Topic: What game(s) have you been playing lately?

[The Puritan]

Super Mario Wonder does a really good job of recapturing that feeling of playing Mario games as a child. There are so many secrets, and surprises in every level, plus the way that the wonder flower changes every level is really fun.

I give Super Mario Wonder a 9 out of 10.

Opera Boo was one of my favorite Wonder Flower changes. Silly wholesome fun.

Started the Hitman games this year with the very first one from 2000. It's rough by today's standards but I look forward to seeing how the series evolved over time.

[JR]

I've kinda dabbled in shmups over the years, with Toaplan games being a bit of a soft spot for me lately (thank you Game Sack, lol). But I just got into Battle Bakraid recently, and...holy. shit. Looooove this game. Not sure what's so different about this one, but I  feel like I'm halfway good at it.Maybe because there are no speed power ups? Not sure. But goddamn, this game is so fun.

[PFG9000]

The Last Faith.

I've been playing The Last Faith lately too.  Normally I hate Dark Souls style games, but this has really grown on me.  It's not nearly as difficult as the actual Souls games, but it thinks it is, and it has a ton of similar mechanics.  It's the pixel art the interested me in the first place, and yet I don't think its pixel art is among the best I've seen.  It's almost like it's so zoomed out you can't see the detail they included.  I do like it though.

[Abnormal Freak]

Blazed through Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name in time for the release of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, which I'm currently playing. Second best series for me after Castlevania.

[JR]

Been playing through a lot of Puzzle Figher lately. Got my wife hooked on it, lol. It's become a bit of a Friday staple for me.

Also just beat AB Cop on my racing cabinet. Whatever drugs they were on when they made that game, I want some. So much of that game is hilarious: the shit-eating grin your guy flashes at the screen when you beat a boss, the Dende lookalike you fight at the end, just the concept of a bike cop bashing criminals off the road...all of it is gold.

I want to start Elden Ring or the new Robocop next, but I just haven't made time. 

[VladOfWallachia]

I've been enjoying this lately. Finished my first campaign as Cyclops, going through again as Domino. Really solid expansion, although I do not like the new Side Missions mechanic they added to the Marvel Champions formula... but luckily, you can mostly ignore them.

Also started a campaign with a friend for the previous expansion, Next Evolution. That expansion has also been really good so far.

It's a good time to be an X-Men fan... I'm also rewatching the 90s X-Men show (again) so I can start watching the new X-Men 97 series.

[Inccubus]

The game I most recently played was ... lemme check my Switch one second ... the demo for Grim Valor.

[Scarlet starlet]

I've been playing The Last Faith lately too.  Normally I hate Dark Souls style games, but this has really grown on me.  It's not nearly as difficult as the actual Souls games, but it thinks it is, and it has a ton of similar mechanics.  It's the pixel art the interested me in the first place, and yet I don't think its pixel art is among the best I've seen.  It's almost like it's so zoomed out you can't see the detail they included.  I do like it though.

Same, in fact I was dropping it out of boredom, then something clicked after reaching Mythringal. Music and spritework (especially the char portraits and environments) really catched me, the midgame maps started being more intricate and interesting, and while the game is way too derivative of Bloodborne at some point I started respecting the crazy passion the developers had towards that game (which I never played, lol).
The bosses were also really enjoyable and I loved how you actually needed to jump to dodge their moves, with roll many times being the wrong choice.
As someone who also played Blasphemous, I hated how it is universally considered superior to this. It is not, lol. I think graphically they are even, from an aesthetic/originality of the setting perspective Blasphemous wins hands down, but gameplay wise I found The Last Faith superior in every way. There's just so many things to do compared to Blasphemous and the various weapons are extremely enjoyable.

During this week I found time to play Odallus. Now I am taking a break from games until summer, probably.
I finished Veteran Mode and I can confirm its a great game.
This one drawed a LOT from Berserk which I didn't know when someone mentioned it here and I loved it.
My only gripes are Veteran mode being way buggier than normal mode for some unknown reason, the camera being annoying sometimes, and the frozen mines level with the damn carts. I wish they put 1 extra level with normal terrain instead, because those were legit 10/10.
I loved the underwater sections though. And how the game becomes less generic medieval and more straight up demonic as you delve further into it (like berserk).
Veteran mode bugs aside was very well made, loved the new enemies and enemy placement. I had to learn how to use the right subweapon at the right time (I didn't bother with them at all in normal mode) and even found super specific uses for the Blood Armor special moves against bosses! I would have never thought that shitty Axe special move would have let me kill 2 bosses in veteran mode. Very badass game overall, I wonder if I should pick up Oniken too.

Some bosses of the bottom 'secret' levels could and should have been cooler, though.

[Eric Roman]

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA MegaMix+ all of the time since buying it in January on a lark; I was never one for the Rhythm Game genre, but I'd been aware enough of many things Miku that I figured why the hell not?  It seemed worth passively playing around with it at the very least. 

Then I quickly discovered I really liked it.  Found some new favorite songs with plenty of interesting videos, got good at them, and so began my exploration of the VOCALOID subculture story thus far.

PDMM+ also got me figuring out how to capture video on my Steam Deck, which got me mashing videos from Apple Clips to iMovie (on the phone) until going all-in with Final Cut Pro (on desktop). 

This led to me putting together old videos and putting them out... 

Along the way I figured out some other Steam Deck customizations and most recently figured out how to mod the game and, dude, it's just made so much fun possible. 

Further evidence how the Steam Deck is the best hundreds of dollars I ever spent and how Project DIVA MegaMix+ was worth every penny. 

I love this shit. 

Game of the Year 2024.

[zangetsu468]

I’ve played through and completed a second cleared game(third playthrough) of Triangle Strategy).

Spoilers:

(click to show/hide)

I purposely got the Gustadolph fight ending this time, which definitely feels like the worst of the 3. I may try to get the 4th ending, not sure I can be bothered at this stage.

Quite frankly, not so much a fan of games where you’re unable to acquire the true ending on the first playthrough. It feels like a cheap way of lengthening replay value, unless the difficulty settings keep increasing with each subsequent playthrough.

After a year long hiatus, I’m going to start putting time back into TOTK and continue playing Metroid Dread on Dread Mode with no upgrades.

[Jelli]

been playing a lot of gun games.

Battlefield, Call of Duty and... ahem CRINGE ALERT Fortnite

[JR]

Been playing Elden Ring with a strength build, dual wielding great hammers and bonking everything in sight, lol. Just beat Malenia without the use of spirit ashes, summons, or magic, and that was rough. Starting the dlc and I heard its final boss is even more frustrating than Malenia. Ugh. But so far I can't put this game down. I'm still in awe at the size of the world this time around. I've hit all the softcaps for vig, end, and str, so I'm putting more points into arc to make the bleed on my Great Stars more effective.

[zangetsu468]

I’ve been getting back into Totk and started playing Turnip Boy does Tax Evasion.