What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

I've been in the mood for some old stuff.... I was playing Dracula X on SNES on my SteamDeck. I have always liked the idea of Castlevania more than playing them... those fucking medusa heads always screw me up.

On PC I started over with Legend of Grimrock, a very old school dungeon crawl from 2012 or so. I was enjoying myself but then it got to be overly punitive with resources, throwing so many goddamn spiders at me that I couldn't keep enough anti-venom on hand. It also has a very annoying mechanic of your torch burning out. This might be "realistic", but it is not "fun". I think I'd enjoy this type of thing more if the combat was turn based.

Been a bit on a retro-inspired platformer kick lately. Something fast and not super committal after the workday. Super Kiwi 64 was a delightful little game with clear Banjo-Kazooie inspirations where you play as a Kiwi with a backpack on. Just eight levels with no new power ups but satisfying movement with a beak dash that works on ground or air and can be used to stick into and climb walls alongside a glide. It isn't challenging and there is no real fail state, but the vibes felt cozy and the music for the desert world was a genuine groove that I've since added to some playlists. I beat it in 40 minutes, but it was only $3 which is a much better deal than any lattes I buy and down in less than 5 minutes! Can definitely recommend this for someone that just wants to unwind for a little bit.

I have Robocop: Rogue City or whatever it is called downloaded to my xbox. I love the series (well 1, mostly 2, and some of the comics) so much and I hear such good things about the game, I'm nervous to start it lest I be disappointed. But they got Peter Weller back for the voice, that alone should make it a satisfying experience.

The demo for Robocop was cool, I think you'll enjoy it.

Been playing My Time at Sandrock the last couple days. Think a 3D Stardew Valley with a Studio Ghibli inspired art style in a fantasy Old West setting. There are some nice thematic touches based on the setting that help it stand out. For example, the heat means your machines cannot operate without water which is expensive to buy as there are strict regulations on its consumption. You can work around that by scavenging herbs to collect dew or other methods. You also cannot chop down trees as the locale is struggling with desertification so you must scavenge from scrap piles in nearby ruins instead. It's a lovely time that scratches a similar itch to Stardew while doing its own thing. It's similar, not a clone.

Got Robocop. It is a lot of fun, at least if you like the thought of a cyborg cop walking around with nearly limitless destructive capabilities and a VERY broad set of operating conditions and rules of engagement. Even my 10 year old was like "Hey dad, why did you shoot that guy, he wasn't shooting at you!" to which I replied, smug in my knowledge of video game rules, "he wasn't shooting at me......yet". So in a BLM world it is a refreshing case of good vs bad, so far at least.

Whipping out the Auto-9 and seeing those little targeting squares appear on folks is fun, as is getting head shots with gratuitous decapitations. Nice sets of upgrade options both for Robo and his gun, though you can also pick up weapons and stuff in the environment. There isn't a massive amount of destructibility, but they create little areas where you can shred walls or watch them disintegrate around you as a heavy machine gun opens up.

It's a AA title at best, with clunky animations and pretty limited areas to work in as opposed to the massive open world shooters out there, and Robocop is slow so just traversing a few blocks takes a while, but they sprinkle in enough side missions and little bits of lore to keep things interesting.

Also recently got a PS5, so working though the semi-recent God of War entry. Somehow Kratos is in Midgard, but I like norse stuff so this is cool. But damn, trying to keep xbox, switch, and now playstation control maps in my head suuuucks. I need a single controller (preferably a xbox type one) that can send the correct commands (what is R1? where is the X?, why is the A button now all the way to the right?) with just one control setup.

Tunic is such a good game if you're in for the specific kind of intentionally unintuitive, figure-it-out-yourself, vibe it's going for. The premise is that it's Link to the Past but in a different language, so you have to intuit the moves and puzzle through the instruction book yourself while you find more pages of instructions. It is in the autumn sale right now and I picked it up. Loving it.

If this doesn't sound good, definitely stay away.

jason10mm wrote: But damn, trying to keep xbox, switch, and now playstation control maps in my head suuuucks. I need a single controller (preferably a xbox type one) that can send the correct commands (what is R1? where is the X?, why is the A button now all the way to the right?) with just one control setup.

That is peak First World Problems, right there...

