Elder Scrolls Blades could be "fun" I think if it wasn't for the fact it has wait times to build shit and premium currency to skip these times. The loop of being sent on little missions to get loot and then use that loot to build the town seems fine enough. The missions are short and extremely simple, and there are secrets to find (sort of like a doom level), except every interractable item glows so you can find the secret levers very very easy.

This does take the loot of Elder Scrolls and turn it into piss because they "needed" to make it have descriptors like "Fire Hide Helmet" or epic/rare versions of Hide Helmets. Elder Scrolls doesn't need that shit if they EVER add that to mainline Bethesda games.... God save our souls...

Also the touchscreen controls suck. Moving in a 3D space with the virtual thumbstick AND moving camera by swiping sucks. You can tap the screen to move somewhere, but it doesnt feel like it understands what you want to do so it sucks.

Like I do think what this game's basic concept is could be dope, but its designed to be a free mobile game, so it has free mobile game bullshit.

Steelrising definitely surprised me in that it feels very competent as a soulslike. The gameplay isn't bad, it has some jank to it, but it's definitely better than some in this genre. I however found it very uninteresting, despite soulslike being a "comfort genre". I just really don't find the late 1700's (with robots) a place I want to explore. The first area was cool, a vibrant garden with a hedgemaze, but once you get to Paris its just 1700's wood and stone buildings. I didn't really see anything fantastical so like 🤷‍♀️. I also found the bosses to be annoying, not like bad, but annoying.

Also the game had a really bad frame rate for me. I had to turn the graphics down all the way and it still was choppy.

I went to Wasteland 3 after I attempted to play Wastleland 2 and had no idea what I was doing and then it just drops me in the game and tells me to "Go." Well, i took a few steps and decided it was too much and quit. Now I know im probably being extremely silly about that, but I just decided to go to 3 and boy wow. It just has a whole intro sequence that teaches you some of the ropes of what you're doing and what your goal is. Really shows me how good onboarding is in games and how much I can't really tolerate having none.

Wasteland 3 is what I what from CRPG's, which is grid based tactics combat. I tried to play Tyranny a little bit ago too and I got to the first combat and immediately quit. I really do not want to do party based real time combat isometrically, there is just too much shit to think about. Even if those games have pause, I can't really stand it if it isn't only turn based. The tactics is fun (not the funnest of the ones I've played but is still a good system).

I really like the choices and shit in this game because I really didn't know what is the "right" choice and kind of fumbled the whole thing at the end. Like New Vegas for example, the Legion is like obviously bad and terrible, and all the other choices are pretty "Clear cut" to me. The choices in this game really didn't feel that way to me. You are coming to Colorado to help The Patriarch with his problems, then he will send you home with a supply chain to help your kin back in Arizona (who desperately need supplies). Along the way you can learn of the bad things this guy does to keep a decently civilized kingdom in this brutal post-apocolyptic world and turn against him. It's just like, do you try to take this guy down in attempts to make something better, when its probably pretty damn good for whats going on in the world right now. Do you sacrifice the lives of your people back home for the people here? I think this game has a lot of things you need to think about in the long term and while small term choices may feel morally good, might end up fucking the region in the long run. Like I said, I basically fumbled it all up in the end cause I was trying to play nice a little, but I wasn't thinking about what doing what I did would do in the long term.

I do think this game has a little problem with its mixture of custom built XCOM-like party members and real companions that are characters. You make 2 custom characters at the start, these are your OC's, then once you get settled into HQ, you get a companion, and the ability to recruit 2 more rangers to your team. You can hold 6 controllable party members at once, 4 rangers max, and 2 extra companion slots. I think you want your party full as quick as possible, so you are gonna take 2 custom built rangers to fill out spots in your team you dont have covered. Later you will meet other companions to recruit, but I found that I coudln't really replace anyone on my team because the new companion's stats didnt't 1:1 replace who I had already. I had someone who had high assault rifle skill, and high stealth, but I met someone who had assault rifle with no stealth, but stats my other characters had, so why would I put him in tacticly? This really sucked when there is a companion that is basically critical for end game missions, but I didn't take him because I already had someone who did what he did, so he got pissy at me about it. This could be alleviated on repeat play throughs because you could build your early team around inviting these people later, but on a first one its rough not to enjoy the companions.

You can get more people in your squad though, but you can't control them and they do their own thing. I found this very enjoyable to have a whole extra 6 "pets" following me around by the end game. I also enjoyed the use of licensed music in this games, and most of them are used as battle themes! It's part folk songs akin to O Brother, Where art thou, part good ol' American partiotism songs, and part 80's pop. They are all covers so they fit, but they are used really well, at least I wouldn't expect a fucking battle theme with lyrics in a CRPG.

Also this game has some "first person" dialogue cutscenes where they have whoever you are talking to move around and are animated. I really like these scenes and it gives me a good view of how these characters are.
Liberty Buchanan... my goodness gets the vapours and fans myself.

Overall I think its a fun time, good combat, good exploration with uses for your skills, and good decisions.