everynowandben

Intentional information gap headline

I'm going on vacation in a few days and loaded up my Steam Deck with a bunch of boomer shooters like Dusk, Amid Evil, and Dread Templar. Gave em a go to make sure they work, and yes, they all seem to run great. I'm especially a fan of being able to turn on gyro for every game through the Steam Deck interface. Game changing stuff for me as I like to be able to fine tune my aim with a bit of gyro, especially for boomer shooters.

I also loaded up Thief: The Black Parade which is a full campaign fan mod for Thief Gold. I'm 4 chapters in, and it is an incredible achievement. Highly recommended if you are into the old Thief games or other immersive sims like Dishonored. I'm blown away by the effort and passion that was put into this one. I had been playing this on my main gaming PC for the last few days, and its kindof amazing that you can basically just drag and drop PC games onto Steam Deck and it just works with minimal effort on my end.

Boltgun! Can't wait to play it!

Mostly just playing Quake 4. Just over half-way through it now. I played a bit more of Crysis Remastered (did y'all know that if you have GP for PC or GP Ultimate, you also have an EA Play account, and you can play that for "free" even though it isn't on GP?) and decided to give up on it. I also played a bit more of Death Stranding Director's Cut and gave up on that as well.

Last night I played some more of Sea of Thieves: Legend of Monkey Island with the guys. Nearing the end now and one of my buddies is sick of it. The puzzles are a bit convoluted, but it's Monkey Island.. it's to be expected.

I decided to give up a couple games this week, such as STALKER and Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay as I was no longer having fun with either of them.

So instead, I decided to pick Project Downfall back up and also start Quake 4. The former I can really only play in short bursts since it's so intense, and the latter has been fun so far but I only played about 30 minutes.

I took the day off yesterday (far in advance to be a little more fair to myself) to play Suicide Squad and I ended up not even buying it.. Like Gotham Knights and Arkham Knight, it will probably go onto Game Pass at some point anyway, and paying full price for such a poorly received game seems like a stupid move when I have so many other games to play.

As far as what I'm actually playing, I decided to check out Silent Hill: The Short Message which is hitting closer to home than I expected. Honestly its helping me better understand someone in my life, and also making me reflect on some of my own thoughts and behavior when I was younger.

Last night my friends and I played the second tall tale in Sea of Thieves: The Legend of Monkey Island. It wasn't as interesting as the first tall tale, but it was still pretty fun.

Most of my time this weekend will be spent finishing up Portal: Revolution which has been fantastic outside of constant crashing on my Steam Deck. Oh well. It's worth the headache.

I finished Axiom Verge 2 last night. Good game with a lot of cool stuff going on mechanically, but even so, I didn't like it quite as much as the first one. I started Close to the Sun earlier today and am about halfway through it now. It's... okay.

@fizban3332 In some, even many ways, yes, but they're all focused around PvP. Removing that element fundamentally changes what the game is and how you would play it.

Might as well make a "safer seas" version of PUBG and Warzone too

Last night I finished off Spider-Man 2, which was incredible. With a good story, amazing graphics, and fun gameplay, I really enjoyed it.

This weekend I won't have too much time to game so I'll probably keep it simple and just play through a few missions of Duke Nukem Advance. I put it on my Steam Deck and re-mapped the controls to make it play as close to a modern FPS as possible, which feels pretty okay actually. It's a cool little game for what it is.

Played some WWZ: Aftermath with the guys last night. Getting back into the swing of how that one works. My buddy kept thinking of how Back 4 Blood works instead of the game we were actually playing lol.. Also playing Spider-Man 2. I think I'm maybe about 1/3 of the way through it.

Calling the shadow drop: Quake 3

RE2 Remake is awesome. A must play imho.

Playing some WWZ Aftermath with the guys, and thinking about playing something on PS5 like Spider-Man 2 or Ghost of Tsushima, but I haven't decided just yet.

I had to pick Redfall lol but it is the one I had the most fun with.

