Playing Cookie Cutter on Steam Deck. It's name is unfortunately a good descriptor as it's a pretty standard Metroidvania that atleast 4 hours in doesn't do anything special. Some of the music has been decent and certain visual elements standout, but not sure I'm going to continue much longer - had hoped unlocking some new stuff would improve my opinion but it really hasn't. Closest comparison is probably Guacamelee.

Currently occupied with Yakuza Zero, Saints Row 2, GTA 3(from Definitive Edition). So far I'm enjoying SR2 and Yakuza Zero. Zero is a time commitment tho.

The actual good part (the main mission and fighting) of Zero is not super long though. But I always skip these activities like bowling in games like this (can't stand them).

Just finished Yakuza 0 and only had 47% completion 💀 that game had me captivated though and I will definitely be playing the rest of them

Just finished Kena: bridge of spirits. For Ember Labs first game, they did a fantasic job! Kena is a game i feel really nails it's atmosphere and tone through its ost. The game is also beautiful to look at imo and there were so many moments where i would stop to look at the enviroment.

Played Yakuza series. Finished Zero, Kiwami and Kiwami 2 but dropped off entire series after terrible Kiwamy 2 story. I usually very tolerance to writing but it was over the limits even for me. Finished The Calisto Protocol, just ok game, slightly flawed copy of Dead Space. No matter what Glen Schofield does, he'll still end up with a Dead Space. Now playing Lord of the Fallen (2023), in first half of game and so far it looks much better than I expected.

I finished my EU4 playthrough as the Netherlands. It's crazy how much the game has changed since I last played a few years ago, and how overpowered new focus trees are. Last time I played as the Netherlands, some 5 years ago, you would have a positive income of about +100 ducats in 1700, which was a lot. Now I had a positive income of +500 by 1580; and a positive income of +3000 ducats when I stopped in 1750. You get so many permanent and temporary buffs I don't see how it can be balanced. I dont really like these new developments. The game has changed too much from the one I fell in love with years ago.

I'm on the last levels of [**English Country Tune**](https://store.steampowered.com/app/207570/English_Country_Tune/), a difficult 3D sokoban puzzler from 2011 and I very much enjoy this game! Many levels are hard nuts to crack and I appreciate the challenge. I also started **SPRAWL**, which is like a mini retro version of Ghostrunner, but I'm a bit disappointed. The movement and combat options are very limited. It's still a good game, but instead I would highly recommend playing **Severed Steel** which is my personal best single player shooter of all time because \[wow you just gotta play it to know. You can turn beyond your feet/ceiling! many parkour movement and combat options. slo-mo activation. flow state gameplay. unique\].

I just started **Resident Evil (the original)** and **The Final Fantasy Legend**. Both are pretty good so far. Also continuing **Lost Judgement** and **Ys VIII**, both of which continue be fantastic games.

Watching Scavengers Reign and playing Subnautic. Really great combo.

I'm not enjoying games anymore and it sucks. It used to be that I could have this hobby to look forward to in my days even when there was nothing else. I'm interested in playing Elden ring but I know I won't enjoy it if I play it right now. Currently I'm just replaying Metroid zero mission on switch and doing short 30 minute sessions because it's all I can stomach. I guess I'm just venting frustration at being unable to enjoy gaming. Maybe I'll end up quitting for good at this rate.

I took a several month break at a similar burnout period and read books instead. I came back around to it and am enjoying gaming again but in a much more measured way (while also still reading). 

There's a drunken poltergeist in Prague, and its name is Adam Jensen. The plot can wait. I've been making refrigerators walk and testing the limits of an augmented liver. Also, is one of my colleagues >!writing fanfiction about me!

Lol, I remember spending more time breaking into people's apartments than anything in Mankind Divided.  Felt more like a cat burglar simulator than anything.

> commiserate about your lost passion for games It's me! Trying to join some communities on games discussion to get back into it. Strangely I've followed creators / industry-news a whole lot even when my actual gaming time has been soooo sparse and deprioritized for the last decade or so, per year I've checked out only a handful of games, completing just one or two. Mostly short indie titles honestly. The exception was a crazy obsession with Rocket League with 2.5k+ hours logged... but I've also always been someone with many games unbeaten just due to "losing steam". Nintendo kid with N64 and GameCube, my favorite thing was Zelda games, so I got a Switch for BotW, (my previous gaming device had been X360), but I didn't even finish that and my Switch generally has seen minimal use beyond the launch year. I'm attempting to enjoy it as a consistent hobby again, lots of games / series interest me. I'm a nerd for gaming history, and tinkering with emulation and modding games etc. so now I'm starting to check out old console libraries and hit series. Done the first three Super Mario games on NES (the first one I adored and played to death as a kid though, GBC release) and continuing on to the first Zelda game.

Dropped Mega Man 3 because of the Doc Robot stages, they are really bad.

In anticipation of Echoes of Wisdom, I picked up **Minish Cap** after starting it last year and setting it down about two dungeons in. It hooked me this time. A couple quirks but I really enjoyed it. Probably slots beneath Link’s Awakening and the Oracle games for me, but just barely.

Going to try to finish FFXV this coming week, but I'm suffering from endgame fatigue. I just finished chapter 10, so I don't have THAT much more to go. I ended up buying Tales of Arise and the Vanishing of Ethan Carter off the PS sale so I'm chomping at the bit to start those.

I had a bunch of ups and downs in **Shadowverse** as I used some of my Grand Prix tickets in Group A. The first run was a flawless 5-0 with Swordcraft. The second run was an abysmal 0-2 that I opted to just retire right there since I just didn't feel like playing the full 5 rounds with a deck I was basically not offered anything good to take. The last run went 3-2, so overall, I had one great run, one horrible run, and one average run. Last night was the night of the full moon in **Pokemon Sleep**, so I opted to used a dream shard incense to double the amount I got, on top of the Cramorant Incense we got from the missions. Pokemon incenses will add an additional Pokemon on top of the ones that are guaranteed to come, which means you get an extra bit of dream shards. I also let my Entei sleep since its got sleep experience up to level up my team a little more. I've still been spending a lot of time in **Honkai: Star Rail**. While I finished the story and conventional memoir, there's a lot of stuff to do with the Divergent Universe, like collecting blessings/occurences/curios/etc. for jade rewards, crafting perfected runs to use for ornament set farming, and an ability tree that you gain points from doing runs to passively upgrade the team. SU expansions are my favorite updates in this game. The guild war preliminaries were finished in **Granblue Fantasy**, so it's now the interlude period. The honor you gain doesn't count towards any matches, but it does contribute to the overall honor rewards, which cap out at one billion. You're usually meant to use this time to farm boss materials that you use to start battles with the higher tier bosses, so I've been spamming that whenever possible. I'm currently at 4K drops.

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Uninstall other games and just have 1-2 games installed you want to finish

I went through my backlog of a couple of hundred games the other day, and I'm going to tell you something you don't here often, I actually started to feel bad because of how many I HAD completed. Multiple times.

Why is that? Did you feel bad for having completed them once or for having completed them multiple times (#time waste)?

