TheMightyEthan

I don't think it'll be in my top 3, but I can't quite rule it out yet. Right now I have it at number 4 but I'm only like 6 hours in.

I need to finish Metaphor (or at least make more progress, cause let's be real I'm not finishing it before the end of the year) before I can make my list.

lol, I also bought the same GMG deal.

Okay then yeah that's good. The games I've had with a separate 4k pack don't tell you about it, you have to just find it yourself and download it as DLC.

Language packs I agree with, but the 4k textures thing annoys me. 4k is rapidly becoming the standard and I hate starting a game only to realize I need to do a separate download to get the textures to not look muddy. *Edit - Though if they wanted to make it so that when you start the game download it automatically asks you if you want to also download the hi res textures or not then that would be good.

Stellar Blade This is a cool action game that is definitely not a soulslike, though it does have a few of those elements (mostly just that you have camps that function as bonfires, and resting at them refills your flask and respawns most enemies). It honestly has more in common with something like DMC. It's also pervy in a way that strained my suspension of disbelief, but whatever. The combat feels good, it requires precision without being punishing, and it has the most satisfying parry I think I've ever experienced. All in all, I would definitely recommend it if you like character action games. There is a massive difficulty spike at the end, but aside from that I had fun throughout. Grade: B+

Shokz OpenMove bone conduction headphones. About a year ago I bought some really cheap ($10) bone conduction headphones to test out for riding my bike and stuff, so I can still hear what's going on around me, especially traffic. I wasn't sure how I'd like bone conduction so I didn't want to spend a bunch of money. Well, I did really like it, but because they were so cheap the sound quality wasn't great, and the battery is already kind of starting to crap out, so I decided to get some actually good ones to replace them. So far they're great, would definitely recommend.

Well lucky for you the reviews are super positive.

My headphones died, so I'm upgrading. Arctis Nova Pro.

1000xResist This is a weird but cool game, that I can't really explain at all without spoiling. It's heavily story-driven, and the story and characters are all great, but unfortunately the gameplay doesn't work very well. It's not that it's bad per se, it's just that it's basically all walking around and talking to people, and it really slows the game down in a way that it does not benefit from. I think it would be a lot better if instead of having full navigable 3D environments it just had the interface of P3P or Citizen Sleeper. That said, it's weird and cool and definitely worth playing. Grade: I don't even know how to rate this, the story and characters are A+ but the actual game part is a C- The Case of the Golden Idol This is a mystery game with the interface of a point and click adventure. Basically you click around to look at all these clues and have to put together what's happening in each scene. The puzzles are well constructed, everything you need is there, and it doesn't hold your hand. I did think some of the later puzzles got to be a bit too complicated though, and there's not really a good in-game notes system or anything to keep track of your clues with, so it gets a bit unwieldy. Very good overall though. Grade: B+ Still Wakes the Deep This is a sci-fi horror walking sim thing set on a North Sea oil rig in the 70's. There's no actual combat, but there are enemies that you have to avoid/run away from, and they can and will kill you if they catch you. It's pretty neat, very atmospheric, and has a real sense of place. It's fairly short too, only about 5 hours, so it doesn't overstay its welcome. It does have some fiddly controls that can be annoying, but overall it's pretty good. Grade: B

*Maybe* this will be my last purchase from the Steam sale?

Finally Metaphor went on sale.

Dragon Age: Veilguard This game is very good. It's not what I wanted it to be, but once I let go of that and judged it for what it actually is, I really like it. At its core it feels like a Mass Effect game dressed as Dragon Age, but it's very good at being that. I think it's taken a little too much influence from Marvel movies, especially in the writing, but overall the characters are interesting, I like hanging out with most of them, the factions are cool, the locations are good, the core conflict is compelling, it's very well put together. And, to my utter surprise, they manage to address big lore questions without any apparent retcons, everything fits with what came before. It's really amazing how well this turned out, all things considered. I definitely recommend it to any fans of the series unless the change to full on action really really turns you off. I also recommend it to fans of action RPGs in general, though the story may not hit as hard if you aren't familiar with the previous games. Grade: A

1000xResist, The Case of the Golden Idol, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, and Still Wakes the Deep. A gaming podcast I listen to called MinnMax does a GOTY discussion every year called the Two Tens (like the "two n's" in MinnMax) where they all sit down and hash out their collective GOTY list live on air. It's a lot of fun, and this week they talked about their "gaming homework", or games that they all wanted to finish, or at least put a good dent in, before the discussion. These games (along with a whole bunch of others) were all on the list, and they're ones I'd wanted to play anyway, so I figured I'd give them a shot now so that when they're all talking about them I'll have a better idea what they're talking about. I definitely have enough time for this, yep, no question...

Need something to play on my PS5 Pro and this is the only game I can find with a good Pro update that I haven't already played