I had a similar experience with power wash simulator. It was definitely engaging. But I struggled to call it fun. Yet somehow I still suggest it when my friends are all like “what shall we play now?”
For the past two Sundays, I have been playing Days Gone, a zombie-filled, motorbike based game with way, way too many cut scenes. It’s kinda mindless so I am having fun still but I wouldn’t be surprised if I just stop playing at some point.
Also picked up Deep Rock Galactic, and have played that with my kids, crazy-town chaos! It’s fun, it’s bright, and flashy, and will probably cause me to have a seizure one day but we’ve been having fun playing it together.
Finally finished off Dark Souls 3 in its entirety, so moved over to Lies of P. It’s a souls-like game in the world of Pinocchio. Maybe a quarter of the way through it, and it’s enjoyable. Some things don’t seem well-explained, but it’s still far ahead of anything from FromSoftware. Less hectic, as well, which is nice. I’m still in the “introducing various status effects and how they work against you and enemies” stage, but it’s a much more measured approach. I haven’t had a single “Huh?!” moment yet.
I loved that game, got it for like $20 and finished it in a few weeks. I don’t finish games that often. Normally cutscenes bother me, but I was somehow mostly interested in these and there was plenty enough open-world free-roam time aside from the cutscenes for me. The story has a pretty good conclusion and you can actually keep playing after the end credits.
I got it on a crazy sale, I think I paid around 14 bucks CAD, so, I have definitely got my money’s worth.
I do enjoy killing Reapers though, scar faced bastards drop satisfyingly.
I will be starting Persona 5 Tactica, the third full Persona 5 game, by this weekend. It was my family’s Xmas gift to me and I asked for it two days early to coincide with my time off work.
Steam Winter Sale!
Just bought Mass Effect Legendary Edition for $5.99. I’ve played them all already back in the day, though I might not have gotten all the way to the end of 3. It was a hell of a deal and I couldn’t pass it up.
Not really seeing that much else that I want though, or it’s not discounted enough. I’ll buy all the American Truck Sim DLC states that I don’t have yet, but after that I’m probably done with this sale already.
I liked it until I started getting motion sickness from moving around too much.
Getting back into Shadow of War. It’s the sequel to Shadow of Mordor. The lore connection to Tolkien proper are….iffy at times, but taking over fortresses with an army and the whole Nemesis system is great. Also trying Saint’s Row 4-let’s see if I like it as much as 3. Megaton Rainfall might be fun or frustrating-haven’t decided yet.
I loved both of those games! Multiple playthroughs on both. But for some reason, even though War was everything that made Morder great except bigger and better was…somehow…less fun. How is that a thing?
I’ve heard the endgame in War gets repetitive. Haven’t touched the DLC yet.
Shadow of War is one of my favourite action-adventure games.
The final chapter used to be extremely repetitive but they patched it to be significantly shorter. Is it still repetitive? Well, it’s still the same base assault/base defense missions as the rest of the game; if you don’t like that, you’d probably find it repetitive.
The DLC is kind of fun, although once I unlocked the high score achievement on the Desolation of Mordor I haven’t bothered playing that one again.
I liked Shadows of Mordor, but I found it had almost no replayability because once I had figured out how to play it, there was no difficulty setting to make it more challenging (as far as I remember).
And I sort of wish the bosses figured into the story more in Mordor. Like The Tower was pretty cool, but you never really encountered him until the fight. All of the bits of Lore in War were great too, and I’d happily play another sequel. No idea how they’d do it story-wise.
Saint’s Row 4 is missing something fun that 3 had. It just doesn’t have the same spark.
I picked up a game called Thea on a suggestion. We’ll see if it’s anything decent.
It’s definitely more of a superhero game than a GTA clone, but it kind of grew on me after a while.
The side missions are frustrating, but the main is decent. Superpowers make cars kinda obsolete, though.
I played, was moderately entertained by, and finished Saints Row IV but I was also let down by the premise. I wanted more over-the-top satirical crime game antics, not a superhero game posing as a crime game.
Way behind the hype curve but I finally got around to Slay the Spire, which was the perfect Steam Deck game for hanging around my in-laws over Christmas. Besides being entertaining and addictive, it could also be set down at a moment’s notice to help with something or join a conversation. (My wife’s family often goes into Spanish when together and it’s a lot of catch-up family talk so my wife encouraged me to bring the Deck so I wouldn’t just be sitting in the corner bored). My six year old niece sat next to me and had plenty of opinions which mostly came down to “Play the purple girl” and “Do the mystery room!” every time.
With the holiday sale season closing, did anyone get anything fun and exciting? New Additions to my game library include:
Minecraft Dungeons: I actually bought this game for my son and his Switch but saw that it had cross-platform multiplayer so bought it on Steam. This led to my older son saying he used to play it on the Xbox with his friend and me buying my older kid a Steam copy as well. We’ve had a few fun sessions playing co-op: Older kid on his desktop, me on my Steam Deck and younger son on the Switch, all in one room. It’s a pretty basic ARPG in the vein of Diablo, Torchlight, Titan Quest, etc but fun to mess around with.
Wildermyth: This came out in 2021 but hasn’t had many good sales so my Steam friends list has a lot of people wanting it and not many owning it. It’s an RPG game combining some strategy overland elements (building map regions, getting resources), tactical game play (turn-based character combat, gear upgrades) and emergent storytelling (personality traits, companion bonds, story events) over generations of heroes with a storybook aesthetic right down to the papercraft looking battle maps. I’ve only put about four hours into it but enjoyed it so far.
Solasta: Crown of the Magister DLC: It certainly doesn’t have the budget or polish of Baldur’s Gate 3 but fortunately I played the base game way before BG3 came out and had a fondness for its jankiness. It’s also arguably a more faithful adaptation of the 5e rule set than Larian’s many tweaks (plus it lets you actually fly and use Spider Climb to scuttle along walls). Anyway, I found the DLC cheap and bought all of it.
En Garde!: Swashbuckling action game about flamboyant maneuvers and using your environment, such as diving over tables, kicking buckets onto your foe’s head, pushing chairs and other antics to make you feel like you’re in a Saturday afternoon vintage pulp film.
Purchased but unplayed so far are Divinity: Original Sin 2 (not ready for another full-on CRPG yet), Street Fighter 6 (haven’t played since SF2 but 6 seems well received with a decent single player experience), Dave the Diver (which everyone’s heard about by now) and Citizen Sleeper (a gift to me; a sci-fi RPG game)
I liked it. Not exactly action packed though. But a good story. And quick. Easily done in a few afternoons.
I know lots of people absolutely love this game, but I found the combat kind of repetitive and annoying after a while. I think I preferred D:OS 1 (although I’m almost certainly in the minority).
I hope I can remember to never buy another game that requires you to go to bed for the night. Gawd, I hate it.
I finished Lies of P. A few annoying moments (shock builds up, but even a little completely craters your stamina regen), and some pretty difficult bosses towards the end. The final boss is definitely a great end to the game. The story is well-done as well, and the twist is fantastic. Much more exposition than other souls-like games, and that makes the story more coherent.
Picked up Ghostrunner the other day. I’m afraid I might not have the reaction speed for this one. Wallrunning and blinking and slashing and Matrix-style dodging mid-jump. I haven’t hit an impossible roadblock yet, but it feels like there will be one.