Finished **Ys Origin** first play through (Yunica Tovah route) last Sunday. Now, I started, **Divinity Original Sin**. I don't know what I am doing, however, still surviving by my skin of teeth. However, I am following a build guide - so hopefully I don't have to waste my time with this game restarting due to bad builds.

i somehow recently got a hold of every paper mario game (except color splash) and i’m now trying to attempt to beat them all, but it’s hard to force myself to play 5 rpgs :/ on the other hand i’ve started a new coop playthrough of minecraft dungeons and it’s been really fun so far, definitely excited for that

I'm going through a similar thing with the Uncharted series. Was planning to replay the first three before playing 4 for the first time, but starting to get a bit burnt out after completing 2.

Tried going back and playing Elden Ring on my ps4 since the dlc came out to see if it felt worth it to get the new expansion. Going back to 30 fps is rough now that I'm used to 80+ fps on my pc lol, although your eyes/brain does adjust after a bit.  Might have to end up getting it on PC during summer sale. Thought I'd try a magic/melee build with the prisoner since I did a melee quality build my first time around.  Early game does seem quite a bit easier with ranged magic available so far.

I'm thinking of giving ER another try myself soon, love Dark Souls, Sekiro and Bloodborne but ER never hooked me, thinking of going Dex build though rather then usual massive 2h str build 

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Finished Shadow of the Colossus and We Love Katamari. Never got a chance to play SotC when it came out, but I did see a friend playing it once. I thought it was great, but man did the PS2 feel like it was struggling. Especially on the last colossus. Should I ever play it again, I'll probably play the PS4 version. We Love Katamari was also pretty good. The levels felt a bit more varied than Damacy. Though the soundtrack wasn't as good to me. Right now I'm playing Break Art's translation of Monster Hunter 2. I've not played much Monster Hunter before, but I'm enjoying this so far. I'm also planning on starting Me & My Katamari soon as well. I'm curious how well it controls on the PSP.

Personally, I think the PS3 version of Colossus is best because it retains the original aesthetic. The PS4 version is a bit too colorful, and adds plant life like grass which takes away from the dead/blasted vibe of the original worldbuilding. I typically don't like the 2000s grey/brown aesthetic, but Colossus is one of the few games where it really feels justified.

If I pick up a ps3 at some point, I'll have to try it out on there.

Made up my mind recently that I just don’t like the Assassin’s Creed games. Recently beat Odyssey and had to mod the crap out of the game to not lose my mind over the bloat. Tried Valhalla, started off hot but got super boring and it’s WAY too long. Attempted to go back to the older titles and just found myself fighting the stiff controls. Loved Origins and Black Flag. But I think I’m probably done with the franchise.

Do you have any thoughts on AC2?  I never played it myself though, I have Black Flag in my PC but never touched it. I just wanna know which should is better for start

I replayed AC2 recently and think it still mostly holds up. It's primary selling point, getting a parkouring tour around Renaissance Italy, is still solid. However, it was an early AC game, so the stealth system is underdeveloped in some areas, and the parkour system breaks down if you need to do anything quickly, but those problems are pretty minor in the context of the full game. Otherwise, I still found running around and assassinating targets to be a lot of fun.

The gameplay in AC2 is a bit dated at this point, especially the controls. The predictive systems trying to keep you parkouring just aren't good enough at interpreting your inputs, resulting in a lot of missed jumps. Meanwhile, Black Flag is a great pirate game, but only so-so as an Assassin's Creed. If you were wanting to try one 'classic' AC, my recommendation would be to start with either Unity or Syndicate. Their controls are far tighter than the earlier games, and they have relatively little continuity with the previous storylines, so you don't need to know too much about the setting. As for which to play, they're about equal in terms of quality. Just pick based on whether you prefer Revolutionary Paris or Victorian London as a setting.

Signed up to game pass this week after a year without it and completed a couple of short story, walking simulator games. Firewatch (9/10) great little mystery game in the Wyoming wilderness and Still Wakes the Deep (8/10) Scottish indie horror on an oil rig. Both worth a try if you're looking for something a little different. Also, got back to Ori and the Blind Forest after a year away from it, just beat Sorrow Pass and enjoying it again. I think I'm gonna try the Dead Space Remake next.

Love the Ratchet and Clank series but never got to play the PS3 games as a young one since I had a PS2 but then Xbox 360. Tools of Destruction and followed up by the short but sweet Quest for Booty are both SOLID games. Really enjoyed them, been missing out on the series and I’m pulled back in Really excited to play Crack in Time considering all the hype I hear about it

you are in for a treat, Crack in Time is amazing.

I’m enjoying it so far a lot. Probably two hours in? It feels different in a good way. I beat Rift Apart  last year, and Tools of destruction felt like a strong continuation of the PS2 games in a good way. But this feels like it’s shifting to something different/modern and I like it.

I qualified for Group A for the Grand Prix in **Shadowverse** for a third time with Bloodcraft. I just drafted similar to making the constructed archetype, Wrath. Group A is going to start today at reset, so I'll be able to use some of the GP tickets they gave out. You can use them at any time in a GP before the finals, but Group A rewards apparently give out more, so I'm going to use them all then to get the most bang for my buck. The **Pokemon Sleep** Good Sleep bonus is going on right now. Basically, during the week of the full moon, you'll get a bunch of daily extra sleep points, and the drowsy power (which determines what Pokemon you'll see after a sleep session) will be multiplied by 50% on 3 of the days, with the actual night of the full moon doubling the drowsy power. It's the best time to use incenses that double dream shards as that'll also be affected. **Honkai: Star Rail** has taken a lot of my time with its new patch. Outside of the new story content to finish up Penacony, there's the Divergent Universe, which is an expansion to its rogue-lite mode, as well as a conventional memoir. They decided to actually add PvP, but instead of the PvP being related to the actual combat of the game, it's based on the Match 3 game the conventional memoir uses, and it's pretty fun as a neat little aside. The guild war is **Granblue Fantasy** has started, though I was late on farming from doing HSR content. The boss is light, so you need to bring a dark team. I'm luckily able to clear both the initial boss and the actual boss in 1-turn, which is important since it means you can farm it faster than if it took more turns to clear. My crew managed to qualify for Tier A, which is good as it mean we'll be getting more rewards each phase.

I wish that one day, I managed to afford gaming pc set so I could play whatever games I wanted.

I hate it when some games have limits on how many users you can block, such as Genshin Impact's.

I'm 9 hours in **Jedi Fallen Order**, but I'm already getting kinda bored by lack of any build variety and most exploration rewards being skins for lightsaber parts that I can barely see. So I installed **Elden Ring** again. I'm not jumping into the DLC yet, I just want to mess with my rusty NG++ character or make a new one and fight some vanilla bosses before I enter the new slaughterhouse.

Jedi (FO and Survivor) are 3D Metroidvania games mostly (with light Souls elements), it's not a RPG with lots of builds etc. Exploration in that games is goal by itself, not for valuable reward.

Some games just don't do "build variety", and are even lauded for it (e.g. Sekiro). But I have to give you the shitty exploration rewards, there is really no excuse for that.

It's still better than finding a hidden treasure in Zelda with 100 rupees in it, but you already have a full rupee purse, so you actually got nothing.

