What I've been playing (11/20/2024)
Been a while since one of these. Gotta try and keep these somewhat regular. Nice to actually write some casual thoughts on games.
Tetrachroma
Easily one of the most fun and inventive Tetris variants I've played. Color matching is a small but significant change to the basic Tetris formula and Tetrachroma makes the most of it. Changes how you approach building stacks of blocks to create lines. I've had to play it by ear a lot more. It's surprisingly hard. Took me a long time to get past the first stage with any consistency.
Arco
Finally got back to this. Made it to Act 4. Still really enjoying it. Like how every act has been changing perspectives and how much that alters how you need to approach combat. Went from playing a purely ranged game to a pure melee focus to now having access to some magic. Arco's turn-based bullet-lite approach really shines when you have a small party with unique skills that can play off each other. Really looking forward to seeing how it goes once all the main characters finally unite. The individual stories have been great so far. Curious to see where it all goes.
Racing Lagoon
Started this after listening to Abnormal Mapping's episode on it. It's cool! They really don't makes games like this anymore. You can really feel how experimental it is. The cars handle nothing like any pure racing games do, which makes sense given the team behind it hadn't ever made a racing game before, I believe.
Struggling a little with some of the car tuning aspects because that's never been something I've been good at or interested in with racing games, but the ways in which Racing Lagoon is directly playing with the RPG form makes it easier to put up with. Debating whether I should keep stumbling my way through it or start following a guide so I don't end up in an unwinnable position.
Brush Burial
Played a bit of this almost a year ago now and finally got back to it. Cool little stealth game. Definitely got some immersive sim vibes between the level design and the number of tool available. Very strong sense of style. Really like how agile you can be.
Only problem is that I can't play for long since it can only be played on keyboard. My hands don't have the stamina they used to for anything that requires quick movement. Probably should consider looking into getting a keyboard with lighter switches for playing games.