What videogames are you playing in 2026?

[Kaodi]

I am not technically playing it yet but the final episode of The Long Dark's story mode, Wintermute, finally comes out today in about five hours after many, many years of development.

 

[Pale Violet Light]

Yeah I didnt make it very far when I gave that a shot.

The confrontation with the family in the subterranean temple in Act 3 is top notch though. Someone on the Larian team clearly watches a lot of horror movies and has a wonderfully imaginative sense of dramatic presentation.

 

[Gradine]

My wife and kid are both playing Pokopia and it looks like a hell of a lot of fun, it's that the type of game you're a fan of (it strikes me as a bit of a marriage of Animal Crossing, Minecraft, and Viva Piñata). Still plugging away at Skyrim myself. Got distracted a bit fully completing the Thieves Guild questline for the first time.

 

[Zardnaar]

Still playing Stellaris.

Latestest 4.3 patch overhauled the economy. I used to play on the highest difficulty with a X5 scaling multiple X10 if I did a power build vs roleplaying/fun.

I can still do highest difficulty but had to turn the X5 multiple down to X1. Using power builds I can do it at X2.

X1 AI can keep up with end game things on grand Admiral. X2 they seem to get rolled and require direct intervention.

You can turtle up easy but it tends to wreck your economy unless you're a trader and of you're a robot empire you need a lot of energy which is a struggle.

Ironically "gay space communism" seems to work as its good at generating basic resources. Joke term for egalitarian megacorporation run along communal lines. Think ferengi crossed with the federation in star trek terms.

Or you can go full eat the galaxy first and win before the economy collapses.

More growth equals more penalties to tech so its harder to do traditional strategies eg tech rushing ignoring your economy and let new developments fix things mid game.

My default is builder playstyle trader into tech. Then unleash mid to late game with my phase cruisers or Uber battleships.

 

[Gladius Legis]

Reinstalled and tried to play Tekken 8 after the recent Season 3 patch.

Because "back to basics" ... LMFAO.

The game is still a disaster. Season 3 even made it worse than Season 2 in some ways.

 

[GMMichael]

Still plugging away at Skyrim myself. Got distracted a bit fully completing the Thieves Guild questline for the first time.

Congrats! I have the Convenient Horses mod, and a quest goal of Kill Two Trolls While Mounted. Trolls are either really hard to find outdoors, or I've already hunted them to extinction.

 

[Kaodi]

Still playing Stellaris.

I have only ever played vanilla but they are folding Utopia, Synthetic Dawn, and Humanoid Species into the base game, so I am looking forward to getting back into it when that happens next month.

 

[Deset Gled]

I started playing Fortnite during the pandemic, and have been fairly regular with it since. But this season is the absolute worst. I hate the "rivalry" mechanic. The "showdown" narrative that's supposedly based on player input is so obviously scripted. And you can profit more Vbucks by not paying for the battlepass than if you opt in. Combine that with uninspired weapon load out and boring map updates. There have been ups and downs over time (the OXR season was also pretty bad), but now I'm out.

So, I'm going back to do a Bioshock run instead. I plan on hitting up Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom next (I never got into it after finding out it still has weapon wear, but I'm far enough out from that trauma that I'm ready to try again).

 

[Zardnaar]

I have only ever played vanilla but they are folding Utopia, Synthetic Dawn, and Humanoid Species into the base game, so I am looking forward to getting back into it when that happens next month.

Yeah great deal. They're quite old now.

 

[GMMichael]

(I never got into it after finding out it still has weapon wear, but I'm far enough out from that trauma that I'm ready to try again).

Suddenly I have a clue why I'm not knee-deep in the Oblivion remaster . . .