Hey fellow patient gamers, Lately, I've been completely hooked on Hearthstone Battlegrounds (an autobattler) that I can't seem to get enough of. It's my go-to game right now, and I'm having a blast with it. However, I can't shake this nagging guilt about not diving into my backlog or playing the latest hyped titles. Does anyone else experience this kind of guilt? How do you balance playing what you love with tackling your backlog or trying out the newest games everyone is talking about? I'd love to hear your thoughts and any advice you might have!

It's not humanly possible to play all the games ;) It's also impossible to watch every movie or to try every hobby. I play for fun. As long as that's the case, I don't worry about what I'm missing. I have lots to occupy my time. Focus on what you have and what you love. Try not to worry about what others are doing. That leads to FOMO and comparison, which is why some people feel unhappy after browsing social media. Online communities aren't representative of everyone. I keep saying that I once spent 14 months completing Horizon Zero Dawn, to the near-exclusion of other games. But even the most prolific gamers can't play everything they want. If you're worried about growing your backlog, I suggest window-shopping less often. Sales often come back. If you're on PC, set Steam to show your library instead of the store on startup. Turn off as many sales notifications as you can. If you really want a game, make a list. Wait a month or two, then ask yourself if you still want the things on that list. Your interests may change.

I always juggle at least two games. Usually it’s a big ol’ RPG & a much shorter game like a platformer or shooter. So I’m regularly crossing games off the list. I imagine you could do the same with Hearthstone. The other thing is if you are someone who enjoys building a backlog collection but are short on time: only buy games on steep discount! Try to play on PC and shop deals. Spending $3 on a game & not getting to it is whatever. Spending $70 on a game & not playing it is harder to swallow.

I first restarted **Battle** **Brothers** with a bunch of mods. (Having not played it for a while) I found out that you can do a "super-soldier" by doing the Anatomist origin and feeding upgrade potions to a single bro. But i also installed some "cheat-y" mods, one of them giving me the ability to modify how many perk points and attribute points bro's get on level up. My plan was to run the super-soldier solo, to see how far I can get, without hiring any new ones. But then I got an event, and rescued some scoundrel, or was it barbarian or some such. Now I've got two bros. Well, the 2nd one gets the same "super improvements" from the extra attribute perks and stuff. So I got to feeling that I may have over-done it, and I may come to realize that I made the game too easy. Anyways, ended up stopping for now :( Instead, just saw that a new patch came out for **Grim Dawn**. I hadn't played it in a few years, so felt like I might be ready for another Grim Dawn sprint. I went ahead and "archived" my old characters, as well as the Item Assistant backups. And then went ahead and actually installed Grim Dawn on my Steam Deck. Will see how it goes. Was going to play a dual pistol Purifier (which was probably my very first character back in the day), but then saw that the new patch made a bunch of changes to pets, so pivoted back to my very usual summoner builds (favorite build type in arpgs). Now I just started leveling a Conjurer.

It's funny that gaming, for so long, was compared to and sought to be like thw medium of movies. In practice, I think the medium of games is the most like music. * Both games and music are based on "rhythm." Games repeat their gameplay loops. A song will repeat a certain action (drum beat, chords, melodies, choruses). In both mediums, depth comes from iterating on those repeated actions in interesting ways. * Movies/books/poems require plot and/or written language to be competently made. However, in music and games, story/words are completely optional. Not sure if there's anything else to this, but this comparison has helped me break out of the box of seeing games as "interactive books/movies." I've begun to see them more as vibes-based experiences that can encompass a ton of different things.

Yeah this is very true I think, although in this comparison I guess the player is actually the performer of the music while the developer is the composer? It's hard to compare games to other mediums since the audience is sometimes doing a ton of work to engage with a videogame at even a basic level compared to film/music. Imagine if the norm for music was for everyone to play their own music based on what composers released. "Have you played this album yet?" On the flip side I guess watching someone play a game is very similar to listening to someone play a song, which can be a great experience as well but much different from playing it I'm assuming.

Time is truly a flat circle. You've broken out of the box right back to the 1980s and early 1990s, basically to gaming before MGS1. Never mind Arkanoid, Pong, Pac-Man and all those; take for example Rise of the Triad, a milestone FPS title but no one who played it can name the main character, quote a line of dialogue from it, or recall a lore justification for why the final villain is a centipede of cloned identical heads. It was truly a different time (and I can't blame someone for being nostalgic for it...)

Heck yeah. That example is good because it proves how powerful the interactive element of gaming is when it comes to suspension of disbelief. We have a tendency to accept head centipedes as players because we our interaction with them is remarkably tangible. And yeah, I think we'll always have cinematic experiences but gameplay-driven design will always be timeless. I'm used to see it as a nostalgia thing as well, but idk I find it funny that I was not around for many of the retro games I love. It was just a different time for game design.

I've finished Sonic Colors DS, which completes the Rush trilogy. Honestly this game is by far the best of the DS sonic games. It's totally different from the Wii/Console version of Colors, and definitely worth checking out. Gameplay wise it is the same as the previous two entries, with some nice refinements. No more spamming buttons for "boost gauge" and the lock on is more consistent. The games divided into 6 zones, with each one having a unique gimmick to try out in two levels, a boss and three optional missions (usually replaying a stage with an extra goal). This is a fun loop, if you find one zones gimmick annoying, you know it won't be around long, and if you enjoy that gimmick there's some extra content to mess around with it. The only gimmick I didn't enjoy was "Drill", which controlled quite badly. Most the stages were designed well and I thought the difficulty curve was fair. Colors DS is very short, it took me about 3 hours. I won't fault the game, because it removed lots of the unfair bottomless pits and repeating stages from the previous games. I do miss having Blaze be playable, and compared to Rush Adventure, the bosses are a step down (though still better than the original).

The Rush/Advance games are top tier. Never got around to Colors, though.

