Patient Gamers

Hitman World of Assassination! I put off playing it because the purchase model was so fucking confusing, but now that I got it I'm having a blast! These games have some of the best level design I've ever seen, the way IOI integrates story with natural progression through the level is incredible to see. I've never seen a level like Sgail where a player must choose between either climbing the physical structure of the level, or climbing the social ladder through disguises that grant you increasing influence.

I'm on the Chongqing level, and the neon lights look absolutely gorgeous.

I just started Pillars of Eternity again last night.

I'd played before up to like the big port city where you can find paladin girl, but the RTWP just wasn't clicking with me.

Now that they added turn based, I'm giving it another go with my Moon Godling Chanter. Reny Daret's ghost is a fucking beast.

Replaying Rogue Trader now half the DLC is out, occasionally with my best friend as they added a coop mode at some point. RPing a reformed crime lord who has seen the light of the Imperial Truth and dedicated himself to spreading the Emperor's word while my friend goblins around with all the crim characters looting everything and occasionally triggering a fight when I'm halfway across the map.

Baldur's gate 3. Only about twenty hours in and still feel like I've got a lot to learn. Seems cool tho.

Still playing Withering Rooms and still absolutely enchanted by it. @Coelacanth@feddit.nu 's review of it initially sold me on it so I'll just paste it again here!:

I finished Withering Rooms a few days ago, having done both a full first playthrough and a quick run through NG+ to get the ending exclusive to NG+. Since then I've been in that odd spot where I'm kind of having trouble moving on to the next game. I just keep thinking about Withering Rooms.

This game was so amazingly good, it is seriously unbelievable it is the work of a solo dev. Especially since he also composed pretty much all the music - and the music is as phenomenal as the game. I don't think I've been this impressed with a solo dev since Lucas Pope and Obra Dinn.If you vibe in any way with what you see on the Steam page, I heavily encourage you giving it a shot.

It is one of the most unique games I've ever played, which is funny because it simultaneously wears its inspirations on its sleeves. But the influences never end up leading to derivative end product, instead they are just the foundation for the very distinctive artistic vision of an auteur developer that is doubtlessly doing his own thing.And it's not just about the story and world building and art direction and atmosphere, but the gameplay and build variety is also really good. All the gameplay systems are so well designed, the puzzles are intuitive and the game has so many thoughtful little touches you wouldn't expect from the first game of a solo dev, especially on the QOL front.

The combat itself is a little clunky, but you do get used to it and there are several ways to build both melee and spellcasting, there is a ranged weapon build that leans more into consumables, you can sneak around and place traps, you can be a summoner... Probably more that I didn't think of yet. And using all these different tools is a lot of fun.Having played this I am unbelievably excited for the sequel, which enters Early Access this year.

Finally got around to playing Bloodborne. It's good, but after playing Elden Ring it seems easier than expected.

I got myself Cross Blitz in the steam deckbuilder sale. It's a very hearthstone inspired TCG / deckbuilder - even including some recognisable HS archetypes like thief rogue (lol). Defo scratches the HS itch for me, but if you haven't played Hearthstone, you might find it a lot initially.

It has a story mode with separate story for each of the 5 classes and there it is really a TCG. I played through one of them and it was pretty good, but left me wanting for more (especially given the TCG nature). I'm sure if you play through all 4 storylines, you get your money's worth, but there isn't really a point where your deckbuilding skills are heavily challenged.

It also has a roguelite mode which seems pretty extensive with many unlockable characters/starting decks. I'm pretty far in that and it's fun. It also has a hard mode, which is kinda needed, as normal is a bit on the easy side.

Generally wouldn't say it's super deep, the powerlevel of passive relics tips it more into a "build OP deck" playstyle. But it's really fun and has a nice colorful and cure artstyle.

Just beat Arkham Asylum (again), so probably try to spend some time on Witcher III.

Finally got a copy of Animal Well. Good fun, maybe too much.

still bg3. so I found out the evocalock does not work. I thouht the evoker ability would work with eldritch blast. switching that character to throwbarian and since its karlach actually brings her back to kinda what she should be.

Watching the floor get wiped with my carcass in Dragon's Dogma. In hard mode.
On the upside, in between all the retrying, i amassed 1.5 mil gold coins from just running around the map exploring and killing goblins and bandits.

This is one of those games where side quests get locked out by advancing the main story. I'm at a point where the main quest sends me right, but the side quests send me left, so I went the long way around. Now with hard mode, the exp gains are doubled from normal mode and mobs drop gold. I don't know if it's how it's supposed to work, but all the weak goblins keep dropping 10k bags. I don't mind it, because it definitely isn't enough anyway.

My defense only matters for weak mobs, in case they gank me while I'm dodging the big guys and they tend to do that, wolves especially. The big guys mostly one-shot me, so I might as well run naked around them. Might be different at higher levels, but I'm a small time explorer for now.

I'm not sure I'm going to finish the story, but for now it's fun. We'll see how it develops further on.

I got a 300€ laptop that I took on vacation. It has Mahjon as the only game so i'm playing Mahjon

I'm in what I would think is the final third or so of AI Limit, a well received anime-styled Soulslike from last year.

I'm having a hard time evaluating my time with it, because I find myself annoyed and frustrated numerous times when playing it, but this is the first Soulslike I've played in like 6 months and every time I am about to call the game bad I stop and reflect. Ambushes? Delayed attacks? Enemies with spammy attack patterns? Poison swamps? Time-wasting enemy placement? Idiotic platforming without a dedicated jump button? Aren't these all genre staples of Souls games at this point? Am I slowly discovering that this genre isn't for me anymore?

So I don't know. By all accounts the game is a competent Soulslike. Maybe I just haven't been sleeping well lately, and that's why I'm getting tilted.

Rimwold.

New job working 2-10

Perfect couple hour relaxer

First colony with an archon.

Also somehow got a thrumbo to self tame.

Palia released a new adventure zone so I've been playing that with twin. There sure are some bugs (and not just the collecting kind) but after the first few hours the game did get a bit more stable lol. I'm slowly working on jadium chests.

I'm about 18hrs into Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter remake now. They've really done a phenomenal job with it. The recreation of the locations in 3D is spot on and the new battle system is a great improvement IMO. The English voiceover is excellent too.

The seasonal event is done so I'm back to playing the Brooklyn expansion for Division 2. I don't have much to write about it since I only jumped back in last night and spent the session exploring the map. It's small but pretty cool.
I should be able to finish it this week and then I'll move on to something else for a bit - I've had my fun with TD for now, I think.

Besides that, I've been doing some VR flying in Project Wingman, this time using UEVR instead of native implementation. I only did two missions so far (Cold War from the base campaign and Express Lane from the DLC) but boy is flying in VR so much easier. I wish I had even slightly newer hardware to make better use of it but even as is, I can get it to a playable state so fun is still had. Maybe I'll just do another full playthrough, only in VR this time...

Planet Crafter. It's janky and delightfully amateurish in all the best ways while evoking all the right feelings of gradual incremental progress and meaningful exploration. I am enjoying it way more than I thought I would, playing multiplayer with my sister-in-law. It's also scratching most of my Subnautica itch and priming the pump for Subnautica 2 (which I am probably not going to be patient about, to be honest).

Refining my Steam Deck control scheme for Cold Waters, I have been enjoying the expanded road system in Motortown which makes some taxi jobs a ~10 minute drive at full speed driving like a maniac it is very fun and I have been playing Operation Harsh Doorstop for my battlefield fix.

Also been messing around in Luanti more.