Name games you've played in January

[Maxie]

We're back. You know the drill, just name them.

Personally, I've played Antichamber, Avernum 3 Ruined World, Judgment, and Broken Sword 3.

 

[NecroLord]

Bloodrayne.
Blood.
A bit of VTMB with Toreador.

 

[Sibelius]

Bloodborne - emulated on PC, 1440 with Reshade, it's been glorious. Currently at Nightmare of Mensis.
Rogue Trader - been playing latter part of Chapter 2, beginning of Chapter 3
The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav - Been playing thought this a couple of hours a week, charming little puzzle adventure game set in the Dark Eye universe. Really nice hand drawn art in the environments, pretty basic puzzles.

 

[Falksi]

Hexen 2 (and I'm already itching to do another run of it...what. A. Fucking. Game!)
Atomic Runner
Thunderforce 3
Afterburner 2
Pillars of Eternity
Final Fantasy 4 (SNES)
Final Fantasy 5 (SNES)

 

[Lord_Potato]

Completed:
Drova: Forsaken Kin
VED

Playing:
Bloody Spell

 

[Gandalf]

This time I've wrote the titles in notead to recall:

Deus Ex
Pokemon R.O.W.E.
Jagged Alliance 2
Syberia
Montezuma's Revenge
Thief: The Dark Project
Strange Horticulture
Earth 2150: The Moon Project
Chained Echoes
Heroes of Might and Magic IV
The Dark Mod
Starcraft
Kirby Super Star
Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War

 

[Sergio]

Chrono Cross
Final Fantasy 12
Tales of Graces f Remastered
Diablo 4

And since I'm an achievement whore, I will play most of them in February too..

 

[NecroLord]

This time I've wrote the titles in notead to recall:

Deus Ex
Pokemon R.O.W.E.
Jagged Alliance 2
Syberia
Montezuma's Revenge
Thief: The Dark Project
Strange Horticulture
Earth 2150: The Moon Project
Chained Echoes
Heroes of Might and Magic IV
The Dark Mod
Starcraft
Kirby Super Star
Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War

Was a slow month for me, but February is gonna be better in terms of vidya.

 

[Sibelius]

Playing:
Bloody Spell

Is this a protest against the jiggle reduction in the Ninja Gaiden Black remake?

 

[Dramart]

Resident Evil 6
Remember Me
Saints Row The Third
Persona 4

 

[Lord_Potato]

Playing:
Bloody Spell

Is this a protest against the jiggle reduction in the Ninja Gaiden Black remake?

Canonically you play as a dude but there are many skins that allow him to transition into a jiggly waifu

 

[Lord_Potato]

This time I've wrote the titles in notead to recall:

Deus Ex
Pokemon R.O.W.E.
Jagged Alliance 2
Syberia
Montezuma's Revenge
Thief: The Dark Project
Strange Horticulture
Earth 2150: The Moon Project
Chained Echoes
Heroes of Might and Magic IV
The Dark Mod
Starcraft
Kirby Super Star
Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War

When. Do. You. Find. Time.

 

[Sibelius]

Playing:
Bloody Spell

Is this a protest against the jiggle reduction in the Ninja Gaiden Black remake?

Canonically you play as a dude but there are many skins that allow him to transition into a jiggly waifu

Yeah I know, I've got it myself (havn't played in ages though)

 

[Gandalf]

This time I've wrote the titles in notead to recall:

Deus Ex
Pokemon R.O.W.E.
Jagged Alliance 2
Syberia
Montezuma's Revenge
Thief: The Dark Project
Strange Horticulture
Earth 2150: The Moon Project
Chained Echoes
Heroes of Might and Magic IV
The Dark Mod
Starcraft
Kirby Super Star
Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War

When. Do. You. Find. Time.

I play 1 hour daily.

 

[Dark Souls II]

Baldur's Gate EET + SCT
Persona 4
Touhou 6

 

[Hellraiser]

Terra Invicta - My autistic obsession during the christmas/new year period. Great newtonian/hard science fiction space battles and ship design for all the autists that read the atomic rockets website religiously, good solar system colonization and absolutely tedious Earth-based gameplay. If I ever replay this I'm modding it so that the gaps between councilor "turns" increase much more and much sooner than the standard pace, subverting nations and that whole gameplay is fun for the first year or two of gameplay time, after that it's tedious busywork and quite frankly the game should have ingame scripting to just tell the lot to prioritize countries in this and that way so that you can forget about Earth entirely and focus on blasting Ayys and their various human Quisligs from various orbits.

