Video Games You've Played Recently

The Game Room
608

I finished Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla about a month and a half ago. It was a great game with a huge open world. By the end it was getting a little repetitive, which happens with a lot of these 200+ hour games. Still a great game, though.

I bought the Dragon Quest III HD-2D remake on the day it was released. What a wonderful game. I just beat it two days ago, at 57 hours of gameplay. My favorite video game genre by far is old school turn-based Japanese role playing games (JRPGs). The Dragon Warrior/Drangon Quest franchise is one of my favorite JRPG franchises. This remake was tailor made for my tastes. I loved it. It was obviously a lot shorter than Dragon Quest XI, and there was not a lot of story about your party. In fact, you just plain recruit the three characters other than your main Hero from a tavern. But it had all that old school Dragon Quest goodness. I’m dabbling with the post-game challenges, but they are difficult, and I plan to move on. I have Dragon Age: Veilguard next to go.

Metaphor ReFantazio is an absolute must-buy for me. Please consider sharing your thoughts as you play, either in this thread or a new one. As I mentioned, turn-based JRPGs are my favorite, and Atlus is a developer that is an automatic buy for me. Persona 5 Royal is one of my favorite games of all time. I understand Metaphor ReFantazio is not a Persona sequel, but that it has some Persona influence. Everything I have read about the game is leading me to believe that it may be one of the best JRPGs ever. I will buy it soon, and I plan to buy a physical copy, as I am a collector, and I’m trying to buy every JRPG on every console I own.

609

I’m about 5 hours in. It’s great. I know it isn’t a Persona sequel and isn’t even Shin Megami Tensei related…but it totally is.

It’s kind of Persona 6, but if they went a REALLY different direction story and setting wise.

Social Links? Yes.

Personas? Yes(called Archetypes)

Menus and navigation look like Persona 5.

I love it.

610

As I mentioned, I haven’t played it yet, but the art style looks similar in some ways to Persona.

I’m really looking forward to this game. I may just buy a physical copy for myself and play it before Dragon Age: Veilguard.

611

Ah, those were a lot of fun back in the day (I think they’ve been re-released a few times now). Ever tried other similar stealth games, like Thief, Splinter Cell, Dishonored, etc.?

612

I watched some videos on the roguelike mode (“Freelancer”) that made it look kind of fun.

613

Appreciate all of the Hitman info, folks! Wasn’t aware of the other stealth like games mentioned but want to try those too. Really enjoying this game so far.

I agree about the handholding. I used that during the tutorials, just to get an idea of what the game expects, but I think that would take some of the fun away from the main missions.

614

I got the impression that you only had to buy the last hitman game (3?), and you got all the previous parts included with the latest engine. Or did I misunderstand that?

615

Perhaps so. This package not only included the Trilogy, but all of the previous games prior to the trilogy. I went for it.

616

Recently found out about this from Emma Thorne, of all people (great channel, by the way, very insightful and funny): YouTube Playables. These are primarily mobile device games that have been converted to run on a desktop system, most of them even saying “tap” instead of “click”. (I remember playing Flappy Dunk on one of my old IPads.) Naturally, they’ve taken a ton of heat for being simple to play, non-stressful, and free :roll_eyes:, which of course means that they’re perfect for me. I’ve only had time to really get into a few so far, but I have the feeling that this is where I’m going to be getting my online fix now, especially since Kongregate has long since fallen into the abyss of 24/7 Pain.

Some good stuff here! (Be sure to turn on full screen, otherwise a lot of the text will be too small to read.) Quick descriptions:

Tall Man Run - A throwback to the days where the challenge was getting a high score as opposed to dying fifty million deaths and enduring a thousand years in the 9th Circle of Hell to complete one level. Sure, the objectives are as basic as they get…pick up this stuff, avoid that stuff…but getting every helpful object and avoiding every harmful object (that it’s possible to!), time and again, is a task and a half. With hundreds of levels, it’s a massive undertaking to get a top score. This is one of those games where you can play as long as you like, take a break, and come back fresh, and if you ask me there aren’t nearly enough of them.

Race Master - An obstacle-filled pedal-to-the-medal race with rubberbanding aplenty. Like Tall Man Run, crammed with unique levels, so no two stages are exactly the same. If you’re not concerned about winning (You can’t get too concerned about wining in a racing game! :grin:) and don’t get annoyed by all the unfair obstacle placements, this is a good place to unwind and tear it up. More Mario Kart than Gran Turismo and should be treated as such.

Parking Jam - Easy to learn, impossible to master. If you’ve played the Unpuzzle games, you have the idea. The first few levels are ridiculously easy (practically a children’s game), but when you get to the more complicated snarls you won’t be blitzing through them anymore, and the boss stages give you no room for error. (Sensible difficulty progression? That’s still possible?? :wink:) There’s no timer, making sharp eyes and the right gameplan more important than a quick trigger finger. I’ll see how long the latest boss level takes, but for now, I’m liking this one!

My Mini Mart - Build, earn, build some more. More or less a graphically-intense idle game. I know there isn’t much to it, but to have all those tangible goals in sight just keeps me going. There are other Playables like this, which I’ll get to in due time.

Running Pet Dec room - One of numerous Subway Surfers clones, all of varying quality. This one, part of the widespread My Pet franchise, seems more downbeat and relaxed; not as many goodies but also fewer expectations. I will say that being able to play this with a keyboard is a big plus. One of those things I don’t want to spend too much time on at any given time but I’ll keep coming back to.

