PigLick on 7/3/2025 at 01:59
STAY AWHILE! STAY FOREVER! also had pretty good digitised voices for its time.
Yakoob on 8/3/2025 at 07:46
Inline Image:
https://shared.fastly.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/2506160/header.jpg?t=1726758180Ended up playing
Fears to Fathom - Ironbark Lookout as well which most reviews were saying is the best in the series. However, I actually felt it was a step down from Woodbury. It felt like a fairly decent, atmospheric, hour and a half setup for.... watching credits. It builds a mystery, teaches gameplay mechanics and introduces new characters, then ends abruptly in a 2-minute finale/chase sequence. Doesn't provide much of resolution to the themes or plot points and just left me really unsatisfied.
@henke - if you enjoyed this one despite its flaws and feel like another short horror experience, I'd recommend giving Woodbury a try. All my criticism aside, I think Woodbury did a much better job building the psychological unease throughout its run, and keeping you guessing where the story is going. The end sequence was still annoying and there was some filler, but overall it felt more deliberate in its design, and the twist hit a lot harder imho.
Thirith on 11/3/2025 at 07:53
In the meantime, I'm enjoying Far Cry 4 more than I initially did, but it's the usual Ubisoft sugar rush: there's something moreish about the game, its world (and getting around it) and the combat, but everything is paper-thin and pretty samey. I've not done too many of the missions so far, concentrating on side activities instead, but I'll now switch to the missions themselves to see how engaging they are.
Malf on 11/3/2025 at 09:33
I'm currently playing Monster Hunter Wilds.
I've finished the story/extended tutorial, and am now into the High Rank part of the game, where it really opens up and allows you to play how you want.
Lots of monsters and gear are locked behind High Rank, so the story can safely be rushed through; aside from anything else, it's amateur, cringeworthy gibberish.
It's also unsettling the amount of "fan service" there is in the game, and quite frankly, I'm getting tired of people not calling out Japanese portrayals of women in games.
But aside from that, the act of fighting monsters remains as fun as ever.
Although I'm not convinced it's better than World yet; Wilds has streamlined the preparation and investigation phases, while also introducing what looks like a fun mount, but in use, is mostly an on-rails means of travelling directly to the monster you're hunting.
The fights are still fun though, and the improved movesets and the new Wounds system are welcome additions.
Of course, World has years of post-release development behind it, and the Monster Hunter games always release additional content over time, so I don't feel comfrotable passing final judgement yet.
I am cheating like a mofo though, as I'm only interested in fighting monsters.
I don't want to have to grind the same monster 10 times or more in order to complete a weapon or armour set, and RNG can fuck RIGHT off, so I've modded the game's shops to sell everything I need.
A lot of players might think I'm missing the point of the game, but I'm far less tolerant of grinds designed to monopolise player time than I used to be.
I'm here to fight monsters, and if I can do that without the grind, I will.
This has actually freed me up to spend more time exploring the world and taking my time rather than feeling that I have to optimise my time in order to hunt as many monsters as possible, as quickly as possible.
This also works because even at high rank, you can't craft certain gear until you've performed certain tasks. It's just that for me, once I've fulfilled those requirements, I don't then have to spend a stupid amount of time grinding out hunts.
I know this isn't the kind of game that floats many people's boats in these parts; but if you do end up buying it at some point down the line, I strongly advise modding the game to remove the grind.
But maybe give it some time for the technology to settle down; I'm not having too bad a time with the game thanks to having a pretty high-end PC, but I do still see crashes, glitches and performance issues.
People on even only slightly worse hardware than mine are having a terrible time with the game, and it's not hyperbole to say that technically, it's one of the worst recent high profile games I've played; more so than Stalker 2.
The game doesn't look noticeably better than World to my eyes, and one of the so-called advancements, a connected, open world, is utterly pointless due to the way players interact with the game's systems. There's never a reason to travel between areas in the course of normal play, and most people still get their missions from hubs, then load in to the right zone to start them.
It's also the dubious poster-child for developers using technologies such as resolution scaling and frame generation as a crutch.
Ulukai on 11/3/2025 at 21:57
Hello fellow Internauts. Well I'm here and I have some time so this may be a bit of a driveby but here we go.
(https://store.steampowered.com/app/308600?snr=2_9_100000_) Gene Shift Auto has been a random but very welcome discovery. It's like old-school GTA (the first one, top down) deathmatch with a class based system. It's great for blowing off a bit of steam after work, and I am, ahem, rather good at it so it's even more fun. Take that, random internet people. Take that.
Stardew Valley. We all know what this is right? So I won't link to it. I know, I'm a bit late to the party. Also very good for after work when I just want to relax and not, well, shoot random internet people. Check out my plants, fellow NPCs! And have a gift. Bit of fishing? Splendid.