I've enjoyed many remakes over the years, but RE4 is definitely my favorite.

I just finished the new Pokemon DLC yesterday, and am trying to beat one more game before the year is done - currently at 68 games/DLCs so far. Thinking about playing the RE4 Remake Separate Ways DLC, House of Ashes, or Stay Out of the House but haven't decided which one just yet - leaning toward House of Ashes because it's the shortest and the only one I don't own outright. Probably playing The Finals or WWZ Aftermath with the guys tonight too.

Way too many good games, but I'll try for a top 10 in alphabetical order:

Batman Arkham Asylum
Bioshock
Dead Space
Deus Ex Human Revolution
Dishonored
Left 4 Dead 2
Portal 2
Prey
Tomb Raider
Walking Dead (Tell Tale)

#1 has gotta be Bioshock, but those are all 10/10 games imho

Beat it in about 25 hours or so and haven't touched it since.

Alan Wake 2
Resident Evil 4 Remake
Dead Space Remake
Hogwarts Legacy
Remnant 2

Honorable Mentions:
Jedi Survivor
Cocoon
Slayers X

Callisto Protocol for me. Getting close to halfway through it. It's uhh... not even close to as good as Dead Space. Feel like about 1/4 of the game is crawling through vents and shimmying through narrow passage ways.. Strange they don't seem to understand what made Dead Space fun to play. Still, I'm enjoying it enough to keep going.

Mostly Alan Wake 2. I'm right around the halfway mark now. What an incredible game. I played a couple rounds of The Finals with the guys last night. Seems a little stingy on the cosmetics. I refuse to purchase mirco-transactions (with my own money) so I'll probably look like a white-flagging noob for a long while. Maybe I'll spend some MS reward points on a Xbox gift card and nab a new shirt at least. Maybe.

I'd say Remnant 2 is the probably the most underrated game of the year, but there are a lot of other contenders. I feel like Jedi Survivor didn't get enough praise for how good it is. People seem to have forgotten that it even exists. Amnesia: The Bunker is a gd masterpiece, and I never hear anyone talking about it. Redfall too was more fun than people give it credit for. Not a great game, but I had a lot of fun with it. Atomic Heart was okay at best in my opinion, and not underrated at all. That's my 2 cents anyway.

My friends and I finished up the Remnant 2 Awakened King DLC last night, and I started Wolfenstein: Youngblood with my gf. Solo, I'm still going through Alan Wake 2.

Gotta play the first one soon. And maybe the other 2?

Happy to see they brought back the original. My friends and I never finished it when it was on GP in the past, and now we can finally see it through at no extra cost

Remnant 1 and 2 just shadow dropped on Game Pass!

Planning to play a bunch of the smaller David Szymanski games this weekend, starting with The Moon Sliver. Then likely some more Remnant 2 Awakened King DLC with the guys, and also just started House of Ashes with my gf

This week I finished up a bunch of Switch games like SMB Wonder, the Pokemon Teal Mask DLC, and the new Mario Kart DLC. I just bought Alan Wake 2 on PC and can't wait to dive in!

@PhilKenSebben I haven't played it solo, but personally I would say no. I don't think I could have beaten this one by myself without grinding levels for endless hours. That being said, my buddy beat it solo, so he obviously would say yes, though he was pretty obsessed, and did sink a ton of time into it.

Heading over the my buddy's house tonight so we can play in person for once, hahaha.. definitely Mario Party Superstars, 2-on-2 NHL Open Ice Challenge, and probably a bunch of arcade beat-em-ups like TMNT, Simpsons, etc.

I finally beat Starfield the other day, and I meant to play Separate Ways with a friend, and also some more Darktide with the guys, but none of that quite worked out. I did however play through X-Men: The Arcade Game with a stranger at a local barcade last night, with the double screen and everything. Some rando gave us the rest of his tokens as he was leaving, and we used them all to do it. Fun times. They had Mario Kart 64 hooked up to a projector there too and I schooled a bunch of drunk people in that too lol.. I might try and get through some more of Bayonetta 3 tomorrow before work.

