I mentioned in a couple other posts I'd post like this. I like to read through these posts for game ideas and it's been a while.
So to start off, I had mentioned Trepang2 being a new indie FPS game that came out just this last week and the style of it being so much like F.E.A.R. That being one of my favorite FPS games, I had to break my own rules and give it a shot. I got it for $30 on GOG and am almost 5 hours in. Finished 3/5 main missions, 1/6 side missions, and 1 of the combat sims that is basically a horde mode. There's intel to pick up around the level if you're the completionist type, along with gun mods and such. A lot of reviews I've seen complain it's too short or reference some YT video where they beat it in 2 hours already by speedrunning, but all in all I don't feel screwed for $30--and I rarely buy games for as much as $30 even.
The good part, it's a pretty well put together game. I haven't run into any real bugs. I don't think it's crashed once. The graphics look good-to-great. It's a bit impressive for a team of four guys to have made something that definitely would have passed as AA+ not all that long ago. Don't really notice wokeism. I'm sure some of you nitpickers could find that there's a choice for red shoes and how don't I know red shoes are a dog whistle for drag queens or something like that, but in the grand scheme there's nothing glaring so far. Map aesthetics reminds me of F.E.A.R. Slightly better as it's not all office buildings. Shooting mechanics and bullet time from that game as well.
What I don't like is more of a difference from expectation to reality. This game is not F.E.A.R. at all. It's much more like 2016 Doom. I find it useless to even try to stealth or really use any tactics other than sprint around like a maniac. On top of the fact that there's grenades constantly chucked at you, there's just too many enemies all over the place to really adopt any other tactics.
So yeah, if you want a crazy adrenaline shooter go for it. It's a fun game. If you want a slow creepy horror shooter, find something else.
Also, what all are you playing? I've been down with a bum foot all weekend so I've been playing this and Dante's Inferno (yeah the really old one from 360/PS3).
I'm playing Victoria 3. I haven't updated to the newest patch because the balance looks like a hot mess and I'm still trying to learn the game (particularly some of the harder high potential countries) without it constantly changing on me.
I really wish the cultural mechanics and assimilation made more sense. Accepted cultures are the only ones that assimilate, which makes assimilation worthless. Plus they don't represent the downsides of multiculturalism, which means multiculturalism is the meta. You absolutely need the immigrants as well because the birth rates aren't as high as they were historically. I don't know if it's a woke agenda or just poor design.
As someone who loves Vicky 3, I will agree that the agitators are kind of busted at the moment. I am waiting until the next update since they are going to fix the agitators as well as some new military upgrades.
Also, if you are wanting to do a more enclosed country, I highly recommend rushing automation tech. Yes, factories and farms need a lot of workers, but if you replace the need for workers with tractors and steam engines you dont need the immigrants. I have played through as a Nationalist, Culturally Exclusive Netherlands and did just fine (although it did mean imports for some of my goods).
As for myself:
I am currently doing one last build in Cities: Skylines before they drop CS2 later this year. Highly looking forward to both, and intend to build a city with the same name and build philosophy just to see exactly what differences exist.
After that, I have been playing Chivalry 2, Snowrunner, Stellaris, and Railway Empire 2.
It would probably help if I played someone other than the USA lol. But I've found them to be a good tutorial country and I've had a lot of fun with it.
Its all good. But like I said, if you are wanting to do a more closed off country, Cultural Exclusion is probably your best bet. Because it makes it so that pops only have to have one trait be the same as your primary culture to avoid discrimination, and therefore assimilate. So you can get away with people only knowing, say, English and still have them start having to assimilate. Or have them be Protestant and have them start assimilating, etc.
The USA is indeed probably one of the better countries for a tutorial though. They are just such a way that you basically have to use Multiculturalism to not have major issues (although you can get away with Cultural Exclusion).