everynowandben

@Lup My buddy convinced me to give it a shot and I've never played it before, so I'm potentially part of the audience for whatever it's worth to mention it.

Even though I'll personally probably never play it again, I hope they let Arkane Austin finish and release the offline patch they were working on for Redfall.

Last night the boys and I fired up the Dimension of the Machine expansion for Quake and played through a few of the levels. It was a blast! I didn't know until just the other day that you can play the game co-op like that.

I'm also playing Thief 2X: Shadows of the Metal Age which is a fan made expansion for Thief 2. I'm maybe 1/3 of the way through it, and am really enjoying it so far.

I also played through Indika the other day, and wow. Easily one of the best walking sims I've ever played. It is surreal and insane. Really dives in and deals with some existential s*** in a funny, but also deeply meaningful way. I'm laughing one minute then crying the next. Cuts to the bone. And the way the story is told is just genius. It's almost a movie, but it knows it's a video game, and uses the format to subvert expectations in some pretty clever ways. Absolutely a work of art.

Immersive sims are my favorite kind of video game. Earlier this year, Deus Ex was canceled, and now this too... just sucks.

Hoping he still has a job after saying something (awesome) like that

That is terrible news.... Redfall wasn't exactly amazing, but this still sucks...

Yesterday I finished Dread Templar. Pure boomer shooter bliss.

I decided to retire Project Downfall. I'm stuck on the level called "Grounded" very near one of the endings. I'm just not skilled enough to complete it, and I can't figure out if there is a way to go back or change the difficulty without resetting my progress completely. If anyone happens to know if/how I could do that, let me know! I'd love to be able to see the game through if possible, but I dont want to play the whole thing over again.

Also playing through The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes which has been pretty good so far.

It's like Xbox is trying to fail at this point... there's no way this "design choice" doesn't negatively affect reviews.

Last night my friends and I finished the Remnant 2 Forgotten Kingdom DLC which was very good. What a wild and crazy game. Some of the coolest boss fights for sure. 9/10

I tried to play Lisa the First since I claimed the other two Lisa games on EGS, but wow that game is not good or fun at all. It's interesting but it's like a kaizo Mario level in design - only masochists would get any sort of enjoyment out of it. 3/10.

The rest of the weekend I'll be chipping away at Dread Templar and Mortal Kombat (9).

@adderblack39 Yeah, although I was playing the PS3 version (via RPCS3).

Last night I finished Blacksite: Area 51 which certainly wasn't anything special, but I was curious about it as a big fan of Harvey Smith. It ended up being pretty okay, but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone. Too generic.

Today I played a little more of Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, and I'm glad I did because it is starting to get a little more interesting.

I also picked up Lies Beneath after putting it down for about 6 months and played through a chapter. I'll probably just chip away at that one just every so often when I'm in a VR mood. It's alright, but not compelling enough to devote a lot of time to it.

I loved Control, Quantum Break, and the Alan Wake games, but I never played any of Max Payne games. I am eagerly anticipating these remakes! Day one purchase for sure.

Nothing from the Xbox sale. Bought a few games on the Steam sale though: Hyper Demon, Post Void, and Squirrel Stapler.

Awesome. Now I don't have to buy Heist 2 Hoping they put Quest on there too at some point.

@Stamnoso Remedy's games are so innovative and interesting. I'm really looking forward to the Max Payne remakes.

Dishonored 2 is outstanding, some of the best level design ever imo, though I would recommend playing the story DLC for the first one if you haven't yet before getting to 2. It's included in the Game Pass version, and provides a little more context for the sequel.

@Stamnoso Not exclusive to Xbox, but my go to recommendation is always Dishonored. If you're looking for Xbox exclusives only, I'd say Quantum Break.

I'm still playing Dread Templar, but it's getting frustratingly difficult and less and less fun as it goes on. Also playing Daymare 1998 which is very much discount RE2R in just about every way possible. Maybe I should give up on them and move on to something I'm more likely to thoroughly enjoy. Thinking about starting Thief 2X: Shadows of the Metal Age instead..

Edit: Being 49 cents on Steam, I decided to try out Dr Livesey Rom and Death Edition 😂 Absolutely unhinged.

I've never played COD before and it's unlikely I'm going to start, even if they're coming at no extra cost to me.

Nearing the end of Amnesia: Rebirth. I don't love it, but I actually like it more than both The Dark Descent and Soma. That being said, it's not even close to as good as the direction they took for The Bunker, which is by far Frictional's greatest accomplishment in my opinion.