They should do games with better IP. Why not get something popular and that people actually like? Star Wars or Harry Potter would be awesome. Or go back to Batman. Where is Wolf Among Us 2?

Played this last night with the guys and had a blast. It was a little more tough than expected, but that's not a bad thing. Looking forward to putting more time into it. I'm playing on PC with maxed out settings, and it is just gorgeous to behold on top of being very fun to play.

Just finished Weird West a few minutes ago, right before the cutoff. Phew! Great game! I played it on PC with the first-person mod, which was great for the most part. Really made it feel more immersive for me.

I'm planning on diving into the RE4 Separate Ways DLC next, and I might knock out another chapter in Bayonetta 3 this weekend too.

I want to be playing a bunch of stuff, but I am pushing my way through Weird West as much as possible to finish it before it leaves Game Pass.

Immersive sims are my favorite genre, and Dishonored 3 confirmation would make me incredibly hyped.

Well I guess I'm dropping everything for Weird West now! Ugh. I'm in the middle of like 4 other games.

Anyway, just to throw it out there if anyone is interested, there is a first person perspective mod for the PC version of Weird West that was made by one of the actual developers of the game. This is how I'm planning to experience this one to really push for that immersive sim experience on all levels.

Starfield. There are a lot of little things about it that I'm not particularly enjoying (too many junk items, too many loading screens, teleportation tedium), and I don't find the gameplay to be very much fun so far to be honest (feel like I cant free myself from sitting in menus), but it's getting a little better as I keep playing and understanding what the game wants out of me. I'm still learning how it works. I've never played a Bethesda game before.

I would consider it for 1/3 of that price

I picked A Short Hike, which was decent overall. I played Celeste, Limbo, and Quake 2 RTX all within the last couple years, and my buddies and I have only played a couple rounds of Texas Chainsaw Massacre so far.

Is it a great game? No
Did I enjoy playing it? Yes

Wrapping up System Shock 2. What an incredible game. I don't think it's quite as good as Bioshock or Dead Space, but it's very clear how influential it was.

I'll probably play some more Remnant 2 with the guys tonight. My buddy finished his campaign a while ago now and is going for the final archetype. I think we are a little over halfway through my campaign, but we have all been playing each others without too much repetition considering how different each area can turn out from the procedural generation.

Might play a bit more of Bayonetta 3 when I finish up SS2. Still only 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through that one.

@JoakimZ You're in luck. Sortof. Unfortunately its not on Xbox, but they did remaster Blood a few years ago. Also, though not from Night Dive, and also not on Xbox, Shadow Warrior was remastered in a similar way about 10 years ago.

Played a bit of Remnant 2 last night with the guys, but I decided to start System Shock 2 yesterday, and I'm looking forward to spending more time with it today.

I started Alan Wake's American Nightmare earlier this week but haven't had time to make much progress. Hopefully I'll be able to get through a bit more of it this weekend. Might spend some time tonight with the guys going through more of Remnant 2.

Edit: Ended up finishing Wolfenstein RPG via emulation on my phone, which was fantastic. This and the Doom RPG games are massively overlooked and underrated. Also played a few rounds of Texas Chainsaw Massacre with the guys - pretty fun game once we got the hang of it.

@Wiiiiiiii Not sure if you've played it already or if you're into immersive sims, but I would highly recommend Dishonored. Whenever I'm in a "don't know what to play next" funk, a good immsim always pulls me out of it.

Yesterday I knocked out another chapter of Bayonetta 3 and also played through RE4 Separate Ways for the first time. Today I just played a bunch of Atomic Heart and have honestly been enjoying it more than I had previously. It helps that I have a lot of upgrades at this point, but unfortunately overall it just doesn't reach the heights it seems to have been aiming for.

I just want gyro