Gaming

After buying a Steam Deck during the sale, I'm playing Civilization 6 again. Never got into it nearly as much as the previous installments but now I think I'm finally getting it.

Final Fantasy XVI. Much more gritty than the others. Just as much angst. Still, I’m enjoying it.

Me and my spouse are getting back into Elden Ring. Created a new character and chosen a build that's enjoyable for both of us, so we sit on a couch, passing the controller back and forth, exploring, doing quests, reading lore and praising the Erdtree. Good Times!

Started the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, after wanting to replay the ME Trilogy for a couple years. Haven't played them since they originally released.

Just started ME3 yesterday, and it is nice to experience the gameplay changes from 1 to 3 in such a short time. I had completely forgotten how terrible that Mako in ME1 was. Made it almost unbearable for me. The Hammerhead in ME2 was so much better in every way.

Just finished my first playthrough of Cyberpunk last night after about 120 hours. I had 3 or so gigs left but wanted to make sure I got it done before Baldur's Gate 3 (will need to free up some disk space...).

Overall I liked it a lot, despite its many flaws. It has some moments, characters and stories that are really engaging. Judy was a standout for me, and her voice actress really killed it. I regret not choosing Female V now, but of course I had no idea at the time. And I know it's controversial but I kinda liked Keanu as Silverhand, even though his voice acting isn't always "good". The relationship between V and Johnny was the thing I enjoyed the most, and Johnny's character development.

Not sure I'm super happy with the ending I got, though, and I might go back and play out some of the other alternatives.

I was offered a month of PC Game Pass for $1, so I took MS up on it. I've mostly been playing Forza Horizon 4(my computer can't handle 5) so far, the game's really fun.

I'm open to suggestions on games in the PC Game Pass library, btw. I plan to cancel before Aug 26th, so I want to get my gaming in before then. I honestly do prefer straightforward action games and RPGs(and strategy as well). Things I prefer to avoid are puzzle solving and super open world stuff. I generally strongly prefer single-player experiences, too.

I just completed fallout 4 after 4 years!

I just finished Tunic (not 100%, but got to the "right" ending). I managed solving all the endgame stuff myself, man it was hard resisting to just look things up, but it was really rewarding to figure it out!

I've been busy as heck at work and kind of dipped out of TotK. I keep thinking about playing sekiro again, however

Just got to 1000hrs on my new Steam account. I am just playing DayZSA, modded hardcore PVE mostly. Rarely, I go back to minecraft.

Yesterday finally bought Remnant: From the Ashes on sale after seeing the new one all over Twitch. Played 6h of coop with my brother and hell was it a lot of fun. There seem to be less and less good coop games, but this one does a good job. Of course there are many small issues though (e.g. a memory leak crashing the game every few hours on Xbox lol). Glad there is a second one already waiting after we're done.

Played Minecraft with a group of friends until 2am, life is good

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. Gotta clear those last quests before Baldurs Gate 3 release.

Discovered Car Mechanic Simulator and it’s so so so satisfying. I know (knew?) absolutely nothing about the mechanical systems of cars, but it just clicks.

Factorio again. Maybe one day I'll move on.

Death loop! The game keeps warning me against direct fights, but the AI isn't great, so direct fights are the fastest way to clear anything

Getting absolutely stuck into Remnant 2, such a cool sense of exploration!

Still grinding away at Street Fighter 6, and currently starting another run of the FFVII Remake!

I'm deep into TOTK, though I'm looking forward to getting started with Don't Starve on my Deck.

Finished what is available in Techtonica, so went back to Dyson Sphere Program for a bit to work on missing achievements. DSP is definitely my favourite of the Factory-Automation games at this point.

I still have a Factorio (Industrial Revolution 3) game going too, but am feeling DSP more at the moment right now.

Played Dredge on the Steam Deck, which was a nice, relaxing experience.

Besides that I've been playing Blood: Fresh Supply on my beefy gaming pc. Great fun, much glee when blowing up hordes of cultists.

Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart. It finally came out on PC and it feels so good to have a R&C game again.

I'm playing project zomboid very hard but such a detailed game.

I got sucked into playing Witcher 3 again. I swear I'll finish it this time! I've also been playing an early access indy game called Inkulinati, and when I need some mindless kick-ass action, I have my go-to TMNT: Shredder's Revenge.

XCOM 2: long war of the chosen (lwotc). Have heard about long war every now and again and finally decided to try it out. Gotta say it's pretty hard but I am starting to get the hang of it

I am playing Jedi Survivor. Having had a blast with the original I was excited to hear people say that the second installment is similar but better in many ways. I don’t know what it is about it but I’m just not able to get into it. Maybe it’s the semi-open world feeling of some of the larger areas? I dunno it’s just not working for me, which is disappointing.

