The rogue-lite (?) mode DLC is also surprisingly good, especially after you‘ve done the story missions once and can then ignore them and just try out weird stuff

Satisfactory

I think almost everyone knows this game. I‘m in phase 4 and about to start producing the needed items. All I‘m gonna say is that I would‘ve gone insane if not for community-made blueprints. My biggest gripes with the game are how awful it feels to build a train track, how dumb drones are (cause otherwise everyone would ditch trains, I reckon), and that the hoverpack doesn‘t have a built-in jetpack for when you‘re out of electrical grid range. All in all, I probably prefer this kinda game to be isometric/2D, it‘s finnicky to build a big factory in 3D, although more satisfying to then see it in 3D. I know this sounds negative but that’s just cause it’s quicker to list the negatives since there‘s too many positives - I did have a good time, as my 100+ hours thus far would suggest.

Horizon Chase Turbo

Putting the finishing touches on this one and, my God, get the Senna Forever DLC, it‘s the absolute best part of it! To anyone who doesn‘t know this game: It‘s an old-school racing game that runs at full 90 even on the Deck. I mean old old-school when racing games were 2D and scrolling, although this one is 3D it feels the same. It‘s nice to have a high fps racer on the Deck, so I recommend it. The aforementioned DLC gives it a 1st person camera and F1 racing, and it‘s a match made in heaven!

Glad to hear you‘re having a good time! That game really flew under a lot of people‘s radars. I hope more will give it a shot in the future.

That‘s hard to gauge since I haven‘t played Blasphemous or Mandragora and there certainly is some platforming but I can‘t say if it‘s to an extent you‘d tolerate or not. I personally haven‘t broken a sweat so far, it‘s only been some jumping over gaps and the odd breaking platform (essentially platforming on a mild timer) nothing precise if that helps?

I‘d say you have to do some mild platforming somewhat frequently though, at least in the parts I‘ve been.

It’s been nothing like Hollow Knight in that regard, I can promise that much.

I think you’ll like SnS then. It‘s about 80% Soulslike and 20% Metroidvania.

It‘s a game where you can tell that they played Dark Souls and thought „We really wanna make that as well.“ Armor‘s practically useless, you‘re just looking for the most OP rings and weapon movesets - just like in Souls games (magic is supposedly OP, but I wouldn’t know I‘m not playing a mage, I‘m a 2h kinda guy).

It‘s a game with lots of love and little budget, with lots of things to find and lots of extra things to fight if you look around.

This is all just my opinion being maybe 20% into the game so far, though.

Salt & Sanctuary

I‘ve finally decided to put my mind to Salt & Sanctuary which has been in my library for… a long time but it never grabbed me. Now I‘ve started a new character and I‘m following a guide, it feels more engaging and fun to me with more direction. The guide‘s crazy detailed and I‘m amazed someone sat down and typed all that out (screenshots incl.) for a - in my opinion - rather niche title. The only thing that bugs me is the animation update rate, the game can run at triple digit fps, it still looks and feels like 60.

Octopath Traveler

I‘ve also bought and started Octopath Traveler on Steam which I didn‘t want to at first since I a) have it on Switch already and b) like achievement hunting and boy does that game want you to turn every pebble for that. However, the music is so effing amazing (check out the title theme on YT or wherever) and the game so visually beautiful, I just needed the 60 fps and full res. I realized there‘s something very soothing for me in experiencing a jrpg story in pixelart. I regret nothing (yet).

I‘ve completed Cyber Hook and I can‘t recommend it enough. Screw the story, the gameplay loop and movement is what it‘s all about. It‘s an absolute hidden gem, hands down. I strongly recommend everyone to give it a shot!

I‘ve also been playing some Horizon Chase Turbo and while I think it‘s pretty unique nowadays and runs great on the Deck, it‘s a bit too fast-paced for the small screen in the higher difficulty levels. Still recommend it though.

Lastly, I‘ve done some further quests in Assassin‘s Creed: Unity and I remember reading here that the movement reached perfection in this title and while it might be the best movement in the series (I dunno), I think the movement’s absolutely terrible lol, and the combat is worse still. Everything is so inprecise and slow, the character jumps to ledges I didn‘t even think about and takes ages to climb even when pursued or flatout refuses to climb something for five seconds… And I still don‘t know why AC had to turn into these permanent tavern brawls, stealth seems to be impossible, I‘m now resorting to just smoke bombing and cleaning up every fight. I do enjoy the sightseeing and world but man… I liked Origins more as a game. I won‘t pretend like I‘m an AC god, but other entries in the franchise clicked with me more (2, Black Flag, Origins).

I‘m playing Bowser‘s Fury while waiting for some AFK grind in Core Keeper to finish for that sweet, sweet platinum.

Core Keeper‘s a really good game, the 100-skill-point-grind‘s gotta be the bane of any achievement hunter, though. Anyway, I recommend anyone who liked the likes of Starbound to give it a look.

I‘ve also finished Mario Kart World (not so patient) this week and went back to MK8 to check if it‘s nostalgia but nope, I really think 8 is so much better. A tip for anyone having trouble to three star on 150cc: Stop drifting. The game adjusts difficulty by the amount you drift. If you don‘t drift the AI stops being absolute rubberbanding BS. And you can press dpad down to rewind. If you do that before a blue shell hits, you can avoid the hit.

I‘ve also „finished“ PUBG with a friend of mine this week. It‘s a really fun game but also… so sweaty at this point that even low elo will likely absolutely smoke you. Can‘t really recommend it unless you wanna spend a long time in training to be able to keep up eventually. There‘s three casual games a day where 88% of the lobby are bots and you get to shoot at someone without getting insta headshot back, so that‘s fun at least.

