I for one have been playing openmw non stop. Being able to replay morrowind on a brand new modern engine has completely enthralled me. The graphical enhancements you can add are superb, volumetric clouds and fogs keep the same aesthetic of the alien world Morrowind inhabits while also adding some much needed visual flare.
Also the gameplay still holds up...mostly! Finding your quests is an experience in itself. I'm getting terribly used to quest markers and maps that tell me where to go. Morrowind says fuck you "Your quest is by the old rickety bridge south of town besides the river. Good luck" no markers just exploration.
The game is not for everyone but everyone should try it.
I've been doing a Skyrim survival mode playthrough since I had it on the bucket list. I decided to cheese it as a stealth archer due to a combination of the increased difficulty from the hunger/fatigue/cold mechanics and the fact I haven't done a sneaky pew-pew build since like 2016. I'm using the alternate start mod, so there are no dragons in my world yet (except for the one in Blackreach, which I already killed so I could unlock Bend Will early). I pretty much just broke out of haunted prison and made a beeline toward Morthal for the homestead with the fish hatchery, broke the game's economy via alchemy, and right now I'm one Ahzidal's piece away from unlocking my doomsday weapons. Only then will I bother to acknowledge that Helgen exists and start the main questline.
except for the one in Blackreach, which I already killed so I could unlock Bend Will early
i did something real similar i started on solstheim and cleansed the stones first, it was hardmode because of the level disparity in the dlc, but getting early stalhrim & black book buffs worked wonders
Hell yeah, that sounds awesome. I want to start another modded Skyrim run as well. What are some of your favourite mods?
Honestly? I don't really use that many, and usually nothing major. The Alternate Start - Live Another Life mod is mandatory for me, along with the Unofficial Skyrim SE Patch, SkyUI, and some 21:9 widescreen fix mods. On the current playthrough, I'm trying out the Odin magic overhaul mod, Inigo, and the Immersive Citizens AI overhaul.
Looks like I also have a couple of clothing mods installed along with craftable jester gear and a blunt weapons add-on pack from my last playthrough, which were for a Harley Quinn build. I also have a lightsaber mod in the mix for some reason.
I started playing CK3 the other day and I didn't move for like 7 hours. Afraid to open it again
I just finished cyberpunk 2077 the ending was bad. I liked the characters and the moment to moment gameplay, but the overall narrative was weak and very lib brained.
I just felt like Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park playing that game. "Now eventually you do plan to have cyberpunk in the cyberpunk game, right?"
Yeah the story, even the littlest side missions, are distressingly not punk. A lot of the time you're literally working for the cops. And then Johnny is a fun character, but a terrible revolutionary. He nuked Arasaka tower (
) but then you learn that he did it basically because he was a shitty boyfriend. 
My understanding talking to people that are familiar with Cyberpunk lore is that in the tabletop setting Johnny is a much different character, but when CD Projekt Red got Keanu to play him, they made him more Reddit le epic man instead of how he's originally thought of. But yeah, you're right about him in the game and it's just another in a long list of disappointments.
I don't know anything about tabletop!Johnny but I am begging videogame!Johnny to read theory
I tried so hard to get into Cyberpunk, but ffs the story was so damn boring. That your choice of upbringing leads no difference in the game is disappointing af.
I haven't been able to play video games for a while now (severe long covid) but I just started a new solo TTRPG and I'm really enjoying it! It's called Apawthecaria and it's about being an adorable little woodland creature who travels about, harvesting herbs and mixing remedies for the animals you meet along the way.
My character ended up being a pine marten traveling with her fuzzy bat friend, both of them taking to the road as a way of running away from something - for my protagonist, I know it's a near death experience she never really processed, but I have no clue what my bat buddy's deal is yet. When I last left off I was foraging for herbs to help an injured otter at a small lakeside settlement.
Still slowly grinding out Persona 3: Reloaded. I am really tempted to get Unicorn Overlord even though I have plenty of hours left in P3 because it's an Atlas game and odds are they didn't make enough copies.
I've never tried persona. How is it? I'd really like to get into the series, what's a good starting point?
I am playing through P5 Royal right now for the first time and it is awesome, already on my all time list. On top of all the positives you will hear over and over again about this game, it does a good job of introducing all the gameplay elements one-by-one and spaced out enough so that it never feels overwhelming. I am not a JRPG guy so I really appreciated it, and I am glad it didn't turn out to be a game that you have to restart a few times to understand it.
But yeah, just a really good story, characters, super stylish in every aspect of the game, amazing music. The story definitely goes off the rails at times but the way it talks about societal themes are overall pretty good (especially in the beginning IMO) but suffers from liberalism and anime sexualization at times.
I think P5 Royal is the most newbie friendly. P3 and P4 are pretty good, especially Reloaded, but all the dungeons are procedurally generated based on old PS2 tech. It gets grindy repetitive. P5 mostly has hand designed dungeons (there is one procedurally generated dungeon, but it's quasi-optional for most of the game). P5 also has best quality of life, especially Royal.
