General Game Discussion thread for April 2026

[Zed Clampet]

Toxic developer (and player) alert: after hundreds of hours in both Farm Together games and buying all their DLC and talking them up everywhere I could, the developer is being a complete a-hole after I turned in a very valid bug report. He's treating me like a complete idiot, which is very perceptive of him, but this time I know what I'm talking about and I even provided 8 screenshots and an exact description of what is happening. Rather than looking at it, he's being dismissive and demanding more screenshots to prove that I'm not lying. I got news for you, buddy. You've just made an enemy of one of the most loud and vindictive persons you've ever had the misfortune of coming across, and I fully intend to lay waste to your a$$ everywhere your game is discussed.

I ended up leaving him a pleasant sounding message, expressing my concerns but stating that I understood his position, and I'm not going to ever read what he replied. I'm just going to assume he came around. Otherwise, I'm going to quit playing the game, and I don't want to do that.

 

[neogunhero]

Game Pass has just had a price cut across all tiers; PC Game Pass is now $13.99/month down from $16.49. Two fifty off isn't really significant but does push it to be a little more enticing again.

A major perk lost to make this happen is that COD games will no longer be available day one, instead being pushed back around year to the next "holiday season". If assuming they mean November-December by that, I think that's kind of a bad move. They should instead put the latest COD games out a month or two before the next one comes out, as sort of a way to advertise the next entry. We all know those games are filled with actual ads anyways so it wouldn't be above them. Why do I even care?

There are some games coming to GP that I'm interested in playing so I'll consider getting a month later down the line. Ever since they took away the ability to redeem a month using the Bing rewards points, I stopped getting it. Prior to that I could get a month on the cheap from key reseller sites, but I stopped using those ever since a G2A purchase hacked my card... my fault for using grey-market sites.


I'll keep an eye out for what games are coming to it. I'm mostly interested in the first party Xbox games as I'll typically never buy one unless it's on a steep sale. With indie games and others that I enjoy, I prefer to buy them instead. GP is more of a once in a while type thing, not something I'd keep active for multiple months.

 

[Pifanjr]

I played some Fortnite with my wife and kid today. We did 4 matches and I'm not sure any of the people we shot were actual players and not just bots. I remember reading that about 90% of all "players" in each match are bots nowadays and that seems to match my experience.

Honestly though, I don't really mind. I prefer PvE anyway and the important thing is that we had fun as a family.

 

[neogunhero]

What are your guys' thoughts on VR in 2026?

I could has sworn this will be the future of games back in around 2013 when VR as we know it today was first taking off. Back then I knew the pricing and lack of killer apps and games would hold it back from mass adoption, and within a decade we'll see VR becoming more and more mainstream. However in 2026, VR seems to be last on the list of developer's priorities.

I bought a used Dell VRP100 back in 2020 for $100. It suuucked! The controllers regularly disconnected, the low framerate hurt my eyes a bit, and the whole thing was uncomfortable to wear, especially being tethered to my PC. However, it being my first VR headset, I pushed on and had lots of fun with it. Many games didn't work, the controllers were often not recognized, but the few titles I could get working were a blast.

One of my favorite VR games I tried back then was Space Junkies by Ubisoft. It was a FPS game with 6DOF movement being that you're floating through space. It was hard to get used to (spinning freely in outer space is a sure-fire way to getting nauseated), but once it clicked, man was it fun. I would wait for close to 10 minutes to find a single person to play against.

These days, VR still has not taken off like I or the industry had hoped, and I don't feel there is much of a future for it in it's current form. VR headsets are still considered a luxury for most gamers. $400+ for a headset when you can spend that same money on a new console or PC part? It's just not as accessible for most people to gain widespread adoption. Throw in game developers general lack of interest in developing for VR, it just doesn't look too good for it's future.

I still hope to see much more affordable VR headsets in the future, with more games being developed for it as well. There have been major breakthroughs and advancements in the hardware, and Valve's new headset looks to be the crowning king of them all, but I can still suspect it to be closer to $1000 than not. Again, that is a luxury for most people, not an essential bit of gaming gear.

If prices went down, power went up, and more games were available, it could still have a chance at being more widely adopted than it is now.

