Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN JUNE 2025?

Hunt Showdown : 1896
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This is a game I bought at least twice and refunded (maybe more, I'm
not sure).  I bought it again on sale ($15) to give it one last try,
because I wanted to understand its popularity among PvP shooter fans.

It's had an CryTek engine update since it's initial release, so ignore
any footage from more than a year or so ago, as the visuals wouldn't
be valid.

Games like Exfil and DMZ Mode in COD Warzone sort of warmed me up to
extraction shooters I guess... I always liked the battle royale genre,
from which extraction shooters descend, but I think Exfil was the game
that really made me realize I need to branch farther into the genre.

I've been playing Hunt Showdown a great deal, and after learning all
the things it does differently than just about every other online
shooter, it is definitely a game that keeps drawing me back.  It's
just that the tactics are kind of complicated -- I'm very many years
late to the party so I'm almost always playing with (on my team and
communicating) and against much more experienced players, and it's a
bit of a disadvantage, but challenge doesn't bother me.  I'm told the
game has a problem with cheaters, maybe they're the ones that kill me,
but I don't care... I just consider online cheaters a matter of moving
the difficulty slider to max -- quit bitching and go knit quilts or
something if you can't stand the heat I say. :)

I've seen some YT videos where they describe it as the most difficult
online shooter you can play (in terms of learning curve) and I think
that's probably true for new players to this particular game, and I
can only imagine how brutal it would be to those not used to
competitive online games.  There is no "tell me a story mommy"
bullshit going on here, every round is a new story!

Thus, I'm not even about to recommend it to anyone here.  In fact I'm
going to demand Spalls never try to play this game because I don't
want to hear the incessant whining :)

But it is a very interesting game once you factor in all of the
various aspects of the environment, the staggering number of
interesting weapons, and the real pay off of using each of them
effectively in the game.  And I really like the setting.  Some have
lamented that they introduced a skin based on the "Scream" guy
(ghostface) and the fact that it's out of character for the rest of
the setting.  That much is true -- I don't like to see character skins
that look out of time-period and such..  so many shooters these days
have rainbow haired clowns entering matches against military outfits
simply because they sold out on monetizing skins and crap at the
expense of the game setting's integrity.  But honestly here I don't
mind the ghostface skin and even when I see it, it blends into the
setting well enough, so I think most of that is just gossip.

So, that's what I keep going back to... for now at least...