What are you playing (or have finished)?

[KibbehTheKib]

I uncovered my old 3DS, and a handful of games that my middle brother and I used to play as little kids- Starfy's a good one, and I have a bunch of Pokemon games. I was feeling nostalgic- I haven't really touched the device since highschool, when I used to bring it in to play with my friend at lunch: and I booted up a new save of Soul Silver, since I love Mareeps, and find it super adorable how the pokemon can follow you around and you can yap at them or check in on them periodically.

I remember loving the legendary starfy when I was a kid! wasn't super great at platformers back then, so the more laid-back ones like kirby and starfy were always welcome lol, not to mention their art styles are both so cute :D it's always surprised me, though, that there are four other games in the series that never released outside of japan. hgss is probably my favorite region and pokedex in the series, love all those fun extras like following pokemon and the pokeathlon, and it's got a bunch of my favorite mons (pichu my beloved)

as for me, I watched serial experiments lain a few months back and loved it, so I'm finally checking out the ps1 game. it's definitely weird, since you're basically looking through different files and records trying to piece the story together, but it's an interesting companion piece for the show! it's interesting how much they differ while still keeping the same themes :)

[Rosaria Delacroix]

It's a really cute little game! I remember the takoyaki mini game was my favourite back in the day, and scribbling away at the touch screen with my stylus like mad. I loved piloting the little guy through the water though- something about the movement was very satisfying, as was hunting down all the little bubbles with those tiny stars(?) inside of them!

I actually didn't know that there were more games in the series until you shared that- that's going to be a fascinating late night rabbit hole at some point for me I'm sure, hah. Sort of like when I grew up and realized 'oh, no, most people haven't played Magician's Quest, and the whole subplot with the dead guy in the cemetery or the ghosts who kill you IS kind of wild,' though little me's strategy of letting your bedroom fester with filth and rot to min/max mushroom growth to sell was kind of funny in hindsight.

I didn't get into Animal Crossing until much later, as a teenager, but I remember being shocked at how similar the art style and general vibe was- though I do miss riding around on the pink candy broomstick while zooming around town. Apparently there were more games in the series, but they don't seem to have ever really caught on outside of the Japanese market.

[greyskieshappymind]

I recently finished my first Disco Elysium playthrough. I picked sensitive for my first archetype and started a second playthrough with the encyclopaedic one and I kinda lost steam because that archetype's inner monologue is more boring to me. I'm on Thursday though so I might just stick through to the end before moving on to an apocalypse cop playthrough.

I also got this indie dungeon crawler horror Corvid's Night. You play as a mercenary searching for her kidnapped wife in a dark castle. You have to manage your lantern oil as well as your health that's being supernaturally drained as long as you're inside. You also have no map. It's definitely a challenge, but I definitely feel immersed in the dungeon. Like there are people who set up shop in the courtyard for story reasons and you can buy stuff based on how deep you feel you'll explore the dungeon. There are moments where I'm in the castle with about half my reserves of health and oil left and choose between going out without stress or risking delving a little deeper. I haven't gotten deep into it yet but it's already very interesting.

Finally I'm trying S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl again. I played it way back in 2021 but I did it with the music muted and my own playlist to make me feel like a badass, so I lost interest once the harder parts of the game came. So now I'm trying to be fully immersed in the atmosphere. What stands out the most to me is how much I like the NPC models, like I associate all the most popular games from 2005-2013 with airbrush faced NPCs that don't look like they belong in their environment at all.

[ConnorTheVGFan78]

Recently, I've started a playthrough of OneShot: World Machine Edition. I bought a copy of it on a Steam sale a while ago, and have decided just now to start playing it. That, and I've recently been in the mood to play OneShot because a random person I was near had the "get_item" sound effect as their phone's ringtone and it made me think, "Huh, I should play OneShot again."

I've played the original 2016 Steam Release before, and decided to pick up WME for the additional content + controller support. It's so cool to get to experience playing OneShot again, especially with the brand new Desktop environment that somehow manages to fit in perfectly with everything else. And of course, who can forget the adorable main character that everyone swears looks like a cat but insists they're not a cat: Niko!!! Absolutely love their character design and it's so awesome to get to see them again!!

