I finished Lords of the Fallen a couple of nights ago, fenomenal soulslike that gets a bad rep because of some performance issues. They are down to a minimial now though, I didn't encounter anything gamebreaking or even particularly bad. The second half of the game was pretty easy, the bosses just melted before my radiance-build, but I had a good time. Don't always need that soulsborne difficulty hanging over me like a suspended hammer.

Now I'm playing through the first Shantae, and that game hasn't aged well... But I thought I would play through it because I want to play the later games in the series and it feels good to knock them all out in order. It's starting to click with me a bit, so I don't have anything against it but it will be nice when it's done.

I also play the Paper Mario remake, it's terrific! Haven't had much time with it though the last few weeks so I'm hoping to be able to play more soon.

Yes, this thread is also one of my favorite ones on the forum! Nice to see it being posted in again.

I'm currently playing Evil West, and having a great time. It looks gorgeous, the combat is fun and responsive, and the cutscenes are well crafted and fun in a popcorn film sort of way. I really appreciate the complete focus on visuals and combat the game has, it is very refreshing after several big open world games. I would call Evil West a "God of War (2018)-like", and if you can get it for a discount or through Gamepass or whatever, I highly recommend it.

I'm also playing Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door (though I haven't played for like two weeks now i think). It's fun and charming, so I hope to continue with it soon.

Another game I want to continue soon is Cyberpunk 2077, which I fell in love with but haven't touched since Easter when I was away from home for the holiday and then got distracted by other hobbies when I got back. It was so good, but I almost feel intimidated buy the sheer scope of all it's mechanics.

A lot of pick-ups for June. I finally got the rest of the Xenoblade Chronicles trilogy and also Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX. Paper Mario was a pre-order and I'm playing it now. It's very fun. I got Sea of Stars to play later. I've wanted Untitled goose game for a long time so finally picked it up (only had it digitally), and also replayed it this weekend.

Nice set of games you got there. I hope you enjoy Shadow Fall.

Thank you! :)

This is my acquisitions for April and May. I think I got Shantae earlier than that, but in any case I forgot to include it earlier.

Playing Cyberpunk 2077 right now and I'm loving it, so I bought it to have physical and get the code for Phantom Liberty. Really happy that I found Atelier Ryza 2, because I didn't think I could find it outside of searching on Ebay. I'm gonna try to buy the third one this summer. Dying Light was recommended to me by a colleague, and I have wanted MediEvil for a long time but it's almost never available in my country.



I also won this bundle on an auction, for only around €25! It also contained the launch edition of God of War (2018) but I already have that so I'm giving the new copy to a friend.

Hope you enjoy the Xenoseries! I just picked up and started Xenoblade 2 yesterday.

Thanks! :) I’m positive I will. Also plan to pick up Xenoblade 2 and 3 the coming months.

These are my acquisitions so far for 2024. Have been meaning to buy the whole Xenoblade Chronicles-series for the Switch for some time now, so finally started and picked up the first one.

Heard Gravity Rush 2 may be remastered for PS5, so thought it best to finally pick up a copy of the original, because there is not many available where I live.

I have beaten Hades and own it physical on the Switch, but it's one of my favorite games of all time so I would really like to have it on the PS5 too.

I plan to spend a bit more money than usual on game collecting in April, so should be able to pick up 4-5 games in the coming weeks.

I'm playing Slay the spire, but I'm starting to feel like it's taking over all my game time so I might put it aside for a time.

I've also started Disco Elysium. Really like it, but it's a game you have to be in the mood for. So contemplating to have something else more mindless and action-oriented going on parallell with DE.

You've got some good stuff coming!

No plans here except whim and chaos. If I end up with a huge list in my currently playing tab so be it! I have issues with 'should' and 'shouldn't' which can often lead to not doing anything, so I'm gonna try to do away with that and see what happens.

The only exception is more point and click/adventure games for my blog, but I have no particular order or plans for what I'll tackle next there either.

