Have they ever been good? The sad thing I can tell you as a mobile dev(not game though) is that people on Android don’t want to pay for apps or games, on iOS it’s a bit better but still way worse than PC or PlayStation. There’s also rampant piracy on Android, both from users but even more so from shady app clones Google ignores. As a result free to play, always online with microtransactions is basically the only way to make money

Started Cyberpunk phantom liberty. I’ve played the game before the DLC and 2.0 and felt it was ok but nothing amazing. Now it’s just awesome, the rebalancing made my smart smg netrunner fun and the new story is way better than the base game.

I’ve dropped fallout 4, it’s just so shallow and gutted, it makes the mass produced Ubisoft stuff deep. I don’t get why they removed all the RPG elements and dialogue to replace with meh crafting and the story is just so mediocre so that doesn’t help either

Fallout 4 because of the Amazon series

Mass effect 2 is one of the few 10/10 games ever for me. Playing vanguard there was just so fun in every way. The first game has some weird mechanics and the third is ruined, it was a single player game that required online play to unlock all endings (the readiness system), day one DLC. Terrible story too, after all the build up

Truly once a company creates an mmo it becomes a cancer that spreads and is forced everywhere.

Total war warhammer, always the newest one. I come back, play a campaign and forget about it for a few months.

Slay the spire

How’s kotor holding up? It’s my favourite game ever but I’m wondering how outdated it is.

God of war Ragnarök - kinda meh, unskippable cutscenes, pseudo cutscenes, mediocre story, worst/laziest difficulty design (enemies are damage sponges at higher difficulties), playable Atreus. Glad I got a used copy for relatively cheap and can regain most of my money.

Bloodborne - barely remember anything from the last time I played it. It’s still so good even with 30fps and meh graphics. The very first area (central yharnam) is better than anything in LotF, so good.

I’ve given another chance to Lords of the Fallen as I’ve realised I might have held it to the absurdly high standard of the masterpiece that is Lies of P and it’s a fun game, I’ve just reached the last dungeon.

It has a ton of problems: the jump is terrible, the lock on mechanic is the worst I’ve ever seen, camera is bad, the only challenge the designers seem to know is to gank the player with 50 enemies all the time, quests can be failed by beating a boss too early, selling an item(no buy back) or opening doors, bosses are kind meh and so on BUT it somehow is still fun and good, it’s like it’s more than the sum of its parts. 8/10 and I actually would recommend it.

Steelrising - extremely interesting setting, brilliant even and a decent but not great game

EA Sports WRC: I’d have though that EA would take the easy way, get DR2 gameplay which was ok, upgrade graphics to be next gen, rebrand to the official license and sell for 70$.

They have instead reworked the physics to the point they are probably the best ever a in non - hardcore - sim(RBR) rally game, tarmac is finally fun. They’ve added 12 rallies which is twice as many as DR2 had at launch and mostly based on real life stages, not fantasy, not to mention they are available in different seasons (Monte Carlo in winter with ice feels completely different to summer). There are plenty of cars which look and sound great. They have sacrificed graphics on the other hand, the game looks no better than last gen DR2 and there were stutters. All of that for 50$.

It’s very weird for EA but I’ll take it. They’ve been, surprisingly, well behaved this year although I don’t play their sports games so maybe they doubled down there to compensate 😂

Other than that I’ve finished my “normal”, good, 3 druid BG3 playthrough, started an evil, dark urge Bard one.

Yes and yes. BB is a flawed masterpiece, some great things ruined by some of the worst fromsoftwareisms, a bit dated at this point too.

LoP has a better and more varied combat, 60fps, better bosses, better weapon system, many QoL improvements, better story(in part because it’s actually told :D), way better graphics, no grind, no long runbacks(the longest has like 3 enemies you need to fight, BB was made at a time FS still thought runbacks somehow add to the experience or maybe it was a cynical attempt at padding the game length).

In LoP, once you “git gut” it’s just so satisfying to get a few perfect blocks on a boss combo and break his weapon, never gets old.

In my utterly subjective opinion BB is 7.5/10, LoP 10/10 in 2023.

Lies of p - absolutely fantastic. The first game I rate 10/10 since Mass effect 2 I think.

They took what is good in soulslikes and removed stupid fromsoftwareisms. The story is great and actually told, there are some indicators for npcs who have something for you, when an npc moves somewhere they leave a note etc.

The bosses are tough but fair, they don’t randomly recover from stagger into a one shot ability or heal off of hitting a shield, there’s no fake, game breaking, lazy difficulty like fromsoftware would do, you are not punished for doing something well.

The combat is great, no “rhythmic” parry spam, no dodge spam, you need to think about what to use, when you do the game can be rather easy for this genre.

There are 2 or 3 eldenringy bosses towards the end with ludicrous mobility and combo spam but most of the rest are really great.

If this is this devs first game I really want to see the next. First time in ages I’m doing ng+

Hate soulslike stuff other than combat, bonus points when there’s no checkpoint before a boss fight so you have to redo 50 fights just to die again and repeat the process until you’ve learned the boss moved… or shot yourself. Oh and you can’t pause so tough luck if you ordered food or kids want something. Fromsoft are masters or marketing to sell this bullshit as something great

Also hate unskippable cutscenes, good story like witcher, ffvii remake or kotor defends itself. If you feel the need to do it chances are your story is bad and so you shouldn’t. Just look at ghost of tsushima, good combat, great world and visuals. Easily an 8/10 or better potential but mostly bad story without skips makes it tedious and just not fun. A samurai fetching herbs for peasants 😂 Bonus points if you can’t even pause the mighty cutscene

I have a vision of a tactical rpg like wasteland or divinity original sin where you fly around, explore planets, fight, maybe get entangled in some politics

Good single player star trek game

I disagree. This is the first game I’m rating over 9/10 since divinity original sin 2.

I specifically like the map style over contemporary, pseudo big(copy pasted), generic open world.

The story is the best I can think of in epic RPGS, maybe throne of Baal or kotor were similarly interesting for me but they are very old so there’s some nostalgia.

Only 2 complaints I have are difficulty, there’s no reason to hide the hard mode, action is too easy. And side quest design, almost all involving combat.

Not gonna do it. Remember that Apollo dev lied that the paid pro version will never have ads and then started spamming popup ads for their ultra version a couple months ago

Cyberpunk - I like it but it’s still buggy to the point of having to reload at times. The main story is absurdly predictable and short, barely got into it and I’m at the point of no return. Maybe the conclusion will save it. Replayability is low due to all the unskippable pseudo cutscenes. Combat is meh. So far a 7/10 game

F1 23 - finally a good F1 game

Mario Kart for Arcade/Family/Multiplayer/Party is pretty good. Assetto Corsa is the best sim ever, very realistic, lots of variety from Fiat 500 to F1, loads of tracks and tons of mods.

Now I’m playing F1 23 and they really did fix the traction, it’s early but so far I like it