Yesterday, I posted about the games I was interested in: what I was excited about, what I was curious about, or just things that caught my eye, from the description. Of all those games (not actually that many to be honest), I’ve only played two: Atelier Lulua, and Pokemon Masters. Of course, I have played other games this year. I’ve written about some of them on this here web space, of course, but most came and went before I started at the end of July.

Before I start, I just want to say that I wish Steam kept track of the actual times played, rather than just the time played. Or rather, that they let me, the player, know that stuff. Maybe they do, but I just don’t know how to access it. Fortunately, at least the achievements have dates and times on them, which can give a good idea of when I started playing a game. GOG, on the other hand, gives a better idea of when I was actually playing any certain game. Still not perfect, but better than Steam. I’m glad I checked, because there were a couple of surprises, that I thought I had played last year, but were actually this year.

So, on to the list. First, are games I was playing before 2019 started, that I still actively played into the year. I’m not going to say too much about them, since these are all games I’ve talked about a lot, since I still play them to this day:

• Star Trek Online
• Dragalia Lost
• Princess Connect Re:Dive
• Granblue Fantasy

Now, here are the games I actually started in 2019, that didn’t come out this year. I don’t think this is in any real order, but rather in the order I remembered, or discovered looking at my history.

• Atelier Firis: I was playing Atelier Sophie at the end of the last year, and was just moving on through the trilogy. I think this is my favorite of the Mysterious saga: it actually felt like a journey, and felt like it had stakes, as opposed to Sophie’s almost aimless quest to restore Plachta and do other things I guess. And it didn’t feel like BUY THE DLC FOR THE FULL EXPERIENCE like…
• Atelier Lydie and Sue: I liked this one a lot too, except for the conflict that didn’t real feel very natural, and neither did story progression. The dialog is much better than the earlier two games, though, and it was nice to bring closure to several of the saga’s earlier characters. But, again, it felt that some things were missing that should have been there in the base game, but were in the DLC; the biggest being the exclusion of a major character from your adventuring party, that definitely should have been there.
• Conan Exiles: I saw that this had a free weekend, got playing single-player (seems like a griefer’s paradise, to be honest), and loved it enough that I bought it. And played a lot. I mostly played naturally, though I got a few mods to change the crafting/base-building to something that was more balanced for a single player, rather than a whole guild working together. I did kinda cheat a bit there at the end to get the last cheevo or two (like the one that requires a titan or whatever they’re called, which would require a massive amount of grinding materials).
• Spellforce 2: Just saw this on a GOG sale, bought it cheap, and liked it enough. Don’t know if I actually beat it or not though, it got kinda repetitive there towards the end. But that sort of mix of RTS and RPG was neat, and much improved in…
• Spellforce 3: Basically more of the same, but improved in most areas. There were a few things missing in the base game that were probably DLC included in the bundle I got of the previous game, like flying units, but still pretty cool. Didn’t really like how the AI cheats on resources, even on Easy, since that made things a lot more frustrating in the RTS sections.
• Doom 3: I remember when this came out; I didn’t have a PC that could get close to handling it, though my roommate did. I watched him some, and it looked fun. Finally got around to playing it. It was indeed fun. I didn’t expect it to have as much story as it did. Was also a bit jarring to not have iron sights, or anything like that, and the simple damage models were somewhat frustrating to deal with. But still, fun.
• Baldur’s Gate: My best friend has been going ga-ga over this game for years and years, and the remake was on sale cheap, so I got it. Not a huge fan, mostly due to the combat system and pacing. I guess I’m not going to be playing AD&D anytime soon. Story wasn’t too engaging, either, so I dropped it. Didn’t even get to the titular city. After playing this game, and others like it, I don’t think cRPG’s are for me. Maybe that makes me a pleb, but I just don’t find them very fun.
• Heat Signature: This one surprised me. Great fun, at least at first. But I’m the sneaky do-everything-perfectly type, that will savescum like mad, and this doesn’t really allow that kind of gameplay (in large part because it doesn’t allow for savescum). The simpler levels are fun, but getting a ton of high-class enemies is much less so. Maybe if I git gud, and use all those fancy teleport toys and shoot out windows and such, it’d be cooler. But still a fun romp if I have a few minutes to kill.
• FFXIV: I’ve already said a lot about that.
• ESO: Ditto

So, there you have it. Not too many games. Like I said yesterday, I’m pretty picky about what I play. And as I’ve said before, I don’t think “challenge” is necessarily fun, and frustration definitely isn’t. So there are a lot of games I don’t even want to bother with. That, combined with the fact that I tend to really get into the games I actually do like, means I don’t play a lot of games.

You might have noticed that at the top I mentioned GOG and Steam. I haven’t played any console games this year, I don’t think. I have a 3DS, and Vita, and a PS2 and PS3, all charged up and ready to go…and they just sit gathering dust. What mobile games I do play, I play on my tablet. I haven’t even seen a reason to get a current-gen console, not yet. Maybe I’ll make a post about that soon, to see if this Black Friday will be the time to get one.