They're super anime, totally buy into common tropes and lovingly embrace a lot of common character types and story telling, I know that's turned off some folks I know, so just be prepared for that. I also think P5 has the best story, you play as criminals and try to solve societal issues. Obviously, like most stuff targeted at teenagers, it goes off the rails after a while narratively, but it's still fun. I also like the visual novel-like gameplay outside of the dungeons where you only have so much time in the day to do things and learn to min-max during that time.
If you like it, P3: Reloaded should probably be your next stop. P4 has a reputation for a... controversial story. So, I would only play that one if you're really into the series. The first three games (Persona 2 is divided into two games), feel a bit different than the more recent three, they haven't aged as well, in my opinion. Rumor has it with the P3 remake doing well, they may remake them though, which I think would be nice, the stories in them are very good, especially for the time they came out.
I was thinking of playing P4 Golden next but I have no idea what the story is, could you explain how it's controversial without spoiling anything?
Most of the problems with the plot are tangental to true spoilers, so luckily, it's not hard to talk around it. That said, P4 does have a fantastic twist, as it's a murder mystery game for most of it and finding the identity of the killer is a huge part of it. So, if you've avoided spoilers so far, I'd try your best to keep it that way.
All of the Persona games are little poor in the way many Japanese games are with gender, sexuality, et al. But P4 is especially bad about it with one of its main characters very gender bendy and basically their lesson in the game is that, they'll never pass as anything but their birth assigned gender for their character arc. There's a decent amount of fat jokes that are in poor taste. There's homophobic humor wrung out of another main character's non-gender conforming interests and passions. There's another main character that has a non-traditional career, but they are pushed toward something that's more gender appropriate. Because a lot of the game revolves around overcoming your "shadow-self" and pushing out bad thoughts, it gets kind of dicey for character arcs. Basically the message being, there are certain core things about yourself you can never change and you need to accept that; bur rather than liberating, it's stifling.
All that said, if you can get past that stuff, it's still a reasonably good story with what some people consider the best cast of characters in the series. I certainly wouldn't say avoid it, but know you're going into a plot with social ideas that are flat out regressive, especially by today's standards.
characters very gender bendy and basically their lesson in the game is that, they'll never pass as anything but their birth assigned gender for their character arc
spoiler
That's a subject of controversial discussion but can be seen in that way. I personally think the interpretation of "Male(-perceived) people are subject to less discrimination at many things in live, so I'll do the old school trope of the person who acts male to fit in" is more likely what the intended story portrayal was - an old school writing trope.
Nevertheless the solution presented by the game is a simple "don't do that.", which is weak even for a lib game. Persona 4 doesn't care what the characters' complaints are, it just wants them to stop complaining. You're gender non-conforming/bothered by sexism? Have you tried not being bothered? You're gay or bisexual? Have you tried not showing attraction to people of your own gender? You don't wanna inherit your parents' inn/be an idol anymore? Have you tried not complaining and doing what you must?
Persona 4 was actually my first megaten game, but it's probably the worst written one, in spite of the actual quality of the plot - the message it tries to convey drags it down in enjoyability a lot.
Have you tried not complaining and doing what you must?
This really hits it with the over coming the shadow-self thing. There could be a really liberating message there. Like "society has certain expectations of you because of x gender identity or y career path, but that sucks and you should be true to yourself even in the face of that pressure" but instead it's more "society has a certain expectations of you and have you thought maybe you should just suck it up and accept that?"
1 and 2 are old school JRPGs, dungeon crawlers (the first even having a first person perspective) without the social sim perspective. However, they do have very good characters and stories (especially the Persona 2 Duology), excellent music (1's original soundtrack is incredibly atmospheric) and at their core, fun gameplay.
However, they suffer from jank issues and high encounter rates, not unusual for 90s RPGs. Persona 1 had a remake for the PSP that unfortunately changed the soundtrack to one I consider inferior. 2 (Innocent Sin)'s PSP port is bad due to it messing up the difficulty and making the game way too easy. Eternal Punishment's fixes that but has the issue of being a sequel game and not reaching the same heights as its predecessor. Still highly worth playing imo.
Persona 3 has a lot of versions and unfortunately none of them is the ultimate version to play it. The new remake is probably the best one, but Persona 3 Portable (with its half assed PC port) has an entirely new route, that of the female protagonist.
3 introduces the social simulation aspect of the game, and has the unfortunate issue of being very slow in the beginning. Once the story gets going however, it becomes really good and the best written and most mature of the new Persona games.
Persona 4 is known for being far lighter in tone for the most part, having a memorable rural setting and character cast. The villain is really good, but the additions of the "Golden" re-release are kinda bad in quality in my opinion. The game really ups the anime-ness of it all in ways that have not really aged well. The game is also dragged down by its clearly right wing, socially conservative writing that shines through in many aspects unfortunately.
