Sometimes you want a game that is challenging. Sometimes you just want a game that is fun.
There have been a bunch of games that require the knitting of brows and the occasional situation that could easily result in a rage-quit. Earlier this week, I realized that I wanted to go back and play XCom 2 again. I remembered loving the War of the Chosen DLC and the agony and ecstasy of guiding a handful of rookies up through the ranks and turning them into one-shot-kill snipers or armor-shredding grenadiers or rangers that are effectively wielding lightsabers.
And I re-downloaded it and got all of my mods set up and was in the first mission where I had my soldier set up just right and I had the bad guys flanked and it was the first attack of the game and I had a 70%.
AND I MISSED WHAT THE HECK THIS WAS THE FIRST TRIGGER PULL OF THE GAME WHAT THE HECK
Maybe I’ll play Balatro. I’m trying to beat the game with the Purple stake using the Blue deck… and, yeah, that was a mistake. How do you have two 4-card discards and not get a *SINGLE* diamond?
Okay. I’ll play Gremlins Inc. That’s always good for a half hour… I GOT SEND TO JAIL ON THE FIRST ROUND?!?!?
Sigh. Back to Shadow of Mordor. The joys of going up levels, killing Orcs, and levelling up my weapons. Man, this Nemesis system is great. The personalities of the orcs? It’s amazing that they were able to pull this off. And the storyline! Gollum shows up and it doesn’t feel like fan service but as part of an epic narrative where you’re taking on Sauron (a doomed quest, to be sure, but an absolutely EPIC doomed quest).
And the smoothness of the combat and the various ways to beat any given mission… I got in a fight and ended it by shooting a campfire and blowing up the four orcs that were harassing me.
Dang, this is a good game. They don’t make them like this anymore.
So, like, what’s your go-to game that you play when you’re just looking for some pleasant dumb fun without being overly frustrated at the various tricks the game forces you to sit through?
What’s *YOUR* recommendation?
(Featured image is a screenshot of one of my favorite emergent orcs from the Nemesis system.)
I’m in the same rut… fire-up Total Warhammer, nah nothing new here; POE1 is basically dead – no update since August and they just announced that all Devs are working on POE2 and no update until maybe April?, POE2 sucks; Last Epoch’s next update is in April; Diablo IV is so bleh.
30-yrs ago I played Civ1… Civ7 releases in two weeks. I’ll buy it, of course, but I’m not sure I’ve enjoyed it since Civ3 and the evolution into an ultra-micro-management game; the irony of the early games is that the technology constraints gave it depth but only so much depth. Well, unlimited compute hasn’t really made the game better even if it’s made it visually lovely.
Nevertheless, I’m sure I’ll be playing it two Saturdays from now… but I’m not likely going to pop for the 5-day early access. Hopefully it’s awesome and it carries me into April and can become the ultimate, ‘I’ve got nothing to play, let’s fire-up Civ and see what the first 30 moves reveal…Report
My primary game right now is Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. I have also been dipping into Forza 4 when I want something fast that doesn’t require a real time commitment. This week was a new update for No Man’s Sky, which added purple star systems that include new planet types, such as water worlds and gas giants. I will probably spend some time exploring those when I’m not fighting the hordes of The Abyss.Report