What Are You Playing?

Gaming 🎮
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Got inspired by the recent Dual Comm and the sentiment for people to talk about the media they like. And I’ve seen this done in other places, so I thought about making a thread where we can just talk about what games have currently captured our attention.

Recently I’ve been playing a lot of Pokémon LeafGreen and have been loving the experience. I’ve noticed that (because of the relatively small pool of Pokémon available) opponents teams have a bit more variety than latter gens, usually being built around a theme more than a particular type.

This has made things very enjoyable because I’m having to think more about the battles (it can kinda throw me a curve ball when I am in a poison gym and my opponent sends out a Hypno). But in a way that isn’t just making the game more difficult, with things like competitive level Pokémon or a steep level curve.

So what has everyone else been enjoying?

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I’ve been terrible a out focusing on just one game lately so I’ve been bouncing between a good bit depending on what I’m feeling each day.

Just beat Nioh 3 the other day and that felt like an accomplishment since I normally stink at souls games. Fantastic game but it felt like it started to drag on after awhile. Definitely recommend it to any that likes souls games, theres so much variety in the weapons and playstyles.

Been gradually working my way through Pokopia, I’m closing in on the end of the game and I’m very excited to start building my island. Planning on working on my island for years, can’t wait to see my friends islands since they’re all eyeing up the Switch 2 for Pokopia.

Grabbed FireRed when they put it out on the Switch 2 last month. Working through that a few minutes a day. I haven’t played a gen 1 game since maybe 2008 and I forgot how little variety there is in the different types of Pokemon early game. I like the little bit of friction in the way I’m approaching the game atm. I have to spend time leveling up my team instead of steamrolling everything like the more recent games (not that the new games aren’t fun.) I think I’m going to try the nugget glitch to get enough money to get a Dratini when I get to the city with the 4th gym.

Mewgenics is so fun, it reminds me of 90s cartoon humor. Good time all around, I’m always laughing while playing it and the breeding system is fun. I like the different OP builds you can luck into for a run.

Started Yakuza Kiwami 3 with my wife, we played through 0, Kiwami 1 and Kiwami 2 last summer. Very excited to dive into this game, the original Yakuza 3 is sentimental for me because it reminds me of when my wife and I started dating in the summer of 2010.

Playing a franchise on NBA 2K26 because I’ve fallen in love with basketball all over again. I personally never stopped playing basketball but I watched NBA basketball way less after we got rid of cable in 2017. Now that theres easy ways to watch the games I’ve been obsessed the NBA again so it’s fun role playing building an awesome franchise again. It’s trippy playing with user created rosters for the upcoming draft because I remember when one of the top players in this upcoming draft was born (Cameron Boozer, son of former player Carlos Boozer.) The game does make me feel old as shit now that pro players that me and my friends grew up playing against are retiring in the game and considered old guys :sob:

I did buy Crimson Desert and I am excited from everything I’ve seen but it only took 20-30 minutes for me to put it down and decide to wait for some enhancements to the controls. Once the controls are a little snappier I’ll probably hop on right away! In the meantime I’ve been thinking of finally starting The Witcher 3 or Cyberpunk for my open world fix.

This morning I started Esoteric Ebb after hearing the discussion about it on the Triple Click podcast. It looks really cool so far, it’s like a fantasy version of Disco Elysium.

@PocketEleri Have you played a gen 1 Pokemon game before? It’s been a good time, I really hope they make some sort of SoulSilver/HeartGold remake that can be played on a single screen, those games were amazing! Also, are there any other games you’re playing atm or do you try to stick to one game at a time?

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I’ve been bouncing between The Sly Cooper Collection on PS3 (HD releases of the 1, 2, & 3 PS2 games) and Dirt 2 on Steam Deck. I also just finished Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.

The game play changes between Sly 1 and 2 are interesting. Sly 1 levels remind me of Crash Bandicoot or Psyconauts: You move linearly from start to finish, finding collectibles and optional items. Once you’ve finished all the levels for the area, you fight the boss and go to the next area. For Sly 2, they changed it so the area is now one large level. Missions play out within the area to get things set up for a heist. At first I wasn’t liking the new formula. But after getting used to moving around guards and enemies, it’s fine and I can appreciate the change.

It’s sometimes hard to realize how far hardware has come. I was playing Dirt 2 on the PS3 at 30FPS in 2009. Now I’m playing the Windows version on Linux, at 60fps, and only consuming 10 watts of power.

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Have you played a gen 1 Pokemon game before? It’s been a good time, I really hope they make some sort of SoulSilver/HeartGold remake that can be played on a single screen, those games were amazing! Also, are there any other games you’re playing atm or do you try to stick to one game at a time?

I did playthrough Pokémon Blue like a decade ago, it was a lot of fun and cemented Butterfree as one of my favourite Pokémon.

I’m not actively playing through any other games, but I have dipped in and out of bit of Mario Kart 8 DX/World and Monster Hunter Rise when I’ve wanted a break from Pokémon. But I don’t really try to stick to one game at a time either. I tend to just go with the vibes, and the current vibe is Pokémon.

