Hey y’all! What have you been playing this week? I played a bunch of the recent Talos principle remake. It was cool! The story hits differently with the way the world is with AI but I still thought it was enjoyable. Now I’m starting up the sequel!
I’ve managed to get Cryostasis working, and for a game over a decade old, it’s a lot of fun. Great atmosphere, interesting mechanics, fascinating story, the whole package.
Blue Prince and Massive Chalice
Blue Prince is such a masterpiece.
Same! Good picks!
Just the other day I figured out the Plants vs Zombie fangame has not only a community server ( discord, sadly ), but they also have a demo out! I had an old build using an old engine that has more levels, but I downloaded and played the new demo and it’s amazing so far. Officially called 植物大的僵尸: Universe ( Plants vs Zombies: Universe in English ).
Totally looking forward to the games completion ( assuming neither EA or Talkweb don’t destroy it ) because it’s a very ambitious project trying to take content from, if I remember correctly, pvz1 international, China’s exclusive pvz1 journey to the west edition, 2 international, pvz2 Chinese edition, Online, and the card game ( not 100% sure if I’m right on that one being added ) and rolling it into a single game.
Demo currently gives you Emperor’s Mausoleum from Online and Ancient Egypt (the pvz Online version), with just base levels for now. Minigame side levels, which are present in the old build I have, aren’t currently available in the latest demo they have linked in their discord. As a big enough fan of the non spin-off titles, this makes me very gitty.
Otherwise, more dungeon clawler and that’s about all for non-mobile games. I did try modding Sonic Lost Worlds on PC, but I can’t with my setup.
I loved The Talos Principle! I haven’t played the remake, I didn’t realise they added new stuff I thought it was just updated graphics which didn’t interest me.
The Talos Principle 2 was great, the puzzles were fantastic, some of the new concepts totally broke my brain for ages and had me trying the dumbest stuff because I was fully lost lol but it was so fun! I recommended the DLC too, I loved the Hexahedron in the Isle of the Blessed and I hope they do more puzzles like that in the future.
I just wish the world was smaller and there was less emphasis on the story, when it comes to puzzle games I just want to get to the puzzles asap I don’t want to run back and forth across the world just to sit through cut scenes. I do kind of get why it was so big for the bonus stuff outside the main puzzles and also
Tap for spoiler
on my first playthrough, I did manage to finish the whole game without completing any puzzles,
which was pretty funny.
I’ve been playing Balatro for what feels like the last 84 years and I constantly rage quit and say I’m done with the game when I know my run is over then stare out the window for a minute and start the game again, its painfully addictive.
I’ve also been playing Angry Birds on the 3DS its so fun. I haven’t played it since it first came out on mobile 15 years ago, I didn’t realise how old it was! I’ve needed games like this for the past few weeks with life being so busy, they’re so easy to pick up and then just pause whenever I need to.
AC: Shadows, still enjoying it after ~28 hours. Couldn’t finish Valhalla due to it just having too much of everything, let’s see if this one’s different. Also, started playing Doom Dark Ages, seems fun!
I’ve been playing Xenoblade Chronicles X.
The combat is pretty fun. It’s a bit more complex than the other two Xenoblade games I played (1 and 2), as there are more support skills you can use and overdrive requires a bit of planning. Enemies also have breakable parts, which add a bit of decision making during combat, although it does still feel a bit passive as there aren’t many enemy mechanics to interact with.
Very minor progression spoiler
I have unlocked the Skell after ~30 hours and it was pretty underwhelming. Grounded combat feels more fun and it’s pretty disappointing that you can’t customize much of the mech’s aesthetics apart from color (and I’m not a huge fan of the designs).
The main story is fine and the sidequests are pretty good. They are very short, but they have interesting stories. The “affinity” quests feel like they are the focus of the game instead of the main story.
I’m just at the beginning of Act 3 of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I’ve dragged my feet doing a lot of side content and playing slowly because I sort of don’t want this game to end. For once I wish this was a standard 100-hour JRPG fare and not as relatively short as it is at probably half that.
The game is very good. What else can be said at this point. There are minor niggles and nitpicks and occasionally some AA-ness rears its head but it’s overall one of the best games I’ve ever played so far. The story is amazing, the presentation is beautiful and the turn-based combat with QTEs and parries is super fun. The boss fights are cinematic and challenging in an almost Souls-like fashion. All the characters have distinct play styles and fun synergies.
It’s also an unabashedly French game and I’m really enjoying immersing myself in that to the max by using the French VAs.
I never thought to check if there was French available! Nice callout. The English VA is really good though.
Both are absolutely excellent, I ended up preferring some voices in French and some in English. For me French feels more immersive, but I grew up in a country that always used subtitles over dubs so I’m used to reading.
I’ve also just always loved french and speak and read a bit of it still so I was always going to go for that in a french game.
I’ve been pretty busy over the last couple of weeks, so gaming has been very sparse… But, the other day I picked up “The Slormancer” which is an ARPG created by a team of two indie developers.
I absolutely love it so far! Plays fantastic on the Steam Deck too (and really almost feels like it was made for the OLED Deck). I only have three and a half hours so far in it, but it’s very much giving me “Just one last round” vibes, which are my favorite kinds of games.
The current Diablo 4 season and I just finished little nightmares, so now I have started Hogwarts legacy
Dusted off Raft and started a new playthrough. For all it’s upolished and unforgiving nature, it’s a good game.
The Sinking City Remastered was released last week, so I’ve been playing that. I’m having a lot of fun with the newly added photo mode.
Core keeper, Webfishing, Helldivers 2, and powerwashing simulator. I’ve been in a very chill gaming mood aside from the hectic fire fights of helldivers.
Mainly Guild Wars 2, but Leafblower Revolution recently introduced fishing, so my GW2 time has taken a small hit while I explore this tomfoolery :D
Diablo 4 season 8
Played through DOOM: The Dark Ages. It’s good, and I already wrote a wall of text elsewhere in the comments. The second half of the story is pretty bad, even for Doom standards. I wanna do another playthrough, where I change some of the difficulty sliders.
