While Disco Elysium is like no other CRPOG I’ve played, I have to disagree with your other point, because Indies exist with tons of innovative stuff in there.

I’m re-playing it right now, and it’s great.

Not on Steam, it’s World of Warcraft, specifically the MoP Remix mode. That was some of the most fun I ever had in the game.

On Steam, maybe Lies of P. I played a few great games, but honestly I didn’t really play any GotY material this year on there.

A bit more World of Warcraft. I got most of the anniversary items I want, now I’ll do some more achievements.

Then I started Windblown, the next game from the Dead Cells devs. I guess it’s coop, isometric Dead Cells. It’s very fun, but I feel harder than Dead Cells. I finished my first run today, and the end was pretty nerve wracking. As for the coop part, that seems pretty dead right now. The game’s in Early Access, so that doesn’t help, but I only ever a saw a single open lobby. I might check it out a bit more, now that I have won once.

Then I was about to re-play Disco Elysium, but got sick again, and was in no mood for any story games (which I why I started Windblown). Maybe this week, maybe next, but definitely this year.

Also, pretty good timing with me re-playing FF7R last week, since Rebirth is coming to PC end of January. I’m really looking forward to it.

Ori and the Blind Forest which I enjoyed, although I was expecting a metroidvania

What genre do you think the game belongs to? Just a normal platformer?

I would say, while combat is not the focus in the game, it still has all the trappings of a metroidvania.

Both are great games, but I was too much of a brainlet to find some of the later stuff myself.

I was almost done with it last week, but I finished Baldur’s Gate - Siege of Dragonspear DLC. It’s terrible. The story is trash, especially the second half, and all characters, your party included, lose the ability to put two and two together. I haven’t played BG2 and don’t know if I ever will, but I can’t imagine this DLC is adding anything to the overall story.

Then I played through Final Fantasy VII Remake again. I definitely thought the game was shorter, mainly because I forgot about all the terrible moments. I still like the game, but there are a bunch of bosses and sequences that are cancer, and the game would be better if they were removed completely or at least much shorter. Hopefully it doesn’t take too much longer for Rebirth to make it to the PC.

Finally, I re-subbed to World of Warcraft for a month. For the 20th Anniversary, there’s a huge 3-month event going on. It’s running until early January, and you can get a bunch of old or removed stuff again. I’ll just do some quests once or twice a week, so I can buy the stuff that I want.

Yeah, I knew it was released later and that at least the Steam Reviews are only mixed. Still, I didn’t think it would be such a waste of time.

Baldur’s Gate 3 coop, we’re in Act 2. For some reason, my friend started a fight, inside the throne room at Moonrise Towers, while surrounded by 20 enemies, half HP and no spells. We died, and because he hadn’t saved in an hour, we have to do some stuff again.

Then I finished the Solasta: Crown of the Magister - Palace of Ice DLC. It’s definitely the weakest campaign for me (base game and two DLC). The final dungeon was also pretty disappointing, but I liked the very final decision you had to do.

Then I started the Baldur’s Gate - Siege on Dragonspear DLC. I played the base game a year ago for the first time, and I think the game didn’t age well at all, and this DLC doesn’t improve things. I’m close to the end, but I really don’t like how it’s playing out right now, and I don’t care about the story at all.

I didn’t realize this was set in the Pillars of Eternity universe. I might have to check it out, after I’ve played Pillars 2.

I’m in the middle of a coop playthrough and wanted to do another solo run, once no more new stuff is coming, but it seems that’s gonna take a while longer.

Nioh 2

A bit more Baldurs Gate 3 coop. We just made it to the Githyanki Creche and next time everyone will die.

Then I got back to Vampire Survivors. Played a bunch of different “Survivors-likes”, but nothing really is as good as this. There’s so much stuff I have to catch up on, tons of unlocks and characters.

Finally, I started the Solasta: Crown of the Magister - Palace of Ice DLC. I really liked the more intimate setting of the previous one, Lost Valley, but this one is a straight-up sequel campaign to the base game. So far it’s not as good as Lost Valley, but it’s a higher level campaign up to level 16 (base game is up to 12), you get to play around with the higher level spells (also my ranger can attack one more time now). However, performance in some areas is horrible, with huge frame drops. Also ran into a potentially game breaking but, but luckily a full game restart helped.

