What games have you played over the past year, and maybe even finished?

I'm at the desert capital and so far the game is meh, maybe it gets better.
Think the extremely bland UI and enemies are my main issue, the world hasn't really drawn me in at all.

 

If you don't enjoy it at this point you probably won't like it. I agree the UI could be better. I enjoy stealth games (huge Metal Gear fan) so I really like that aspect of Horizon.

 

So I pondered what to do and used my 90 pity on Klee just now.
Zhongli Geo isn't too useful I think and I already have good water dmg with Barbara, so don't need Childe really.
Ayaka is rumoredly at least four months off, so I'll hopefully have enough gems til then.

The lvl32 Klee mission I did yesterday really changed my view and she grew on me immensely.

 

I did her story mission and trial domain. Her playstyle is just different for me. I do want to replace my Xiangling with another fire user, ideally Diluc with his claymore against shields. Klee's bombs do wear down shields well, so she's an alternative choice, but her kit doesn't vibe to me.

I've seen vids where she absolutely nukes bosses, so she's definitely worthy of a 5* DPS character.

 

Finally put down Hades (Amazing game) and found Darksiders III in backlog. Its okay so far.

 

I started playing Crusader Kings III ... this game is pretty deep. Definitely not Civ, and I feel like I need a primer on governmental hierarchy and structure first. It's been a blast so far, though I don't think I get everything yet. I have other Paradox games in my library that I've yet to play like Europa Universalis IV and Stellaris. I'm guessing the level of complexity is along those lines. So far.... me likes.

 

Still playing crusader kings II. The problem with the Paradox games is they dribble out the DLC content for years and by the time you're done, you've spent $250.00 to get the full game. Then they come out with the next iteration of the game which is the same game with a prettier UI and it starts over.

 

This is one of the things I hated about them in the past and one of the reasons I didn't buy them until I bought Stellaris and Europa Universalis IV on sale (still haven't played either, of course). Then I just notice Stellaris has something like 10-15 DLC's. Civ DLC's are almost bad since they come out priced like a full-blown game, but they do add a fair amount of content usually. From what I understand, Crusader Kings III is more "complete" out of the box whereas games like EU IV supposedly were released to where they never felt fixed/complete until DLC's later(?) I'm not sure because, as I said, I never played them.

The gaming industry is getting to be somewhat annoying in some regards. The whole DLC where they charge $10-$20 for what seems like a minor game addition or something that should've been part of the game always seemed corny to me. Then you have the "early access" titles where you pay for a game that's still being developed so you can play it. It may end up being crap, but who cares? They made some money off of you.

 

I agree with you on the DLC. Some devs still release substantial new content for free (NMS for example, though they're on the other extreme end of the spectrum), so it seems odd to have so much DLC for some games (especially at launch). Unless it is just cosmetic stuff, in which case, go ahead with all the $15 DLC you want.

I'm generally OK with the early access stuff though, as long as it isn't abused. Honestly, these games should be (heavily) discounted IMO, as they're basically getting tons of feedback, testing, and bug/performance reports. Something like Baldur's Gate 3 should have been $30-$40 during its EA period IMO, not $60. Most of the games I bought in EA that actually needed it were discounted in EA. Something like $15-$30. I've never bothered to give feedback (I barely have time to play them), but it seems like the devs are able to do a better job finishing their games with this model. When done well, I do enjoy seeing these games start off as a rough concept that is barely playable, but over time they become more and more polished. AAA (or big AA) games *probably* shouldn't use this model. They can probably just do closed betas or something along those lines. These are meant more for small indie studios IMO.

 

Zhongli showcase is out. I'm not feeling it. Maybe I'll roll on this banner. Noelle's constellations are good, Sucrose is a good CC backup to Venti, and Klee fits that fire/shield breaker I need. Having a good Noelle and Sucrose will be helpful for Spiral Abyss's two teams. Ugh...decisions.

 

Yea the Klee Banner chars are all useful, plus Klee and Noelle are super fun to use and look at imo.

