Buying a steam deck significantly increased by gaming time. The ability to immediately suspend and resume my gameplay, and not have to go over to my desktop helped a lot. I’ve played more this past year than I have in the last 3 years combined.
Outer Wilds. For a few friends who don’t have it yet. I’ve already bought it a couple times.
I already own it… but it’s just that good. So good I vicariously try to relive the game by watching livestreams and Eelis’ recaps of other live-streamers.
It really is something you have to experience blind. Since the entire game progression is knowledge based and pulling threads on the mysteries until the mosaic of the story and experience unfolds is truly something you can experience once.
I thought you meant The Outer Wilds, and spent a solid two minutes on a routine sanity check. Hadn’t heard of this game though, so we’ll call it even 😸
It was a bit of a slow burner on release so I’m not surprised you didn’t hear about it. People had access to the beta years before the official release, so when it came out essentially nothing really changed and there wasn’t this big announcement.
How is the dlc? I had a tough time with outer wilds. At the time I played it, I found it to be very frustrating. I needed a spoiler to get past two or three major points. But in hindsight I think it’s really an impressive game. I’m thinking about picking up the dlc, but I’m not sure about it and I don’t want to search about it to avoid spoiler.
It started off a little slow, but imo it was better than the main game. It’s both a little more streamlined and better story-wise. You probably should play the main game first
Heaven’s Vault, Hardspace Shipbreaker, and both Subnautica games.
Heaven’s Vault is a puzzle game where you have to learn to translate an unknown language. Haven’t gotten too deep into the game yet, but I picked it up because I liked Chants of Sennaar, which has a similar premise. Chants is 25% off right now, so I think that’s a decent recommendation
Hardspace Shipbreaker is a casual game where you break down spaceships for parts. It seemed fun, and I wanted to have something casual to balance out my library, which currently has more intense games than I would like.
Subnautica is a survival game where you’re stuck on an ocean world. I’m honestly not too sure if I would like this one too much, since I’m not too much of a fan of survival games. It just seemed unique enough from the other survival games, and it had a decent deal, and it was in my wishlist for a while. So I acted a bit on impulse and bought both games (Subnautica and Subnautica Below Zero)
I envy you greatly right now, you’re about to embark on a beautiful journey. Xcom2 is one of my favorites, especially once mods factor in, of which there are thousands covering so many franchises and ideas you can’t possibly play them all.
I wish you nothing but an excellent time and lots of dead aliens.
Xenonauts 2 is 30% off also. It’s a modern version of classic X-COM, which is quite different from modern XCOM. It’s still in early access, but it’s very good. I’ve done one playthrough (to the end of what was available) and I’m waiting for release to do another. It’s much better than what XCOM has become in my opinion though.
This is the way. Why would I hoard 5 more games just because there is a sale? The next one will come shortly. Only buy games you plan to play in the next 2 weeks.
Pony island is a hoot! I knocked it out in a couple hours.
I SAVORED The Hex though. After 50-some hours of Inscryption I thought there’s no way The Hex could compare… I have a lot more play time in Inscryption, but overall I thought The Hex was fucking brilliant. Hard recommend to anyone who likes Mullins’ games.
From what I read, it didn’t even just suck, it was practically fraud. They knew how many sales they had and only stood up enough servers to support around 200 players.
I was a bit misleading though, because I also play a lot of the 2.5-year-old AoE4, and a tiny amount of AoM and AoE3 (and expect the amount of AoM to go way up later this year when Retold comes out).
It’s crazy how well that game holds up even today. Also quite hilarious how completely different my playing style is today than when I was 12. I had no clue about how to counter specific units, build order or even luring the boars. I’d absolutely wipe floor with my past self even with the medicore skills I have at it now.
Yeah it’s pretty incredible. I don’t know if I ever played without at least resource cheats as a kid.
I do remember knowing the triangle infantry beats cavalry beats archers, but also thinking “more expensive units must be better”. So I would build m@a-line to counter scouts or knights, rather than spear-line. I probably never built more than 20 vills, either.
I have to upvote your upvote. Subnautica is one of the greatest games ever made. Gave me serious Mal de Debarquement Syndrome when I finally pulled myself away to go to bed.
I have so many Steam Sale games in my library that I haven’t played yet that I don’t know if I could justify buying more. My backlog is just too long. By the time I get around to playing any purchases for this dale, 2 more Steam Sales could have already passed.
I started playing each game in my library for about 10 min and then moving on. Some games catch me playing longer but otherwise I check them off as played. With recent Steam sales I’d buy 5-6 games, immediately install them all, and play each right away. Feels good man.
How the hell do you find fulfillment in that (unless they’re super small games)? I don’t think I could speedrun something like Cave Story in 10 minutes, much less roguelikes - Dead Cells, Darkest Dungeon, Balatro etc, where the gameplay loop takes hours and hours.
I just chip away at my list every time there’s a sale. This time I got God of War, Spiderman, Jedi Survivor, and Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen.
DD was an impulse buy since I don’t know anything about it, but the reviews were good. It was $4.79 and I see there’s a sequel coming later this month, so that’s probably a good deal and a good time to catch up.
But I’ll probably still be “ahh, suffering…” through Elden Ring when the summer sale rolls around…
Dragon’s Dogma is a great game that was ahead of its time when it came out. I can’t help but wonder how much of a hit it could have been if Capcom marketed it better (or at all).
It’s incomplete in certain areas, inventory management is a nightmare, and the mini bosses in dlc areas (gorecyclops, undead dragons, wargs I think they were called) take ten minutes of healthbar whittling and they respawn when you rest.
