Ended up picking up a couple smaller games just as something more casual as I was feeling a little burnt out with multiplayer games like Arc Raider and Battlefield 6 for the moment...
Peak is a part of this big indie, co-op, friend game boom alongside others such as Lethal Company and REPO, but built around surviving the climb up increasingly harder mountain sections. I think it's procedurally generated, but handled on the devs end, as it only changes every few days or week (I don't know exactly), which I think is done so you have a chance of learning a section to get better at it again, and then if you've completed a climb, it'll change and be refreshed. It's a cool way to do it. There's multiple zone types, and these will be randomized as there's a checkpoint after peak of the mountain section, so after Shore, you have a chance to get Tropics or Roots, or after that you get a chance to do Mesa or Alpines, all with unique environmental threats and other unique things. I still haven't completed a run yet after nearly 5 hours, but got close on my second run, but the Caldera is rough lol It's fun even as a singleplayer, it has some good humor to it and it's kinda one of the perfect "just a quick run" or "one more run" sorta deal as you can get rewards for achievements that give you new clothing options.
The other game was Cassette Beasts, which is something I've been meaning to check out. Pokemon games suck, they've sucked for years, I want to like them and I love the actual creatures, but they are very poor games and I also missed that oldschool aesthetic they got rid of after Black/White. This is basically what I would have loved for them to do is to keep the sprite era, but do the Octopath Traveler method of 2d sprites and 3D backgrounds and it looks great. Fun retro aesthetic, it's Pokemon while having it's own unique flair (You do collect and fight as the monsters, but you distinctly transform into them rather than being a trainer on the sidelines which is a fun gimmick). I haven't been huge into turn based games in awhile, but this is fun so far, a lot of charm to it.
