Had a really weird few days with work and other stuff so I’m all mixed up now, sorry about the late post. My schedule is all over the place. Hopefully next week we’ll be back to normal.
Brief off-topic aside: This recurring thread has been a bright spot, for me, in a sad Internet, this year. Thank you.
As for what I’m playing - mostly Palworld. The late game has allowed me to try to breed perfect pals while getting as deep as I like into farm management and interior decorating. It’s been very fun. Well worth the sticker price.
I’m glad you’ve been enjoying it. It’s been hard to be consistent lately but hopefully it’ll be back to normal again now.
I played through Axiom Verge again. I enjoyed it a lot more than the first time I played it, which was years ago.
Love that game, the audio design is so special and memorable. Axiom Verge 2 was only ok IMO, doesn’t really have that spark the first has.
I haven’t played AV2 yet, but I’m planning on getting it. Bandcamp Friday is coming on 4 October, so I’m going to buy the soundtrack because it is quite good.
The dev is on fedi too I believe.
I just played through that for the first time a couple weeks ago! I thought it was great.
Replaying A Hat in Time after about eight years. I decided to get some cheap DLC in place of more games during Steam’s summer sale, and that includes A Hat in Time’s Nyakuza Metro. With that, I thought it was worth a full replay of the game.
Still really liking the game. With more hindsight, I’ve realized the game’s plot makes barely any sense. And it has an oddly dark sense of humour that contrasts with the game’s otherwise kiddy presentation, even outside the spooky forest.
I love Hat. There are community-made levels in the Steam workshop that are worth trying if you want more content.
Oh yeah. I never got around to that on my first run.
I’ve been playing through Metroid Prime 2. It’s been pretty good, though keeping track of both the light and dark worlds is a pain at times. And now I’ve unlocked all the power ups I need to do a treasure hunt across the whole map for 9 more keys!
I played through Metroid Prime 1 a couple of years back, and I’m not sure if it’s rose-tinted glasses but I seem to remember enjoying the map and bosses in that one slightly more.
I played through the whole trilogy recently and I can confirm, while the light/dark worlds gimmick of MP2 is quite cool, it’s a pain in the ass, mostly in the early game. Good luck finding those keys, I recall I had to use a guide for one or two of them because of how weirdly it was hidden.
If you can play Prime 3 be sure to do so, it neatly rounds up the story across the previous games and has some good gameplay changes that make it more enjoyable (not having a gazillion weapons and visors for one example).
I’m gonna try a few areas to search for keys based on the hints the game gives you, but if I don’t find them after a while I’m just gonna use a guide. It wouldn’t be so bad if the backtracking didn’t take so loooong
Yeah I’m definitely gonna play MP3 at some point after this! I’m using Primehack which has been really great.
I actually had 3 on Wii when it came out, but never finished it. Honestly can’t remember much about it, besides religiously scanning everything in the worry that I wouldn’t get another chance. It’ll be interesting to go back to it and see if any areas feel familiar. And yes I’ve heard it’s a bit more linear and streamlined, which I’m actually looking forward to!
religiously scanning everything
I love and hate this feature from the prime games. It makes an amazing way to give you the lore and setting the ambient, but it is so annoying to have the scan visor constantly on and worrying about missing a one-time scan I didn’t have time to check because I was trying to survive.
I guess I quite like the ‘risk’ aspect to it - if you want to collect all the lore you have this one chance to scan the boss. It reminds me a bit of getting the dog tags in MGS2. Where it gets annoying is when it’s not clear that a new scan is available, like the bosses with multiple stages.
I’ve been playing Valheim now that its finally 1.0. Lots of new stuff i dont remember from my last game ~3 years ago. I finished the Black Forest and I have been searching all over for Swamps. I only find these dinky ones with none of the interesting stuff in them. Its been kinda frustrating.
The new Bear armor is great for exploring on land. Boosts to stamina and speed.
My dead cells save disappeared so I’m working by my way through again
I started Burnout 3. Enjoying how definitely mid-aughts it is. Crashing is not always as much fun as I was led to believe, lol. I mean, it’s gnarly at first, but after a while you just appreciate it as a fail state if you’re in a race or time trial. The game includes a Need for Speed demo, and that demo really contrasts - making me appreciate how snappy, fun, and clean-looking BO3 is.
This next game just came out, so in some ways it doesn’t qualify as patient. But at the same time, Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter is a remake of an older game I’ve wanted to play for a long time (and I’ve patiently waited since SC never got a physical release in my region before). Just got started, but it was immediately refreshing to pick back up right where the original First Chapter left off. Seeing the characters, hearing the music motifs, takes me back. In a way I miss the charm of the 2D, but the new coat of paint is overall quite seviceable.
I just did the same thing myself. Played Burnout 3 until Trails released.
It is crazy how well Burnout holds up over 20 years later.
Hah, what are the odds!
Agreed, it has held up exceptionally well. I never played it when it was newer, but I’m also not well-versed in the genre (outside of Mario Kart and some F-Zero). I guess maybe since it released later in the PS2 gen, the modern design patterns were already falling into place. Or maybe it’s just really well made.
I’m a few hours into Pragmata. I had to jump through a few hoops to get ray tracing working on Linux but the game looks great and has me interested in where it’s going.
I’ve been playing Dredge and Night in the Woods this week for some nice autumnal vibes. I also played Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping, and while it’s not quite as good as The Secret Salami, I still enjoyed my time with it and I hope there are more games in the series to come.
