On Deck and Upcoming

Figured today was a good time to go through what I’m currently playing and keeping an eye on in the coming six months. Thinking back on some of my posts in the past I can see that my preferences have shifted a little, and I might write about that more next month.

Payday 2

I’ve been generally poking around in Payday 2 lately. Just doing some casual solo runs knocking out easy achievements and playing with some UI mods. As my experience with other types of cooperative and horde-based gameplay loops has increased, it’s given me a slightly more interesting look at what makes the game tick and why I’ve picked it up and put it back down so many times over the years.

On the whole, I find it’s steadily improved as time has gone on, and there’s always something to do. At least until some combination of grind, difficulty, and repetition drives it back into the ground.

Payday 3

This is obviously at least partially driven by the upcoming release of Payday 3, a game I’ve been very casually keeping an eye on for many years now. Its upcoming (alleged) release in late September is something I’m watching with interest. On paper it sounds like a decent step forward for the franchise, but my trust in development studios pretty low at baseline, especially for something I know I’m looking forward too, and Starbreeze/Overkill is additionally sketchy at best.

I’m currently divided on whether or not I want to pick it up prior to release or not. I feel like I probably will, as it isn’t overly expensive as games go. I also feel like I’m interested in seeing where they can take the game as it evolves and doing my best to support it at release will help make that happen. There isn’t a lot of interest in my friend group, though, so it will likely be me playing by myself to some extent.

Elite: Dangerous

As the original inspiration for the name of my blog, I’ve been entertaining the idea of spending some more time with Elite after my move. It feels a little unlikely, as it seems that I need to replace the potentiometer in my throttle. If not for that I’d already have spent some time with it, but I just don’t see where I’ll have the time to order the parts and execute that repair in the next couple of weeks. We’ll see. I need to do more research into this.

Starfield

As an early September release, this is definitely on my watchlist. I will, however, not be preordering this title. It’s going to be like No Man’s Sky, where I wait and see how things play out at release before I commit to it. I love the idea. It’s definitely something I want to love, but Bethesda and I go all the way back to the initial release of Morrowind. An experience that was not a pleasant one for me.

Much like No Man’s Sky, I see a game that in my opinion is receiving way more hype than I think it deserves. It feels and smells too similar, so I’m keeping my distance for now. I had followed NMS closely enough that I wasn’t surprised at its launch state. It was, more or less, what I’d expected it to be, just poorly optimized.

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince

This is a much further out holiday release for the Switch. I’m a fan of the Monsters branch of the franchise, though, so I’m quite looking forward to seeing a new one queued up. Interested enough to pick it up? Eh, maybe. I don’t play games on my Switch all that often. Maybe that will change when my life and schedule shifts around over the next several months. I guess we’ll just have to see.

Most everything else on my watchlist is too far out or too up in the air to warrant more than a passing mention. I’m watching Palia with interest, including trying to get into the upcoming beta. That’s something I may play with friends given the chance. I’m also keeping an eye on Nightingale, but the continued delays are beginning to make me a bit wary of it. There isn’t a whole lot that comes to mind right now. All of the mentioned titles are where most of my attention is focused.

Y’all take care, and remember to consider your preorders carefully.