Welcome to the club. GW2 is a game that can keep on giving for a very, very long time. I never thought I’d get into a MMORPG but this one hooked me good. It wasn’t until this year that I finally let it go to just visit from time-to-time.
Towards the end of the Month, I’ve been playing the Strange Brigade. It’s been enjoyable. There is a lack of online games for it, sadly.
I suppose for me it’s Humankind, which has engrossed me, flaws and all. I enjoy the core mechanic of mixing-and-matching civilizations, even if I find it hard to swallow thematically. The AI gives me a good game. It isn’t as good as the AI in Old World, but it’s certainly better than in the recent Civ games, which isn’t saying much. I wish the game had a little more juice – more interesting music, say, and a slightly less-flippant narrator. I like that the game doesn’t take itself too seriously, but still.
Nice to hear GW2 mentioned. I had a good couple years in that game.
Dune Wars gets steady updates over time. The last update was in Sept to add new leaders and portraits for the new film. There was a major “revival” update a few years back. It’s still the best modern computer game with a Dune theme. It’s still Civ IV so can feel a bit dated.
Hades for me. Gods, I love this game.
Runner-up: Tales of Arise…so many many cut-scenes. So many.
I have been playing Mini Motorways windowed while multitasking occasionally too. Definitely fun, but not the lightning bolt of greatness that I found Mini Metro to be.
I tried to escape, but Caster of Magic for Windows re-captured me.
Deity Empires.
Mountain Dwarves’ Iron Golems armed with flamethrowers are so satisfying.
“Wanna turn up the heat?”
Lord of the Rings Online: I returned to LOTRO spurred by a sale and forum chatter here. Starting over with a new character!
City of Kings: I love this (board)game. Every time I lose a story, I want to immediately start over and try again. I never have that feeling in Gloomhaven. Seriously underrated.
That’s incredible.
Being on Civ IV is a good thing!
I need to get back to all of these!
I was inspired by the discussion in the other threads. I have finally jumped back into MoM after XX years. Caster of Magic is tough but good. I am learning it all over again. :-)
Death’s Door - Beautiful art, great music, simple but addictive gameplay, a great quirky story. Simply a truly great game.
I’ve been fortunate to play two games in September that I’m confident enough to call them classics at this point. While I started the game toward the end of August, I spent the early part of September playing Psychonauts 2, which I’ve enjoyed immensely. If you played the first one, you know what you’re getting into - all the great characters, funny situations and crazy brain exploration is expanded on with the sequel. Highly recommended.
Toward the end of the month I started playing Subnautica and it’s been wonderful for scratching that exploration itch. There’s an oceanic world with lots to discover and plenty to build and tinker with. I’m not done with it quite yet but unless it totally blows the ending I’m certain this will be way up on my list.
On the PC, my game of the month was an even split between Psychonauts 2 and Deathloop. Both good games. Both let down by their conclusions.
Don’t get me wrong, they were both inventive and enjoyable in the moment. Psychonauts in particular explored some wonderful ideas. I think there was only one area that I wholly disliked. My main issue, I think, was that exploring the past of this other cast of characters, rather than engaging with Raz’s more immediate concerns, just didn’t do it for me. The plot eventually connected back to Raz’s family, but it felt remote compared to the plot of the first game. Counterpoint: no Meat Circus.
Something similar happened in Deathloop. Its early explorative hours were a joy. I thought the Julianna invasions would be miserable, but they turned out to be my favorite part of the whole thing, giving an otherwise breezy single-player experience some pop. BUT… this game desperately needed to learn the lessons of Prey: Mooncrash. More variation between loops, some heavier enemies, any resistance at all apart from the threat of Julianna. Before earning any good equipment, Blackreef felt deadly and exciting. Later, it was a memorized parkour puzzle interspersed with kill animations.
My board game of the month was Amabel Holland’s Nicaea. What a brutal little game.
