Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?

I finally picked up Stray!

Literally just started that a few minutes ago actually. Really good first impressions. The cats are very realistic. So much so my dogs were having just as much fun as I was watching me play haha.

I never felt like buying this full price, but this just reminded me to reserve it at my library for a borrow. Thanks.
- Me neither. It went on sale recently for 18 bucks and I missed it by a few hours. It went back on sale today and I grabbed it. Haha.
Have fun! I just finished it today. It's a great game.
Meow !
- Meow !

I've basically been marathoning Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. It's hard to state just how much improved from the original game without writing a book, but the highlights are that combat is way better, the stealth is way better, the mission designs largely don't ask you to do anything tedious for the sake of "immersion" without something interesting happening along the way, and they do a better job of recording everything you need to know about a quest in your journal this time around, while signaling the things that they won't. I'm having a hard time putting the game down. It's Witcher 3 levels of "every side quest is interesting", and the game gives you a lot of freedom. My alchemy skill is now maxed out, and there's basically no problem I can't solve with potions. So far, this is the best game I've played this year.

caves of Qud

Death's Door on switch. It's a cute little soulslike where you play a crow who reaps souls. It has good gameplay and a nice style.

I really enjoyed this one! I tried Tunic after this it, but could not get into it.
I enjoyed this one a lot, but I eventually got stuck on a yeti boss, and quit.
It felt like his next move was somewhat randomized, and you needed to react in much less than a second to the type of move he was doing. While a lot of bosses develop patterns you can get used to, I couldn't form any rules in my mind that could account for my reflexes not improving.
- Yeahh always felt like that boss was a major difficulty spike, next two bosses are even harder when in comparison the past bosses were cakewalks 🫤

Disco Elysium, already played for 30 hours and I only got it a few days ago lol

Hardcore! Hardcore to the max!
- "YEKOKATAA! THE PLACE TO BE!"

0 A.D.

It's a free opensource RTS game. It's hard as hell though.

Dread Delusion!

The game truly feels like Morrowind at times, like others have said.

I miss games with rich lore like this so much

There are a handful of games out there that have tried to do some aspects of an Elder Scrolls game without doing the other parts badly. Dread Delusion is very much an exploration game, and it excels at that.

I've been playing Kid Icarus (NES) here and there, and really having a good time.

My past experience with it was with the 3D Classics release on 3DS. I guess I didn't stick with it very long, but I remember thinking it was excessively difficult at the time.

This time around I'm just winging it. But this time I had more patience and managed to make it past 1-3. That level does have a lot going on. You're early in the game, so barely any health. You're platforming upwards, so the ground that was below you scrolls away for constant death traps. And you're being pressured to move quickly, by enemies spawning in from below. You also can't afford pretty much anything from the shops to help you. Makes a satisfying little challenge.

After that you get to a labyrinth, which is like a teeny tiny Metroidvania. Very different kind of pace and feel that makes for a fun change up. I'm on the second labyrinth now, and I think I'm gonna have to take paper notes next time to navigate.

The going seems much easier now in world 2's platforming stages, since I have several powerups. Glad this game has infinite continues and gives passwords though.

Anyway, I want to be playing more of the new DK... but right now KI's been kinda hitting the spot.

Finally back in a mental state where I can resume Expedition 33 again.

I hope you are not as sentimental as I am, or you may need to check your Kleenex reserve.
It’s worth it! I am still chipping away at Expedition 33 as well. I’m in the endgame portion now but just don’t have a lot of time to game at the moment. I’d like to eventually do NG+ and 100% everything.

Played the Heretic remake. Pretty fun to come back to that one after 30 years. 😂

I might try Hexen next, I hear they made it much better, but the original wasn't great at all.

I've been playing QTR2 recently, which is a very good way to scratch the itch as well. Hyped to try the new Heretic episode "Faith Renewed" in re-release!

Octopath Traveler! Very fun and I love the art style so far

Haven't really had anything I've enjoyed lately, but I am ready an exceedingly good video game-esque novel. It's called 'Dungeon Crawler Carl'.

That’s a great read. I finished the most recent book a few months back. Just yesterday I started listening to the audiobook version haha.
The audiobook version made by Soundbooth Theater is no-joke the best produced audiobook series I've ever listened to (not the full immersion tunnel or whatever, just the voiced audiobook). Would recommend.

I‘ve picked Manifold Garden back up and man… this game is so utterly unique, I recommend anyone give it a shot next sale. Even if you‘re not into puzzle games, just seeing what it does visually will give you a unique experience, I reckon.

The vast, infinite spaces are nuts
This game is so wild I clipped out of bounds without realizing it. Bricked my save cuz I was wandering around just taking it in and all of my autosaves were just in different spots outside the game. So cool, but I can't bring myself to start over again. 🫠

the original half life. I decided to load games onto my deck smallest to largest. Playing ones that held my interest and kicking off others. It can only hold like 3 or 4 latest triple A type games so I figures I would just have like two on their and use the rest of the space to have a greater variety of games.

I've got a 3.5 TB hard drive that mostly holds video files and stuff, and there's at least 1.5TB free at this point. When you're playing games that predate solid state drives, that may as well be infinite space.

I've been spending a little more time with Forever Winter.

Its very definitely early access; not the bullshit "We're releasing the game, but calling it early access so you can't complain about any bugs you find" stuff you get now but actual real old school Minecraft style early access where you're basically getting alpha builds straight from the developer.

