Discussion What's your most favorite GAMING GENRE ? **General game Discussion thread**

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So I have to ask you MM, I seem to recall you saying you tried the game, did you ever play it long enough to acquire a spear, and if so, where did you get it and on what quests?

Nope. I didn't acquire any spears, which are very hard to find, and powerful spears can only be found later in the game. I didn't complete the game fully, just around few missions, before my GPU died. Since that I have not played it again.

To be honest I didn't bother getting any spear early in the game due to lack of my character's skills/stats.

I think you can find the "Fafnir's Fang" spear early in the game. You can find it in the Drengr's cave to the north of Fornburg (defeating the first Lost Drengr). The fight is not tough though.

It might come handy in beating the early boss "Rikiwulf". But it is a two-handed Spear which is kind of silly in my opinion. But can be paired it with a one-handed axe like Varin's Axe.

How far have you reached in the game ? The difficulty level and fighting combat mechanics in this game is kind of unbalanced. Some enemies are very powerful, and some act stupidly that we can easily kill them.

Too much "grinding" in this game though. It also prohibits players from entering certain regions on the map or from starting certain quests until they reach a higher level, it removes player choice and freedom, which goes against the RPG direction that the past three games have been following.
 
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Well, I'm power level 66 right now, so I've ventured into England and done a fair bit of raiding, including a little river raiding, which didn't go so well. River raids are harder and eventually after a few of them on one trip, the enemy awareness in the region picks up and things start getting quite a bit harder. I wound up with a lot of my crew needing reviving and I got killed trying to revive them and ran out of rations to heal with.

After that I started upgrading my rations, so instead of just one spare I can carry 4 now. I found the Fyrd spear, and it's fairly easy to loot from an under water cave beneath a building, but it's stats were not very good so I upgraded it. I need 3 Nickle ingots to enhance it at the blacksmith, but I may check out the Fafnir spear you mentioned. However if the Drengr in a cave that's high behind a waterfall has it, I already tried fighting him and he was WAY too powerful. The one I fought moves very fast and does a fast focused AOE attack if I recall. I also have a feeling since that spear is in Norway instead of England, it probably has even lower stats.

He was well above my power level, and regions I have wandered into recently are such the case, but I have found if I persist with stealth while solo looting, or my crew's help while raiding, I can sometimes manage enemies that are 2-5 times my power level. It DID get a bit ugly at first, having drained all my rations and arrows, but I found waiting until they retreat to where they were, like a couple that are in the lower levels of a tomb-like structure, I can creep back towards them and keep tossing torches, which you have an infinite amount of.

Last night I looted everything in a place called Thieve's Warren, and they were power level 220. I have amassed about a half dozen Tungsten ingots this way, and some Titanium scrap too, both of which are considered rare, but I've yet to find a place to get Nickle. Hopefully I'll have a few vids posted by tomorrow to demonstrate what can be done at lower levels.

I really like that you can reset any skills you've unlocked for free, and it has allowed my to acquire 4 adrenaline slots and the Dual Heavy dual wield skill. This allows me to use Abilities more, but so far I tend to cling to just Incendiary Powder Trap, which allows you to shoot a fire bomb arrow at an enemy or as a trap they walk into. It's pretty powerful and between the bomb and the lingering fore, can take out regular enemies without any extra shots or strikes, and whittle down Goliaths. The last raid I did last night at Saint Albanes was 160 power level, and with dual wield great sword and heavy Dane axe, I was able to get as much of it as was possible (there's an underground treasure that requires a key but is quest related). Hopefully when I go back there on the Pilgrimage of Saint Albanes quest the treasures (which contained Tungsten) will respawn. You need metals like Tungsten to upgrade your weapon level, which allows for more upgrade and rune slots.
 
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However if the Drengr in a cave that's high behind a waterfall has it, I already tried fighting him and he was WAY too powerful. The one I fought moves very fast and does a fast focused AOE attack if I recall. I also have a feeling since that spear is in Norway instead of England, it probably has even lower stats.

