Space Marine 2. By the Emperor, what a blast!
War Within
Morrowind via OpenMW and the IHeartVanilla mod list (minus the texture pack and lighting fix).
What a fascinating game. If you can get past the fact that every action is a background dive roll, the game is so intriguing. Everybody has paragraphs of things to talk about, and can clue you in to small happenings around the world that aren’t necessarily quests
The couple of dungeons I have been in have been pretty large, and are not linear in the way that Skyrim was. I haven’t been far, but there has already been plenty of enemy and environment variation. Not the prettiest game I’ve played, but the world is enthralling
I will say, this game is hard. The fights have been quite challenging so far. I’m having to take completely different approaches to things than I would normally, but I appreciate that
I also play a round of Crazy Taxi here and there for something a little more mindless. Honestly I don’t think I’ve played anything in 2 or 3 days. Haven’t been feeling so hot
Yakuza 3 Remastered
I’m about halfway through it, so I probably won’t finish this week, but I’m really enjoying it. I’m hoping to finish it before the new Zelda game releases, which is what I plan to dive into next.
I also plan to play a few indies as well, so please reply with any you think are worth checking out. I have a list, but I’m always up for recs.
+1 for Yakuza. I hope you have played 0, Kiwami 1 and Kiwami 2 before 3.
What genre of indies are you looking for?
Yup, started with 0 and working my way through.
Some genres I especially like:
- puzzles - Return of the Obra Dinn, Manifold Garden, etc
- platformers - absolutely loved INSIDE and LIMBO, currently enjoying A Hat in Time, loved Psychonauts (Psychonauts 2 is on the list, but it’s not really “indie” anymore), little nightmares
- metroidvanias - Blue Fire, Hollow Knight, etc
- point and click - Darkside Detective, Deponia, etc
- fighting/souls-like - Furi, Titan Souls
- story - What Remains of Edith Finch
- other - Recettear, Grand Mountain Adventure, Human Resource Machine
Basically, if it has really good gameplay or story, I’ll probably like it.
It’s probably more interesting to point out what I tend to not like:
- roguelikes
- city builders - I like high quality builders like Cities: Skylines, but indies tend to not have the budget
- rhythm
- stealth
- shooters - very samey; I’d rather play AAA, such as Doom
But then again, there’s an exception to each of these (e.g. I loved Slay the Spire and Black Mesa). So honestly, I’d probably enjoy anything that really stands out as being unique or interesting.
I haven’t played Obra Dinn yet, but I keep hearing that anyone into that game is also into The Case of the Golden Idol, which I can confirm is fantastic. I’d recommend the DLC as well, which has a neat story hook to it after the main game.
I’m not sure how literal you meant the “fighting” tag, as opposed to something like a boss rush, but I’d call Skullgirls the best game ever made if you’re into the multiplayer aspect.
Nice. Of the classic Yakuza games I liked 4 the best, I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.
I will just mention some of the games I played from the genres you like. They are all pretty well known, so you probably played them already or have them on your list.
Puzzles: Does Turn Based Combat count as puzzles? Tactical Breach Wizards and Into the Breach (A rogue like, but it is sooo good).
Platformers: Celeste, Horace, Dustforce and Little Nightmares
Metroidvanias: Guacamelee
Point and Click: Everything by Wadjet Eye Games. Seriously, everything they developed or published.
Story aka Walking Simulators: The Suicide of Rachel Foster, Firewatch, The Beginner’s Guide, Dr. Langeskov (It’s free!), Jazzpunk, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Tactical Breach Wizards and Into the Breach
I’ve played Into the Breach, but not Tactical Breach Wizards, adding it to the list. :)
Platformers: Celeste, Horace, Dustforce and Little Nightmares
Loved Little Nightmares, haven’t played the others. Thanks!
Guacamelee
I’ve definitely heard of it, but never got around to it. Thanks for the reminder.
Wadjet Eye Games
Huh, I haven’t played any of those, I’ll add a couple and probably end up playing all of them. Thanks!
Story aka Walking Simulators
Firewatch and Jazzpunk are on the list, I have The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, but the others aren’t.
These are some fantastic recommendations, thanks!!
Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] - Haven’t had a whole lot of time to practice, but I’m working on charge partitioning. Managed to get double ball a few times in a match.
Mahjong Soul/Riichi City/IRL mahjong - After getting demoted to Expert I went on an even worse losing streak for a bit, but I seem to be clawing my way back now. It’s just sample size, or so I keep telling myself.
Splatoon 3 - Grand Festival was rad. Not the Turf War part, Turf still sucks, but it was the second best concert I saw all week.
I just got into death duel VR wich is a PVP VR physics based sword fighting game where if you get hit on the arm it gets disabled or legs or spine… it’s been pretty fun. I also got back in skyrim VR with my conjugation build that just revives my last strongest enemies as undead thralls so i have 3 companions fighting for me. :)
Conscript requires a lot of time set aside to play it in order to make any progress, so instead, lately I’ve been playing Divinity: Original Sin. I had put it down toward the end of act 2, and it took a good deal of looking at a walkthrough to figure out how to progress from where I left off, since the quest log only helps so much, but I wrapped up act 2 and got to act 3. As combat-heavy as this game is, I do really enjoy the cut of Larian’s jib, even when it’s not as good as Baldur’s Gate 3.
I also picked up Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, or the MvC Collection for short. I never had a Dreamcast back in the day, and I had probably only played a couple of hours of these games in arcades or via emulators in my entire life, so I never got to dig into these games before. I put together a ratio team using Justin Wong’s 2024 ratio list of Dhalsim/Juggernaut/Thanos and even won some matches online with it, so that felt good. For a high-tier team, I do want to avoid as many of the mainstay characters as possible, not just because I’m not a rushdown player but also because it’s more interesting to see anyone other than Magneto, Storm, and Sentinel on screen, so I might run Dhalsim/Dr. Doom/Cable. I don’t imagine I’ll stick with MvC2 for too long, since Skullgirls is, in my opinion, just a better MvC2, but it’s fun seeing what I might have been playing if I had a Dreamcast in the early 00s instead of a Gamecube, especially with the next fighting collection on the way too. I also tried out X-Men: Children of the Atom in this collection, and boy can I not figure out how to stop the CPU-controlled Colossus. That dude expertly dodges my ice beams, seemingly can’t be stopped once his armor is up, and will air grab me the second I try to super jump out of the corner.
The rerelease of Doom 1.
This time with Pistol Start, as I recently learned that the levels were balanced around that. It is challenging, but feels so right. The beginning of a level often plays like a little puzzle. Who to kill in what order to get to a decent weapon, before your 50 pistol shots run out. Can’t wait to play the new semi-official expansion they added with the rerelease.
