I second Alien: Isolation. I always like to call it the best stress I’ve ever experienced while playing a game.

But I also trust Remedy to have replaced it with a solid song.

I wonder if they’ll replace it with an original song, like the music they did for Alan Wake 2. Either way, if playing Remedy games over the years has taught me anything, it’s that Sam Lake (or his team, at least), has an excellent taste in music.

The Painscreek Killings sounds like the open ended deduction that you’re describing. You play as a journalist who goes to an abandoned town to try to solve a cold case murder. The game doesn’t tell you where or what to do next, or how to do it. I liked it because it was just me trying to figure the story out and what to do, not the game telling me “Put x and y together. Oh, look, it leads you to z!” (Also it’s currently on sale on Steam for like 5 bucks.)

The first BioShock game. I don’t know how I managed to go so long without it being spoiled for me, but man, I’m glad it wasn’t.

I’m two missions away from the end in Alien: Isolation. This weirdly enough has been one of the most difficult playthroughs that I’ve done of this game. I accidentally soft locked myself while in the reactor area and spent waaay too much time in that area. But I’m finally passed it, so I hope things go a little smoother to the end.

I used to love writing little short stories and whatnot as a cathartic emotional outlet, but over the past couple years I just… haven’t. I think it’s coupled with my decrease in reading, since a good, well written book usually inspired me, but I just haven’t been reading like I used to either. I keep telling myself I’m going to get back into both, but that hasn’t happened yet.

I approve. It’s a pretty decent game imo.

I really want a Condemned 3 that wraps up Ethan vs SKX. They never got a proper final face-off in 2, and (spoilers) since SKX has joined the Oro and Ethan’s unlocked his yelling power or whatever, it would be nice to have that loose end tied up.

And even if you do listen to death/black metal, you can still get crap from some people if it’s not a certain sub-genre. It’s just music, let me listen in peace, I don’t need a lecture.

Diablo 3: Season 32 and Diablo 4: Season 5 shenanigans. I’m doing pretty well in both, more so in D4 though; I am wiping the floor with my Necromancer.

I decided on playing through Alien: Isolation again. I only have two achievements left for it on my PC, so once I knock it out I can uninstall and free up some room for other games. But man, I forgot how terrifying this game can be. I always have called it the best stress I have ever experienced in a game, and it still holds up, even when I know where to go and what to do. I’m spending most of my time crawling around on the floor, lol.

There was a VR version that came out a few years ago that sparked a brief revival, and initially it was really fun. But of course Rockstar doesn’t care to maintain it, so now there’s a ton of issues if you try to play it these days. Last I checked a lot of people who bought it where full on locked out because of activation key issues.

Man, I’ve spent many fun hours roaming around in this game. I had it on the xbox 360, and I remember being so amazed when I first got it that it came not with one or two, but four discs, lol.

Oregon Trail on an old Apple IIGS. It was in the elementary school computer lab, and they would let us play that or Carmen Sandiego whenever we were done with our work. We would have little contests to see who could go the farthest without their party dying.

I’ve had the same path; started out on .social, then moved to .run. Now I’m on fedia.io wondering when I’ll have to scout out a fourth.