Yup. It is in Norway.
 
Yup. It is in Norway.

Well, I went back to him, and even with MUCH higher power level than when I first tried to fight him, it was still hard. I managed to beat him mostly with arrows though. I was also wrong about his tactics, he's closer to the way a Skull Crusher fights, tossing weapons at you rapid-fire. He doesn't have an AOE attack though.

The Fafnir's Fang spear you get for beating him is a bit more powerful in base damage than the Fyrd spear I was using, but what's great about it is it has a perk that buffs your critical 3-10 depending how many enemies are near you. I'm in Ireland now and it has been pretty good there.

I also went into the aiming tab in Gameplay and switched target lock from Off to Moderate (after I fought Erik for the Fafnir's Fang spear). It's supposed to target lock for 1 sec, but it's hard to tell if it actually is. I don't know, maybe that only works with gamepads. I'm going to get the Brush With Death skill (stealth tree) that slows time with a perfectly timed dodge (enemy has to be about to hit you). Then I will put target lock back to Off.
 

Rexer

Distinguished
Hey! Any Battlefield 3 players still around? My friend and I've been trying to get a BF3 game site to work. The website is called 'Venice Unleashed' and they do the older Bartlefield games (2, 3, Bad Company and 4) with bots. You can play teams with/against bots with friends or by yourself. We've been trying to get the games to work and fustrating thing is the game crashes during or after each game in the game rotation and often on restart circmvents the same game.
Does anyone know of Venice Unlimited? Has anyone learned or solved the crashing?
I have an opinion after a year of trying to get Venice Unleash to work. EA doesn't want us to play old Battlefield games. Instead they want us to buy new games. So they installed a 'fix' to keep gamers from 'driving a rut' with the same old game. That way you'll always be buying the later games. The simple reason is money. Game makers don't make money on old games. They make money on new games. So they discontinue support for older games or won't protect them from hackers or aim bot users (such as with Call of Duty WW2).
I remember when Epic and Midway games finally pulled the plug on UT3 a few years back I was 'rut' player. I was sadly addicted. I played till there was only a few people playing it. And I wish it was still around. Actually, Marathon and UT3 saved me from spending all my time and money gambling in football pools, shooting trap and buying shotgun stuff. All my girlfriends left me but eh, I knew a few gals on Harbor Blvd.
So back to my original question, Does anyone know how to fix the crashing on Venice Unleashed? Thanks!
 
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Assassin’s Creed Mirage:

Below you can find a new video showcasing 20 minutes of gameplay from its PC version. This video includes gameplay in all outfits, camel riding, non-spoiler cutscenes, combat, viewpoint synchronization, desynchronization, and more.

Ubisoft will release Assassin’s Creed Mirage on October 12th, 2023. The combat/movement animation and the character design looks pretty awful though !

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXniX4XRzek


Also, YouTube’s ‘KONSOLOWE.info’ has shared a video, showcasing one hour of gameplay footage from the Unreal Engine 5-powered Souls-like game, "Lords of the Fallen" 2023. From the looks of it, this is an extended video from the Gamescom 2023 demo.

In case you didn't know, Lords of the Fallen will take advantage of 'LUMEN', and will feature really high-quality textures, and will be using UE5’s Chaos Physics for advanced simulation for clothes, chains, hair, and belts. However, we are not sure whether or not the game will be using 'Nanite' as well.

CI Games will release Lords of the Fallen on October 13th, 2023.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPiaf0LIygw
 
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Assassin’s Creed Mirage:

Below you can find a new video showcasing 20 minutes of gameplay from its PC version. This video includes gameplay in all outfits, camel riding, non-spoiler cutscenes, combat, viewpoint synchronization, desynchronization, and more.

Ubisoft will release Assassin’s Creed Mirage on October 12th, 2023. The combat/movement animation and the character design looks pretty awful though !