Word of Wonders - One of numerous word-forming games (you’re given certain letters and have to make words of varying lengths out of them); I’m very familiar with this genre on both Ipad and Fire. The crossword format makes it easier than games like Word Cookies, and being able to type in the words instead of dragging my finger all over the place is a boon. Not much else to say except that I intend to reach the end someday, wherever it is!

617

I envy you! You derive more enjoyment (and maybe even a sense of wonder?) from these simple free games than I have from all the fancy AAA titles of the last couple decades :slight_smile:

I can’t remember the last time I was genuinely wowed by a game (maybe the 90s, when dynamic lighting first became possible, and Unreal used them in a flickering hallway?). And I haven’t finished a game in a loooong time… can barely play most of them for more than a couple hours.

Old and jaded, I guess :slight_smile: What’s your secret? How do you keep getting endless entertainment out of the few simple titles?

My partner’s kind of like that too. She can play Solitaire or Wingspan for hours on end, day after day. I don’t know how people do it.

618

Well, I could go on for pages about how I developed my video game mindsets, but in a nutshell, I always responded very badly when something turned out too hard, too complicated, too frustrating, too counterintuitive, too punishing, too unrewarding, too cheap, too incomprehensible, oh, heck, look up “Bennett Foddy” and you’ll get the picture. The final straw was reading one diatribe after another bemoaning how modern console games were “so easy”, which became an endless source of exasperated bafflement due to my abject, catastrophic failure to ever find one single goddam game on any console that I would categorize as such. (I guess Assassin’s Creed Syndicate was fairly manageable if you were really blipping patient, but other than that I got nuthin’.) Hey man, I owned an Atari 2600, don’t try to pass off Shantae or Subnautica or Flower as kids stuff to me! Mobile device games became the natural outlet for me, mainly because the lack of controllers or keyboard meant they had to be simple, so I got to enjoy things like jigsaw puzzles and Sudoku and word searches and endless runners. Put the empasis on creativity and color and rewards without requiring The Flash-caliber reflexes or doing every boss fight 200 times or spending two months getting a moveset down. If you’ve haven’t struggled, suffered, been reduced to screaming rage or a puddle of tears, again and again and again and again and again, you won’t understand. It seems that not many do. :man_shrugging: That’s life.

Three more:
Thief Puzzle - The object is to grab something without touching anything dangerous or harmful. The thief has an infinitely stretchable arm which can bend around objects but must be perfectly straight between each bend. There are hundreds of levels, all hand-drawn, and a plethora of different challenges (sometimes you have to thread the needle, sometimes you have to make a long circumference, sometimes you have to work out the correct angle); I’m only up to the 70’s and impressed by the amount of work which went into this game. The levels range from trivial to very tricky, and you really have to stop and think about why the level’s set up that way and what you’re expected to do. A nice concept and the perfect “5-10 minutes a day” game.

Jetpack Joyride - I remember playing this on Ipad. Similar to Flappy Birds, except you have to hold down click to ascend, and there are all kinds of obstacles to avoid. It’s been stripped down considerably from its mobile incarnation mainly because there are no microtransactions, but that also means there’s no incentive for Halfbrick to screw the player over at every turn (the main reason I gave up in the first place). I’ll be playing for curiosity as much as anything else, but if I can get all the achievements this time, I’ll consider it time well spent.

On Nom Run - Another Subway Surfers-like. This one doesn’t allow you to buy powerups or improved stats, just fancier stunts. It seems to be a little less intense than Running Pet, and it also has a mission system which ends the run after 100% success, so I haven’t encountered any blazing speeds yet. Suitably colorful and goofy. I think this one has potential, but I’ll see how far I get with the missions.

619

I saw the game Maniac mentioned in my reading today, and it is currently 45% off on Steam, making it $2.74 USD. I’m about 20 minutes in and I’m really enjoying the humor (both textual and gameplay), but as an Aged American I struggle a bit with the pace.

It has been compared to Vampire Survivors, but it plays much differently. Yes, you’re moving around a top-down map with your character, and there are skill-ups and the like, but the similarity ends there. Still, a real hoot.

620

It’s Christmastime again, and that means it’s time to play Saints Row 4: How the Saints Saved Christmas. It’s good fun with all of the Christmas movie references and whatnot.

621

Been playing hero shooter Marvel Rivals a lot recently. The skill level difference required to play straight forward heroes like Punisher or Hawkeye who play like any other shooter vs someone like Spiderman who literally requires the dexterity of spiderman to do well on is hilarious. Mostly it makes me feel old, but i found my niche as a healer.

622

I’m intrigued. I enjoy superhero games but generally not PVP MOBAs. Wish it were more like Marvel Heroes (the PVE ARPG). Still might be worth trying.

623

Marvel Heroes was one of my favorite games ever. Alas, this is 100% a pvp game, a shooter though (or puncher depending on hero) not a MOBA.

624

Hmm, not a MOBA meaning it doesn’t have a base to destroy? No creeps?

I had mistakenly thought MOBAs were just a catch all term for role/character based team PVP games, but maybe not!

625

Nope, no base or creeps. Hero shooters are like regular shooters, but instead of everyone playing a generic soldier like Call of Duty there are distinct characters with unique abilities. MOBAs are the ones with the base and creepers and are actually a spin off from real time strategy games.

626

Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.

I hope Marvel Rivals comes out on GFN.

627

Not sure what GFN is but its free on PC X-Box and PS5 :slight_smile: