What have you been playing this week?

The wife and I are doing our first play through of stardew valley.

It's a lot better than I expected

If you're playing on PC and end up wanting more content, I can't reccomend the Stardew Valley Expanded modpack enough.
Adds a ton of new townsfolk, and an entire second neighboring town, all as fully fleshed out as the OG townies and all woven in with base game content to the point that they don't stand out as mod added.
- Thanks! We will finish vanilla and then look into mods. We haven't even unlocked ginger island yet. Haha
- Maybe SVE on the first playthrough is a little much...
- ALSO the anthro character mod… my sweet dragon Abigail.

They put Reatroachievements on Gamecube games so apparently I'm now balls deep into OG Animal Crossing. Don't even know how it happened, but Tom Nook is saying my kneecaps are at risk if I don't come up with 150K bells by the end of the month.

Man, that Nook is teaching everybody hard truths about capitalism.
Holy shit, by bringing this site to my attention I think you may have ruined my life, but fuck it. I'm going in.
- It is really cool. I don't always love the achievement design some of the volunteer coders land on, but it's still a wonderful way to revitalize old games. And the recently added completion tracking stats, where you don't just get an award for 100% every achievement, but also for beating the main campaign, is incredibly fun and useful to track which games you've playted through. Sony and Microsoft should steal that immediately.

does Fallout:London count for patient gamers? Fallout 4 is old, but the mod itself is new. That mod has consumed all my gaming hours so far.

I guess we play old games partially because we wait for mods to release? So we shouldn't have to wait for the mods to be old?

Hades.

Avoiding spoilers, the game just keeps unfolding out additional gameplay content and story long past what originally appeared like it was going to be the end.

There's definitely some slow parts in terms of progression though, as the resource costs for some of the permanent stat upgrades and house contractor stuff are just expensive enough to be annoying. Like, do you want to have fun this run or do you want to pray to RNGesus that you get the resource multiplier boons and hit a brick wall later when you haven't gotten enough combat boosting boons? Otherwise enjoy doing multiple runs to unlock one single thing that may or may not be purely cosmetic.

The gameplay carries it through any rough spots though, along with the drip fed stories of the different characters that progress each time you lose a run.

Overall a wonderful game.

RNGesus
I think you mean HeRNGmes
But yeah Hades is a good game. Got it in the latest Steam Summer Sale. it's my current couch / big screen Deck game.
My current desktop game is still Just Cause 2.
- I very impatiently snagged Hades 2, after my 100 run Hades streak. It’s INCREDIBLE. I beat it a few times and now I’m waiting until full release to do it again.

Finally got into Baldur's Gate 3, and oh boy! I get what people were saying. I'm INVESTED. I'm going Dark Urge and currently trying to figure out if I wanna be with Karlach or Shadowheart.

Shadow heart has some nice early appeal, but karlach is bae all the way. Tried to go with shadow heart the first time around, and couldn't bring myself to do it to karlach

Skyrim, I have modded the game on Steam Deck and installed a bunch of mods, including, Beyond Skyrim Bruma and it runs great.

Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. Loving the new mechanics so far.

I still haven't gotten to maps but I love the tiny town. Getting to trade currency is also great.

Rimworld, finally started playing with one of the expansions, Biotech. Permadeath mode or whatever it's called.

I keep shooting pods of toxic waste at one of my enemies. They keep coming over to complain about it....with fire and pain

Ghost of Tsushima - Took a while to click, but now I'm really enjoying it. Pulling off some of the sword moves perfectly feels so satisfying. And it's gorgeous to look at.

And also Dave the Diver. Very charming game and it keeps adding more and more layers to the gameplay. The gameplay loop is really fun so far.

Played daily dose of Helldivers 2 and some EDF6.
Finally completed Talos Principle 2.
Gave Suicide Squad a try.
Returned a bit to Trine 5 here and there

I'm close to finishing The Talos Principal 2 as well, I'm quite enjoying it.
- It's really good but like 30% too long for my taste. I had to push myself forward to complete it.
Do you play EDF5 at all?
- I did multiple playthroughs, over ~150h. I do not expect to return to it, now that EDF6 is out. It reaaaaaally resembles EDF5. From what I have seen thus far, it could be called an "expandalone". There is much more difference between EDF4.1 and EDF5 than EDF5 and EDF6

I've been enjoying OpenArena. The bots are vicious.

Good to sée you here!

Did you know Need For Speed: World is alive and kicking? Not officially, obviously, but through the power of fan servers and the wonderful project that is Soapbox Race World. It's not the best NFS in the series and can be pretty tough if you play it without power ups but it's fun.

For those who never heard of NFS:W - it's a live service, online only entry in the series. It consists of maps from Most Wanted and Carbon combined into one and brings some additional gameplay changes specific for the live service model (power ups, performance parts with incremental stats upgrades etc). It also has a pretty good visual editor - can be a bit cumbersome at times but you can do some great stuff with it.

Fan servers are surprisingly active and provide A LOT of new cars, parts etc do play with. They also have different rules so if you want a place where getting everything you want is easy, you can do that as well.

My second game is Wagahime or Waga Himegimi ni Eikan o, a comedy visual novel by Minato Soft. Unlike their other work (that I read anyway) it's set in a medieval fantasy world with magic, beast races and all the usual stuff. It has three main routes, each expanding the world and providing details for the other ones, and each filled with fun characters and events.

I won't be spending much time on it since all that's left is finishing the final route but it's a great read and I really wanted to mention it. Minato Soft seriously reignited my love for VNs lately.

Last but not least, Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery - a sci-fi strategy RPG. It came out this year so I'm not going to go too much into it but it's a great and at times challenging title. Worth looking into if you're interested in this genre.

The gift that keeps on giving, No Man's Sky. Pretty much just aimlessly wandering around and having a blast!

Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Again. So good.

Happy cake day

Been going back to Minecraft parkour and adventure maps, lots of fun

Sadly, I‘ve been sick, so I couldn’t play for more than a couple minutes at a time AND my Steam Deck decided to go into a boot loop for no reason, black screen, fans spinning, no BIOS access; had to let it run itself dry in the boot loop for 6 hours and when I connected the AC adapter it booted normally as if nothing happened, crazy!

Anyway, I played a little of Frog Detective 2, it‘s a silly, very short, and simple game series that was perfectly suited for my current state of mind.

Final Fantasy 14, specifically the new expansion content.

GTA IV for the first time. I’m liking it so far

Absolutely loved that game. Was so stoked for its release (i watched one of the trailers oh so many times in anticipation) and got it at launch (not very patient of me...) and was not let down at all.

Skyrim SE, yet again. At this point it feels like a second job.

Monster Hunter World

The Last of Us Part 2 - what a RIDE!

I just started playing Sekiro.

I started once before, but life happened and I kinda just stopped.
It is a lot of fun though and I think I will stick with it this time.

C&C: Tiberian Sun. Damn, that game still looks great.

Me too! So stoked to be playing it again.
- One tip for the final Nod mission I would have wanted to know before playing it - the game tells you that you have time until the GDI station makes three orbits and then gives you an hour timer. I was running out of time and made a despearate push for the final objective with just seconds remaining and then... another hour timer started. You have 3 hours to beat that map, I thought it was just the one =/
  It's the finale where you have all the toys and get to play with the enemy in any way you want. Don't make the same mistake as me and rush through it, you can take your time.

I’m playing Dishonored these days. It was highly recommended after I said I was loving Prey.

Is it OK if I’m not loving it? Hahaha.

The no kill limitation was really shoe-horned in there, so I think I’ll only really have fun on the second playthrough. Shame.

Prey limits you quite a bit for the good ending, but it’s still complex, broad and fun.

Persona 5 Royal Reloaded

I got P5R on steam sale at lowest price and found out with a jail broken PS4 (which i have) you can convert your save to PC so you don't have to start over (completed first dungeon on PS4 and dropped it a few years ago)

Can't stop playing it now, especially with mods that mix up the battle music and one ones that restore the oddly cut content shown in the recently leaked 2015 beta build. (More hangouts and more "M" rated language present)

Minetest with mineclonia ; Dead Cells ; 0A.D. with my childrens ; Grim Dawn with Reign of Terror mod and Zombasite

Alan Wake 2
Last of part 1 remake
Hogwarts legacy

Alan Wake 2 is an amazing game, glad I got it. Visually it’s stunning, storytelling is amazing and on all aspects just wow. Never thought they do make a sequel out of Alan Wake.

