Games

Has anyone here ever played through a game series? Like, not over the years but as a concerted effort? I did that for Zelda like 12 years ago, but I haven't done it since. I kinda' want to do it with Final Fantasy or something, but IDK. Not sure what series I should do another one with. Oh, I guess I did it with Silent Hill, sorta (up to SH Shattered Memories).

I've been on a real Valheim kick lately even though I suck at it and keep using cheats to retrieve my gear after I die.

Also I find playing the Long Dark before bed has been helping me sleep. Something about slowly dying in the cold is relaxing.

I reinstalled Age of Mythology Retold a few weeks ago to play the Japanese campaign and I'm now working my way through Gauntlet mode.

I'm 2/3rds of the way through the Final Fantasy Tactics remake. The game is a lot easier than I remember it being when I played it as a kid, but that's because I'm actually smart enough to try and use synergies now and to switch my gear/skills to fit the battle instead of forcing my favorite classes into every battle. The music is super nostalgic, the added voice acting is good, the quality of life features like a fast forward button are very welcome. Overall, I'd say it's worth a revisit if you haven't played it in over a decade (or two) like I have. But if someone recently finished the original or War of the Lions, it's not significantly different enough to be worth playing again just for the few extra lines of dialogue they added to the unique characters like Agrias. Even missing the War of the Lions content though, I do think it's the definitive version of the game. A modded and emulated War of the Lions with the lag fix is a close second since you can also use fast forward, save states, mods to make JP Up baseline for everyone instead of feeling pressured to always have it equipped. I'm planning to 100% all the achievements just for fun.

@somename@hexbear.net

Playing through The Outer Worlds 2. I think i'm in whats considered the third act.

The game itself is decent. Having a better time of it then I remember from the first game. Playing on story mode cause i don't care much for combat stuff, just generally like dialogue based game. Lots of skill checks for dialogue and level traversal.

The politics of the game are pretty centrism brained; there are two main factions, the super capitalist and the evil communists. Both are portrayed in a silly manner, so you can't really take to many things seriously in the game. Not super offensive to me, but maybe not as annoying as it was in the first game. Would be nice to make choices that move the galaxy in a direction that isn't 'both sides bad', but its whatever.

As an aside, i fucking hate UE5. I hate Lumen, i hate the fucking temporal shadows that are fuzzy and change as you move the camera around. Its sooooo fucking distracting and such awful technical direction. Makes the game so damn blurry.

Im still playin age of mythology retold, its pretty good, i finished the first part of the story mode of gauntlet mode, im going to play the other a bit so i unlock more blessing before i try the other gauntlet mode.

Im mostly playing loki since thats the god i remember how to play but im trying to play japanese and chinse too since they are really fun, i think i got a good take on chinese since they are an eco/defencive civ but im still learning japanese a bit

Waiting for Crusader Kings 3 All Under Heaven (Asia Expansion for CK3) to drop on tuesday.

In the meantime im gonna read through Absolute Wonderwoman. I already finished Absolute Batman and Absolute Superman and enjoyed them both quite a bit.

HOI4. Playing through all Communist Paths in The Fire Rises Mod before I burnout of my HoI obsession.

Okay, but besides that... uh.. gacha games? WuWa, HSR, if you know.. you know. Uh.. CoC (Clash of Clans) sometimes? Yeah.. I.. I... got nothing.

I finally started Alan Wake 2 and wow is the style and presentation of it impressive. I'm only a couple of hours in, and in some ways it feels quite retro (although that seems like it's kind of the point too), but it's really effective - it's style, it's atmosphere, even it's jump scares etc. The character writing so far is really solid too. Good TV level solid rather than just video game good. I'm really looking forward to playing more.

Currently playing Shiren the Wanderer 4 - The Eye of God and the Devil's Navel on my phone through the PSP emulator. A fantastic step up for the series from playing and beating the DS version this past summer. I play for the 15 min I'm on the bus in the morning, it's the perfect game to get my juices flowing early morning. Improved graphics, better items and upgrades and additional ways to improve your runs with the ability to tag weapons and shields so you don't lose them (and their upgrades) completely between runs.

In parallel with Shiren 4 I'm also playing the newest Shiren release Serpentcoil Island on my laptop. The contrast betwern the two is pretty stark. I've been playing Shiren off and on for twenty year and this game is by far the most difficult iteration of Shiren I've played. For the first two hours I couldn't get past the damned fifth floor, just yesterday I finally made it to floor ten and got pummeled again. I appreciate the difficulty, but damn the game is kicking my ass. I also noticed there seems to be less upgrades and ways to create advantages between runs like Shiren 4, but maybe that changes as you progress through the game. The graphics are also in 3D for the first time since Shiren 3 on the Wii, initially I wasn't a fan (Shiren just feels right as a pixel-art game) but after a few playthroughs I'm actually grown to like them. They can be a little rough and lacking detail at times, but they are charming.

I found House of Necrosis on Rock Paper Shotgun, which is basically if the Mysery Dungeon games and Resident Evil had a baby. I've done a few quick plays to level 4 and promptly got my ass beat by the boss everytime. This game is even harder than Serpentcoil Island which is saying a lot. Love the PS1 style graphics and menus though, and it's a fun game thematically for this time of year.

