There’s a turn-based RPG sale/event happening on Steam right now. I can’t vouch for any of those games, but new ones do exist.

As for why they seem to have declined in popularity I can only guess - smartphones happened, removing the need for a home computer from many would-be RTS gamers.

It’s free to play, there’s a huge market for skins, and some gambling addiction to go with it. The perfect storm.

Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree

I’m 160 hours in, completed the base game, and now am on what I believe to be the final boss of the DLC. I got to phase 2 on the first try, only to hit a brick wall lol.

The DLC is a lot bigger than I was expecting, and some of the bosses are the most difficult I’ve faced. The highlight for me has been Cerulean Coast and

Looking forward to NG+ and beyond as I work towards the 100% achievement - speaking of which, it’s a little disappointing how little is required to get it compared to DS1/2/3, especially since ER is so much bigger of a game. I really enjoyed hunting down all the rings for DS3 and felt they could have had a talisman achievement to match in ER.

My favourite moment of the past week was when I summoned two players for a certain boss (another phase 2 kicking my ass), but we got invaded by “Jesus” who just kinda lore-walked around and gestured, and eventually we followed along. Nobody got hurt, and they even gave some gestures of encouragement for us to go beat the boss.

Ilamentia

Very weird indie puzzle/platformer. It feels like a fever dream. You have a FPS view and (some of the time) a set of hands that shoot projectiles (reminds me of Gauntlets of the Necromancer from Heretic), except they don’t necessarily do damage, they interact with the puzzles in each world.

There are some abstract hints for each level, but I find myself really having to think about what’s in front of me to solve the puzzles (in a good way). I noticed a negative review complaining about the game mechanics not being consistent, but I think that is completely intentional and serves the overall feel of the game nicely. It’s not meant to be obvious or easy, you have to figure it out. I don’t think this is a game for everyone, but I am enjoying it for what it is. Apparently there are 96 levels so I’m more than getting my money’s worth.

Bleak Sword DX

Action/roguelike/soulslike? Each world is broken into about 10 levels + boss fights, and from what I can tell there are about 10 worlds. I’m enjoying the feel of the gameplay a lot - blocking and dodging are satisfying like a souls game. The difficulty is starting to ramp up as I work to finish world 3. Surprised I hadn’t heard of this sooner. Probably a good one for Hollow Knight fans, but there isn’t exploration. It’s bite-sized action and it’s done well imo.

Noita

What a game. Alchemy, wand-building, every single pixel is trying to kill you. Especially the water which is also on fire. It’s amazing and highly addictive. I have no idea how large the world actually is yet, since I’ve been busy discovering new ways to blow myself up. Pretty much every run I see something new. This will easily get 100+ hours out of me.

If they remaster it there’s a chance they’ll release it on PC and then I won’t have to buy an entire PlayStation just for one game.

My mistake. It seems like every time I check if a beloved game from that era is on PC it’s always “no”.

Time Splitters, Dark Cloud, ICO, Twisted Metal Black, Shinobi, FFX…

So many games I would gladly pay them for (again) on PC.

Rocky 3 (1982)

Akira (1988)

This is England (2006)

Planet of the Apes (1968)

I was hoping to see something about multiplayer connection. When it works it’s great, but half the time I’ll get “failed to connect”, or the game will just crash when I get summoned / my summoned co-op player is spawned in. Is it just me? Playing on Steam

A little bit of The Binding of Isaac, and Gran Turismo 5.

A lot of Elden Ring (I’m late to the party).

While you can “auto match” a bit, employers need a moment to look at the whole picture you’re representing, and they can have 100+ pictures to look at. No sane company is letting candidates control their calendar.

As the applicant, I think I should get the whole picture as well. Pay (range, at least), WFH, flexibility of hours - I should know what I’m applying for, not waste mine and the company’s time to find out in an interview. Regarding the calendar, if they’re interviewing qualified candidates anyway, what difference should it make to let those qualified get the interviews on a first come first serve basis? The ones who really want that job will be all over it. The company can still reserve timeslots to interview hand-picked candidates if they want. The whole runaround of waiting for a response to then set an appointment for the interview is a pain imo.

Not sure what you mean by “notifications”, I’m overrun. Maybe give us options to dial our interests in a bit? Sick of bullshit emails for “installer” or, FFS, “sales rep”.

Emails, or a little bell icon on the website, somewhere you can check and see “here are some jobs that fit your filter, and your qualifications are a match, click one to book an interview”. I agree, I am overrun with emails about job postings since I started looking. I would say less than half are of any interest to me at all, and many of them don’t have those important details that we should know about (the pay, WFH etc).

For the points I made, I noticed Indeed has some of these capabilities, but it’s still half-baked and full of junk listings. Their “Apply Easily” autofill thing is great, when the poster has set up the application that way, but many don’t. I also notice a lot of postings seem to be scams and it can be hard to tell if I’m applying for an actual job or giving away personal info to a scammer. There’s no accountability on Indeed to vet the postings afaik. Anyway, I’m not sure what I’m asking for is realistic for OP, but figured I would brainstorm with a real-life example to their question. Good luck in your search, it’s ridiculous out there!

Job hunting.

Standardize the application process so you don’t have to reformat what’s on your resume for some shitty website for each job application.

Standardize the details like pay and remote work and make it mandatory in the listing - no guessing or negotiating, no bullshit.

Auto-match jobs and candidates - if your qualifications match, you can schedule your interview via click calendar. No “wait and see”.

Notifications for jobs you’re qualified for, with the pay and details listed in plain sight, so even if you are already employed you always know what other opportunities there are at a glance.

Your decision to italicize that gave me chills

Lambert: “Hurry up Keira, or we’ll never get to town before the Nightwraiths come out!”

Keira: “Well maybe if we took the actual ROAD and not walked through this field I wouldn’t have stepped in a massive cow pie!”

Lambert: “Uh, Keira? That’s way too big to be made by a cow…”

roar of a nearby Chort

Keira and Lambert look at each other

in unison, “RUUUUUN!”

Ah, that makes my decision easier. Thanks for the info!

What the deal with EA Play? I see their subscription prices and I’m not doing that. Then below that I see the game for $3.99 CAD. Can I just get the game that way and not deal with any extra EA stuff?

Mine is pretty useless. I have 4 hours of playtime on CSGO from 10 years ago and it thinks I want more FPS.

Manually checking out the similar games section of the ones I do play has been a lot better personally.

Edit: not to say discovery queue isn’t good, just that the similar section is another good option

I would actually say Witcher 3 is good for that. There’s like 100 smaller quests you can do in 5-10 minutes each. Some of the main storyline quests (which are marked as such) might take 20 or 30 minutes when you’re ready for them. It also has imo one of the best quest tracking systems I’ve seen, as well as best inventory system (sorting, yay) so you don’t have to remember everything after time away from playing.

Dark Souls games can also be played that way - from one bonfire (checkpoint) to the next is usually around 5 to 10 minutes depending on how you play.

Chrono Trigger and Grandia 2 come to mind.

Nicholas Cage seems like the perfect person to turn a beach day into a psychological thriller.

Yes, same with every other ledge lol