Mods can be an option but some are harder than others to use. I do find that a lot of mainstream games have a pretty good range of difficulties these days (including story mode etc), but definitely not all games.

Honestly it was really handy to have a pen and paper around for Elden Ring for me. There was just so much I wanted to keep track of so that I could come back or to make connections. But it’s also a very acquired taste kind of game to go through!

I love Mapo! He’s always super thorough with his playthroughs and finds so many hidden things it’s impressive.

I also recommend ChristopherOdd as well for more strategy based games.

Also navigating the UI with a controller is really rough (I tried playing this on my switch… did not go well). But the concept was cute so I hope they fix up some of the issues!

I believe he said it took place in the same universe at some point? So there will probably be overlap between them.

Man this is a ton of new stuff! Just when I think I’ve played enough Stardew there’s another update and I start all over again.

Somehow they managed to make the game look even stranger than the first one, which I didn’t think was possible. I remember trying to watch a playthrough of the first game and it was a bit too out there for my tastes already.

Totally agree with this. The first few hours were great but then when you get the broom and you see the huge open space that’s just really lacking. I really wish it never went to that scale.

The actual awards where they celebrate the games they are supposedly meant to celebrate. Some respect for the devs who poured all their time into making them instead of being rushed off the stage. And finally it would be nice for them to actually acknowledge the industries struggles this year and put a light on the fact that the gaming culture is kinda rotten and this is meant to counteract it, instead it seems to fall into the same hole.

Yeah I definitely felt that all the stuff I actually wanted to see were rushed and replaced instead with a ton of ads and generic looking game trailers. There were only a few trailers that were actually notable and for a 2h show that was super disappointing. The speeches getting rushed and a lot of them not even having time to go up was also very disrespectful to the devs. Just overall not great.

Ah I was hoping Dredge would have won one of the indie categories. Such a good game!

I’m so glad these will be another one! The first one was so great. I can’t wait to see what crazy things they think of for this one.

It’s on sale right now on switch (which is where I played the first as well) but not on steam.

I played through Far: Lone Sails and really enjoyed the light puzzle and management of the machine. It was super atmospheric and I really loved the game overall. It was a perfect casual game that really absorbed me into it. Going to play the sequel as well soon.

I know what you mean. I think it’s partly because it’s based on D&D which tends to skew very male-heavy and the whole cast is a bunch of old men as well so it has that effect. I did enjoy it a bit more than you but I have yet to continue with the next book (which does seem like it might be better?)

There is also the inverse of the book called Queens of the Wyrd by Timandra Whitecastle which I have but haven’t read yet. Might be what you’re looking for!

I just read Comfort Me With Apples last night and was a bit disappointed. I’ve heard a lot of good things and I did like it a lot until the end when all the strangeness came together into a reveal… and it was just a bit too religious based for my liking. It was clever and the prose was beautiful but I was hoping for something else I guess.

I haven’t played Outer Wilds but from what I know of it it should be similar. The Forgotten City is based on real world history though which was pretty interesting and it’s much more compact than what I’ve heard of Outer Wilds. It look me maybe ~7h to finish it fully, but can definitely be done faster too.

I played through The Forgotten City and really liked it! It’s a time looping puzzle game where you have to unravel the mystery of a strange city before every day it collapses into ruin. It really sucked me into the story and I could forgive a bit of the jankiness in the actual gameplay. The characters were all interesting and were very interconnected which made the whole thing feel quite alive. I didn’t love the ending (there are technically multiple but I managed to get the canon one on my play through), it was okay but a little out of nowhere, everything before that was good.

Take a look at Dredge! It’s a creepy horror-ish game where you play as a fishing boat. There are some creepy elements at night but it’s fairly causal overall. I really loved the atmosphere and light story elements as well as the fun fishing games that is the majority of the gameplay.