Civ VI instead of Civ V? List automatically invalid.

Jokes aside it’s an interesting list and I like the idea of ranking based on “what’s best to play right now” instead of by historical significance or some futile attempt at objective apples-to-apples quantification - even though at the end of the day I think I neither agree with the selection nor the ranking. But there are plenty of good games on there with solid reasons of why to play them in their descriptions, so it’s a good read nonetheless.

Been playing a lot ofDeadlock still, finally getting a grasp of how to play it feels like. Took a while to understand priorities and what to focus on and how to execute builds. Still held back a bit by my aim, but found enough ability-based heroes to still be able to perform. It’s a very fun game! I can’t play too many games in a row because it gets intense and stressful, but I’m really enjoying it.

I’ve also been playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution for the first time as something more relaxing and story based. It’s been alright so far. Don’t think it’s been hitting the heights of the original Deus Ex so far, but it’s enjoyable enough.

Does it have enough games yet?

As few? Don’t you mean “as many as”?

I’ll have to look into this, Greedfall was a very charming (if janky) AA game that I liked a lot and I’ve been looking forward to the sequel.

Alan Wake 2 was by far my standout choice for GOTY last year. I’m still bummed it didn’t win more awards, particularly narrative ones as I think it handily beats BG3 in that department. I love Remedy and Sam Lake, and I love them pushing the envelope of AAA games. It’s one to add to the example list of “video games as art” in my opinion.

I’m glad the DLC was great, I’ve been trying to hold off until I can play both at once but maybe I’ll need to cave soon…

Yes, it’s very very silly and is basically the complete opposite of what it should be. It should be the Olympics for Esports, not a bunch of mobile games tangentially related to existing olympic sports.

Not that I would expect better from the IOC.

That question was settled in the 90s.

Tell that to the IOC who refused to feature any shooters at the Esports Olympics because they’re “too violent” - they even forced Fortnite to make a target shooting mode for its entry!

The lack of a modern port makes availability an issue, so it’s definitely more in cult classic territory, but it is definitely a critics’ darling and is often thrown around among the group of best games of all time. It’s not uncommon for it to rank nr. 1 on “Best Final Fantasy Games” lists either.

Weird? Isn’t FFT widely considered one of the best games of all time?

This is the correct answer.

Great video. I hope more stealth games learn from Freelancer and create gameplay where making small mistakes don’t induce complete fail states. I like stealth games for the moment-to-moment gameplay and for the puzzle of figuring out how to navigate a level unseen for that 100% rating, but I also hate stealth games for the constant reloading.

Ever since playing Disco Elysium I’ve started thinking more and more about the fail-forward design philosophy and the general desirability of making failure interesting instead of inciting save scumming. It’s a problem in a lot of games, but none more than stealth games, I think.

It’s been Deadlock the last couple of days since I got the invite. Not sure if I’ll stick with it. The game has potential but I think I might be too bad at it to ever have fun playing it. Farming is insanely important and between lacking precision aim for last hits and not understanding neutral camp flash farming strats I guess I’m just always behind on economy.

I do alright in fights themselves and feel like I can theoretically perform with a couple of heroes at least, but that doesn’t really matter once you get out statted.

Maybe I’m just getting too old for fast paced shooters, it’s been a while since I played one.

I hope they’ll eventually release an official VR version. I don’t usually clamor for VR but this game seems so perfect for it.

I hope you’re enjoying it, that first blind playthrough is quite magical. First half of DS1 is just a masterclass in level design. No other game has made me so excited to find a shortcut.

Impeccable taste, DS1 Great Scythe has such a fantastic moveset. Is it your first time playing?

I’ve been mainlining Esports Godfather, which is the surprise hit of the year for me so far. The title is nonsensical and on the surface it looks like it can’t be good, but it’s been so much fun.

It’s a MOBA-themed sort of deckbuilder/autobattler/management game - which sounds like a hot mess but plays so much better than you’d think. At least after you get over the initial information overload.

I wish the AI was a little smarter, but even with the game being a touch too easy it’s incredible how much fun it is. Loads of cards and heroes to build synergies with and rotating version rulesets keeping things fresh even within a single run.

At just €16 on Steam I’d easily recommend it to anyone with an interest in the genre, and there is even a free demo that covers the first couple hours of a run.

For sheer versatility you can’t beat PC, so that is going to have to be my choice. Having flexibility between KB+M and controller, having access to mods and tweaks and (typically) having a wider array of graphics/performance options to tailor to your preferences makes for an unbeatable package.

That being said (and it pains me to say this given my distaste for Nintendo), I absolutely loved the 3DS. The dual screens were cool, it had good ergonomics for me and a nice weight in your hands and there was something very satisfying in the mechanics of flipping it open or listening to the click as you slam it shut. It’s just a really nice device to use.

For sure. Will probably be even more likely if the Elden Ring DLC does really well and further propels FromSoft into a true mainstream household name.

