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Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
8srbURI.png

Wait, I played Deep Rock this year?
 

DANoWAR

(Wheeee!)
Today I learned that the average Steam user in 2023 played only 4 different games. Which blows my mind, really.
 

Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
I only played 3 games this year on Steam: Tacoma, Pentiment, and Case of the Golden Idol. Pentiment had the most playtime and sessions.
 

Yimothy

Red Plane
(he/him)
I had three games, one of which was retroarch which I didn’t actually spend any time playing anything in, just fiddling with the menus trying to get it set up. So I had like 95% of my steam time in Elden Ring and a bit of Natsuki Chronicles. I also played a lot of ZeroRanger, but I got it from itch and only launched it through steam, which the review thing doesn’t count.
 

Becksworth

Aging Hipster Dragon Dad
Next Fest thoughts:

 Zau is a lot more Metroid-y than I was expecting out of metroidvania based on African mythology. This might end up being cool, but the demo's performance was a bit rough on the Steamdeck at least.

The other metroidvania I thought was worth noting was Ultros for how inscrutably weird it is. Combat is a little stiff and it can be visually confusing, but I'm still intrigued because nothing else quite looks like this.

Pretty much every other metroidvania I tried was awkwardly riffing on Hollow Knight, so moving on...

Pepper Grinder seems like a delightful platformer. Don't think I need to explain this one.

Mad Mulletjack is over the top schlock combing 80s ultraviolet OVA anime, Hotline Miami, Boomer Shooters, Half Minute Hero, and Roguelikes. I'm not sure how a full game of this will pan out, but the demo is worth checking out.
 

ShakeWell

Slam Master
(he, etc.)
Also Nextfest thoughts:

Mullet Mad Jack does, indeed, rule. I agree with Becksworth that I'm not certain it will hold for an entire game, but if it's cheap enough, I'm in, regardless.

Rot Wood is Klei going back to an action game for the first time in a while, and it's like... Castle Crashers but with more RPG elements? And also kinda a roguelike? Not sure how it would do solo, but I played it four player last night and had fun.

Crow Country is like... Resident Evil with FF7 Duplo people? In a haunted amusement park. I need to finish the demo, but I like it so far.

Anger Foot is the 2nd best FPS I played during Nextfest so far. I... yeah. I think I expected more from Free Lives.

Balatro is still better than it has any right to be.

Children of the Sun is one telekinetic sniper's battle against a cult, and let me tell you: if an aesthetic that I can best describe as the movie Mandy meets Killer7 in a puzzle game about sniping cultists with a single bullet sounds good to you, well... download this demo.

Stick It to the Stickman is a bit of a disappointment. It's... fine.

I also grabbed Zau and Peppergrinder, as well as Dicefolk, Hollowbody, Pacific Drive, Mouthwashing, and Normal Fishing, but haven't played any of those yet.
 

ShakeWell

Slam Master
(he, etc.)
More Nextfest impressions:

Dicefolk will probably scratch a particular itch for some folks here, but it didn't do much for me.

Mouthwashing is genuinely unsettling in a way I find hard to elucidate, but if you enjoy feel nervous and stressed and kinda grossed out, I recommend it. (This doesn't actually say much: it's a kinda PS1-style first-person adventure game, in the vein of D or Enemy Zero but featuring the free-roaming but not combat of the latter.)

I played more of Mad Jack and Children of the Sun and stand by my initial feelings.
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
My NextFest demo impressions:

Geometry Survivor: Mash Geometry Wars and Vampire Survivor together to get this. It's fun!

Balatro: So excited for this to come out. I should make a thread before it's out.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau. I would be playing this on Switch rather than Steam but there's no demo on Switch. This was fun and I enjoy a game with vibrant colours like this.

Pepper Grinder: I enjoyed this but it's definitely the sort of game that I might not be good enough to play as the difficulty increases.

Baladins: A very cute local play D&D game with a time loop mechanic. The interface has a couple bugs but I enjoyed it.

I'm not sure how I heard about StellaGale, but the writing was very, very bad so only played about 10 minutes before deciding this was too annoying to deal with. It takes a lot for the writing/grammar/typos in a Hack and Slash game to annoy me so much I quit but here we are.
 

ShakeWell

Slam Master
(he, etc.)
Pepper Grinder was fine, but not exactly what I expected. Might grab it on sale at some point down the line.

Normal Fishing is... well, not exactly what the title says, but I like it. It's like... a fishing shoot-'em-up, but not like Darius.
 

ShakeWell

Slam Master
(he, etc.)
Berserk Boy is a 2D, Mega Man-ish thing with melee attacks instead. Probably will appeal to a bunch of folks here.

Cryptmaster is a fun and unique take on the dungeon crawler. Think dungeon crawler meets Typing of the Dead, but with a sort of Crypt Keeper or the Gatekeeper from VHS board game Nightmare persistently narrating as you type in commands/attacks. I also love the art style.
 
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