But the true test is whether the game is fun to play, and it is! Regardless of which class you’re playing, the game lets you feel like a badass. I’d just recommend playing with some QOL mods.
Definitely, assuming you like the fantasy action RPG style games. Some enemies are too tough to even damage until you level up and get better equipment, so keep that in mind if you find some sections too difficult. Magic actually feels POWERFUL, more so than other games like Skyrim and Elden Ring. Even with the sequel coming out soon, I couldn’t recommend the first one more; its in my most favorite games of all time.
Heck yeah, it feels very meh for the first couple hours, if you’re doing all the side quests and stuff.
I recommend either sticking with it, or skimming through till you get to the main city (Grand Soren) and then see if you like it from there.
I know that’s like telling someone the show gets good after the first 4 hour long episodes, but it’s actually really good and nothing has really matched it since.
Same! I’m even excited for the lack of fast travel. Which is crazy I figured I’d be annoyed. The ox carts seem fun though and I think will give the world size and depth
Can confirm, started playing Dark Arisen for the first time yesterday myself and I am also shocked at so r of the things that were implemented in this game. Took me by surprise. I struggled a lot to get my ps5 controller working with it, as you need mods to make it visually be correct. The start is a little rough as mentioned, but just gotten past that now and it keeps getting better!
If you’re going to play DD1 you can 100% fail side quests for going too far into the story before completing them, but don’t worry! Quest anxiety can ruin the game, there’s a new game plus if you really want to 100% it, but with DD2 coming this week I’d say just have fun with it.
From what I understand the only thing that connects DD1 & DD2 is that there’s a dragon. Lol
Dragons dogma is a fantastic game that I thoroughly enjoyed. The sequel is looking amazing so getting into the world now through the first game is a good idea
It’s a VERY good spiritual successor to titan quest. I’ll recommend last epoch too, if you like the genre and are interested also in multi-player (it has an offline mode as well)
Grim Dawn is the most fun I’ve had with an ARPG in years. The class system is very interesting and, as far as I know, unique to this game. Rather than just being a barbarian or necromancer or whatever other typical ARPG class you can think of, your class is determined by selecting any 2 archetypes. For instance, maybe you like being a pet class like necromancer, but you want to have a slightly more active play style than just watching your skellingtons paint the map red. So, you mix in the Nightblade (melee rogue) class at level 10. Your new, combined class is called a Reaper, and you have access to both skill trees, free to mix and match as you wish. Very interesting playstyles can emerge from creative pairings.
I am a casual player so I can’t offer any perspective on the endgame or anything like that, but if you’re looking for something to scratch the Diablo 2 itch with a fun twist on classes,you cant go wrong with Grim Dawn.
It’s actually a spiritual successor to a game called Titan Quest, which had the same dual class system. It’s a ton of fun, though pretty dated in terms of quality of life for ARPGs.
I have played it for a while, albeit shorter than some true veterans, and I am a little bit torn in my opinion about it. The customizations options are great and the story is cool and engaging. However, the game feels very much grindy overall and you have to win the game to unlock higher difficulty settings, which is a bit boring in my opinion. Also, the loot from some early bosses are better than what comes later for certain builds, meaning you have to return back to areas you have passed through and grind the same bosses again for better versions of the same loot that you already have, which is also a tad boring. I’ve also had some weird stuttering issues on Linux. Otherwise, great game and I recommend trying it!
It’s a good game, but you should know ZA/UM (the studio behind the game) was sold under suspicious cirucmstances; the lead designer and other major memebrs are no longer part of the studio (they sued, but it didn’t go anywhere). Personally I wouldn’t give them any money.
I really don’t understand. Can someone divulge the circumstances or is this all just hearsay? IP law really isn’t all that complicated. Its been in practice for a long time, and generally things only need to go to court when one of the parties didn’t do some basic homework. If the court didn’t rule in the author’s favor I find it hard to believe the author didn’t legitimately give up their rights to that IP.
Four prominent members left at once, including the lead designer and the game’s artist. They claimed the studio was acquired through a fraudulent purchase and went to court (and the suit was dismissed). There are many more details, look it up if you want to know more.
The studio has since laid off 25% and cancelled a standalone expansion to Disco Elysium and and its sequel.
People Make Games did a 2.5 hour deep dive on it. youtu.be/JGIGA8taN-MI’m blown away by the amount of work they put into it. Just finished watching it. What a mess. I’m going to need some sleep while I process all of that.
eventually …
So after having watched that, I’m convinced that Robert Kurvitz and Aleksander Rostov were defrauded. I take what the studio employees are saying with a grain of salt. I mean, they are still employed so how can they possibly be trust worthy. Even if Argo wrote Cuno (god bless him). If Kurvitz was difficult to work under, it has nothing to do with the alleged theft of his share in the company. That People Make Games really leaned into his toxicity at the end of this doc kinda ticked me off. Like yeah he shouldn’t have to answer to that. That’s not the story. That’s a distraction. If the Estonian court doesn’t rule in Kurvitz’s and Rostov’s favor, they better have a damn good explanation.
I’m considering pirating the game, since I bought it 2 years ago and have been unable to login to my rockstar account or receive any help from support. I bought the game, just can’t play it because of the launcher. I’ve only played about 1hr through, I know the game has so much more to offer
Rdr2 I bought full price and don’t regret so if you can get it for cheaper it is worth if you like slower paced games. I know some people can find it boring especially the beginning parts but the story is great.
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