As usual, I managed to spend some time playing ZELDA:BotW on CEMU, for my little daughter.

She enjoys re-dressing the protagonist, having him gather edible stuff and cooking it Riding on horses, hiding before enemies, checking interesting places, or directing daddy to a black rock that hides Amber or Flint inside seems to be endless source of fun for her.

Recently, she asks to strip Link to his underpants, go to a beach and run around, picking up crabs, rocks, or climbing palm trees.

As for me, every second I can spend watching the grass bent by the virtual wind makes me forget about the reality around me. Which is more than welcome state of mind.

Playing Halls of Torment. Super fun indie roguelite monster slashing game for 5 euros/dollars. It's a bit like vampire survivor but with many cool differences.

Have more fun with it than with Diablo 4.

Just got back into replaying Cyberpunk 2077 and I'm very glad a significant amount of the launch issues have been addressed. It's taken a while but it's finally playable. Still a bit upset they didn't deliver on the futuristic GTA experience I was expecting, but I'm at least having a good time.

Been playing Dragon's Dogma, I never got past getting to the main city when it first came out. I just beat the boss and now the world has completely changed so I don't think it's over yet.

I haven't even touched any of the Bitterblack Isle stuff yet so I'm sure there's still some stuff left to do.

I bought Elden Ring during the last Steam sale.

The world is intriguing, but there is a real plot hook missing. I still don't know the real motivation of my character after 40 hours of gameplay. The reason why I am there and why I care. It was never explained why I want to become an elden lord and what that really means. Some of the stuff will be probably explained at some point, but as I said I don't understand the motivation or why my character started the journey in the first place.

There really is not much story so far. There is probably a lot of lore hidden, but most places, events, bosses, quests etc feel disconnected or shallow. I really would love to pick up some of the books in all the places, but that's not possible. As I said the world is intriguing, but it is probably all just cryptic stuff with many blanks left. Lore wise it can't be all a big mystery and it doesn't feel like most of it is, but it is never conveyed to the player.

The world is beautiful, there are many weird places. Having the big glowing tree in the background is an amazing set piece in an otherwise grim dark world.

Gameplay wise the progression feels really slow and it is hard to change the playstyle due to limited resources early on. I am unsure if I like that yet. It doesn't invite the player to try out some of the new toys you find though which is a bummer.

Besides that it is the first real Souls like I got into and the difficulty seems reasonable. The lack of quick saves is an interesting design choice. Every failure hits a bit harder, but it also inhibits experimentation.

I can't really explain why I like this game, but so far I am having fun. The world looks and feels great, the gameplay is fun. It's just the story or storytelling aspect of the game which could be so much better.

Noita, the best game I can never recommend because of just how crazily deadly it is unless you know exactly what you're doing and happen to get the right perks early on. I can't say a roguelike where your 12-actual-hours-of-playing session ends with nothing to show for it just because you accidentally zapped the wrong thing out of frame that you couldn't have known was there is well-designed as a game, especially when exploration/experimentation's main reward is death. It's a very good sandbox, though.

I also got back into Risk of Rain 2. First time playing the new DLC, and I very easily managed to finish off the new content. Honestly, a bit disappointed as my favorite part of RoR2 was the unlockable items/achievement hunting and the DLC had really none of that outside of unlocking a new character and unlocking the alternative abilities for a pre-unlocked character.

Satisfactory is something I've been playing on and off. I definitely prefer Factorio's sense of danger over Satisfactory's chill, but it's still fun and has its own things going on. The more permanent bases and the fact the game is 3D makes for more fun, but I hope one day either a DLC or a mod will introduce base defense somehow.

I just finished off every achievement on Steam in Brotato. It was a fun, simple roguelike, took me a bit to grind through it. I might return to it someday, but for now it can rest.

Dave the diver is main game right now. Just started chapter 2.

