just wanted to share my current game of the year, Bluejeweled
playable in browser so you have no excuse! BLUEJEWELED by brandonhare on itch
12 Likes
Gamingās antithesis to dopamine detox.
1 Like
holy shit
4 Likes
How well does that thing work?
I have a fat ps2 with games on an hdd, but I also have a slim ps2 and Iād like to either another option, or a fun gift to give to a friend.
I know when playing from a usb it canāt really handle any fmvs or 3d games that well.
Works great tho the only other game Iāve booted up is Kuon. No issues with the intro FMV. KennyL has done more testing and found it worked much better than USB and networked drives.
2 Likes
The game ends up teaching you this way too hard. Iām going really fast-paced on this game, so when I end it Iām going to write my two cents on this. But yeah, you were right, and also, the game is less replayable than I thought (in a good way)
Iām on the Scrapyards right now, so I donāt think I have much longer.
1 Like
As always, so great to read! We have very, very different reactions to Kaori 
1 Like
Been hopping around between FF8, Tokyo Xtreme Racer and Ninja Gaiden 2 Black for the most part as of late. Been a slow, but continually enjoyable, go at FF8 as Iāve been working on a some things to strengthen my characters and GF skills before I proceed too much further. Iām early into Disc 2 and am still having a great time when the mood strikes for some RPG time. The junctioning system has grown on me a lot, Triple Triad is going great (just got the Rinoa card), and Iām having a lot of fun as I try to optimize everyoneās setups. Makes the combat, bosses, and overall progression throughout the game more interesting and less rote.
Tokyo Xtreme Racer has been a great jump in-and-out of game to chill to when I want some gaming time, but am not quite in the mood for too much thinking. Love the atmosphere and simplicity of this game.
NG2B has not been chill at all and Iām loving every bit of it. Recently completed Chapters 2 & 3. The Chapter 2 boss was pretty challenging, but I got him in less than 10 attempts, so thatās considered win. The Chapter 3 boss was very disappointing, as it made for a great spectacle, but was way too easy and I didnāt really get the point of it even being a bossā¦ but whatever, Iāll take the easy dub there.
(Not really spoilers, but if anyone plans on playing and doesnāt want to know who the bosses will be, donāt look at the screenshots below.)
10 Likes
I started some more games, but Iām not going to talk about them yet in case I drop those too.
1 Like
I dunno, I think the experience of sampling things and realising they arenāt for you is just as worthy of being talked about
8 Likes
Iām enjoying my time with Pseudoregalia. Coming back to it after some time means I did a lot of backtracking and getting my bearings with the movement mechanics, but its starting to click. It scratches a similar itch to Animal Well where the abilities you unlock can be chained together if you get the timing right, and it feels very rewarding to pull things off, especially when at first Iām convinced thereās no way I can do it. The movement feels so smooth that backtracking doesnāt feel like a chore or like things are ground to a halt ā a large part of why I like this game is learning new ways to move from area to area quickly.
Overall I like that this game went for something simple and kept things simple, and does it quite well. I mentioned this before when I first played this months ago, but I love the sounds in this game.
Iād like to know what game has a dash->jump mechanic as good as this. In general 3D platformers are a blindspot for me and Iām interested in seeing what else is out there after I finish this one.
5 Likes
Totally and completely agree! Through my adhering to my 2025 Goal of only playing one game at a time and then if I decide to put it down, itās āgoneā (I remove it from the ODE or Flash Cart or Retroarch library or Steam Deck or wherever) Iāve found myself pushing through things that I otherwise would have stopped and been very very rewarded by it in ways that I think are worth talking about
Not to go on too wide a ramble here but what Iāve been discovering is that unlimited access to every game ever had ended up Spotify-ing my attention span with games in the same way that it had with music; if I didnāt immediately love it completely I could just move onāafter all, what could possibly be lost when I have the entirety of the history of all games ever at my fingertips directly?
But what that meant in practice is I had lost my ability and attention-span needed to stretch my own taste. It was all carrot and no stick. Back in my childhood when my taste was being created, if I ended up with something from the rental store, if I didnāt end up liking it immediately I had to stick with it or else not have anything to do but replay something I already owned! Same for Sega Channelāeach month only had a couple new games, so to not get bored I had to try new things and stick with them
I had an almost taste-transforming experience with Yu-No this year, and that only came about because I realized after almost putting it down that if I did, I couldnāt ever revisit it, so I sat back down and decided to push through a liiiiitle bit, and I ended up piercing the veil eventually
Anywho, what I mean to say is that I find people talking about why/how/when they bounce off of things and setting them down and how that interacts with/grows/solidifies their taste really lovely, and one of the things I love about this thread
9 Likes
True to my word, Iām also playing Psuedoregalia. Everyone already knows the movement and atmosphere are best in class so Iāll add that the music is phenomenal. Each environment has a different genre of āvideo game musicā from cozy-Zelda like songs with midi acoustic guitar to breakcore. Itās awesome.