Replaying Last of us and still loving it. Not much else to say about it.

Unfortunately I’m not that happy about Hogwarts legacy. The beginning was great but after 3 hours, I find the gameplay and story very dull and close to dropping it. It makes me a bit sad, I like Harry Potter in general and was hoping for a great magical game. However, they did the whole world building of Hogwarts very well.

I'm about to finish Phoenix Wright 1 and with it the whole saga (I started my replay with 2), and I'm playing Breath Of Fire IV. The first time was 2 years ago and my phone died mid-playthrough, hopefully this time there will be no issues. I'm playing it on an RG Cube for the portability, the only downside is I can't fully appreciate the gorgeous sprite work in such a small screen.

I picked up Xcom 2 War of the Chosen after walking away for 2 years. Loaded it up and remembered why, half my squad severely wounded and surrounded. Knuckled down and got everyone out alive. Don't name your soldiers after your friends.

Startet The Witcher last week, the controls aren't as wonky as i remembered.

Heroes of Hammerwatch

Picked up elden ring on sale three weeks ago, and already have 90 hourd in it, and I'm on my second run. First was a strength build, and now a dex/arcane bleed build!

There was a sorcerer build in between those two, but it trivialised my favourite part of the game so I stopped it

I got Far Cry 5 for like $7.50 on sale and have been playing it with a friend, and it's actually been pretty fun, mostly driving around blowing stuff up with a rocket launcher.

I also got Doom Eternal, which has been more interesting than I expected; I thought it would be mostly just hold-left-click kind of gameplay, but you actually really need to think about managing ammo and positioning and cooldowns and tons of stuff like that. I feel really bad at it but it's been lots of fun.

Zenless Zone Zero. Can't stop playing it. Combats fun. Story is pretty good.

Starfield and Lego Skywalker Saga

Picked up my "new" 2ds xl and been playing the heck outta smash 4 3ds and earthbound.

I've been playing Forza horizon 4, Euro Truck Sim 2, and ESO. And a little Switch emulation.

I completed Broforce, and it took me 13 hours. It’s a funny and gory game.

I am playing Doom Eternal. It’s a gory and cruel, raging game. The atmosphere is really vivid and cool, the hell scenes and the Cthulhu art are amazing. Masterpiece!

I’m also playing Retrowave as a BGM player. It’s a purely casual and relaxing mini game, and it creates an '80s retro atmosphere. I like it and I really love the synthwave genre.

I’m still playing Cyberpunk 2077, just drive my motorcycle and explore casually. I think everyone knows everything about this game. So I won’t introduce it.

Foxhole. War 115.

Just wish I had a good team to play with.

Crusader Kings 3

I haven't played this week, but I've been playing Crusader Kings 3 for a few weeks now, and it's really cool.

I've started Celeste last week and damn that game get difficult quick (at least if you try to get all the strawberries^^). Also the Pico8 version is a whole other beast o.O

Also the usual TF2 for me, which now miraculously works on Linux again…

I got very high with a couple of friends and we played the party mode of flatout ultimate edition.

When alone with my daughter, we tend to play Goat Simulator 3. When completely alone I play some Bro Force or Binding of Isaac.

The first one is Space Warlord Organ Trading Similator. It's a simple game of trading, well, organs, but it has good soundtrack, nice visuals and different storylines that you reveal through doing quests and accepting/declining incoming transmissions. The game sessions could be really short, so the game is very fitting when you don't know where to spend 10 minutes of your time.

The other one I've been playing is Fallout 2. Super good. It has its bad sides and certainly has a feel of an old game, but if you're an RPG genre fan, definitely give it a try. Although, it requires some level of effort to play it, you can't just load and start mindlessly doing radiant or other simple quests like in Fallout 4, which is a downer for me when I'm tired after work and want to zone out for an hour or two.

I played Fallout 2 again last year whilst I was on a few weeks break from work. I was hoping to capture the magic of the summer of 98/99 when I spent my entire school holiday playing it.
We’ll that doesn’t really work when a toddler and pregnant partner need you all the time... but still super fun and it was to nice revisit and bring back those memories.
- We’ll that doesn’t really work when a toddler and pregnant partner need you all the time...
  Oh god. I can imagine that was quite an experience worthy of the best RPG games 😅