Timberborn - Started a new town and built a wonder on the thousand islands map. I think that map isn't that good honestly, the other maps were better.

Wipeout (PS1) - It was tough but I managed to beat Championship mode on both Venom and Rapier speed classes, unlocking the Firestar track, which fittingly is set on Mars that just happened to be close to Earth and very bright in January (FYI the planet Mars is called Firestar in multiple languages). While the infamous Silverstream track is an obnoxious pain the ass with those turns and ice, called the hardest one in the series for good reason, my experience with the game's difficulty is that winning is far more of a skill issue and just mastering the tracks than a matter of RNG unlike say hard-difficulty races in Wipeout HD/Fury. Although the wonky collision physics and assholes driving into you reminding you of those physics are a very aggravating experience in what is otherwise a fun but short classic. Oh and great soundtrack of course, really adds to the experience when you start zooming around the corners perfectly in the Rapier speed class.

Rimworld - Did a rancher run rather than the usual canibal-raider-drug-lords where I travelled across the (small) planet to the ship (which luckily enough spawned in a jungle rather than frozen wasteland). Three or four pawns (out of 12 or 14) died while the ship was powering up but it was fun, just wish there were some ways to automate/optimize animal handling.

Jet Set Radio/Jet Grind Radio as the kwans know it (Dreamcast) - I resumed a barely started playthrough and finished it all the way to the end. That end boss battle had a nice gimmick with the spinning record surface. This game is a load of fun with its cell-shaded graffiti stylistics, catchy and varied soundtrack befit of very late 90s urban inline-skating graffiti antics, extremely nonsensical and absurdist full of exaggeration plot/setting (send in the tanks against those graffiti punks!). It has some flaws like the crappy camera controls (the Dreamcast controller could have used a second analogue stick), sometimes annoying auto-grinding/grinding-lock triggering when you don't want to, odd terrain collisions and the fact that every time you get a level with other inline skating vandals they can bump into you and make you trip while they continue unscathed.

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict (DS) - playing the European version I got back a while back, resumed the campaign due to circumstances (kids got sick in sequence, had to keep an eye on them) and finished 10+ missions, now very close to the end. Not only does the European release have a different title, but it also has a completely different English translation (was done independently by Nintendo Europe apparently), including army/character/unit names than the American Days of Ruin release. I think this is simultaneously the most fine-tuned and yet easiest entry in the series (or maybe I just played these games too much and know them in and out, AW2 Hard Campaign A-rank/S-rank run also went rather easy when I tried it a few years back), and the change in aesthetics to appeal to just a slightly older (by 3 or 4 years, but still) crowd was also a nice choice. Shame that it's one of those Nintendo IPs that is cuurrently in limbo like F-Zero is, I guess Fire Emblem just prints money so Intelligent Systems can't make a new AW game anymore and needs to churn out more FE (although ironically I think it was AW1's success that led Nintendo to even bother to put FE out in the west).

Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together (Saturn) - the translated from japanese (not sure if it's not just the PS1 port script they applied) version, seems they also added some data caching to use the 4MB RAM pack which the original game didn't use, so probably some loading times are shorter. Anyway I just started the game, after finishing Jet Set Radio a few days back. From this series I only played the GBA Tactics Ogre game before, so I have not much to say in general about the title, besides liking the isometric pixel art a lot and saying that the music is pretty good as well. Early game seems a bit hard, but that's good, it's not brainless so far at least - I had to retry the first two proper battles because too many soldiers got killed due to getting overconfident.

Supreme Commander:Forged Alliance - Started a UEF campaign right after I was done with Rimworld and needed another PC game where I can just pause, do chores, chase/feed kids or other work and resume an hour or two later. The Fatboy is so good, an uber-tank firing 4 massive barrages of artillery fire and rapidly producing land unit factory making it essentially a small forward base idea for besieging bases.

 

[__scribbles__]

Thief Gold (Completed)
System Shock 2 (Completed)
Thief II: The Metal Age (Ongoing)

These games are not very long, but I haven't been playing much. Very good games nonetheless, I'm satisfied.

