Palworld. Just finished Legends Arceus and Legends ZA is too far from being released so I wanted something to scratch the “pokemon but it doesn’t suck” itch.

With Cyberpunk 2077 “complete and fixed”, I’m finally checking it out. Been using the Welcome to Night City modpack. Act 1 and all the content in Watson (starting area) was amazing. Very immersive. Completed all of that, about halfway through Judy’s missions, and most of Panam’s missions. I think I’m around 40 hours in.

Quality starts dipping outside of the main story missions outside of Watson. Nothing so far has been anywhere close to bad, and there’s still some absolutely amazing things sprinkled here and there, but it’s frustrating how just good some of it is given how strong the start is.

It’s incredibly obvious that the game was meant to be much more. Like Watson district’s fixer (person who gives you missions) has 39 gigs, and she has Cyberpsycho fights across the whole map. I don’t think any other fixer has more than 15 gigs for their own area, and most don’t have any other “gimmick” missions like the Cyberpsycho missions.

I’m already planning to replay it with mods that add more gang activity and give the gangs “memory” so they hold grudges if you keep doing missions against them. Also, unscaling the stat checks. Stupid that I go from being able to comment on certain topics (the psuedomyth of Rache Bartmoss specifically) in conversations to not being able to because I got too high a level and the stat check jumped from 10 to 15.

I don’t know how to put it. The great stuff is some of the best gaming experience I’ve had in a long time, where I can’t wait to get back to it. Most of the game is good, but not “can’t wait to get back into it”. But there’s a big feeling of missing “what could have been”.

Like the Watson Fixer Regina has extra rewards for you capturing Cyberpsychos alive, but in any of the actual fixer gigs with Cyberpsychos it doesn’t matter if you kill them or incapacitate and Regina has no comments on it. There’s a lot of emphasis put on customizing your character for you to not see them outside of a few cutscenes (most are first person) and driving a motorcycle. Lots of NPC visual cyberware just isn’t available for the player character.

Maybe it’s just residuals from the collective overhyping of the game, but I feel it hard when stuff like that pulls me out of things.

I think I am going to try Dave the Diver and/or Songs of Conquest.

With the Oblivion remaster hype, I decided to go back to the original and so I’m playing Nehrim now.

It’s kinda buggy, crashy and puzzle-y, but it’s both new and old so it works for me.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

I have this tendency of just playing stuff I already know and don’t enjoy most new game for like six or so hours while I have to „learn“ them - exception are simple things like platformers or racing games where it‘s crystal clear what to do.

So I have finally decided to really sink my teeth into MGSV and after the warm-up phase, I now can‘t put it down. It‘s crazy how good it looks even nowadays while spitting out triple digit fps at 4k on reasonable hardware. Also 60 fps on the Deck native at high settings. Mindblowing.

I approached the game wrong at first. I‘ve learned that I should be crawling when I think crouching‘s enough, and crouch when I think I can walk lol, also judo throws are more silent than whispers.

I‘m inching towards 100% completion. I liked side-ops and the open world more than any main mission. Main missions always felt too stressful with super human ninja zombies in some of em as well. And fuck „A Quiet Exit.“

Side-ops and the open world really let the games’ more fun mechanics shine for me. With like 120 hours for 100% I also think it has a good length. It‘s starting to wear itself off a bit and it‘s almost done, so it‘s not overstaying its welcome for me. Honestly? A masterpiece.

Although… for me the story was barely holding it together, just wild stuff that made me go „wait what“ more than a good number of times.

I got back into Red Dead Redemption 2. Still debating with myself if I should continue the story or try online.

MotorTown. Absolutely chill. It’s like all the vehicle driving sims merged into one!

Still going through Prince of Persia: Sands of Time from last week - the combat is quite repetitive, though the platforming is as good as I remember so that more than makes up for it!

I can definitely see how Assassins Creed was eventually born from this series.

Kid’s just fallen sick, so I’ll likely STILL be playing this in next week’s thread too - so don’t judge me too harshly - I promise I still have that gamer cred! 😅

I’ve been playing Blood Typers with a friend after finishing The Textorcist from last week (what can I say, I like typing lol).

Apart from that, I got the itch to play some Titanfall 2 / Northstar, so that’s been fun as always

Caves of Qud. I don’t even like it much, but for some reason I can’t stop.

Currently working through the Talos Principle. Really fun + there’s a really cool shader to render ripples on water.

Still wrestling with Blue Prince and still as enthralled with it as I was last week. It’s such a clever, beautiful, unique and interesting game.

I’m finally starting to glimpse the finish line at the horizon now after having been in the endgame for about a week. Still a couple of puzzles left to solve, still a couple of unanswered questions left to investigate but I can feel how close I am now.

God damn it am I going to miss this game once it’s over. Experiences like this don’t come around often. If you like puzzles and mysteries and escape rooms be impatient for once and play this game. It’s extraordinary.