What are you playing?

[Sarah Valentine]

I'm super interested! I'm eager for VG streams to return, and the Ezio trilogy is arguably the best storytelling in the whole Assassin's Creed franchise.

[Selbaek]

I'm a little over 30 hours into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and I have to say I think this might be in my top 5 best RPGs of all time! Holy crap they hit this one out of the ballpark on basically every facet.

The story is dramatic but in a believable and "adult" way (not a lot of overdramatization that we tend to see heavily in RPGs lately). The story has gone places. The relationships between the characters are really well done. The game doesn't overexplain things and instead respects your intelligence to allow the context clues to give you answers to questions you have along the way. The gameplay is a mixture of all the finer points of Final Fantasy, Legend of Dragoon, Lost Odyssey, Super Mario RPG, among some others. The world map is very charming. The price is only $50 in a sea of $70 to $80 now, as well as available at no extra cost for Game Pass subscribers. It's on all the major platforms (aside from Switch, but I bet it comes to Switch 2 eventually). It stays both graphically and contextually consistent. This is a realized world that feels like it's had decades of development history.

It's just everything a turn-based RPG fan has been yearning for in every way. I can't sing its praises enough right now. I can't speak to its ending just yet, but the writing has been pretty great and there have been some really pivotal events throughout so far that even if the ending fizzles, the journey has been so amazing that I doubt it would take much away from the game. But I expect a grand finale.

[The Grimace]

I'm just before the end of Act II and have been for two weeks. I had to put Expedition 33 down because it was making my emotions go absolutely haywire. Clair Obscur is my Game of the Year. The battle system, music, plot, and aesthetic are all top notch. When I have the time and energy, I'll finish the game.

I do have issues with the game lacking a mini-map during exploration. It makes finding hidden treasure really confusing, and finding Pictos to equip can be an exercise in frustration. The game rewards you for looking into as many nooks and crannies you can, but the items are REALLY useful and are necessary to maximize productivity in battles. Now if only the game made it easier to actually understand all of the places I have already checked! It gets very easy to be turned around.

Disclaimer: I've never cried this much during an RPG. It hits heavy out the gate and I would not recommend the game to anyone suffering from depression or anxiety.

[Mr Croft]

Finished up split fiction and expedition 33 recently. Expedition 33 is my goty right now. Currently playing The Forever Winter and doom the dark ages. The two best games I've played this year were both $50

[Sarthis]

Update for likely the next month-ish: As always I dip into Total War:Warhammer 3 every now and then, working my way through Oblivion: Remastered and having a blast with my nostalgia doing side quests I completely forgot about. I'm waiting on some updates for Avowed before I get back on that one. I finished the first act and looked at the free update roadmap and they're going to release some QoL that will make me enjoy it a lot more, so just going to let that play out. I've started Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, but I'm not quite sure how I feel about it yet. I love the story, the world is fantastic, but I'm not digging the combat myself. Was thinking I might take it down to the bottom difficulty and see how it is. Wondering if it's just a more JRPG style experience that still has a bit of difficulty to it, or if it just turns it into a walk in the park without the reactive combat dodge/parry stuffs.

However, my after work game right now is Monster Train 2. I typically don't have the bandwidth after work to do anything that requires me to pay too close attention, and the first game was definitely one of my go-to titles for when I'm tired but not ready to go to bed quite yet. I think it'll probably stick around for quite a bit, if its replayability is like the first one.

[Althena]

Playing through Lunar: Remastered as I think you all know, Random Encounter has got me thoroughly addicted to Uncharted Waters Online and I'm still playing FFXIV. I'm kind of excited to do another playthrough of Assassin's Creed II for the stream, it's been a minute but it's nice to have something to look forward to.

[Mr Croft]

Update for likely the next month-ish: As always I dip into Total War:Warhammer 3 every now and then, working my way through Oblivion: Remastered and having a blast with my nostalgia doing side quests I completely forgot about. I'm waiting on some updates for Avowed before I get back on that one. I finished the first act and looked at the free update roadmap and they're going to release some QoL that will make me enjoy it a lot more, so just going to let that play out. I've started Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, but I'm not quite sure how I feel about it yet. I love the story, the world is fantastic, but I'm not digging the combat myself. Was thinking I might take it down to the bottom difficulty and see how it is. Wondering if it's just a more JRPG style experience that still has a bit of difficulty to it, or if it just turns it into a walk in the park without the reactive combat dodge/parry stuffs.

However, my after work game right now is Monster Train 2. I typically don't have the bandwidth after work to do anything that requires me to pay too close attention, and the first game was definitely one of my go-to titles for when I'm tired but not ready to go to bed quite yet. I think it'll probably stick around for quite a bit, if its replayability is like the first one.

For ex33 if you are not liking the dodge or parry stuff i recommend lowering the difficulty for sure because it will play like an classic jrpg more. As you get stronger and get better pictos the raw stats get good enough for you to play that way even in normal. The combat seems to be what people dislike the most which is understandable.