Happy new year!
What are you all playing?
Bonus question, what’s your most anticipated game of 2024?
Started cranking Monster Hunter again.
Finally finished Iceborne. Monster hunter’s gameplay always blows me away.
I wish I could get into it. I’m into games that are inspired by Monster Hunter but not so much Monster Hunter itself. The monsters are too tanky, and you and the monster trade turns rendering each other unable to attack rather than having the proper push and pull of a boss fight. Plus MHW in particular (the only one I spent I any real time with) waits until you’re in “the end game” before it lets you start setting your objectives by hunting something because you want its parts. Before that point, the latest thing you found is always objectively better than any other thing you found, regardless of weaknesses.
Know any good guides for getting back into MHW? I forget all the nice tips I knew before
Holy fuck is there a lot of content in Cyberpunk 2077. I remember when the game came out people complained of it being as wide as an ocean and as deep as a puddle but those people can fuck right outta here. It’s chock full of interesting stories to learn about and tons of fun gameplay. Same goes for Phantom Liberty which takes countless hours to get through.
I get that cost does not directly correlate to play time when it comes to video games, but it’s hard for me not to gawk at how this game was sold for the same price point of the yearly reskin of <insert corporate slop here>.
No, the irony of how CyberPUNK was almost ruined by corporate interference is not lost on me, but it’s clear that the developers, artists, writers, programmers, and designers behind this game are true masters of the craft.
This year, I’m most looking forward to playing through it again after I’ve taken a good couple months off.
I enjoy Cyberpunk quite a lot too, but if you’re going to criticize the depth of the game, it’s not necessarily because the writing is subpar or anything. It would just be a reflection of how differently the game can play out with different builds. It’s a little better now with the 2.0 update, but the designers still very explicitly allowed for a hacking option here, a strength option there, and so on. Compare that against something like Baldur’s Gate 3 where you’re free to break all sorts of rules by just casting flight or invisibility on your party and solving a problem in a way that you came up with that the designers didn’t go out of their way to plan for. The latter is real depth. A deep RPG should probably feel like your experience was pretty different from others’ experience.
I‘m having a blast alternating between Tunic and Sleeping Dogs to get an unusual, but not unpleasant mix of action, adventure, and puzzles. I’ll probably pick up Cyberpunk after finishing the latter, as it seems to set the mood for it (at least in terms of the city vibes and the protagonist’s story somewhat).
As for 2024 games, I’m trying to steer clear of any announcements. In general, I don’t enjoy the “hype season” phase; for me that time is better spent doing something else - carpe diem and all that. Path of Exile 2 is the only game I can name for this year and that’s because I used to have a borderline unhealthy amount of hours in POE1. Time well spent.
My fiance and I just finished the DLC for The Case of the Golden Idol, and not only is that game awesome, but the story hooks for the DLC were a pleasant surprise. We can’t wait for the sequel.
I’ve been playing a lot of Pillars of Eternity, and I made it to Act 2. It’s impressive how insanely good this game is. And then on top of that, it’s impressive that I think everything I like about it is done better in Baldur’s Gate 3.
I finally made it to Master rank in Street Fighter 6! Still some input frustrations until the game can get a season 2 patch, but I’m just happy to finally have something like an Elo rather than the superficial league system, even though my master rating settled slightly below the default 1500 value.
EDIT: Missed the bonus question. Of the games I’m confident are coming out in 2024, I’d say Avowed, which is why I’m playing Pillars of Eternity now.
I splurged on the Steam winter sale and bought a set of smaller games.
Right now I’m busy playing I Was a Teenage Exocolonist which has been more fun than expected. I really like the story and the multiple paths and endings. The card games are meh, but once you find a good modifier they become very easy.
At the same time I’m also playing Shadows over Loathing which is very very funny in short sessions.
