2y ago

What are you playing this weekend? 2024-01-19

Well, life is still pretty busy, and seems like it's going to stay like that for at least near future. Pretty much only playing on the weekends.

Finished Sniper Elite 4. Only had couple of missions left. Finished in one sitting. The game is really fun, though I didn't play it stealthily, would find a place to sit and then snipe as many as I can, then go and kill others and find next place to sit and snipe.
Started (well, resumed actually) Paper Mario on NSO. I played a little bit before, just to test it out, but then stopped playing it for some other game. Now starting it as my primary game. Really enjoying it. I have reached the first fort. Haven't fought the boss yet though.

Didn't get time to play Hyperdimention Neptunia or Power Wash. Will probably focus on Paper Mario this weekend too.

What about you guys? What have you been playing? Also, any plans to get Another Code Recollection? Or any other special game that you are looking forward to in 2024 (on any platform)?

8 comments

Currently swapping time between Red Dead Redemption and Kirby and the Forgotten Land, depending on my mood. Probably end up finishing Kirby first.
After I get one of those done, I'll be finally hopping into Super Mario Odyssey. Had a Switch since it's second year, but just got around to actually picking that one up.
- That's a nice list of games. Have fun!
Finished Sniper Elite 4. Only had couple of missions left. Finished in one sitting. The game is really fun, though I didn’t play it stealthily, would find a place to sit and then snipe as many as I can, then go and kill others and find next place to sit and snipe.
To me this is the beauty of a well done stealth action game. It's great pure stealth. But because AI is so critical to well done stealth, they usually also allow you to get a little wild playing with the AI when you're willing to let yourself be caught. Sniper Elite, Hitman, The Last of Us are all good at this. Because the enemy behavior is designed correctly, being seen is just more of the fun instead of a failure, and getting back to stealth is just as fun as finding the right approach in the first place is.
Opened up Fire Emblem: Three Houses on my switch for the first time in a while as my "partial attention" game. I like something I can pick up and put down without pausing for sports with commercials, and it's NFL playoffs and Celtics season.
I started Hitman's rogue lite mode a few days ago, and I really like how the approach adds stakes instead of just letting me save scum, and unlocking gear for just this run combined with the unpredictability of maps/targets really encourages me to be creative in a way that the unlimited sandbox sometimes makes feel stale. I'm not sure if I'll keep playing that on PC or go to the Last of Us 2's No Return mode. I'm a big fan of AAA 3D games with polished mechanics that play well at high difficulty adding the mode, though, because I love making games brutal enough that I have to beat my head against a wall some, but sometimes repeating the same encounter feels like I'm just memorizing that encounter better instead of improving my approach generally.
- To me this is the beauty of a well done stealth action game. It’s great pure stealth. But because AI is so critical to well done stealth, they usually also allow you to get a little wild playing with the AI when you’re willing to let yourself be caught. Sniper Elite, Hitman, The Last of Us are all good at this. Because the enemy behavior is designed correctly, being seen is just more of the fun instead of a failure, and getting back to stealth is just as fun as finding the right approach in the first place is.
  I don't play much stealth games (though I have played all the original Hitman games, the classic ones), so didn't think of it like that.
  Ah, I am completely against making game so brutal, I like a challenge, but just enough that I can easily surpass.
  Good luck!
Continuing through P5 Tactica and just got to the first major boss, to look up and discover I'm already almost halfway through the game. I enjoy the gameplay, but if the first of four Kingdoms to go through takes up just about half of it, it definitely has pacing issues in the story. The first Palace felt like it took forever in the original P5 (Royal), but at least there it was still about 1/8 of the overall game. The first "level" being nearly half of it is kinda ridiculous, TBH.
My brother bought me a deck building game called Roguebook on Steam for Christmas since it was on my wishlist. Maybe I'll take a look at that this coming week too.
- to look up and discover I’m already almost halfway through the game.
  It's more like 30%. The first world has a lot of missions, but they are shorter than most of the late-game ones since several of them are tutorial stages.
Finished The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails!
As mentioned in a previous comment, this was a quite fun old-school action RPG, reminds me of the Ys games (not surprising given it's from the same developer).
Since this is an older PSP game ported to modern consoles it has a few issues and lacks a bit of QOL, but the only thing that really annoyed me was the controls for the "grapple" skill - having it mapped to the same button as jumping leads to some really awkward moments where you are trying to double-jump and ends up grappling to something else.
Also really enjoyed the extended epilogue chapter which reminds me of Lunar 2, one of my favorite old-schoold RPGs, and if my backlog wasn't massive I'd even try the NG+ for the extra stages and content.
Not sure what I'm going to play now. I want to go back to VNs which means I should probably resume Witch on the Holy Night, but I'm more in the mood for comedy so I may start Little Busters! instead. I'll think about it later today and comment on the next thread.
- Whenever you get around to Witch on the Holy Night, I would love to hear your reviews. You recommended it once, and I have also heard some people talk about it.
  Don't let that influence your choice though, I probably won't be playing it anytime soon.

8 comments