 

[Zloth]

I'm more hopeful for AR than VR. VR wins with the immersion factor, but it makes you completely blind to the world around you, and it isn't as trivial to take on and off. AR can even set up a zone where it will go clear - so look to your right and you're looking through weak sunglasses. Seems way more practical.

I haven't seen any that get into the drivers and/or directX and/or Unreal to properly understand 3D, though. They just take the output and try to guess the 3D aspects. Pah.

 

[Zed Clampet]

What are your guys' thoughts on VR in 2026?

I subscribe to several game industry analysts. Here's what they have said over the last few months (paraphrasing):

PC VR is holding steady, but with a major problem but also potentially a major savior.

The Major Problem: Meta Quest, which allows you to tether it to your PC, had its strongest year in 2025, but Meta has, oddly, cut back its VR business, laid off 1500 people (and possibly closed a big VR developer, but I'm not 100 percent sure on that one and don't feel like going back to check). Meta's actions, the analysts believe, are threatening to almost completely kill off PC VR.

Potential Savior: Valve. People seem to love untethered VR, and that's exactly what Valve is giving them. You'll be able to play your Steam VR games without a tether. The Frame is going to beat the Quest in every tech category, presumably becoming the superior way to play PC VR games. There is hopeful speculation that this will cause a revival of the early enthusiasm for VR and encourage developers struggling with the Meta situation to produce quality VR content. Combining the Frame with Steam's game ecosystem is expected to be a huge boost.

Personal opinion: Don't even consider buying a VR headset until the Frame arrives.

 

[Pifanjr]

What are your guys' thoughts on VR in 2026?

Personally, and I think this is true for a lot of people, I wouldn't consider buying a VR headset until there was a sizable library of VR games I really wanted to play and even then I have so many games on my backlog that I'd probably still be very reluctant to buy one. And developers aren't going to make these VR games I'd want to play if no one is buying VR headsets.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Personally, and I think this is true for a lot of people, I wouldn't consider buying a VR headset until there was a sizable library of VR games I really wanted to play and even then I have so many games on my backlog that I'd probably still be very reluctant to buy one. And developers aren't going to make these VR games I'd want to play if no one is buying VR headsets.

What kind of VR games would interest you?

 

[Pifanjr]

What kind of VR games would interest you?

That's a very good question. I don't think I'd buy a VR headset just for a VR game that isn't much different to a regular PC game. So for example, Skyrim VR is not a reason to buy a VR headset for me. It would have to be a game that uses the capabilities of VR to do something you couldn't do on a PC and does it so spectacularly well that it justifies the price of both the game and the headset.

 

[Pifanjr]

I think I'm pretty knowledgeable about gaming in general, but every so often I'm reminded just how broad the video game hobby is and how many parts I have almost zero knowledge about.

For example, I had never heard of this puzzle game before, but it seems to be widely regarded as the best puzzle game ever made:

10 years of grilling: Stephen's Sausage Roll remains one of the most influential puzzle games ever created · Thinky Games

Happy 10th anniversary to Stephen's Sausage Roll! We asked a handful of developers why it remains a puzzle game masterpiece to this day.

thinkygames.com

It has apparently been mentioned twice on these forums, but only in passing. The main website has a review of it and has mentioned it once more this March when the creator released another game, but it has apparently never come up as one of the best puzzle games ever made.

Incidentally, it is currently 80% off at Steam:

Save 80% on Stephen's Sausage Roll on Steam

A simple 3d puzzle game.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Zed Clampet]

That's a very good question. I don't think I'd buy a VR headset just for a VR game that isn't much different to a regular PC game. So for example, Skyrim VR is not a reason to buy a VR headset for me. It would have to be a game that uses the capabilities of VR to do something you couldn't do on a PC and does it so spectacularly well that it justifies the price of both the game and the headset.

There were a few games like that back when I was using VR, like Lone Echo and Wilson's Heart, but I stopped using it because there weren't enough games like that. I'm sure there are probably more now, but every new big game at the time was a shooter, and I wasn't interested in those, except for maybe Half Life Alyx. I haven't looked into VR games in a good while, so I'm not sure what's available. I bought a VR headset last fall, but gave it away.

