Since restarting the blog three years ago I've made great strides into clearing the perpetual gaming backlog that irked me so much back then. It has been a busy few years and a great many games have been completed post-COVID. It's a fine line of course I don't want this to feel like a task or a chore to clear but at the same time, games are not meant to be accumulated without actually... you know playing them. So played them I have and having tracked my ongoing thoughts on the gaming habit right here on the blog I now ponder the always fraught question of what to play next?
First though the standard issue recap of the year so far. I started with RoboCop: Rogue City for the PS5. A solid if unspectacular first person shooter that was clearly made by those with a great love for the original film. The various locales from the first two films are all lovingly recreated and there is an effort to capture the black comedy and corporate satire even if it never reaches the heights of its source material. It also pretends the third film didn't happen, either that or it's one of them there interquels. Either way the world is better for it.
From there I moved on to a genre of game I haven't played in a very long time. The genre is city management and the game was Frostpunk. Set in an alternate take on the Victorian age where strange and unknown forces bring about an ice age and force the relocation of your would-be settlement to a slightly more hospitable if still frigid location. Here you manage the day to day running of the city alongside the various needs and wants of everyone who lives under your rule. Manage your heat, good and resources wisely or risk riots and ruin and the chance of being expelled into the frozen wastes.
This was a hard game on any difficulty and a mean balancing act to get just right. That said I've always had a soft spot for top-down simulators with a strong narrative guiding you gently along the way. It's the principle of one of my all time favorites in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and whilst Frostpunk is a very different game, it ticked a lot of the same boxes for me. Not a game I see myself returning to due to that difficulty streak but it's one I enjoyed regardless.
From there I moved on to the perilous territory that is online multiplayer and a game I've been thinking of trying for a while in Dead by Daylight. Asymmetric serial killers versus their would be prey as they creep around the map repairing generators in a bid to activate the door that will allow them to escape the level. There's character specific skills and perks to master alongside the standard live service model of micro transactions, daily objectives and battle passes.
This is alright, not tremendously deep but deep enough to get and keep my interest for short bursts of time. The core gameplay loop is simple but effective and the cross-promotions with various horror franchises are well judged and add a touch of much needed personalitybto a game that might get feel a touch ch generic without it. Don't see it as one I will be sticking with for the long term but for the moment nothing else in the game library quite scratches the same itch.
Currently most of the way through Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition as I never played this one back in the day. Top down classic isometric RPG in a style that reminds me very much of the original Fallout games pre-Bethesda. More thoughts on this one at a later date but broadly I enjoyed it despite it feeling like a very fiddly experience at times. There's also the single player poker rogue-like deck builder Balatro that's proving to be surprisingly moreish as well but again, more thoughts on that once I've delved into it some more, see also Arcade Paradise as well
So to return to the question of what to play next? I'm alternating between tackling some of the major AAA blockbusters but there's a part of me that's thinking of playing more long form gaming experiences. Given the two Baldur's Gate games are packaged together I think the second one is a given but I'm thinking something in a more modern vein as well. Maybe Wasteland 2? Maybe Pillars of Eternity II? As they always say, there's always Planescape Torment...
I'm thinking something definitely from the 4X sub-genre of strategy gaming, games I spent many an hour with in my youth but which I've only returned to sporadically in adulthood. Maybe a Stellaris or a Civilization in there somewhere. I'm thinking definitely something in the XCOM vein too, both Phoenix Point and Warhammer 40K Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters are glaring their beady little eyes at me. Give me a main course of futility with a side order of existential dread to go! After last year's shockingly positive experience with Dark Souls II, I do sense that Bloodborne is in my very near future. I can feel the excitement and the crushing despair already.
So yeah there's my rough shape of a plan for the year gaming-wise. I think I've got a decent idea of how it all maps out but as always plans and moods are subject to change. Get back to me at years end to see how it all panned out. So yeah that's all for today folks, nothing too deep or insightful, just a lot of thinking out aloud on how I'm going to use my precious game time. Until next time!
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