My only complaint about the game is the sparseness can sometimes make me question whether Iām going an intended route or exploiting some jank to sequence break. I guess some people might like this aspect but it causes me to worry āoh shit am I supposed to be here.ā Also the combat is kinda a chore.
But those complaints are minor in an otherwise excellent game.
3 Likes
I agree about the music, my dream is to make a game soundtrack and this game has revived that feeling, I love the different vibes it offers while also sticking to a central theme of mystery and decay.
Re: sequence break ā I might have animal well-brain but Iām fully embracing it, just hope I donāt get stuck and that the game is able to accommodate for it!
The combat feels awkward yeah, Iāve taken to ignoring enemies when I backtrack. Itās not as fluid as the traversal and it feels a bit jarring, luckily its not a focus of the game.
3 Likes
So Iām pretty sure I DID sequence break and got to the underbelly way too early and kinda panicked. I found my way out but an hour or so later I entered āthe real wayā and was like oh thatās how itās meant.
3 Likes
Finished Citizen Sleeper 2 very recently. I donāt quite remember the first apart from vibes and much else, but first, what itās due. Brace about the images, since those are spoilers:
I liked the first game more than the second, but not by much. That is because I think the game went and not only polished some things, but also took those into a very different direction that had also some misshaps along the way in a very similar fashion than the change between 15 Sentinels and Unicorn Overlord had in their story: when you have a wide array of settings and characters rather than a concentrated cast in a few spots, you tend to have your characters less integrated and cohesive than you would know. Luckily, this is a welcome sacrifice unless what I experience with Unicorn Overlord, since I feel there is a balance and a consideration with the worldbuilding and the whole package. It is more gamey, but you still can get through most of the characters and get entranced with the setting.
To sum up, I think this offers a more gameplay-oriented experience rather than the first, and while you canāt connect as hard with the caracter, I think the dev manages to pivot the game strengths into a very different (and interesting direction), one that makes me wonder: would he be able to fuse the tabletop role mechanics he implemented in Citizen Sleeper into an immersive sim? This is my wild answer, but it is from what I experienced in Citizen Sleeper 2.
Now, for the spoilers:
First of all, totally agree with @Thisiscontrol on the whole experience. The first game was about community in an entrenched manner. You are a refugee, you try to survive, get some contracts and then start to get more and more seduced by the Eye and its inhabitants and connect with them. Itās like finding a safe haven, seeing it develop, fuse the tension and then choose when do you want to end it. The second changes that formula: instead of entering into a community and trying to connect with its inhabitants, you are, for the most part, sorely limited to contribute and have to be on the run. The concept in which you should help whenever you can, I feel, offers a symptom of being able to collaborate in a society that is barely holding still and trying to hang on every day; in a way, itās a game about gratitude, about āit doesnāt take much effort to help anyoneā. Of course, that is completely eroded when you do contracts, and you have to ponder yourself between the prudence of doing contracts without getting into too much stress, and the idea of putting a bad dice into an action that you think may help you or develop something, since itād only cost you some energy in return. I think that is something that has been well-thought as much as any of the elements of the prior game, and the idea of being on the run will be slowly corroded by making your āscape hubā your own safe haven, with your own crew that, eventually, become your home, your safe haven. I think itās beautifully crafted in that sense, and Iām amazed that outside of the main cast you also find several people (the city that is on strike is my favorite part of the game, as well as the presence) that ended up holding a special place in this game.
Not like the best thing, but a great game, nonetheless.
5 Likes
Based on all the preview materials, this is exactly what I expect my reaction to Sleeper 2 would be.
As someone who recently played the first, and may not play the second, my take is:
1: intricate sci-fi narrative with board game mechanics
2: board game with an intricate sci-fi narrative
well ic, iām on my fire emblem bullshit. as of right now iām playing fire emblem: radiant dawn. after i get through this game, iām planning on playing the following fe games:
- fe6
- fe7
- fe8
- fe awakening
- fe11
ALL of this i have to play before i play three houses and then fe engage. wish me luck, everyone.
10 Likes
Wishing you luck! I love FE10. Unofficial Insert Credit Essential.
3 Likes