I'm still playing Brigador a lot (take notice of my user name and avatar). Honestly thinking about maybe trying to make a story based mod for the game, despite having no experience with that sort of thing.

Also been playing Amid Evil now, lots of fun. Love retro shooters.

Been playing baldurs gate 3 and ratchet and clank rift apart here recently, and I've been enjoying both. Only in act one of bg3 but I've already clocked ~30hrs in it playing as a halfling bard. Never played dnd before and was expecting it to be more like divinity original sin but it's definitely not; feel like I've only just now gotten the hang of when to rest and use my limited spells. Really my only complaint right now is having the darn pack limit, super annoying. I know there's probably a mod to eliminate it that I might have to check out. Finding food for camp seems to be super easy so I don't really get why you have to have it for long rests, just let me rest man.

Ratchet and Clank is super fun. I haven't played one since the original trilogy, so when this one came to PC I had to check it out. Not too long, smooth gameplay, and it's still fun to 100% planets.

Also, I'm always starting up civilization 6 and crusader kings 3 games. Easy weekend games to pop in and keep going all day while I do other stuff. Might play oblivion after I'm done with bg3 and r&c. Never played all of it and have a bit of a bethesda game itch after bouncing off starfield. Honestly didn't hate starfield, but I really need some quality of life mods so I'll give it a couple of years.

Finished Hi-Fi Rush. Don't get the hype, it's a spectacle fighter without much spectacle. The mid-game really drags by going 5 or so levels without a boss fight. It also teases you about boss fights you don't get to have 3 different times, which isn't great. Imo the worst thing I can say about it is that the music in this game all about fighting along to the beat is utterly forgettable, with the exception of Roquefort's boss theme which is cheating anyway.

On Chapter 8 of Yakuza Like a Dragon. A neat premise/gimmick (the MC is deluded and thinks the world works by Dragon Quest logic), but the filler encounters you fight just walking around the street are frustrating. It's also not clear what any of the stats do, which is annoying. I'd only ever played 0 before this and I'm seeing a lot of similarities (chicken business consultant, yakuza boss who dresses up as a baby for fetish reasons, MC is kicked out of the Yakuza at the start, many minigames are copy-pasted) and it makes me wonder how different the rest of the series actually are from each other given the story isn't especially interesting. I could never really recommend this to anyone but I admit it has its own strange charm.

Rotating through Brotato, Soulstone Survivors, and Holocure when I need a podcast game. It really pains me to say it but Holocure is the best Vampire Survivors-like (excluding VS itself).

Started a coop Elden Ring playthrough with the Seamless Coop mod with a buddy and we're having fun even if it's still a bit buggy.

What are you most anticipating for 2024 in terms of games?

Shadow of the Erdtree.

Working on my F-Zero X skills and playing We <3 Katamari reroll. Been playing a bit of Star Fox 64 since I've got the n64npluggednin for f Zero x ans considering getting serious about a high score run, I'm on the edge of board worthy there. Also wanna play the metroid series again.

Working my way through the OG Mount & Blade. Despite sinking over a decade into it, I’m happy to report I’ve never once conquered the whole map.

At this point I feel like games are podcast delivery mechanisms for me as opposed to a self-contained experience.

Been playing through some indi games the past couple weeks. The only real staff out one has been dotAge, a turn based rouge- like city builder. I kept "just one more turn" for far too long.

Marvels midnight suns came in this months humble bundle so I started that today. Wanted to play it for a long time but fucking denuvo.

I haven't even paid any attention to what's coming out this year, but I'm looking forward to modding starfinder into a good game.

I've been playing Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader and its given me a hatred of its developer owlcat. Just so many annoying/game breaking bugs, stupid design decisions and the last third to 2/3 of the game that is just unfinished.

I've given up on Far Cry 6. The politics aren't great, but they're not even slightly the issue here, it's just so monotonous and all the characters are useless pieces of garbage who don't do anything and yet take all the glory. The "The players does all the cool stuff" angle is undermined entirely when you have a bunch of characters who literally just sit around waiting for you to do things and then they take all the credit.

