Patient Gamers

Elden Ring’s expansion! I failed the tree boss multiple times, with help.

Noe, Class of ‘09: the Re-Up!

I've been playing Sonic Frontiers, which has been surprisingly fun. It has a similar vibe to what "Mario Odyssey" did for mario, the mixture of 3D, camera controlled, and 2D segments was done well in my opinion.

Return to Moria has been really fun! Playing online with my buddy all day the last two days.

Pretty slow moving for a survival/crafting game, but we're both big Tolkien fans and the fan service is pretty great.

Boss fights have been quite interesting and when progression finally happens it feels really satisfying.

I am currently playing ORAS, BOTW and Rayman Legends, after finishing at least one of them I'll start with Metroid Zero Mission for once, to break that nightmare deal I did to myself of not playing more metroidvanias until I get to finish Super Metroid and SOTN!

Yakuza 3. Probably for the 3rd time as well because there was too much time since I played and lost track of the plot.

Playing through the entire Dragon Age series, then Pillars of Eternity and Sea of Stars.

Continuing Metaphor: ReFantazio. It's the most consistently polished game Atlus made (that I played) in years, though maybe SMT VV has a chance once I get to it. The only ones that come to mind are Persona 5/Royal (however much I prefer P3 and P4), and Etrian Odyssey V. Both of which had longer development times compared to their series, who knew?

My only complaint is that it doesn't have any 10/10 aspect that I'd love, most of my favourite games are somewhat flawed anyway, as long as they have that special aspect that clicks. But then, Persona 3 had nothing like that until the endgame, so there's still time for it to surprise me.

Im going deep into beyond all reason, warzone 2100 and speed dreams

I played Alan Wake 2 last winter on my Steam Deck, fearing I would get spoilers before I build my PC. Now that I have built it, I will proceed with The Final Draft and the DLCs.

Started Grim Dawn (ARPG) and Genesis Order (AVN, although I suppose that one is fairly recent).

Started my year off with a new computer and a portal speed run! Sub 27 mins with no quick saving was a solid start to the year.

Actually, playing portal on max graphics and getting 60fps was the real solid start 😅

Resident Evil Village and Sniper Elite 4

The first has some really cool environments and storytelling. I heard it was "like a shooter" and so I put it to maximum difficulty right away. I have to say I am not a fan of having to empty several pistol magazines into the head of the first enemy I encounter and they... survive. When murder becomes a chore, it kinda takes the fun out of it. So I lowered the difficulty setting.

The second... is as bad as the one before it. Just put it to maximum difficulty and yolo your way trough all levels. Or don't, it doesn't matter. Enemies are insanely slow. You can always walk up to some nazi's, sip your tea, then remember you should find cover because one enemy just finished their tiktok doom scrolling and decides to aim their gun at you.

Finishing up Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (not patient, I know), Hogwarts Legacy, and A Hat in Time.

After that, I'm excited to play some games I got in the Steam sale:

• Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
• Firewatch
• South Park: The Stick of Truth

I'm going to try holding off buying more games this year to get through a bunch of games I have that I haven't played.

Psychonauts 2. I picked it up for 80% off during the autumn Steam sale and just getting around to playing it.

I also picked up It Takes Two and have been playing that with my wife.

Skyrim.

My goal is to play through the entire series this year.

I'm working my way through Valheim. I started last year and then stopped shortly before fighting the second boss and never got around to picking it back up. Now I'm back at it and working through the third biome. I still have a long way to go and hope that I can continue to sink at least 100 more hours into it.

I also got Metro 2033 and Last Light on the Steam winter sale. I started Metro Exodus a few years ago and also stopped pretty early, so I'm hoping that this time I can stick with it through the whole series. I also got Grim Dawn and it doesn't play great on the Deck, but hopefully I'll be able to get used to it with a bit of effort.

Outside of those, Wildermyth and Brotato are my main chillout games and I'm pretty sure they'll also get 50-100 hours each this year.

Hopped back into Octopath (the first one) after finishing Sea of Stars. It's a honker of a game haha I feel like it's going to take me a while.

The Long Dark and finishing Cyberpunk

I honestly have no idea. I did my semi-annual playthrough of Skyrim (as a wizard for the first time rather than giving up shortly in) and finished everything I meant to last week. I have to look at my steam library, I suppose

I've gotten sucked into The X-Com Files. It's a megamod for the original X-Com game from 1994, built on OpenXcom Extended (an open-source re-implementation).
My first attempt at the old X-Com game lost my interest a few years ago, but OXCE brings plenty of QoL changes and the difficulty of the XCF mod ramps up slower than vanilla. Now I'm having a blast hunting cults, cowering from aliens, building bases around the world.