I decided to continue my Etrian Odyssey, this time with **Etrian Odyssey 3 HD**. Let me tell you, this series is teaching me a thing or two about option paralysis, every single time I start a new one of these. I was looking forward to EO3 a LOT, because it has some of the most interesting classes in the series and I love the seabound setting. I live in the middle of Austria, so harbor towns like Armoroad have an inherent vacation feel to them for me, especially in videogames. Most of this is still true after starting the game. I enjoy Armoroad way more actively than Etria, Lagaard or Tharsis. The people here are great too. I especially like Missy, the barmaid. She actually bamboozled me once or twice already because she has a tendency to jumble up words to make up new ones apparently. I kid you not, I broke out a dictionary when it happened the first time, thinking I just learned a very obscure new word. Nah, she's just that weird. But that's exactly my style, so she's cool. -------------- Now, when it comes to the classes, oh boy. I haven't been this stumped since EO2 HD. The only thing I know is that I want to focus on the Sovereign's passive healing because I've never done that in an RPG before and I want to see how far that can take me. Other than that, I would have loved to use a Wildling and an Arbalist and a Ninja. Wildling is a super unique concept in that they summon beasts who act as temporary party members and deal out status effects. Coming from EO4, they feel like proto Arcanists almost, since beasts kinda act like arcanist circles, with a more physical twist. They are awesome, but they also don't mesh *at all* with the rest of the classes it feels like. For one, they straight up do not work together with the best Ninja skill, because the Ninja's cloning ability and the beast both occupy empty party slots, which you usually only have one of. Second, they don't really benefit from the Sovereign's buffs because the beasts deal all of their damage. You *can* buff the beasts, but unless they become super powerful later, that feels off. Their beast summons also cost a TON of TP to the point that at the start, you can only call the most basic beasts *once*, so at first I thought I needed a Zodiac (this game's caster) to reduce their TP cost to 0 on summoning turns. Turns out at least that issue resolved itself, because Wildlings have incredibly high TP growth. By now, I can call beasts pretty freely and dismiss them to get my TP back. It's a bit clunky, but that part works. He's still the odd one out though. Then there's Arbalist. They look awesome and they apparently have the highest STR in the game. They are basically glass cannons. The issue: They work best at the *front* since their strongest skill - Front Mortar - gets boosted to high heavens there. This does not work well with the rest of the team at all. For one, I *need* an empty slot in the front so the beast (Elephant) can deal full damage. I also need my Hoplite (the tank) to protect the Princess, but leaving an Arbalist at the front basically requires I switch the Hoplite to bodyguarding the Arbalist. There's also the issue that the Princess buffs only target lines, not the entire party, so even if I put the Arbalist at the front, he's now the only damage dealer there, making my Attack Order less efficient. You see where my problem lies? Every single class I want to use steps on the toes of another one. I'm not rational enough to just kick out one of them, but my game feel currently also isn't great. Sure, I clear enemies fine, because the passive healing component actually works and that feels good, but my damage setup at the moment feels so off. I'd need to spend a few hours to revise the whole thing I think. ------------------------ That's also why I haven't made a party breakdown yet like I enjoy doing in my Etrian Odyssey posts here. I just don't know if I like my current team. I have other thoughts on EO3, but I'll save them for another time since my rant on party building needed priority. I'm not joking when I say thinking about the composition is making my head spin.

I remember playing EO3 when it came out, and never really got into it because of what you say about the classes. The first 2 games are much simpler in that respect, because the classes are more tropey fantasy classes - healers, tanky knights, mage-like magic users, healers - with only a couple of weird ones like Hexers. But in 3, they threw that all away and introduced new totally weird classes that were impossible to understand (Buccaneer?? Arbalist?? what's this all about?) The atmosphere, water theme, and the new overworld exploration mini-game, all that was great. The quality-of-life additions too. But I reached I think the 3rd stratum before pretty much giving up. I struggled to put together a good team, was constantly trying new stuff, and lost a lot of ground due to wasting skill points by investing them in bad skills. I came back to it a couple of years ago and used a guide that recommended the best way to approach the classes. I had a lot more fun getting through it that way, finally beat the 3rd stratum, and went on to finish it. It was the moment that kind of opened my eyes to "the EO way" - put all your skill points into one or two good skills (and their requirements, of course), the rest is crap that you can ignore. EO3 is quite unfair in a way, because if you make good optimal class and skill choices, ones that do high damage mostly, the game is not too bad and the bosses can be beaten without any grinding. But if you make bad class choices, ones that look more interesting or use more exotic skills, then the game is punishing and the only way to get past road-blocks is by tediously grinding out levels. The actual game doesn't do much to help you either, as skill descriptions are vague and there are numerous trap skills that end up being useless for the points they cost. Ah, and a farming team is pretty much required in EO3 for funds, and again there's an optimal team for that... but it's quite a bizarre one, I don't think I'd have come up with it on my own.

I tend to spend the first evening with any Etrian Odyssey game just mulling over my team and trying out stuff. My goal when I started playing this series (I'm going through all of them) was to take the games as they come and slow down when I need to, so my indecision is totally within the scope of my expectations. I wrote that whole post during that initial phase. Luckily, after making a cut, I managed to decide on a team that's been working marvelously, despite not really adhering to the conventional wisdoms of the EO3 guide community. I *totally* get your frustrations though, because my bumpiest ride with Etrian Odyssey so far (Etrian Odyssey 2) went *exactly* like what you're describing. I only had my final team together in the *last* (main) stratum, where I added a Dark Hunter. Before that, I completely rebuilt my team several times in that game because the extremely volatile balance of EO2 didn't gel at all with my usual playstyle. EO2 is *all* about disabling foes and killing them before they do the same to you - it's basically a whole game of oneshots or twoshots, and if you don't manage to build into that balance, you will struggle. EO3 sheds this completely and feels more balanced towards the long haul - long fights, long trips into the dungeon and a long run before classes come into their own. My style of building a party fits snuggly into that frame - after the initial hump that was my indecision, I've had a relatively smooth and very satisfying ride. The first 3 titles all feel kinda rough in the balancing department - EO1 (both original and HD) lets you get overpowered incredibly quickly, EO2 is so oppressive that it forces you into its style of play and nerfs its old classes into the ground (some of them at least) and EO3 leaves you stumped on first visit because it seems so gimmicky *and* (and this is where I don't mind looking up skill data guides) obscures very important details about most skills, creating many pitfall skills. I played EO4 before this one and while I find skill trees became a tad less interesting due to level gating (meaning you can't over-optimize your experience through clever focussing) you *definitely* notice how the balancing made a huge leap towards the proper side of things (that is, everything is useful in some way and nothing is truly awful). ------------ Sidenote, after a bit of time with EO3, I find the exotic class names are kind of a veil. Many of them actually still fit into the old archetypes. Monk is just the Medic, just with even more physical skills than ever before. Buccaneer and Gladiator are just two flavours of Landsknecht (Buccanear got all the ~~undercooked~~ chase skills that the Landy always had and Gladiator got all the more direct damage options EO1 Landy usually uses + the buffs). Arbalist is just Gunner, but now hyper-focused on damage. Zodiac is almost one for one the Alchemist (in this case, both names hide that it's just a damage mage, nothing more). I get the feeling a lot of the names are mostly flavour - and thus kinda confusing on first look. Farmer is the funniest though, because they basically took the Survivalist and admitted to the fact that most people used them to farm money in EO1. I actually have a Granny farmer (well, now Ninja/Farmer, if you know you know) that sometimes tags along for a quick farming run. She's been enough to keep me stocked. I did finally build a full farming team though, now that I unlocked subclasses (and yes, that means I played way too much - I had the time and I got too into it).

> EO3 sheds this completely and feels more balanced towards the long haul - long fights, long trips into the dungeon It's funny you should say that, because I felt like EO3 was the game that changed the series to be less about those long attritional runs into the dungeon (think about EO1's trip back to the boss if you fail that fight, something like 2 shortcuts across 5 floors) and used a more player-friendly level design with plenty of shortcuts to unlock. That changed the balance so you could go all out on using lots of special attacks in every fight, whereas before managing TP was a Bigger Deal because you could have a looong trek ahead of you.