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXniX4XRzek


Also, YouTube’s ‘KONSOLOWE.info’ has shared a video, showcasing one hour of gameplay footage from the Unreal Engine 5-powered Souls-like game, "Lords of the Fallen" 2023. From the looks of it, this is an extended video from the Gamescom 2023 demo.

In case you didn't know, Lords of the Fallen will take advantage of 'LUMEN', and will feature really high-quality textures, and will be using UE5’s Chaos Physics for advanced simulation for clothes, chains, hair, and belts. However, we are not sure whether or not the game will be using 'Nanite' as well.

CI Games will release Lords of the Fallen on October 13th, 2023.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPiaf0LIygw
Can you specify exactly what you mean about bad animations and character design? It doesn't look much different than typical AC games to me. The only slightly weird thing I saw graphically is the fire after trying to toss the big jar out the window suddenly disappeared. I wasn't surprised that the jar did not pass through the window, as the jar looked too big for the size of window. Typically in 3rd person games the object you throw has to be MUCH smaller than the window, and still aimed carefully.

Did the first Lords of the Fallen have ranged weapons? This is the game that looks a bit more sketchy to me compared to Mirage. The use of Soulfly seems hit and miss and unpredictable, one of the bigger enemies got stuck behind a wall, and the tree foliage shadows at one point were quivering strangely. That said, I considered trying the first LotF, but it looked like just melee combat, and this one looks to have more weapon variety, which would help avoid getting surrounded and overwhelmed by several enemies.
 
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Can you specify exactly what you mean about bad animations and character design? It doesn't look much different than typical AC games to me. The only slightly weird thing I saw graphically is the fire after trying to toss the big jar out the window suddenly disappeared. I wasn't surprised that the jar did not pass through the window, as the jar looked too big for the size of window. Typically in 3rd person games the object you throw has to be MUCH smaller than the window, and still aimed carefully.

Did the first Lords of the Fallen have ranged weapons? This is the game that looks a bit more sketchy to me compared to Mirage. The use of Soulfly seems hit and miss and unpredictable, one of the bigger enemies got stuck behind a wall, and the tree foliage shadows at one point were quivering strangely. That said, I considered trying the first LotF, but it looked like just melee combat, and this one looks to have more weapon variety, which would help avoid getting surrounded and overwhelmed by several enemies.

I meant to say the gameplay looks a bit 'unpolished' and it appears to be a footage taken from an early alpha stage of the game's development, like a WIP footage. But never mind that, because some of the scenes look a bit okay to me and others.

But in any case, MIRAGE looks like a homage to the early AC series' gameplay and story. I just hope the graphics are good, and the gameplay is satisfying. Right now, I need to complete Valhalla first ! Damn, so many missions in this game that it requires a lot of time.

If I do side missions as well, then that's going to take more time to beat the game. I will focus mostly on the main missions first.

Speaking of the first LOTF game, I remember using the "gauntlet" for it's various ranged abilities, though you can't zoom in with this weapon if I can recall correctly. You can lock the enemies, and fire a shot from a distance. The flip side is that it goes in your shield hand so if you want to use it, you'll have to rely on dodging.

Basically, there are three types of Gauntlet attacks:
  • Explosive – This will launch a small, looping energy attack resembling a grenade. This is used more as an opening attack on a patrolling enemy or a ranged attacker as its fuse length and projectile arc make it less reliable during actual combat.
  • Projectile – This attack acts as like a gun – point and shoot! I found this to be the most useful gauntlet ability as it allows you to lock on and shoot a target continuously, has a relatively high mana cost when compared to the other Gauntlet abilities, but it makes up for this by being much more reliable than the other attacks.
  • Blast – This attack resembles a shotgun blast. It can hit multiple enemies at once but they need to be in close proximity to Harkyn. Unfortunately, the charge up animation to use the blast attack is a little long, meaning harkyn will be exposed to attacks in the interim.
 
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Looks really impressive. The combat is noticeably harder and more scary looking. Everything from the darkness removing effects, to the enemy movement and slow reloading is very well done. Looks like we'll have to really be on our game, as there seems to be little margin for error.

