I don’t mind it but I do love me some voice acting, it helps me get immersed. But on the flipside you could say that bad voice acting would be way worse than no voice acting, so for the budget level it was probably a wise decision.

Aaah, I’m so glad! God I love that game so much. I can’t explain it but like I said before, exploring it gave me similar-ish vibes to exploring Dark Souls 1 the first time. Just a great experience all the way through, the only thing that could make it better is fully voiced characters, but for a solo dev with a tiny budget on his first game that is a lot to ask of course.

I might actually do another playthrough soon and try another build, just because Early Access on the sequel got pushed back to September and I am craving more.

Or maybe that is the day you branch out and discover the wonderful world of non-Souls games, eh?

But I don’t know, I think I’m still under the spell of the Souls Stockholm Syndrome… for now at least. Even with my frustrations I still love exploration in Souls games, very few other games do it as well and I’m already kind of craving my next hit.

Also even then… it’s not like playing non-Souls games has stopped me from posting in c/Soulslikes before so you know… you’re not getting rid of me that easily.

Sometimes you want a game that makes you think and makes you feel things, sometimes you are too tired and just want to consume some slop. I totally get it. I couldn’t play something like AC all the time but I do occasionally get a craving for some open world slop.

I haven’t played it, just seen footage of it. So not sure I can really voice my opinion. And the game clearly isn’t for me anyway, regardless. I’m not American, and I don’t really enjoy other teenage simulators like Life is Strange.

I have nothing against walking simulators or interactive movies if it’s done well, so for me that part of the criticism falls flat. And the culture war bullshit is also just ridiculous. What I didn’t like from what I’ve seen was dialogue that sounds off, like teenagers not talking like actual teenagers talk. And also like, the game feels more like presenting an idealised picture of the concept of being a teenager inside a 90s Americana movie, rather than explore the struggles of being an actual teenager in actual real life.

But I don’t know, maybe this is what everyone’s teenage years looked like in the US and I just don’t get it. Which is fine. Like I said, I’m not the target audience.

I mean, whatever makes you happy? A couple of years ago I made a conscious decision to expand my gaming vocabulary and play loads of different and new games instead of just replaying the same old games, or keep playing forever-games like Civ, Dota or MMOs. I don’t like every new game I play as much as my favorites, but I appreciate constantly seeing and experiencing new things.

But on the other hand some people just like playing their comfort games, and that’s also okay. You just gotta ask yourself if what you’re doing right now is making you happy, or if you’re just doing it out of habit.

I am so glad you’re loving it as much as I did! I literally can’t wait for Withering Realms, and it pains me that I might have to wait another year for it. Knowing Early Access won’t have NG+ makes me want to wait for full release, but at the same time I might not be able to stop myself from jumping in early when it opens in September. It’s maybe my most anticipated game of the year now.

I’m in what I would think is the final third or so of AI Limit, a well received anime-styled Soulslike from last year.

I’m having a hard time evaluating my time with it, because I find myself annoyed and frustrated numerous times when playing it, but this is the first Soulslike I’ve played in like 6 months and every time I am about to call the game bad I stop and reflect. Ambushes? Delayed attacks? Enemies with spammy attack patterns? Poison swamps? Time-wasting enemy placement? Idiotic platforming without a dedicated jump button? Aren’t these all genre staples of Souls games at this point? Am I slowly discovering that this genre isn’t for me anymore?

So I don’t know. By all accounts the game is a competent Soulslike. Maybe I just haven’t been sleeping well lately, and that’s why I’m getting tilted.

Gave me a chuckle, thank you.

The gameplay looks pretty smooth, I have to give it that. Looks like it has potential to be fun to play. The rest of it I don’t know… I guess I haven’t seen enough of it to call it but for me it kind of feels like it is caught in between the random meme-game vibe and the played-straight action game? I need to see more I guess.

Modded STALKER Anomaly is worth a shout too. Some of the weather mods and sound mods make blowouts extremely intense and impressive.

Unmodded the AI in Civ is pretty bad. On lower difficulties you can have a good time just doing your own thing if that is what you want, just building cities and infrastructure and whatnot. If you’re interested you shouldn’t be intimidated by them, I’d say. Plus you can regularly pick up Civ for like 2-3 bucks these days.

I genuinely wonder how well AC2 holds up. I remember it extremely fondly, but then again back then I didn’t have several decades of the same formula being used as a frame of reference. So I wonder how it stands on its own merits, were I to play it now.

But yeah, the whole Ezio saga was amazing at the time, and I can’t imagine they have aged too poorly.

For the longest time growing up it was Baldur’s Gate 2. Was such a formative gaming experience for me as a kid and several of those companions feel like reuniting with old friends.

More recently, Civ V on a medium difficulty is like Solitaire for me. You can just kind of go through the motions and enjoy building an empire.

For a different kind of relaxation-through-stimulation I also kind of find myself going back to Ninja Gaiden 2 recently. It’s hard to explain why this would be comforting (and the game can also be infuriating at times) but there is just something to the combat and the constant stimulation that can take your mind off things. Especially when you go back and just replay the best parts in chapter challenge as opposed to a full campaign.

Oh, this is by the CrossCode devs? I’ve heard nothing but good things about that game.

DontNod really went and created a whole new genre of game, huh? What do we call these, Teenage Simulators?

I’m sure it’s great for the target audience and I like the music selection but… I’m too old for this, I think.

2->240 FPS Frame Generation, the future is here 🤯

Oh damn, we’ve been over this already have we not? I really suck at remembering usernames 😔

Yeah you probably need one evil lady to fill out the roster. I guess Hexxat vs Viconia is personal preference, I’m personally not a huge fan of the Beamdog companions.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about this one. Maybe I should give it a priority bump on the wishlist.

It can be a bit like that, for sure! It’s one of the spots where it shows its age I think, it was really the first western CRPG with these types of companion missions and I don’t think they had all the scripting and timings nailed down just yet.

Are you using any mods? And what’s your party composition?