Persona 5 is very stylish. Set in Tokyo, it takes on a revolutionary/rebellious aesthetic and some of the themes it tackles are very interesting and challenging assumptions in society. While ultimately liberal in writing, it fails on a different way - it feels very stitched together at times, only finding sure footing at the final third of the story. The gameplay is very sleek and fun, though some would call it a bit too easy. Definitely not as bad as Persona 2: Innocent Sin however. The one big issue is that the game is LONG. Somewhat bloated, in fact. And weeb-brained, like Persona 4 is.
I caught Stardew fever and I made a new meadowlands farm to check out the content from a fresh run. It's been a few years since the last time I played, just long enough where I can tolerate another playthrough.
Before that I was on a mission to play all the SaGa games this year (except maybe Unlimited) which I'll continue to do, probably just switch off what days I play which. I am on Romancing SaGa 2 (remaster), which might be the hardest SaGa game I've ever played. After gaining an understanding of the game systems I'm having fun but it'd been nice if they added a few tutorials in the remaster.
My current empress is a pretty nereid named Pherusa and I'm gonna be sad when it's time to jump to the next generation and pick a new one.
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I wish the pixels were less janky though. Thanks for the lazy mobile port Square Enix.
I found a game called Catizens where you manage a town of cats and they get high on catnip and fight bears.
My vacation has started, so I decided to try my hand at Shadow Empire, a very complex 4x/wargame with a 400-page manual. You play as a regime on a post-apocalyptic planet after a large galactic conflict. Currently, I'm watching a 3-hour tutorial video. You manage various aspects of your empire, including politics, diplomacy, economics, and military operations.
There is a whole supply system; your units need food, fuel, or ammunition to keep fighting or suffer consequences. Supplies need to be sent via either trains or trucks, using roads or railways.
You also design everything your armed forces use, from tanks and planes to equipment your infantry uses. Most of which you first need to research, since it's a post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting.
Planets are randomly generated, and you can have anything from frozen hells to jungles teeming with alien life or even water or desert planets. Alien life / planets (if there is any) and history is also randomly generated.
Its a bit like a mix between Dwarf Fortress and Hearts of Iron
The game is made by a single developer and is available on Steam and GOG. In this case, I would recommend the Steam version because you get access to the new beta versions right away.
The UI and interface are archaic and cumbersome. It will probably take me quite a while to learn it.
Added a screenshot so you can marvel at the glorious next gen gfx
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Nice coincidence, I also plan to get into it this weekend. I bought it in the current steam sale. It requires some extra steps on Linux but otherwise runs fine.
This looks a LOT like those old Decisive Battles games such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decisive_Battles_of_WWII:_Korsun_Pocket
Openmw is a lot of fun, I got to play through most of it with a friend over TES3MP a few years ago. The only thing I change usually is getting a leveling mod, and I'm good to play forever.
My friends have been doing a group run of BG3 with the MC being The Dark Urge. It's been cool seeing the stuff I missed, like the area with harpies behind the grove and the docks below Moonrise (don't even know how I missed that one tbh).
Been playing Ultrakill, but it's getting a bit too hard on some of these bosses.
A friend suggested Pseudoregalia as both of us like really good movement in games. It's a 3D metroidvania platformer with some fun movement options that tries for the N64 or Playstation era feel. Almost done with it, but interest petered out as I'm at the point where I have to search the map for the last remaining things. It was still a lot of fun.
Picked up Kenshi again. Project Kathun is actually a lot of fun, Star Wars is a surprising fit with the Kenshi aesthetic Or maybe not surprising, lol.
Picked up a little game called Fictorum that is like a wizard destruction simulator with a FTL like map layer to it. It's janky and unstylish, but then you get a winning combination of spell setups and the game clicks. Good value, I think I got it really cheap but I don't see myself playing it extremely long.
I wanted to get a physical copy of Unicorn Overlord this week as my Switch has limited storage, and I had some cash lying around. The local stores didn't have it, so I had to order and now I won't get it until tomorrow, but I'll be obsessing over Dragon's Dogma 2 all day.
I've been playing Wreckfest!
Actually a really fun game. If any of you are old enough to have played Destruction Derby, it's similar to that in one game mode, but adds proper racing as well.
Hyped for Dragons Dogma 2. Maybe we should start a DD2 megathread once it launches?
I got that child-like Christmas Eve excitement for this one
It's out today!!!!
Comrade, same. I never played the original for some reason, but this thing looks fun. I'm on spring break next week, so it's awesome timing to have something this immersive to sink into.
Splatoon 3. The kids and I are getting all of the palettes in Side Order. I wish the stages in this DLC had a bit more variety, but the ones it has are very good, and the gameplay feels great as always
Also… Balatro
I've been obsessed with X4: foundations for a couple of months now. I was expecting it to be way worse than X3, but it's actually really fun
X4 completely took over my life for like 6 weeks last year. Great stuff
