by slax
Another year, another list. Let's see how we keep up this time? My guess....medium.
As always here is our rating scale:
How's this scale been going btw? I think it's going well, thanks for asking.
Here's a list of games that I put more than zero time into, but less than the amount of time where I want to make a decision on how much I liked them.
Infinity Nikki - Hey, this game is cool, and if I didn't have as many chore simulators, or put too much time into Honkai and the like, I think I would've stuck with this game longer. Whatever dark and sinister story that was hiding behind the dress-up simulator was fascinating, but I really didn't need another thing with a log-in streak.
Marvel Snap - Still pretty good, but, I think I want to be done with this too. Warframe is taking a lot of time, but it's enjoyable. So I'd rather cut off other games that are vying for mindless time or money.
Diablo 4 Season of the Witch or whatever - listen, I like burning through the season journey over a little bit of time, but if they keep making it harder to do that, I may not check-in in the future.
PoE Season of the Keeper of the Flame - Listen, the knowledge gap between new and experienced players in this game is wild. Everyone likes build guides, so the community makes them, and then bam, jump to end-game. Not even like, how progression always works, or key pieces of it missing. And with how much this game has changed, so much of it on the internet is outdated anyway. Overall, I like this game, but it asks a lot of your time.
Also dabbled in some retro-RTS games. Age of Empires II and Age of Mythology. I remember playing both games as a kid, probably Age of Empires more, and not being particularly good, but loving to cheat out a bunch of guys and just roll folks. Or play on super easy, and turtle up. Very fun! Now, learning a bit more high level play, it's fairly interesting to be able to just do good in the campaign on normal or hard. Things go pretty well when you know how to set up an economy and build guys at a good time. With that said, these are a couple of games where I had a good time for a handful of hours and then kinda moved on. Happy to go back at some point.
Also played some Cats Hidden games, why...i truly don't know. But you know what, they got rid of speedruinning achievements, and I think that's super cool! These should be chill cozy little short games, and they don't try to make it too complicated. Bali > Paris.
I've had a lot of fun making lists of what I'm playing here the past few years. Seems like that option is going to be taken away from folks not subscribed to the site. Which, I suppose makes sense if no one is looking at them, but is still a big bummer.
Showing 1-10 of 15 items
***** 100% after 21 hours on 4/29 I love Paradise Killer. It's a game that while not perfect, embodies it's vibe and style so singularly, that if you just let it wash over you, it's hard to feel anything but joy. Promise Mascot Agency, once again from the excellent Kaizen Game Works is very much a different game than Paradise Killer, but the soul is the same. This is a vibes game. This is Twin Peaks. It isn't about picking it apart, it's about enjoying it for what it is, wishing there was more, and finishing it being very excited for whatever these jokers come up with next. I have both a lot and not very much to say. My suggestion, as I think the game subtly invites you to, is not play this game as a second screen experience, turn off the podcasts, don't be quick to skip the voiced dialogue and instead just vibe. The world is horrible. This game is a slice of nice, and I really feel like we all can use a little bit more of that in our lives.
***** Titular, yet tutorial 31F dungeon beaten on 5/27 I'm still playing this game, and there are so many systems to learn and explore. But after the 17 or so runs it took to finally clear Serpentcoil Island, I will say, this game is excellent and I wish more people were talking about it.
************** Infinity Stars. Can't stop, won't stop. Seriously, I can't stop. I guess for tracking purposes since starting playing last year, I have taught around a dozen folks how to play, with a handful of them playing ranked by themselves, and like half still being down to play in person quite frequently. This game has life-lessons hiding all over the place. If you are one of the 2 people (generous) who look at this and want to chat Mahjong, hit me up! Ohh, the beginning of this year I am still in Expert 2 for 4-player, let's see how it goes from there. Checking back on my stats: 8/23/24 - First time hitting Expert 2 Wooo! 10/8/24 - Not quite as quick as you can, but pretty quickly back to Expert 1, booo 11/14/24 - Back to Expert 2 again!? And there we stayed, for another 8 months. Until finally. 7/24/25 - Expert 3 bb. The road to masters is real! 11/21 - Well between jobs and the time one of these games can take, I have been playing less 4-person games online. Mostly save those for in person.