That said, it's in much better shape than it was when I first looked into it (maybe a year ago?). Game is really fun to play, unbelievably tense, but without being too punishing. I think they're really starting to zero in on that Dark Souls sweet spot where dying sucks, but not in a way that actually sets you back all that much. The stealth gameplay feels good, and getting out with a haul of loot is intensely satisfying.

Plus the art design is unbelievably good.

Currently playing through all the Zelda games with a friend in this curated order:

So far I recommend it, although I'm only 3 games in.

I just finished Wind Waker and it was far worse than I remembered, and I didn't remember it being very good in the first place. Probably a conversational opinion, but I think Wind Waker is the most lazy and forgettable Zelda game. Curious if anybody liked this one for more than just the music and artstyle.

I can't wait to move on to the DS games which I really like, but I'm waiting for my buddy to play Wind Waker first.

Cadence of Hyrule is fun as hell. Gotta fix that on the list.
Link's Awakening Remake is super rad, and my second favorite Zelda on Switch (after Skyward Sword).
What on Earth is this dogwater tier list?
"Post SS 2017 & 2013 is the dumbest name for a tier that doesn't even need to exist. Put Breath of the Wild in "Neo Zelda" with TotK where it belongs, and put Link Between Worlds next the game it is direct sequel to, A Link to the Past.
Also, who's the genius that said we don't play Hyrule Warriors, and what is wrong with them? Of all of the spin-off games Zelda has ever had, or any Nintendo game series for that matter, Hyrule Warriors (the original or Definitive Edition) is nearly god tier. Especially on an amulator with near perfect performance. Even in comparison to some mainline games (such as the Wind Waker styled DS games) its a much more enjoyable experience simply for the controls.
With regards your comment on Wind Waker, I think the story writing was pretty good towards the end of the game. But the gameplay is padded by a lot of time sailing with little to do and the art style is very unappealing. I mean, the cel shading looks good even years later obviously, but the character proportions look ugly. BotW and TotK struck a much better balance with their cel shading because the proportions of characters are actually somewhat normal.
Wind Waker was a decently written story held back by a poor choice of art style. Eiji Aonuma admitted this. And I am glad he did. He recognized why it was unappealing, and for what has to be the first and only time ever in Nintendo's history, listened to the audience that buy and play the game to make changes going forward. Without this admittance, it is doubtful that BotW or TotK would have had their current art style.
- It's not actually a tier list, I just used a tier maker website to put together this play order and put rough labels on them. BotW and TotK are far apart cause we didn't want to play them back-to-back.
  Also, who's the genius that said we don't play Hyrule Warriors, and what is wrong with them?
  I humbly admit that I am the genius in question.
  Doesn't really look very fun or interesting, and it's certainly not mainline. So to be honest, I didn't even consider including it. Maybe I will try it at your recommendation.

I’m playing Ex Astris! I can’t believe I slept on this game. It’s so good.

Been playing Tower Networking Inc. Pretty challenging networking game that teaches you how to setup core routes and such. Very fun if you’re a nerd like myself.

Easy Red 2 - current beta is in excellent shape
Fermi Paradox - returned to check he the game was going anywhere
Brotato - needed a time waster that you can pick up and put down in seconds (Steam Deck)

Gonna get Hole and finish Forgive me Father 2.

I bought Octopath Traveller 1 when it was on sale a while back. I loved 2 but never got around to 1. With Octopath Traveller 0 on the way and being a prequel to 1 it high time to play 1. I'm enjoying it so far but I miss some of the additions 2 has.

Also playing Tony Hawk 3+4. It's great but the soundtrack is not even close to as good as 1+2 is.

Not playing yet, but I'm preparing for Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. I'm not gonna make my own builds, since I have basically no idea about PF or which of the thousands of feats, spells, whatever are good. There's not a lot of info about this out there, or it's outdated, so I'm compiling stuff in a spreadsheet, so I have easy access to everything.

Ninja Gaiden Ragebound: Not finished yet, but having a total blast playing it. Great/responsive controls, level design is great and enemies telegraph their attacks properly, like it should be in an action game

Street Fighter 6: Gave Sagat a try

Slay the Spire: Acension level 18, want to make it to 20 before the 2nd part gets into early access

Random URF is back in league, so probably that. Maybe Rivals

CTF in DDNet! Open source

Darkest Dungeon 2. Really like the dark and sinister style. Narrator has a great voice and the creatures look fantastic.

Gameplay is definitely on the challenging side but I'm enjoying it.

Finished three games:

Will be posting more details on !nintendo@lemmy.world's next "What are you playing this weekend?" thread tomorrow, but I enjoyed and recommend all three games.

Started playing two more today:

First impressions are good but it's too early to recommend either of these.

From that big racial justice bundle from Itch, Lenna's Inception. It's the game Bytten Studio made before Cassette Beasts. A bunch of things from this game definitely ended up in Cassette Beasts as well.

I beat Diablo 1 recently which I already written about in another thread. After that I decided to try Atlyss. Too early to give proper feedback, but I must say I enjoy it so far even though I find it a bit strange to have MMORPG gameplay loop in a singleplayer game. It does have lobby-based multiplayer though, and I haven't tried that yet. Art direction in general is great, but models/textures are extremely lowpoly/lofi (with texture filtering on top of that, going for faithful PSX look I guess). Characters in particular look great, and there is a full-featured furry character creator.

Thread this one being a cross-post of. 😆

AC Shadows. Love AC (Not all of them) I like the general story.

Just finished a play through of Dungeons 3. It’s campy and silly but a really enjoyable campaign.