While on the topic of OneShot:

"A word on "replaying" OneShot (SPOILERS AHEAD!!!)"

OneShot is one of those games that feels more like an experience you can't play the same way twice. At the end of OneShot, and particularly OneShot's Solstice storyline, Niko leaves the player by simply walking away and going back to his home. The game even symbolizes that Niko is truly gone from the game world by having him walk out of the game window and on to your Desktop, never to return. Even when you boot up the game again, the game reminds you that Niko has left and is no longer part of the world. The World Machine, the main entity who controls the world within the game, tells you, "Even if you wanted to see Niko again...You Can't. Niko's Gone." The World Machine, of course, offers to let you play the game again through a recording of Niko's memories. However, players that replay OneShot this way are quick to note that the Niko you interact with is not the real Niko. It's a faded, digital projection of Niko that The World Machine has created so you could view the story again.

With all that said, OneShot is a game that you can only experience as intended once. You are free to replay it if you want to, and me replaying it with a fresh start on WME gives me an opportunity to experience OneShot's story all over again. But of course, even with the fresh start on WME, certain aspects of the game just won't feel the same as they did when I booted it up and played it for the first time many years ago.

[close]

[A5eel]

I recently finished my first Disco Elysium playthrough. I picked sensitive for my first archetype and started a second playthrough with the encyclopaedic one and I kinda lost steam because that archetype's inner monologue is more boring to me. I'm on Thursday though so I might just stick through to the end before moving on to an apocalypse cop playthrough.

Nicee, i recently just finished my first playthrough too but i my stats were custom and i choose empathy as my highest skill, was pretty fun the way the game handled how actual empathy would affect someone who is lowkey a shitty person like Harry, but i get you sometimes the game's monologue about it's lore can be pretty overwhelming, i had to double take the /spoiler/ entire Dolores Dei and the pale segment that Jayce said cause my brain short-circuited 

[BlazingCobaltX]

I finished Pokémon Scarlet after binge playing it for a week. The game is very vast but I had no interest in exploring it as the awful graphics and lag were major eyesores. On top of that I was really confused by the 'route' the game wanted me to take, with areas seemingly randomly changing in level scaling. As a result I just beelined for all the destination marks and didn't bother doing much exploration at all. Meanwhile the coolest area in the game, Area Zero, was only presented to us in the final hour of the main story. I think they tried a lot of things but unlike with Sword and Shield the graphics really negatively affected my impression of everything. If this is what innovation looks like then I don't need it (#2Dforever). 

Speaking of Sword and Shield, I want everyone that ruthlessly shat on that game to give an official apology. Sword and looked (arguably) bland, but were never this blatantly glitchy.

[Hoshi]

Why did you finish S/V if you disliked it so much? I tried to play it with a group of friends when it first dropped, but the performance was so bad none of us could manage to do it.

[Yoylecake420]

I've been playing the Papa's games on Flashpoint for a week. Currently playing Papa's Taco Mia.

[MilkJar]

Playing through Half life 2 in VR. few freakin epic that way

[Trench_Man]

Currently playing a lot of indie games, Nightingale, a Victorian themed survival crafting game which has frankly been one of my favorite survival crafting games of last year (I put 300+ hours into it just last year alone LOL) and also Terraria, some ones I've also been playing on and off are roguelikes such as City of Brass, and a neat little Wolfenstein 3D inspired first person shooter called Only Lead Can Stop Them

OH! and I've been play a lot of the deckbuilding roguelike Balatro

[BlazingCobaltX]

Why did you finish S/V if you disliked it so much? I tried to play it with a group of friends when it first dropped, but the performance was so bad none of us could manage to do it.

Was trying to speedrun it to start the DLC because I know some good stuff is in there. It was indeed unbearable to move through the game at times.

[Hoshi]

Was trying to speedrun it to start the DLC because I know some good stuff is in there. It was indeed unbearable to move through the game at times.

I'm interested in hearing your thoughts whenever you complete that as well. This reminds me that I still need to finish my Emerald playthrough.