I’m watching a streamer play through Cyberpunk right now and it looks really good. I gotta play it myself next year, when I (hopefully) upgrade my GPU.

I did play on core difficulty (“intended PF experience” or something), but as far as I can tell nothing affects the enemy HP, just how much damage you take (maybe there’s something in the custom modifiers). I guess even with a weak character you can get through on a lower difficulty, but it’ll take ages.

However, even if I used proper builds, I still used my very limited knowledge of these games and systems. If you know what you’re doing, you can probably use better spells or abilities to kill things faster.

I finished Prince of Persia The Lost Crown. It’s good but some weird decisions by the devs. For example, you can buy treasure maps at the end, so you don’t need a guide to find everything, just for some reason those maps to not actually show everything. I already mentioned the arbitrary limitation on the pictures you can take last week. Then, the whole game you’re trained to use your parry, normal enemies or bosses, just so some of the later bosses can just spam attacks you can’t parry.

I’m also done with Vampire Hunters. Beat all the stages, unlocked all the characters, but it just doesn’t have a lot of variety. It’s all just “normal” weapons, that shoot forward, nothing really crazy going on. Every level also plays the same, so it gets old relatively quick.

Then I tried HoloCure - Save the Fans!. This (F2P) game isn’t just like Vampire Survivors, it is Vampire Survivors, but with a VTuber skin. Since it’s copying the best in this genre, it’s not bad, but I’d rather just play Vampire Survivors. I’d only recommend this, if you’re a huge fan of VTubers, don’t want or can’t pay for Vampire Survivors, or have put in like a thousand hours into it and just want something a little bit different.

Next is Karate Survivor. Like the name suggests, another VS-like game. This one I’m not so sure about. The theme is 80s Martial Arts Movies, and you’re playing as Jackie Chan from Wish. Instead of weapons, you’re combining different fighting moves into a combo. It sounds neat, but the beginning is pretty rough. You can only run around, and your attacks basically all go forward. Since it’s martial arts, your attacks also have a tiny range, so you’re basically standing inside the enemies, so you can hit them. My first few runs weren’t that fun, but you unlock new moves of course and also some movement-type abilities, like rolling over obstacles or sliding under tables. You can also kick or throw small objects at enemies, like bottles, buckets, etc. or use some objects as weapons, like a broom or baseball bat. These weapons are a bit lame though, since they all have the same attack animation. Later, you can also kick bigger stuff at your enemies, like pallets or motorcycles. Each of these unlocks make the game more fun, but the normal combat, still isn’t my favorite. I’ll stick with it a bit longer, but dunno how long.

Finally, a bit more Baldurs Gate 3 coop. Grymforge is cleared, there were no survivors (except our party). Next is the rest of the Underdark.

Since I got basically no experience with DnD or PF, I’ve used build guides for my playthrough, so I’d like to think they were well built.

As I’ve written in another post, the last third of the game was just a complete slog, with overtuned enemies, that took far too long to kill.

Nothing game breaking for me as well, but tons of small stuff, plus atrocious performance.

Also, in my opinion, the last third of the game was just a complete slog. Enemies had just far too much health. Some of the final fights against trash mobs took as long or maybe longer than the final boss. I wouldn’t call that balanced.

Dunno if you want to count it towards the balance, but the Kingdom Management was also not implemented well at all. In the first half it’s just event after event, no breathing room. The second half it’s constantly waiting, doing nothing, just clicking “next.”

Yeah, 220 hours for mine, including the DLC campaign. Game is a buggy mess though and not properly balanced, especially near the end. As long as WotR improves at least those things, I’d be happy.

I wanted to play this game for a while now, but it’s probably gonna take me like two months to get through, and finding that kind of time is tough, with the gazillions of other games, that I also want to check out.

Now, I’ll definitely wait for this patch and maybe a few bug fixes (since it’s Owlcat), to finally get to this one (hopefully next year).