What have we all been playing recently?

As soon as Subnautica let me go, Oxygen Not Included snapped me right up. I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as other games because systems management isn’t usually my favorite part of basebuilding, but I went into a kind of problem solving/micromanagement fugue and played 44 hours in the last 4 days. why can’t i like games casually

 

oh MAN +1 to Armello! such a fun board game with the perfect balance of skill and luck. very addictive. plus, adorable character designs. love my murderous otter boy

Spoiler

i am also BEYOND STOKED for Minecraft 1.14. the new village designs! the scaffolding! the foxes! THE PANDAS! i cannot wait.

 

Big suggestion for DD that I saw that made it easier to handle (though still go for modding if you want), don't think of yourself as playing the characters, think of yourself as managing them. All the adventurers might be useful, but they're ultimately disposable and you want to just try to get the most value from them that you can. If something goes wrong, it sucks, but you can just get other poor saps to go in and it's not like you died or anything.

I dunno, that sort of perspective helped me deal with the game a lot better on, like, an emotional level?

 

haven't gotten to the bandit "clan" characters yet. i find it works better for me to pick a clan and figure out how to play each one in that clan until i don't suck, then switch to a new clan and start the learning curve again.

so far Fang is my fave. but then Fang + that one Rot charm + the right (+Rot) gear = hilariously satisfying Murder Mode. which was a nice change of pace for me since i find i tend to otherwise do best with spirit stone victories

oh yeah that is def part of it, at least for me, but the bigger issue is the perfectionism that plagues my life just in general.

less "oh god im dying" and more "oh god im getting people killed"

like i can be just as much of a murderous little shit as any other Murder-Hobo-Playstyle gamer (see armello bit above), but thats usually like...an unlocked state? like i have to be in Competition Mode or intentionally working off meatspace frustrations, otherwise Overactive Empathy is my default state. and that combined with my perfectionism issues leads to a Bad Time.

so i figure easing myself into the idea that my little eldritch hunters are gonna die by making the odds a little less NOT in my favor will help me get over that hurdle as i get used to playing and then i can deactivate Baby-Mode bit by bit

 

oh man Fang is an absolute beast. if i'm going for a combat victory, i tend to go for Sylas and Magna, but Fang is also just ridiculously good. (i'm trying to get better at Mercurio for combat, too, since i got his skin and it's adorable. mustache rat!) Sargon is my favorite for rot-- his look-at-the-top-card ability is really helpful, and he's just kind of creepy in a great way. and i absolutely fell in love with both Griotte's gameplay and everything about her character design... although, i tend to only play her if i'm playing with at least 1 friend, because she can be really annoying to other players and i don't like antagonizing three strangers at once. (so i just antagonize my friends instead!) i'm terrible at bears/magic, just never got the hang of it, and i'm not good at pursuing spirit stone victories on purpose, but i really like Brun and Ghor.

Griotte seriously has such an amazing character design though

Spoiler: fat rat fat rat fat rat FAT MURDER RAT

 

Playing Hyrule Warrors: Definitive Edition and replaying Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

HW is the beat em up version of Sudoku in that it's kind of brainless short bursts of things to do, but with upgrading.

Twilight Princess does have pretty good dungeons but it's physically so dark. I have to figure out how to turn up my TV's brightness or else running around at night becomes too realistic.

 

I've picked up sonic rush for the first time in years and have been playing it irregularly. the game is quite fun, if simple, but I find the level design questionable and at times mean--I've already lost count of the number of times I've been sent running along, only to be put in the path of an enemy that makes me lose all my rings. am I expected to be boosting all the time? meanwhile, the platforming sections are a bit jarring in a game that's supposed to be about rushing right to the end of each level

the music is incredibly catchy, though. 'what u need' is stuck on loop in my head rn, along with the theme song of whatever zone I just completed last (currently night carnival zone)

 

so idk if this counts as Gaming but i've been marathoning killer sudoku. i love regular sudoku and at this point even the hard ones are easy for me, so this is such a cool new thing!! i struggle to complete a board without hints and the challenge is so fresh!

 

Bloodstained and Bayonetta. After I beat RotN I'm probably going to start on either Timespinner or Hollow Knight. I also need to try out CotM. I'm toying with the Super Metroid/LttP randomizer too. Which is fun if baffling. Lots of things to play recently...I have time to play my video games...

