Late last week, after putting somewhere are around 40 hours into it, I finished the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC for Elden Ring. It truly was an exceptional addition complete with all frustration / elation that comes with fighting and (eventually) defeating its often ridiculously strong bosses. But, now it’s over and I’m once again trying to figure out what to play next. You’d think this’d get easier over time, but no. Actually, it’s only gotten harder.

I’ve had a couple of games waiting in the backlog and wishlist for a while. The first is Subnautica. I’d seen some gameplay of it and thought it looked interesting, so I made sure to grab it while it was on sale last month. The thing is though, it turns out that I really don’t like true survival crafting games. All it took was 30 minutes of trying to find the ingredients to make the components for the repair tool for me to all but check out mentally. I might try it again, but I’ll more than likely just go back to Minecraft if I want to dip my toe back into that particular genre.

The other one is the System Shock remake. Honestly I thought this would be a slam dunk for me since I love the genre the original System Shock pioneered (Immersive Sims) and
count one of its eventual successors, Prey (2017) among my all-time favorite games. Upon booting it up though, I’m finding that I’ve perhaps been too spoiled by modernity to enjoy this one properly. I can clearly see the foundations for the games I enjoy in this one, but I still find it feeling very…clunky in comparison.

It’s just how these things are, though, yeah? Of course the original isn’t going to be as smooth of an experience as the games that came after. Still, it’s kind of a surreal experience in that I’ve definitely experienced all of the elements of this game before, so there’s a kind of déjà vu going on despite everything feeling worse than it did in games like BioShock or Prey. Perhaps it just takes some getting used to, but for now all I can think about is how outdated this game truly is. I intend to keep pecking away at it and give it its proper chance, but even now I find myself looking at something else.

After having a lot of fun with the Paper Mario TTYD remake last month, I’ve been thinking about its sequel, Super Paper Mario, off and on. Now that Elden Ring is done, maybe it’s time to finally revisit it. Even though I still remember it pretty well, it’s been a few years since I last played it, so maybe the time is right. Still, I wonder if this really is a game that I need to revisit at all. Would it be better to play an old favorite or would it be better to try and power through something new? There’s plenty of “new” coming out starting in August, after all. So, perhaps more “new” can wait a bit? Well, I suppose all this is just to say that I, once again, just don’t know what to play. It’s the age-old problem of all us gamers, yeah?

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What’s your go-to after you finish a big game? Do you prefer trying something new, or is it better to take a break from gaming altogether?

Image from the Elden Ring website