In preparation of the Mists of Pandaria Turbo Mode in like 10 days, I’m playing World of Warcraft, and catching up on all the stuff I missed in the last three years. So far, I’ve leveled two characters to 70, although I skipped all dialogue and cutscenes. I just don’t care at all about this stuff in this game.

I gotta be honest though, while the quest progression while leveling is fine, once you’re done and max level it becomes a complete clusterfuck. Since this is the tail end of the expansion, all the story content that has been released in the last 18 months, just gets dumped on you. You just get tons of new story quests. One third of which you can’t start, because you need some reputation level with a faction or something. Another third needs a previous story to be done first, and the last third you can actually do. Your quest log is full of all that useless bloat, and it becomes a nightmare to sort through. Then there are tons of quests that are supposed to introduce you to the various new mechanics that were added, but those basically drown in the sea of all the other shit. I’m not the biggest fan of the forced story and gating of everything behind it in FF14, but at least I never needed a guide to find out which campaign quest I should do next. Also, important quests that unlock stuff are usually marked with a different color indicator, so they aren’t hard to miss. That’s something Blizzard should definitely copy. Luckily I have a bunch of friends, who play the game continuously, who I can ask about the most important stuff, otherwise I’d be lost.

I’m really into collecting pets and pet battles in the game, so I’ve been spending a lot of time flying around, catching everything new, etc. I wonder why Blizzard never added pet battles to the companion app or released it separately for mobile. Back in the day, I’d definitely spent a bunch of time just doing random battles (and would probably still now). I might have to look into setting up the game on my Steam Deck and try out just exploring, catching all the pets, or do the simple quests.

Still playing Horizon Forbidden West. I’m close to exploring everything of the base game map. Once I’m done with that, I’ll focus on the rest of the side quests and finally the main story.

More Horizon Forbidden West, just exploring, killing, looting. While I think it’s the best looking game I’ve played (on a technical level), it does have some super ugly effects, mainly the water reflections and the steam that comes out of the big doors, when you open them for the first time. Those look like ass. Also, climbing is pretty much brainless like the latest Assassin’s Creed games, but has a few too many bugs to match it. Regularly you’ll get “stuck” on a cliff, because Aloy doesn’t want to get to one of the dozens of handholds in arm’s reach. Same with climbing up on top of a rock or cliff, sometimes Aloy just refuses to do so, unless you move slightly to the side. Those are pretty minor issues, but are still annoying.

Then, some Dave the Diver, although that’s been on the back burner this week, since I got really into Horizon.

Nioh 2 and Battleblock Theater (when played Coop)

No? I really hope this isn’t a serious question, because I can’t imagine how you’d come to this conclusion, if you read the full sentence.

I think that’s just a concession from Nvidia, and they wouldn’t really have to pull any games from the service.

He’s a weirdo, but I think it was just normal porn. Maybe it was some porn with magic tricks, since he’s into that as well.

I like the game and the DRG theme, but I’m not too big on how to (properly) unlock your weapons, it’s just a bit too convoluted for no reason.

I could deal with server queues, I’ve played WoW. Broken matchmaking is definitely a dealbreaker for me though, since none of my friends play the game.

I’ve refunded the game now and might check it out later, since I just don’t really see it working properly anytime soon.

I beat Final Fantasy 2. It’s good, definitely one of the better JRPG stories for me, although some parts could definitely be improved if they were a bit more fleshed out. The main characters are really lame, but the supporting cast makes up for it somewhat. The magic system is pretty bad, since there are a gazillion different spells, most of them useless, but even if you wanted to use them, you’d have to level up each one separately for every character. Even the auto battle can’t really save that.

Then Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor made it to Early Access, but right now it’s pretty disappointing. I’ve done a dozen or so runs, but all four classes feel just really weak, even on the lowest difficulty. There is some meta progression, but they improve your character so little, and get really expensive, really quickly, that I don’t think it’ll make that much of a difference. I’ll give it some a bit more time, maybe unlock a few more things, since I like the DRG Theme, but will probably shelve it soon and go back to Soulstone Survivors, Vampire Survivors or the dozen other games like this I haven’t played yet.

Next, after like a 10-month break, I’m back to Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin. Playing through FF1 really made me play this again. Back when it was released on Steam, I made it through the base game and started on the first DLC, but the then new Bahamut difficulty was a bit too much for me at the time. By that point you can’t just overpower everything with better gear anymore, but need to pay attention to your build and stats. I still need to wrap my head around things more, although it kinda sucks, since there are very little guides on the internet to help with that. Most information is for the endgame on the highest difficulty, which doesn’t help me that much. There is a kind of “easy mode” called Extra Mode, which (in combination with certain gear that you get) will make you basically permanently invincible, and everyone and their mom recommends to just use that to get to the endgame (where the real game begins hurr durr). I don’t want to do that, so I have to crawl through Discord channels, which really sucks, so I can get the basics.