I never played botw as i went pc gaming back then. So i got botw and totk setup on my deck. They are next

Final Fantasy 16 - I haven't had a lot of time to play it lately, but really enjoying it. Story and world feel like classic SNES era Final Fantasy, but darker, a little more adult. Graphics are great, it's a beautiful game and looks next gen. And the gameplay is fine... It's just button mashing, casting spells from range over and over till you finally stagger a powerful enemy, or a quick time event. But it does feel like an action beat-em-up taking place within a Final Fantasy world. Would love if it were more turn based, or at least party based like FF7 Remake, but it's fine. Good game so far 👍

Playing bits and pieces of a lot of stuff and nothing’s really sticking. It’s frustrating, haha.

Replaying Control because I never got around to the DLC back in the day, and I want to play it before Alan Wake 2 comes out. This is my main game right now, but I’m just slowly picking away at it.

Diablo IV - omnipresent side-game for me. It’s grindy, and repetitive, and the end game and itemization need work, but I enjoy the combat so it’s been a good podcast game.

Dave the Diver - Great game, but where I’m at currently it’s become more mission-focused than I’d prefer. Still liking it, but my progress has slowed quite a bit.

The Rift Breaker - Picked this up in the Steam sale. It’s fun, if a little confusing sometimes. The UI could use some work.

Yet Another Zombie Survivors - Despite the terrible name, this one’s actually pretty fun. I’ve played an absolute ton of these things and some are more interesting than others… being able to add 2 members to your squad, as well as some of the abilities and stuff, make this one stand apart a bit. At least for a couple hours of mindless fun.

Voidigo, Revita, Crab Champions, Dropsy, and Going Under (among others, honestly) are some more that are rotating in and out as I try to find something that I’ll stick with for a bit, but nothing’s scratching the itch so far.

Slay the Spire - damn fucking addicting game, sometimes infuriating and sometimes a dopamine rush, it's just feels so good when you play your cards right

CrossCode - I'm still at the beginning (just got my first party member) and I fell in love with it almost instantly. The dialogue is funny and the combat is chef's kiss. Shout out to Lea's legendary face reactions

Bought Star Citizen and my god is it really good. Initially I assumed it wouldn't due to everything I read but man those articles are usually out the date. The recent update added a lot and seemed to have fixed a lot. There are still quite a few bugs, but most you run into will not prevent you from playing the game.

I can't recommend Ender Lillies on steam enough, it's a 1-2 years old overall great (although very melancholic) Metroidvania with an interesting story, nice music and pretty good combat. Really got me for a few days, even went to 100 procent the playthrough which i rarely do

I've been playing my way through and enjoying Pokemon Unbound, one of the most amazing Pokemon rom hacks to have been created. It's a rom hack with a custom region, custom story, and amazing customization in settings. It even manages to have a difficult mode that is challenging without being grindy bullshit.

I'm doing a "soft nuzlocke" of the game, where I can only capture one Pokemon a route, and my Pokemon don't die- instead, when I wipe, the entire run ends. It's a lot more forgiving and fun way to play Pokemon while making it a little bit more challenging. Would recommend trying any Pokemon game this way, and would especially recommend Pokemon Unbound whether you're a casual or experienced Pokemon player.

I've been rotating between Tears of the Kingdom, which I've been greatly enjoying in short bursts for its exploration and how easy it is to change scenery or style as I play, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which I've been playing again after getting my wife in to the game, and Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap on an emulator while I'm out and about.

Each game has definitely been scratching a different itch, and it's been a great improvement in my long term enjoyment of each to rotate between them. I used to no-life a game until I finished it or burned out. Now I'm loving three games and don't feel like garbage when I set them down to live my life.

Finishing Final Fantasy 16 as we speak. Enjoying the story, reminiscent of the stories from the 2D games. Game play feels like hack n slash meets fighting game, which can be repetitive but engaging.

Edit: realized I made it sound like I didn't like. It's far from the classic game play but that's to be expected. I think they nailed the game play for this. It made it feel more cinematic and epic.

Hardspace Shipbreaker. I play open shift mode because I'm old and slow and have nothing to prove. I love the music and just taking my time and getting into the flow zone with it. There's a half-decent story about worker exploitation, etc., going on with it but I pay little attention to the story in games. I'm here to play not watch a streaming series. Fortunately you can do other stuff during a lot of it, though they do have some unskippable cut scenes, which I am never a fan of.