@SacredPYRO Here's a few I'd recommend on PC:

Arx Fatalis

Quake 4

Wolfenstein 3D

Return to Castle Wolfenstein

Evil Within on PC has the DLC included and playable from the start

Don't forget you can get the EA App and link your Game Pass account to play games on that app for "free" that are not technically on Game Pass (such as Crysis Remastered 1-3, some of the old Star Wars games, etc)

Some games are not exclusive to PC but you get a much better experience regarding frames per second and other graphical features not on console such as:

-Dishonored 2
-Redfall
-Plague Tale: Requiem
-Hypnospace Outlaw (just make more sense with M&K - though I know you can technically play it that way on console as well)

Not on Game Pass, but the original version of Doki Doki Literature Club is free and without saying too much, the PC version specifically will blow your mind by the time you get to the end. Never seen a game do something quite like that before.

I'd also recommend other free games/mods like:

The Dark Mod (standalone)

Wolfenstein (abandonware)

No One Lives Forever (abandonware)

Portal Revolution, Portal Prelude, Portal Reloaded, Portal Stories: Mel (Portal 1/Portal 2 mods)

Deus Ex: 2027 (Deus Ex mod)
-Also heard the Nameless Mod is amazing but I haven't played it yet.

Thief: The Black Parade (Thief Gold mod)

I haven't played Thief 2X: Shadows of the Metal Age (Thief 2 mod) yet but I hear its great.

Sorry that was probably way more than you were looking for! 😅

This weekend I finished the 2 missions that come pre-installed with The Dark Mod and looking into some of the other downloadable campaigns. Its crazy that it feels/plays almost exactly like Thief when its actually a Doom 3 mod. I was having some performance issues with it on my Steam Deck but I installed the Linux version instead of the Windows version and that helped quite a bit, though I still can't get it to run steady past 45fps without taking an intolerable hit to the resolution. 45 isn't too bad, but when I'm used to 90 on Steam Deck, the difference is pretty drastic.

Mostly I'm still playing Deus Ex: 2027 and Princess Peach: Showtime. 2027 is very good, though I ran into a bit of trouble figuring out what to do in Moscow, and there aren't really any guides I could find that helped. I was trying to play both sides of the conflict, but I wasn't really able to progress with one of them. Oh well. Off to Siberia now!

I also played the first level of Alien Trilogy just to see if I could map the controls like a normal FPS on my Steam Deck, which of course you can. It doesn't exactly make it feel amazing, but it's a major improvement.

Have not played multiplayer in a very long time. At some point, I'd like to play through the entire series' campaigns, but that probably won't be for a long, long while... Halo just isn't that high on my priority list.

I played a bit of Princess Peach: Showtime being a little too impatient to see what its about before playing the rest with my daughter. It was pretty fun actually. The variety in gameplay kept things interesting.

I'm also playing Aperture Tag, which is a Portal 2 mod where instead of a portal gun, you have a gun that shoots the orange and blue gel. It's not too bad so far. I think I am maybe half-way through it.

And then the other game I'm playing is another mod, but this time for the original Deus Ex, called Deus Ex: 2027 (I've also seen it referred to as "Project 2027" and also just "2027"). I'm just coming out of Paris, so still near the beginning I think. So far I think it is quite good, and I am very much enjoying my time with it.

One of my all time favorites. Everything clicked for me. Personally, I think its a work of genuine genius.

It's a great game, but I thought it would be more of an ImSim than it turned out to be.

Basically the same stuff for me, Thief: The Black Parade, and Dread Templar. Earlier this week I played through Ad Infernum. Super short at about 2-2.5 hours, but I would highly recommend if you are into horror themed imm-sims like Amnesia: The Bunker and Stay Out of the House.

I didn't really enjoy my time with the first one on PC playing it for the first time a couple months ago. I would try it again on Xbox with a controller if it was on GP, but definitely not paying that much for them when they are on sale about every other week on steam/gog for $3-5

If I've already played the game, I don't buy/play the remaster unless it is significantly different or has extra content. If I haven't played it, I go with the remaster. Remakes are typically different in the sense that it isn't (typically) the "same" game and I will usually play both if I'm interested enough in whatever it is.

This weekend I'm on vacation but still finding time here and there to sneak in some game time on my Steam Deck. Last night I finished Dusk which was overall a super fun game. I'm also still playing through Thief: The Black Parade. While absolutely amazing, and not even "for a fan game", occasionally the level design falls a bit flat in the sense that there can be so, so many dead ends and twists and turns in some of the levels that it becomes a bit frustrating to figure out the correct path, which is somewhat antithetical to the imm-sim philosophy of finding your own path. Still, this only happens occasionally and forgivable considering how enormous the maps are. It's an incredible game that I would highly recommend if you're into the Thief and/or Dishonored games. I tried to play a brand new imm-sim/horror game called Ad Infernum but it crashes almost immediately on my Steam Deck so I may need to wait until I get home to play on my main PC or maybe they will patch it soon. I'd prefer to play on the Deck if possible. I also started Dread Templar which so far is a blast. Looking forward to getting deeper into it.