 

[Necrensha]

Etrian Odyssey 5
I couldn't remember how ridiculously easy and tedious the beginning of this game was, took me an entire week to get past act 1.
The Last Flame
One of those throwaway garbage bin games where nothing makes sense, everything is badly designed, and the only valid strategy is to cheese everything.
Age of Darkness: Final Stand
Perhaps one of the worst games I have ever willingly played. Everything about it feels like it was created back in 1997, but with a modern and extremely buggy and unoptimized engine. Nonsensical story that I'm pretty sure was written by GPT, boring gameplay, just complete dogshit in every department.
Blazblue Entropy Effect
Short, dumb robot story that has nothing to do with anything, shoddy translation, repetitive music. But the gameplay? 10/10, one of the most fun roguelike I've ever seen, love it.

 

[Maxie]

Etrian Odyssey 5
I couldn't remember how ridiculously easy and tedious the beginning of this game was, took me an entire week to get past act 1.
The Last Flame
One of those throwaway garbage bin games where nothing makes sense, everything is badly designed, and the only valid strategy is to cheese everything.
Age of Darkness: Final Stand
Perhaps one of the worst games I have ever willingly played. Everything about it feels like it was created back in 1997, but with a modern and extremely buggy and unoptimized engine. Nonsensical story that I'm pretty sure was written by GPT, boring gameplay, just complete dogshit in every department.
Blazblue Entropy Effect
Short, dumb robot story that has nothing to do with anything, shoddy translation, repetitive music. But the gameplay? 10/10, one of the most fun roguelike I've ever seen, love it.

could i ask you to play games you actually enjoy this month?

 

[deuxhero]

Outlaws: Beat it on Jan 1st. Huge improvement on Dark Force in level design and weapons and, surprisingly, works on modern Linux under proton with just Proton and minimal shenanigans (which is more on the publisher for leaving it poorly configured). Its got an interesting feel of a quasi-tactical game full of glass cannons. Unfortunately there's a few instant kill from full health moments (most obviously the first boss), but unlike DF it has full save and reload (though only the first slot was working for me for some reason).
Onirism: Beat the currently implemented content, missing a couple dreamstones (which currently do nothing). It's an excellent TPS/platformer with fast gameplay, lots of weapons, and fun characters. Would recomend.
Way of the Hunter: Core gameplay seems well done and it looks pretty good. Unfortunately I feel this game is one that really wants you to play it in multi-hour segments, unlike the hour and a half on and off I've had the time for, so I haven't really gotten far.
Edit: Forgot the big one I've been playing: Project Tamriel mod for Morrowind.

 

[Abu Antar]

PC:
Still Valheim every now and then. I'm the equivalent of a passenger princess. I don't do any crafting, only fighting. The bros were told that this would be the case before we started, but they still wanted me to join. I still join in on the grinding items, and all that other stuff, which I dislike btw.

Heroes of Might and Magic 4, now on the first expansion, but this is taking a backseat, and only played like an hour per week.

Football Manager 2024, but just for a little bit. Less playing, and more thinking about doing my own database.

Prince of Qin. It gathered some pace after a slow start. Decent art, and okay soundtrack. Combat is serviceable. My characters have basically been using the same moves from the start of the game, until where I am at now.

Console:
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. I reached the Costa Del Sol area of the game. If the first few areas had filler, this dials it up to 11. Game has fun jrpg combat, some nice visuals, and some nice tracks, but the pacing is weak, and the padding is real. Quenn's Blood is still fun.

Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! Goes places once you keep playing. I probably still need someone to slap me in the face for playing this.

Romancing SaGa 3 replay. I love the series, but those who know (the jrpg forum goers) probably already knew this. I probably prefer this one the most of all the games in the series, but there are close contenders. Played the whole thing in commander mode, which I haven't really done before. It was fun to see the techs that your party uses.

The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav is standard Deadalic adventure, but with a more serious tone. Fugly characters, but nice backgrounds. Puzzles weren't too complicated, if I remember correctly, they make more sense than the Deponia games.

Streets of Rage 4 still with my brother. I think we're ner the end. Once we beat it, we discussed going a few difficulty options higher.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure. This is also being played, and we're progressing slowly. Mostly fun, with some frustrating levels, but those are most the extra challenges.

