Happy New Year! General Game Discussion--January 2026

[Frindis]

Going to play the new Path of Exile event today called Legacy of Phrecia. It's an event where they mix up a lot of stuff, like bosses having unique mechanics compared to normal leagues, and you'll be able to get totally different skills and skill trees, so, from what I hear, it is going to get crazy in there!

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


To survive the whole ordeal, I ovbiously have to have some super important nutrients and some beer/soda.

 

[neogunhero]

This has been a pretty crazy week. Since last Friday we got hit with a good amount of snow and sleet which then turned to about 6 inches of ice across the roads and driveways. I was stuck at home most of this week, and while that sounds heavenly at first, being stuck with no way out really sucked. I was getting cabin fever by the end of it.

I didn't even play that many games... kind of in a rut again. Nothing I started recently stuck with me. I'm hopping between GTA V, RDR2, Watch Dogs 2, Far Cry 5 and a few others, only 10-30 minutes at a time just messing around. I have no desire to start a game that will take some time and effort to learn. I really want to play Disco Elysium but I can't bring myself to do that. Age of Mythology is still fun but I don't have the drive to play the campaign. I'm getting burned out. Buying new games doesn't help much.

I might pick up Game Pass this weekend since I have points to get $15 worth of MS credit, and PC Game Pass is only $17. But then I look at the catalogue... there is barely anything I want to play. Mortal Kombat 1 and Space Marine 2 seems cool but idk... I've been doing a lot of non-gaming stuff to help me break the rut, but it only goes so far. A few nights I spent making music, then tried to game a bit, can't do it. I want something new but I'm sick of constantly throwing money at Steam just for nothing to fully stick. I am excited for Crimson Desert though, lets see if that turns out to be great or not.

I'm also considering getting back into emulation again. I think I still have my folder of GameCube games. I could try and beat Mario Sunshine finally.

EDIT: I didn't realize how large the modding community for emulated games were lol. There is a mod for Mario Sunshine called Sunburn which is a huge QOL fix pack. I might have found what I'm going to play this weekend.

 

[Johnway]

Going to play the new Path of Exile event today called Legacy of Phrecia. It's an event where they mix up a lot of stuff, like bosses having unique mechanics compared to normal leagues, and you'll be able to get totally different skills and skill trees, so, from what I hear, it is going to get crazy in there!

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


To survive the whole ordeal, I ovbiously have to have some super important nutrients and some beer/soda.

Personally i'm just after the loot box when i get to level 50. not sure if i can be bothered or be able to get to lvl 90 in a week. Frankly i have better things to do. i had a quick blast this lunchtime and still act 1 and at lvl 10 so nothing strenious. The plan is to blast to act 5 and 6 and i should be in the right area to grind to lvl 50.

More relevantly, i may consider buying some more currency for a trade tab, but i dunno, 5 quid could be used to buy another game with that money...



On other news i hear that huntdown is getting another game; Huntdown overtime. Which makes me very happy. Trailer here:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awVf39Ktbpo


lastly Speedball is making a comeback! a remake of sorts:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwZW3hdLIoQ

 

[Frindis]

I might pick up Game Pass this weekend since I have points to get $15 worth of MS credit, and PC Game Pass is only $17.

This might be of interest: https://gg.deals/freebie/get-a-free...e-the-sea-of-thieves-x-webtoon-collaboration/

I am excited for Crimson Desert though, lets see if that turns out to be great or not.

I really hope it will be good, maybe in the ballpark of Where Winds Meet, but done even better.

Personally i'm just after the loot box when i get to level 50. not sure if i can be bothered or be able to get to lvl 90 in a week. Frankly i have better things to do. i had a quick blast this lunchtime and still act 1 and at lvl 10 so nothing strenious. The plan is to blast to act 5 and 6 and i should be in the right area to grind to lvl 50.

I'm also aiming for that lvl 50 lootbox while watching some POE2 speedrun streamer. Super chill mode

 

[neogunhero]

This might be of interest: https://gg.deals/freebie/get-a-free...e-the-sea-of-thieves-x-webtoon-collaboration/

I was unsure at first because it's only a GP Premium code, but the Premium tier has everything I wanted to play anyways, so thank you!!

I really hope it will be good, maybe in the ballpark of Where Winds Meet, but done even better.

Same here. It looks way too ambitious, it has like every single mechanic from every single game ever made in it lol. It's either going to be too good to be true or one of the most unique open world games ever made. They are not shy about showing off the game at all and are going to give away review copies early so that level of confidence makes me more hopeful that it will be great, plus a long delay hopefully translated to much more polish.

