As some of you may have noticed, I haven’t been posting weekly discussion threads the last few weeks. They weren’t getting too much traction and, more specifically, people weren’t engaging with each other, which is what I was trying to encourage. I wanted to take a break and rethink how I wanted to do it to achieve those goals.
So here is a twist on the formula:
- Tell us not only what you are playing, but also why someone else should pick it up and give it a go themselves.
- And/or comment on someone else’s reply and get a conversation going.
I’ll go first:
- I’m still playing a ton of Helldivers 2. I’ve put in over 100 hours so far. The last time I put over 100 hours in a game was probably Halo 3, and this is coming from someone who almost exclusively plays single player games. I think this game is unique in that its mechanics are very grounded and physical, the two different factions play very differently, the encouragement to play cooperatively versus competitively is a breath of fresh air, and the monetization in the game is very fair. I love the idea of playing on a giant galactic chess board with hundreds of thousands of other players, evolving the story as we go as a community. It really does feel like a community. At $40 for me, it is such a no-brainer to pick this game up for some awesome times.
Guacamelee 2. Bought it on a whim and enjoyed the heck out of it. Now working on hard mode to platinum it. Get it if you like metroidvanias and quirky humor.
How hard is it and what difficulties does it have? I love metroidvanias but never beat Hollow Knight due to the difficulty.
I think the main game itself isn’t too hard. But getting all the chests and platinuming it took a while on some stages.
I got back into Monster Hunter World, haven’t played it since they released Deviljho in the base game so I have a lot to catch up on. Currently HR 87 and holding off going to the expansion since I hear any gear in Iceborne is completely OP so I’m trying to milk the base game as much as I can.
Why you should play it
- You like boss fights
- You like grinding
- You like creating multiple load outs
- You like memorizing attack animations
- You like mastering playstyles
- You like the gamer high after lots of suffering
I agree with everything you said about Helldivers 2. I generally avoid online multiplayer games, even co-op ones, as I don’t like playing with randos, but HD2 truly feels like a team effort every time I play, and there’s so much variety between factions, enemies, and difficulty, that I am happy to continue playing it over and over again.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 has also put its hooks into me. I really enjoyed the first one, and the second one definitely lives up IMO. There are valid criticisms about the frequent low level combat and lack of enemy variety in it, but it honestly doesn’t bother me. The more rare enemies show up just enough that I don’t feel like I’m only ever fighting low level enemies, and the harder ones are a genuine treat. It’s also fun to find a new enemy type that is particularly rare and discover the reason for it is because they will absolutely stomp you unless you’re pretty high level. Beautiful graphics, fun world to explore (I’m particularly fond of the caves), and quests that don’t hold your hand every step of the way (although, on occasion, I wish they would hold my hand a little more). I do hope they add a setting to reduce the pawn dialog to get rid of idle chatter, but I know the last patch is supposed to reduce the frequency already. I haven’t had a chance to test it out yet to see if it’s a significant improvement. I also really wish there was a way to tell what time of day it was since you will get missions that tell you you have to do it between certain hours, or worse yet, missions that don’t give you a time frame and you just have to stand there and wait. When an in-game day is 45 minutes IRL, that gets old very fast.
Edit: omg, it’s the menu background. There’s a huge radial clock graphic in the background of the pause menu…
I’m playing Shadow Tactics, currently on PS+
Also mixing in a gradual play through of Cloudpunk, once it gets to nighttime and my sleepy brain can no longer do tactics.
I’m semi-playing Alan Wake 2, just not a lot of time sadly.
Why you should play it;
The game is visually beautiful but the best part is the story. The story slowly unfolds and its really grabbing you. It gives you bit by bit.
You don’t need to have played Alan Awake 1, you could look up a 10 minute recap on YouTube.
I thought you needed to play both Alan Wake 1 and Control beforehand to get the full picture?
I didn’t particularly enjoy the latter and I’ve read that the former didn’t age so well, but AW2 is on my radar, given what’s been said about the gameplay/story.Control was amazing, game of the year for me personally. Alan Wake 1 was already a bit dated/bland gameplay-wise when it came out and the remaster didn’t do it any particular favours. The story is great however, so at the very least I’d watch a comprehensive recap/analysis on the story.
Control is its own thing entirely and isn’t required to fully understand Alan Wake 2, but having played it and its DLCs beforehand it definitely adds to the lore and gives insight to the “bigger picture”.
Was Control being part of the Alan Wake Universe supposed to be a twist or was that already advertised when it released? If it was a twist, I wish I had experienced that first hand.
Control’s second DLC “AWE” (2020) had already connected the worlds of Alan Wake and Control, but sorry if I spoiled that for you.
I see. No, you’re fine, it was spoiled for me long before today. I was just trying to express how cool that part of the story was.