 

[Zed Clampet]

For example, I had never heard of this puzzle game before, but it seems to be widely regarded as the best puzzle game ever made:

I had CoPilot and Gemini compile a list from "reputable sources" of the top 5 puzzle games ever made and their lists were identical:

1. Portal
2. The Witness
3. Return of the Obra Dinn
4. The Talos Principal
5. Baba is You

That aligns with my expectations to a point, but I guess it all just depends on what source you are looking at. Stephen's Sausage Roll is well loved, so it doesn't surprise me too much that there would be people out there claiming it was the GOAT.

 

[Pifanjr]

I had CoPilot and Gemini compile a list from "reputable sources" of the top 5 puzzle games ever made and their lists were identical:

1. Portal
2. The Witness
3. Return of the Obra Dinn
4. The Talos Principal
5. Baba is You

That aligns with my expectations to a point, but I guess it all just depends on what source you are looking at. Stephen's Sausage Roll is well loved, so it doesn't surprise me too much that there would be people out there claiming it was the GOAT.

Stephen's Sausage Roll is specifically a very popular sokoban game, which is more niche than just "puzzle game", and is apparently really difficult. It's in a very different category than Portal, which is a really casual puzzle game.

 

[neogunhero]

There is hopeful speculation that this will cause a revival of the early enthusiasm for VR and encourage developers struggling with the Meta situation to produce quality VR content. Combining the Frame with Steam's game ecosystem is expected to be a huge boost.

I am very excited for the Frame in concept, though I have a feeling the price tag will be a little higher than I can justify. Valve has a stronger interest in serving players than chasing profits so that aspect does bode well for VRs future as long as they can pull off a great product and gain a large audience for it.

For example, I had never heard of this puzzle game before, but it seems to be widely regarded as the best puzzle game ever made:

I've not played the game, but I did come across this video a while back that shows just how insanely complex this game can be. It's way beyond my depth of knowledge:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK8OLuRBFTw

 

[Zed Clampet]

Stephen's Sausage Roll is specifically a very popular sokoban game, which is more niche than just "puzzle game", and is apparently really difficult. It's in a very different category than Portal, which is a really casual puzzle game.

I'm not arguing, I'm just curious. How do you define a puzzle game as "casual"? Portal's puzzles are much easier and for a general audience that needs to finish the story. So maybe "casual" refers to the puzzle difficulty? I started to add "story" to that, but I can picture a sokoban game incorporating a story.

I kind of like the idea, though. I have a problem with tying a game's "greatness" to its difficulty. So in a ranking of just "Top 5 Puzzle Games" I have a problem using difficulty to separate games if they are all listed together. But if we break them up into Casual and Hardcore, then it might make sense to consider difficulty, to some degree, in Casual, and to a greater degree in Hardcore.

However, I have always believed the greatness of a game is on a per-player basis. How much fun did you have? is the question, as that's been the primary purpose of non-educational games.

Yes, I've taken a simple statement of yours and turned it into an unspeakably boring conversation for everyone but me 🤣

 

[neogunhero]

I picked up Vampire Crawlers yesterday with the intent to just play a little before bed, I ended up playing for over an hour before realizing I absolutely needed to get to sleep. What a fun game! I personally don't have nostalgia for dungeon crawlers so for hardcore fans of that genre they may not like it, but as a big fan of Vampire Survivors, this was right up my alley. Fast paced, addicting, tons of ways to upgrade and power up. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a fast and easy roguelike to play with a surprising amount of depth and lots of synergies.

 

[Pifanjr]

I'm not arguing, I'm just curious. How do you define a puzzle game as "casual"? Portal's puzzles are much easier and for a general audience that needs to finish the story. So maybe "casual" refers to the puzzle difficulty? I started to add "story" to that, but I can picture a sokoban game incorporating a story.

I kind of like the idea, though. I have a problem with tying a game's "greatness" to its difficulty. So in a ranking of just "Top 5 Puzzle Games" I have a problem using difficulty to separate games if they are all listed together. But if we break them up into Casual and Hardcore, then it might make sense to consider difficulty, to some degree, in Casual, and to a greater degree in Hardcore.

However, I have always believed the greatness of a game is on a per-player basis. How much fun did you have? is the question, as that's been the primary purpose of non-educational games.