Intentional information gap headline

I'm going on vacation in a few days and loaded up my Steam Deck with a bunch of boomer shooters like Dusk, Amid Evil, and Dread Templar. Gave em a go to make sure they work, and yes, they all seem to run great. I'm especially a fan of being able to turn on gyro for every game through the Steam Deck interface. Game changing stuff for me as I like to be able to fine tune my aim with a bit of gyro, especially for boomer shooters.

I also loaded up Thief: The Black Parade which is a full campaign fan mod for Thief Gold. I'm 4 chapters in, and it is an incredible achievement. Highly recommended if you are into the old Thief games or other immersive sims like Dishonored. I'm blown away by the effort and passion that was put into this one. I had been playing this on my main gaming PC for the last few days, and its kindof amazing that you can basically just drag and drop PC games onto Steam Deck and it just works with minimal effort on my end.

Boltgun! Can't wait to play it!

Mostly just playing Quake 4. Just over half-way through it now. I played a bit more of Crysis Remastered (did y'all know that if you have GP for PC or GP Ultimate, you also have an EA Play account, and you can play that for "free" even though it isn't on GP?) and decided to give up on it. I also played a bit more of Death Stranding Director's Cut and gave up on that as well.

Last night I played some more of Sea of Thieves: Legend of Monkey Island with the guys. Nearing the end now and one of my buddies is sick of it. The puzzles are a bit convoluted, but it's Monkey Island.. it's to be expected.

I decided to give up a couple games this week, such as STALKER and Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay as I was no longer having fun with either of them.

So instead, I decided to pick Project Downfall back up and also start Quake 4. The former I can really only play in short bursts since it's so intense, and the latter has been fun so far but I only played about 30 minutes.

I took the day off yesterday (far in advance to be a little more fair to myself) to play Suicide Squad and I ended up not even buying it.. Like Gotham Knights and Arkham Knight, it will probably go onto Game Pass at some point anyway, and paying full price for such a poorly received game seems like a stupid move when I have so many other games to play.

As far as what I'm actually playing, I decided to check out Silent Hill: The Short Message which is hitting closer to home than I expected. Honestly its helping me better understand someone in my life, and also making me reflect on some of my own thoughts and behavior when I was younger.

Last night my friends and I played the second tall tale in Sea of Thieves: The Legend of Monkey Island. It wasn't as interesting as the first tall tale, but it was still pretty fun.

Most of my time this weekend will be spent finishing up Portal: Revolution which has been fantastic outside of constant crashing on my Steam Deck. Oh well. It's worth the headache.

I finished Axiom Verge 2 last night. Good game with a lot of cool stuff going on mechanically, but even so, I didn't like it quite as much as the first one. I started Close to the Sun earlier today and am about halfway through it now. It's... okay.

@fizban3332 In some, even many ways, yes, but they're all focused around PvP. Removing that element fundamentally changes what the game is and how you would play it.

Might as well make a "safer seas" version of PUBG and Warzone too

Last night I finished off Spider-Man 2, which was incredible. With a good story, amazing graphics, and fun gameplay, I really enjoyed it.

This weekend I won't have too much time to game so I'll probably keep it simple and just play through a few missions of Duke Nukem Advance. I put it on my Steam Deck and re-mapped the controls to make it play as close to a modern FPS as possible, which feels pretty okay actually. It's a cool little game for what it is.

Played some WWZ: Aftermath with the guys last night. Getting back into the swing of how that one works. My buddy kept thinking of how Back 4 Blood works instead of the game we were actually playing lol.. Also playing Spider-Man 2. I think I'm maybe about 1/3 of the way through it.

Calling the shadow drop: Quake 3

RE2 Remake is awesome. A must play imho.

Playing some WWZ Aftermath with the guys, and thinking about playing something on PS5 like Spider-Man 2 or Ghost of Tsushima, but I haven't decided just yet.

I had to pick Redfall lol but it is the one I had the most fun with.

I've enjoyed many remakes over the years, but RE4 is definitely my favorite.

I just finished the new Pokemon DLC yesterday, and am trying to beat one more game before the year is done - currently at 68 games/DLCs so far. Thinking about playing the RE4 Remake Separate Ways DLC, House of Ashes, or Stay Out of the House but haven't decided which one just yet - leaning toward House of Ashes because it's the shortest and the only one I don't own outright. Probably playing The Finals or WWZ Aftermath with the guys tonight too.

Way too many good games, but I'll try for a top 10 in alphabetical order:

Batman Arkham Asylum
Bioshock
Dead Space
Deus Ex Human Revolution
Dishonored
Left 4 Dead 2
Portal 2
Prey
Tomb Raider
Walking Dead (Tell Tale)

#1 has gotta be Bioshock, but those are all 10/10 games imho

Beat it in about 25 hours or so and haven't touched it since.

Alan Wake 2
Resident Evil 4 Remake
Dead Space Remake
Hogwarts Legacy
Remnant 2

Honorable Mentions:
Jedi Survivor
Cocoon
Slayers X