Not sure I like the QTE or random nature of rewriting netting you neg or pos results, but one thing about the latter is it's sure to keep you tense. I wonder if the rewrite rooms are also save rooms though?

They could make such an element easier to reload saves on lower difficulty modes, but also harder if not impossible on harder modes just by where writing desks are placed (assuming that's how it's done), or by how many saves are allowed.
 
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Looks really impressive. The combat is noticeably harder and more scary looking. Everything from the darkness removing effects, to the enemy movement and slow reloading is very well done. Looks like we'll have to really be on our game, as there seems to be little margin for error.

FWIW, I never actally completed the first title in the series, Alan Wake 1. Only played around 70% or so, but couldn't complete the full game due to lack of time and other issues at that time. But someone spolied the whole story for me so I just watched some YT vids for the remaining part, so I didn't continue where I left.

No pont in playing any story campaign if you already know the game's full ending, even though it might not be a very huge spoiler. Alan Wake story's ending is still a bit confusing to grasp though.

But anyways, I bought new PC games, including Lords of the Fallen and AC: Mirage. Now there are too many PC titles in my backlog to play, but very very less time these days !

Ghostrunners 2 is also on my list though. I never played the first part, but I know you did a full Walkthrough.


Has anyone tried playing "METAL GEAR SOLID Master Collection Vol.1 " though ? It just came out on the PC but the performance is awful and it even lacks proper mouse+keyboard support, especially 'Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater'.

Instead of offering raw mouse input, Konami tried to emulate the right thumbstick of a controller. And to make things worse, there’s no option to change how fast the mouse moves. So, if you can’t switch your mouse DPI on the fly, playing with a keyboard and mouse is a pain in the a****.


Oh BTW, Konami just released the first official in-engine video for its upcoming remake of MGS 3, 'Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater.'

'Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater' will be powered by Unreal Engine 5, and this is a pre-alpha video. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater will be a faithful recreation of the original story and game design. Moreover, its development team will be evolving the gameplay with stunning visuals and a seamless user experience.

Sadly, there is currently no ETA on when this game will come out.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUOsNavOluw&t=99s&ab_channel=Xbox
 

Zerk2012

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pha video. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater will be a faithful recreation of the original story and game design. Moreover, its development team will be evolving the gameplay with stunning visuals and a seamless user experience
So the words stunning visuals and a seamless user experience usually means it will run like crap unless you have a top of the line PC and can use just brute force to make it like that.
 
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So the words stunning visuals and a seamless user experience usually means it will run like crap unless you have a top of the line PC and can use just brute force to make it like that.

Haha, that's what the game developers wrote in the game's press statement. But we all know it's all marketing hype to promote their game. These days we need to expect the "worst" from any AAA/AA game title in terms of optimization.

I get what you say. Speaking of brute force, lazy devs have this big excuse of forcing us to use these so-called 'upscaling' tech features like DLSS, FSR and XESS etc. Even the top of the line rigs these days can't guarantee a fluid gaming experience at least in major AAA PC games.

Instead of optimizing the game's code/engine, most of the focus these days is now on the use of upscaling tech to show how big of a performance their latest generation of GPUs can provide.
 
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Colif

Win 11 Master
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The self titles AAA studios are a joke. Not many games released this year that didn't need multiple fixes just to work.

Diablo 4 works but has really dumb design decisions.
Cities Skylines 2 works if you from the future and have a 7090 to run it on.
Starfield sort of works


Every game is broken. Unoptimised for PC or just any thing really.

Graphics don't make a game. Its just a small part of the actual package but its become half the install size now.

I am sure Digital Foundry would rate a game as a must buy even if all you played as was a ray traced piece of poo. They actually made a follow up video on Gollum because they made graphics better... game was still garbage but to them, graphics are all you need. People want them to review the new King Kong game

Games need to be fun. They are not just movies.
 
