Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

I have this tendency of just playing stuff I already know and don’t enjoy most new game for like six or so hours while I have to „learn“ them - exception are simple things like platformers or racing games where it‘s crystal clear what to do.

So I have finally decided to really sink my teeth into MGSV and after the warm-up phase, I now can‘t put it down. It‘s crazy how good it looks even nowadays while spitting out triple digit fps at 4k on reasonable hardware. Also 60 fps on the Deck native at high settings. Mindblowing.

I approached the game wrong at first. I‘ve learned that I should be crawling when I think crouching‘s enough, and crouch when I think I can walk lol, also judo throws are more silent than whispers.

I‘m inching towards 100% completion. I liked side-ops and the open world more than any main mission. Main missions always felt too stressful with super human ninja zombies in some of em as well. And fuck „A Quiet Exit.“

Side-ops and the open world really let the games’ more fun mechanics shine for me. With like 120 hours for 100% I also think it has a good length. It‘s starting to wear itself off a bit and it‘s almost done, so it‘s not overstaying its welcome for me. Honestly? A masterpiece.

Although… for me the story was barely holding it together, just wild stuff that made me go „wait what“ more than a good number of times.

With the release of the final content patch (and a steam sale), I finally picked up Baldur’s Gate 3. Only 3 hours into it but enjoying it greatly. It’s different enough from Divinity Original Sin 2 that it doesn’t feel like a re-hash.

Mostly “Disco Elysium” (translates from Latin to “I learn [the world of] Elysium” btw. OFC it’s disco AF too)

And yes, it’s been 6 years since release and 4 years since “The Final Cut”… ((:

I love this game SM. It’s such a welcome break from the neoliberal postmodernist slop, being a genuine piece of art. I love it’s materialist and politeconomic perspective on society; in general, the writing is just superb (there is no going back after it too, most games and art in general (including novels and films) might just seem mediocre afterwards)…
The writers did their research about basically everything they wrote about (even racial “”“science”“”, OFC depicted negatively), with a focus on psychology, political economy, sociology and philosophy.

Initially played it in 2021 (but save scummed a lot :/ ). Both me as a person, and my understanding of political economy and philosophy have grown quite a bit since then.
I tried replaying it in 2023, but didn’t get very far (mostly due to mental health) Recently my interest in the game rekindled and I’m trying to play as a progressive social democratic superstar hobocop this time lol

I’ve also been getting back into Counter Strike 2 the last few eeks, but it’s taken a major backseat to Disco Elysium (a large factor being: I want to make a deck of Anki flashcards to memorise util lineups of the current map rotation; but I just can’t summon the motivation for it, so it “blocks” me from playing)

I’m playing Wylde Flowers. It’s a farm sim game with witchcraft, but I mostly like it because it is extremely low-stress. No inventory management, no time pressure to do things, just building a farm and talking to / romancing people.

I picked it up after I got to the point in Subnautica where you have too much contact with leviathans, and I need something calm and relaxing. Maybe I’ll make more Subnautica progress soon, though :).

Edit: Spelling

Got back into crusader kings 3. Reformed the old basque religion. Trying not to piss off the catholics and muslims that now surround me.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney! My partner and I each voice act half the characters. It’s been a HOOT! I think I’m at the end of the first game.

I recently got New Leaf installed on my hacked N3DSXL. I loved New Horizons but it got a bit stale. The villagers were all kinda samey and didn’t have much dialogue. New Leaf insofar feels like it has much more soul. But we’re only 30 hours in or so, so we’ll see!

I got back into Red Dead Redemption 2. Still debating with myself if I should continue the story or try online.

Caves of Qud. I don’t even like it much, but for some reason I can’t stop.

Deep Rock Galactic Survivor a lot. Got it on sale for like $7 and got quite a few hours. My husband and I love roguelites.

Still wrestling with Blue Prince and still as enthralled with it as I was last week. It’s such a clever, beautiful, unique and interesting game.

I’m finally starting to glimpse the finish line at the horizon now after having been in the endgame for about a week. Still a couple of puzzles left to solve, still a couple of unanswered questions left to investigate but I can feel how close I am now.

God damn it am I going to miss this game once it’s over. Experiences like this don’t come around often. If you like puzzles and mysteries and escape rooms be impatient for once and play this game. It’s extraordinary.

MotorTown. Absolutely chill. It’s like all the vehicle driving sims merged into one!

Currently working through the Talos Principle. Really fun + there’s a really cool shader to render ripples on water.

I’m practicing for a PVP VR sword fighting game tournament (the game is death duel VR on steam). This tournament is jousting so i need to practice handling the new horses and lance XD

After a few failed tries I started doing a serious play to win run of XCom UFO Defense with OpenXCom. The game can seem daunting but it’s honestly pretty fun!

Then I looked into other open source games and got distracted big time by starting Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 for my first time EVER with OpenRCT2! I now fully understand the hype and it’s crazy that I haven’t played it sooner

Still going through Prince of Persia: Sands of Time from last week - the combat is quite repetitive, though the platforming is as good as I remember so that more than makes up for it!

I can definitely see how Assassins Creed was eventually born from this series.

Kid’s just fallen sick, so I’ll likely STILL be playing this in next week’s thread too - so don’t judge me too harshly - I promise I still have that gamer cred! 😅