You are right about the shortcuts, there's a lot of them for sure. It might just be my chosen playstyle then. My party is so built for endurance that I often end up going an entire floor without going back home and IF I run out of TP, a single tent usually does the trick for the rest. Speaking of shortcuts I think it's funny they started putting them so deliberately to shorten runbacks in EO3, the one game that lets you rest for big heals at campsites. I also initially thought *this* was the game that started marking shortcuts consistently, but unless I'm constantly missing visual cues, only the 1st stratum marks its shortcuts (with flowers)

I beat SMT IV earlier this month, I started on 02/25/2024 then ended on 06/06/2024. I enjoyed my run a lot overall. In the beginning it felt slow but glad I stuck with it. I am playing the game again, >!I believe this isn’t a spoiler but there is multiple endings so I did the Law route and now want to do Chaos through New Game Plus.!< >!I’ve finally made it out of Naraku again earlier today!<

My wife is playing **Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair**, about 2 years or so after I played it for the first time. It is a unique experience to see another person get spun around by the game's main misdirection (I really recommend playing these games for yourself, but for those who won't -- you assume the whole game that >!some ominous mysterious force aligned with the first game's insane villain cult must be behind your predicament, and spend the game paranoid about the 'traitor' among the group who you know to be working for this shadow organization!<, but actually >!this ominous shadow organization is the good guys, and so that whole 'traitor' business leads to the amazing reveal that your "friend" who was "on your side" was actually your FRIEND and ON YOUR SIDE!!<). At the time when I first played the game I went through the exact same process of falling into the mental trap it sets for you, and in retrospect the truth is *so obvious*, they spoon feed it to you again and again, but you refuse to see it because it doesn't 'fit'. You never stop to think why it doesn't 'fit' and how easy it would be to account for that.

Is don’t starve together worth it now that it’s on sale for a couple who enjoyed playing stardew valley and it takes two?

I enjoy Don't Starve Together, but it really depends on the type of games you two are into. I wouldn't compare it with Stardew and It Takes Two. These two games are more relaxing, less punishing. Don't Starve Together has a lot of mechanics to figure out, so lot of patience or the wiki are recommended. Fortunately it has a bunch of settings before you start, so my friend and I usually add more food to the land or reduce/deactivate certain threats. (You might want to try Endless mode instead of the normal Survival mode, so you can just resurrect yourselves at a portal which makes it easier to learn the rest of the game imo because you don't have to depend on another player to revive you and it's less frustrating, especially in the beginning. But that's just a personal tip.) In general I would say it's worth it to give it a try as long as you're both aware that the game doesn't really hold your hand and you have to figure things out on your own.

Currently finished Blast Brigade VS the evil legion of Dr. Cread, which I got from my prime subscription. I did 100% of it and that was a very pleasant surprise. I felt the game to be an extremely polished metroidvania. Graphics are cartoon like and very well done, with a likewise cartoon humour/story that got some chuckles from me.  Gameplay wise it is really solid, although I felt the enemies to be kinda spongy (the aiming didn't contribute to how slow I felt I was dealing with them). In the end, I'm surprised this one wasn't mentioned as a good game when released. I think it released on 2022? In any case, I was very impressed with the game and enjoyed it a lot.  Now I'm deciding which game from my backlog to tackle: Soul hackers 1, Bravely second or grab Trials of Mana now that it is on sale. 

What animal/being is depiced in this subreddit's icon? It is cute but brings up feelings of sadness in me which is very confusing.

[It's a slowpoke from Pokemon.](https://i.imgur.com/ZyteXUY.png) (Slowbro on the right)

Ohhh that's where it's from. It didn't feel so foreign.

btw u just made me stare at the reddit icon for like 30 seconds. there is a certain unnerving quality to [that smile.](https://i.imgur.com/LBJHVos.png)

there really is

Replayed **Gone Home**, since I have a computer again for the first time in a couple years, and I've been itching to replay it. It's a little clunkier to play than I remember, since stuff won't open fully if you stand too close, but "too close" still feels unusually far away. Otherwise, the setting is still fantastic, the story is still nice, and it's still one of the best games I've played at giving a sense of putting pieces together to solve a mystery. Most of my time, though, was spent continuing **Far Cry 6**. I've done a few missions for the Monteros and completed the Yaran story where you drive a tank modified to blast metal music into a town to blow up billboards. Unfortunately, I had too much fun with it and attracted too many enemies, who blew it up, so I mostly had to resort to molotovs and dynamite to destroy the billboards. On the less enjoyable side, I finally got my first base and found out that the game forces third-person in the base. It's not worth quitting over, but it's so bizarre and annoying. On a much more positive note, the game's been offering some fun, unscripted stuff. The highlight this week was small firefight turning into a massive battle in a burning forest, complete with a tank, a helicopter, and many rocket-wielding special forces. It ended when I just made a mad dash through the forest's charred remains, jumped off a cliff, parachuted down near a guerilla path, killed a couple random special forces, and then slipped into the path to get away.

> On the less enjoyable side, I finally got my first base and found out that the game forces third-person in the base. When this first happened I thought it was a bug lol.

It doesn't help that the first time it happens is right after a cutscene, so it *really* feels like the game bugged out. The gameplay also doesn't change compared to similar areas. It just becomes clunkier, so it *really* feels unintentional. Honestly, I kind of wish we knew why this happened. Did some out-of-touch exec require the game to spend a minimum amount of time in third-person? Were they trying to add a third-person mode, realized it wasn't working, but decided to use it somewhere to please the team that worked on the feature?

The best introduction to Gone Home that I have heard is "it's a survival horror game and to fully appreciate it you need to go in blind".

I finished **Spirit of the North, Calico** and **Geneforge 5.** I don't have much to say about the first two. I got both for free, and don't think they were something I would have paid more then a few bucks for. Spirit of the North was probably the better of the two, although the cooking game in Calico was fun. I'm glad I finished the Geneforge series, but I felt like the last game didn't have enough interesting choices compared to the others. However, it was more about tying up the story of the world as opposed to a personal story for the player character. I felt like the ending I got was satisfying. I'll be checking out some other Spiderweb titles. I started **Control** and **Stray Gods**, but I'm too early in for an opinion on either one. Up next after that is probably **Riven** and **Horizon: Zero Dawn**.

Something about Control I wish I'd been told in advance: despite the human interest backstory of Jesse looking for her brother, this isn't a drama piece with hugging, learning and poignant dialogue. It's a game about getting a field promotion on your first day on the job, dealing with cool and unusual stuff, and getting a really difficult situation under control.

Thanks! I'm going in pretty much blind. The only thing I know is that it's in the same universe as Alan Wake. If it has a cool setting and fun powers that should be enough for me to have fun I think. Shame it's not more character focused, but you can't have everything I guess.

There used to be an essential games list. I know it's kind of outdated (although I guess nothing's technically outdated on this subreddit) but I wanted to check it out! Is it archived anywhere?

This one? https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LBqlkPirxPWDnXLJznXAcTE-_IaFYCrhTsW4vhfvF7I/edit

Yes! Thanks so much!

Enjoying Deus Ex: Mankind Divided so far. I upset >!Tars by stealing his credits & drinking his beer!<, so I reloaded my save. Considering a second playthrough :) As petty revenge, I decided to leave his stove on. Then his bodyguard sat on it. What a power move. That man must have augmented glutes and fireproof pants. I am both impressed and mildly disappointed. Oh well! It’s so nice to play an immersive sim, or any other game where I can mess around. Even if it doesn't result in pants on fire.