I also tried Helldivers 2, but it’s kinda unplayable on Steam, unless you have a group of friends to make a private lobby with, or are willing to manually add random people to your friends list, both of which is a no for me dawg. Matchmaking in this game is broken and doesn’t work, if you can even make it into the game. I have no idea how this isn’t talked about more, considering other games get clowned on for far less. I’ll give it a more few days, but I’m not very hopeful, since it’s already been over a week, and will probably refund it.

What? It just removes a mod. If you don’t like it, don’t use Nexusmods. By removing this disclaimer it makes the mod creator look bad. Because the disclaimer wasn’t hurting anyone.

I’ve also played a bunch of demos from the Steam Next Fest, that’s currently going on, but because it’s a lot I’ll split it into a separate comment. The Next Fest is only running for another day, so if you want to check out some demos, you don’t have too much time at this point.

Summerhouse is a builder in the same vein as Townscaper, The Block or Dorfromantik without the scores. You just build a house with whatever parts you want, until you’re satisfied. Not really my type of game, so I’ll pass on this.

Gatekeeper is an isometric rogue-like, similar to Risk of Rain. You do the typical stuff like killing enemies and upgrading your character, nothing you haven’t seen yet. It could be alright, but the demo was a bit samey. I only did one run, but the different levels were all pretty small and looked the same. Maybe things change a bit if you make it further, but I don’t know. I’ll have to look a bit into it, once it’s released.

Mullet Mad Jack is a retro shooter with extremely flashy visuals (I think I heard it described as maximalist). Because of a dystopian cyberpunk setting, where social media controls everything, you only live for 10s unless you kill enemies, so the viewers give you likes for extra time. Then you just run through levels, kick or shoot robots and try to save the girl. I found it extremely unappealing and will not be back for the full release.

Kingsgrave is a top-down, light survival or metroidvania type game, where you control the recently resurrected king and try to rebuild your kingdom. You collect materials, which let you unlock more abilities, so you can get to more parts of the world. This one didn’t really grip me, but if I stumble over it again once it’s release I might check it out again.

Hexarium is like Mini Metro or similar games, where you connect buildings of the same colors to get points. I might have just been dumb, but it seemed like the game didn’t really work properly yet, because I had some seemingly impossible combinations. Like I get a starting point, that’s on the very edge of the map, so I can’t really build anything or points straight into water, where you’re severely limited with what you can build.

Copy Cat is a play-as-a-cat game. In the beginning you’re only inside a house and I don’t know if it’ll open up later. The cat comments on everything (with floating text in the world) as if it’s a human and can understand English. The gameplay was also a bit clunky and I don’t think I’ll be back for more.

Black Dragon Mage is a Survivors-like (dunno what else to call it). It has manual skills and aiming, and as you level up you get more abilities and upgrade existing ones. It was kinda boring, so I’ll stick with the games I already have.

Artifact Seeker: Legend of Aurorium is another Survivors-like, better than Black Dragon Mage. It has the typical Chinese Mobile game look to it (don’t really know how to describe it). One interesting feature is, after each stage you go to a world map and choose where to go next, à la Slay the Spire. You can choose between combat stages or text events where you can get upgrades. This one is a maybe, but I have a bunch of other games like this already bought, that I have to try at least. before I’ll buy more.

Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is a point-and-click adventure game, with isometric 3D environments and 2D cut-out characters, like Paper Mario. In the demo, which is really short, you find clues in single rooms, to solve Mad Libs style puzzles to solve them. So far it’s a tiny step up from something like Frog Detective, but I don’t know if it gets more complex later. Another one I’ll keep an eye on for me.

Pepper Grinder is a 2D platformer, where you play as a girl with a drill arm. You can destroy some parts of the environment, but I guess it’s mainly about burrowing through sand, which is like swimming through water in other games, collecting coins, finding secrets, the normal stuff. It’s level based, which caught me a bit by surprise, because seemingly all 2D platformers these days are metroidvanias. Not sure about this one yet, maybe later down the line, when I’m more in the mood for a game like this.

Finally, News Tower, a building and management game about a newspaper publisher in the 1930s. You slowly build your tower, get more workers for you, either reporters, typesetters, and whatever else you need, send them to work on stories, so you can print something on Sundays. Could be neat, but not something I’m especially interested in.

