Haven’t done one of these in a while, but I had a lot of things that seemed worth talking about but not worth devoting a whole post to, so let’s do a quick round-up of what I’ve been playing lately.

(I also considering doing a review of Across the Spider-Verse, but it doesn’t need my help. It’s one of the best movies ever made; if you haven’t seen it, go get on that instead of wasting your time reading about my gaming.)

New World

As you might have surmised from my columns on Massively Overpowered, New World has been my main game for most of the time since it’s launch. I think I’m finally ready to declare it my new “home” MMO, something I haven’t really had since The Secret World went into maintenance mode.

I don’t love New World as much as I did TSW, but it does scratch a lot of the same itches, albeit to a lesser degree, and I’m finding it feels more comfortable and welcoming the more time goes on. As I said in a recent column, it’s not perfect, but it is special.

That said, I have reached a bit of a plateau with it lately. I’ve finished all (solo) quests in every zone, and I’ve got two level-capped characters now. As the raid-focused season two doesn’t have a lot to offer my playstyle, I’m putting the game on the back burner until the fall expansion. I haven’t stopped playing entirely, but I’m giving it less time in favour of other things.

Star Trek: Resurgence

Considering the franchise has traditionally been more about talking than fighting, it’s honestly surprising it took until now for someone to make a Star Trek narrative game. For me, this Telltale-style take on TNG era Trek was an immediate purchase.

I did see beforehand that reviews were a bit mixed, and having finished it, I can see why. “Mixed” is probably the best description for it.

As a video game, it’s rough. I didn’t encounter many of the reported bugs, but the controls were messy, and the animations more so (what is wrong with the eyebrows of people in this game?!?). You can tell it was done a very strict budget — though you could argue low budget jank just makes it even more of an authentic Star Trek experience.

As an installment of the Star Trek franchise, it’s a lot better, but still imperfect. I loved the first three quarters or so of the game, which were an excellent love-letter to The Next Generation and its more sedate style of story-telling. Nearer the end, though, it starts to fall into the trap of modern Trek: trying way too hard to be epic, shocking, and dramatic. Not every story needs to involve galaxy-ending stakes and heart-breaking tragedies at every turn.

It also felt like a lot of my choices in the story didn’t really matter. This is a criticism that basically every “choices matter” game gets, and I usually feel like people have unrealistic expectations for much their choices should effect the game, but this feels like a particularly egregious example. It’s okay if some outcomes are unavoidable, but don’t give the player numerous opportunities to try to prevent something if none of them are going to have an effect.

Still, I liked it a lot better than any of the modern Trek shows other than Prodigy. I’d probably buy a sequel if they make one.

Dragon Age: Inquisition

I’ve been thinking about doing another replay of Inquisition more or less since I finished the last one. I had a brief abortive attempt at a Solasmance run aways back, but early on I lost a bunch of progress due to the corrupted save bug, and I got so discouraged I never resumed that run.

The extreme length and grind of the game has always been intimidating, so I finally decided to do something I’ve only done once before (also with a Dragon Age game) and turn to the modding community for help. I installed a bevy of mods to reduce grind and improve quality of life, from infinite crafting mats to faster out of combat movement to a mod that lets you mutli-class.

It’s helped a lot. You can burn through the endless side quests far quicker when you don’t need to bother looting bodies or gathering materials.

Since I don’t think I have two more runs in me, I decided to make this my “canon” playthrough where I make all my favourite choices. This is mostly the same as my first playthrough (Dalish mage, side with mages, romance Sera, befriend Solas, etc.), with the one major difference being I’m going to make Cole more spirit-like this time, which I did on my second playthrough and found I preferred.

I still have somewhat mixed feelings on Inquisition and its overwhelming scale, but it is always lovely to be reunited with your favourite characters whenever you return to an old Bioware game. Sera! Dorian! Solas! How I’ve missed you.

Nextfest demos

Another Steam Next Fest is upon us, bringing with it a wave of demos. I don’t like that these demos are often temporary, but it’s a lot better than having no demos at all, which has sadly been the status quo for the gaming world for some time now.

With so many demos, a lot of them are going to be irrelevant to my interests, but a few have caught my eye.

First, there was Jusant, an eccentric climbing simulator from Dontnod. Much as I love Dontnod, I couldn’t get into this one. The controls were far too awkward. Maybe it would work better with a controller, but on a keyboard and mouse, it was borderline unplayable.

Second, there was En Garde, a goofy action game inspired by the likes of Zoro and the Three Musketeers. While I found the humour hit and miss at best, the colourful graphics were appealing, and the gameplay was pretty fun. Will probably get the full version at some point — maybe even right at launch if it’s not too pricey.

Finally, there was the oddly named Gord. Not, as you might expect from the name, a Canadian life sim, but a dark fantasy city-builder loosely based on Slavic history and mythology. This one felt a little slow (yes, even for a city-builder) and a bit rough in places, but I did enjoy the gloomy aesthetic and emphasis on a small group of NPCs rather than a sprawling populace. This feels like a “maybe when it’s on sale” title.

Card games

My obsession with card games continues, albeit at a slowed rate.

Sentinels of the Multiverse and Lord of the Rings LCG remain my favourites. Indeed, despite some significant flaws, I believe LotR LCG has become my gold standard for Lord of the Rings adaptations in the realm of gaming. It does such a good job of expanding the lore while feeling faithful to Tolkien’s vision, and unlike pretty much every LotR video game I’ve ever played, the gameplay actually captures the desperate last stand feel of LotR, as opposed to just being a generic game with a Middle-Earth skin.

My feelings on Arkham Horror and Marvel Champions remain more iffy. I almost sold off my Arkham Horror collection, but I wasn’t quite ready to give up on it, so I just sold some. Maybe I’ll just replay what I have occasionally, maybe I’ll try another full campaign at some point.

As for Marvel… I feel like this meme is already played out, but I still feel the best thing to say is that of all the card games I’ve played, this is one of them. It’s easy and low stress, unlike most of the others, so that keeps it in the rotation for now at least.

On the digital front, I’m still playing Eternal as well, but that’s starting to feel more like a habit than a joy. Partly this is the inevitable consequence of the fact I’ve played about 300 hours of it in less than a year, but also the Gauntlet difficulty does tend to get pretty brutal at the higher levels, and it’s wearing me down.

If I had another option, I’d probably move on, but this is really the only halfway decent digital CCG with robust PvE content. I couldn’t get into Shadowverse or Elder Scrolls Legends. For now, I’ll stick with Eternal.