Totally could see that being the case. I think it was a combination of seeing the difficulty curve and not having a consistent group to play with that probably did me in. I’m happy to lose and learn, but not maybe as much as it seemed like I would playing solo!
Given more time, definitely something I’d want to get into more.
The marketing for Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and The Man Who Erased His Name seem to have worked on me because I decided to start playing Yakuza 0 on my Steam Deck. Sticking to pure easy mode and mainlining the story. It’s got some weird jank to it but I also kinda like it? If it hooks me, maybe I’ll take the plunge on the others. Yakuza: Like A Dragon looked like a lot of fun so I’ll probably stop and smell the roses when I get to that one.
Otherwise, Fights in Tight Spaces is my current non-story focused game I’m making my way through.
I don’t think I played any truly bad games, but I do have a list of games that I bounced off of for one reason or another. Maybe I ran out of steam to play them, maybe life got in the way and I couldn’t come back to it, or I just didn’t want to “git gud” with the limited time I have. I basically deemed them not worth my time when I did manage to sink a ton of hours into Spider-Man, Cyberpunk, and Talos Principle.
So that abandoned graveyard consists of…
I think I’m almost done with Cyberpunk 2077. Cleared all Scanner Hustles and Side Gigs, most Side Missions, so I think I just have the main story, the Phantom Liberty story, and whatever Side Missions might need a day in-game to complete. When it’s done I think I’m going to find something much lower impact to just veg out in for a bit, but Cyberpunk has been a lot of fun to dive into and I can see myself coming back to it in a few years.
I also took the plunge into a gacha game for some reason on my phone. Reverse 1999. The art style was intriguing and I’m enjoying it a lot so far. We’ll see how long it sticks around.
I might have just turned to dust and blown away in the wind reading this!
Seriously though, it’s nice how just simple they are. Even times I’ve fired up my PS3 it’s got just a little bit of friction in ways you don’t expect there to be. The trade off for all that simplicity though is you get what’s on the disc/cartridge and that is it. No patches, no DLC or expansions, and you lose/break/give away that disc you’re out of luck. It’s weird even now feeling like those games could be “lesser versions” because they can’t be updated in any way, but as a kid at the time that wasn’t even an expectation.
Probably the hardest thing at this point is remembering you need that ADC to connect it to a modern TV!
Ahh nuts, you’re right. It was harder to find the right one than I expected and didn’t even realize it was an April Fools joke. Thanks for the correction!
Here’s kind of your easiest parallel thread from Reddit at the time to see if anyone’s interested what overlap might be there.
scrapped
(go use Hot Saucerman’s link instead!)
Yep. I hit a wall with a couple of the final battles in the DLC missions (Morbius and Storm) that I finally ratcheted down my difficulty level back to “normal” just to get through and not sour my experience with the game.
It did mean I annihilated the final boss of the campaign but I didn’t mind. It was still fun :)
(finally) Finished Midnight Suns. About 80h towards it and while I did enjoy it immensely, I’m glad it’s over and time to move on to other things.
I started and finished the first Frog Detective game last night. I figured it would be short but not 1.5h short! Quirky and it got a couple of legit laughs out of me. I’m definitely interested in playing the other two episodes.
And I decided to play Overwatch 2 now that it’s on Steam. I stopped playing OW1 years ago and this seemed a good excuse to try it again. I am starting from the ground up since I apparently deleted my old Battle.net account, which is frustrating to not have all the heroes/skins available but it’s also easing me back in. The monetization at least seems to be an improvement over loot boxes. I’m really just playing with whatever I’ve managed to unlock and not paying for the BP until I know how far a super casual player like myself can get. The core game is luckily still solid and since I don’t have the bad blood of the scrapped PvE mode or anything, I’m just enjoying playing more Overwatch again.
This is interesting to say the least. I tried out Vortex on my last major Stardew Valley playthrough and I found it a bit clunky. I got it to work, but I feel like it had a learning curve to its own vocabulary and how it organized everything. Then when I found a few of the mods recommended skipping Vortex and just doing a direct download, I keyed in to a much simpler workflow I could wrap my head around with updating the mods.
Interested to see what the new app might look like in time. If they can take lessons learned from Vortex and apply them forward, that’s great.
I think I’m nearing the end of Midnight Suns. Story seems to be wrapping up so I’m trying to get the last few friendship levels for folks. This has been such a blast to play and I’m glad I picked up the complete edition for ~$35 in a Steam sale.
Not sure what the next one will be. Really tempted to grab Baldurs Gate but I’ll probably go back to some indie backlog games for a few.
Skimming through my Steam library, here are the games that I’d call memorable/left an imprint for me in the last year.
Neon White - Score attack/leaderboard chasing is NOT my genre at all, but the game felt so good to get into a flow state and solve the puzzle, chasing that last Ace medal timing. There are more things I could have gone and chased, but getting all Ace medals, gifts and finishing the story was sufficient for me. I’d be curious to figure out if playing again, almost a year later, if I could do any of the later levels!
Security Booth: Director’s Cut - A very short experience but such a fascinating and creepy one. You’re asked to man a security booth and let in or reject cars based on a list of license plates. Things get weird and that’s all I really want to say. This is also a game that feels like it was originally released on a PS1.
The Case of the Golden Idol - Both Outer Wilds and Return of the Obra Dinn are some of my favorites of all time , so when I heard that Golden Idol was like both of them together I was extremely curious. It’s more Obra Dinn than Outer Wilds, but the core mystery in each level is so interesting to uncover. Nothing ever really comes out and says “So this is what happened” in a cutscene, but you read a letter in one room, maybe a letter in another, then you’re checking between them for the dates and trying to figure out what happened when. I felt so smart when a puzzle came together and when I saw/solved one of the big mysteries before they basically tell you the answer. So so so much fun and I need to get into the DLC.
Marvel’s Spider Man and Miles Morales - I played the first Spider Man on Sony’s streaming service a couple years ago, so I knew all the story beats already. That didn’t stop the emotional impact from STILL hitting me from some of the final villain’s speech to Peter. I had also never played Miles Morales, so it was great to put them both back to back. The story can feel very routine/by the numbers but I almost didn’t care because I was having so much fun swinging through New York. Cannot wait for Spider Man 2.
If mods are allowed, Stardew Valley. Heck, even if mods aren’t allowed. I’ve probably put nearly 600h into it between PC and Switch, so if I’m playing one game exclusively, I’m going to design the best damn farm I can!
I skimmed over that Little Kitty Big City page thinking the game wasn’t for me, but based on your description I’m very curious now!
I tried The Invincible and bounced off it. I think the fact that the demo was in the middle of things vs the start threw me off, especially for a game about building story and vibes over time. I could tell there was something cool there it just didn’t leave a good first impression for me.
Re: Outer Wilds, either console or Steam is fine but I would recommend a controller in either case. The flight mechanics can be a little tricky with a keyboard and mouse, but I had no issues getting it with a controller.