I did try and start a playthrough of Resident Evil, but am stuck fighting and dying repeatedly on that first damn zombie dog, so I've kind of stalled out on it. The atmosphere still holds up and goddamn the live action cut scenes are so laughably cringe, I forgot they had done them live action in the first game, the actors look like cosplayer of the characters they're trying to play in game and they act worse than porn actors lol.

Lastly I'm playing the shit out of New Star GP. I needed a good indy-style racing game and it efinitely delivers. I was initially turned off by the simplistic and stylized cartoon-y graphics, but they've grown on me over the course of playing thes past few weeks. I had to switch from normal to hard though because I was just wrecking the competition on normal, unfortunately you have to create an entirely new save to do so, so I'm having to replay the GPs I've already done on normal to get back to where I was. I dig that your rivals become more aggressive towards you on the track as your relationship to them changes, I've had a few assholes run me off the track as I'm trying to pass them. You also manage your racing team members which add perks to help you, which I found annoying at first, but came to like it as time went on (it's especially necessary to manage your team and upgrade your car in hard mode). Great game, lot of fun and excellent in quick sessions.

more time stranger with my fiancée and some old yu-gi-oh games with retroachievements

duelists of the roses is way better than it has any right to be with a wild premise

and destiny board traveler is concentrated rng bullshit and extremely infuriating

Valheim, and getting back into Hades 1 that I had given up on last time

I bought Night Striker Gear when it released a few days ago. It's fun and has a great soundtrack, but sometimes it can be really hard to see enemy bullets because of all the explosions, and I think the original Night Striker is actually much easier just for this reason.

The game was directed by Hiroshi Iuchi, the designer of Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga, and I didn't even know that before buying.

Power Washer Sim 2 PSSSSSSSSSSSS

Love that you take your cats with you to every job and can pet them now

Escape from Duckov. This game is fucking FIRE. I love it. I needed a pancake (non-VR) game to play while I am dealing with an ongoing bacterial pneumonia infection and this shit rocks ass. 10/10

Switch pad finally got stick drift. Started hades 2 but the games kind of unplayable because of it.

Mostly Unnamed Space Idle, with a little bit of Hades 2 and Ball X Pit when I have the time

Been playing KSP and also just got final fantasy 7 remake installed through lutris so I'm looking forward to playing that on a computer that can actually run it.

Pokemon Legends ZA. But I also bought Zombies ate my Neighbors and The Organ Trail and I want to play some of those before Halloween.

I should be getting my spooky candle ghost pokemon soon then I got my full party and I'll take a short break to try the others.

I beat Warcraft 2 base game and I'm playing through the expansion right now. I never managed to get this far without cheating when I was younger, the AI is a little shit I swear.

I also 100% ratchet and clank 1 & 2, playing through 3 right now.

I started dungeon keeper 1 with dungeon keeper FX. Very nostalgic and fun, did the first 3-4 levels.

I kinda stopped my vintage story save because despite knowing what I should do to progress I kinda burned out. Maybe I should try a casual difficulty world once, because the game is long and difficult enough. I always burn out on the grind and the time it takes to do things by the time I'm at bronze+

Have not progressed my silksong steel heart save. Might get back into it when there's updates?

I beat Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon recently. Despite being britbong myth, I feel like the interpretation of the game's version of King Arthur comes across like a burger lib's interpretation of the burger founding fathers. The leaders of the institutions created by Arthur and his knights are incredibly corrupt, use the legacy of Arthur to justify atrocities, and is utterly impotent against the damage caused by the environment changing due to the Wyrdness. Also, Arthur and his knights committed genocides and fucked up human experiments because they saw themselves as the Adults in the Room who need to Make Tough Decisions to Get Shit Done.

To the game's credit, it regularly calls the legitimacy of that justification into question, and you can choose to not buy it. I ended up killing Arthur and forming a united front to defeat KKKamelot. Overall, it's indie Skyrim with less shitty politics that has a bunch of over the top Celtic accents in place of Nordic ones. 7/10, would play again.

someone on here recommended Backpack Hero ages ago and i've been playing that for a week or two, good fun

Welp, I gave up on Final Fantasy 16. I lost interest in the story and the gameplay couldn’t grab me either. Shame. Now I’m a bit more wary of whether I should buy the FF7 remakes.

Anyway the next big game I’ve started is Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. Have never really been all that much into the series so now I wanna try and stick with it more.

Still playing Returnal. I finally beat the final boss guy/thing and then I found out I have to play through the whole thing all over again, possibly multiple times, to get the REAL ending. God damn it.

Finished Titanfall 2 this weekend after it was on the steam sale and I think it's both the best Call of Duty campaign anyone has ever made and also rivals Control for how fucking smooth it plays as a shooter

Monster hunter wilds has their Halloween event on now, dreamspell, so I've been doing that. Got the gamma set for fire octopus monster, and actually managed to beat savage omega for the first time yesterday. Fabius is around to help which might have given me the edge needed. Still need to win like 4 more times if I want to be able to make all the weapons for omega and the omega armor as well.

I got power wash 2 but haven't tried it yet, because ball x pit is right there, and I'm always squeezing in another gem miner TD as well lol.