Recently got a new desktop computer, made sure it was ready for modern games.
I recently played for the first time the 2018 Spider-Man game as I was able to get it dirt cheap. Fantastic open world action game. Very interested in getting the follow-ups.
I’m also playing baldur’s gate 3 for the first time. Fantastic game of course everybody knows that. I’m playing a fairly straightforward good fighter character right now for my first run through. Like I said I’m doing it fairly straightforward I’m not trying to break anything which I gather is what a lot of people do while playing this. Because the game is incredibly reactive to what the player is doing. I just started act 3 and I’m finding it hard to find the motivation to jump right back in if I’m being honest. I’m chalking that up more to personal burnout then anything to do with the game though. I might take some real quick notes about what I’m doing and put it down for a week.
I’ve also been playing a ton of the early access Deep Rock galactic survivors. A great survivor style game crossed a little bit with a roguelike. Randomized levels with a million enemies that you have to fight off vampire survivor style. But they put an interesting twist in the mechanics because there’s tons of rocks and other minerals scattered around the level that you have to dig through. And The Rock sections can be dug through as like a quick escape if you’re getting surrounded, or they can be used to create kill boxes if you can maneuver the enemies correctly. As I said selling Early Access so there doesn’t seem to be much to the game but its a survivor’s game so maybe that’s to be expected. Interested to see where this goes with future updates.
And for those who don’t know I should mention Deep Rock galactic is a franchise, I think survivors is the second game. The first game is a first person shooter that I’ve never played. So if you go looking for it make sure you’re getting the right one. And yeah I love vampire survivors too. Not often these days we see genres almost created out of whole cloth. I know the survivors games have elements of twin stick shooters, and bullet hells and action RPGs kind of all mixed together, but they’re just so fun to play. They scratch that itch that I have for shmups and other 2D shooters cross with the satisfaction you get from progress in rpgs and roguelikes.
I to am playing Diablo 4 on game pass right now. I always forget just how much I like the Diablo games until I actually sit down and get into one again. Played a ton of the first two never finished them though. I beat three twice. Once with a paladin I think and once with a sorceress. On Diablo 4 I’ve rolled a druid who I think is going to be specializing in wearbear attacks. We’ll see how far I make it before I start creating a dozen alts. I will be definitely be making an effort to finish this one. So far it’s been really good I think. I like the art direction. I also like the fact that my female druid isn’t stick thin.
One game I’ve been dipping in and out of recently that I think is really fun that I want to bring two more people’s attention is a fan-made game called Marvel: Infinity War. Free to download, it’s a 16-bit style beat them up in the vein of Streets of rage or final fight but it has something like 100 characters in it? I haven’t actually counted but I would believe that. It’s a fan-made game so there’s going to be some jank, but it’s wonderfully ambitious and really fun to play. Especially if you’re a Marvel comics geek like I am.
It’s made on Openbor, which is an open source fan platform for building 16-bit style games. I think it’s based on Streets of rage 2. Please note I have nothing to do with the game, I’m just a fan trying to spread the word.
Just started playing Planet Crafter because it came out of early access with the release of version 1.0 on Wednesday. They’ve added multiplayer (which I don’t care about,) controller support (which I had been waiting for) and I think fleshed out the story some. I never played it because it didn’t support controller, but it was destined to be a favorite for me.
If anyone remembers my weird fixation on base building in Subnautica, Planet Crafter is very similar to Subnautica on land but without much in the way of story. Similar look and feel, but basically only base building, which includes building stuff to terraform the planet. It’s like they made this game specifically for me!
I’m only 5 hours in because I just became aware of 1.0; I feel like this is going to take over my life. It’s currently 30% off on Steam if it sounds appealing to anyone.
Note on Factorio: I only got around 15 hours in and am loving it, but I did watch 15+ hours worth of Nilaus’ beginner video series on youtube. Around 35 minutes per episode, I watched the first 30 episodes. (!) So I consider that 30 hours played, heh.
On the plus side, as a first person perspective game, Planet Crafter is a better showcase for my shiny new video card. I feel like factorio could run just fine on integrated graphics.
I’m really digging it. Progress seems pretty darn quick once you realize that you don’t really have anything to spend resources on except more stuff to speed up the terraforming.
Except, of course, planning out a cool base, but I don’t know enough about the game yet to have any meaningful opinions on what would make a cool base. There is a creative mode where I will eventually sit down and come up with my “perfect” design, but I want to actually get through much of the game before I do that.
The only tip I’m spoiled about which seems like a reasonable spoiler to know going in: Try to build your first base on high ground because the water will come… How high? I genuinely have no idea!
