Gaming

Slowly coming to the end of Pacific Drive, which has been mostly great. I think I'll wrap it up at the perfect time, because I'm not quite tired of it but can feel my interest beginning to wane.

I have also been playing Sea of Stars. I had one foot fully over the edge to give it up during its painfully slow opening, but I just barely made it long enough to get through the first dungeon and found myself beginning to admit that it was becoming fun. I can't remember the last time my feelings for a game pivoted so hard, because once it opens up it is a ton of fun. I'm glad I was able to stick with it.

Since I finished erdtree I jumped into DMC5. Combat feels so awkward in this game and it's so clear the control schemes are from ages ago. It's had me thinking about whether I want to just pick up another game on my list like BG3 or cyberpunk 2077 and finally play through it, or if I want to just start a new character or re-do the erdtree DLC (made a copy of my SL110 char before beginning DLC) so I can do all the new content properly. Still slowly working my way thru DMC5 but I'm like 7 missions in and while it's getting better as I unlock skills it just doesn't feel smooth.

I think I single-handedly funded a complete overhaul of the Kantonian Safari Zone just to get Scyther in Pokemon Red.

I lost count of how many times I reset to actually catch Chansey. "You missed the Pokemon! Chansey fled!" over and over again, when I actually got one of them to spawn!

Then it was flying all over, since I had the Good and Super rods, finally, to do all of the fishing. Now it's leveling up some of my catches while pushing through Saffron so I can grab Lapras, snag Hitmonlee from the dojo, get everyone evolved and caught up, and then finally take down Koga.

Leveled a few more characters in World of Warcraft. Since I've been basically just playing Horde for over 15 years, with only a few exceptions here and there, I'm now basically filling out my character roster with their Alliance counterparts. Since more and more stuff is cross-faction nowadays, this doesn't really matter too much anymore, but it still gives me an excuse to level new characters with the objectively best race, dwarves.

I bought a few smaller games in the Steam sale, first RollScape. It's a puzzle game where you roll a die to put down tiles, which give you points, and you try to get as much as possible. Modifiers increase this exponentially, so you just get more and more. It was alright for a couple of hours, but also a bit too boring and frustrating at times.

Then God of Weapons, which is basically Brotato, except you get to play Inventory-Tetris between rounds to manage your items. The inventory system is a neat gimmick, but otherwise the game doesn't really a lot of new things. Runs can also be a bit too long for my tastes, with half of the time spent swapping items in and out, trying to fit some weird shaped item into your inventory.

I've only just started Slime 3K: Rise against Despot, another Vampire Survivors-like, but it's not making a good impression so far. The game looks great, I love the pixelart design of the slime, but right now, the gameplay isn't really doing it for me. It's mainly the weapons, they just feel super weak and not really impactful in any way. In this game, leveling up spawns a vending machine, which you can collect and then get to buy items. These items come from a deck, that you can modify between runs, so can remove stuff you don't like or if you want to focus on specific types items, i.e. just guns or summoning. I'll give it a bit more time, maybe some later unlocks improve things.

Lastly is Powerwash Simulator. Seems like just a fun, brain-off type game, where I can blast dirt off of stuff, while watching streams on the side. Except that Lichen can bite me. Bullshit, basically invisible, but still count as dirty. Screw you. (Edit: Didn't know about that button to highlight dirt, which makes it much more manageable).

I decided to try Zenless Zone Zero. I'm already a Honkai Star Rail player and I used to play Genshin Impact, although I gave up Genshin because I was irritated with how they handle story and characters. I originally wasn't going to try ZZZ, but thought it wouldn't hurt anything. Worst case scenario, I drop it and go back to solely playing HSR.

I'm really enjoying ZZZ's combat, even if I don't feel like I'm doing it "right" or optimally yet. The story is nice so far, I love the Persona vibes it gives me, especially Persona 4. Wasn't expecting that. I got the guaranteed S rank character I wanted (Lycaon!) and I'm skipping the first limited character because... I really don't like the maid outfit thing. It wasn't for me on Noelle in Genshin, and it's not for me here. I love her design otherwise and she's a shark girl with a shark tail, which is super neat. She has a casual outfit I like a lot. Just. Cannot. Do. The. Maid. Thing.