(https://store.steampowered.com/app/408410/XMorph_Defense/) X-Morph: Defense. I think I picked this up in some random Steam Bundle and I chanced upon it. It's very good Tower Defence and you get to play
The Baddies. Very Bad Alien Baddies and we're gonna take over the world. It's very relaxing for after work.... hey there's a pattern here
My intention is to do another playthrough of
Baldur's Gate 3, but I became so attached to my OG first playthrough I'm not sure I can do it, it's not going to be the same without my alter-ego. I did manage to miss at least 4 of the recruitable characters though and did I have a man-crush on Gale? Yes, yes I did. I also chose to play as a bard-sorcerer which with hindsight, was a brave choice. There's a lot of situations you just can't win with just a lute and an emo girlfriend, as I quickly found out. But still, was all the more compelling for that. I'm tempted.
Yakoob on 11/3/2025 at 23:53
@Thirith - I'm surprised how much I enjoyed Far Cry 4. I actually beat it all to completion. The combination of checking off towers/settlements, the quirky villain, and beautiful vistas really sucked me in.
Inline Image:
https://shared.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/501300/header.jpg?t=1729098797Meantime, continuing my unintended shortform walking sim spree, I just completed
What Remains of Edith Finch, and enjoyed it quite a bit. I was suprised with all the gameplay diversity in the segments, particularly the kite thing and the day-dreaming-fish-cannery worked extremely well (and kind of highlights what makes games unique from other art forms). And found the ending a lot more touching than I expected with the final twist.
The only weird thing was the animal flying/swimming sections which broke. my. brain. For some bizarre reason, my mind thought "we are piloting a vehicle so the Y axis is inverted" and I could just not snap out of it. Like swimming as a shark, I would keep pressing up to go down, and struggle real hard. Just couldn't snap out of it. utterly bizarre lol
Thinking of picking up (
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299460/Wanderstop/) Wanderstop next. It just released and it's a cozy game with-probably-a-big-twist from the creators of Stanley Parable
Jason Moyer on 12/3/2025 at 03:21
I tried to play Legend Of Grimrock II. And I found it boring for some reason. It seems like it's really well-designed, and I thought the first game was amazing, but I'm not sure I really needed a bigger version of the first one.
In the meantime I finally managed to finish the TurboGrafx port of Gradius using one save state at the start of each level, so now I'm working on 1CC'ing it and then the NES and arcade versions. It's one of my favorite games of all time and I decided I was sick of being really bad at it. Beating it level by level felt good, tbh, it's a damn hard game. Konami's shmups are my favorite and I really wish they'd have M2 or Hamster port and bundle all of them for modern consoles/Switch/PC.
On PC after shelving LOG2 I'm trying the Dark Forces remaster. It looks and plays great, but I'm not sure how much patience I have for the Hexen-y level design. People say the sewer level (which I finished last night) is the worst thing in the game so I'll push on more, but having to do that entire thing without a guide or being able to save and take a break was annoying as hell. Shooting imperial bastards is super fun, I just wish it was in a better game (like Jedi Outcast).
Thirith on 12/3/2025 at 09:50
One thing that I definitely mind about Far Cry 4, but that's pretty much the usual Ubisoft thing, is its phony ambiguity. It's probably meant to be nuanced, with no single position being entirely right or wrong, but really it's facile bothsides-ism: sure, he eats babies for breakfast, but she slaughters grannies for dinner! It never feels anything else but constructed, and the result is the laziest of centrism, combined with a forced "Ah, but you have to take sides!"
nicked on 13/3/2025 at 09:22
That was something which Far Cry 2, whether intentionally or not, managed to subvert - in that both factions you could choose to side with were essentially interchangeable. It really got across that the whole conflict was pointless and added nuance to the morality of the Jackal's actions. Now it might have been that they ran out of time and money to distinguish the factions further so they just copy-pasted, but whatever the reason, it totally worked in the narrative's favour.
Tomi on 13/3/2025 at 17:34
Quote Posted by Yakoob
Meantime, continuing my unintended shortform walking sim spree, I just completed
What Remains of Edith Finch, and enjoyed it quite a bit.
is one of those annoying games that I
always mix up with some other title... in this case,
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. I've played the latter and it's pretty good and short, and from what I've read the two games are quite similar, so you may want to check it out. :) And I should probably check out WRoEF...
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
I tried to play Legend Of Grimrock II. And I found it boring for some reason. It seems like it's really well-designed, and I thought the first game was amazing, but I'm not sure I really needed a bigger version of the first one.
That sums up my thoughts about Grimrock II quite perfectly. I really wanted to like it, but it just felt somehow dull compared to Grimrock 1 and I don't even know why that is. The sequel got such great reviews that I've often thought about giving it another chance, but that day hasn't come yet. :D
