What games are you playing now?

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Just finished Mouthwashing. I had never played a game that made me feel sick, and now I have! It's good, but it is truly, genuinely horrifying. I'm glad it's short, otherwise I may have stopped playing. Never mind mouthwash, I need to rinse my eyeballs.
 
After having it in my backlog for nearly 5 years I finally started and completed Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and really enjoyed it. Was an interesting experience, though not a long one. But it worked.

However, I jumped right into the sequel Senua's Saga: Hellblade II (don't get me started on that title :lol:) and it's just not clicking in the same was as the first did. The game is visually one of the best I've seen and the acting is top notch but it's somehow boring and emotionless. Loads of walking and some very slow paced sections meant to perhaps build the mood are just hard to get through. The puzzles you do encounter are pretty clever, though.
 
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SPhilli911
After having it in my backlog for nearly 5 years I finally started and completed Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice and really enjoyed it. Was an interesting experience, though not a long one. But it worked.

However, I jumped right into the sequel Senua's Saga: Hellblade II (don't get me started on that title :lol:) and it's just not clicking in the same was as the first did. The game is visually one of the best I've seen and the acting is top notch but it's somehow boring and emotionless. Loads of walking and some very slow paced sections meant to perhaps build the mood are just hard to get through. The puzzles you do encounter are pretty clever, though.
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Same, the original Hellblade was quite the experience with the binaural sound on headphones, but let's be honest, it's a schizophrenia simulator centuries before any concept of mental health existed! I didn't need a repeat of that, regardless of how impressive the visuals are.
 
This is my plan for the rest of January:

-Finish Zombie Island 2 (PC): I'm close to the endgame and I'll probably finish today or tomorrow. I won't touch the expansions and will save them for a new game with another character.

-Finish Astrobot: It should've not taken me this long, maybe I don't really want it to end. Game of the Year? I don't know... but one of the best 3D platformers and mascot games of all time? For sure. Now go make an Astrobot kart racing game Team Asobi.

-Start Horizon Forbidden West (without the Forbidden Shores expansion it was 40% off in the PS store). I chose the PS5 version over PC because I wanted another game in the console and not just use it 90% of the time with GT7.
 
I've been playing Armoured Core 6, which I love, but it's quite stressful in a way I feel too old for now. It's a very clever game, it definitely has the soul of an Armoured Core game (which I find astonishing given how long it's been since the very first one), and that includes the completely blind manner in which it throws challenges at you that you just have to hope you're equipped to take on, because you really don't know what you'll be facing next - but maybe that's OK?

I can't tell how I feel about it, because it fits the premise of the game perfectly, but as the person actually playing the game it's kind of annoying to build an AC that does fine throughout the mission then suddenly gets steamrolled by the boss fight at the end of it, then because you don't have the parts available to address the issue with your build in the game over screen (which lets you assemble your AC then start from your last checkpoint) you have to quit back to the hanger and possibly grind some old missions to be able to buy more parts.

But... The game is really fun, so is it an issue having to play more of it? I don't think so. It has impeccable vibes, it runs really well on my Steam Deck, the controls (except the massive deadzones that I have yet to tune out) are great, movement, combat, all that - so good. In so many ways it feels like a faithful continuation of the very first game, which I played from start to finish last year, which is especially impressive given how long it's been. But, grinding seems to be one of those Japanese game development tropes that has never really gone away, so I guess you just have to embrace it.
 
So, I finished the main story in Zombie Island 2. Will there be a 3? I hope so, because to me this is more fun than the Resident Evil series, which I really don't play anymore. :eek:

I will continue with the post-game throughout the year: 2 expansions and many side missions to look forward to. Great use of Unreal 4 engine, with an outstanding setting, good character animations and voice acting, and a fun gameplay loop that lets you try, find, and adapt your slaying style. On the bad side some puzzles feel confusing and poorly explained (but you can brute force them) and the story feels thin towards the end, but it all finishes around the 20-hour mark.

I think an 8.5 grade is fair, and that's my first game finished in 2026.
 
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American Truck Simulator still...

I have been stuck on 50 fps in ATS with the ultra graphics mod but tried something in the Nvidia app today. In Graphics > Program Settings > ATS, I switched on the following:

RTX Dynamic Vibrance - On - intensity and saturation left at 50:50

Smooth Motion - On

Image Sharpening - On - Default setting Sharpen 0.5, Ignore Film Grain 0.17

My fps instantly shot up to between 80 and 100 fps with no noticeable change to graphics - the roadside signs are now crystal clear 😁
 
So, I'm tackling Horizon Forbidden West (on PS5). Lovely visuals and sounds of course but compared with the 1st game that I played on PC, the DualShock control feels quite laggy. The worst offender was the haptic right trigger in the fight against the first boss, so I switched it off and turned the control and camera sensitivities to the max.
 
Elite Dangerous on my gaming PC with my meta VR headset. On my way to the centre of the galaxy. During the morning I do some battles in World of Warships legend on my PS5 pro and then some auto bounties in Destiny 2 on either my PS5 pro or my gaming PC depending on my mood.
 
PS4 - Still doing 3 events each week in the GT7 challenges for some cash, and running The Crew 2 summits on my backup account - that's all on PS4.

Xbox Series:
Project Cars 3 - been picking up a lot of new cars in the daily 95% reductions. Still running and enjoying the daily time trials until they end next month when the game goes offline. Also working my way through the (disappointing) career mode bit by bit.

The Crew Motorfest - mainly doing the weekly Main Stage tasks and sometimes the Summit events (though the Summit rewards are poor compared to The Crew 2). Still focusing more on TC2 until I get that "done", before I move over to TCM.

The Crew 2 - Summit each week and usually win the platinum rewards now due to the player drop off, so i can import the cars into TCM.

Ride 2 and Ride 3 - running the weekly time trials. Have given up with the weekly time trials in Ride 4 as I'm either too slow or (more often than not) falling off the bike too often. Also running through the very impressive and very deep career mode in Ride 2 👏

Although the format of the career changes with every game, the Ride games are one of the few left that actually bother with decent career modes 👏

It took >2 years each to get them in GT7 and FM23. It was already too late for FM23 by the time it arrived...

PC - still working around Colorado on American Truck Simulator for now. Usually my last game at night as the game is very relaxing and a great way to wind down with 80s Planet.com in the background. 👏

I should be doing some stuff with mods in Assetto Corsa but there's too much to do with the above!
 
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This year I will be playing up to four Xbox announcement games on my PS5 pro including Forza Horizon 6 and Fable. Strange world we are living in.
 

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