Video Games

[Mori Chu]

Putting a lot of time into Silksong on Switch 2. Insane difficulty at times but a great game.

I really like Metroidvanias and am no wuss when it comes to difficulty; I've beaten some hard ones such as The Messenger and all the Castlevania 2D Metroidlikes. But I tried Hollow Knight (the original) and didn't like it. It was hard, which it is allowed to be, but its difficulty seemed more tedious than most of these games. The game had very rare save points, and when I would inevitably die, I would go waaaaaay back and found it really frustrating. I don't want to play so much of the game all over again and lose my progress and my items and gold or whatever. They don't even give you a save point before the bosses, forcing you to do the walk of shame over and over after the boss inevitably kills you a few times until you learn his patterns. It just seems like the game doesn't respect my time and wants me to be forced to bang my head against it over and over. I'm a busy guy and don't really appreciate that kind of difficulty any more.

[Mori Chu]

Lately I have been playing an indie PC game my friend got me called The Knightling. It is a mostly-open-world 3D adventure game sort of like Breath of the Wild but on a smaller scale (~ 15-20 hours to beat and do most quests). It is really fun. It has a nice mix of dungeons, side quests, combat, and puzzles. I said it was like BotW because that's the most popular comparison, but the game it actually reminds me of the most is Immortals: Fenyx Rising, a Zelda-ish 3D game from Ubisoft with an ancient Greek theme (which I also recommend).

[Kryptonic]

A few games I've played recently and recommend....

Ball X Pit is a fun time if you need a quick dopamine rush:


No Mans Sky just continues to impress the crap out of me with every update it puts out. They put out "expeditions" which are almost like seasonal content that you play quasi seperate from your regular save file (although you can take stuff with you, and keep stuff when done)... It's a game that hours feel like minutes:


The Outer Worlds 2 just came out yesterday... The first one was fantastic and really enjoying this one so far. The writing is fantastic:


I also snagged Borderlands 4 and it's been "meh". Pretty flat game for something that had so much potential.

[Mori Chu]

Thanks for the post, Kryptonic. I have heard that Ball x Pit was good, but I haven't tried it yet.

Lately I have been into puzzly 3D games. I finally completely beat Blue Prince, which was awesome (my Game of the Year). Then I took up a game called Return of the Obra Dinn, a little game about an investigator sent to a pirate ship where the whole crew died, and he has to figure out who everyone on the boat was and what killed them. It has a wild black-and-white art style which is meant to invoke super old Apple computer games (they had monochrome monitors). The graphics help hide details in the background at times, which is part of the fun. It's a short one, under 10 hours, but I had a lot of fun with it.



I beat Obra Dinn, and now I'm playing another game called Lorelei and the Laser Eyes. Lorelei is more of a successor to point-and-click adventure games like Monkey Island or King's Quest. You are a woman who has driven to an old hotel to meet a man. You walk around and find items and characters and puzzles and start unlocking doors and encountering mazes and dead bodies and creepy things. It is controlled with a controller but it absolutely has that same Monkey Island vibe of walking around various screens, walking up to items, interacting with them, figuring out puzzle solutions or interactions to advance in the game. This one also has a weird mostly-black-and-white aesthetic, with creepy red highlights like flower petals and blood being the only other color. This one is super fun and I'm about halfway done with it.

[Kryptonic]

Both of those look great and honestly been having a lot more fun with smaller, indy games lately. I'm betting one or both of those will eventually make it to games pass (which is where i play most of my games and find GREAT value in it.. before the price hike lol).

Another one I'm digging and think you'd like Marty....
It's like vampire survivors meets old school diablo.

[O_Gardino]

A few games I've played recently and recommend....

► Show Spoiler

Ball X Pit is a fun time if you need a quick dopamine rush:


No Mans Sky just continues to impress the crap out of me with every update it puts out. They put out "expeditions" which are almost like seasonal content that you play quasi seperate from your regular save file (although you can take stuff with you, and keep stuff when done)... It's a game that hours feel like minutes:


The Outer Worlds 2 just came out yesterday... The first one was fantastic and really enjoying this one so far. The writing is fantastic:


I also snagged Borderlands 4 and it's been "meh". Pretty flat game for something that had so much potential.