I finished Astroneer, which is spectacularly fun, but for people like me, super addictive.

Now I'm playing Stardew Valley. Also fun but kind of way more grindy.

Oho! New to Stardew? Keep me posted on what you think. It can take time to earn things, but other avenues open up (mining, fishing, interacting with townsfolk) to keep you engaged as the in-game days pass.

It's one of those few special games where I get the urge to replay every year or so alongside Terraria and Monster Hunter. Damn fine game.

One of these days I'll fire up Stardew Valley and it will actually take for me. I'm not there yet though.

Lots of games bouncing around my ADHD brain these days...

Fallout 2 - Inspired by the several-hours-long retrospective by Noah Caldwell-Gervais, I have been digging through the original Fallout games. I've played the first one through a couple times, but this is my first time through Fallout 2. I think I like it a lot, though for different reasons. It's not a very pleasant game at the beginning, when you are scrabbling for decent weapons, armor, and enough money to buy them. But I'm about halfway through now, and it's starting to feel like something I might like more than the first game. In particular, I like the bigger varieties of communities and NPCs. Getting to a new city is genuinely exciting, and I love digging into what's going on in the background. It's a much more sprawling experience than Fallout 1, but that has its charm too. I feel less like I am missing the different threads of a narrative if I pass something by. There are other things I'm not wild about. I'm playing as a female character, and there's a LOT of opportunities to sleep with NPCs if you do that. Not that it's a problem to have the option, but there's a lot of leering at your character if they're female, and that's icky. Still, I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Persona 5 Royal - I think I posted here like a year ago that I was playing this one, and I'm still plugging away. I feel like that kid in Matilda who has to eat an entire chocolate cake. I really like it, but there's just so much of it. I'm at about the 100-hour mark, and I'm at the point where I think the original P5 ended, so that's a milestone I guess. But I'm still interested in all the characters and their various stories this far in, which is really saying something. There are precious few RPGs that hold my interest for 100 hours, not even my favorites. I think it helps that P5 has such an appealing design, especially with its UI. It's just so dang snappy, that it doesn't feel like a headache to navigate through all of those menus in combat. I also really like the combat, so that's something. I'll probably still be working on this one next year, but I'm having fun!

Transistor - I admire Supergiant games more than I usually enjoy them. The notable exception is Hades, a game that I connected with very strongly. Bastion has always sort of been aloof for me, though I intend to give it another try. Transistor is closer to the Bastion end of the spectrum, both in length and in quality. It's a gorgeous looking game, that sort of holds you at arms length narratively. It's a very non-linear story, and not in a way that feels thematically appropriate. It's filled with a lot of dialog that seems to assume you already know where you are and what's going on, and it fills in character backstory as you use the various items in different ways. I'm not sure what all this is in service of. There's no narrative component that makes it necessary to tell the story this way, like an amnesiac character. I haven't finished yet, so grain of salt and all that. But it feels clever and oblique for its own sake, not something that is tied into anything thematic. The combat as well is a little more choice than I want to see sometimes. There are all these attacks that can be combined into primary attacks, buffs for those attacks, and global effects. It encourages you to experiment, and it allows you to play in an almost turn-based rhythm. But it's also a paralyzing amount of choice in terms of load outs. I feel like I'm playing sub optimally pretty much the whole time.

But lest I sound too grouchy, I am enjoying it. The narrative is taking shape for me after a slow start, and the aesthetics and fun combat are carrying me a lot of the way. Plus hey, it's a six-hour game. I can push through that.

My goal in the coming days is to focus more on the myriad indie games that have clogged my backlog. I want to give Bastion a proper try, and I still need to play Supergiant's Pyre. I also have tons of games I've barely touched or haven't at all, like Celeste, Return of the Obra Dinn, Spiritfarer, and many others. So maybe 2024 will be the year of the indie game for me.

san il defanso wrote: Fallout 2 - Inspired by the several-hours-long retrospective by Noah Caldwell-Gervais, I have been digging through the original Fallout games. I've played the first one through a couple times, but this is my first time through Fallout 2. I think I like it a lot, though for different reasons. It's not a very pleasant game at the beginning, when you are scrabbling for decent weapons, armor, and enough money to buy them. But I'm about halfway through now, and it's starting to feel like something I might like more than the first game. In particular, I like the bigger varieties of communities and NPCs. Getting to a new city is genuinely exciting, and I love digging into what's going on in the background. It's a much more sprawling experience than Fallout 1, but that has its charm too. I feel less like I am missing the different threads of a narrative if I pass something by. There are other things I'm not wild about. I'm playing as a female character, and there's a LOT of opportunities to sleep with NPCs if you do that. Not that it's a problem to have the option, but there's a lot of leering at your character if they're female, and that's icky. Still, I'm having a lot of fun with it.

