Boy of boy, it's been a while. Now that my long Thanksgiving weekend is coming to an end, here's what I've been playing.
Very recently I've been playing
Duke Nukem 1 (because of the inclusion of the turkey health item), and that led me back to playing
Commander Keen 4 & 5 with Commander Genius. All of these I beat before, but I was in that nostalgic mood. I have been dabbling in the Halloween Map Jam 4 for
Quake 1, and still grinding my way through the Faithless triolgy for
Heretic (which is absolutely immense and taking me months to finish).
In modern games I've been playing a lot of
Guardians of the Galaxy which is fantastic, beautiful, witty and so naturally nostalgic.
I've cranked through most of
Forza Horizon 5 (just doing weekly challenges now, gotta unlock that McLauren F1 for free). Not my favorite FH, but definitely beautiful and still fun.
I've forced myself to play a bunch of
Halo Infinite MP to get a genuine feel for it and give it a fair chance. I do not like it. I do not like the levels, the player counts, the modes, the weapon spawns, the changes to the weapons from previous Halo games, the weapon balance, the battle pass, the way you can't just choose to play a public oddball round, the microtransactions, the progression, nor really anything. It's probably the worst Halo game I ever gave the time of day to, my favorite MP being Halo 1 and 3, but 2 and Reach were fun too... All that said, I look forward to the single player. I have some trepedations that I still won't like how they've changed the weapons, making it slightly more dull and drab, but still... Going back to older Halo games, they're just so much better.
Also dabbling in some,
Ghosts N Goblins Resurrection, which is great, and probably the most fun I've had with of its ilk since Maximo. It may be my favorite of the series other than the spinoff Gargoyle's Quest line.
Prior to these I was playing a bunch of
Metroid Dread, which is just great solid gameplay.
Arthurian Legends, which is an amazing retro style FPS, like a long last Build Engine classic. The
Diablo 2 Remaster, which is my first time through the later acts of Diablo 2 (I've always enjoyed it but was never engaged enough to finish the game prior). I got Beat Saver back up and running in
Beat Saber and saw what great new courses people were making. You Spin Me Around was done brilliantly. I love when the author of a course really understands the choreography and style of the dance and can incorporate that into the game. There's a bunch of others I've been playing, dabbled in
Returnal, which is OK. Thanksgiving also made me think about
Demon's Souls for PS5, but as I finished the game last year I didn't play any. Finally,
Binding of Isaac (the most recent one with all the DLC), is still such a golden, addictive experience...
And finally in the most taboo subject of all,
Operation Lovecraft: Fallen Doll is really impressive, I didn't expect a hardcore pornographic game to get so much care. Maybe some nega-Digital Foundry will take a look.
Addendum: I also want to give a shout out to the best user mod of the year,
Combined Arms 2 for
Doom. Astounding, amazing weapons mod. Also
Walkabout Mini Golf, the best new VR game of 2021, which perfectly captures mini golf.
Highfleet for being different and bold and fascinating and deep and beautiful.
Lego Builders Journey for being literally photoreal 3D and possessing interesting storytelling.
HROT for being what Dusk couldn't be and actually making a genuine feeling boomer shooter.
Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart for really being like a pretty Pixar game.
R-Type Final 2 and the new
Pokemon Snap just for existing.
Subverse for also being way better and sexier than it would have been in any other reality. And
Loop Hero will probably be my GOTY for its addictiveness, style, and combination of genres.
(now that I got all that out I can vanish for another 6 months)
This was posted by
Chairmanchuck on ERA.
Love those water caustics... That looks so refreshing honestly.