Anomaly mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - it’s a free roam mod that combines all three S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games into a giant open world experience with insane atmosphere and gameplay options. Can’t recommend it enough. It’s also completely ironman viable, which is what I’m actually playing.
It’s also COMPLETELY FREE! You don’t even need any of the original games installed, or own them for that matter.
How is that even legal?
As far as I know most of these mods have permission from the original developers.
This is my official answer, I finished up the main story, and put a lot of work into the side missions. Plenty of quirks and complaints, but given its history (and that I’ve already played the beloved Black Flag this year) I’ve been pleasantly surprised with most of the game. My plan was to keep going to 100% sync, and that’s still the plan. But then I started dabbling with other games in my backlog, and so I’ve ended up putting several hours into Far Cry 5 and restarting a game of No Man’s Sky with the Next update. I need to get back to Unity and finish the last ~20% before I lose that momentum!
My nephews (ages 8 and 4) have very little exposure to video games, so the few times they’ve gotten to play my games have made a very big impression. So when I took my Switch with me to visit last weekend, it was a big event!
I miss Super Mario 3D World on the Wii U, the multiplayer co-op there was perfect for helping my nephews along (well, things were still a struggle for the youngest), but Mario Kart turned out to be a huge hit as well. The driving assists meant even the 4 year old could “play”, he actually enjoyed steering, but would frequently stop controlling and just get caught up watching everything going on. So he had a good time experiencing it just passively. And I was very pleased that I was able to teach the 8 year old the timing for the boost off of the starting line!
Into the Breach
What a great game! Probably the my favorite tactical game of the last few years.
I can’t remember playing a les fiddly game. Not only is all the information you need prensented clearly, but the values the game uses are simple. Not a “13-78 damage” or a “+ 3.762% move speed in sight”.
No Man’s Sky is my choice. Really enjoying the game post-update.
My honorable mentions are:
Vermintide 2. Some days I come home and I want to hit rat men with a pickaxe. The game makes this experience visceral and satisfying. The loot is decent without being a distraction in-game (I’m looking at you Diablo series and clones). AI is good if I can’t find friends too.
Earthfall. The opposite end of the “Left 4 Dead” clone spectrum. It’s a shooter with aliens instead of zombies. The key for me is the “T” rating, which means I’ll play it with my 3 kids. We’re having a lot of fun working as a team and completing missions!
Slay The Spire but I think I’m pretty much done at this point. After ~ Ascension 3/4 it’s not too much fun.
No regrets – I got tons of hours of entertainment out of it. Great little game.
No idea what’s next. It may be time to begin with Ultima VII, finally. We’ll see…
Yeah, I’ve played some of this as well. The battle system in particular is remarkably well created where most mobile adaptations sand away anything interesting about combat. There’s even a full on dungeon exploration mode which pleased me. My biggest concern is just how demon development could trivialize progress until you hit monetization inflection points. I haven’t played enough yet, though. In my experience with SRPGs on mobile, which should otherwise be a natural fit, the way you randomly get OP characters and then max out their experience by sacrificing low tier characters or materials basically drain any possible interest out of the fights all for the sake of the F2P monetization scheme.
I’ve actually put a lot more time into the SMT: Strange Journey remake which came out on 3DS in July. It’s been my go to grind on the couch while watching TV game in July.
I continue to play a lot of OnRush on PS4. It remains endlessly fun. It’s such a shame more people didn’t give the game a chance.
I suspect this may be an issue. I have a Fairy Titania who is just absurd. She has no weaknesses, a plus electric damage passive, high magic, a high tier all-target electric attack and, when Awakened, a cheap randomized targeting multi-attack electric spell that she can cast practically every turn.
But even then, she’s mostly useless against elec-null/repel/drain enemies and none of the other demons, even the ones I’ve summoned, have been that ludicrous.
Not to mention being made of tissue paper and going down if you look at her funny.
Lucking into powerful demons early is definitely a big help, but you still have to think about team composition, and everybody needs support to cover their deficiencies. I got incredibly lucky, pulling two 5* demons in 30-ish free pulls, and they’re amazing but I still quickly got to a point where I have to think about battles again.
I’ve never had issues with her standing up to damage, but I do have a full set of Life brands on her.
Having now cleared Chapter 5 of SMT Dx2, can confirm that you need have no fear it’ll get too easy. Holy shit some of those late game boss fights.