Started cranking Monster Hunter again.
Finally finished Iceborne. Monster hunter’s gameplay always blows me away.

I splurged on the Steam winter sale and bought a set of smaller games.
Right now I’m busy playing I Was a Teenage Exocolonist which has been more fun than expected. I really like the story and the multiple paths and endings. The card games are meh, but once you find a good modifier they become very easy.

At the same time I’m also playing Shadows over Loathing which is very very funny in short sessions.

Duck Game

Vecter

My fiance and I just finished the DLC for The Case of the Golden Idol, and not only is that game awesome, but the story hooks for the DLC were a pleasant surprise. We can’t wait for the sequel.

I’ve been playing a lot of Pillars of Eternity, and I made it to Act 2. It’s impressive how insanely good this game is. And then on top of that, it’s impressive that I think everything I like about it is done better in Baldur’s Gate 3.

I finally made it to Master rank in Street Fighter 6! Still some input frustrations until the game can get a season 2 patch, but I’m just happy to finally have something like an Elo rather than the superficial league system, even though my master rating settled slightly below the default 1500 value.

EDIT: Missed the bonus question. Of the games I’m confident are coming out in 2024, I’d say Avowed, which is why I’m playing Pillars of Eternity now.

I‘m having a blast alternating between Tunic and Sleeping Dogs to get an unusual, but not unpleasant mix of action, adventure, and puzzles. I’ll probably pick up Cyberpunk after finishing the latter, as it seems to set the mood for it (at least in terms of the city vibes and the protagonist’s story somewhat).

As for 2024 games, I’m trying to steer clear of any announcements. In general, I don’t enjoy the “hype season” phase; for me that time is better spent doing something else - carpe diem and all that. Path of Exile 2 is the only game I can name for this year and that’s because I used to have a borderline unhealthy amount of hours in POE1. Time well spent.

Holy fuck is there a lot of content in Cyberpunk 2077. I remember when the game came out people complained of it being as wide as an ocean and as deep as a puddle but those people can fuck right outta here. It’s chock full of interesting stories to learn about and tons of fun gameplay. Same goes for Phantom Liberty which takes countless hours to get through.

I get that cost does not directly correlate to play time when it comes to video games, but it’s hard for me not to gawk at how this game was sold for the same price point of the yearly reskin of <insert corporate slop here>.

No, the irony of how CyberPUNK was almost ruined by corporate interference is not lost on me, but it’s clear that the developers, artists, writers, programmers, and designers behind this game are true masters of the craft.

This year, I’m most looking forward to playing through it again after I’ve taken a good couple months off.

Diablo 4: Season 2 - Got all the items for Midwinter Blight, so now I’m back to working on season objectives. I only have 2 more to complete in order to get all the rewards. Right now my focus is on upgrading 5 glyphs to level 21. So far I’ve completed 3.

Diablo 3 - Logged in to do the Darkening of Tristram anniversary event for fun and realized I was missing a reward for a challenge I have never got around to completing, so I’m currently working on killing all the unique monsters for the event for the classic demon portrait. I’m only missing two and it seems like those bastards are just refusing to spawn.

Alan Wake 2 - I still haven’t finished this, and it’s mostly because I keep getting sidetracked with exploring and trying to find every little thing. But I am loving every second of the story, I don’t even know how to describe it. I’ve been having so many emotions seeing characters from the first game being what they are now. I’m also starting to run into some visual bugs that are weird, but nothing game breaking. I feel like I’m toward the end of the game, so I’ve been backtracking a lot to find things that I may have missed. I’m kind of hoping I get it done this week, because I would love to get to the Dead Space remake.

As for what I’m looking forward to in 2024, I’m really hoping Outlast Trials gets out of Early Access. I love the Outlast series, but don’t really like jumping into games when they haven’t been ‘officially’ released.
I think Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is supposed to come out this year (hopefully), but I don’t think I’ve seen an official release date yet.

Mostly Against the Storm and Granblue Fantasy: Versus Rising! I’m actually really enjoying GBVSR and as someone that has struggled getting into fighting games in the past despite really enjoying them and wanting to get better at them, this one has got me hooked so far.

As for anticipated games, the latest Momodora game comes out very soon. There’s also Granblue Fantasy: Relink which looks interesting, and the latest FFXIV expansion, Dawntrail, this summer!

I’m trying out some FOSS games.

Mindustry. I expected Mindustry to be a Factorio clone, but it’s uniquely fast-paced and messy. I find it difficult to tell the buildings apart, though, so I may have to hunt down a graphics mod.

Beyond All Reason. I really enjoyed Planetary Annihilation, so this seems like a natural pick. I’ve barely sunk my teeth into it, but I’m impressed so far.