There’s still a couple days left and I’m curious to hear what others have been playing.
A couple standouts I’ve played:
Tropico 7: I’m a pretty big fan (~360 hours in 6) so I was very excited to try the demo. It’s more Tropico, which is what I’m looking for! Some of the gripes I had with 6, like managing buses, have been smoothed over and I like the better visibility of how much money each citizen makes. I’m looking forward to the full release.
Beastfolk Barber: I tried this more to recommend to a couple friends since visual novels aren’t usually my thing, but this game is so cute! Customers come in, you spend a minute getting to know them, pick out some haircut options, then chat more while cutting their hair. I like that no customer overstays their welcome before leaving, and a couple of them were really endearing. I likely won’t play the full release myself, but I know a couple people I may gift it to.
What have you been playing?
Queen’s Domain is a clear attempt at a successor to King’s Field, and I like the demo a lot. Crunchy old-school pixely 3D graphics, a great sense of exploration even in the small slice of the demo, gameplay seems reminiscent of old games but plays very smoothly, and it’s just wonderfully weird in a way we don’t often get in big games anymore. I’ll probably pick this up when it drops on the 30th.
Nocturne is already out as of last month, but I still found the demo because of Next Fest. It’s a pixel RPG that seems to take place inside a crumbling digital afterlife, and the combat system has you playing Guitar Hero to the battle music. This also seems really good, but I’m waiting to see if it gets a sale soon, mostly because I’m not great at rhythm games.