Played a little bit of wandering village, which I immediately mastered with basically no resistance from the game. Just utterly crushed it. It's a good game if you're new to city builders and the aesthetics are cute. But it's also very clearly not done and half the buildings are pointless. Why would I ever want to steal the blood of my giant dinosaur friend when petting him is an option?

I'm still playing iRacing

Also bought a bunch of shmups in the Steam sale to play on Steam Deck. I'll probably also try Starfield because I like space exploration games, but my expectations are rock bottom.

Upcoming games I'm interested in this year: the new Prince of Persia looks pretty good, but I'm sure as hell not giving Ubisoft any money. Trails through Daybreak and Hellblade II if it actually releases this year. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League might be good just based on Rocksteady's track record, but I'm not holding out hope because of how many times it's been delayed, that's usually not a sign of a good game.

Been plodding through Lemmings 2: The Tribes lately in DosBox.

Currently playing Final Fantasy 16. It's more good than great, but I'm having fun. The game does spectacle really well with some of the fights and cutscenes, but a lot of the side quests are pretty bland. The writing also suffers from some liberalism

Recently played through a bunch of games on sale on psn for $0.50 or less for the variety. Of those, I'd recommend Shiro. It's a short (about an hour long) precision platformer with generous checkpoints. It was $0.50, but it's back to $5 now.

The new Prince of Persia metroidvania looks good. Hopefully the latest Dragon Quest comes out sometime this year.

Currently playing

Super Robot Wars 30: It's kinda brainless, but I'm enjoying it so far. Seeing Chirico from Votoms fight side-by-side with the girls from Magic Knight Rayearth is always a delight.

Street Fighter 6: I'm trying to learn a fighting game for the first time in like 15+ years lol. I'm still pretty bad at this, but slowly making progress - I think I just ranked up to Iron the other day.

Crisis Core Reunion: Been picking at this here and there. Mostly been into SF6 or SRW30 or just watching Legend of the Galactic Heroes lol.

Played Recently

I'm struggling to remember what I've recently finished lol. Wrapped up a years long on-and-off Yakuza 0 playthrough after finally just rushing through the story.

What are you most anticipating for 2024 in terms of games?

Probably just Unicorn Overlord. I played the shit out of 13 Sentinels, so I'm pretty excited about a new Vanillaware game.

If they come out this year: Shadow of the Erdtree and Silksong.

Looking forward to, but won't play in 2024: FF7 Rebirth. Gotta wait on a PC version, and I might need a GPU and/or CPU upgrade by that time (which is a "my kid is out of daycare" wait lol).

Tryna P-rank Ultrakill chapter 2 and the first part of 3. Already S-ranked Pinos Prime but can't get P quite yet. Idk what the hell I'm gonna do about Sissy Prime, took me 40 minutes my last attempt.

Wanna give Rogue Trader a shot if my chronically overheating PC doesn't detonate from it.

Lot of Kerbal space program 2. Much better now as a game if still not as good as ksp1, but the story missions add alot.

I keep replaying Syrian warfare

Played a bunch of granblue versus rising, dont like it. Longer take here

Currently playing a lot of street fighter and strive. Street fighter's much less lenient combo system is pretty neat, especially when compared to strive. Ive switched controllers recently, so im basically learning execution from scratch.

Looking forward to a ff16 pc port and silksong, neither of which are likely this year

I played a bit of Dyson Sphere Program but kinda bounced off because I was hoping for more space stuff but it seems like the first big chunk of the game is just Factorio again.

I've been playing Cyberpunk 2077 again and while it is still kinda janky and shitty as a piece of software, I'm enjoying it as a game and a narrative. I think at least some of the jank is coming from the fact that I'm running it off a spinning hard drive instead of an SSD. Night City seems to be in many ways a nicer place to live than your typical North American city today.

Futzing around in skyrim again because it just works.

Honestly I haven't really had much interest in anything lately, including games.

I'm kinda looking forward to the Thousand Year Door remake since I never played it before. Also I'm curious what the Switch 2 is gonna be about.

This month I tried out a bunch of games from Chinese developers because I really wanted a hit of Wuxia/Xianxia.

First I tried The Matchless Kungfu. I would desribe it as Kenshi meets Kungfu movie meets idk a game where you place map tiles like Betrayal at the House on the Hill. I thought I wouldn't like it that much and ended up enjoying it quite a bit. I got about 30 hours in before running out of content because EA, but there was a point that it clicked and I had a great time.

