Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?

I finally started the Metroid series (playing countless hours Metroid Prime Hunters online does not count) with Metroid Zero Mission in my Anbernic RG351v, after getting the 700 blue thingies in Rayman Legends I had a very good session yesterday.

I just finished Ys 2 (in the Ys Chronicles version) and going to move on Ys -The Oath In Felghana soon.

The only Ys have I played when I was young was Ys 3 -Wanderers From Ys, and I loved it, so it will be cool to see what Oath changes up.

I got a Steamdeck in November. Is Sufi considered patient? If not, I restarted Witcher III again.

Sifu? If so, yes, it was released more than 12 months ago.
- What a good game, I usually don't play games in hard mode (I didn't for Sifu either) but I am very proud that after busting my ass I got the the final boss in normal difficulty with 20 years, he got me once or twice, can't remember.

Tale of Two Wastelands. It’s a pretty cool mod that essentially combines Fallout 3 and New Vegas into one game and allows you to travel between both areas the games take place in. It also slightly modernises Fallout 3’s gameplay which makes it wayyy more enjoyable. Would highly recommend if you own 3 and New Vegas

That sounds awesome. Definitely gonna check it out

Just got a steam deck, first thing I started was animal crossing new horizons (which I got from a very legal source)

Orc Must Die 3. Now i've finished the main campaign and moving on to the second one, is there any other game similar to this? Dungeon Defender is so slow.

I broke the patience protocol and grabbed Pantheon in early access. $40 in leu of ~2 years of monthly subs seemed like a bargain.

Started Pathfinder: Kingmaker and I got sucked into it big time. Just finished the prologue last night. Reviews for this were not great, so I don't know if the game improved dramatically after release or if there are rough spots in the campaign coming up.

I guess it's also possible its old-school feel contributed to some of that. I really do feel like I'm playing a fresher version of Baldur's Gate 2, complete with unfortunate quirks.

This one came out, I want to say, around the time of Pillars of Eternity, Divinity Original Sin, Tyranny, Wasteland 2.

Which were all a similar style like that, but Pathfinder was the only one that didn’t get a positive reception. I remember clearly wondering “What does this one do wrong?”

Started playing Daggerfall again. It's a fresh start, my second... I wanted to call it attempt but I don't think that's the right word considering I never intended to finish the game - I treat it more as a world to live in rather than something to complete.

I like it even more this time as I started to lean even more into "just immerse yourself and act as part of this world" approach since my first playthrough. Playing it again also made me really wish there was a modernized version of this concept - here's hoping The Wayward Realms turns out decent... or just releases in general.

I tried playing Daggerfall a couple years ago but couldn’t get into it. Maybe I should try your method
- It can be difficult to get into if you approach it like a modern TES title, that's for sure. It lacks a lot of quality of life features or unique content compared to the sequels, requiring more imagination and active engagement to make your own fun. That said, if you can overcome these issues it can be a pretty immersive experience. Also, while it's not as popular as Skyrim, there are a few quest mods available to make things more interesting when you feel the repetition starts kicking in.
  
  I don't expect to finish the main story nor do I plan to play it every single day for months. It'll most likely become a game I come back to every few months, when I want to jump back into the medieval life of my current character and play until I get bored again.
I'm hoping that The Wayward Realms is decent as well, I did end up backing it. (Sorry patient gamers!) I don't have high hopes for The Elder Scrolls 6 if/when it comes out, so hopefully they can take up the mantle of the earlier games.
- Thank's for that! I didn't know about the project during the Kickstarter phase and at this point I might as well wait and see how the early access turns out (my PC is already on its last legs and it's made with UE5 which has its issues).
  
  I don't really have any expectations towards TES6 to be honest - not because it will be bad (I'm sure there will be plenty of people happy with the game) but simply because each sequel moves further away from what I find interesting (less of a "living world" and more of a "theme-park"). Best I can do for now is to play Daggerfall and work on my own small project which will hopefully fulfill some of my needs.

I've been playing a bunch of shorter games, such as:

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
Firewatch
City of Beats
Kao the Kangaroo

And I'm still playing a few games while my kids watch.

Firewatch is such a great, bite-sized experience. Still think about it from time to time.
- Just finished it in one sitting, what a ride.
Kao the Kangaroo

Which one, original or the reboot?
- Reboot. I never played the original.

Playing the Phantasy Star games for the SMS and the Genesis. I lost my save after getting Noah though and I am big sad. Maybe my friends the affluent Fishmen will help me grind through a bit quicker this time now that I know how great they are for mesetas and xp early on...

I know this was written in English, but…
- heh, lemme translate. I lost my save file, so I'm starting over with the key knowledge that fishmen encounters are an effective way to build back up the resources I lost.

I just finished SOMA. If you're into scary games, just get it in the next sale and go in blind. Don't read anything about it. It's great!

I’ve had that game recommended to me before. I have zero idea what it’s about. I might try it after reading your comment

I relapsed and started playing league of legends again

I've been playing some American and Euro Truck Simulator recently, and I played a little bit of Elder Scrolls Online. I really hope that when ESO inevitably ends there is a way to play it offline. I basically play it as a single player game, and it would be sad to lose all of those quests!

I agree on the ESO point - I probably only have 20-30 hours in it but it’s been exclusively as single player as I could do. It is a fun game, I quite enjoy it. I should open it again soon
- I tend to dip in and out here and there, it's pretty fun when I'm in the mood for it. There's definitely a load of singleplayer content! I wish there was less filler, but that's what comes with the type of game.
re Truck Sim, do you play keyboard and mouse or with a wheel +/ pedals?
- Wheel + pedals when I'm using my main rig, and controller when I'm playing on my Steam Deck or one of my laptops.

Mostly Celeste and Yonder TCCC. There‘s a fine line between cozy and boring, and Yonder‘s dangerously close to the latter.

Playing some smaller, chill games: The Unfinished Swan and Sludge Life.

brogue, not very good at it and not that interested in reading spoilers to learn.

Good luck! All my rogue likes/lites are "I will now die fifty billion times ooooo I win! Once! Woo!"
- Thanks, to be honest angband was pretty easy as long as you have an understanding of how to play rl. Brogue has some similarity in this with nethack, you need to know and remember things from previous games, which is hard for me. 😅
  
  Infra Arcana was the brutal one due to a lot of clever machines on levels and sanity management and it's pretty unforgiving in general.
  
  I don't think I've beaten any other completely.