What videogames are you playing in 2026?

[MarkB]

Just finished Horizon Forbidden West. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but really feel like the map was too big for the game. I did a lot of fast travelling, something I try not to do.

It does feel rather sprawling, and there's a definite sense of "when am I going to get to the good bit?" in the first couple of chapters.

Not helped by having all the little locked-off areas throughout that you need to come back to many hours later once you have the right tools, and the rather grindy nature of the crafting system.

 

[Reynard]

Just finished Horizon Forbidden West. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but really feel like the map was too big for the game. I did a lot of fast travelling, something I try not to do.

I really liked Zero Dawn, from the setting to the gameplay to the cast. So it is weird I bounced right off Forbidden West. I managed about 8 hours and was like, "Nah, I'm done." Which tells me it was the novelty of HZD that I really enjoyed.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

It does feel rather sprawling, and there's a definite sense of "when am I going to get to the good bit?" in the first couple of chapters.

Not helped by having all the little locked-off areas throughout that you need to come back to many hours later once you have the right tools, and the rather grindy nature of the crafting system.

Creating an open world game that entices you to explore and return to areas is tough. Some games manage it, others don't. I was also struck by how much time it took to get from place to place in the game.

I really liked Zero Dawn, from the setting to the gameplay to the cast. So it is weird I bounced right off Forbidden West. I managed about 8 hours and was like, "Nah, I'm done." Which tells me it was the novelty of HZD that I really enjoyed.

I enjoyed Forbidden West quite a bit, but after a certain point, had to say enough with all the sidequests if I wanted to finish the game.

The voice cast has some heavy-hitters, that's for sure. Lance Reddick, Carrie Anne-Moss, Angela Bassett.

 

[MarkB]

I really want to try the Burning Shores expansion for Forbidden West, but not sure I'll have the muscle memory and familiarity with all the gear and abilities if I try to go back to an old save now. On the other hand, I don't want to play it through from scratch either.

 

[Pale Violet Light]

After finishing Midnight Suns (pretty good) I have gone back to my favourite deckbuilding/turn-based tactics hybrid/RPG hybrid, Trials of Fire. The tactical map really adds a certain something that I miss in conventional deckbuilders, and the way you get cards from both your class and from item really gives you wonderful flexibility in building your characters. Unfortunately almost no one played it, which is such a shame as it’s a wonderful little game.

 

[Meech17]

Last night I was browsing the Steam Summer sale and decided to pick up Schedule 1. It peaked my interest last year when it first came out and went viral, but I passed on it at the time. I had some credit lying around in my Steam account from a refund so I got it for ~$7.

It's fun. I totally lost track of time and ended up playing for about 3 hours, and well past my bedtime. Kind of like a mix of Cookie-Clicker style incremental games, Rust/ARK style base-building/crafting games, and Stardew Valley townsfolk relationship builder games.

There's a pretty obvious loop. You manually do "The small thing" over and over and over again, until you make enough money to improve your equipment and can ramp up quantities of "The Small thing" and then eventually have enough to invest in "The Slightly-Less small thing" and do that over and over until you can invest in a new location with the space to grow and scale so you can ramp up quantities of the "Slightly-Less Small Thing".. I think I'm at the point where I can hire help to further automate, and make my way into handling the "Medium Thing" next.

It's still early access, but apparently the Dev is pretty invested in the community. He lets them vote on future updates, and has even hired people so he's no longer just a solo-dev.

I can see myself probably dumping 25-100 hours into this, seeing all there is to see, and then shelfing it for a year or two until it hits full release.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Last night I was browsing the Steam Summer sale and decided to pick up Schedule 1. It peaked my interest last year when it first came out and went viral, but I passed on it at the time. I had some credit lying around in my Steam account from a refund so I got it for ~$7.

It's fun. I totally lost track of time and ended up playing for about 3 hours, and well past my bedtime. Kind of like a mix of Cookie-Clicker style incremental games, Rust/ARK style base-building/crafting games, and Stardew Valley townsfolk relationship builder games.

There's a pretty obvious loop. You manually do "The small thing" over and over and over again, until you make enough money to improve your equipment and can ramp up quantities of "The Small thing" and then eventually have enough to invest in "The Slightly-Less small thing" and do that over and over until you can invest in a new location with the space to grow and scale so you can ramp up quantities of the "Slightly-Less Small Thing".. I think I'm at the point where I can hire help to further automate, and make my way into handling the "Medium Thing" next.

It's still early access, but apparently the Dev is pretty invested in the community. He lets them vote on future updates, and has even hired people so he's no longer just a solo-dev.

I can see myself probably dumping 25-100 hours into this, seeing all there is to see, and then shelfing it for a year or two until it hits full release.

I actually played that over 50 hours! It was fun, but I was kinda reaching the end of content at that time. Maybe I should go back some time to check out the new stuff.

 

[Norolock]

Picked up all of the Resident Evil games (minus Requiem) for about $30. Playing through the 2015 remake of Resident Evil now.
It has such a fascinating vibe, and the old-school graphics are quite charming.

 

[Gladius Legis]

Picked up all of the Resident Evil games (minus Requiem) for about $30. Playing through the 2015 remake of Resident Evil now.
It has such a fascinating vibe, and the old-school graphics are quite charming.

Skip 5 and 6. Those suck. Everything else is worth at least one playthrough.

 

[Meech17]

I actually played that over 50 hours! It was fun, but I was kinda reaching the end of content at that time. Maybe I should go back some time to check out the new stuff.

Apparently there is an update due any time now.. So perhaps keep an eye out for that. It'd probably be a good time to jump back in.