I picked that one up last year when it first came out in early access. I’ll have to reinstall it and re-check it out. When I got it I, too, was in Subnautica / Satisfactory / No Man’s Sky jag and I just never ended up digging into it. I think I only ever fired it up once.
Truth be told, I always get overwhelmed in Satisfactory when things get too complicated. Once I figure out a stasis for everything, something goes kaflooey as soon as I try to add something and I get too frustrated.
Subnautica frustrated me because constantly running out of breath was triggering my anxiety.
No Man’s Sky, as a base builder, was just too slow.
I just now for the first time placed an interior ladder. Unlike Subnautica, there aren’t fixed locations they snap into, but instead you kind of awkwardly place them wherever you like. The main difference is that if there is no compartment above it, the ladder takes you up to the roof! I’m practically woozy from that, heh.
Yeah, I don’t love early access games only because I get frustrated if major changes happen. Now that Planet Crafter just came out of early access for the official 1.0 release I’m super stoked. I don’t expect wholesale changes to the core of the game going forward, but I see there are already notes on what’s coming up in the next update. So it’s not like it’s being abandoned. And who knows, maybe there will still be wholesale changes. I hope not, though.
EDIT: Not quite 6 hours in I just got blue sky. I’m on my way!
That sounds awesome. I also treated base building in Subnautica like it was its own game so that should be right up my alley. I have Astroneer but I found that to be unfulfilling.
It now has its hooks into me deep, so I feel like I would end up spamming this thread as I progress. Figured it would be better to create a thread devoted to the game:
I’m obsessed with Shadows of Doubt right now. (Early Access game)
If you ever wanted to be a cybernetically enhanced private eye, investigating procedurally generated cases in a fully realized procedurally generated dystopian sci-fi 1980s open-world city completely free from any sort of framework of moral or ethical constraints and little to no gameplay handholding, this is the game for you.
There is a tutorial case to solve, but after that you are completely on your own. Some cases are murders, some cases are the “get an incriminating photo” type. Break out your inner Columbo, mixed with some maybe less than legal tactics to investigate and solve cases. It’s totally up to you, there is no “correct” method to reach the solution, it’s all about you just figuring it out.
If this all sounds extremely ambitious and you are skeptical this is all possible to pull off completely and convincingly, you would be absolutely correct on all counts, BUT, the Early Access status must be highlighted here, and it is notable and impressive the amount of the promise given that is legit delivered.
That stupid Shogun miniseries remake has me playing stupid Total War: Shogun 2 again. As the Chosokabe I’m chilling on Kyushu and Shikoku, dominating trade nodes and avoiding wars while stockpiling money and troops. Preparing for that eventual planned push onto Honshu against the treacherous Amako/Amago. So stupid - I’ll probably wait too long and the Takeda will eat everything .
A bunch of games in my wishlist are currently available at their lowest historic prices. I can’t decide which, if any, I should pick up right now. I typically spend around $25 per month on games, and earlier this month I picked up The Long Dark (survival mode only) for $10.
If I do pick something up I won’t play it for a while. I’m far too into Planet Crafter at the moment, but I’m always on the lookout for a good sale.
Has anyone played and would recommend any of these? Or maybe some you played and didn’t like?
The only one I have a pre-existing affinity for is Voidtrain because it’s made by the same people who made Raft, which I loved. But Epic Store? Ewww, gross.
I’m looking at these titles and feeling meh. My best bet may be to just buy one of the Long Dark story expansions for $14, both of which are also on historical low sales. And again, not planning to play any of these for a while.
Here are all my installed games for context. This is my homemade game launcher, allowing me to launch from Steam, Epic, GoG, etc… Plus I can use my controller with it.
Yep! My system drive is 1 TB, which is where all my non-steam games are. A little under 500 GB worth or so. Then I have a dedicated 2 TB games drive with nothing but my steam library. That’s half full, so figure 1.4 TB total in games.
I played Astroneer for a while - very nice-looking, a bit like a simpified No Man’s Sky, just set in a solar system. Lots of ‘mine the next mineral to make the next machine’ and it seems less about base building, more about surrounding your base module with umpteen other modules. I got the feeling it’s geared towards multiplayer, and the complete lack of fauna/enemies was a bit dull (though this was modless, on the PS4).
And Stranded: Alien Dawn does seem like 3D Rimworld, but seemed to lack the heaps of gameplay data and variety, in comparison (again, this is modless though).
I’ve just bought Kingdoms & Castles - a cheapo castle/city-builder, which seems very jolly so far.
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