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Order 66

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The self titles AAA studios are a joke. Not many games released this year that didn't need multiple fixes just to work.

Diablo 4 works but has really dumb design decisions.
Cities Skylines 2 works if you from the future and have a 7090 to run it on.
Starfield sort of works


Every game is broken. Unoptimised for PC or just any thing really.

Graphics don't make a game. Its just a small part of the actual package but its become half the install size now.

I am sure Digital Foundry would rate a game as a must buy even if all you played as was a ray traced piece of poo. They actually made a follow up video on Gollum because they made graphics better... game was still garbage but to them, graphics are all you need. People want them to review the new King Kong game

Games need to be fun. They are not just movies.
Don't forget about Alan Wake 2. You will probably need a 7090 to run a 4K max RT at more than 60 fps. The current 4090 manages about 45 fps. The game that I am most excited to play is Jedi Survivor, I was going to play it last night, but it took 7 hours to download on my slow 50mb/s internet and didn't finish until 2 a.m.
 

Wuwu

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Oct 30, 2023
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Don't really have a fave.

Not a big fan of Spider-Man but this happened..

With all the wokeness of Spider-Man 2 I decided to install Spider-Man: Web of Shadows since I have never played it before. I rarely comment on videos but was reading the comment sections to folks pointing out the issues with the Spider game and found this one recommended a lot.

Beyond the kinda stiff mouse control (camera) it's a decent game.

I used reshade to bring it's image quality closer to present day, not bad for 2008.
 
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I rarely comment on videos but was reading the comment sections to folks pointing out the issues with the Spider game and found this one recommended a lot.

Not surprising a Spider-man title from 15 years ago would not be well coded for mice, because back then console support was almost 100% of the main focus, with PC support being an afterthought.

I don't mind waiting a year or more for a dedicated PC version that is well made, and I think since Sony and others have done that, it has somewhat helped the gaming industry. Some disagree, but staggered releases are "the way".

Funny you should say the oft misused term "woke" with the new games, as they are easily THE best and most polished Spider-man games to date. If you are inclined to think WoS is a "decent" game, you would probably like the latest 3 even more.

The latest ones DO take higher hardware spec to play obviously, but my 8700K, GTX 1080 rig handled the first two quite well.
 
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Time to revive this thread since it's been a long time we had some gaming/modding news discussion. :p

I have been busy playing a lot of old-school first-person shooters lately, apart from some new "so-called" AAA titles. Anyway, in case you guys missed this news, there was a sequel to Kingdom Come: Deliverance announced recently.

The title of the new game is "Kingdom Come: Deliverance II".

So it might continue Henry’s story, although I never played the first title. Now, whether the developer will stick with CRYENGINE, or go for Unreal Engine 4/5 remains to be seen. No ETA on this game yet though.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R48DEEjyS5k&t=317s

View: https://twitter.com/WarhorseStudios/status/1781026793408827452
 
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News for RACING fans. Ignore if you are already aware of this.

Electronic Arts announced that the next part in its F1 racing series, F1 24, will be released on May 31st. Also, the game will support Ray Tracing and VR on PC.

F1 24 will feature a newly innovated Driver Career mode.

Moreover, it will have what Codemasters calls “EA SPORTS Dynamic Handling”. This is what the latest physics system is called in the game, aiming to give you more control over how your personal driving style impacts your car’s performance and race strategy.

The game will also have a new interactive feature, called Challenge Career. This will offer episodic competitive play with unique events and challenges. According to EA, it will allow community members to compete for high scores. Players will also be able to influence future content by voting on social media.

As said, F1 24 will have Ray Tracing on track and VR support on PC. Codemasters didn’t go into more detail about these features. So, basically, expect to see all the RT effects that were in F1 23.

Lastly, the game will be using the Denuvo anti-tamper tech.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnyCWsA6KSI&t=2s


 
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News for RACING fans. Ignore if you are already aware of this.