I hope so! ^_^ Been going on my gut feeling instead of the "I should really play/finish this because", and really looking forward to these.

Sounds like a good decision to do away with the shoulds and shouldn'ts if they are contradictory to your enjoyment of the hobby! I've left space for whims and new releases too, since I usually fit more than 12 games into a year. It's important to not make it into "work".

Hi everyone!

It's that time of the year again when I like to plan (or speculate in) what I'm gonna play next year. As stated before, compiling a list for what I'm looking forward to play during next year is both fun and helpful for me.

What are you looking forward to/planning to play next year?

For 2024 I'm focusing on my backlog, since I don't really know what upcoming titles I'll be able or wanting to get when they release.

To Beat 2024

1. Alan Wake Remastered (Xbox Series X)
2. Alan Wake 2 (Xbox Series X)
3. Cyberpunk 2077 + Phantom Liberty (PS5)

4. Final Fantasy 9 (Switch, replay)
5. Disco Elysium (Xbox Series X)
6. Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox Series X)
7. South Park: the Stick of Truth (PS4)

8. Immortals of Aveum (PS5)
9. Metroid Prime Remastered (Switch)
10. Remnant 2 (Xbox Series X)
11. Starfield (Xbox Series X)
12. Super Mario RPG (Switch)
13. Final Fantasy 16 (PS5)
14. Baldur's Gate 3 (PS5)

Shantae (PS5)
Shantae: Risky's Revenge (PS5)
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse (PS5)
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (PS5)
Shantae and the Seven Sirens (PS5)

(the order is thematic, I'm not intending to play them in that order necessarily)

Regarding the Shantae games, I've finally collected them all for the PS5 so I thought I would play through the series over the next year. Feels like good pallette cleansers between longer games.

New games I'm looking forward to are mainly:

Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 (Xbox Series X)
Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door remake (Switch)
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon remake (Switch)

That's it for now.

Gotta watch out for spiders, man.

Finished Spider-Man: Miles Morales on friday night and now I've started Mario+Rabbids: Sparks of Hope.

Some not mentioned yet:

BioShock
Link’s awakening (og or remake)
Brothers: a tale of two sons
Stray
Uncharted 4

Now playing Gris, what a gorgeous game...

Gris is excellent!

Demon's Souls, the PS5 remake.

It's my first time through it and it's going pretty good so far. Although the swamp area is creeping me out, I just hate those parts of the Souls-games...

I will probably also start Final Fantasy 16 soon, but haven't had the time yet.

I just got these two beauties today, and decided it was time for a new collecting update.



Very happy with all of them. I was planning to stop buying for the PS4, but there is just so many interesting games on the console, so I'll keep it up for a while longer. And I know Balan Wonderworld is a crappy game, but I would like to try it out just because of it (and also, it was like €5 brand new).
I played Gears 5 on Gamepass, and really liked it so I wanted a physical copy.

Yes, I really do. Although I think there can be a middle ground that is still satisfying, where the game is semi-open. Areas are connected by "corridors" or something like that. I think of the Dead Space remake as a good example. In theory, the whole of USG Ishimura was connected in one big level, but you weren't necessarily inclined or obligated to return to areas more than the story demanded of you, and you didn't have a bunch of stuff to do on the map that just felt like filler (I found the few side-missions where connected to the story in a meaningful way). Dark Souls 3 where also kinda half-open, but in a way that still created levels.

I hope they do something more fun with the dungeons.

Yeah, me too. They became stale very quickly.

Spider-Man, PS5
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Switch

I've also gotten back into Animal Crossing: New Horizons, because my sister is playing. We are also playing a lot of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe together.

Diablo 4, my Barbarian at level 42 and a bit into act 4, after 40 hours. I thought the game was really good in the beginning, but it got too repetitive and I got tired of it. I think I did too many sidequests in the beginning, should have focused on the main mission instead, and that contributed to my "burn-out" on the game. They are very repetitive and dour, it gets annoying after a while.

