Yea, BotW is really something else. Glad you’re enjoying it.
I don’t think I’ve ever been as absorbed in a videogame as I was with BotW.
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Playing Red Dead, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on PS4, and Diablo 3 on the switch.
It really is. I have over 100 hours logged and I still continue to avoid the end game.
Just started in on Rise Of The Tomb Raider on PC. I really loved Tomb Raider (2013), so I was excited when the next in the series went on sale.
It’s pretty good so far. I’m not a fan of all the quick-time events… but the gameplay itself seems well done.
Just finished Catherine. I really wasn’t feeling Vincent at all until just about the final day when he made up his mind. I understand you need a hook to continue the game for a week, but Vincent just keeps choosing the wrong decision. I still love the game, though.
Though everyone should know Erica was the right choice, not either of the Catherines.
I put another hour or so into Dragon Quest XI last night. It’s legitimately great as a game you can just kinda hang out with. Looking forward to more.
I posted my last update in the retro thread when it’s anything but!
Gal Metal and the Yomawari collection on Switch.
Gal Metal is rather excellent even if I’m rubbish at it. It’s atypical for its genre which I really like, and its unique ideas are pretty well thought out. Basically, you play the drums in a heavy metal band at a high school in Japan to defend against alien invaders. So yes, like Guitaroo Man, Parappa the Rapper, Ouendan and its ilk, this is a rhythm game with its own story. It’s told primarily through manga panels and I really like the stylised art in both those scenes and in gameplay.
What truly sets the game apart, though, is how it completely eschews the idea of a note chart. All you’ll see when you play a level is which section of the song you’re currently at. Everything rests on your sense of the music, the rhythms you’ve learned or practiced in practice sessions, and your ability to mix up different rhythms to the beat in each song. The scoring works as follows:
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You’ll only receive combos if you mix up different rhythms in each measure rather than repeat the same ones
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Each rhythm belongs to a particular category, the most prominent category used in each section colour codes that section
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You receive section bonuses for mixing up the categories of rhythms between each section.
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If you create your own rhythms they can be mixed in and count towards combos, but they don’t belong to any categories.
There’s a lot to think about whenever you play a song. You’ve got to remember the rhythms learned and mix them up while also thinking about which category each one belongs to and keep in mind which section you’re playing at. On harder difficulties the alien audience can also attack your band, so you might need to interrupt your flow and hit the cymbals as a means of defending yourself. Basically, there’s a lot of depth to its mechanics.
My only complaint is about the pacing: it simply takes a long time to progress to each new song in the story mode, and your first playthrough is basically an easy difficulty run where you don’t have to be any good to clear each song. Luckily free play mode has the real difficulty settings (the easiest being significantly harder than the first story run), but I still haven’t unlocked all the gigs in story mode yet!
Started Xenogears again, about 5 hours in. Hopefully, I’ll stick with it until the end this time. I love the overall feel of the game, not sure why I’ve never seen it through the very end. This time will (hopefully) be different!! 
Edit: Just noticed this thread is for MODERN games, oops! 
From a modern point of view, still working on Yakuza Kiwami 2 for PS4 and God of War 2 on Vita.
Bought Horizon Zero Dawn for $10 at Gamestop and popped it in. I’ve been excited to dive into an epic open world adventure, but playing the intro gave me a headache and I stopped playing after 10 minutes. I kinda hate modern gaming =/
It’s an excellent game at $20 let alone $10. Enjoy!
I don’t doubt that. Just have to get over my tendency to get motion sickness in any modern game with camera controls.
Gamestop deals are kinda insane this year. That’s the price for brand new copy of the Complete Edition. It’s also available right now digitally for $15.
HZD was one of my favourites from last year. Particularly I thought the combat was extremely well done, so much so that it stopped me from playing Breath of the Wild for 6 months because BotW didn’t hook me the same way HZD did.
Hopefully you keep with it and it starts to click for you. What was the issue, if you don’t mind me asking?
It just happens every-so-often with 3D games where I get fatigued with moving the camera and navigating a 3D space in general. Frame rate and smoothness of the camera movement might play a part. I’m usually okay in Uncharted games on PS4, but I shelved Rise of the Tomb Raider because I didn’t like getting lost and disoriented all the time. First person games are usually a no-go for me. DOOM seems fun in spurts, but I can’t stick with it through the campaign.
I put in 10 minutes into Horizon and started to get that discombobulated feeling, so I shut it off and just played a movie instead. I’ll definitely give it many more shots as I’ve heard so much good things and am itching to get immersed, even if immersion doesn’t agree with me at times.
I ended up mostly playing Einhander last night. Never gotten a headache playing shmups, that’s for sure.
This may sound counterintuitive given you have control, but consider NOT using the camera controls as much. Take your thumb off the stick!
In many games like Horizon you don’t need to look around a ton as the action is framed for you rather well. It might be that you’re exacerbating your motion sickness by being too fine with the camera control.
I just finished the main story on Red Dead and I’m working my way through the epilogue.
I also picked up Soul Calibur 6 and Spyro from the Library to play this week.
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Have you tried on a PC with these settings? If not, you might not know what you’re missing… Often weapon bobbing alone can cause motion sickness.
90+ FOV
No motion blur
No weapon bobbing
High frame rate (60+)
I only have a PS4, but I’ll keep in mind to check the settings in game if any of them provide the options to change the FOV.
@DaveLong I do rely heavily on the right thumbstick for traversal. I’ll keep that in mind to use more of the left stick for movement.
I’m playing Pokémon Go on my phone lately. Didn’t get into this when it was a fad, but now I’m actually giving it a try and realizing there’s actually a cool game here.
Also playing Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and having a great time. It’s so chill. I actually love the game way more than I thought I would.
And I’m also playing Chrono Cross and am completely in love with it. I just wish save points were more generously dispersed.
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I played a ton of Go! when it was the deal (I guess it legitimately still is?) and Let’s Go Pikachu has really brought me back to the whole thing again. It’s great and yeah, it’s super chill. Sometimes I really don’t mind a game that sort of puts me to sleep in a good way, and Pokémon Let’s Go is exactly that.
I’m playing that, a lot of Call of Duty 15: BLOPS IIII, and I picked up a number of sale items on Switch lately that I’ve been flipping between. Those are Space Dave! (I love Choice Provisions silly games), the two Sega Ages releases (Sonic and Lightening Force), and Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon which I think is a fantastic new throwback game. I’m really impressed with that so far.
Once I beat the Elite Four to be the very best, I’ll go back to Dragon Quest XI for my chill.
Oh…also playing on my DSi XL regularly. That’s a post for a different thread, though.
I picked up Spintires Mudrunner for the Switch, as it looks super interesting for a game in the driving genre. Basically, you take command of heavy duty vehicles in really tricky terrain/conditions to complete different tasks like transporting timber, towing other vehicles, or just traversing the environment.
The physics are really convincing and the game is surprisingly relaxing given its slow pace…well until you panic, thinking your vehicle is stuck in a massive ditch. I’m also impressed with the quality of the port on the Switch. The density of foliage and quality of effects work remains high.
Space Dave is brilliant! Bit disappointed it’s still on version 0.1 though, as it’s clearly not as polished as Woah Dave was. Maybe it’s the move to the Unity engine but I definitely notice some input lag in the controls, and given the visuals the framerate drops are unfortunate. Still, really enjoyed it even if I was never good enough to get through a complete run. We could add each other on the Switch if you want to compete on leaderboards, haha.