Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of June 29th
What have y'all been playing? I've been playing the shit out of death stranding 2. Really really good. It's a no brainer if you liked the first. If you didn't, you may like this one as it has a lot of qol and combat improvements this time round but it still is death stranding at its core
Pal world. The new update added a lot of #content
System Shock 2. Again. Because someone has thought it would be nice to refresh the textures and fix a bug here and there...
This is Xerxes. Can you not feel the glory of the flesh? Do you not yearn to be free of the tyranny of the individual?
Mechwarrior 5 mercenaries with mods that add lots of lore-accurate content and additional equipment/loadout options.
I'm just starting to get some of the bigger mechs, and the carnage is epic and loads of fun. The short missions are also great for me as a busy father.
Replaying Dark Souls 1 because it feels like home.
I'm about halfway through Pentiment and I'm not sure what to think of it. There are lots of things I love about it: the art, the characters, the writing (mostly) and the historical research that's gone into making it. All the running around and back tracking hasn't been great. The first murder was also very unsatisfying, and it's only now that I realise that that was the point. And I'm not sure what to think of that. It's a strange game, with its central message seemingly being how powerless we are in the face of history and how restricted we are in our lives. Or at least people were back then. I'll probably have to wait until I finish for my full judgement of it though.
I also snagged Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree on the Steam summer sale at 25% off. As a passionate VTM: Bloodlines fan I've been waiting for a reason to buy it. I've felt obliged to check it out as it was also written by Brian Mitsoda. Plus the game itself looked interesting. I've only just started playing it, but I'm enjoying it so far. The writing seems okay (not Bloodlines level) but the presentation is beautiful. I really like the splash art for characters and the cutscenes. It's a Metroidvania Soulslike with a skill tree inspired by Path of Exile, and I can already tell I'll have a lot of fun crafting builds here. Probably huge replayability too. The combat has felt solid so far, but I'm only at the beginning.
call of duty ghosts campaign. it's fucking terrible
Finished playing the Futures Connected extra story of Xenoblade Chronicles. It was OK as a short epilogue, but I wish the story explored more of
I've started the Torna DLC for Xenoblade Chronicles 2. I'm not sure sure if I wanna play it right now as it looks really bad in handheld, especially on Switch 2, where there's both the bad resolution (I think it's like 540p or less?) and the colors are fucked. I might wait a bit hoping a patch is released.
I've also started Fantasy Life i. It's pretty fun, it kinda reminds me of FFXIV with how the job system works. I do wish there was a bit more complexity in crafting, but it's still fun and there seems to be a lot to do.
For a brief moment, I installed my newly purchased copy of Kerbal Space Program onto my laptop and now I just need to learn the controls for building rockets. That single thing is really holding me back from being the ultimate rocket building idiot.
Also got back into Gemcraft: Frostborn Wrath recently.
Otherwise I really haven't been playing many games outside of maybe PVZ2 Reflourished on my phone or the odd game of Feudal Tactics on my laptop while waiting for something to finish.
I got one of those Anbernic emulation devices and I've been quite into Secret of Mana (a game I could never finish the 30-odd years of restarting it countless times).
Also replaying Dishonored. IDK why, just feel like going through the series (I did not like the second one and gave up after a few hours when it came out).
I didn't have the patience for RPGs like that when they were originally out (and I was a little kid), but I've also been enjoying them on my Anbernic device. For me it's been Phantasy Star IV.
Yaoling is spectacular. Monster taming RPG (think pokemon) with autobattle mechanics.
Total War: Shogun 2. No idea why I decided to reinstall it out of the blue; just wanted to pick it up again after not playing for a long-ass time. I played it a bit when it first came out, but just didn't really get into it. I'm seeing if it's playable on the couch with a Steam controller now. Verdict so far: maaaaybe.
Tails of Iron. I'm having a blast with it. The voice actor that did Geralt's voice as the narrator is a lot of fun. Combat feels good. Only complaints are the side quests (optional) can be a little repetitive, but worth it if you want new gear. And the jumping/ledge-grabbing mechanic feels a bit imprecise. Overall a fun game so far.