Yes, I've taken a simple statement of yours and turned it into an unspeakably boring conversation for everyone but me 🤣

Yes, casual refers to the puzzle difficulty. Portal is a great game because of its story and setting, not because of the puzzles. It is a great game with puzzles, but not necessarily a great puzzle game. If you strip out all of the story the game would not be nearly as good, especially not for someone who isn't a casual puzzle gamer.

The distinction between "great game with puzzles" and "great puzzle game" is of course not particularly important unless you're a hardcore puzzle gamer looking for a great puzzle game and you only get recommendations for great games with puzzles.

I picked up Vampire Crawlers yesterday with the intent to just play a little before bed, I ended up playing for over an hour before realizing I absolutely needed to get to sleep. What a fun game! I personally don't have nostalgia for dungeon crawlers so for hardcore fans of that genre they may not like it, but as a big fan of Vampire Survivors, this was right up my alley. Fast paced, addicting, tons of ways to upgrade and power up. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a fast and easy roguelike to play with a surprising amount of depth and lots of synergies.

That was exactly my experience when I tried out the demo. I don't quite understand why PCGamer gave it a 50 in their review.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Yes, casual refers to the puzzle difficulty. Portal is a great game because of its story and setting, not because of the puzzles. It is a great game with puzzles, but not necessarily a great puzzle game. If you strip out all of the story the game would not be nearly as good, especially not for someone who isn't a casual puzzle gamer.

The distinction between "great game with puzzles" and "great puzzle game" is of course not particularly important unless you're a hardcore puzzle gamer looking for a great puzzle game and you only get recommendations for great games with puzzles.



That was exactly my experience when I tried out the demo. I don't quite understand why PCGamer gave it a 50 in their review.

Understood. Portal puzzles were great for me, though. First time I played it I, stupidly, had the volume turned off, and I still enjoyed it. Then someone said, "Hey, idiot!" and I turned on the volume and enjoyed it even more. 🙂

 

[neogunhero]

That was exactly my experience when I tried out the demo. I don't quite understand why PCGamer gave it a 50 in their review.

I heard a theory online somewhere, this was specifically about IGN, but this person said they believe IGN gives low scores to popular games on purpose so that it garners discourse and people start talking about IGN again. I kind of felt that was the case with PCGs review. 98% overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam versus one persons 50/100 score is quite jarring. It is very well this persons own opinion, and reviewers should not be subjected to hype as that could influence their opinion, but I feel the editorial team at PCG maybe should have picked someone who was going to be a bit warmer to the game. I've barely played to notice any real flaws but I highly doubt this game is as bad as that review makes it seem.

 

[BeardyHat]

I played some Fortnite with my wife and kid today. We did 4 matches and I'm not sure any of the people we shot were actual players and not just bots. I remember reading that about 90% of all "players" in each match are bots nowadays and that seems to match my experience.

Honestly though, I don't really mind. I prefer PvE anyway and the important thing is that we had fun as a family.

I keep meaning to set Fortnite up for my kids, as my older really wants to play. My main worry is that it'll become his main game and he won't play much else; I quite like that he plays all kinds of different stuff, but maybe that's just a weird issue I have.

What are your guys' thoughts on VR in 2026?

I could has sworn this will be the future of games back in around 2013 when VR as we know it today was first taking off. Back then I knew the pricing and lack of killer apps and games would hold it back from mass adoption, and within a decade we'll see VR becoming more and more mainstream. However in 2026, VR seems to be last on the list of developer's priorities.

I bought a used Dell VRP100 back in 2020 for $100. It suuucked! The controllers regularly disconnected, the low framerate hurt my eyes a bit, and the whole thing was uncomfortable to wear, especially being tethered to my PC. However, it being my first VR headset, I pushed on and had lots of fun with it. Many games didn't work, the controllers were often not recognized, but the few titles I could get working were a blast.

One of my favorite VR games I tried back then was Space Junkies by Ubisoft. It was a FPS game with 6DOF movement being that you're floating through space. It was hard to get used to (spinning freely in outer space is a sure-fire way to getting nauseated), but once it clicked, man was it fun. I would wait for close to 10 minutes to find a single person to play against.

