Patient Gamers

Elden Ring’s expansion! I failed the tree boss multiple times, with help.

Noe, Class of ‘09: the Re-Up!

I've been playing Sonic Frontiers, which has been surprisingly fun. It has a similar vibe to what "Mario Odyssey" did for mario, the mixture of 3D, camera controlled, and 2D segments was done well in my opinion.

Return to Moria has been really fun! Playing online with my buddy all day the last two days.

Pretty slow moving for a survival/crafting game, but we're both big Tolkien fans and the fan service is pretty great.

Boss fights have been quite interesting and when progression finally happens it feels really satisfying.

I am currently playing ORAS, BOTW and Rayman Legends, after finishing at least one of them I'll start with Metroid Zero Mission for once, to break that nightmare deal I did to myself of not playing more metroidvanias until I get to finish Super Metroid and SOTN!

Yakuza 3. Probably for the 3rd time as well because there was too much time since I played and lost track of the plot.

Playing through the entire Dragon Age series, then Pillars of Eternity and Sea of Stars.

Continuing Metaphor: ReFantazio. It's the most consistently polished game Atlus made (that I played) in years, though maybe SMT VV has a chance once I get to it. The only ones that come to mind are Persona 5/Royal (however much I prefer P3 and P4), and Etrian Odyssey V. Both of which had longer development times compared to their series, who knew?

My only complaint is that it doesn't have any 10/10 aspect that I'd love, most of my favourite games are somewhat flawed anyway, as long as they have that special aspect that clicks. But then, Persona 3 had nothing like that until the endgame, so there's still time for it to surprise me.

Im going deep into beyond all reason, warzone 2100 and speed dreams

I played Alan Wake 2 last winter on my Steam Deck, fearing I would get spoilers before I build my PC. Now that I have built it, I will proceed with The Final Draft and the DLCs.

Started my year off with a new computer and a portal speed run! Sub 27 mins with no quick saving was a solid start to the year.

Actually, playing portal on max graphics and getting 60fps was the real solid start 😅

I'm still trying to finish 2016 Doom, but life has been literally Deck blocking me for the past few months, so it's been slow going.

If i finish that game in the next few weeks, I'm going to go back and give Doom Eternal another second chance again once more. I've given it a try a number of times, just like I gave 2016 Doom a try numerous times with no luck. However, this year Doom suddenly clicked for me, and I've been playing it every chance I get (which is not much or often), so I'm thinking that may translate into finding a bit of love for Doom Eternal, even though I know they are very different games with different approaches to game play.

If that doesn't work out, then I've got a few games that I've technically "started", but I haven't gotten very far in. So, if and when I decide to pick them up again, I'll either restart them because I'm not far along enough for it to make much difference OR I'll continue playing but it's so early in the game that it's basically the same as starting from the beginning.

One game I've just recently been dabbling with is a slightly older game called "Halls of Torment". Similarish in game play to one of my other favorites "Vampire Survivors", it seems like a lot of fun. I've also recently purchased the Resident Evil 4 remake and it's a nice dose of nostalgia even though I much prefer the wiimote controls of the Wii version that I first played it on.

I'm going to be honest, Hades II hasn't really clicked for me yet and I've given it lots of tries. The first game had me hooked almost instantly, so I was hoping to find that same connection with the sequel. So far, it's not happened. Having said that, I saw that there's a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game in a similar style as Hades, so I got that to play. So far I like the game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Splintered Fate, but I'm not far enough along in it to have a strong opinion.

And my trusty, reliable back-up plan if nothing else works out? Castlevania Dominus Collection. The Castlevania "Metroidvanias" are my favorites. I've played all of these DS games on the original hardware, but it's been so long since I played them, it will be like starting anew. Except in this case, there will be no question as to whether I will enjoy the game or not since I played them all before and loved them.

Just picked up a PS5 finally. Price dropped and tax free. First thing I did was go to the library. They had a copy of RoboCop Rogue city available which is perfect for me.

I've already put a hold on the dead space remake

Dune Imperium: Uprising. Gotten my whole group into it. Might organise a tournament for the heck of it.

Some ESO, some Counter-Strike in the usual amounts, however I just bought GTA IV and want to finally play the story instead of just ducking around with RPGs and "the swing" 😁

Baldur's gate

God of war

2077

No man's sky, later after those are finished

Thinking about replaying rise of the triad

I'm working my way through Valheim. I started last year and then stopped shortly before fighting the second boss and never got around to picking it back up. Now I'm back at it and working through the third biome. I still have a long way to go and hope that I can continue to sink at least 100 more hours into it.

I also got Metro 2033 and Last Light on the Steam winter sale. I started Metro Exodus a few years ago and also stopped pretty early, so I'm hoping that this time I can stick with it through the whole series. I also got Grim Dawn and it doesn't play great on the Deck, but hopefully I'll be able to get used to it with a bit of effort.

Outside of those, Wildermyth and Brotato are my main chillout games and I'm pretty sure they'll also get 50-100 hours each this year.

Resident Evil Village and Sniper Elite 4

The first has some really cool environments and storytelling. I heard it was "like a shooter" and so I put it to maximum difficulty right away. I have to say I am not a fan of having to empty several pistol magazines into the head of the first enemy I encounter and they... survive. When murder becomes a chore, it kinda takes the fun out of it. So I lowered the difficulty setting.

The second... is as bad as the one before it. Just put it to maximum difficulty and yolo your way trough all levels. Or don't, it doesn't matter. Enemies are insanely slow. You can always walk up to some nazi's, sip your tea, then remember you should find cover because one enemy just finished their tiktok doom scrolling and decides to aim their gun at you.

My friends and I are doing Dungeons of Eternity this month. We've had three on at once but tomorrow is the first time all four of us will be on together. Excited!

Skyrim.

My goal is to play through the entire series this year.

I honestly have no idea. I did my semi-annual playthrough of Skyrim (as a wizard for the first time rather than giving up shortly in) and finished everything I meant to last week. I have to look at my steam library, I suppose

I started this year off with NIER (Ps3 Version). I've been thoroughly enjoying it thus far. I'll likely do several runs to get the 4 endings and full lore. Can't wait to sink my teeth into NieR Automata afterwards!

I've gotten sucked into The X-Com Files. It's a megamod for the original X-Com game from 1994, built on OpenXcom Extended (an open-source re-implementation).
My first attempt at the old X-Com game lost my interest a few years ago, but OXCE brings plenty of QoL changes and the difficulty of the XCF mod ramps up slower than vanilla. Now I'm having a blast hunting cults, cowering from aliens, building bases around the world.

I got Caves of Qud on sale over at itch.io, and have been struggling to get anywhere. The learning curve is steep, so when it gets too much I go back to my Dwarf Fortress game that I started over Christmas.

Continuing my replay of Red Dead Redemption 1, probably followed by 2. Probably going to finish my replay of Subnautica. Not sure what new games will slot in after that.

Psychonauts 2. I picked it up for 80% off during the autumn Steam sale and just getting around to playing it.

I also picked up It Takes Two and have been playing that with my wife.