I've been playing Hob recently. It's fun, but I think it could have been more if the reins had been a bit looser. I came in expecting an exploration puzzle game and it's much more of a linear adventure. Maybe my stardards are just really high after playing Tunic haha. The world is really cool and visually interesting (lots of verticality), and there is some metroid-esque exploration to go back to as you gain abilities. It's certainly good enough to continue with!

I played and beat Duke Nukem 3D for the first time. Great game, especially considering where tech was at before it. Definitely feels like a game you could play over and over again and get into speed running or secret hunting.

I tried Beyond Good & Evil, but ended up dropping it. Gameplay wasn't strong enough to hold up the story in this day and age. It reminded me of better games like Jak 3 and Stranger's Wrath.

But now I'm playing Crosscode and this game rocks! Lots of good customization, interesting combat, tonnes of secrets and platforming.

Also wanting to get back into Guilty Gear Strive ahead of the big update!

Awesome. Keep the focus on great games, not shareholders.

Definitely a unique game! I was pretty impressed with the number of choices you get that change the story a lot, especially in the second act. Never seen combat quite like that before.

Just finished up Red Dead Redemption. Overall a pretty good game! I thought the epilogue dragged on a bit and the aiming felt atrocious 100% of the way through. The latter being huge given the amount of shooting you do. The number of times I shot my horse dead while trying to kill wolves is wild. Good story though, bleak as all hell. I'm glad they didn't make it seem like a big hero fun time. I can't imagine wanting 100% this game between all the gambling and running around.

Saw this during my last trip to Japan! Mt. Yotei has a crazy amount of woodpeckers.

The infamous cooper/sharp-shinned debacle. My bet is on sharpy because of the bug eyes and some preeeetty sharp-looking shins.

If it's of interest, the Glass Cannon Podcast is running Shadowdark as their main game right now. Worth checking out on youtube if you're interested to see how it plays. The videos show how the hexcrawl works a bit as well. The system seems like a really strong option if it fits the darker vibe you're looking for.

So the short answer is yes it's best at a fantasy setting and hard to hack.

BW has a massive collection of skills, traits, and lifepaths that are all tailored for a fantasy medieval setting. These aren't just lists but each has its own stats, nuance, and connections to other things. You need all of this just to create characters and skills are pretty much how you play the game.

To hack this you would need to make entire new sets of lifepaths and new relevant skills at a minimum. It's not hard to make a new skill or two to fit a custom setting but if you were trying to do cyberpunk or something the amount of overhaul would be staggering.

I haven't looked into it but there something called Burning Empires that has done the heavy lifting for you and modified BW for a sci-fi setting. Mouseguard and Torchbearer also re-theme the BW system in specific ways (Mouseguard more so) but also simplify the rule system considerably.

That all said, BW itself has a pretty crazy range of stories you can tell just from the different settings (loosely tied to races) available. Classic fantasy? Stick with humans, maybe with a sprinkle of elf/dwarf if you're feeling spicy (recommend sticking with humans for your first go though). Want a pastoral setting plagued by cult-crazed terrorists? Roden got you covered. Want to play as giant magic wolves dealing with pack dynamics and protecting the woods? Great Wolves are all set up for you. Want to be giant spiders and...uh...anyway yeah you can do that too.

It's a wild system that does so much differently but there's a lot of great stuff packed in there. It's changed how I play basically everything else.

Just got back from travels to Japan and Taiwan and picked up some cool looking stuff over there! Slowly getting to try it out.

Viking See-saw - Banger dexterity game, and even better with drinks around the table. Dead simple, but lots of luck pushing and enough thought to make each turn tense and interesting.

Tiger & Dragon - I see this one becoming a classic round here. Pretty simple idea but lots of room for depth and the different scoring variants will keep it around a long time.

Onstage - Interesting Vietnamese trick-taker with a delightful stage prop that helps determine trump suit each trick. We played with five and the chaos of the card powers felt way too random to do anything strategic. Want to retry with less players and/or the no card power variant before giving up on it because there's definitely something there.

Herbalism - I adore my english version of the game, but picked up another in Taiwan because I liked the new box size. Turns out it's a brand new edition with reworked actions, guessing, and scoring! Not sure if I like it more but I'll have to play them both again to decide.

Still to try: Ravens of Thri Sahashri, Sail, Samurai Shodown: The Card Game

Special shout out to For Northwood! for being a great time killer during travels! Such a hardcore solo game wrapped in such a cute package.

I'm excited about the changes! I am definitely sad that Dizzy will lose her WA as a combo extender though. It was super useful for confirming Wings of Light, and looked awesome.

Still looking for that perfect fishing game. My favourite so, far has been the fishing mini game in Okami.

I've got good vibes about this game. Praying for a half-grappler shock glove Asami in the coming DLC.

Sekiro is an all-timer. Enjoy learning and overcoming those final challenges.

They really made a whole video just to show that same thumbnail still at the end and nothing else.

The best thing about Jam releasing is that we're that much closer to Robo-Ky releasing.

It's the first one I ever played and it definitely has its challenges. I did beat it though so don't give up!

So what does it mean to buy a DRM-free game on Steam? Can I download and play it separate from the Steam client?

Thanks for this, a lot of these sound very cool and I love the push to spread creativity. Makes me want to make some of my smaller adventures that I've done more publishable. Maybe get something out there n the internet.

I'm on Island III of Cuphead. Just beat the Bee Boss and it was certainly brutal. Even then once you get better at understanding what you're supposed to do with each fight it really helps.