What videogames are you playing in 2026?

[Artamo]

I've put a lot of hours into BG3, I'm way beyond "at first". Other games, XCOM 2 for instance, include vertical controls that BG3 lacks. Even zooming the view right out or going into overhead view often still leaves high level features such as rafters inaccessible if your character is at ground level.

Yeah, I noticed BG3 (on PS5) was really bad with camera angles and positioning to hit elevated targets. I made it work but it definitely felt like I was fighting the controller to do so.

 

[Parmandur]

This morning, my ten year old son finished his first attempt at a speed run of Hollow Knight (a game he has been playing for years). He beat it in 5 hours, 17 minutes, with 26% completion.

That is...intimidating.

In other news, I got the power up in Donkey Kong Bananza that wlts DK turn into a horrifying Elephant/Gorilla Kaiju and suck up the terrain like a vacuum.

 

[Reynard]

I am still having trouble finding the right game. I need something with a short, fun play loop that is also wide open. My personal Platonic Ideal here is Skyrim/Fallout4, but i have played them both to death. I was very sad that Starfield was not that same experience, and as much as Elden Ring has great exploration and environmental storytelling, I can't abide Souls like combat. It might be Diablo4 except I loathe the boss fights.

 

[Parmandur]

I am still having trouble finding the right game. I need something with a short, fun play loop that is also wide open. My personal Platonic Ideal here is Skyrim/Fallout4, but i have played them both to death. I was very sad that Starfield was not that same experience, and as much as Elden Ring has great exploration and environmental storytelling, I can't abide Souls like combat. It might be Diablo4 except I loathe the boss fights.

Have you played Red Dead Redemption?

 

[Reynard]

Have you played Red Dead Redemption?

I played the original many moons ago. (Or, first one I guess, because wasn't there another Red Dead game before Redemption? Anyway...)

 

[Parmandur]

I played the original many moons ago. (Or, first one I guess, because wasn't there another Red Dead game before Redemption? Anyway...)

Red Dead Redemption 2 is generally regarded as one of the best open world games in the style of Skyrim and Fallout, even more than it is like the original.

 

[Reynard]

Red Dead Redemption 2 is generally regarded as one of the best open world games in the style of Skyrim and Fallout, even more than it is like the original.

Isn't it full of mandatory cut scenes and mandatory slow-ass subsystems like hunting and making camp and stuff?

 

[Parmandur]

Isn't it full of mandatory cut scenes and mandatory slow-ass subsystems like hunting and making camp and stuff?

Not sure how necessary any of that is, from what I have seen, but it does have a story that one can follow or not.

 

[Reynard]

Not sure how necessary any of that is, from what I have seen, but it does have a story that one can follow or not.

Oh, I thought you had played it and that is why you were suggesting it.

 

[Artamo]

Not sure how necessary any of that is, from what I have seen, but it does have a story that one can follow or not.

I played it recently and some of the mission cutscenes early on are very long and cannot be skipped. The other subsystems (gambling, hunting, foraging, camp chores) are all optional for the main story.

Edit: I should say that bonafide cutscenes can be skipped but there are missions where you have to follow a character and listen to dialogue or else fail the mission, and those can be very long.