Here are my game acquisitions for May and June. Enjoy! (and also enjoy the bluish Nordic evening light the pictures were taken in :P )



So I finally feel done with collecting for the PS4! I have most of the stuff I want to play that's not ridiculously expensive, and most importantly, nothing more fits on the shelf where I currently display my PS4 titles. Feels really good. Although I've been enjoying the collecting, I want to focus on other stuff in the fututre, and to play the games I already have.

Other stuff, like the Nintendo Switch. Really happy with what I managed to pick up, especially Dredge, FF: Pixel Remasters, and FF 10/10-2 since these have been difficult to find where I live. I bought Greak: Memories of Azur because I liked the art style and the game seems neat, and I bought Story of Seasons to have as a counterpoint to Diablo 4 during the summer.

The last couple of games: Bramble seemed interesting and was cheap. I've been meaning to pick up more for the PS Vita this year so finally got around to it (Gravity Rush I got really cheap, it's usually around €70 but I got it for €30). And NHL 98 for the Playstation was a nostalgia piece: I was really into the NHL-games when I was a kid and Peter Forsberg was my favorite player so decided to get this as memorabilia.

Playing Diablo 4. Chose Barbarian, but it feels a bit too difficult right now, so I'm thinking of starting over with the Necro instead.

I'm also thinking of taking a complete break from gaming for a couple of weeks because I've been playing so much the last two months that I'm starting to feel exhausted by it.

I'm intrigued by your thoughts about Redfall's reception. I kind of lost interest in playing it as the months came up to it I found myself just not compelled to pick it up Day One, but I do find your thoughts on how overblown the hate for it is kind of interesting! I feel a lot of hate has to do with hype culture which I always tend to avoid. Me and my friend were talking about this on Discord, both to an extent with movies and video games in general. You gave a great example about Cyberpunk and how people were so hyped up because of the CD Projekt Red's involvement that many people were soured that the game wasn't a masterpiece and not what they expected. Hype can really kill your enjoyment of a game and can make you feel betrayed, but then again that's on the player for overhyping the product when they should have tampered their expectations to a much more suitable level.

The way you were describing your thoughts on the game itself sounds like a kind of meh/okay title, so I might take a pass on it unless I end up playing it out of curiosity down the line, but I think at the end of the day at least with me I end up going in with no expectations really other than to be entertained and to try and enjoy the experience overall. That's why with Final Fantasy XVI and Warhammer 40K: Boltgun, two games I've pre ordered I'm just going to go in fresh without any hype behind it just hoping I'll enjoy it. And hey, at the end of the day if a game's bad, I just move onto to something else that's worth my time. Great points though about the overly harsh reception.

Anyways, I'm playing Tomb Raider: Legend via Xbox Series X since the game was literally $3 on sale, so I thought why not? I'm enjoying the game so far. Combat is not impactful and the story is incoherent nonsense but Lara Croft and her team are likeable and the game is very Mid-2000's in a very cheesy but fun way. The controls are not terrible for the most part and I never really struggled with them and it's rarely frustrating especially when doing the puzzles which took me some time but I did end up enjoying solving them and feeling smart which is very rewarding. So far, pretty decent.

Also, I'm trying to play Entropy: Zero 2 and finish that up but gaming for me is going a bit slowly right now especially since I'm starting to write again after my short little break. But to reiterate what I said about it previously, it's much better than the first mod and fixes everything I didn't like about that one and improves it to a huge extent. Another Half-Life 2 mod I'm enjoying!

Thank you for your reflections about my thoughts of Redfall, and sorry for the late reply.