I play Dragons Dogma DA for weeks now and I still love how fresh the combat feels everytime you change vocation. Right now I am a magic archer and I pretty much spend all the weight I can carry on blast arrows. This plus the skill where I can double zoom in on enemies from far away and do A TON of damage makes me the biggest danger in all of gransys at the moment. I can't stress this enough: the combat in this game is just so good and varied it's absolutely insane!

But!

I just can't stop thinking about how great it would be if Dragon's Dogma had lore and quests like the third Witcher! I feel like Capcom tried with a handful of quests like the one with the dude from the village who constantly gets lost and you have to rescue him. Or some main storyline quests also can be exciting. And yet, most quests are kill quests with just a little textbox explaining who wants what killed.

Dragons Dogma made me realize how much of Witcher 3 is actually carried by the writing, the lore, the world and the interesting characters interacting in it and how bland, almost bad the combat is.

So now I wish CD Red would hire the people responsible for the combat in Dragons Dogma for the next Witcher! Sounds like a perfect game in my book!

I'm playing Team Fortress 2. It's my comfort game.

Still playing Diablo IV (just hit level 72) and Puzzle Quest 3 (because functional addiction, which probably applies to Diablo IV as well).

Oh, and Cookie Clicker -- 459 days and counting.

Still deep in Tears of the Kingdom, but I am close to 100% of shrines and light roots. Have not even tried fighting Ganon yet, but with my power level it shouldn't be that tough. Gonna finish it this week and then hop back to Final Fantasy 16, which I binge played release weekend and got over 50% through according to the PS5 progress indicator.

I just finished Tears of the Kingdom last week. No spoilers, the final boss fight felt like a dragon ball Z episode. The health bar busting out of its usual bounds and hitting the edge of the screen was a "shit just got real" moment for me and the kids, lots of hype. I didn't think I would see anything top Breath of the Wild in this generation but glad to be wrong.

FFVIIR and enjoying it. I’m getting the hang of the hybrid battle system, it’s a good balance of the two, curious about other titles that mix action and almost turn based style commands. Still a little annoyed at the camera and target locking, but have gotten used to it after switching to d-pad targeting.

Also just escaped fort joy in Divinity Original Sin 2. Such a great game.

Slay the Spire, Mini Metro

Deep Rock Galactic

Beat Saber

Factorio (space exploration) coop

Looking back at this list, I gotta say that it's a pretty diverse selection.

Ar Tonelico (the 1st one on ps2).

I've played this when I was a younger but never finished. Was bored and picked it up.

It's still a fun jrpg, the song magic amd reyvatail mechanics are a neat twist to the basic turn-based action.

And "Diving"/dating sim mechanic of the game is a fun way to add some social aspect (besides the story).

I just bought Sun Haven to play with my girlfriend. I'm enjoying it so far, we kinda lost track of time playing lol. Though it seems like whatever job the host has, the players that join will have that job too which kinda sucks. Maybe I messed something up though. It doesn't seem to matter much because you can kinda just ignore your job and do other things.

Hades. I bought it a few months ago and finally installed it yesterday. Only played about 30 minutes, but love it so far. I didn't even know it was a roguelike -- I thought it was more like Diablo from the screenshots. I just bought it because everyone said it was amazing, and I think I'm going to agree with them.

I've been mostly playing Risk of Rain 2, but over the weekend I finally beat it after about 30 hours lol. I honestly didn't even try to beat it, I was just having fun killing a bunch of things. I think it's one of the only games where I don't feel bad losing a 1hr+ run

After finishing this game, I think I might have the confidence to go back and try to finish Enter the Gungeon. This time I might just look up a guide on how to finish it since I've been strictly trying to beat games without outside influence in recent years and I have no idea about anything outside of what I have discovered in the 15+ hours of gameplay I have so far

I've just finished FF XVI, and while it's certainly not a perfect game, I really had a fantastic time with it.

Now onto either of Soul Blazer, Parasite Eve or Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, I've yet to decide which to start with.

I've got a brand new intel nuc 12th gen i7, 4070 graphics, 32 gig ram, Samsung 990 hard drive.

Cost me a pretty penny, and a lot of time to put together. Not to mention all the time spent researching parts and agonising over choices. Then the wait times for deliveries and redeliveris of the orders I messed up (had to return ram twice, once because I accidentally ordered the wrong ones, and once became a stock was faulty).

Eventually have everything set up.

So of course I'm using it to play ksp1.