I might pull on the second half banner. But I haven't met the character yet so I have no idea if I want her either. It's a bit frustrating waiting, because my teams are kinda a mess due to lack of characters. But it's okay. The story comes first and that has my interest so far.

• Recently finished Cyberpunk 2077. For all its hype, I found it a mediocre/ generic game.
• I'm trying to get into Baldur's Gate 3 but it seems, it just is not my type of game (first D&D). Might also have to do with the fact, I tried to replace LeagueOfLegends with Baldur's Gate.
• (re)playing Last of Us 1 (remake version on PC). Stays a great game.
• Debating whether to quit Returnal and play another game such as Alan Wake 2 or Hellblade 2.

I'm also trying to find a isometric/ top-down game to replace LeagueOfLegends with. But no luck.

Still swimming around in Subnautica. It's been fun trying to figure out my next step. Just mulling over stuff and gathering resources until I'm like "Oh! What did this one log from earlier say? Ok, I gotta check out this place over here." Though I won't lie, I did end up going and finding a map online, because I was getting lost so easily, especially while underwater.
I can feel that I'm nearing the end of the storyline, it's just a matter now of getting there. Without being spoilery, I've put off making one particular piece of equipment, and now it looks like I'm going to need it. So, my current state is farming for resources and crafting. I'm hoping I finish this game in the next two or three days, because while this is fun, I'm itching to play something else.

Dragon Age Origins, first run ever. Had to apply the 4GB patch, and it still crashes occasionally on modern hardware. Off and on.

BG3. Just started Act III, still in the outskirts. The third act is so imposing that I've taken a break just to clear headspace, hence DAO above

EU4 (Anbennar fantasy conversion mod) -- geez, this game is like crack for me. I'm now well over 4000 hours. I keep circling back. Most recent run was Dwarven Adventurer into Verkal Dromak -- the sleeper dwarves with the dream magic system. Long considered a hard start, you're now aided by an early game rebellion which can sometimes cripple your main enemies, the Hobgoblin country "The Command". Much fun.

Fortresscraft Evolved is my game right now. Old but still a good game imo and Facrotio is always on my list.

As a change in between: BG3, Balatro, Medieval Dynasty, Hardspace

Still playing BG3, nearing the end of Act 2, but also picked Elden Ring back up. I still have stuff to do in the main game so I'm not getting the expansion yet, but wanted to know what I was doing when I do.

Ace combat zero using lossless scaling for 120 FPS.

I'm still playing Persona 3 Reload and I believe it finally clicked for me.
I still don't particularly like Tartarus that much, but I've been able to complete each section relatively quickly so far (and without grinding) so it's certainly not too bad. The rest of the game has definitely opened up though (thankfully, I'm about 30-35 hrs in, haha).

Slowly making my way through Jeanne d'Arc on the side - gameplay wise it's up my alley (minus grinding...), however the story is pretty subpar imo.

After taking a couple of days to digest the ending I got in Not for Broadcast, I'm hoping to go back and replay it differently sometime soon. One moment in particular, I need to approach differently.

Man, that game is equal parts hilarious and fucked up. Not much I can say without spoiling it, but it's really worth a shot if you like dystopian fiction (especially the kind that starts just before everything slowly goes to shit), dark humour, satirical takes on news media, or just narrative-focused games in general with a fair amount of choices and consequences which gradually play out over time.

Like, there are 14 main endings and within all of those there are also "mini news stories" which play out over the game that have a wealth of different outcomes themselves. The amount of variables is pretty impressive, honestly.

Anyway, now I'm playing Do Not Feed The Monkeys for a similar darkly humourous experience of "fuck with the people on the other side of the camera".

I completed the Steam 100% achievements for Dark Souls 2 and 3 so decided it was time to try Dark Souls Remastered. So far I think I'm spoiled by the other two games because DSR feels so tedious without bonfire warp. I'm trying to keep my first playthrough mostly blind, but this game does not really seem designed to make that possible. Luckily spoiled the part about going to Tomb of Giants too early and having to backtrack, but I did wander far into Catacombs right after the Gargoyles fight. It's becoming more enjoyable as I level up and have switched main weapon to Great Scythe, though. Hoping I warm up to it more like I did with DS2 after the initial difficulty.

I've also been playing Fae Tactics. It's surprisingly unique and satisfying with some combo mechanics and customizability. Definitely worth checking out if you like tactics style games.