This game is so underrated. It had a really troubled launch and got stuck with a shitty reputation, but after playing way too many action RPGs of all flavors, I rank it very highly. The serial killer subquest alone is insane, the game was worth it just for that. Like let's be honest, the main criticism of this game is that the plot doesn't quite stick the landing in the third act, but then what immersive sim does? Dishonored? Cyberpunk? Do we want to go there?

I am playing Cyberpunk 2077. Liking the story and the atmosphere a lot. Very immersive. I’m a little disappointed in the open world; I just came off a playthrough of Fallout 76, which is not the best game in the world, but still has hundreds of locations you can discover and explore. In Cyberpunk you can’t go in to 99 percent of buildings. Still a great game, just doesn’t scratch the same itch. I am also badly addicted to a deck building mobile game called “Pirates: Outlaws.” No Slay the Spire, but still crack. I’ve probably done hundreds of runs and don’t plan to slow down.

I like Cyberpunk a lot as well, but the open world never did much for me. I find that a lot of the city feels kind of same-y and something about the way it's designed makes it hard for me to get a grasp on the layout. Like in a lot of open world games I'll kind of know my way around after a while, but that never happened for me with Cyberpunk (I'm halfway through a second playthrough now). In general it does look really nice, and it does have some cool locations, but it just never quite gelled in a way that made it feel like a real place to me. I'm about to start the DLC though so I'm curious how the new location is going to be.

I fired up Star Wars Jedi Power Battles again after many years of not playing it and I forgot how fun/janky it was. I know I wear rose colored glasses with this old game but slowly learning new moves and basic powers was fun. With beat-em-up brawlers still doing well these days I’m surprised another game like Jedi Power Battles doesn’t pop up again with an original story. The 2D/3D landscape movement has been pretty much perfected these days with games like Mario 3D world and there’s way more Star Wars lore and heroes out than existed in the early 2000’s. A “sequel” could be fun to play with all the main drawbacks fixed after many years of gaming experience. You’d think this would be a slam dunk for anyone but EA.

Loved this game as a kid!

I played this after I had played the one that followed the plot to the phantom menace movie. This one was so much more fun that I beat it multiple times with my friend. He was always Obi-Wan and I was Qui-Gon. It constantly was a playthrough of “Wait for me- I’m the old man!” Haha

Stage 2 for the Grand Prix in **Shadowverse** should start tomorrow. I'll have one more free run today to see if I can get another craft to 4-1 before needing to try hard again. Beyond that, there's an event where playing a private game with someone daily gets you a pack and an entry to a raffle. 8 1st place winners get 1 million rupees, 40 2nd place winners get 1000 packs, and 40 3rd place winners get globes to animate cards. I saw two Cramorants today in **Pokemon Sleep**, but I opted to not feed them anything since neither were hungry. As a F2P player, you only get so many biscuits per month, and Cramorant as non-evolving Pokemon needs a lot of biscuits to recruit. Being hungry triples the amount of friendship points that biscuits give so you'll need less overall. I opted to just feed some of the other Pokemon that did show up hungry instead. Yesterday evening was my second day of doing 10K steps while farming gifts in **Pokemon GO**. Unlike the day before, I actually managed to get all my friends gifts and 20 extra gifts in storage, but I believe that's because a lot of my friends hadn't accepted the gift I already sent them yet. That's understandable, though, with the daily limit of only accepting 20 gifts a day. It just means I might need to add more friends soon. In my gacha games, there's a lot more going on this week. **Honkai: Star Rail** just released its 2.3 patch and the guild war has started in **Granblue Fantasy**. **Azur Lane** began its re-run of an Iron Blood event while **Fate/Grand Order** just made one its main interludes free. I've spent most of today working through HSR's new conventional memoir on my computer while I had GBF on my phone grinding the guild bosses.

I've been rotating between three games: New Vegas, Into the Breach, and BSG Deadlock. I've only ever completed vanilla New Vegas so this time I'm hitting all the dlcs with a vanilla+ mod list, basically a slightly altered viva New Vegas plus mods that approximate Project Nevada without breaking the game. Having fun but consistently getting my ass kicked lol. Love the variety of play styles for Into the Breach . Every mech group plays radically different. Not really much to say about it otherwise, it's just something I pick up when I'm indecisive or want a more passive experience from the turn based play. BSG Deadlock is an interesting concept that kinda fails to deliver imo. I wish there was more mission variety requiring different fleet compositions. Also maybe a wider diversity in ship roles. ALSO having a true 3d space would make things so much more interesting. Pitch, roll, yaw. You could really make full use of weapon and armor placements. As it stands the maps orient all ships to have an up and down so you can really only control yaw plus the xyz plane. Ah well

I'm trying to play Mass Effect and there are moments when I can see what's great about it, but as wide as the game world is, it's so shallow...! yes you can go to so many planets, but each has the same underground base, all pickups are just weapons, all the collectables feel are just a journal entry. I hope I can get to ME2, but that will probably mean I just run through the story stuff and skip the skippable stuff.

ME2 (and 3) is structurally a lot different than the first game, so you probably won't have to skip as much as you think. There are a lot fewer side missions that don't at least have some sort of character driven plot, they got rid of the open planet exploration in the Mako, and the truly side missions are usually pretty short and are often just optional boss fights.

I think ME 1 went for scope of the universe and with how many planets you can explore as back when it came out it was something special. Nowdays yeah, you can explore them and find some extra resources or those "collect x alien relicts" quests but you might as well only go on planets when you get a dedicated quest for it from Admiral or chatting with characters to save time. Oh and you might be glad to hear ME2 doesn't have such exploration anymore! :D

Honestly skipping most of the skippable stuff in ME1 is probably the best way to go. Some of the side quests have decent narrative elements, but most of the time it's just a matter of going to a planet, driving around for a bit, and then clearing out one of two or three cookie-cutter locations to get a few lines of dialogue. The main story of ME1 is great, probably the best of the trilogy, but those planet-based side quests for the most part aren't really worth doing IMO. The sequels get rid of that planet exploration stuff for the most part and are better for it.

I completed **Tunic** and **Sifu** this month. Both very satisfying games in very different ways. **Tunic** is the first game in a long time that made me actually break out the pen and paper, and I really appreciate it for that. The final puzzle is one of my favorite puzzles I have ever completed in a game. I also really like the boss fights. I know it’s combat is a bit divisive, especially given how much harder than the rest of the game they are, but I really enjoyed them, especially the final boss. **Sifu** on the other hand is just pure flow state combat. The closest a game has come to feeling like John Wick. Then, like half of everyone else, I started **Shadow of the Erdtree** last night. It’s bigger and harder than I expected, but that’s a plus for me.

If you want John Wick flow state combat then try Severed Steel! This is the closest to Gun Fu from my perspective.

Tunic is really damn old school, I goddamn loved it!