Electronic Arts announced that the next part in its F1 racing series, F1 24, will be released on May 31st. Also, the game will support Ray Tracing and VR on PC.

F1 24 will feature a newly innovated Driver Career mode.

Moreover, it will have what Codemasters calls “EA SPORTS Dynamic Handling”. This is what the latest physics system is called in the game, aiming to give you more control over how your personal driving style impacts your car’s performance and race strategy.

The game will also have a new interactive feature, called Challenge Career. This will offer episodic competitive play with unique events and challenges. According to EA, it will allow community members to compete for high scores. Players will also be able to influence future content by voting on social media.

As said, F1 24 will have Ray Tracing on track and VR support on PC. Codemasters didn’t go into more detail about these features. So, basically, expect to see all the RT effects that were in F1 23.

Lastly, the game will be using the Denuvo anti-tamper tech.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnyCWsA6KSI&t=2s


Great to finally see you back Metal Messiah! Coincidentally it's just in time for something I've been meaning to ask you as well. One of the games I've bought recently, Dead Space Remake, has been getting trash talked a lot on Steam forums by players saying it stutters a lot. I had no such problem with it on my spec, so I have to wonder if these people are playing with very outdated hardware.

Have you been playing Dead Space Remake at all? If so, how does it play on your new GPU? If I recall correctly you went with a 4060 GPU? And btw, what CPU are you running now?

One of the games I've been playing btw is Ghostrunner 2. It's got some great new stuff in it, but it also has a long outdoor segment on a bike that is ridiculously hard. Many don't like that part, and it just doesn't have the look and feel we've come to know playing a parkour skilled ninja type cyborg.
 
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Great to finally see you back Metal Messiah! Coincidentally it's just in time for something I've been meaning to ask you as well. One of the games I've bought recently, Dead Space Remake, has been getting trash talked a lot on Steam forums by players saying it stutters a lot. I had no such problem with it on my spec, so I have to wonder if these people are playing with very outdated hardware.

Have you been playing Dead Space Remake at all? If so, how does it play on your new GPU? If I recall correctly you went with a 4060 GPU? And btw, what CPU are you running now?

One of the games I've been playing btw is Ghostrunner 2. It's got some great new stuff in it, but it also has a long outdoor segment on a bike that is ridiculously hard. Many don't like that part, and it just doesn't have the look and feel we've come to know playing a parkour skilled ninja type cyborg.

Hey man, thanks ! Yes, I have Dead Space Remake on my Steam Library, but I only played the first 2 levels of the game due to lack of time at that time. But I had no performance issues at all on my PC.

But the game is demanding on the GPU, and can eat up a lot of VRAM, which might cause occasional "traversal stutters" in some areas. But these aren’t shader compilation stutters though, and I didn't experience any of these while playing the game. The game ran smoothly on my rig.

I guess those Steam players might be just ranting about this, and/or they might be facing VRAM-related issues in some areas. Hard to say though, without knowing their exact system specs. But I will benchmark the game again on my rig once I reinstall it.

And yes, I have an RTX 4060 8GB GPU paired with an Intel 12600K CPU (got this one dirt cheap though)! :) Not a very powerful combo but sufficient for the type of games I play on 1080p.

Looking at your sig it appears you also did an upgrade recently ? RTX 4080 paired with an Intel 13700K !? Cool. :D

Anyway, I have not played Ghostrunner 2 yet. The gameplay doesn't suit my taste because of the parkour mechanics. I have been playing the following AAA/AA titles lately, apart from some regular old-school first-person shooters.

Callisto Protocol (still progressing slowly in this game,, as it can get tough to beat on certain levels).

Immortals of Aveum. Completed 2 playthroughs. Lots of magic to use !

Atomic Heart.

Assassins Creed Mirage. A nice tribute to the original game and the franchise's roots .

REDFALL. Got this title when it was on sale. It's an okay-ish game though. Can get buggy on sometimes.

Next on my playlist would be Dead Island 2 and Dying Light 2 if I get time.
 
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