Metro Exodus:

Just finished the first area.Not a lot happened story-wise, but I like the interactions between the characters.

Not a fan of the save system (I'd like to have manual save states, quick saves seem to get overwritten by autosaves) and the stealth mechanics are pretty bad, sometimes it seems like enemies are able to spot you through walls,
Another thing that is bugging me is that quite often you don't get a prompt to knock an enemy out, I once had to sneak behind an enemy for 15-20 seconds to make the stealth kill/knock out prompt appear.

Not so sure about the open world either, it's fetch quest after fetch quest after fetch quest. So far I'm more thatn disappointed, but hey, I'm only a few hours in, maybe I'm in for a few surprises. :)

Edit: I'm at the last map, sadly there were no 'wow' moments or anything like that, just more ai fuckups. :/
I'll probably finish the game next weekend, so far I've played for about 7-10 hours.
The open world really did more bad than good, so much empty space, the maps are pretty, but there's nothing to do, except for a handful of fetch quests on each map.
I liked the interaction between characters at first, but since then I've witness way too many cringy scenes and the last few interactions on the train I just skipped.

It's not a bad game, but it definitely isn't a great or even good one. It's above average I'd say. I hope the ending is good at least, I don't want the game to leave a bad taste in my mouth.
From what I've read the DLC is lack luster as well, oh well, guess I'll have to wait and see. :P

Blasphemous. GREAT game! With proper amount of blood, gore, fatalities, creepy artwork/environments and the occasional b__bs. Instead of Bloodstained, i should had backed on that one, for Kickstarter!

It's not a bad game at all, but you are absolutely right about it being unoptimized. Performance is extremely inconsistent.

Frankenstein-Master of Death(Steam-Hidden Obj Game)


Pros

Has some nice graphical style, player uses some items over and over(and doesn't drop them and need to find a new one later on like in some games), somewhat nice music, easy object scenes(this might be a minus to some).

Cons

Nearly on rails(go to next location, finish it, go to one further on, etc) so far.

Nitpicks

Somewhat stilted speech when the player speaks(need a better VA, imo, but the current one is ok I guess), and some puzzles(like a guide the tool without touching the wire puzzle to open a door) are a bit frustrating.

MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries in the XBox for PC Game Pass.

Combat's great and the game can be fun, except for when the difficulty spikes. Same w/ MechWarrior 2: Mercs also.

And like old MW games (i.e. MechWarrior 2) and earlier GTA games - you can do a long-mission w/ a bunch of parts and objectives - and without any auto-save inside the mission, be prepared to long missions over and over...and over again.

I wish there were difficulty settings here to switch while in-game, before entering a mission.

Legacy of Kain - Soul Reaver

These block puzzles in the Silenced Cathedral are breaking me. Does it get any better?

Borderlands 2(Yes the one epic gave for free).

F.E.A.R. - great game. And The Bridge - I'm at the very end.

Far Cry 4 is giving me nightmares about Honey Badgers. It's caused me to do some research on those little shit heads. Now I know they are not even Badgers at all, they are actually more like a large and VERY angry type of Weasel. All I know is that I hate them. Nothing worse than scouting an enemy base only to be jumped and torn a new ass hole by a rabid Honey Badger.

Three days ago I didn't even know what a Honey Badger was. Who says games aren't educational?

Sacred 2 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
For Sacred 2 i'm now using the gog version. It works well, My only thing is that you can't save in artamark, as the save becomes corrupt.
Started with GTA:SA again. my disc got broken, so i've ordered a new one from a shop who still had it.

dropped total war warhammer II

picked up

Ceres ( just to see how and what )
Final Theory ( for real )

on and off

control
mechwarrior V
battletech
simcity
nfsu payback

Any thoughts so far on BattleTech, SimCity, Control, and NFS: Payback?

MW5: Mercs, I have played a bit of that in XB for PC Game Pass. Don't own it. But, that can be tough at times, too - having a tough time w/ one of the Takedown missions.

Control is the only one here in the "on or off" that I don't own, BTW. Rest are backlogged.

BattleTech is the commander variant of Mechwarrior, same mechs, similar story. On launch the game felt a bit meager but over time, and of course with some DLC, the game turned out to be pretty amazing. With your knowledge from mechwarrior and if you appreciate the story and fighting i guess you could like this one too, especially if you are fond of x-com types of games too.

Simcity is for me like the king of city simulators ;) so no bad words there. Since 2013 i gathered around 700ish playing hours ( 100 hours a year ) and i still can return to the game and feel enjoyed though it is getting more troublesome to really dedicate time to it since i feel i explored the functions i liked. Maybe if i want to get really into designing and creating those dedicated cities for trade and export i have another drive for it to really continu with.
Multiplayer is still kicking btw, but single player is really amazing too, especially if you have no other ties to the genre but do enjoy simulators

I haven't progressed that far in NFSU payback but so far i do enjoy the premise. driving alone across the very large gameworld can be relaxing in its self and..... expect to be challenged when you progress further into the ranks of the number one driver. The game offers different disciplines from racing, off road to drag and drift + some special type of missions that all need different kinds of cars. Tuning is this game is done by cards that offer different boosts and all in all create a very diverse setting from which you can build your ultimate drive for every discipline. Just as simcity and battletech this one is very low demanding and can be enjoyed with the lowest tier of gaming gpu's out there ( lets take the 1050Ti as a baseline) it does however set my ryzen 5 2600 at 50% of its capacity so be warned gaming with this baby can turn quite hot

Control is atm for me the best game i played in 2020..... with dlss enabled on a lower resolution RTX is very enjoyable.. enough said i guess

I really enjoyed the heck out of XCOM Chimera Squad, so BattleTech will probably be up my alley for that type of game.

I loved MW2: Mercs, back in the old 90's. One of my first PC games, along with DN3D and Quake 1. Loved the heck out of those 3 titles.

I did play a bit of NFS: Payback, but not much, TBH. Maybe an hour or two, if that. Racing itself felt good, but...wasn't thrilled w/ the silly card system. I prefer the earn money and tune the heck out of every single piece of your car gimmick of other NFS games like say NFS: MW 2005 and NFS: Carbon.

I'm near the end of Phantasy Star 3 (no dungeon between now and the final dungeon). Only thing is, I think I should upgrade my armor. Mieu has her best armor (which I bought because of its special effect), but I think Wren might need an armor upgrade

Wren's current (chest) armor: None. Yes, I got this far in the game without ever getting *any* armor for Wren. (Next time I play through the early game, I am going to give him armor to at least reduce the burden on healing resources, as that tends to be the most stressful part of the early game.)

In other words, I am going to upgrade Wren's armor from none to the strongest in the game. Isn't it a bit ridiculous that I actually ended up in this situation?

(Wren has high HP and at least has a helmet, so he doesn't die *too* often, plus even if he does, I do have infinite revives thanks to that ForceVest I bought early on. Even if not, I have 4 characters who can cast a revive spell and have enough TP to keep using it; unfortunately, revive effects can fail in this game (though without side effects, unlike in Wizardry).)