I could see the writing on the wall last week, but after about 20 hours I’ve dropped Dragon’s Dogma 2. Exploration felt just like a chore to me, and combat was super boring. This is definitely one of those games, where I absolutely don’t see what reviewers saw in it to give out such high scores and maybe even call it GotY. From what I’ve read, the online discourse has shifted a little as well, and not just because of the bad performance or microtransactions.

I tried switching over to Horizon Forbidden West, and was going through the first small zone, when the game started crashing constantly with no error or hint on what the problem could be. It was weird, because it ran smoothly for almost 10 hours, and then it became basically unplayable. Crashes every 1–5 minutes. I tried a lot of things, but nothing helped, and was close to giving up. Then one or two days ago I had a breakthrough and I think I found the cause, something with the textures or my GPU memory. First, I reduced the memory OC of my GPU, which I haven’t changed in almost 2 years, although it still crashed after an hour, which was definitely an improvement. Then I turned down the Texture Quality setting from Very High to High, I was finally able to play with no issues again. Today I’ll check with my normal overclock again, if it’s just the in-game setting or both.

As for the game itself, I like it, it’s basically Assassin’s Creed Valhalla or something, just that controlling Aloy doesn’t feel like you’re moving through molasses. I don’t play these open world RPGs where you’re basically checking off markers on the map too often, but I do enjoy them from time to time. Because of all the problems I had with the game, I just made it out of the prologue / introduction or whatever (before you get to the titular Forbidden West), so I can’t say too much about it yet, however I gotta say it does look fantastic, probably the best looking game (on a technical level) that I’ve played.

I also played the new stuff, that was released in the first big patch of Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor. The new zone is really neat and I had a good time.

Then I tried Halls of Torment, another Vampire Survivors-type game. I love the look and vibe while playing, but it feels like you have to grind the early levels somewhat for upgrades and stuff until you’re ready for the later stages, which I’m not really a fan of. For now, I’ve shelved it, but will definitely check it out again later.

I gave Pathfinder: Gallowspire Survivors another chance as well, this time on my desktop PC, since I didn’t have a great time on my Steam Deck before. The game just loves throwing ranged enemies at you, so your screen is constantly filled with projectiles, which is just not fun, and the bigger screen only helps a tiny bit. It also seems super grindy, since there is sooooo much stuff to unlock and upgrade, although basically everything are just tiny passive improvements. Not really sure how I feel about it yet, but it’s another game, which I’ll check out again at a later time.

I’ve been playing cyberpunk2077 for the past month and a half straight. I was worried going into it because I thought it was going to still be bad. There’s still some minor bugs, but overall I’ve had an enjoyable experience. The only downside is that it’s eaten up so much of my time lol

Last Epoch

playing offline because that’s where all my stuff is as last I checked the online was a disaster. Other than that, it’s pretty cool ARPG. Though I have some thoughts about some “gearcheck” -type bosses. After ~180h (since beta) or whatever, I’m still thinking it’s a solid 7/10. Fairly enjoyable, but not greatest of all time by any stretch.

Content Warning

It’s completely stupid and I love it. Essentially wannabe-“spööktubers” take a camera and few flashlights into dark, abandoned industrial complex to film something spooky, just to gain views on “Spööktube”. Views gain you money, money buys you gear.

The dives to the industrial complex are very short too, as you can only film so much (90s max, it seems), and the monsters are hella deadly. Either the camera gets filled or everyone is dead in minutes.

The footage can be saved as .webm -videos to desktop, which is GREAT

Playing Path of Exile with my spouse. Just returned Pikmin 4 to the library.

Baldurs gate is just so good. Constantly impressed and on my way to act 3!

A little late to the party, but Helldivers II has been my go to. So much silly fun.

Finally picked up ghost of tsushima and started playing through it. Reminds me of RDR2

Started Cyberpunk 2077 this week.

Just finished Rain World.

What a brave game to make. It is not afraid to scare players away. I admit, I ended up having to look up a map in order to find the ending before I threw my PC out the window entirely, but I acknowledge I was not in the right mindset to be playing. You cannot play the game to finish it, you must enjoy the gameplay for what it is, because it is not going to funnel you through the story at all, and you’re going to have a LOT of deaths that feel like total bullshit.

But the atmosphere, and the sound design, and the art, and the creatures, and their AI, and the world building are all top tier. I don’t know if I can recommend anyone play it, but it is a very well made game.

Dungeon crawl stone suop

Also playing Necropolis league of Path of Exile. Started with an explosive arrow totem build but it wasn’t great for levelling, so rerolled an exploding minions witch. Much much smoother so far, and should scale right through maps for currency farming. Will see how invested I stay, as I’m waiting patiently for S4 of D4 to hit consoles, some really nice updates, and basically its more approachable than PoE.

Path of Exile! I began with a minion sacrifice build, and while it’s good and I’ve killed all the major basic bosses sustain is hurting so I swapped into a BAMA build, and let me tell you haters of the Maw build, it clears faster than Bama because ignite is broken in Poe.

I grinded crab champions super hard to get diamond rank. This game is just too much fun. I pucked up scrap mechanic again after playing it for 1 haur a few years ago. So far we both enjoy it quite a bit.

Finished The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles last week.

This may be heresy, but I think I enjoyed these two more than both of the other trilogies.

Maybe it’s the setting or characters or unique mechanics, I don’t know, but I fucking loved every minute of it.

ULTRAKILL. It has turned into a recent addiction for me. Certainly my favorite action game of all time.