A bit more Diablo 4, which got a time-limited event this week, but it’s not really anything. Just activate shrines and kill monsters for an hour to unlock some cosmetics. Fine by itself, but nothing that’s going to make someone play more of the game.

Some Final Fantasy 2 (Pixel Remaster), but this one is pretty weird (compared to the other early FF games). You don’t have the normal leveling system, but all your characters can do anything, but they gain proficiency with whatever weapon they use, if they use magic, what specific spell, if they defended, etc. It’s alright, although I prefer normal classes or jobs.

My main problem in the game is, that it’s not always really clear where you need to go. About 30 minutes after you start, basically half of the world is open to you (technically even more), and you got like 10 places where you can go. You get some general objectives, but are not really told where to start with them. E.g. at one point you’re told to speak with Josef, as if everyone knows the guy, but nobody even says in which town he lives. So you’ll just wander around, talk to anyone who’ll listen, until you find him (or use the internet). The first game also didn’t really tell you where to go, but the world was a lot smaller and where you could go was a lot more limited.

Anyone find something interesting? Most of the games under “Trending Upcoming” don’t appeal to me, so I have to dig a bit deeper.

Gatekeeper looks like it could be fun, and I’ve downloaded the demo, but haven’t checked it out yet.

More Diablo 4, but I’m like 95% done with the season. My Barbarian is level 100, I’ve completed the Season Journey, did Tier 100 Vaults, killed all the Uber Bosses (except Lilith) at least once, etc. I could of course min-max even more, to kill enemies 10ms faster, but I won’t focus on that. I’ll still do some runs here and there, but will try to focus on other games for now.

There is a time-limited event, that’s starting in a few days, that I’ll check out, but dunno how much there is to do.

The Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster games are on sale at last, so I’ve snatched those up on Steam and played through the first game. I was surprised how much of the typical FF DNA was already in this. Some of the mechanics and game design are somewhat antiquated, which is to be expected for a 35+ year old game, but the QoL additions really help, to make most pretty much a non-issue.

I played Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin previously, so seeing / reading all those familiar names and locations really make me want to go back to that game.

I want to play through FF2 next week, but we’ll see if the D4 event hooks me, or I find anything else.

Since you’re on PC, using cheats or potentially mods can expand the list of games you have available, since you might be able to just ignore certain aspects of a game, like combat, money or resources in general.

The more recent Assassin’s Creed games have something called a Discovery Tour, where you can just explore the world, without combat. They are partially meant for educational purposes and can teach about the different regions and history, and offer guided tours. I don’t know if there’s a real free roam, where you can just do whatever though.

You mentioned buying Goat Simulator, so maybe other of these “Simulator” games might be for you.

I don’t know how much you can go into houses, but Farming Simulator could be worth a look. Your kid can probably just explore the map and maybe even try some of the farming.

As someone else mentioned, Slime Rancher might be fun just to explore the world with the cute creatures all around, but there’s not really much or any buildings as far as I know (don’t know if the sequel has this stuff).

A Short Hike could be worth a look. You’re on a mountainous island / national park type deal and your main objective is to get to the peak of the mountain, but you can just explore, do some side quests, solve puzzles, etc. I feel like the screenshots on the Steam Store page for the game look really ugly, since it’s so pixelated, but that’s just a filter, that you can change in game (from smooth to really pixely).

Still mainly Diablo 4, but a lot less this week. I finished my seasonal goals faster than I thought, and have been slowly mopping up some of the stuff that’s season independent. I filled out the map, found the Altars (3/4 by myself the rest with a guide), and also did all the dungeons to unlock the legendary aspects, but I guess those reset, and you have to do them again in the new season (or just the ones you’re interested in).

Then I also did more Soulstone Survivors runs. So far I’ve been mainly playing as the default class, the barbarian, and unlocking everything for him. There’s so much stuff, and then do a lot more for all the other classes as well. It’s fun, though still lacks a bit of variety, mainly in the levels.

The videos and articles about the game were pretty entertaining.

I’ve been thinking about giving Diablo 4 another shot… I haven’t played since release is the new season any good?

I’ve only played the current season (season 2) and it’s very fun. However, it’s almost over and the new season starts on the 23rd, so that’s probably a better time to go back.

You mean when your seasonal characters become non-season and your items are mailed to you? In the beginning I was sorting through stuff, still keeping some items, but later I just destroyed almost everything, since I don’t play non-season anyway, so I’ll probably do the same here.

It sucks, that there’s apparently no rebirth feature, like D3 had. I liked playing essentially the same characters over and over again from level 1, and not having to delete them and make a new one.