What are you playing right now?

Tried a bunch of demos that were part of Steam's Deckbuilder event. From good to bad:
  • Knights in Tight Spaces: Fantasy spin on Fights in Tight Spaces. You can pull off some very satisfying combos, and the deck sizes are small enough that bad situational draws aren't too punishing. The core gameplay is really solid, and the 3D-visuals are dead sexy. Hope there will be more enemy types than humans and skeletons at release, and that facing factors in for some classes.
  • SKALD: Against the Black Priory: Demo only gave a short taste, but I want more. Character creation choices felt impactful, and hint at lots of varied powerful builds at higher levels. What really impressed me was the story and writing, as NPC interactions have detail and thought put into them, and the story allows itself to explore heavier themes. Not all games can maturely handle "my dad was a sad alcoholic because he couldn't prevent someone from getting raped", fewer still can make it an engaging read, and even fewer still have you chuckling at the lavish way in which a cheese sandwich is presented mere minutes later. Insofar it seems like a game made by a dude who knows what he want to make, and is capable of doing so.
  • Dice & Fold: Ended up liking it more than not, though it needs more polish before release It feels balanced in the way that the late-game encounters one-shot you on turn one, but you'll be able to do the same to the enemies if you've figured out a build. Art is charming, but for some reason there aren't any dice-rolling visuals in their dice-rolling game.
  • Rune Coliseum: 500 different poorly-explained mechanics crammed everywhere, and an artstyle that apes Darkest Dungeon. Had some good ideas in combat, like simultaneous attacks cancelling the weaker one. If you like Eastern-style games it might be worth checking out, but it was too much for me.
  • Rogue Voltage: Good concept, but execution was somewhat flat. You're supposed to cobble together complex machines full of conditionals based on what you scavenge, but you largely just end up with the ability to deal 2 damage instead of 1, except it takes twice as long to do. Artstyle is fittingly grimey, with the characters being clean and stylized for some reason.
  • Demiurges: Heroes of Might and Magic 3, except made by some dude in his basement. Just go play HoMM3 instead.
  • Songs of Silence: A mish-mash of genres, none of which offer enough depth to be interesting. Battles end up feeling sluggish as you just spam the same free abilities over and over while waiting for the AI's brain fog to clear. Its 2D-visuals are really great, but it's jarring how much of a United Colours of Benetton advert everything is. Felt like strategy for people who don't like strategy, and maybe even a game for people who don't like games.
 
Been replaying Super Mario 64 again. The normal stars are a lot easier than I remember but the 100 coin ones were a lot more frustrating, especially in the later stages.
 
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Balatro is the fucking tits. I never thought, I could love a game made in 2024, so much.

Once they put it on phones, or God forbid, the Chinese figure out how to turn it into real gambling, it's over for society.
 
The Caribbean Sail has gotten a lot better. Everything I said about it stands. It's just that it gets better if you tough it out and grind to Governor/Frigate. No, that doesn't excuse the game for having incredibly shitty early balance. But by the time you get the Frigate and a character that can viably own it, you are capable of making crossings. It isn't just impossible anymore. I beat the historical game (it kind of sucked, there's very little interesting content) and much of Fantasy mode (much better, has quests).
 
Raging Loop is alright. I'm not far yet but the music is good and the way the story starts is interesting. The text ism ucking tiny and thin though, hard as hell to read. You can't change it and there's no English voice acting to offset the issue...
 
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Found out C&C Red Alert got remastered and got myself that and the collection on sale.
Currently playing RA2
 
I've been playing Sparks of Hope and I just finished the main story today. For some reason I don't feel like I've enjoyed the game nearly as much as Kingdom Battle despite many people saying that the game is objectively better in many areas.
 
Suzerain Ataturk simulator has a DLC so I got a ticket for the Rayne train before rizzing it up in Rizia, got what I always get because my extremism knows no bounds;
FeelTheRayne.png
Still hilarious how the easiest way to Greci Sordland to victory against r*mburg, with 21st century living standards like gender equality full cradle to grave welfare state and complete economy recovery is to simply take supreme executive power for yourself and crush your opponents, might be an agenda at play here.
Leke is my nigga and so is Holstron, true civic nationalism.
 
Crypt Stalker on the Switch (which is also on Steam). Castlevania clone except it's a woman, her sub-weapons are different gun powers (like Contra, kind-of) and she walks like she shot a line of coke. Game has two modes, Console and Handheld with the latter replicating the GameBoy castlevanias, which is creatively cute. You have the option to turn unlimited lives on or off but you really don't need it since the game remembers what the last level you died in was so you can just return to that level. My only issue with the game is that it reverses the commands (B jumps, A attacks).
 
Finished first part of Weird West. I am very unimpressed. I was expecting to enjoy it since it's from, if I remember correctly, the guys that did Prey, it's got a somewhat similar to Deadlands (never played that, but always been interested in it), and it is an isometric game and I liked Hatred. But this has been very mediocre so far. Feels like a waste of $10, really.

The problems started right off the bat. Your son has just been killed, your husband has been captured, and your character acts completely wooden. (Yeah, you're a female gunslinger. You're going to see a lot of those.) For a game that's selling itself as an RPG the story is very weak, weak characterization, weak writing, it's like they're just finding shit to fill the space. There's no real Western vibe to it, it doesn't feel like a Western game, it feels like a Western genre game, if that makes sense. I hate that shit, generic sagebrush/spaghetti Western settings that are just a bundle of cliches ripped out of any historical context. Especially when it's fantasies up. The upside is that a few of the monsters I've come across are cool ideas (like prospectors/miners going goblin).

This stuff is supposed to be an "immersive sim," but it doesn't feel like Prey at all. I think the whole concept of an immersive sim is exaggerated - these things may have different paths but they do still tend to have intended paths all the same - but I would agree that Deus Ex Human Revolution and Prey play similarly. This doesn't play anything at all like those. Yeah, you'll have some different options, but so far it just feels like a dungeon crawler (in bland ass mines) to me. Shooting does eventually get more fun, but it does still feel very clunky.

I don't like this so far, and I don't have much reason to expect it to get any better.
 
Dragons dogma 2. The story is generic, the save system is horrible, and the quest design is janky as fuck, but I'm still enjoying it for the exploration and combat.
 
I've been playing Sparks of Hope and I just finished the main story today. For some reason I don't feel like I've enjoyed the game nearly as much as Kingdom Battle despite many people saying that the game is objectively better in many areas.
I was the same. For some reason Kingdom Battle grabbed me in a way where I was excited for the sequel, but something about Sparks of Hope (Maybe the open world aspect?) really turned me off. I ended up ignoring it for a few months before coming back to finish it, and it got better near the end but yeah, I was disappointed.

Just finished the Battlefront Collection. I don't play Multiplayer and aside from one glitch where I got kicked back to the dashboard, the single player campaigns and Galaxy Conquests were fine. It was a fun stroll down memory lane and the little nostalgia hit was what I wanted it to be. If you don't have a steam account and liked the games as a kid, I say get it.
 
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