I loved Fallout 2. I remember playing as a male, and ended up with a job as a fluffer on a porno set and got an STD. I also remember being very good at pick-pocket. I took all of the bullets off of the sheriff of a town and then started a fight with him. All he could do is punch. It didn't go well for him.

hotseatgames wrote:

san il defanso wrote: Fallout 2 - Inspired by the several-hours-long retrospective by Noah Caldwell-Gervais, I have been digging through the original Fallout games. I've played the first one through a couple times, but this is my first time through Fallout 2. I think I like it a lot, though for different reasons. It's not a very pleasant game at the beginning, when you are scrabbling for decent weapons, armor, and enough money to buy them. But I'm about halfway through now, and it's starting to feel like something I might like more than the first game. In particular, I like the bigger varieties of communities and NPCs. Getting to a new city is genuinely exciting, and I love digging into what's going on in the background. It's a much more sprawling experience than Fallout 1, but that has its charm too. I feel less like I am missing the different threads of a narrative if I pass something by. There are other things I'm not wild about. I'm playing as a female character, and there's a LOT of opportunities to sleep with NPCs if you do that. Not that it's a problem to have the option, but there's a lot of leering at your character if they're female, and that's icky. Still, I'm having a lot of fun with it.

I loved Fallout 2. I remember playing as a male, and ended up with a job as a fluffer on a porno set and got an STD. I also remember being very good at pick-pocket. I took all of the bullets off of the sheriff of a town and then started a fight with him. All he could do is punch. It didn't go well for him.

I remember playing Fallout 1 and made a total melee character (Hokuto no Ken style). There was a random encounter with two raiders, both had guns. I closed the distance to one and did a targeted punch to the groin. CRITICAL HIT. Guy went down like a sack of potatoes, but was still alive. I walked over, spent APs to loot him, and took his handgun and bullets. I waited for the guy to get back up and then expected him to attack me.

HE STARTED RUNNING AWAY. I went after him while trying to close, but he kept running away. The other guy still shot at me but kept missing. So, I directed my attention to him. Now, I had the pneumatic sledgehammer, so I limbered it up. I got close to him, aimed for one of his legs, and swung away. CRITICAL HIT. His character went down, but slid from the bottom of the screen to the top, and then further slid to the right after going no further. Blood pool immediately formed after the body stopped moving. I don't remember much of the flavor text, but it said something to the effect that I sent his leg into orbit, or something like that.

I never caught the other guy, he ran off screen and the encounter ended.

Payday3 laid down a massive update, added two legacy heists from Payday 2, and just a bunch of little QoL improvements. I played Turbid Station (fka Murky Station in PD2) and it was a blast. The lineup of the trains is the same, but there's a lot more detritus around the station to hide and canter over. The drones are WORSE in the new version than the old (PD2 drones moved and covered static areas. The new ones fly around and patrol the lanes between the trucks). The keys to getting the needed prototypes are more of a challenge to get, and CAMERAS abound.

They've also added animations to certain actions (you'll see your heister type on the keyboard, push open a door, etc.). The other heist, Cook Off, is also different from the previous one. It's got more ways to get into the house, there's an additional spawn point for cooking the blue, and they added a cooking mechanic to get the most money, and less if you overcook the meth.

Finally, they added a set amount of IP when completing heists, and not just challenges. Thank Christ. There is a major stall when you get around Infamy level 70 and I'm in level 83. This will make the game a less of a slog to get through.

We just signed up for HBO MAX and so we’re going to cancel Netflix, but it’s my source of Kentucky Route Zero, which I hear is cool. But I could buy the game for $20 and Netflix is like $17 a month.