 

I started Breath of the Wild bc @NorthernRiver and @FinalFarce let me use their Switch

i found several korok buddies, obtained magnet telekinesis and Ice Cube Creation (eta: and bombs) , and spooked an old man by dropping a metal cube in front of him

 

Subnautica. Managed to explore most of the Aurora today and I've got my seamoth upgraded to dive 300 meters deep. The Sunbeam or whatever the fuck is like oh we're arriving soon but bitch I have things to do. Deeps to explore. Cyclops pieces to find. Reapers to fear. I don't have time for your stupid plot progression asses to fail to save me.

I should rename my seamoth something, honestly. Now that I can at the modification bay or whatever it is called. Probably name it Scuabtuinne after Manannán's currach. Means Wavesweeper. Boat needs no oars nor sails and it follows the mind of the one who pilots it and it always gets to where it needs to be, never sinking.

 

an eternal mood in so many video games.

 

Oh. Or I could name it after Énbarr, his horse that can run across the waves and which pulls his chariot. We're not sure what it means but the two most popular interpretations are Flowing Mane and Froth.

 

I've been doing 3 things mainly.
1. Slay the Spire (indie roguelike deck building card game, fucking incredible, ultra recommend)
2. Baba is You (also indie(?) puzzle game, hard as fuck and often frustrating but very very cool with extremely cool mechanics, focuses on changing the rules of the game in order to win, super recommend but only if you're seriously into puzzles)
3. Circa Infinity (dexterity based game where you run around and jump between concentric circles, avoiding obstacles along the way, extremely well paced and teaches you new mechanics really well, gets pretty difficult especially in part 3 [of 5] but there's nothing I've encountered yet that's horrendously bad)

 

Heaven's Vault, after GoG had it on sale. Very much enjoying it o far, though i think ill do a second playthrough with a guide because you can't go back to certain locations once you leave, but the game doesn't let you know that... so i think i missed a number of things.

 

Been replaying the heck out of FFXII on Switch. I didn't realize how far I didn't get as a kid because I kept obsessively restarting out of anxiety. So glad to have meds, now. And also have a remake that did away with the whole "if you open these specific, random, unmarked chests you'll lose access to this powerful weapon later, without warning" because that was the worst fucking mechanic for an RPG.

 

i’ve been playing lots of Stellaris (real-time space grand strategy game) since my brother prodded me into getting it during the steam sale. def enjoying it!

i’m also in the middle of Your Turn To Die, a horror/negotiation point-and-click game. (sort of reminiscent of Danganronpa or Zero Escape, but with more horror. incidentally, both the DR and ZE fandoms seem to be getting into YTTD en masse.) the landing page i linked provides applicable content warnings if you want them.

 

Just started up Dusk. Got through episode 1 of it. It's a damned good doomclone. Jesus it's good to be playing a classic fps with some modern sentiments. Like the good bits of classic fps are there. Shit like next to no story, EXTREME EDGE, references up the ass to horror, med packs and no regenerating health, armor, obtuse to find secrets and a ridiculous arsenal that you carry around with you all the time. No fucking cutscenes. No talking beyond canned enemy lines and stuff from the main antagonist at key points (and then it's like a line of generic bad guy shit at most). No pointless ass frills. It is just run and gun and find shit. Hardest difficulty just straight up kills you in one fucking hit. It's got this delightfully creepy sound design too and the music knows when to kick the fuck in and when to be atmospheric. Now this? This is how you make a horror themed fps!

Also have a 20th anniversary vpet now. Got me an agumon and gabumon now! :D

edit: the precious babies sleep together under the same blankie omfg it is so cute

 

They've also apparently made another game that came out last month called Amid Evil that is basically this but for Heretic, instead of Doom and Quake.

 

Picked up Graveyard Keeper and it's such a relaxing game. Good soundtrack. Some complaints the crafting system is complex and grind-y, but honestly that's half the draw for me, crafting games yeah
There's also a vaguely roguelike dungeon crawling element which would be ok if it was also for crafting resources but it's for story progression quests and ugh my least favourite part of any given game is dungeon crawling quests. Fuck it. Make me answer maths questions or something. Don't pretend it's going to be fun.