I’m playing King’s Field: The Ancient City via RetroDeck (I would never have the patience for that game without abusing the save states feature).
Having played the series back on original hardware, I can confirm it was a nightmare. Save states make old games so much better.
final fantasy 9!
Picked up all the Splinter Cell games on a sale and started with the first using the EnhancedSC Mod, on Steam Deck. That’s not technically a “Patience” thing as I’m revisiting games from my childhood, but it sure is fun!
My partner and I have also been playing Harold Halibut. The story and visual style are an absolute delight, simpler adventure games are awesome when you’re tired or burnt out! I had my eye on it since it was first announced, it sat on my wishlist waiting for a < $20 sale, and then the GOG version got included “free” via Amazon Prime Gaming. Always nice to have things pan out that way, there have been too many occasions where I bought a game, didn’t get around to playing it, and then it turns up free or “free”.
I’ve been playing the original EverQuest (real patient lol) but caved and got Slay the Spire 2 the other day because it’s relatively cheap and seems like a good one. So far I’m really enjoying it and it’s fun to finally be playing a new game that everyone I know is also playing. Usually something comes out and they’re like “what are you playing?!” and my answer is EverQuest 😂
Dragon Quest Builders 2, inspired by FOMO over Pokopia.
Also continuing Horizon Zero Dawn for the third time. Just hard mode, but I kinda feel like I could do very hard.
I just started my first playthrough of Horizon and a few hours in I’m finding it pretty easy on Hard. Does it get harder later, or should I just crank up the difficulty now?
Honestly, the difficulty curve on HZD feels like a sine wave sometimes.
Cuz:
- You do simply get stronger over time
- You also improve your use of tactics over time
- You also gain access to new tactics
- But they introduce much stronger machines too
- But a lot of a machine’s strength can be mitigated by approaching it with the right tactics
- But they also deliberately put you in situations where you can’t use the easy tactics
- But they also put you in situations where you can use the easy tactics, against a ton of very strong machines
So depending on how quickly you hit the skill ceiling on using your available tactics, how much you like to grind, how reliable your multi-tasking is, and your basic “twitch skills”, you might get a skewed perspective at any point along the way.
I don’t think there’s any harm in changing the difficulty back and forth (not sure). So maybe just go with whatever feels comfy at the moment?
Edit: I’ll say, overall, they do an excellent job of making you feel like the stuff that used to be scary is no longer scary, but for the right reasons. That is: not because of dmg++ and armor++ buffs (although there is some of that), but because you’ve become so much more proficient at handling dangerous situations. For the most part, even mid-to-late game, the simple stuff is still deadly if you let your guard down.
I’ve been away from my PC for a couple months, and I finished Fallout season 2 while I was away and it got me in the mood for some balls-deep Fallout playing. I can’t decide whether I want to play 3, NV, 4, or actually play through the first three games because I never have.
Fallout 1 and 2 were rough for me, I never really got through them. I have read that Fallout 2 really defines what the series is so I’ve been wanting to revisit it. Start out with 1! Don’t forget to hit save constantly.
Where did you quit in Fallout 2? I love it but the opening hours are pretty rough, even fans of it meme about the temple of trials and the general first few hours.
I do definitely think you’re right that FO2 defined the franchise, it’s where they moved from a slightly more grim and serious post-apocalyptic tone in the first game to a more humourous style with more pop culture references and wacky stuff. Fans or the first two games tend to be divided over that, with some saying Fallout 1 is superior because of the different tone. I can see the argument, but I love Fallout 2 personally.
There are some great mods for it too, not just Restoration Project Updated but Talking Heads and Talking Heads Actually Talk are both incredible fan made mods that blend right in.
3 and NV via Tale of Two Wastelands
Wall Street Raider, there’s a great solo dev working on moving the codebase to a modern framework, but the original still slaps.
Someone posted a great article about that game a while back. Was that what got you to try it?
How long does it take before everything clicks and you can play smoothly instead of constantly stopping to look things up? The core concept of a realistic investment simulator looks fun, but needing to know and follow all of the real life laws and regulatory minutia from decades ago sounds like a nightmare for a new player.
I just finished my first Xcom2-campaign and had a lot of fun. After that I bought Slay the Spire 2, as it seems pretty similar to StS 1 - which is one of the best games I have ever played. This time which multiplayer!
Good old Quake.
I said it before but I man, the duel races in Ridge Racer 2 (PSP) are the most miserable experience I ever had playing a racing game - they are WAY over tuned. I really feel like there’s a middle ground between smoking the competition on lap 1 and spending most of the race watching your opponent at the edge of game’s draw distance due to them using a car which is faster, has better acceleration and starts the race with a boost. I like a good challenge but this ain’t it.