I‘m trying to platinum PUBG, I never vibed with the game but now that I have fun mini goals that aren‘t „win against the sweats,“ I‘m suddenly hooked

Core Keeper with my gf. It‘s the kinda game that just throws you in and lets you figure it out, we both like it a lot. We did a 30 minute cow rescue mission to get that cute thing into our base lol

I‘m playing Children of Morta and PUBG with a friend of mine. CoM is pretty good but it seems short with lots of goal-less grind at the end since we already rescued 2 of 3 minor gods in our initial session. So just one left plus the big guy? We‘ll see. PUBG we‘re just playing the handful casual games a day to try and sneak some achievements and have fun. Normal matches are way too sweaty.

I don‘t really have a good solo game right now, I‘m kind of just jumping between games. I‘m about to boot up Eiyuden Chronicle Rising again, which is a good game but it has yet to fully grab me. Who knows if I‘m still on it in 30 minutes.

I‘ve been getting into Shadow of War.

I liked the first game more when I played it and I feel like I‘m constantly fighting the controls (don‘t jump there! don‘t drain that guy! what are you stuck on now?!), but it‘s fun regardless; and thanks to how bs gaming patents are, it‘s still very unique in the way it plays lol

I‘m playing GOD EATER 3 with a friend and TemTem with my gf.

First of all, I have to use a VPN to see people move in TemTem, I googled it and this is the solution, in decades of gaming and hundreds of games played, this is the first time I have to do something like this and somehow the devs think it‘s not their but my ISP‘s problem.

„Hello, is this ISP? I‘d like to file a complaint: This one game isn‘t working as it should, can you change how your network runs for it? No, it’s just this one game, everything else is fine. …Hey, you can’t call me that!“

I honestly can‘t believe it lol. It‘s still fun although the monster designs seem a bit basic/shallow and I can rarely tell what type something is and even less what type would be effective. It catches the Pokemon flair quite well otherwise. Especially the part where I gotta bend over backwards to find a monster that has IVs I can live with.

GE3 I started playing with a friend thinking we might drop it cause it‘s from 2018 kinda looking like a PS Vita port, but it‘s actually kinda solid fun. It‘s clunky af, we don‘t really know what we‘re doing and ignore half of the poorly-explained systems, still it‘s easy enough for that and the combat flow’s fun. Any Monster Hunter is probably a better use of your time though.

Cook, Serve, Delicious 3 with my gf. We‘re literally 1 gold medal away from all-gold and I have no idea how you do this with just two hands considering four hands are already rough lol

For clarification: You gotta press a button to hold onto the fulton when you do that (there‘ll be a prompt), or else you‘ll just slide off lol

It‘s not that you can‘t go back… you‘ll understand once you‘ve done it lol

Hope you have more luck with the guard. Keep in mind that fulton’d guards stay in the brig for a while until they decide to work for you, and the timer only progresses when you‘re in the game (also when you‘re just sitting around in the ACC).

Another heads-up that might save you a headache: Don‘t do mission 25 unless you‘re prepared to rush a couple missions in a row (including one with our beloved Skulls).

I did it with the fulton trick: fulton the truck at the airport, then sprint like crazy to a cargo container, climb it, fulton it and fulton myself out with it.

If you‘re willing to give it another shot and have problems finding the „transport specialist“ hostage in mission 10: I‘ve read that there‘s a guard at the oil facility in mission 13 who has the skill as well. You can just sprint through the savanna to the facility and ignore all enemy bases, look for the guard, whack him, fulton him, wait a few seconds for good meassure, and then „Abort Mission (Return to ACC)“ and the guard should be in the brig regardless (doesn‘t work for hostages for me for some reason). That‘s how you also do the mission tasks without seeing the mission through to the end every single time. Or you could just finish the mission proper if you like.

Later you can fight the Skulls with a rocket launcher with a few upgrades and whatnot, but it‘s not very fun… Maybe you can do it now already and drive the truck out of the hotzone. I’d rather go get the specialist to upgrade fulton if I were you though. The upgraded fulton is mandatory later on anyway.

Anything „Skulls“ was my least favorite part of the game, the mech fight wasn‘t great either. If stealth is not an option, my fun nosedives.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

I have this tendency of just playing stuff I already know and don’t enjoy most new game for like six or so hours while I have to „learn“ them - exception are simple things like platformers or racing games where it‘s crystal clear what to do.

So I have finally decided to really sink my teeth into MGSV and after the warm-up phase, I now can‘t put it down. It‘s crazy how good it looks even nowadays while spitting out triple digit fps at 4k on reasonable hardware. Also 60 fps on the Deck native at high settings. Mindblowing.

I approached the game wrong at first. I‘ve learned that I should be crawling when I think crouching‘s enough, and crouch when I think I can walk lol, also judo throws are more silent than whispers.

I‘m inching towards 100% completion. I liked side-ops and the open world more than any main mission. Main missions always felt too stressful with super human ninja zombies in some of em as well. And fuck „A Quiet Exit.“

Side-ops and the open world really let the games’ more fun mechanics shine for me. With like 120 hours for 100% I also think it has a good length. It‘s starting to wear itself off a bit and it‘s almost done, so it‘s not overstaying its welcome for me. Honestly? A masterpiece.

Although… for me the story was barely holding it together, just wild stuff that made me go „wait what“ more than a good number of times.

I wonder what Steam was on with those updates

I‘d love to care for a bunch of those cuties, maybe in the future