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  • I've been working through my first playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077 - it's fairly enjoyable, I'm glad I ignored it outright until well after big patches rolled out. There's something very satisfying about blowing up enemies through a camera.

    I've also picked up Dwarf Fortress (Steam) for the first time. It has a lot of depth but has been fun to learn and try and figure out. I just flooded a section of my fortress by digging into an underground river.

    My chill-out puzzle game has been Can of Wormholes and it's pretty fun! It's weird for sure... but definitely fun.

  • Diablo 3: Season 29 - Working on stocking up on Torment 16 bounty caches for the Avarice conquest (completing a 50,000,000 gold streak). It's taking me longer than I anticipated, but then again, I keep getting distracted by the Visions of Enmity. I really need to start ignoring those portals.

    Diablo 4: Season 2 - Snagged the Razorplate chest armor with around 15,000 Thorns and a level 925 bow, so I've been kicking ass and actually surviving Helltides. My current goal is reaching level 90.

    No one lives under the lighthouse - This was the first time I played this game, and it was amazing. It's been sitting in my Steam library since this past spring, and I didn't really know a lot about it going in except that is was more or less atmospheric horror. It was not what I was expecting, and in a good way. It was way more horrifying and lightly Lovecraftian than I thought it would be, since I was expecting something more similar to Dear Esther or What Remains of Edith Finch where I just kind of walk around while learning the story, so I was pleasantly surprised when I actually had work to do lol. I thought I'd get sick of the pixel art graphics, but it held up pretty well, and I even got some nice screenshots out of it. The only parts that were relatively frustrating were two weird chase scenes, but luckily the game gave me the choice to skip them after dying so many times. I've read that there's multiple endings, but I was satisfied with the one that I got (whichever one it is), since it was pretty much like a light bulb going off in my head and made sense with the story as I understood it. Parts of it felt very Amnesia-like as well, which is always a plus for me. I don't plan on 100% it any time soon, because it's definitely one of those games I like to finish in one go, but I think I'll have fun whenever I do.

  • Star Citizen. It's a buggy mess as usual but it's such a fun mess. Especially the Siege of Orison event going on right now, I've had some really amazing emergent gameplay moments come from it that have me very excited for the future of this game.

  • I played a fair bit more Backpack Hero, and made some more progress in the story mode. Still a bit too grindy for my tastes, but I'll either finish it or just stick to the classic roguelike mode.

    I've been playing more Starfield, and the recurring thought I have every step of the way is, "this should be better". To go into much more detail than that would be to right a dissertation, but the short description is that the game has barely changed compared to Fallout 4 and Skyrim.

    I got through another few missions of Wargroove 2. It continues to be a worthy successor to Wargroove.

    Combined with Starfield, Pillars of Eternity is helping me resist starting a new run in Baldur's Gate 3. I also have that feeling of, "this should be better" here, but it's pretty much entirely down to production value. Number 1 with a bullet is that I wish it was fully voice acted, including narration. Still though, loving everything else so far despite real time with pause, which has been less of a problem than I thought.

  • Currently re-playing Assassin's Creed 1 and playing Vanilla WoW for the first time on a private server.

    Im remembering how much I liked AC1. I know many people say it wasnt that great of a game, but to me its exactly what an Assassin's Creed game should be - stalk, plan, stealth, assassinate, escape.

    WoW is also really fun. I tried getting into retail a few times over the years but there was just too much. It was way too overwhelming. Vanilla seems to be just right for a new player.

  • Just got into Backpack Hero recently after someone I watch online released a video a week or two ago going back to the game now that it's released. I kinda became a little addicted as it's pretty much been the only PC game I've been playing since I got it.

  • Still playing the field since finishing my second BG3 playthrough a few weeks ago:

    • Sniper Elite 5: I wish I'd known about this series 10 years ago. SE5 is a surprisingly fun stealth action game, with enormous sandbox levels that encourage varied approaches, styles, and paths. Lots of unlockables and customizations (and unlike the new Hitman games, those unlockables can be used across all levels once you get them). Unfortunately I'm just not super into this kind of experience anymore, but I still had a lot of fun for the time I did spend on it before getting worn out. I'm keeping it on my system because I'm sure it will scratch another itch soon.
    • Bus Simulator 21: I wanted something I could zone out with, just kind of dive into mundanity and focus on little details. The game does meet that criteria conceptually, but the gameplay just doesn't feel super well-tuned, and you get these little penalties for everything that goes wrong. I didn't play it long enough to deal with the business management aspect, which I think is a significant part of the appeal, but it really just didn't click like I wanted it to.
    • Firewatch: Skipped this when it released and was a huge deal. I didn't know anything going into it and really liked the format of the game, exploring the woods, pulling up the map and compass to navigate and all that. Characters and performances were exceptional. But ultimately I was kind of disappointed because ...
    • Concrete Genie: Really stellar artistic achievement. The quasi-stop-motion style of the in-engine game, the animations of the genies, and the sketchbook style cutscenes all looked phenomenal in their individual styles. The story was touching and I loved the idea of a hero whose value is his artistic drive, but I was a little bothered by what I felt was a fairly reductive approach to bullying. But the biggest problem was that the game feels really incomplete. Exploration is competent, but the drawing mechanics are not nearly robust enough to tap into the creativity it's trying to celebrate, and the final act of the game introduces a whole new set of mechanics that, again, are really shallow. By the halfway point, the game felt more like a really, really sophisticated proof of concept than a completed game.
    • Two Point Hospital: This game is doing a much better job with what I was hoping to get out of Bus Simulator 21. Love the art style and UI. No complaints, just something easy to dip into from time to time.
    • Paradise Killer: I just started this and it is fucking nuts in a very sincere way. Opening lines: "The Syndicate created the first Paradise Island to worship their dead alien gods. Guided by Leader Monserrat, the Syndicate attempt to resurrect the gods by forcing Citizens into psychic worship rituals. However, the worship invites demonic corruption from beyond the stars. The islands always fail. The islands die and a new Paradise Island is born. The cycle repeats." Really unique art style and game world. Time will tell if the investigative core lives up to the rest.

  • I grabbed "Total War: Warhammer" in the steam sale last week. I'm about 35 turns in trying to wipe the greenskin scum from my ancestral dwarven lands. I like it so far! I've never played any other Total War games.

  • GTA IV. I had started playing around August but had to leave it because of Uni. Just remembered that I had it downloaded now that I've finished this semester.

    Also the monthly Ridge Racer Type 4 / wipEout 2097 replay

  • Styx: Master of Shadows. Been meaning to play it for years.

    On paper, I should be enjoying the fuck out of this. Stealth is my favorite genre, I enjoy fantasy, and it even reminds me a little of Thief in some aspects (mainly art design and some of the mechanics).

    Yet, I'm just not enjoying it. I don't know why. Maybe it's the skill tree gating basic abilities like aerial/ledge kills, but I never had an issue with the skill tree or gated abilities in something like Dishonored, just as an example.

    Maybe I'm finding the AI overly aggressive and hyper aware, but I rarely have that problem with most other stealth games, some of which do have acutely aware enemies who'll spot you immediately.

    Maybe it's that it feels like there are just too many guards/enemies in each level, while also feeling cramped (like there's oftentimes no corner you turn without a new enemy to deal with), which makes it crowded and much more difficult to navigate.

    Maybe I'm just not vibing with the controls or the story or something.

    I honestly don't know. It just doesn't feel fun for some reason, despite checking nearly all my boxes. It's missing something that I can't quite put my finger on.

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