Also, I plan to be impatient this week and get the new Control game. I know, blasphemy, but the heart uh wants what it wants.
Sometimes you gotta be impatient. Remedy is one of the few developers I would be tempted by as well.
So this is technically a new release, but Pokemon Ghost Grey. I think it’s the best romhack I’ve played in years. It’s so creepy and really shows off how Pokemon’s Gen III engine can really work for item-management survival horror. Lots of great psychological horror and dystopian themes. The protagonist looking intentionally different in his/her metagame character portrait vs. actual mirrors and photographs is, um, relatable 😅.
Oh, Summer is the best rival too.
Red Dead Redemption 2; just reached the Epilogue.
Still working through Hitman achievements. Just 4 locations left to master I think, all on Hitman 2 maps. I’m not really sure what I’ll do when I’ve got these done. I’ll probably take a break from Hitman for a while so I don’t get too burned out, maybe go back to Elden Ring or something again. We’ll see.
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
I’m about 65% into the game (well, map exploration) and grinding a bit in preparation for the next boss fight. I’m also trying to unlock as many skill cards and new items as I can (without gunning for 100%) so progression slowed down a bit. Still, I’m getting there.
Saints Row 2
As much as I love this game, I’m not planning another playthrough just yet. I simply wanted to try out the Saints Row 2 Juiced Patch which promises huge performance improvements, mouse fixes, graphics improvements and a bunch of other things. It delivered quite nicely and the game runs and plays much better than it ever did.
Add a few other mods (Gentlemen of the Row for fixes and various additions, Made 2 Measure for better clothing customisation, PS3 Audio for better audio quality etc) and the whole thing becomes a joy to play. Not that the vanilla version wasn’t fun but its technical state leaves a lot to be desired and does affect the overall enjoyment.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly
I didn’t forget about this! I’m still a bit busy and can’t start my role-play focused playthrough just yet but I’ve been doing some additional prep for that in the meantime. I decided to set the game up from scratch using Heroic Launcher instead of Lutris as the former tends to give me better stability and performance lately (I also want to move away from Lutris in general). Additionally, I figured out how to configure the Amethyst Mod Manager for the game on Linux which makes the mod list setup and debugging much easier and cleaner.
I was planning to include my full mod list here but it put my comment over the character limit. I’ll add one once I’m done modding and ready to start playing.
I’m still not sure when I’ll start the actual playthrough but it’ll most likely be around December or January - I hope I’ll be able to wrap up my current time-consuming black hole of a project by then but we’ll see how it goes. It will happen, that’s all I can say for certain.
Hey, I’m glad to see the return of Anomaly! Looking forward to hearing more about that playthrough, whenever it happens!
Yeah, I’m too excited for it to give up that easily! It just got buried under stuff with actual (if soft) deadlines. I’ll just keep tweaking the mod list until then - hopefully the end result won’t turn into a complete clown-show by the time I’m ready to go.
I already knew I didn’t like soulslike combat because it’s slow and nearly all attacks are annoyingly high commitment so it relies more on pattern recognition, strategy, and patience than quick reflexes and high-speed improvisation.
Playing Stranger of Paradise this week made me realize why even Nioh was a bridge too far for me: stamina bar.
I just can’t help but see it as a made up problem: I’ll give you an arbitrary limitation that sucks the fun out of combat… and a bunch of advanced mechanics to overcome it and give you your fun back.
I just play these games and I wonder why these combat designers hate me, and why am I not playing action games that actually let me have fun without passing some arbitrary rhythm test.
I know the answer is curiosity, but I often wonder if it’s worth it.
It’s not even a question of difficulty: no permutation of factors will make Nioh or Stranger of Paradise as difficult as fighting Gracious and Glorious on Infinite Climax in Bayonetta. It’s gating fun behind arbitrary busy work… for reasons.
Not everyone has the same idea of fun, and not every game needs to be catered to every player. I happen to love soulslikes specifically because of their combat, but I get why others don’t like it.
I’d be curious if you’d like Sekiro.
I’d be curious if you’d like Sekiro.
Traversal was fun, but the rest not so much. Passive combat, limited offense, and it’s an action RPG with quest lines, loadouts, consumables, and a skill tree, so naturally I need to do a lot of exploration to squeeze all the juice out of combat. I consider all of this anti-fun, so not for me.
I know this isn’t a real response on your opinion of souls likes, but did you play Ninja Gaiden 4? Was a really, really fun action game. Based on your Bayonetta playtime it feels like you would enjoy it!
Patiently waiting for it to drop below $20 in my region. I love Ninja Gaiden and Platinum.
Thankfully, we got a bunch of new indie action games this year: Homura Hime, Mahou Arms, Dead As Disco, Jenny the Witch, and Kijutsu Rider, so waiting hasn’t been difficult.
Dead as Disco was fantastic, excited for more content. I’ve had Homura Hime on my wishlist for a while, not sure if it’ll ever go on a decently deep sale but it isn’t that expensive in the first place. Never heard of the others, I will check them out. Thanks!
Does revisiting Civ 4 (again), originally released in 2005, count?
Have you tried 7? I’m really struggling to get into it. Been trying off and on for the last few months and finally hit the end of the first age but haven’t continued past it. I revisited 5 a while back (love it) but haven’t done 4 since it was the latest game. How’s it holding up?