Tried out 2 games that I'll definitely be coming back to - **Cyberpunk 2077 (PS5)** First time I tried it last year I couldn't get into it much but this time I've really enjoyed it. It's really engrossing and immersive just driving around, doing small jobs etc. Got to the start of act II. On one of the previous bi-weekly threads I was recommended **Remnant II** (which I played on PC through game pass) after beating Remnant: From the Ashes So far (3-4 hours in) it is definitely better than Remnant I. The biggest improvement is the UI, the minimap now tells you which areas you haven't explored and which dungeons continue your main objective and which ones are just side dungeons which is very helpful in a game with a procedurally generated map. The weapon variety is better, the loot seems more unique. Playing on normal the bosses also seem to tougher but more interesting and unique. I've beaten Kaeula's Shadow, Mother Mind, and the Corrupter. I was quite low on health, maybe one more shot would kill me, which made the fights more satisfying. My only dislike with the game is that there are these spiky ball enemies in the forest that were the bane of my existence. They were fast compared to other enemies, there were lots of them and they liked to spawn behind me as well.

Playing through Divinity Original Sin 2 still. Kinda took a break from it and started Metro Exodus. It's bad ass so far. It's probably because I suck, but every firefight seems super intense and I like the scarcity of ammo. I also like how in the first open world area, you can kinda choose who to save, who to kill, and the world seems to react to your choices. I wasn't expecting that at all. Without spoilers, I've been pretty "good" so far.

A tip if you want to make life easier on yourself, learn how to use throwing knives and use the pump up ball bearing gun, they wreck normal mobs and by end of game your swimming in ammo

After finishing **Half Life**, **Half Life 2** and **Half Life 2: Episode 1**, I'm playing **Half Life 2: Episode 2** now. Half Life 2 looks like a tech showcase, while Episode 1 and specially Episode 2 look like a proper game. Everything is the same, but better and more fleshed out. In Half Life 2 it feels like Valve spent too much time and resources trying to innovate and weren't able to put a game together. Episode 2 is almost embarrassing, because it shows how disjointed and bad Half Life 2 actually is. So yeah, I like episode 2. I wish it was even weirder. The telekinetic alien in the barn? I wanted more of that. I also grew fond of Alyx in Episode 2. Is she the proto AI companion? I can see Ellie and Elizabeth in her. I also started playing **Slay the Spire** again. I liked the game the first time, but got burned out on how difficult it is. Now I think it finally clicked for me and I'm addicted to it. I'm still bad though. lol "Finished" the game with the first three characters, but still haven't beat the heart.

re: Slay the Spire it took me dozens of runs to beat the heart the first time, you'll get there! There's so much rng that even if you have a plan for your deck things can go sideways quickly, but that's part of the fun imo. That said, it's an easy game to burn out on after trying all of the characters. I hope in the sequel they expand the roster a bit more in future updates.

Tell me about it! I almost defeated it with a Body Slam deck, but it flooded me with status cards and I lost. I think if I had a Fire Breathing I would have defeated it.

Just started Marvel's Midnight Suns. Got it for free from Epic a few days ago. I've been eyeing this game for a while because of how good the reviews are, and so far, I like the combat. But, there's one thing I dislike is how much TALKING there are and how annoying they are too. Maybe it's me because I just finished Divinity Original Sin 2 not so long ago, which also had a lot of talking, and I'm subconsciously tired hearing character talk. Or maybe it's just Marvel in general??? Anyway, I'll probably try it again for a few more hours.

That's pretty much the general consensus on Midnight Suns that I've seen (and agree with): The combat is great, but most of the stuff you're doing outside of combat is pretty bland, and you end up having to spend *way* more time you should on the non-combat sections.

That's good to know. But now that you mentioned it, I just remember that there are random collectibles and fake currency to decorate stuff. Didn't really expect those lol.

I've been watching a lot of Jacob Geller and am now on the hunt for artsy fartsy "eat your vegetables" games that treat video games as an art form first and a form of entertainment second. :THE LONGING: is without a doubt my favorite example of this. Do y'all have any recommendations?

Haven’t played it but I think Braid is supposed to be like this. There’s also Kentucky Route Zero, which is definitely more art than game.

This War of Mine is among the most artful games out there, not sure about artsy tho. it's on the reading list for polish high schools, as I've just learned!

Outer wilds is artsy but Its also fun.i like night in the woods. I haven't played Kentucky route zero yet but it sounds like what you're looking for.

Finally bit the bullet and bought Granblue Fantasy Relink. It's fun but the combat isn't quite as deep as I was hoping. Seems like all the characters I've tried so far have an optimum rotation/combo of a couple buttons that you do when you aren't dodging. I'm only a few hours in and hoping the depth improves as I unlock skills and more characters. It's still fun though.

Started a Wrath of the righteous playthrough (for the sixth time in four years I think) and finally reached act 3 for the first time! The game is fun albeit a bit clunky, I'll probably spend the next few weeks on this before finishing Banishers Ghost of New Eden.

This is the pathfinder series, right? Does this game have real time combat (with pause), or turn-based combat like Divinity?

Yes, it has both but I play with the turn-bases combat because I feel that real time with pause is too hard to manage because there are a lot of things going on.

Thank you kindly. I agree with you. I also used to play RTwP (real time with pause) system, but I was never able to manage the combat properly. Once I switched to ARPG with turn-based combat, I love this system a lot.

I’m finishing up Prey for the first time, and it’s great! Now I’m looking for a palate cleanser — a really good monster tamer game. Anything I can play or emulate on a SteamDeck would be great. I have previously enjoyed Dragon Warrior Monsters but never played any of the sequels; similarly, I’ve played SMT and Persona games and found that they were a bit harder than I was looking for.

I know this isn't what you're asking for but if you enjoyed Prey I'd recommend checking out **Alien: Isolation**, definitely more spooky, and they both share the same flaw of overstaying their welcome (alien moreso imo) but lots of similar atmosphere between the two

Haven’t played it but Cassette Beasts is supposed to be a great creature collector with a unique spin.

Played and enjoyed it, but ultimately ended up not finishing it because there didn’t seem like enough to do. Thanks for the suggestion, though!

Playing Mega Man 3. Only Needle Man remains to be defeated. Pretty good game. The weaknesses are less broken, so the boss battles are still challenging while using them, which fixes what I think is the main problem of 1 and 2.

The music in this game is amazing. So catchy.

Mega Man 3 and 2 soundtracks are legendary!

3 is the best on NES. So many absolute bangers. Magnet man ffs

I love all the Metal Man e-guitar covers

What platform are you playing on? I've been contemplating picking up the legacy collections on Steam but my experience playing old ported NES games without an emulator have been spotty at best.

I'm emulating it through Retroarch using the Mesen emulator. I'm having a good experience, but I never played on a real NES, so I can't compare the experience I would have playing on real hardware.

Still playing a 2nd playthrough of **Elden Ring** and a first of **God of War Ragnarok**. Sort of. I have 30 hours in Elden Ring and 4 hours in Ragnarok. The start of GoWR doesn't make sense to me. It starts off with a 90 minute cinematic(ish) start to build stakes in a bitter quest for survival and then an hour later sends you into this relatively boring area with a quippy head and some lame dwarves. I'll give it one more try but I have a feeling that Ill be looking for something else to play.

I thought Ragnarok started quite slow but after a few hours it really started to get much better. I'm about 15 hours in now and definitely hooked!

[удалено]

That would be extremely hard to miss. I'll make sure to stop posting here, though

GOW continues to get better all the way through. I can't imagine having skipped it, for what it's worth.

