Locked in on continuing my Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth run. Iām somewhere in chapter 11 right now, kinda excited to finally put this one to bed. Have enjoyed my playthrough for the most part but some of the side content theyāve created here is not exactly thrilling stuff. That said though Iāve just started beelining through to the main objective in each area and Iām enjoying myself again.
Feel like thatās something I struggle with most of the time: resisting 100% completion.
I often feel like I am some how wasting the game as if I havenāt gotten the value out of it if I didnāt see every last piece of content I could. I think itās ok to say youāve had enough and you want the game to hurry up. And who knows on a replay I might be inclined to try that content I skipped over the first time around.
Iāve been playing through HITMAN: WoA recently and itās a pretty fun game. In the past, Iāve played through Absolution which I liked a lot and I remember why now. The different assassination missions take you to different big maps where your creativity is really the number one key to succeed.
The game makes you think outside the box and lets you basically do what you want, whenever you want to. I found myself assassinating different targets in very different ways, which I think makes the game feel fresh and new every time you play a different mission. The game is also not super difficult, but difficult enough that you feel like youāre taking risks now and then. Also tried playing a few missions on master difficulty, but thatās a real challenge.
The only big downside to the game is that itās like a micro transaction game where a lot of the content is behind a pay wall, sold as a separate DLC. But besides that the game is really fun and has a decent story as well (itās basically just HITMAN 1-3). Iām almost finished with the story of HITMAN 3.
Besides that, Iāve also been playing some Planet Coaster 2 on the side. This is a real fun game as well, especially since Iām into management games. Managing and decorating your own theme park is just low-friction, simple fun. The decorating is really relaxing and the possibilities are pretty deep as well.
When I have a bit of spare time, I also play some Paper Mario: Sticker Star on my 3DS as well. This game is nothing special, but just a fun Paper Mario experience with some quirky humor, fun combat and new and fun gameplay mechanics such as the stickering feature (duh) where you can basically put a sticker on the current scene to complete a puzzle.
I booted MGS4 today since it came out and I havenāt touched the game since I 100%ād it back in 2008.
I mostly just wanted to see how the conversion was and Iām happy to see it is more or less the same game it was back in the day. Runs great in 4k at 60fps but I think something most are probably not gonna be prepared for is the controls. This game was designed for the Dual Shock 3 and has A LOT of motion control stuff built into it. Some of it has been remapped to button presses but Iām honestly considering pairing a DS4 or DS5 to my PC to play this.
I suppose this might be a decent chance to try and remap some of these motion control functions to the back buttons on the steam controller too. Whatever I end up doing itāll probably be much later as Iām not sure I really want to commit to a replay of MGS4 right now. The cutscenes alone, which I love, Iāve seen a dozen times now and can literally recall from memory.
Maybe after I finish FF7 Rebirth.
But if you were curious how they did with the port take it from a MGS die hard: they did a good job here.
Finally finished Tears of the Kingdom. I honestly didnāt much left when I put the game down 2+ years ago. I had completed the temples and obtained the master sword. But I still spent the past several weeks exploring the world more, finding side quests, and finishing shrines to collect blessings. I one aspect of ToTK I didnāt care for was material grinding. I took me about 5 nights to collect enough materials to max out one set of armor. I wasnāt about to try and do another set. I also always fel the game was stingy on drops, especially arrows. I ended up farming/cooking prime and gourmet meat, selling them to Beddle, and then jumping around to stables/outposts/villages to buy arrows.
I thought the final boss battle against Ganon was good enough and a decent payoff to the story (if you collected all the tears). At least this Ganon had a motivation compared to BoTWās Calamity Ganon which was just āa monster that embodies evil.ā
Whatās nextā¦ I have no idea. Thereās a backlog of games I need to pick from. Maybe I need a āspin it to win itā wheel to help.
Currently playing Animal Well. Bought it already a few months ago and tried once to get into it, but it didnāt vibe with me back then. Since restarting it a week ago I am really enjoying it. It could be my favorite game of the year so far but thatās a bit soon to decide since Iām only 4 hours in at the moment.
Didnāt have any experience with metroidvanias so far. Some reflections:
The puzzle solving is very satisfying once you are certain you are able to solve it. The thing that annoys me about the metroidvania genre is that you are not always certain if you are meant to solve a certain puzzle or that you cannot solve it because you lack the required items and/or abilites.
The pixel art and soundtrack is fantastic. In terms of atmosphere itās the best 2D game I ever played
The lack of combat doesnāt bother me a bit, it keeps the gameplay and the core mechanics simple.
Anyone here that played Animal Well and has some recommendations for similar games? Could be indie games from the last few years, but also old Metroid games that are still playable in 2026. Hollow Knight is probably the game from the last 10 years that reinvigorated the genre, but is it comparable to Animal Well? Is it Animal Well + combat or fundamentally different?
Past week or so I have re-ignited my love for Skyrim. I was listening to old Bombcast from around then and theyāre enthusiasm for the game made me return to it after many years. Started a new game on PC and have thought about the game morning and night! I havenāt been like this over a game in a long time!
been playing Splatoon Raiders though iv think iv hit a wall thats going to take a while to grind trough and i dont know if i can be bothered starting to feel a little burnt out from it anyway , also been playing coffee talk ep 2 (steamdeck)and i want to finish it up before orbitals gets here though dont think it will get here before the weekend (orderd it from nintendo store cause i had a bunch of points and spent them on some gamecard holders cause im not happy with the the one i 3d printed, was bit to hard to get them out) sadly not sure what il play after that wondering if i should try Windwaker or play the Super Mario RPG next(switch remake i impulse bought to see if i can get into a RPG thats not skyrim/fallout)
And finally, on the 3DS, I am jumping into the occasional but of Mario Kart 7. J probably donāt need to explain the merits of Mario Kart to anyone. I have been enjoying jumping on this for a quick cup or time trial when I am out and about or simply away from my setup at home.
Overall I have been really enjoying this 3 device setup, itās a great fit for the types of games I most enjoy to play. In fact it works for me so well that it has made my other systems feel kinda pointless. Now that doesnāt mean I am going to do something reckless and sell them at the next possible opportunity, but I will definitely be looking at thinning out the excess from their libraries.
With my new living room PC, Iāve went deep in my catalog and pulled up Sunset Overdrive. This was a 2014 Microsoft published game for Insomniac Games, you know the studio known for Ratchet & Clank and Marvelās Spider-Man.
Iām about 1/2 way through the game. I hope the developers had fun making Sunset Overdrive because I am having a ton of fun with the over-the-top story. Thereās plenty of 4th wall breaking and event characters telling each other, ādonāt think about it too hard.ā
My daughter and I picked up Wobbly Life to play together. Would some people call it friend slop? Yeah, but my daughter is having a bunch of fun. Weāre waiting for Octoberās Steam sale to pick up some more couch coop games.