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Pokopia has been the recent obsession, my fiancee and I were both really big on Animal Crossing, and it was one of the first games that I got her into. So this was an easy and obvious pickup for us, although oddly I feel myself a little overwhelmed with the game. I feel like it’s a combination of how much could potentially be unlocked coupled with the rather lackluster editing tools (the skills feel very micro in effect, and resulting in big projects being incredibly time consuming.)

Outside of that, some regular MMO juggling, although I find myself increasingly falling out of love with the genre. I’ll likely be shelving these for the summer.

Been chipping away at Pokemon Platinum, which I’ve never played myself. As well as working on some Battle Frontier on Emerald.

Played through OG Final Fantasy 7 the first time at the start of the year which was a really great breath of fresh air. Had some old jank, but was very surprised with how well the game held up for it pushing 30. Found the materia system to be super rad, and honestly really impressive when thinking in context of the time the game released.

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I’ve also been hopping between games recently, just playing the stuff I feel like playing. I recently finished Mafia: Definitive Edition, which is a great game that doesn’t take too long to finish. The story is actually really good imo.

Besides my one-bigger-story-game-at-a-time rule, I’ve playing some smaller, sessionable games. Last few weeks I’ve been playing HeartGold on my old DSi, which I never got to play but is an amazing game. Ordered a New 3DS XL so some more Pokemon is on the way probably. Also been dying to try a JRPG, and the 3DS looks ideal for that.

During the Spring Sale, I’ve also picked up some games. Easy Delivery Co. and Satisfactory being 2 of them, so I’m also playing these games atm. Easy Delivery Co. is ideal for a laid back experience after work, Satisfactory on the other hand is also super fun but it does feel more like work lol.

If anyone has any 3DS recommendations btw, let me know!

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I got Pokopia for my birthday and that’s been great to dive into. Animal Crossing was a big part of keeping me and my wife sane during lockdown so we’re into it. I get what you mean about it being a lot though @Akino. I would love to be able to automate some of the fiddly stuff. If I could get Squirtle to just go around watering grass, I’d be so happy.

I also picked up a few things in the Speing sale, but the winner so far has been Haste. That’s been great to play in spurts and I’ve found it a lot more satisfying than the Sonic games I tried to cross off my backlog earlier this year.

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I’ve been playing a Minecraft mod called TerraFirmaCraft which overhauls the game’s survival mode, making it much more realistic. I had started a world in TFC around Christmas 2024 when I was sick and played it until I felt better, ditching that towards playing Metroid Prime 2 in the process. Then, one year and 3 months later, the itch to play that came again as a way to disconnect a bit more from the current crappy things happening on the internet. A kind of digital fugere urbe to a more idyllic and simple lifestyle.

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Have currently gotten back into Warframe of all things, something about it’s game flow just hooks me for a few months every few years, other than that have been making my way through Icewind Dale on my Linux laptop and the frequent UT2004 session

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So I finished up the main story and post game story in Pokémon LeafGreen. Was a lot of fun, I understand why people get attached to their teams now. It’s kinda taken the roll of a session game now as I slowly work on the PokéDex. I’m not rushing that though, as I would need to grab FireRed (and they haven’t even announced Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald yet).

Not 100% sure what I’m gonna be playing yet, me and my partners have picked the Pikmin series as our Game of the Month though and I have been enjoying some Burnout 3, so will probably be one or both of those.

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Currently having an absolute blast with going through all the Kingdom Hearts games back to back!! last time I played them was around age 8 so the childlike wonder surrounding every little thing in those games for me is through the roof<3

The amount of glaze Pokopia is getting here makes me maybe wanna jump into it as my next project after KH

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Ended up doing another playthrough of Freedom Planet. It’s one of my favourite games, and one of the first indies I brought, but I have only beat it as one of the three characters. So I decided to start correcting that and did a run as Lilac.

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Been playing Wander Stars. It’s an indie RPG where the combat is based around combining words to do your actions. So far I’m a just over halfway done and the game has opened up a lot with new party members and their unique word types. I didn’t expect the turn based combat to be this engrossing, and with the board game overworld with randomized battles, it makes replaying stages and trying to the challenge runs super fun.

Also been playing more Dungeons of Dredmor. It’s an older roguelike(emphasis on the like part) that’s hard as hell. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten past floor 2 but every run I learn something new. It reminded me what I really like about the genre and why most modern roguelik(t)es don’t interest me. It good arcadey fun, even though its insanely complex with all its systems. I can hop in for a game quickly and feel like I got something done .

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Well my mood for Pokémon came back after taking a short break once I finished LeafGreen.

I decided to jump into Shining Pearl. It’s wild just how much of a difference EXP. Share makes to the game’s pacing. IMO this isn’t a bad thing though, all it has meant so far is that I am not running back as much to heal up.

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Big +1 for Mewgenics. I got it on launch day and played it a lot, bounced off it after a few total party wipes, and got back in a few days ago after finally acquiring a few cats with higher health stats. Right now I’m having fun figuring out interesting builds and unlocking items/locations.

Other than that I have been starting a new Invisible, Inc. run every couple of months.

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