These days, VR still has not taken off like I or the industry had hoped, and I don't feel there is much of a future for it in it's current form. VR headsets are still considered a luxury for most gamers. $400+ for a headset when you can spend that same money on a new console or PC part? It's just not as accessible for most people to gain widespread adoption. Throw in game developers general lack of interest in developing for VR, it just doesn't look too good for it's future.

I still hope to see much more affordable VR headsets in the future, with more games being developed for it as well. There have been major breakthroughs and advancements in the hardware, and Valve's new headset looks to be the crowning king of them all, but I can still suspect it to be closer to $1000 than not. Again, that is a luxury for most people, not an essential bit of gaming gear.

If prices went down, power went up, and more games were available, it could still have a chance at being more widely adopted than it is now.

The main impediment to VR is just that it's a hassle. I have a Quest 2 and have played Half-Life: Alyx for about four and a half hours between two plays and I tend to get to the same part each time and then dip out. It just becomes a big thing to setup and play in the evenings when my kids are finally in bed; I could play when they're not in bed, as I'm sure they'd like to watch it, but VR just has too many hurdles to jump through to get to playing.

I sometimes can't even be asked to go get my laptop from another room, because it means I need to plug it in before I can play something on it.

With VR, I need to:
Power the Headset on (Wait)
Connect it to PC (waitt
Start PC Connection in the headset (wait more)
Start Steam VR (Again wait)
Finally fire up Half-Life: Alyx (And wait)

Then it's a bunch of moving physically moving around to play the game, which I just don't want to do when I play games these days. I spend my entire day moving around, doing stuff and when it's time for me to play something, I want to vegetate on the couch. Plus I tend to play games for 30-minute increments or so these days, before my focus ends-up switching to something else or I'm just too tired to continue. Having to go through all that setup just eats into that time and energy.

Then you've also got all the little issues to deal with. Sometimes nothing loads properly and you have to restart everything. Or one time in Alyx, my position got set 4 feet into the air and there was nothing I could do to fix it, aside from starting a new game from the chapter I was at. Textures don't always load properly, because my hardware isn't quite up to snuff (Had been running on an i7-7700 and Alyx is CPU intensive), so after 10 minutes or so, I need to quit out of the game and load it back in, because the textures are a blurry mess and it makes the game unplayable when there's puzzles that rely on them.

VR seems great in concept, but there's just a lot that comes along with it that I don't want to deal with when I want to play.

I think I'm pretty knowledgeable about gaming in general, but every so often I'm reminded just how broad the video game hobby is and how many parts I have almost zero knowledge about.

For example, I had never heard of this puzzle game before, but it seems to be widely regarded as the best puzzle game ever made:

10 years of grilling: Stephen's Sausage Roll remains one of the most influential puzzle games ever created · Thinky Games

Happy 10th anniversary to Stephen's Sausage Roll! We asked a handful of developers why it remains a puzzle game masterpiece to this day.

thinkygames.com

It has apparently been mentioned twice on these forums, but only in passing. The main website has a review of it and has mentioned it once more this March when the creator released another game, but it has apparently never come up as one of the best puzzle games ever made.

Incidentally, it is currently 80% off at Steam:

Save 80% on Stephen's Sausage Roll on Steam

A simple 3d puzzle game.

store.steampowered.com

Funny, they were talking about this game a lot on a podcast I listen to, years ago. Didn't sound up my alley, so I never bothered to check it out. But that's how I end-up hearing about a lot of obscure stuff is podcasts. I tend to listen to about 5-6 different gaming podcasts in my day to day, so I end-up hearing about a lot of stuff I never play.

I picked up Vampire Crawlers yesterday with the intent to just play a little before bed, I ended up playing for over an hour before realizing I absolutely needed to get to sleep. What a fun game! I personally don't have nostalgia for dungeon crawlers so for hardcore fans of that genre they may not like it, but as a big fan of Vampire Survivors, this was right up my alley. Fast paced, addicting, tons of ways to upgrade and power up. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a fast and easy roguelike to play with a surprising amount of depth and lots of synergies.

Damn, this looks amazing. I briefly glanced at the PCG review, but saw Vampire Survivors and checked out from there. But dungeon crawler? Oh definitely. This may supplant Pillars of Eternity for me.

