiences and your preferred devices?

So, I'm a big JPRG fan and just playing through Mother 3. I love Mother 2 (aka Earthbound) as well. I love the music, quirkiness, style, pacing, simple yet rewarding tactics in boss battles.

So, I would appreciate any game recommendations you have for a similar game or game series.

If it helps, my other favorite JRPGs are: Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6, 9, and 10.