Thirith on 26/12/2021 at 09:56
Having grown tired with Halo (though it feels quite a bit more atmospheric if you switch to the old-school graphics, rather than using the more gaudy enhanced graphics), I decided to install Death's Door, a lovely present from our very own henke. Since I never played on consoles as a kid, and what console gaming I've done has primarily been on Playstations, I've not played much Zelda (though I did play The Wind Waker and about half of A Link to the Past). Death's Door feels a fair bit like what I know of Zelda, and it's got a gorgeous graphical style. It's also not too difficult, which frankly is more what I'm look for at the moment. A very mellow, sweet game, and just the right thing for these dreary days.
WingedKagouti on 26/12/2021 at 16:36
I just finished Vampyr (recent EGS freebie) and while it was engaging enough to complete, I doubt I will ever return to play it again. The story was servicable, but rather forgettable. The combat felt bland and uninspired, while still trying to pull in too many directions at once. The one thing it does well is how NPCs interact with the player, in that they don't change their personalities just because the player completes a quest for them. The miserly old guy remains that way even after you aid him, exhausting the dialogue for the gay couple won't change their approach to the rest of the world and so on. The main differences is specific dialogue that basically ends up killing the NPC (or just removing them from the game) one way or another, like shattering the mind of a nurse.
Overall, while the time spent didn't feel wasted, I'm also happy that I didn't pay money for it.
Yakoob on 28/12/2021 at 01:20
So with Loop Hero being free on Epic Store recently, I decided to give it another proper try. I will give that I enjoy it a lot more than the first time around and appreciate it's design more. It definitely evoked the "just one more loop" feeling and I got to Chapter 2.
That being said, I still stand by my previous criticism of it being too grindy and progressing too slowly. I'm now bottlenecked by every new structure requiring the Orbs of Expansion, and I can get maaaybe 1 or 2 per a full run when I milk the spiders/vampires. Some new structures require 15 of those orbs, some upgrades upwards of 5. So I see myself putting in literal hours of making identical loops placing the same tiles in the same spots just to farm this one resources (otherwise, I can't really progress). And I can't just set up one good loop and let it run, because need to constantly micro-manage my inventory (otherwise I go from winning every battle with full health to a single special enemy wiping me out). I'm honestly losing steam for it...
Other than that, I've been playing Orcs Must Die 2 and 3 with my GF and we've been sinking multiple hour-long sessions into it. Some weird balancing issues aside, it's a fantastic co-op experience!
henke on 2/1/2022 at 14:06
Hey is it time to retire this thread? Someone has to make a new one! Don't look at me, I did the last one. By which I mean this one.
Anyway, on the topic of 2021 gaming, the last game I played was RE Village aaaaaand it was great! It was very Resident Evil. It was very familiar and at the same time very surprising in some of the crazy shit it throws at you. I was left with my mouth agape on several occasions. Maybe it started to drag a bit at the end when it got very actiony, but I still liked it a lot.
I have also been playing G String, but since I started playing that this year I am legally barred from telling you what I think of it in this thread.
Tomi on 3/1/2022 at 00:30
I can see no volunteers, so let's take turns then, I guess!
Sadly your prediction in the first post about us all getting vaccinated and having no time for games didn't turn out quite right, but 2021 was still a pretty good year. I quickly skimmed through all the 18 pages of this thread, and it was actually rather interesting. Special thanks to everyone who used a bold font to highlight the games that they've been playing - it makes reading the thread so much easier. :D I had already forgotten about some of the games that I played in the first half of the year. Having said that, I didn't play much at all during the latter half of the year, because the two little kids in the family didn't leave me with much free time, and what little free time I had, I spent on making this silly little game that I've been working on lately. (damn this gamedev stuff is addictive! But more about that in another thread some other time...)
But yeah, it's time to say bye-bye to 2021 now and move on!