***** I think this game has just gotten better? I hadn't played in like, 7 years, but had put a hundred or so hours into the game back then and wasn't a huge fan of the end-game grind. Now, too be fair, basically needing a daily checklist to decide what to do all the time, I think is a turn-off, except that most of that stuff is really fun. And this game is fairly generous with its monetization. Still log-in bonuses and all that. Wish I could have a gear grinding game that didn't ask quite as much. Diablo 4 seasons are good for that I suppose. Update - Oh God, oh no. I said I put in like 100 hours into this game, in January sometime? Well that number is nearly 365, like the number of days in the year. Okay, this is helpful. Let me reiterate, this game is good. They've gotten better, although still not great, at getting you up and running in this game. There are sooo many activities to do, and arguably too many of them are important for improving your account, but all in all, it's a good time. With that said, this game needs your time. This must be how MMO players feel. You just have to play everyday, you have to check the boxes off every day. You gotta get that loot....ever day. It just keeps going. And while I had a lot of fun, I was starting to miss playing other games. I mostly got caught up on the content that came out the last 7 years (mostly) and just right now uninstalled it. Which feels nice. Nothing like closing 50 Firefox tabs for a game you are gonna stop playing. Feels good. Good game, gonna take a break. This is a deranged recap of my time and I'm gonna look back at this later this year and be like, huh, that must've been when I quit my job and had a bunch of free time. (It was kinda future me). Also I uninstalled while watching a Hiroshima Carp game at 1:00 am in the morning. I'M DOING WELL, THANK YOU FOR ASKING.
**** Put this game down in May. What if PoE maps were just a game. Slormancer answers that question and says, it would be really good! The way you level up and can for the right price, deterministically get gear how you want, is great! Just like always, I think it probably shortens the lifespan of a game like this, but great honestly!! These games don't need to be 100s of hours just to do the stuff you want. I put like 50 into it and had a blast. Wonder how much stuff they've added and if I should give it another go!
**** Beat Main Story 7/23 For about 35-40 hours this was an easy 5 star game so much fun! A little too long maybe, clocking in somewhere around 60 hours in finishing the main story. I could've finished it much sooner I'm sure, but there is so much cool stuff to do, that I had a great time just running around leveling stuff up. With that said, the cracks begin to show as this game drags on. Because there are so many jobs you can be, none of them go super deep, all of the crafting is variations on the same theme, and the combat is serviceable, but not the most fun. With that said, highly recommend for a slightly "more" Animal Crossing. Nothing is quite as deep but there is a lot more to see.
**** Story finished 3/24 I've loved Monster Hunter for a bit now, and this is no exception. This is a great follow-up to World and Rise and runs into one of the key problems for these games. With all the similarities from entry to entry, signing up for a new one, is signing up for something that will be much better in the future. I didn't come here for the story, which is...overly long and honestly they shouldn't try and make me think too long and hard about what the hunting commission is doing, because I don't think it's great. But the hunting and crafting are fantastic and why you should come to these games in the first place. This is a great upgrade from World, but....it isn't maybe an upgrade from Iceborne, and while more Monster Hunter is great, I usually get through fighting everything a couple of times, and knowing it all won't matter in a year or so, take a break until the big expansion comes out and shakes everything up. So, while I highly recommend this game, I know a more full and enjoyable version is coming, and I can't wait. With that said, I'll probably jump in again, the next time there is a lull with what I'm playing, because it feels so damn good to play!
**** Finally finished 5/25 You ever just wanna vibe. The Famicom Detective Club games are for you. The updated art, the music, the cozy murder mystery (your coziness may vary) is all on point. With that said, the actually navigation of some of these conversations or "puzzles" can be a bit dated. Asking you to repeat an action multiple times with only slight variations to eventually allow you to progress to the next step. So play with a guide if that scares you. But the story is fun, the characters are great, and just sit back, relax and have a nice time. I'm excited to play more! Maybe the new one won't be as obtuse? I like making these little predictions and then being absolutely bodied later.
**** Finished all the cups, let's say like 6/15 This and an old Pokemon, were essentially the first two games I played on my Switch 2. I like this game. It feels nice to play! The courses are largely very fun! It was confusing how to get to the open world, only to find, that kind of in a cool fashion, the menu background can just transition to gameplay, but I don't think I figured that out myself. Mario Kart is good, isn't a revolutionary opinion, but it is the one I hold currently. Maybe I should try my hand at some online races? Who am I kidding, I won't do that.
*** 11/21 uninstalled I, like this game. I think the base building is too finicky, and I think the combos are actually rather limited once you unlock everything. There aren't as many real evolutions, and they try to make up for that by just allowing you to combine some balls, but maybe I'm dumb, I couldn't figure out how to know what stats were going to end up grafted on that ball. Oh the cooldown of the one ball, but now it does some damage, good I guess? I had fun! But I think it just ran it's course. This is bordering on something great, but I think a couple of decisions could've been adjusted and it would've been exactly my jam. But then it might not have been someone else's jam, so I'm okay where it landed. The intro of this game is a banger though. The music of the first level with the chanting is just soooo cool. Wish more of that stuff kept happening.