I've been playing No Man's Sky with my kids since the latest update, and that game really is fun. I think it's what a lot of people wanted from from Starfield.

I haven't hit Outer Worlds 2 yet. I liked the first one quite a bit, although it felt like they maybe ran out of money and had less content than they could have had. I'm looking forward to what they did with some experience and funding.

[Kryptonic]

A few games I've played recently and recommend....

► Show Spoiler

Ball X Pit is a fun time if you need a quick dopamine rush:


No Mans Sky just continues to impress the crap out of me with every update it puts out. They put out "expeditions" which are almost like seasonal content that you play quasi seperate from your regular save file (although you can take stuff with you, and keep stuff when done)... It's a game that hours feel like minutes:


The Outer Worlds 2 just came out yesterday... The first one was fantastic and really enjoying this one so far. The writing is fantastic:


I also snagged Borderlands 4 and it's been "meh". Pretty flat game for something that had so much potential.

I've been playing No Man's Sky with my kids since the latest update, and that game really is fun. I think it's what a lot of people wanted from from Starfield.

I haven't hit Outer Worlds 2 yet. I liked the first one quite a bit, although it felt like they maybe ran out of money and had less content than they could have had. I'm looking forward to what they did with some experience and funding.

Agree... I honestly still liked Starfield for what it was, but it would have been way more incredible had they gone the NMS route. NMS is probably the greatest come back story of all time when it comes to a games perception from launch to what it is today; granted I think some of that was on them since they did over promise a lot of things when announcing the game. Regardless... probably one of the coolest time-sinks you can play for weeks at a time, take a few months off and come back to something with a fresh polish to it and not lose anything you've done.

So far I think Outer Worlds 2 is a lot better than 1. The only tip I'd give... Watch out for those "side effect" perks... I did lose 2 hours because I didn't realize how bad the one I picked was and didn't want the next 40 hours being stuck with it.

[AmareIsGod]

LOVE No Man's Sky these days. There are some incredible planets and oceans out there.

[AmareIsGod]

I also snagged Borderlands 4 and it's been "meh". Pretty flat game for something that had so much potential.

Yes! It was really fun at first and then quickly fizzled for me. The GPS navigation feature is kind of a pain in the ass and you have to use it all of the time to try to find where you're supposed to go. It's a big world but it always feels the same. Hard to pinpoint but I'm spending way more time playing roguelikes, etc., Ball x pit you recommended is a lot of fun. Been playing a TON of Hades 2 lately. Looks great on OLED. Have it on Steam Deck, PC and Switch 2. Phenomenal game, especially after the first time you beat it and it really opens up.

[Kryptonic]

LOVE No Man's Sky these days. There are some incredible planets and oceans out there.

One thing I'm hoping they'll be able to do at some point is add physics to water... I doubt they can do that and would probably need to rewrite the code for the game but would be neat to have water falls.

I've been digging the new corvette building and seen some awesome recreations.

[Kryptonic]

I also snagged Borderlands 4 and it's been "meh". Pretty flat game for something that had so much potential.

Yes! It was really fun at first and then quickly fizzled for me. The GPS navigation feature is kind of a pain in the ass and you have to use it all of the time to try to find where you're supposed to go. It's a big world but it always feels the same. Hard to pinpoint but I'm spending way more time playing roguelikes, etc., Ball x pit you recommended is a lot of fun. Been playing a TON of Hades 2 lately. Looks great on OLED. Have it on Steam Deck, PC and Switch 2. Phenomenal game, especially after the first time you beat it and it really opens up.

They did put out a patch to address the gps issues but still didn't help me enjoy it anymore. I started a second character but really don't like that experience since it make you unlock the map again, even if you select the option to skip the campaign and start at lvl 30.

Glad you're digging Ball x pit... It's such an easy game you can just pick up and play a few minutes here and there. Funny... I picked up the first Hades yesterday because I saw you playing the second one lol. It's definitely a game that I'd enjoy on a handheld. Might be one I just throw on my ipad and play with a controller.

I really wanted to get Arc Raiders but it's a game that is best with friends and not a lot of people are into extraction shooters. I'm really not into extraction shooters either as I've played escape from tarkov and really hated that experience since the difficulty is super high and other players are ruthless. Arc Raiders isn't as hard on you and respects your time more.