I then tried The Lost Village. It's a Xianxia colony sim like Amazing Cultivation Simulator. Unlike ACS, it's actually fun. It's also EA to the point of some pretty big overhauls being done, but there's a lot to like so far. The colony sim which is relatively barebones supports and is supported by several different types of... maybe minigames? Doesn't feel like the right word, but there's a horde survival mode, two different takes of room-placing dungeons, and a couple of "Send your dudes by spending energy and buying upgrades to try to take out the enemy base" kind of modes. Certain aspects of it are pretty , like female character designs and the entire dual cultivation system, but it's probably the best Xianxia game out there I've seen so far (it's so hard to find this stuff because Steam tags fucking suck, I have to browse Martial Arts).

I tried a couple RPGs, Tale of Wuxia and Heroes Adventure: Road to Passion. These style games generally aren't my thing, but I figured I'd give them a try. Tale of Wuxia was definitely not for me. It's slow to play, building bad (maybe? I can't tell) led to me getting beat in most combats which are missed opportunities, and there's a lot of text I don't care about. Heroes Adventure is better - combats are quicker, I feel strong quickly (I play on easier difficulties), and the time limited things I've seen so far seem a bit more lenient. It still loves to have missed opportunities, which I am coming to dislike.

Finally, I recently tried an action game called The Last Soldier of the Ming Dynasty. It's kinda mediocre, but Sekiro-like fans like me can maybe squeeze out a little fun. Part of it is drip feeding the complexity, which there's a decent amount of. Not a whole lot to say either way, I've also played the least due to getting it recently

I finished Momodora: Moonlit Farewell recently.

It's a well polished run of the mill metroidvania. The sprites are very cute and it looks great, but the story is very unmemorable. Still a fun way to spend about 9 hours imo.

I have a deep desire to play a farming sim. Is stardew valley the move or is there a more modern one that is more awesome?

Playing Rogue Fabe IV and Outerlands

Haven't really been in the story based single player mood so less and less Outerlands.

Stoked for the steam release for RFIV on Jan 26. Its gonna add a lot of new content.

Free web release version https://justin-wang123.itch.io/rogue-fable-iv

Good thread, OP.

Played Recently

• Cult of the Lamb: I actually just finished the main story this past week. I'm completely burnt out on rougelite anything so I was wary of picking this one up. YMMV, but the near 50/50 split of town management and exploring other locations kept me engaged. I played it on the normal difficulty and found it to be generally easy, probably less than 5 deaths the entire time.

• Age of Empires IV: I'm a older guy so I played a lot of RTS games back in the heyday of the genre. Aside from Company of Heroes 2, nothing has hooked me like AoE4 since then. There are a lot of intelligent features baked into the design, simple things like showing current worker count per resource and resources per minute that help balance your economy. Plus, all the civilizations play very differently from one another. It also has an interesting mastery system that gives you per-civilization challenges to complete that teach you the nuances of each faction.

• Undertale Yellow: A high effort fan game. Pretty solid experience. It didn't have quite the impact that the original had on me and felt underbaked in a few areas, but was pretty fun overall. It's also hard as nails.

What I Will Play

• I'm debating on going into Laika, Dave the Diver, Bug Fables, or OMORI next.

• Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age: My only exposure to DQ is via Builders 2 (which I enjoyed), but I've wanted to try a mainline game.

• Elden Ring: I bought it on launch, but my PC couldn't handle it. I should be able to do it now though.

• Final Fantasy VII Remake: I really enjoyed the original so I've been a bit grumpy about the remake being episodic and changed, but I'll see where they go with the second part to determine if I want to invest time in it.

• Yakuza Series: I really need to start making headway in these. I own them all on physical (including The Man Who Erased His Name) because my partner enjoys them, but I want to experience them all.

What I'm Looking Forward To

• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth: Enough said above.

• Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes: The spiritual successor to Suikoden, especially 1 & 2 which are some of my favorite JRPGs of all time. It's looking great so far.

• Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth: Enough said above.

• Hollow Knight: Silksong: Maybe???

• Metaphor: ReFantazio: Very curious about this one.