Still playing Pillars at this point. Just made it to the big city, so I'm doing some exploring and quests there; in the past this has been where I've checked out, but I'm still having a good time with the game, so I'll continue. Been very much enjoying playing on my Steam Deck; text is harder to read, I have it locked at 30FPS to save battery life, but it's very cozy to lay back on the couch and soak in the world.

 

[BeardyHat]

Oh, I should also say, I started playing a bit of Gran Turismo 2 on PSX via emulation.

I just want to say, emulation is incredible these days. Not only am I playing a ROM hack that adds a bunch more vehicles, but I'm using Duckstation, which is the emulator itself. I have it set to up the resolution of the game 3x, smooth out the texture warping stuff the PSX is known for, as well as add extra AA and boost the game from it's normal 20-25FPS in a race to a rock solid 60 FPS.

It looks and plays more like a PS2 game now.

 

[neogunhero]

VR seems great in concept, but there's just a lot that comes along with it that I don't want to deal with when I want to play.

I had to deal with a lot of the same problems you had when I used my Dell headset. Before even getting into all the physical stuff, having a space large enough to play in is already a challenge for me. Our house is fairly small with nearly every square foot being taken up by something, I don't have a large 6 foot x 6 foot space to play in. Standalone headsets seem much better for this as you don't need to be tethered to the PC, but some games will still require a large enough space to play in.

A dream VR headset for me would be something small and lightweight like a pair of glasses that I can use while sitting at my desk, perhaps using a controller or just standards kb+m while the VR headset acts as the screen. That's pretty much how the whole VR scene was back around 2013, before full body tracking was a thing.

 

[neogunhero]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShUy3fxUOzY


This looks fantastic. Please be good!

 

[Pifanjr]

I did another mission in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. I had to grab a truck that was being escorted by two armoured vehicles, which seemed easy enough. In the past I could just block the road and quickly run up to a vehicle and attach a balloon while it stopped.

However, on my way to the convoy I get spotted and trigger an alarm. This causes the convoy to immediately start driving to the endpoint without making any stops. I immediately start running after it while being shot at from all sides and manage to take out the rear armoured vehicle with my rocket launcher, but I lose sight of the truck.

After a lot more running, I manage to catch up to the truck as it goes through another outpost, but I'm killed in the process. Restarting from the last checkpoint puts me back at that outpost without the alert. After two more tries I finally get the truck stopped, but before I can grab it four elite soldiers jump out.

I tried to grab the truck and just run away, but the elite soldiers caught up to me and killed me. Next attempt I tried to shoot them with my rocket launcher, but they mostly shrugged it off and I accidentally blew up the truck in the process.

Last attempt I decided to use a shock mine to stun the driver of the forward armoured vehicle, then stole that and used it to shoot the elite soldiers. Which was still not easy, but I killed three of them and when the last one destroyed my vehicle he was on low enough health that I could dump an entire magazine into him to finish him off.

I heard a theory online somewhere, this was specifically about IGN, but this person said they believe IGN gives low scores to popular games on purpose so that it garners discourse and people start talking about IGN again. I kind of felt that was the case with PCGs review. 98% overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam versus one persons 50/100 score is quite jarring. It is very well this persons own opinion, and reviewers should not be subjected to hype as that could influence their opinion, but I feel the editorial team at PCG maybe should have picked someone who was going to be a bit warmer to the game. I've barely played to notice any real flaws but I highly doubt this game is as bad as that review makes it seem.

I'm pretty sure the reviewer just didn't click with the game, which is just a thing that happens. Personally I would've reviewed Vampire Survivors as a 7/10 at most, fun to kill some time with but not something I'd recommend to anyone, but PCGamer gave it 87/100 and it has a 98% positive rating on Steam.

I keep meaning to set Fortnite up for my kids, as my older really wants to play. My main worry is that it'll become his main game and he won't play much else; I quite like that he plays all kinds of different stuff, but maybe that's just a weird issue I have.

This is definitely something that happened with our kid. The only reason I let her play it is because my wife started playing it with her friends. But once she got access to the game she started going through all of the user made stuff, which is basically a never-ending stream of content other games can hardly compete against.

This is even worse with Roblox, which I let her play because her friends were playing it.