Just finished playing Axiom Verge. Since I picked up a SteamDeck, I’m trying to play through my library. I’m trying to figure out which game in my library to tackle next between Blasphemous, Forager, or Spiritfarer.
Been on a Cyberpunk 2077 binge for the last 2 weeks or so. I’m maybe 4-6 hours away from completing everything except the final main story mission. It’s been an absolute pleasure, I haven’t found myself wanting to come back to a singleplayer game in the same way for some time. I know the game had a rocky start, but having picked it up much later, it’s a welcome addition to my “would recommend” list of games for RPG-lovers.
Marvel Midnight Suns. Disregarded it on announcement and launch because I wasn’t interested in the core card-based system. Played a little bit of Slay the Spire, which didn’t catch with me but did suggest I might actually be able to enjoy a card-based system with enough narrative context to keep me interested.
So far, so good. I just completed Act 1 (which prompted me to exclaim “that was only act 1??”) and I’m a little worried that I’m going to tire of the side missions soon and lose steam overall, but it hasn’t happened yet. The characters are fine enough, although they definitely give off MCU fanfic vibes (it’s jarring to me having a Peter Parker voiced by Yuri Lowenthal who is such a little remora sidekick in his characterization). The loop is pretty satisfying, if not a little clunky, and I wish the balance between doing battles and running around the abbey grounds leaned a little less on the abbey stuff.
But it’s a lot of fun and very addictive. I’m saddened that it performed poorly but I bear my part of the responsibility willingly.
which didn’t catch with me but did suggest I might actually be able to enjoy a card-based system with enough narrative context to keep me interested.
FYI, you can learn bits and pieces about Slay’s lore through the various events that come up. A pretty large chunk of lore comes up upon one particular respawn/new run.
That’s cool. I do enjoy lore, but more in an “explain it to me on YouTube” kind of way than an “uncover it organically through gameplay” way. I need characters, acts, and arcs to be immediately engaged.
I’m guessing maybe you don’t like detective games in which you have to uncover the plot yourself. I suppose it’s all about the method of presentation for me.
The most recent detective game I played (if it qualifies as such for you) was Paradise Killer, which surprisingly I enjoyed quite a bit. Again though, the lore has close ties to the interpersonal relationships of all the characters on the island.
Dragon’s Dogma 2, getting close to 80 hours. I still feel like I’ve only scratched the surface because, now that I’m getting 60’ish level pawns to run in my party, I’m still finding a ton of secrets in areas I’ve already explored extensively. In the game, the pawns you summon can show you secrets about the world that their players have discovered. It’s a neat mechanic.
If you like exploring open worlds, it’s a pretty great game.
Man, I couldn’t get into the game at all. I just found it really boring and a chore to play most of the time. This is one of those games, where I don’t get what others see in it at all.
It’s definitely not for everyone. I like it because it’s fun to explore the world they’ve built, but it’ll be more fun when the launch bugs are worked out.
I have hung up the cape on Helldivers 2 for now, each patch makes the game more and more unstable. It’s to the point where I rarely make it two missions without crashing, losing progress each time has pretty sucked all the fun out of the game.
The timing is good, though, I snagged a spot in the Once Human beta test and have been really enjoying it. Surprisingly fun with interesting building, crafting, and exploration mechanics. Definitely a time sink though ^^;
After all the trouble I had with Horizon Forbidden West for a couple of days (endless crashing), it’s been great since then. As if nothing ever happened. So, I’ve just been exploring, killing, and looting.
Then, I also started Dave the Diver. It’s a great game, even better than I thought it would be.
Played some Crisis Core FF7 (PSP) during down time on a road trip. I forgot how clunky the game feels, but it’s entertaining enough.
I’d like to see how the remaster compares… According to what I’ve heard, the cutscenes are upscales of the original FMVs, which are both odd and intriguing.
Still working on clearing the map in Ghostwire: Tokyo. There is just so, so much. But even as I'm going through and tying up lose ends, I am loving all the little easter eggs. There's references to previous Tango games, Resident Evil, horror movies, Wizard of Oz of all things... Also, this game has a serious thing for aliens and UFOs? I'm not sure why though. Still fun, even though some tasks have been a little time consuming.
I don’t know if my fondness for any game tanked as steeply as Ghostwire Tokyo. I started out really enjoying it gameplay and traversal, the environmental design and level of detail, the style and enemy design. But it just did not last. I got reasonably swept up in map-clearing activities myself but grew bored of them so quickly I could barely bring myself to finish the game’s relatively swift main campaign.
I'm a bit if the opposite, I seem to thrive on games that have a lot of collectibles and side missions/tasks because it turns into mindless fun between emails.
But I get where you're coming from, and I think that one of the game's pitfalls is the collectibles/side missions to main story ratio. Like finding the stickers/graffiti has been the most difficult for me, so I probably could have done without that one. The relics are really cool, and I love reading about them, but they kind of have a weird spread over the map.
I think the devs could have either made the map smaller (not that it's that large to begin with) with less "stuff", since you don't unlock at least half the map anyway if you just stick the main storyline, or they could have padded out or lengthened the main story so you do unlock all the map before you get to the point where you move "off map". (Edit to add) It seems like the devs got so caught up in creating a realistic version of Shibuya that it kinda got away from the main point and plot of the game.
I actually do enjoy a bit of tedium, but it very specifically has to be building to something (I’ll swim around breaking rocks as long as Subnautica demands me to if it means getting to build some cool new thing).
Your point about not opening half the map just on the main missions is salient too for the same reason. Collecting for collecting’s sake is not enough for me, and too much of this game is just…there.
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