I think my favourite low-int detail was in Fallout 2. You come across the tribal Torr early on in Klamath and he speaks in grunts and broken sentences just like that if you talk to him with normal INT or above. However, if you talk to him with low INT the conversation completely changes into long eloquent sentences with advanced vocabulary for both him and you, matching the dialogue options unlocked at 10 INT. Amazing.

Played a lot of Wuthering Waves since it launched. It’s a tricky one because it has a lot of flaws and weaknesses, but at the same time the core is actually really solid.

The combat feels amazing, and that really is the big selling point here. Parries and perfect dodges feel great, the bosses have fun movesets and the pace is fast and fluid with lots of tech like animation cancelling and character swapping. The character gameplay design is also excellent, with each character having a unique feel and playstyle, and a unique way of building and using the Forte gauge.

I wish the main story wasn’t complete garbage, but hey ho. At least there is a skip button. Even the good characters (like Aalto and Encore) feel out of place and too goofy in a supposedly post-apocalyptic setting. Funny enough some unvoiced side quests have been better than the main story by a long shot (I’m thinking of Eternal Concert, for example).

Also the localisation is insultingly bad and it definitely seems like Kuro actually disregards the importance of non-chinese regions to the point of not employing a single foreign language speaker even to their localisation team. Even their announcements are worse translations than Google translate, and it’s the same for all languages. You’d think they’d at least care about the JP translation. Puzzling and almost offensive.

Still, the game is mechanically satisfying enough to have me hooked for now. And it’s free (and very F2P friendly at the moment).

I’m not sure if the above comment played on launch or after the Final Cut update, but there isn’t all that much reading in the game anymore. Almost all text is fully voice acted now. You still have to mentally absorb it of course, but I find it less taxing than reading, personally.

The book-like nature of it is spot on though; it’s better to treat it like an interactive novel where you choose the order in which you read its pages than as a traditional RPG.

Don’t be afraid to pick wild and weird dialogue options, and especially don’t be afraid to fail at things. The game pioneered a “fail-forward” design philosophy

Thank you for the extremely comprehensive run-down! I don’t think I’ve ever had it laid out so clearly before.

I think I’ll keep them on my tentative “to-do” list, but maybe not at the highest priority. I loved Origins but with how it ends I don’t have a super pressing need to continue the story immediately. There are so many good games out there, and more keep being released. It’s hard to find time for all of them. I’m really looking forward to Hellblade 2 next.

I think I will get around to them at some point, though. Exporting my save through all three games and seeing callbacks and consequences does sound interesting, and I’ve heard that is something that does happen.

Interesting. So the side content is mostly uninteresting, I take it?

I still have only played DA:O, which I really liked. I still haven’t played the sequels, would you say they’re still worthwhile or is it for the best to leave the story at the end of Origins?

I think DS3 is great in its own way and has some awesome areas, but it’s hard to compare anything to the first half of Dark Souls. That level design is just something else.

What I like about DS3 compared to ER is there are a lot less delayed attacks and fakeouts. I get that FromSoft needs to constantly up the challenge but it makes it harder to get the same kind of enjoyable combat flow, at least for me. DS3 has some bosses that are just so enjoyable, even though they’re not super hard.

Oh and, don’t know if you’ve done them yet but the DLCs should be more challenging than the main game, if that’s what you’re after.

Having the exact same experience, though I’ve only barely started the PL storyline. The rebalance and revamped perk tree has created so many cool builds and so many fun ways to play. The game is just a joy to play honestly.

I think OWB is many people’s favourite, and Honest Hearts is certainly the weakest DLC. It does have some cool lore and story bits to it though, and the environmental storytelling with the survivalist is very neat. And I think Joshua Graham is a great character.

I hope you come back and do Lonesome Road too, I absolutely love it and think the level design and environments are outstanding.

Started playing Phantom Liberty today after having finally finalized my modlist. Still hunting down the source of some crashing, but still.

Haven’t played Cyberpunk since 1.63, and I am loving the changes so far. Very cool builds available with the perk tree changes, I can already tell I will probably do another full playthrough with a different build once I’ve ran through Phantom Liberty. Right now I’m playing a Tech/Body/Reflexes spec going full into explosives, combined with Sandevistan, Kerenzikov and all the dashing/mid-air stuff. It’s definitely a lot of fun, bouncing around the battlefield like a Gummi Bear on speed while everyone around you explodes and burns.

Don’t know if just me, but this spoiler tag doesn’t work on either Sync nor Boost.

Fought him before the patches as well. I thought the fight was absolute bullshit and cheesed it with plague breath.

Never came back and tried him after the patches.

Still completely and unhealthily obsessed with F1 Manager 2023, nearing the end of my second season as Aston Martin. Hard/Hard difficulty has felt about appropriate thus far, at least on a team starting in a good position like AM. I was sweating at the start of this season since the board expected me to get second and I started the year a little slow, but it looks like I will pull it off. Still couldn’t touch Red Bull or Max this year, though I have taken a couple of race wins.

The development race has been tight so far, with Mercedes roaring back after a dismal 2023 season and Red Bull refusing to let me outdevelop them.

