What videogames are you playing in 2026?

[Thomas Shey]

Currently playing through Zero Company. It scratches that XCOM itch, but isn't quite as satisfying or polished. The whole Intel and Contacts system feels very nebulous, doesn't feel like the game provides enough feedback as to what you're getting in return for influence. Adding recruits feels a little superfluous, I've yet to have a character go into medbay, let alone die, and the roster you get by default is both numerous and varied enough to handle what's been thrown my way so far.

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Well, I do have to note that if you're used to Enemy Within or War of the Chosen, there had been an enormous amount of time and feedback under the bridge by the time of that version of the project arrived, so there had been a massive opportunity to polish out rough spots.. SWZC just came out the gate.

 

[MarkB]

Well, I do have to note that if you're used to Enemy Within or War of the Chosen, there had been an enormous amount of time and feedback under the bridge by the time of that version of the project arrived, so there had been a massive opportunity to polish out rough spots.. SWZC just came out the gate.

True enough, but by the same token it had an awful lot more of other games' homework available to copy than those did, so to speak.

 

[Thomas Shey]

True enough, but by the same token it had an awful lot more of other games' homework available to copy than those did, so to speak.

That's fair, but never underestimate the degree to which people reinvent the wheel in game design for one reason or another.

Also reading some of the back and forth, some elements of that may be cases where things are supposed to come into their own at higher levels of difficulty. Its really hard to make strategic support elements matter as much at all levels of difficulty.

 

[Retros_x]

In fairness, the church (and Rhea in particular) have very good reasons for wanting to keep Byleth around, which I thought was foreshadowed really well, but it is true that a lot of 3H's story is buried in insinuation and piecing together disconnected plot points from the different routes, so it can be really hard to tell exactly what is happening and why without having the full picture (which I can imagine can get annoying)

in hindsight it was clear yeah, but on first playing it felt clunky. And I didnt see the foreshadows when I first played it tbh.

But that was just one of many examples. IMO Three Houses had really often rapid plot developments done in relatively short dialogue scenes. And yes the piecing together of the lore and story was quite difficult. In theory I like the approach with having to play all routes to get the full picture, but if all routes together are 200 hours plus with hours of gameplay and tedious monastry between the breadcrumbs it was just hard to remember them all. Additionaly Three Houses had the problem of having to play through the first half 4x times - which lead to me having breaks between the routes. I just couldnt play the same game 4x times in a row, I had to play something else inbetween. Which led to me playing the last route only THIS year, in celebration of Fortunes Weave's release. Having years between each playthrough also makes the plot hard to understand. I was wishing so hard for some sort of self updating game wiki/story summary etc.

Fortunes Weave unfortunately also lacks something like a wiki / story summary, at least up until now, maybe something gets unlocked later on, I dont know yet. But the game structure is much smarter - the difference of the routes are upfront and they are the longest part of the game, so you have much less repetition than in Three Houses. And the plot is at least up until now better laid out. I feel like I have a better understanding and overview of all the plotlines, because they are stronger connected. It feels like they could finally deliver the idea of these "weave" of plotlines that they attempted in Three Houses, but now with much less budget restrictions.

(funnily enough they once again didn't do the fully planned version, they originally planned for 8(!!) routes in Fortunes Weave)

 

[Doc_Klueless]

Playing WoW: Forever Beta.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

True enough, but by the same token it had an awful lot more of other games' homework available to copy than those did, so to speak.

Zero Company “strategic layer” lifts as much from Marvel’s Midnight Suns, which I believe some of the team worked on previously. I have also heard that they were running out of money towards the end of development.

 

[Kaodi]

I have crossed the seven hundred hour mark. I am doing wrap up on exploration and looting before we move on to the endgame. The Jannath Estate remains untouched. I hear it sucks. The sell off of treasure has begun, though unique gear shall be hoarded forever like the Preciiiooouuusss. Food shall be kept for our presumed victory feast. Or or two copies of all books and paintings will be retained. Still going to have more gold than we know what to do with, even without robbing the Tabernacle to get our "donations" back.

