apsham

Conceptually I'm thinking of how they aren't restricted by the idea that the story takes place over a school year and that you'll be able to play out all the activities you want in an area before moving on? But I haven't even touched the demo so I'm not sure how that all plays out. Starting it up now (probably won't make it far this morning) as I've temporarily moved to New Zealand as is tradition.

I was not aware of this! I need more details, I didn't know about this and that's awesome!

Hell yeah there is.

Yeah dungeons were never the thing that made me interested in these games. I knew it was going to be a series of themed hallways and I've always been fine with that.

I have and/or have played quite a few even if some of them are a bit more abstract. Some of my favourites include; - The Valiant Defense series which includes Pavlov’s House, Castle Itter, Soldier’s in Postmen Uniforms and Lanzerath Ridge. These four games are much smaller scare WW2 games where you're essentially posting soldiers into certain locations and managing resources over the course of a siege. There's also the recently out and highly talked about Halls of Hegra but I only really played that once. Smaller scale than most 'war games' though. - The Wars of Marcus Aurelius was a really great game to play - but like a lot of games from those makers, I can't really get behind the paper maps. If you can it's a great solo game to play with some great choices and decisions. - The Undaunted series is really fun to play solo BUT you also have to really be into the idea of pulling cards and doing small bits of flowchart. You can solo the first three games (with an additional box for the solo stuff) but not the Stalingrad campaign game or the air combat Battle of Britain version they have out. They just released a new game set in a futuristic space war setting and although I haven't played it, I heard it's great solo and also is a bit more streamlined. - The Leader series from Dan Verssen Games is hard to track down sometimes - and it would appeal to you if you are more focused on planning. In those games (and there are many, if interested it's easy to find a list of the easier ones to start with) you are generally playing a certain side of a conflict and you're choosing pilots (that skill up with experience) and then putting them in certain equipment and outfitting them for dynamic missions that happen across the course of a campaign that you choose the length of at the start. It was too much planning and too many pieces for me - the only thing I have left is their sister series Warfighter WW2 which I have a HUGE box of content for that I'm trying to get rid of, but it's the same thing just with squads. - There's some other more abstract games that I have loved. Navajo Wars was less about warfare and more about keeping your culture intact while picking and choosing where to fight, and a game that has war game mechanics (and won some war game awards) was Votes for Women a few years back that basically put two sides on a conflict on a US map and use the same mechanics as heavy war games in a straightforward way to simulate a different kind of conflict. I have played some of the huge games like Cuba Libre and everything from that series of games - but I've shyed away from games with huge counter counts in recent years. EDIT: And even outside all of this, I'd call Spirit Island a 'best played solo' version of a war game - just environment vs. colonizers in this case as you can very much play against different colonial powers.

Ultimately it's going to be Stardew Valley for me. It's something pleasant that I can always come back to with no shortage of challenge runs, a really great soundtrack and a gameplay loop that I really enjoy.

They're called dog kennels and I think that Ruki would get in trouble putting his children in them.

Alien

Yeah I think there's still space for a game like FH - I think once you find one that you like that feels right to you and has the setting you like (I much prefer the setting of FH4 to FH5 for instance) then you're good to go, but you're also good to go with content for a VERY long time so multiple of those running at the same time is just reaching a bit much. The new Crew in particular is absolutely wildly uninspired and basically a carbon copy of Horizon as well.

Solar Crown and the new Crew are both having the problem of trying to be Forza Horizon like Forza Horizon isn’t already there. It boggles me mind that The Crew as it originally was happened to be one of the best feeling racers I’ve ever played - and tacked on story aside, I still loved it far more than the “hooo boy here’s your bracelet, we’ve turned this whole country into a lit racing festival fam” thing that Horizon, current day Crew and TDU have going. I still fuck with FH4 from time to time though - even dead and soon to be delisted for purchase, you still get the rotating seasons and what not.

I don't really know if they were going to try to do anything outside of "Persona, but you don't have to feel creeped out hitting on teenagers in a high school or adults as a teenager" which is enough for some of my friends to pick the series back up again.

P4G is my favourite in the series. It didn’t run into the “oh god we are really padding this out” area that Royal ran into for me, I really like the cast and…. Everyday’s great at your Junes.

Yeah they've lost me too - I did some of the first season, didn't do the second and when the third started I was trying to get back into the game. I could make no progress because of some glitch that they never solved so the main mode of the game is entirely broken for me.

Trials of Mana and Legend of Mana are on Gamepass right now along with the We ♥ Katamari remaster - and the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters have finally landed on Xbox as well.

Lunar getting a collection is awesome at the very least. And I don't know what it is about Bioware and their extended looks but that's me signing off for the night - looking forward to Soul Reaver being a thing to read about later though.