What videogames are you playing in 2026?

[Gladius Legis]

"Solasta II"?

I played through the main story early access content of Solasta 2 once. Probably won't touch it again until late this year, which is when a scheduled update will increase the level cap to 6. (Right now it's at 4.)

The fundamentals of the game's mechanics are there, as you'd expect. Still needs a lot of work in other areas, though. Namely UI, character creation, being able to save your characters when you create them (this part Tactical Adventures has confirmed they're working on), most of the faces while an improvement on Solasta 1 still have that uncanny valley look.

Reactions could use some work, too, prefer BG3's system where you can choose whether a reaction triggers automatically, whether it prompts you, or if you want to turn that reaction off entirely. (Which is a real twist of irony, by the way, since the reaction system in BG3's early access was trash, and Solasta 1 had shown a better way to do them. Then BG3 for its final release took that idea and made it better by allowing you control over how reactions trigger, and now it's Solasta that needs to catch back up in that regard.)

Story so far is ... adequate with still some cringy writing, which clears the extremely low bar of being better than Solasta 1's.

 

[Kaodi]

Of course this is the sort of game where I would love to try out a whole bunch of different builds but as I think I mentioned before I do not care to respec, and most "different" builds would require a Tav or Durge playthrough, which I may try to resist doing (ironically). Though it finally occurred to me that the perfect hireling playthrough may actually be Resist Durge death cleric of Kelemvor. Your companions are already dead and possibly just meat puppets controlled by Withers, so less angst about accidentally killing them when one of your moods strikes! And pick the fighter, rogue, and wizard companions for maximum death meta.

The other Tav option I was thinking was a riff off my first PF2 character - an elf who dumped wis and focused a lot on shooting his bow. Just be a wood elf life cleric of Corellon Larethian, and instead of worrying about war clerics "cast a spell and attack as a bonus action" ability just focus on attacking and casting a spell as a bonus action - namely healing word, which feels a bit more cost efficient when it gets that extra +2. No wis means I can max dex and get good con or respectable str and con for titanstring bow. And maybe even pick the feat at 4 that boosts con and gives proficiency in con saves so that I can actually get the most out of concentration buffs.

But I have also seen that Lae'zel and then Wyll are the least played Origin characters so there is pressure there to give them some love in subsequent playthroughs.

Edit: In a similar vein could also do something like a no-charisma high elf blue dragon sorcerer archer who uses the Joltyshooter and some lightning gear along with Phalar Aluve, Psychic Spark, and Ring of Absolute Force for some major magic missile spam.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Been playing Horizon Forbidden West. It looks gorgeous and is very fun to play. But I find myself running into the same problem I did with Assassins Creed Odyssey. There's so much to do in such a large map that I keep getting distracted by this or that sidequest or wondering what's over there that I'm making progress at the speed of molasses. May just have to just decide "no more sidequests" and focus solely on the main quest.

 

[Reynard]

Been playing Horizon Forbidden West. It looks gorgeous and is very fun to play. But I find myself running into the same problem I did with Assassins Creed Odyssey. There's so much to do in such a large map that I keep getting distracted by this or that sidequest or wondering what's over there that I'm making progress at the speed of molasses. May just have to just decide "no more sidequests" and focus solely on the main quest.

Or, the opposite.

 

[abazaba]

Been playing Horizon Forbidden West. It looks gorgeous and is very fun to play. But I find myself running into the same problem I did with Assassins Creed Odyssey. There's so much to do in such a large map that I keep getting distracted by this or that sidequest or wondering what's over there that I'm making progress at the speed of molasses. May just have to just decide "no more sidequests" and focus solely on the main quest.

I had a similar experience with 'Elder Scrolls Online' when I bought/played that (back in 2015 or so ?). So many sidequests I lost track of what the main quest was. Played it for a few hours over a few weekends, and kinda got bored with it. Not sure why though: I thought it was really well made. There still seems to be new content/expansions for the game, after all those years. Oh, well.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Or, the opposite.

There have definitely been videogames where I've done everything but the main quest until I felt I had to. And sometimes not even then.

I had a similar experience with 'Elder Scrolls Online' when I bought/played that (back in 2015 or so ?). So many sidequests I lost track of what the main quest was. Played it for a few hours over a few weekends, and kinda got bored with it. Not sure why though: I thought it was really well made. There still seems to be new content/expansions for the game, after all those years. Oh, well.

I think it's completely possible to think a game plays great, but find yourself lost in the weeds of it. Like the aforementioned AC Odyssey. It was totally up my alley, was a lot of fun to play, but I found myself repeatedly playing for an hour and just feeling like I didn't really accomplish much. So I moved on to other games.

 

[MarkB]

I think it's completely possible to think a game plays great, but find yourself lost in the weeds of it. Like the aforementioned AC Odyssey. It was totally up my alley, was a lot of fun to play, but I found myself repeatedly playing for an hour and just feeling like I didn't really accomplish much. So I moved on to other games.

Yeah, I had the exact same experience with that game. In fact, I don't think I've finished an AC game since the last Ezio one, and I played at least four.

 

[Reynard]

I started Indiana Jones last night and I like it a lot.

 

[agrayday]

that Indiana Jones game is great fun, I hear another one is in the works.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Yeah, I had the exact same experience with that game. In fact, I don't think I've finished an AC game since the last Ezio one, and I played at least four.

The Ezio trilogy is solid indeed. The last one I finished was Origins. Really enjoyed the story and the setting. The map was big, but not overwhelmingly so.