It’s a little sad that the first two installments didn’t sell well and F1 Manager 2024 looks like it will be the last entry in the series. Sure, the game has its issues, but there are a lot of good things here too, and a lot of systems that could be refined with time. I didn’t play F1 Manager 2022, but it seems like a lot of the problems with it were addressed in 2023, as well.

Overall, I still recommend the game if you’re an F1 fan, especially if you can find it on sale. You probably have to at least like racing (if not F1) to enjoy it though, as the main draw here is the race-day experience.

Makes sense. And I have heard those terms before. I guess i just need to update my internal definition. All this time I thought boomer shooter meant “slow FPS for old folks who can’t keep up in Valorant anymore”. Which is a group I probably belong to myself, to be honest.

It’s so curious, I swear I heard “boomer shooter” used to refer to another type of FPS… But then again I guess the definition has changed. What term do people use nowadays for slow FPSes that are more tactical, rather than twitch-reflex reliant, like ARMA?

I got predictably burned out on RDR2 after trying to complete a bunch of challenges before proceeding (I wanted to look cool in all the cutscenes!), so that is on the back burner for now. I also had some personal events that made me less able to focus on story games. Or maybe less in the mood. Take your pick.

Found a good deal on F1 Manager 2023 instead, and that has been a perfect distraction. Not least since I’m not really getting my F1 fix from watching the races so far, this year.

I didn’t play the predecessor so I don’t know how much it improves year-on-year, but I’d say it’s solid if you are an F1 fan. The presentation is awesome, especially thanks to the official licensing, with stuff like radio clips of the actual drivers and engineers adding a lot of immersion during races.

As a management game it seems fine. As someone who’s put a lot of hours into Football Manager, this isn’t on that level in terms of depth. But it seems perfectly adequate. I’m having fun juggling the budget and striking a balance between long term investments and short term development. There are a lot of little considerations to fiddle with. The setup-sliders minigame is fun.

I’m playing as Aston Martin on Hard Race AI/Hard Development AI and it hasn’t felt too easy (yet). Red Bull is leading and I’m not catching them, Ferrari is thereabouts and I’m just behind, with Alonso usually beating Ferrari (but not always), and I even managed to sneak a win when Verstappen crashed out in Baku.

If you’re an F1 fan and can find it on sale I think you’ll enjoy it.

So did you end up finishing Hellblade? What did you think of it?

Probably Civilization V (with the difficulty set below maximum so you’re not too restricted and don’t have to play so sweaty). I like just seeing whatever the Planet Simulator map spits out, putz around with half my brain turned off, trying out niche civs and basically just playing it like solitaire.

I don’t play it even every week anymore, but when I need some distraction and relaxation that’s a comfort game go-to.

Ah shit, sorry! I’ll edit in a spoiler tag for anyone else.

Yeah the game never even hints at any combo system, though to be fair they never explain any mechanics (I guess in pursuit of immersion).

This video is not completely exhaustive, but goes through a fair amount of combos. In general, you can always interrupt a combo after the 1st, 2nd or 3rd attack with the melee button to punch/kick and follow up with a different two-attack combo. The finisher where Senua impales the enemy and pushes off with her foot can also be interrupted and extended by pressing light attack three times (which I don’t think the video covers).

I didn’t completely hate the find-the-symbol puzzles but they were definitely not particularly interesting. I think moments like the >!blind trial!< were where the game really shone. >!Navigating purely off of sound and controller vibration and avoiding the monsters in the dark!< is an experience that will stay with me for a while.

Completely agreed about the linear structure, I always thought it was the success of Witcher 3 that started an open-world craze, but regardless of where it came from it definitely ended up negatively impacting some games.

In general I think Ninja Theory did an amazing job at hiding the budget constraints. Another great example is the use of superimposed footage of live action instead of attempting to render characters and doing it poorly. The overall length of the game is also a part of this; they didn’t attempt to stretch too far and spread too thin but instead just made something brief but with the best quality they could. The game is short, but it didn’t feel too short. It felt perfectly measured for the story they were trying to tell.

More RDR2 this week, still haven’t finished Chapter 2 as there is just an unbelievable amount of stuff to be distracted by. Apart from further fiddling with some mods I’ve just been enjoying my time hunting and fishing and completing challenges, events and side missions.

I might need to lay off the pursuit of the challenges as they seem extremely grindy and I don’t want to burn out before I finish the story, but so far it’s not started to wear me down and I’ve been enjoying just playing poker with the boys and whatnot.

I played through Hellblade recently and mostly loved it. I do however, agree that the quality of the hidden object puzzles vary a lot and there are a few too many of them. Sometimes it feels more like padding than enjoyable content.

I also wish the combat was slightly more demanding and involved. They have an amazing foundation with fantastic animations and a surprisingly robust combo system that just never actually demands you to explore its depths and nuances. The focus mechanic is also a little too powerful, which again doesn’t encourage you to utilise the combo system. More enemy/boss variety and more refined enemy movements would also be preferable, but they were working on a small budget so it’s understandable. It feels like they were so close to something amazing, and that makes me very hopeful for the sequel.