Finished Yakuza: Like a Dragon a few weeks ago, really liked the vibe. The whole Yakuza collection came up for sale on GOG right after I finished, so I’m going through the whole series now. Almost done with Yakuza 0, and it hasn’t disappointed. The graphics and UI are dated, but it’s easy to get past that. The storytelling is what’s so great about these games. They’re long, complex, and surprisingly thoughtful. Sure there’s a good amount of trite cringeworthy tropes, but that’s part of the fun. Oh and the minigames! Business management is almost as fun as the main game…and I love that you can play classic sega arcade games in-game!

Death Stranding on Game Pass. I'm about 60 hrs in and it's really different, the good kind

I picked back up Team Fortress 2 a few weeks ago, and have been playing it often since. An update for the game came out a bit ago which pumped up the playercount, and it's been a lot of fun playing on the new maps added (pd_selbyen seal my beloved). I may not really like how Valve is pumping the game for mtx while barely maintaining it, but I can enjoy what we do get. Still playing Pyro, Spy, Medic mostly, trying to learn how to play Demoman again.

Been playing BattleBit Remastered with some friends on and off too. I'm definitely not as good at this one, but I'm having fun with the massive 127v127 mode. Went on a massive killstreak with an RPG, with my friend constantly dropping ammo boxes so I could get more rockets.

I've been finally playing Divinity: Original Sin 2 while I'm waiting for Baldur's Gate 3 to come out and I've been having an absolute blast. ATM I'm scraping the last nooks and crannies of Reaper's Coast before continuing forward.

Divinity: Original Sin 2, Grounded, and the first Plants Vs. Zombies game. I think they're all fantastic games. Divinity is D&D the video game essentially, I've been playing with my other half and we're both having a blast. We completed the first game a couple of years ago and it was great so the sequel was an easy pick. Grounded is Honey, I Shrunk the Kids the video game, also really good multiplayer, but it does kick players pretty often regardless of internet connection. PVZ, it was cheap on Steam and it's got a surprsing amount of content for the price. Very fun little time waster.

Actually playing Exoprimal and it's... Good. Better than expected, honestly. It's got some pacing issues (among others) and practically forces you to play for 5 hours or so to get more content, but man. The father you get in the story, the better it gets (gameplay wise, but story is also good imo). Also noteworthy: except server issues (not that common tough, for me) I haven't got any bugs or glitches, at least none I remember. Kind of a rare sight these days

Just bought way too much stuff over the Steam sale.

• American Truck Simulator. Finally bought the newest map DLC for it (Texas, Oklahoma), and installed quite a few truck/car/map mods for it. Fun to just... drive. Deliveries can be quite challenging. Also dip into ETS2 ever so often. Road style and architecture is quite a nice change of pace. Play primarily in VR with full lowkey sim-rig.
• Project Zomboid. Too good and too many mods. Fun to just see how long I can roam around in an RV or Jaap Nomad :P
• Dying Light. Played the hell out of this pirated last year, finally bought it with all the extra DLC. Worth it.
• Noita. Got back into watching FuryForged and his insane playthroughs. Can't decide it it's more fun to watch or play.
• Dead Cells. Haven't dipped my toes into Soulsborne style gaming much, as I rather like a more relaxed "I'm in danger but not always gonna die", but the difficulty here is nice. The art style really drew me in too.
• Control. Stuck at the Benicoff TV / Salvador battle, but overall really enjoying it. Downside is I'm having to play the pirated version due to 505's screw-up with the "Ultimate Edition" fuckup with Humble.
• Voidigo. Fun & very colorful roguelite twitch shooter. Animations wonderful and all characters are top notch, weapon variety is vast.

I'm having a hard time getting hooked on anything. Still playing OSRS afk, doing my farming contracts Daily.

Started assassin's creed 3 but it's not amazing. Been playing fable 1 but it's also a bit rough.

All very easily explained by having a 4month old kid, 2year old kid, and a full time job though:p

I beat Planet of Lana. Fun indie game with wonderful art style and music. Gameplay could’ve been a bit more complex especially with puzzles but still very enjoyable.

I'm playing Days Gone on PS5. I've unlocked the second part of the world and by now I'm really hooked. It took some time but I'm starting to get a hang of it.