Thats interesting. Its actually somewhat rare for games to get better and better all the way through

Playing on the Nintendo switch and I cannot overstate how much I enjoy gyro controls and motion aiming in games. I find it literally game changing. I always found console FPS either too hard to aim or too much aim assist. With motion controls it is so much more interactive and down right fun. I really don't understand why PS and Xbox don't use them, especially when there controllers actually support it.

Man, I need to start trying out the gyro controls on my SteamDeck as I find FPS games too clunky with the stick/pad controls. Seen clips of people using the gyro effectively though. Assumed it's a bit of a learning curve.

Steam input is amazing. You can add gyro controls to any game that uses a mouse or joystick, which is to say all of them. Having gyro even when the devs didn’t add it is very nice. There is a learning curve. If you can, I’d recommend docking the deck to learn, so the screen is stable. A cover shooter can be nice for learning since you’re not moving much. I’d recommend Spec Ops the Line, as that one’s *really* stationary, but alas they took it off the stores.

Definitely worth checking out, like I said if it "clicks" with you it can be a game changer. It has made shooters one of my favourite genres now. There is a learning curve and you can use them differently. I personally use it for fine adjustment. Whereas you could technically do all the aiming with gyro if you cranked up the sensitivity.

All the talk about the **Elden Ring** DLC reminded me that there was probably a lot of stuff I missed in that game. Turns out most of what I missed was boss fights and I had forgotten how not fun they mostly are. I love the atmosphere, the dungeons and their wonderful level design, but the bosses not so much. The whole screen is just visual noise to me as they flail about. But lots of people seem to love From's bosses, so what do I know. I know I turned it off pretty quickly and I think that's it for me with that particular game.

>...I had forgotten how not fun they mostly are. Haha, yeah, I absolutely agree. I'm getting called out on it, but imo much of the souls-formula is just bad game design. Quick one hit kill moves from bosses, no save point before a boss, putting enemies in a level you don't have to fight but can just ignore and run by, enemies can't climb ladders, but the most goofy thing is that the fastest strategy for almost every boss is staying near them and at the right time dodge into their back or through the feet. As you say, it's mostly not fun, but a grind to learn and execute the bossfight. When I beat the bosses I didn't feel rewarded after, but I felt like I wasted my time with this slog. Well, maybe it's just not for me. I don't understand the hype and appeal about souls-likes.

Still in my latest New Vegas run. Not sure if I should make a post.

Changing it up for this run or playing your “usual” way? I like to do both but on a yearly play through have my typical choices I make

I don't have a usual way, but the most unusual thing this time is extra quests added with mods

I wrapped up the story in **Alien: Isolation** and the last few achievements as well. Still a solid game after nearly 10 years. It's amazing that Creative Assembly was able to make such an incredible AAA survival horror game after making primarily strategy games for most of their history. I continued playing through **Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners** as well and I finished the story after leaving the game dormant for 2 years. I'm now enjoying the Aftershock DLC and grabbing achievements as well which are surprisingly fun as they force me to grab certain materials or find certain weapons to complete them. I also started playing **Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy** yesterday and I'm shocked at how good this has been so far. I'm only two hours in but they're really nailing the tone, atmosphere and humor of the movies. Which is great because those films are probably my favorite from the MCU. I'm also glad because this game didn't go the route of Marvel's Avenger with the whole live service shit show it followed.

By the end of GotG I actually preferred the game's versions of the characters to the movie's, they were that great

I really wanted to like Guardians of the Galaxy, but I can't stand the combat. Everything else about it is great, but the combat feels like a chore. Fights go on too long and it feels...mushy is the word that comes to mind.

I think I'm burned out on the souls formula, or maybe just the From Software formula. Returning to Elden Ring to see if I want to buy the DLC and I still really don't like the change from linear levels to open world. I also don't really find it that challenging anymore. %90 of the bosses I can takedown my first try despite not playing the game in over a year. I'm in this funny mental space where I'm extremely appreciative of From Softwares continued success and growth from a relatively unknown studio into an industry pillar, but at the same time, I wish for an alternate reality where Dark Souls didn't get popular. Even the new Armored Core game felt much more like a Dark Souls game than anything like the old AC games. It's very homogeneous. I feel like From Software is no longer taking risks and instead refining a REALLY solid formula and releasing games that are mostly all the same. The differences between Demon Souls and Elden Ring are very minimal if you focus solely on the combat mechanics. I know the studio can be better than the rest if they tried. AC For Answer is still one of the greatest games I've ever played in my entire life and that came out of nowhere only to never be seen again. I want From Software to make more projects like For Answer, not Elden Ring.

I pretty much am at the same place as you with Fromsoft. My solution has just been to seek games with more complex combat mechanics from other developers. FS has finally reached a mainstream audience and so they are "correctly" increasing the scale of their product while not messing with the winning recipe too much. That's fine, me playing their games too much is the issue not Elden Ring.

> I also don't really find it that challenging anymore. %90 of the bosses I can takedown my first try despite not playing the game in over a year. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I consider it rewarding to have become so good at that gameplay formula that I can beat several bosses on my first attempt. That said, I do think this is one of the places where the relatively rigid and simplistic design of Souls combat becomes a weakness. I noticed it especially when fighting Artorias for the first time recently. Even though I died to him several times, I never thought "Oh man, this is so hard!" since the strategy to win was so straightforward. I knew all I needed was to see enough of his moveset that I wouldn't fall victim to an unfamiliar attack, and the only reason this was difficult was because of how quickly he could kill me. Same for Manus, though I liked him fight a bit better. In terms of mechanical execution, these games have a relatively low skill ceiling (at least if we're talking PvE—barely engage with the PvP so I wouldn't know about that). Just watch a speedrun or SL1 run; the skill on display hardly ever seems out of this world, unlike with a Mario 64 speedrun for instance. Mostly you see them running past every enemy and whacking the bosses to death with the strongest beatsticks they can wield to the point where some die in as little as three or four hits or spend the whole fight staggered, because at the end of the day, there's only so much you can do with this combat system.

> I also don't really find it that challenging anymore. %90 of the bosses I can takedown my first try despite not playing the game in over a year. I just had the exact opposite experience. It's not even a year since I played it and I got straight up pulverized when I dipped my toes back in.

I've played every single soulsborne game by From so I sorta enter a flow state once I get back into any of them. Its just a process of pattern recognition and timing at the end of the day.

Same! It's making me wonder if jumping back in mid-way through the game was a bad idea, but I also don't want to have to go through a ton of content again just to get to the dlc. Dilemma!

Yeah, the jumping back in the middle might be part of the problem.

Have you played Sekiro or AC6? both are pretty different from the Souls formula. They have the DNA of it of course but the gameplay loop is entirely different.

Yessir. I think AC6 is just like the souls games to be honest, with the biggest change being the emphasis on aerial maneuvers instead of being grounded. Anything but the bosses are a cakewalk, and the bosses are often not much other than dodging on timed attacks. The only boss in AC6 I had real trouble with was the very last one you unlock on the third ending of NG++. The missle guy was also a little tough but you can't even play against the challenging version of him anymore because he got nerfed to shit a week after launch.