by kalos
Games I loved in 2023. Likely includes older games and Game Pass titles.
Games I finished always appear higher on the list than ones I only sampled.
Showing 1-10 of 34 items
I'm not a giant cat person, but Stray was fun. There's some boring cat interactions like scratching, but many fun ones like nuzzling legs or knocking stuff over. Stray gives you lots of space to cat around while also delivering a narrative with some tension-raising action sequences. Initially enjoyed the intro and getting to the first town, but talking to all the robots didn't deliver enough story to pull me back regularly and I stopped playing for a long time. Eventually, I got out of the first town and that helped push me along for awhile. The action sequences between each town are very engaging but the town can be very slow. I forced myself to avoid trying to do everything in town (find all the music sheets) and instead focus on enjoying the being a cat and accomplishing my mission. I thought the climax and conclusion were great. My kids watched me play some and they enjoyed it a ton too. Took me 6 hours to complete. My kids immediately asked if we could play it again.
Hype for the new game got me to pick this up again. Enjoying the conversations between the main characters. It feels a bit long and there's way too much open world filler. Atreus' attitude gets very annoying but it works okay for a clear character arc. Enjoyed the conclusion.
Having a blast regaining my Jedi skills. I'm enjoying the Souls-lite gameplay of resting and getting revenge to regain my XP, but the skill tree is pretty slim and I usually have all the skills by the time new ones unlock. But love how the combat is gradually getting more complex and the story is fun.
Buggy (wrong gamepad icons, "swap sticks" option puts all controls on one stick, some perf issues), but otherwise really enjoyable experience. I like the characters, enjoyed their arcs, and had fun with the ride. Some of it was slow and could have moved faster, but lots of different locations. Removed from Gamepass before I finished (at Chapter 12 - Knowhere to Run), but I wasn't sooo invested that I'd buy it to finish.
Picked this up again from the beginning with my kids and having a blast. This game is definitely better with 3 players than solo, but can be quite stressful. Kids really love it though and the youngest is remarkably capable. We hit an 100% crash going to the next area in Chapter 9, so we can't play anymore and I consider it finished.
First: turn down the gun chatter immediately. I went one notch down and they still talk a bit too much. High On Life's guns and grappling are some of the most fun parts. The guns are very different so you mix them up to try different things in combat. I don't think the enemy design pressures you enough to switch guns, but I still mostly enjoyed it. At some point (halfway?), I got frustrated and turned the difficulty to Story. I didn't want to grind for pesos so I could buy health upgrades. Searching for chests is okay, but trying to 100% areas wasn't much fun (no map, but radar helps). If you have gamepass, give it a shot and see if you find it funny. It will constantly throw jokes at you: some are funny, many are dirty, some fall flat. Definitely not for kids. Finished it after grinding some chests to buy everything from Mr Keep and I think I should have just gone straight to the end.
Absolutely loving Cocoon, but haven't finished it.
Still plugging away. I'm drifting a bit after hitting the bank, but I am enjoying it. Managed to get back in enough to defeat Hornet. Now I'm feeling a bit lost.
Enjoying the mystical writing and slow gravity leaping puzzle gameplay of Dandara. Great Steam Deck game.
Playing with the kids. We've played 55+ hours of this game and I'm amazed how we keep coming back. Found some great coop levels this time. Recently, my son was more interested in creating levels, so we did more of that.