.hack//G.U. Last Recode. This one has been sitting in my backlog for years, so it got randomly picked from old games to play. Nothing spectacular. Pretty bad characters so far, serviceable jrpg combat, and not much else to say for now. I'm in the first few hours.

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake is a decent platformer, but some camera issues here and there, which annoy me. This one is being played because I wanted a 3D platformer to play. Neither great, nor offensively bad. a 6-7/10 game.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All. I have only played an hour or two, but it's silly fun, just like the first game. Visual Novel with some deduction segments. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure things out.

Mercenaries Saga 2 -Order of the Silver Eagle-. Not much to say about this one. Very low budget Final Fantasy Tactics. It works, and scratches my Japanese trpg itch a little bit. No fluff, just combat, upgrade characters, combat, and so on. There are some scenes that move the story forward, but they are relatively short.

 

[Castozor]

Man so many games for some, I'm generally happy to play 2 different titles in one month.

Which this time were Shin Megami Tensei: V, still didn't finish it and I'm giving it a break for now. But I've had a very good time with this one, I rarely finish games this long but this one should not be hard to complete.

Also tried my hand at Crusader Kings 2 again but it just can't hold my interest these days, not sure why. Unlike Age of Empires 2 which I'm playing for some co-op campaigns with a friend. Might give Ladder a try in February but I'm unsure I still have it in me to compete online.

 

[Losus4]

Outward + Tomb Raider remastered... both fantastic.

 

[Necrensha]

could i ask you to play games you actually enjoy this month?

 

[rubinstein]

Halls of Torment

mini-review

I am not a fan of Garlics, Im not into indies neither, but when somehwere around 2023 I spotted this game on youtube, I immediately bought it, despite its early access state. I played it only for around 10h back then, there was very little content, but after a recent series of updates (and codex, who reminded me about this title in this thread), I reinstalled it, played plenty of it, and after additional 50h, I was done with the game. I killed the final boss, finished some challenges. Was fun.
If this game is considered a "respectable" Garlic-like, then I have to admit, these games have interesting gameplay loop. Necessity of finding balance between reaching short-term and long-term goals while building your character introduces essential complexity to a seemingly simple game about surviving incoming waves of enemies.
Unlike many other indie games (some Garlics included), I particularly like two things about it. First of all, the game looks really good. It perfectly reflects aesthetics of the first Diablo. I also like the lack of internet/meme humor typical of many indie games. This game has a proper tone and atmosphere.

Temple of Elemental Evil

Impressions so far

I started the game at the beginning of the year, it's my first playthrough, and it's still going strong. So far I have more or less cleared the first 3 levels of the temple. I play with a good team, so I rather focus on massacring villains and rescuing prisoners. However, I feel that if you are playing as an evil team, the first levels of the temple offer some roleplay involving joining and solving problems for minor factions. I'll have to try it one day, if thats the case. I'm still wondering where Paida is and if I havent missed her by accident (either in the temple or moathouse).
When it comes to gameplay, ToEE is really great. The system, battles, pacing of the game - at least once you reach temple - are remarkable, one of the best vidya dnd Ive played. i feel like the game is a bit too cruel during its opening 10-15h though. It's relatively easy to have your characters killed during the first few hours, especially if you are fresh to the game. Recovering seems costly and cumbersome. yes, call me "a filthy casual", but i quick-loaded once or twice, when bandits or bugbears decided to focus on one of my frontliners and killed them. it was just so much more convenient to try again. but the further you go, the easier it is to prevent and recover from deaths. I appreciate toees simplistic crafting, because i hate it when games expect you to gather fuckton of garbage, just so you can create a mediocre item, that will be quickly replaced by loot found during adventuring. here it is much better and upgrading gear is worth it. then radial menu. it is... ok, i guess? it's annoying at times, but people calling it the worst thing ever definitely overexaggerate and are probably too stubborn to learn hotkeys. i appreciate visual clarity of toee. oh, and music. soundtrack is absolutely excellent. heres a sample.
I'm kinda forced to play the version straight from GOG, without unofficial patches or mods, and I must admit that ToEE is terrible from a technical pov. Poor pathfinding, bugs, even crashes. Peak Troika.