What are you currently playing?

[SevenSpirits]

Just finished Outer Wilds. It was the best.

It is a game where you explore a small solar system, sort of in the vein of Myst but with more game and less puzzle: an actual amazing 3d environment, first person platforming / orbiting / careening with a jetpack, and not so much deduction. For me it had the best ratio of epiphany to frustration of anything I've experienced. It also has a lovely aesthetic with strains of space exploration enthusiasm, camping, awe, and whimsy.

Highly recommend. Trying to avoid spoiling anything because the whole game is discovery.

[Bobchillingworth]

I'm currently playing God of War 4. It's a game about Family, and also the bellowing protagonist ripping mutants apart with his bare hands, interspersed with periodic lectures on the importance of self-control.

[pindicator]

My brother got me Disco Elysium for Christmas. Game is a riot if you have a dark sense of humor and don't mind text-heavy games

[Bobchillingworth]

Playing Persona 5 now; it's like an odd fusion of battle system from Pokemon and the pre-trial socialization aspects of Danganronpa. Very stylish- so stylish the art keeps changing genres. Great music too. I'm enjoying it so far, although like Pokemon there doesn't seem to be any way of playing anything close to optimally without employing a battery of guides, so I had to set the difficulty at "normal" in order to enjoy the game while puzzling out most of it myself to avoid online spoilers.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Playing Persona 5 now; it's like an odd fusion of battle system from Pokemon and the pre-trial socialization aspects of Danganronpa.  Very stylish- so stylish the art keeps changing genres.  Great music too.  I'm enjoying it so far, although like Pokemon there doesn't seem to be any way of playing anything close to optimally without employing a battery of guides, so I had to set the difficulty at "normal" in order to enjoy the game while puzzling out most of it myself to avoid online spoilers.

Japanese RPGs in general have the problem of requiring guides to understand them, not just Pokemon.  Pokemon is just an extreme example due to things like arcane evolution methods and obscure stat mechanics. 


Good luck trying to avoid wasting skill points in Etrian Odyssey without a "Skill Simulator" website.  Or learning how to craft items in Legend of Mana, or place map icons to unlock missions.  Or realizing that DEX and LUCK are almost useless in Trials of Mana, in addition to finding the correct item and character level to promote to your final class.

[DaveV]

My son talked me into buying Temtem, an MMO pokemon clone. He describes it as an MMO built by pokemon fans; the difficulty is a bit higher than the Nintendo games, and there are a few changes that make it more interesting. The game is still in early access; you run into areas that are still under construction but it's very much a playable game at this point, and worth buying IMO.

[Bobchillingworth]

Finished Persona 5; I enjoyed it more than any game from the last couple years or so. It doesn't really excel at anything except art direction, but even after 110+ hours of playtime I was disappointed to see the story finally conclude (although there's a sequel coming out sometime this year). I also appreciated that it didn't waste my time; for all the hours I sunk into it, I never had to grind levels, harvest rare crafting materials, run fetch quests, etc. As a semi-functional adult, I've found I no longer have much patience for games which indulge themselves at the player's expense.

[TheHumanHydra]

I started playing Europa Universalis IV. It's fun! I feel like it has a similar appeal to a Civ-type game, but without much micro.

[Bobchillingworth]

Finally picked up Age of Wonders: Planetfall, after it went on sale for 25 bucks on GOG. I'm actually enjoying it quite a lot; it may just be that I'm too new to have figured out anything resembling optimal strategies yet, but the combat seems more complex and the AI more challenging than AoW 3, which was already my favorite 4x game since Civ IV.

[Lewwyn]

My friend got me playing Warhammer 2 TW. Pretty good, though all the DLC buying I refuse to do. Feels scummy.