 

Baldur's Gate is the one I thought of recently. That probably is the game I want to play the most since it's probably among the top 2 or 3 series I've ever played. Then I saw the $60 price to help them beta test it, and well... eh. I'll wait until it's released. Humankind just "pre-released". They're basically charging $50 to buy the game ahead of it's --> April <-- release so you can get an extra DLC and some random crap like badges and whatnot. So you won't be able to play the game, I guess, until April, you have no idea what it may be like because this isn't a pre-released yet, but you're asked to pay $50 for this ether. Now, when it's released, it could be utter crap or it could be the greatest game ever, but stuff like this scares me about a game because the first thing I think is "let's get as much money off this as we can ahead of time because this ain't lookin' good" or "we need some more money to keep this rolling". lol. Admittedly, I haven't been following the development of that one -- it just seemed like a cool concept and a genre I like.

I know that's just on me because it's obviously up to the individual and no one's putting a gun to your head to buy it ahead of time, but a lot of this just seems shady or sleazy -- especially a lot of the DLC where you get scraps that should've been included for $20 stuff.

 

@Yung-T Did you see the new banner leaks?

Spoiler

I decided to pull on Klee after all. Since I'm unlikely to get Diluc, I needed a shield breaker and fire is a bonus, plus I spent more time on her trial and got used to her. I did spend a bit on extra primogems, so I was able to get Klee, Jean, C6 Sucrose, C3 Xingqiu and C3 Noelle. I would've preferred C6 Noelle but Sucrose is a really good support. Jean replaces my C4 Barbara. Currently working on building out Klee and Jean.

I think my main team will be C1 Fischl, Klee, Jean, and Venti. Xiangling and Barbara are going to the bench. Sucrose will definitely get leveled. Still contemplating that 8th team member for Spiral Abyss.

 

Dang, how much did you spend for that?
I also got a friend to pull on the Klee Banner and he got her, I'm still missing Sucrose though.

You can use Jean to suck in the Klee bomb fragments and throw them at enemies, Venti's Ultimate should also be able to do that once it gets revamped in 1.1.
Fischl also works really well with Klee due to the pyro-electro overload.

The new banners look nice, not sure whether I'll try for Childe or just save for Ayaka.

 

So far, I've spent $5 on the Welkin Moon, $10 on the BP, and I did the $100 gem pack for the bonuses. My spending habits during COVID has actually been pretty good, so I didn't mind spending a bit on this game. It's kept me entertained this past month. And heck, I used to blow more money on MtG and Pokemon cards back in the day lol.

I've seen the synergies with Klee and Anemo characters. I do hope they patch up Venti's Q with Klee, but that might have been intentional to not make the Venti+Klee combo too OP. I like the loadout so far, I just need to upgrade Klee and Jean to catch up with my Fischl and Venti. I'm at AR39 now and finally getting a good mix of 4* artifacts to replace my 3* I've upgraded.

I might end up skipping these new banners and investing in what I have already. With as hard as resources are to come by, I can't spread too thin.

 

2k for a character...gatcha'd

 

Lol yeah, that guy gets disrespected on all the forums. He's a hype YouTuber. I watched some of his vids in the beginning, but quickly learned that he's about 1 min of basic knowledge with 10 minutes of fluff to up his monetization.

 

I'm still pretty far behind in Genshin Impact. AR 29 right now, and I've yet to do any of the main story quests after Monstadt ( though I've explored all of the map pretty much). I decided to do a 10 wish for the Klee banner a couple of days ago, which I really did because I wanted to get any of the 4 star units. I ended up with Klee of course.

 

@Yung-T I got Klee to level 80, level 6 talents, mid-game artifacts, and the crafted weapon. Her damage levels are insane with a mediocre build. Now that she's built, gotta get Jean up to speed. I haven't done too much Spiral Abyss yet. Only finished 6-3 but haven't 3-starred them.

 

I was considering the Microsoft game pass (?) Just to play ck3 for this reason.