Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?
(sh.itjust.works)
Been having a blast playing Beyond All Reason against AI.
BAR is peak RTS game. Although lately I've mostly been playing Dawn of War for my strategy fix.
For a second I thought it was a game where you fight against LLMs and thought that was a really cool premise.
I get what you mean now. Still looks like an interesting game though.
Nah, BAR is WAYYYY better than that, BAR represents the idea of Total Annihilation passed around, tweaked and refined for the better part of two decades. Total Annihilation itself is a high water mark of RTS games and Beyond All Reason is the latest in a series of Spring Engine/Recoil Engine projects that elevate the idea to a veryyyy niche e-sport, this family of games just hit on all cylinders consistently in a way that makes most other RTS games except Supcom FAF look flat and boring in my opinion.
The ease of queing up unit actions and such makes it almost impossible to tolerate how barebones the controls are on other RTS games. The depth and variety of units in the game is awesome too. Tanks drive like tanks, airplanes fly like airplanes, ships move like ships should, this isn't another game with fiddly units that are meant to be micro'd back and forth identically no matter what kind of unit they are (i.e. games where flying units move identically to ground units, they just have different abilities like they can fly over impassable terrain).
When a unit fires at another unit, there is a projectile modeled that launches with some degree of accuracy and it may or may not hit, the battle is actually being simulated in the game in a way that is joyously chaotic and most other RTS games don't even come close to the pure fun of it. So many other RTS games have units attack each other like a player fighting a mob in an MMORPG, it is just a matter of DPS, health and which abilities are triggered, the visuals of the attack are just there to inform the player that things are happening... No.. in BAR when your huge tank shoots a massive tank shell at an enemy base you sit there wondering whether it is going to hit or not and then you get to watch the chaos as nearby units are blown sideways by the impact, none of it is aesthetic visuals or lame rockpaperscissors contrived relations between units, what happens is what happens as a massive battle unfolds with every bit of weaponry modeled going back and forth.
:)
Adventure Island (NES) / Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
I mostly picked these two on a whim, when I couldn't decide on what to play before sleep.
I can't really focus on playing anything "seriously" at the moment so I don't expect to stick with and finish either of the games any time soon but they're a good fit for short sessions and that's good enough for now.
Adventure Island was an especially interesting choice as I haven't played any NES games in a while and will have to get used to how they play again. At least it's not too difficult yet.
I'm not really sure yet...
I just finished Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy + and Fire Emblem Warriors on my 2DS XL. Well, I finished the story modes... there's obviously so much more content there.
I'm thinking about maybe trying to rack up some medals in Kokuga on the same device or maybe diving into Ace Combat 4/5/zero for the PS2. I wanted to play 7 but found those. I also wanted to finish the PC version of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter but something is messed up with the game on my computer and it freezes at a certain scripted point in the second mission.
Might scrap all those ideas and play Blazblue Entropy Effect or Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth instead. I always have trouble deciding what to play.
Primarily playing Enotria: The Last Song. I'm a decent bit into it now, probably something like 60-70% through depending on how long the last area is. I'm at the end of the second major area of three and I've also done two optional bosses.
If you like Souls games, I would definitely recommend this game. I would probably not pay full price for it, but it's part of the current Humble Bundle and I think at that price it's probably worth it. There are some caveats however, so let's start with those: there is still jank. The combat balance isn't perfect, it's crashed on me three times and there are some bugs still. Two bosses have glitched out on me during phase changes, becoming stuck A-posing without AI forcing me to either restart the fight or get a free win.
All that being said, there is a lot of good here if you can tolerate some AA production values and unfixed jank. The level design is absolutely phenomenal, not only gorgeous and visually striking but also full of both verticality and interwoven paths looping in on themselves. There are shortcuts to open up too of course, but with both fast travel and a relatively generous bonfire placement they haven't felt as necessary as in DS1, though still cool from a level design point of view every time you open one.
The combat is very interesting, on top of a heavy parry emphasis it layers a four part elemental rock-paper-scissors over the usual Souls combat, and it's not optional to engage with. Bosses that are aligned with a particular element feel completely balanced around the assumption of attacking their weakness. You also have three separate loadouts available to switch between, and switching loadout triggers the general "awakened" buff that also interacts with some passive abilities, which encourages you to be active and switch stances mid combat.
Overall I'm having a surprisingly good time with it, and the "Mixed" Steam reviews really doesnt paint an appropriate picture of the game.
I might pick up the humble bundle. I love Souls games, I didn’t realize they had a soulslike bundle on the go.
It's basically a AA Soulslike fiesta, but I think between Enotria, Steelrising and Flintlock you'd get good value for your €17, and the other games are just a nice cherry on top "for free".
With all the depressing shit in the news, I find myself listening to music while playing Vampire Survivors. It’s fun and lets me zone out. Any suggestions on similar games?
Taking some time with Dave The Diver. I can see why this game felt so gripping at the time of release, it just keeps introducing mechanic after mechanic, minigame after minigame, though that flow feels oddly exhausting - I've gone very few dives without something popping up - as well as slightly stagnant at a certain point.
Doing runs on ScourgeBringer until I can think of something else action-y to play. Roguelikes tend to be my "in case of emergency" games that I play when I can't think of anything else plot-based to dive into, and this is one of the most satisfying, fast-paced titles that I own, so its always a pleasure to replay every once in a while.
I've been playing American Truck Simulator, OpenTTD, and sometimes hopping into my playthrough of Stalker Gamma. It's a simple life.
this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2025
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