Patient Gamers

Ultima Underworld, I feel like getting back into retro gaming, so the first thing I have to do is to follow the tradition: read the manual. If I didn't, I wouldn't have known I could make popcorn with a lit torch; that is an early prototype of "combine items" like in survival horror games.

I have tried a little Ultima 7: The Serpent Isle just to test how it runs on my machine; they definitely made sure that you pass the test of the history of Britannia before you can even continue the game.

Really like the old days when they still made booklets like History of Britannia (as told by Kyle the Younger), just so that you get immersed in the game world before you even play the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkLyC6PSjC4

Airport CEO.

Death Stranding: Director's Cut.

Picked it up for $13 CAD a few days ago. Runs great on my Steam Deck with Lossless Scaling. Minor framerate dips, but I can't afford the time or money to build a better computer so I'll take what I can get. Being able to pick up the Deck, play for a few minutes, pause, and put it to sleep so I can deal with my kiddo is the only way I can play anything right now. Sucks that I "lose connection to the game server" if I put the Deck to sleep for too long, but it doesn't seem to impact the gameplay too much.

Kojima definitely self-indulges too hard with his storytelling and celebrity worship, but I have to give him (or maybe his writers) credit for his world building.

The controls and gameplay can be a bit frustrating at times, but they've also resulted in some memorable moments. I'll take the odd annoying moment, like losing my balance in a deep creek and dropping all my cargo, if it then creates a fun event, me scrambling down the creek madly picking up the wet suit cases of quest specific items to then narrowly deliver it all without failing.

It's worth checking out if you enjoyed the Metal Gear games, or enjoy exploring maps and unlocking areas and the emergent gameplay of something like Breath of the Wild.

The "slim" option of helldivers 2, it looks bad but is way way less glitchy and buggy and crash prone.

Demon souls remake ! I'm doing upper latria and I'm liking the vibe in this archstone so far.

This remake is lacking the quintessential FS atmosphere, but it's not bothering me that much on this section.

level design is great, boss fights are very different from what I'm used to. It's quirky. Really wish I could play the OG.

Just started Horizon Forbidden West, absolutely gorgeous game. I've had just finished Zero Dawn remastered (almost, missing parts of the DLC) so it made sense. All I can say is the story is borderline transcendental and I'm all here for it. 

"Ori and the Will of the Wisps" for me. I played the first one a few years ago and really liked it. So far, the sequel is even better!

Noita. There is still so much to learn.

Just restarted The Witcher 3. I burnt out in skellige 5 years ago.

Minishoot adventure

This game was made for me.....dual stick shooter with metroidvanias elements. Strongly recommend it. I'm having a blast.

I played quite a bit of erenshor. It's a single player offline MMORPG style game with fake players. It's pretty fun. It really scratches my MMO healer gameplay that i love but not the MMO part that i don't XD the way i've been playing has been pretty grindy since i don't explore the NPC dialogues enough and just look for dungeons for my level and i like that. I have the usual team with bots playing paladin, sorcerer, rogue, archer and i'm a druid.

The Forest.

There's a great sequel too, but the first one is a lot of fun with friends if you like survival, base building, beautiful scenery, and naked cannibals chasing you through the woods screaming.

I've gone back to Overwatch now that 6v6 is getting enough players in Australia.

I kind of regret Arc Raiders, I joined because I heard there was Aggression Based Match Making, which there seemed to be the case for the first hundred hours or so. That appears to have been turned off in the last week and I'm just not interested in playing with sweaty Tarkov style players shooting me in the back, nor having to re-craft all my gear every time I get killed.

Chrono Ark

I'm at the "end" of the story. I have one more run to get the first ending, and then an uncertain amount of optional grind to get the true ending. I will probably reserve my final thoughts for when I see the endings, but overall this game has been fantastic. Regardless of what you think of the story I'd say the gameplay is solid enough to be worth giving it a shot if you enjoy the genre, and if the story interests you then that is just a cherry on top. Despite not really being that into anime I found myself enjoying several of the characters and getting pretty interested in the plot once it got going, and I'm intrigued to see how it closes out. Mechanically I think it's just really great, with both solid core gameplay and some really fun and interesting boss designs.

Ninja Gaiden 4

I haven't played a whole lot this week, but I finished another chapter. Still very early on in the game. It's very good. I have some issues with it (and it's one of the most egregious offenders of "yellow paint" in recent years) but overall it's a great Character Action Game. In some ways it feels more like a cousin to the earlier entries than a core family member - removal of specific combo strings combined with addition of parrying and stance switching has altered the DNA quite a bit. That being said it's fantastic in its own way and really fun and fluid. Plus the bosses are actually good in this game (so far), which is... not really something you can say about previous games.

Ninja Gaiden 2 Black

The fantastic "White" mod is about to get a huge update with more or less 1:1 recreated spawns of the original NG2, and at the same time a Modified Moveset Mod released, so I had to to back and play some of the best chapters. NG2 combat still is really something special, and the moveset mod really makes it even better.

Underrail

Finally got around to playing Caves of Qud and it took me a while to figure it out and dial in the controls on Steam Deck but now it’s starting to become clear just how insane this game is..

A Plague Tale, Alien Breed, Hellslave. Quite the mix, huh?

No one lives forever

I just started Wildermyth and I'm having a good time with it. Part of me wants to install some of the visual mods for faces and hair types, but part of me wants to wait until I finish one game.

Mudrunner. Never did play these games, it's pretty neat. Roadcraft hard mode is looking pretty appealing now.

Dead Island 2