I finished the three duels required to unlock the EX tour series of events and that’s that, I’m not touching the remaining 4. Ever. I don’t need a 100% completion rate, not when some of the remaining content sucks the fun out of the whole experience. I’d rather have fun with the normal races instead and I’m extremely happy the EX series exist - I was actually worried I already cleared (almost) everything with the ending movie and credits unlocking halfway through PRO tour. I’m glad I was wrong.
Still love the game but boy was that rough at times.
I wasn’t patient this time around, so it’s Slay the Spire 2, early access.
It runs really well on my two core third gen ryzen laptop, and I will gladly recommend it to anyone who likes deckbuilders.
Outer Wilds
Do you want an open-world space puzzler where nothing is stopping you from beating the whole game in 20 minutes except the fact that you don’t have the knowledge needed to do it? No unlocks, progression is all based on learning new info. 20+ hours of exploring a miniature solar system to find an extremely satisfying end where you get everything to align.
Pick it up and don’t look anything up.
The DLC is also great. A puzzle to even start it! Also don’t look up anything. It’s best going in blind outside of the fact that it’s an excellent game.
Rise of the Ronin
I’ve been hooked on the open world slop juice. Honestly having a great time with it and I am kind of perplexed it didn’t get better reviews. The combat is really good, there are some charming characters in the cast and the open world is not any better or any worse than your garden variety Ubisoft style open world game. I also quite enjoy the historical aspect of the story and while it isn’t a documentary or anything it’s still anchored in real events and authentic characters from the period.
The combat is the star though and it does have the special Team Ninja sauce I would say. I have some minor quibbles with it (enemy tracking is too accurate, especially when you’ve rapidly changed direction through some movement ability) but overall it’s incredibly satisfying. The pace is super high and frenetic in some boss fights, at least if you’re trying to play to your maximum. Boss attacks come fast and unrelenting and require you to parry, and when it’s your time to punish you can squeeze out maximum performance by attacking at a similar pace, switching stances and weapons constantly and weaving martial arts. I’ve had some insanely hectic and satisfying duels in the Dojo.
Also the Dojo is a great feature, allowing you to fight 1-on-1 and even replay certain bosses, all in a setting where gear is neutralized, your items are limited to 5 healing item uses only and you don’t have access to your pistol or rifle. It’s a great balance where in the story missions you can breeze past bosses through buffs, tons of healing items, using your allies to help and using your guns, but then you still have the Dojo as a true test of skill.
Started playing Rauniot - a post-apocalyptic isometric point&click adventure game set in Lapland. Only few hours in and the vibes are great, although the voice acting and dialogue feels … I dunno, it’s not “bad”, but it feels a bit “off”, like it’s written by “semi-edgy artsyfartsy” type, and the dialogue is performed by aliens who only got the tldr version of how to act human.
Visually the game looks quite a bit like Fallout 1 and 2, just with higher colordepth and resolution. Sound (apart from dialogue) is pretty ambient. So all good in my books. And I gotta respect the absolutely slamming metal tune the main character is blasting in their car during the intro sequence. Hell. Yea. \,,/
Puzzles have been mostly “find a tool to do x”, some items (eg. a rope in the first screen of the game) do blend into the background, so hovering over everything on the screen is a must. Interactables are highlighted in yellow outline, which on some cases can be really soft and it blends to the apocalyptic colorpalette of sepia/brown/gray surprisingly well, but at least all interactable things have a soundeffect when hovered with a mouse.
Gotta play more, I do want to see where it goes with the story and puzzles later on.
Interesting. Haven’t heard of that but it looks neat. Might be the type of game I’d rather watch a Let’s Play of than play myself, though. Also…
the voice acting and dialogue feels … I dunno, it’s not “bad”, but it feels a bit “off”, like it’s written by “semi-edgy artsyfartsy” type, and the dialogue is performed by aliens who only got the tldr version of how to act human.
are you sure they’re not just… Finnish?
are you sure they’re not just… Finnish?
heh, kinda fair, tbh. But then again, so am I, and it still feels like watching aliens :D
Okay, fair enough haha!
Also I love Finland for the record, the joke was just right there you know…
All good and fair when it comes to a bit of banter :)
Besides, the game sets unrealistic expectations as the characters actually talk.
Not that old yet, but I’m currently finishing The Alters. It’s a beautiful, atmospheric survival game with a relatively simple gameplay loop but intriguing background story with branching decisions. I’d say play it once for the story.
