Monument Valley is/was free on Epic. It’s a nice little puzzler. I like it, enough to beat the main game and start on the DLC (included). Lightweight, cute, not too many mechanics. It’s not nearly as visually impressive or as challenging as my favorite space bending game, Manifold Garden, though.
Raft and switching back to modded Minecraft again
Other than Hollow Knight (thanks Gog sale)
Metroid Fusion and dread. Picked it up and haven’t put it down
Went and tried playing Dark Souls again after leaving it on hold for a few months and this time it clicked HARD. I finally get why people love these games so much. The atmosphere, the combat, the sound effects, how it teaches you to persevere my god what an experience. The only thing I regret is not starting this sooner back when I had more free time lol
Enjoy. It’s one of the greatest games and one of the greatest franchises of all time.
If you continue with the series and play Dark Souls II next, keep in mind it’s the black sheep of the series. Not to say it’s bad or anything but it’s very different from the rest. You may prefer it, you may hate it, just don’t judge the whole series on it. Dark Souls III and Elden Ring are much more fast paced and a fair bit more challenging once you get into them. Sekiro is basically a different genre and plays much different from the rest but is imo the best first playthrough of the lot. It’s way harder though. Demon’s Souls is slower paced like Dark Souls but has a different world mechanic (hub world where you choose which level to enter, complete it, then go back to the hub and go elsewhere). Bloodborne is the only one you can’t play well on pc (Demon’s Souls isn’t native on pc but you can emulate it quite smoothly), but if you have a PS4/5 it’s a lot of people’s favourite game.
The exploration and level design too! Nothing gives you quite the same rush of dopamine as unlocking shortcuts in Dark Souls. The first time you kick that ladder? Priceless.
Trying to get back into Dragon Age Inquisition. I really didn’t care for the combat, but I’m there for the story.
Cyberpunk 2077
Apparently the game was such a disaster at launch that shareholders sued the game’s producer CD Projekt Red and won a settlement against the company.
I recently picked it up on sale and with the addition of a healthy dose of mods (the game is the fifth most popular on Nexus) it’s a truly enjoyable experience. In fact, it sets the standard for open world games so high for me that I don’t think I’ll be able to enjoy Bethesda games ever again.
Cyberpunk modding scene is incredible, the only sad thing is that while 2.0 was an incredible patch it did break a lot of old and amazing mods. Scissors was an absolute GOAT and stuff like Vehicle Combat, Breach Takedown and Drone Companions were just incredible.
Port Royale 3 from GOG on my Linux machine (I do not run Arch, BTW).
Mind you, I think Port Royale 2 is a better ballanced with less fancy graphics version.
Got some total war cravings and bough total Warhammer III on a sale. It has a very strong “just one more turn” factor and it’s been eating up a good chunk of my free time the past week, but I’ve finally got it out of my system. Warhammer II still has the best factions, but the mechanical improvements in particular how allies work are really nice. If you own all three games you can play the “immortal empires” campaign including the whole old Warhammer fantasy world and all races. This is an absolutely massive game world, at the start of the game there are 280 factions, although this count decreases quickly
I’m in a Monster Hunter Rise shaped hole, this game is a marathon!
I’m motivated to ‘finish’ it because I want to try out Monster Hunter World, but I’m not sure that healthy.
About 120 hours in so far, I’ve just got the end credits for the DLC at Master Rank 5 for killing the Arch Demon, according to people in the community I’ve just finished the tutorial 🥲
Good luck! That sounds like a marathon. It sounds like something I would’ve been into as a teenager but as a soon-to-be father I don’t see myself with the time for super long games anymore. Shorter games seem a lot more attractive these days.
Jet Set Radio. Having so much fun once I got used to how floaty it can be.
I’m playing the VR version of Myst. Also recently played the The Room VR. I don’t generally play VR games (partly because they don’t seem appealing to me, and partly because I can get nauseous surprisingly fast), but I really liked these. Looking forward to Riven next.
Petition for Silksong to be considered an honorary patient gamer game, given I waited seven years to play it.
Yeah I’ve been playing Silksong too. Bouncing between that at a replay of Assassin’s Creed Origins whenever I fail on a platforming section too many times.
Picked up the original Hollow Knight on sale a little while back. With the all the buzz around Silksong I finally booted it up, having a blast so far!
Enjoy! It’s a great game. I’ve been cheating on this community and playing Silksong, it’s a great sequel. It’s one of the rare times I’d recommend buying a game when it’s still new. But definitely play Hollow Knight first, it’s such a great game.
My exact experience!
I just finished Strange Horticulture a few days ago. It was really fun! Not too long as well. It looks like a shop sim, but it’s a puzzle game.
After that I started Two Point Hospital. I used to play Theme Hospital a lot in my youth so this hits all the right spots.
Both were recently free on Epic.
My wife, who’s a nurse at our local hospital, loves Two Point Hospital. It’s obviously horribly inaccurate but that’s the fun of it for her. I enjoyed it too but not as much as her.
Been emulating Fire Emblem on GBA recently. I’m a recent fan of the series, started with Three Houses, so going back and playing the older ones has been on my to-do list for awhile now. Really enjoying it so far!