Glad I was able to give a somewhat nuanced impression of the game :) I've spent around 10 hours with it now, most of them during a weekend, and my verdict would certainly be that it is no more than a 6/10, but still not as bad as reviewers made it out to be. There is a somewhat annoying discrepancy in the game though, that I feel drags the whole experience down: the game can't decide if it's a single or multiplayer game (I'm playing single btw). According to Arkane it's both, but it does some really annoying things that makes it very apparent that is more a multiplayer game. For me, the fact that when you die you respawn at the last safe house you rested at is one of them, because that sort of takes for granted that you are part of a squad that is still fighting it out back where you died. Because when you return there, the enemies are as you left them, health and all; the Rook fights, if you die during one, is over; and you don't get back your health packs or ammo that you spent between last save and dying. So in a sense you didn't even really die, you just got knocked out and teleported back to a safe house. (I don't know if my description of this makes sense, but anyhow). I found this extremely annoying, all the more since you have to trek back to the place where you died and it can be far off sometimes.

I also spoke about the vampires in my last entry, that fighting them was annoying. Their melee attacks can't be dodged or blocked or dashed away from causing you to take alot of unnecessary damage. Circle strafing helps immensely though, it seems to confuse the AI who just stands there.
So solutions like that drags down the experience. I've put the game aside for now to finish Stranger of Paradise and Dredge before D4 drops, but I think I will try to finish at least the main missions of Redfall down the road.
If you have Gamepass, definitly give it a try, and make up your own mind about it. As I've said, it is mediocre at best, but it has its moments.

I'm playing several games at the moment, with the consequence that it takes several days or a week between sessions with each of them. But I feel that's OK.

Still playing Dredge. I'm in the third area, very much enjoying it.

Playing Theatrhythm Final Bar Line on the low key, but want to put more hours into it once Dredge is finished.

I also started Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins and I LOVE it. The battles are really fun, it's a bit challenging but not so difficult that I'm getting stuck (except on a few bosses) and I adore the story telling and the main character. It's so cheesy and cringy but in a way that makes it a lot of fun. And also, glory killing classic Final Fantasy enemies never gets old!

Finally, last night I started Redfall. Since it is on Gamepass and I was looking forward to it a bit for a while, I thought I might as well. My thoughts, just a few hours in though, is that it is a mediocre Xbox Series X game, but an OK early PS4-era game. The combat haven't clicked for me yet, it feels like you're taking a lot of damage easily and the camera and aim is a bit flimsy which makes it hard to aim with a controller. The vampires is just annoying at the moment. I rather liked the opening cinematic, I found it creating atmosphere and mood. I understand that people are disappointed by it being so rudimentary, but on its own merits it's okay. I play as Devinder, and he's a swell guy. Haven't seen any bugs yet, that I'm aware of at least. I would say this is a 6.5, maybe a weak 7.

With that said, I have not played any other Arkane game, so I don't have the same outlook on the game as many reviewers. I do feel though that many reviews are too harsh, and almost out of line in how derogatory they are. I think it was MrMattyPlays that said that you shouldn't even download the game from Gamepass to try it out for yourself, it's that bad. I find statements like that immature and unprofessional. It likely comes down to having too much feelings and identification invested in a game developer/publisher (as many people seemed to have with CDProjekt Red when Cyberpunk 2077 was released). You will almost always be disappointed then. It doesn't take from the fact that the game in itself is mediocre and perhaps buggy, but it's still up to you to manage your own expectations and reactions. I believe that the same, but perhaps not as strong if the game is good, will come with the release of Starfield. Even if the game is really good, the discourse of it having to be "the best game in years to even be worth anything" will have destroyed the experience beforehand.

My pickups for April 2023.

Working on some of the last additions to my PS4 collection. I've decided to cap it out at 51 games, because that's one shelf in my bookshelf. I think I have three slots left after this. I used to have The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt but I think I sold it, so bought a first edition because it looks so clean on the cover art. Planning to replay the Arkham-series in the future and would rather do it on the PS5, so got Batman: Return to Arkham. And adding to my Metal Gear Solid-collection with number 5. Now I only need to get 1 and 3.

Starting to look for more for the PS2, and got GTA: Vice City really cheap. I've also been waiting forever for a good sale on Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, and finally found it for around €17.

Also picked up Theatrhythm Final Bar Line and Cult of the Lamb for the Switch, great games both.