After almost three months I am also back on my Durge run, though it is on pause again til I get our joint playthrough ready. I may have gummed things up a bit from the original plan since I did not remember how I dealt with Raphael before or my original intentions for Yurgir (I just persuaded him to off himself again). Also mucked things up a bit by not create a hard save before kidnapping Isobel, and almost missed out on the Mighty Cloth because Talli got weird and, I think, cloned her highest level scrolls so she was not dropping the right gear. I managed to get around this though by pickpocketing the cloth from her mid combat. Wearable Bull's Strength is the closest thing you get to a bag of holding in this game so I was going to be wroth if I missed it. Minthara is probably questioning my sanity right now as I do everything Ketheric wants. But I am sure she will get over it once he is dead.

I am hoping that I can hold in for a thousand hours before I stop for now and uninstall this game.

 

[Pale Violet Light]

Well, I do have to note that if you're used to Enemy Within or War of the Chosen, there had been an enormous amount of time and feedback under the bridge by the time of that version of the project arrived, so there had been a massive opportunity to polish out rough spots.. SWZC just came out the gate.

I’m definitely going to give it time to cook, maybe wait for a DLC or two. As you say, XCOM2 is almost a different game post-WotC, while Phoenix Point also benefitted greatly from post-release balance changes (though the DLC there is admittedly more of a mixed bag).

True enough, but by the same token it had an awful lot more of other games' homework available to copy than those did, so to speak.

You’d think this would work, but games always come out with bugs and massive balance issues. I suspect it’s down to a lack of time to polish, mostly. In addition, I don’t want them copying other folks homework verbatim: I want them to add something of their own to the mix. And I think you really need a decent-sized player base to actually see how some theoretically cool ideas play out for real: both how systems can be abused or broken by smart players and how confusing they can be to… less smart players.

 

[MarkB]

I’m definitely going to give it time to cook, maybe wait for a DLC or two. As you say, XCOM2 is almost a different game post-WotC, while Phoenix Point also benefitted greatly from post-release balance changes (though the DLC there is admittedly more of a mixed bag).

You’d think this would work, but games always come out with bugs and massive balance issues. I suspect it’s down to a lack of time to polish, mostly. In addition, I don’t want them copying other folks homework verbatim: I want them to add something of their own to the mix. And I think you really need a decent-sized player base to actually see how some theoretically cool ideas play out for real: both how systems can be abused or broken by smart players and how confusing they can be to… less smart players.

Yeah, it definitely has room to grow, maybe a bit of rebalancing of the classes.

Some of the things I was initially confused by have become clearer with further play, and I'm getting a better handle on the combat.

Missions could maybe do with a bit more variety, but again that's something that the XCOM games only really improved upon with their DLC.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I’m definitely going to give it time to cook, maybe wait for a DLC or two. As you say, XCOM2 is almost a different game post-WotC, while Phoenix Point also benefitted greatly from post-release balance changes (though the DLC there is admittedly more of a mixed bag).

Yeah, I found it much more playable in my most recent attempt (even though in the end I found I'd walked myself into my only option being win condition I didn't want, so I didn't finish it--sometimes where you're going with that game can be a little opaque). I have (because I was a backer back in the Dim Times) all the DLC, but I haven't even attempted playing with any of them engaged recently.

But the difference is the DLC in PP are separate from the tune-up on it (in fact, they had to tune up at least one of the DLCs from what I understand) where its interwoven with the big DLCs with XCOM1 and XCOM2.

You’d think this would work, but games always come out with bugs and massive balance issues. I suspect it’s down to a lack of time to polish, mostly. In addition, I don’t want them copying other folks homework verbatim: I want them to add something of their own to the mix. And I think you really need a decent-sized player base to actually see how some theoretically cool ideas play out for real: both how systems can be abused or broken by smart players and how confusing they can be to… less smart players.

My suspeicion is with strategy games they never get enough playtesting, which likely doesn't help.