 

[Pifanjr]

I told my wife about a video I watched of 9 people playing an Archipelago randomiser and now she's recruiting people to set up our own.

I've mentioned Archipelago before, but as a quick reminder: Archipelago is a piece of software that allows you to link randomisers together, so that when you pick up an item in one game it unlocks something in a different game.

Some games also support a mechanic called deathlink, which means that if anyone dies in any of the linked games, everyone dies. It was this mechanic that got my wife most excited, as she really liked the idea of annoying people by playing Dark Souls and dying repeatedly.

I'll have to see if this actually materialises, but it would be fun if it would. The set-up requires some work, but the biggest hurdle is scheduling a time everyone is available.

 

[neogunhero]

I told my wife about a video I watched of 9 people playing an Archipelago randomiser and now she's recruiting people to set up our own.

I've mentioned Archipelago before, but as a quick reminder: Archipelago is a piece of software that allows you to link randomisers together, so that when you pick up an item in one game it unlocks something in a different game.

Some games also support a mechanic called deathlink, which means that if anyone dies in any of the linked games, everyone dies. It was this mechanic that got my wife most excited, as she really liked the idea of annoying people by playing Dark Souls and dying repeatedly.

I'll have to see if this actually materialises, but it would be fun if it would. The set-up requires some work, but the biggest hurdle is scheduling a time everyone is available.

Is it something you can do on your own as well? And how customizable is it, as in, can you scale it down to be better for just one player? I remember reading about it on PCG a while back and found the concept totally intriguing, but very complicated as well. It's awesome the stuff that people come up these days.

 

[Pifanjr]

Is it something you can do on your own as well? And how customizable is it, as in, can you scale it down to be better for just one player? I remember reading about it on PCG a while back and found the concept totally intriguing, but very complicated as well. It's awesome the stuff that people come up these days.

You can do it with one player as well. You can play most games asynchronously, so you can start playing game A, get a bunch of unlocks for game B and then quit A and start B and the unlocks will be available.

Each game needs its own mod that helps randomise the game and to send updates to the Archipelago server (which you can host for free on their website or locally if you prefer). So the amount of customisation really depends on the game. From what I've seen however there are typically a ton of options available to fine tune your experience.

Actually setting up the Archipelago server and the mods is just a matter of following the steps of the appropriate guides and isn't too difficult. Figuring out the randomisation options can get a lot more complicated, depending on the games you pick, though most seem to have some presets for shorter or longer sessions.

 

[Johnway]

I'm also aiming for that lvl 50 lootbox while watching some POE2 speedrun streamer. Super chill mode

i've just quickly mad dashed to act 2 and unsurprisingly i've been dying a lot. The bosses have been souped up with some pretty nasty improvements. Act 1 boss was pretty unique making you fight the previous bosses in the act before a show down proper.

No proper build in mind. I'm going to be lazy and use summon raging spirits as thats quick and breezy to play. level 16 atm. So nearly halfway to my lvl target. I'm skipping most of the side quests to speed up progression. not something i normally do, but i'll do it as an experiment. Who knows? maybe in league game proper it might be a good idea to rush as fast through the chapters and then zip through the side stuff once sufficiently levelled up.

 

[BeardyHat]

Kind of gotten pretty enamored with The Case of the Golden Idol. Been trying to decide where to play it, so I've been switching between my Surface Go and my Android tablet, because it just feels so damn good to play with touch controls. I previously played it on Deck and liked it, but something about using a controller never really clicked for me.

Anyway, loving the hell out of it and feeling very clever with the solutions so far, though I stumbled a bit on the Dinner Party scene.

Also started playing Blade of Agony via Delta Touch on my Android tablet. It actually works exceptionally well with my keyboard cover and a bluetooth mouse; can't really tell a difference between playing it on Android and a proper PC. I've only done one level so far, but it seems very cool and I'm very much enjoying it.

 

[Zloth]

It was this mechanic that got my wife most excited, as she really liked the idea of annoying people by playing Dark Souls and dying repeatedly.

Massiah Syndrome: looking for a way to die for others' benefit.
Mrs. Pifanjr Syndrome: looking for a way to die in order to kill others.

 

[Frindis]

Act 1 boss was pretty unique making you fight the previous bosses in the act before a show down proper.

That fight was fun

No proper build in mind. I'm going to be lazy and use summon raging spirits as thats quick and breezy to play.

I'm just going for Wind Dancer and throwing in some bleed/leech with some ailment nodes and wing it from there. I'm hoping that will give me enough survivability to stay a bit longer alive in the breaches, as I want to get a little more invested in the grafting tree.