I thought Tales of Arise would be my game of the month for September. But it’s the runner-up, because I must give the GOTM award to Guild Wars 2. I’ve been playing it a lot.
Honorable mentions to Slay the Spire, Guilty Gear Strive, and the released-in-the-very-last-day-of-September-so-it-barely-makes-the-cut Melty Blood Type Lumina.
I’d never heard of this game until I read your comment. I’ve now read several reviews on BGG, watched Tom Vasel’s review, and now I’m watching a playthrough.
It looks great to me, but Vasel thought it lacked theme. He points out that the main characters are very similar; that monsters get random traits unrelated to their monster-ness; that the monster art itself is banners and rather generic; that you can’t equip a sword early on; and that randomness affects gameplay in lots of ways. For me, those things mostly sound like pluses: I like the idea of monsters with unexpected traits, and I like restrictions on what I can do.
What do you think of these criticisms? Also, where did you get the game? I only see it on Amazon for at least $100, which is a lot to pay for a game. If it’s great, though, I’m willing to pony up that much.
I had time to play absolutely nothing in September. :(
Haven’t participated in months, may not be limited to just September.
Serious play:
Going Under: Odd art, odd story, odd sensibility overall. It’s a roguelike where your character dives into three different randomly-generated dungeons to do tasks and advance the story. Everything is an internet startup joke, up to and including the title. Combat is janky as hell and the difficulty level is high. Yet I keep playing the damn thing.
Crown Trick: Did not expect to like this as much as I did. It’s a turn-based roguelike that feels no slower than real-time thanks to quick execution and flow. My old reflexes like that. Art is cute if not a bit generic, the real appeal is the systems underlying the game. You can beat, and then equip, various sub-bosses to assist with support spells. Show up with the wrong weapon types and things will be much harder if not impossible. Decent progression curve, but could be more rewarding over time. Not every roguelike needs to be a career effort.
Hades: This is one twitchy roguelike. Can’t fault the art and atmosphere, but I haven’t quite reached the point where I feel compelled to return on a regular basis. It’ll probably click at some point.
Katamari Damacy Reroll: 1000/1000 on both Xbox and Windows, just because I love this game so damn much. Thanks, XGP, even though I already bought the Xbox version. >.<
Psychonauts 2: I could plow through this game I’ve been waiting for for years, or I could space it out for no damn good reason because I’m afraid of not having it available anymore. Dumb, yet I do it anyway. It’s satisfying so far.
Toe dipping:
Xeno Crisis: Basically Total Carnage as a roguelike with limited ammo. Not bad.
Animal Super Squad: A silly physics-based platformer where animals pilot hacked-together vehicles through hazardous courses. It’s amusing in short sessions. I didn’t overspend, and I suppose I got my money’s worth.
Snakeybus: It’s a reasonably original premise – what if that “Snake” cell phone game was in 3D and used a bus that got longer the more passengers you picked up? Execution is a bit wonky but what do you want from a budget game?
Necromunda Hired Gun: I have played a lot of FPS games over the years, and holy shit does this game play fast. Is there an ‘old guy’ mode? Please consider one? Looks pretty cool anyway.
Cris Tales: I don’t mind some degree of cutesy in an RPG, but man is this art style cutesy. I think I can get past it, but . . .
The Ascent: Remember Crusader No Remorse? Pretty much that in the Unreal Engine. Ruiner already did it, but this seems decent enough. Would not have played it if it wasn’t on XGP. Probably won’t see the ending anytime soon.
UnderMine: Generic roguelike with pixel art. Checked it out when it was leaving XGP to see if there was anything worth buying. I’d say try Crown Trick instead.
Yay! Honestly, it’s one of my favourites in the genre alongside Atomicrops. I keep meaning to start a thread but I’ve not heard many folk mention it around here. Maybe I’ll do that later. One day I hope to return to it to try and tackle the Imposter Syndrome gauntlet, but that’s really tough.