Gaming

Still playing the field since finishing my second BG3 playthrough a few weeks ago:

• Sniper Elite 5: I wish I'd known about this series 10 years ago. SE5 is a surprisingly fun stealth action game, with enormous sandbox levels that encourage varied approaches, styles, and paths. Lots of unlockables and customizations (and unlike the new Hitman games, those unlockables can be used across all levels once you get them). Unfortunately I'm just not super into this kind of experience anymore, but I still had a lot of fun for the time I did spend on it before getting worn out. I'm keeping it on my system because I'm sure it will scratch another itch soon.

• Bus Simulator 21: I wanted something I could zone out with, just kind of dive into mundanity and focus on little details. The game does meet that criteria conceptually, but the gameplay just doesn't feel super well-tuned, and you get these little penalties for everything that goes wrong. I didn't play it long enough to deal with the business management aspect, which I think is a significant part of the appeal, but it really just didn't click like I wanted it to.

• Firewatch: Skipped this when it released and was a huge deal. I didn't know anything going into it and really liked the format of the game, exploring the woods, pulling up the map and compass to navigate and all that. Characters and performances were exceptional. But ultimately I was kind of disappointed because ...

  spoiler

  it makes you think it's building to some fascinating conspiracy but ultimately reveals it was just one nutjob playing games. I guess I was more invested in the superficial potential of the high-concept narrative than the actual story the game was probably knocking me over the head trying to tell.

• Concrete Genie: Really stellar artistic achievement. The quasi-stop-motion style of the in-engine game, the animations of the genies, and the sketchbook style cutscenes all looked phenomenal in their individual styles. The story was touching and I loved the idea of a hero whose value is his artistic drive, but I was a little bothered by what I felt was a fairly reductive approach to bullying. But the biggest problem was that the game feels really incomplete. Exploration is competent, but the drawing mechanics are not nearly robust enough to tap into the creativity it's trying to celebrate, and the final act of the game introduces a whole new set of mechanics that, again, are really shallow. By the halfway point, the game felt more like a really, really sophisticated proof of concept than a completed game.

• Two Point Hospital: This game is doing a much better job with what I was hoping to get out of Bus Simulator 21. Love the art style and UI. No complaints, just something easy to dip into from time to time.

• Paradise Killer: I just started this and it is fucking nuts in a very sincere way. Opening lines: "The Syndicate created the first Paradise Island to worship their dead alien gods. Guided by Leader Monserrat, the Syndicate attempt to resurrect the gods by forcing Citizens into psychic worship rituals. However, the worship invites demonic corruption from beyond the stars. The islands always fail. The islands die and a new Paradise Island is born. The cycle repeats." Really unique art style and game world. Time will tell if the investigative core lives up to the rest.