The world is actually quite immersive because of all the mechanics it has. You scavenge, you clear areas, you engage with random encounters, you progress in the story, you fix your bike and refuel it. It's a bit like Death Stranding in a way.

And unlike Ubisoft formula, this one is genuinely different. It feels like an alternate reality of Ubisoft's approach (I say Ubisoft but Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon and maybe even Spider-Man follow similar formula). Nests, camps and nero points all feel very different from yet another outpost with alarms and a leader, and enemy variety is pretty decent. So far it's quite fresh.

Story and dialogues are a bit meh, it sounds like the protagonist is muttering post sex lol, but once you go along with it and believe the narrative, it's pretty alright and consistent.

The graphics are really good, I mean I can't believe PS4 was able to handle this game, the clutter and draw distances are really impressive. One thing I really hate is the loading times the game has, I wish they could release a native port to fix that or it had activity cards at the very least.

Overall I'm really enjoying it.

Call of Duty: Cold War.

It's free on PS+. It's the only game I've played for the PS5 that actually supports full mouse and keyboard, too, which is cool.

Crazy how I used to not really like COD because it was so arcadey, and now that is the one thing that makes it more appealing than most other modern shooters currently with large, active playerbases.

I still have a lot of the same critisms I always had about this series though. Most of the maps are garbage. The constant barrage of sounds and popups is irritating and distracting from the fun. The gunplay feels too samey for every weapon, and "aim" is a joke given how not only aim assistance works, but also how little spread and recoil there is to compensate for when aiming down sights to where everything but a shotgun feels like a laser beam. And the god awful netcode that can have you getting killed from a dude right in front of you that never appeared on your screen until after you were dead.

I've been playing Bully: Scholarship Edition for the first time and having a blast.

After a tip here on Lemmy, I added the Space Exploration mod to Factorio. Great tip, as it adds a lot of new things to an already great base game.

I just played through the Arkham games and both Spiderman games. They were all fantastic and now I'm finally playing Elden Ring again. The steamdeck has really given me the motivation to play some of the games in my 300+ library that I've been neglecting.

I'm playing through Phantasy Star II. I like it well enough, but it feels overly long for what it is. I knew getting into it that it wasn't the best in the series, but I wanted to play the original 4 games. I'm definitely looking forward to III and IV!

Wasteland 3. I like it a lot more than Divinity Original Sin 2 so far. The DOS2 plot just doesn't resonate with me. But I do miss the battle initiative order of DOS.

Galactic Ruler. May be more complicated than Distant Worlds 2 or X4 Foundations. It seems to do more stuff (like having planet maps and gameplay) but the UI is challenging. Even just selecting a ship to give orders takes too many clicks IMO.

Days Gone. Great blend of open world exploration, stories, and combat. Very well done game, if you like Far Cry 5 you'd probably like this too.

Borderlands 3, got this for free, enjoyable enough but if you played the other Borderlands this is more of the same. Too many gun choices and too much looting, but some of the guns are pretty amusing, like one that when you reload you throw the mag and it deploys into a turret.

Endless Minecraft with the kids. My youngest is graduating from creative so I'm learning all the new features from the last few versions.

Always playing Kenshi. Easily one of my favourite games and so replay-able, especially with its awesome modding community.

Trying to get into Diablo4. I do really enjoy it but it's just not grabbing me like I had hoped. Keep wanting to replay Grimdawn.

Got Pizza Tower from the summer sale and I’m hooked. Incredibly well polished game from start to finish. Even listening to the OST on Spotify while I’m working. Going for all P ranks right now.

Been loving Tears of the Kingdom lately. It has great exploration and traversal but some of the dungeons have been really weak compared to the previous games.

I never played BotW and one of the big reasons why is the weapon breaking mechanic. I thought I would really hate it but the fuse ability gives you an infinite supply of good weapons so it pretty much cancels it out.

Currently addicted to Transport Fever 2, its like I launch the game and BOOM 5 hours goes by

Brotato, game of the year for me.

Recently got Lobotomy Corporation from a friend with the message "welcome to the cult". Now I'm addicted and I'm managing my nuggets even in my dreams. Send help.

What Comes After and Stardew Valley on the Switch.

Cult of the Lambs on Xbox One