Gaming

Gaming wise it's probably the best period I've had. I've finished a lot of smaller games, found absolute gems such as Outer Wilds (+ the perfect DLC) and Devil Daggers, P-ranked my way through Ultrakill and I'm slowly going through Elden Ring, which is just so awful on many fronts, that I don't think I'll be playing any other soulslikes ever. I've got a nice long rant about it brewing inside me.

Celeste got a massive, high quality community map pack recently, so I'm slowly chipping away at the maps, and I finally found a "main game" that I'll probably be playing forever - Trackmania.

I don't think I'll be running out of stuff to play anytime soon.

Got to hit Street Fighter's 6 training mode hard to learn some Cammy combos and also to practice some special moves (I'm not used to having a DP) and fundamentals. Getting bodied pretty hard by my friend lately, who mains Juri and plays JP on the side.

Also want to get back to Strive and play some ranked matches and, if I get enough free time, resume my Dragon Age: Origin's playthrough.

Jaded and burned out. AAA games are rarely worth the $60 anymore, and I’m finding that indie devs are outputting far superior experiences. AAA got too caught up in graphics rendering instead of core gameplay loop, and I can’t stand how many interactive movie games there are. They’re just not for me, and I sincerely hope more devs spin off their own studios from the AAA space so they can make the games they want instead if games the shareholders think everyone wants.

I have been branching out into genres that I normally don't play. Having fun in Divinity Original Sin and Stellaris. Taking time to learn something a bit more complicated than just shooting stuff blindly.

Well, Warcraft 3 Reforged isn't actually as bad as I thought it would be. I thought it was going to be this awful crap experience, but I really haven't seen that (okay yes, it has crashed on me once). I picked it up a few days ago and it's been one helluva nostalgic power run. XD I think they actually did a fairly good job of just upgrading the graphics but still keep the style the same, even though I wasn't a huge fan of the overly comic styling of War3. I haven't done custom maps nor campaigns yet, I know people complained about the campaigns not working. I really only played the Founding of Durotar when I was young.

IDK, it really isn't as bad as I thought. I heard that a new-ish team is running now, so maybe it will get better. I would like to get a custom game browser built into the game, similar to what Star craft 2 does.

It's been fun double timing War3 and D4 the last few days. :)

With SF6 being out I'm trying to get back into fighting games in a big way. The single player has been a ton of fun and I really appreciate how they introduce fundamentals of the genre as part of the mode's challenges.

Marisa (bi poly muscle queen) and Honda (sumo chad) are my mains

Bored with the feeling of nothing to play.

I finished TotK, as in finished all of the shrines. I was planning a pokemon fan game on my steam deck for about a week but finished that too. I was playing Melvoe Idle on my phone for the last 6+ months but just 100% it.

I feel like I am growing out of video games a bit. Work and young kids make it hard to put energy in a game unless I'm really into it.

Everspace 2 (om nom nom, loved it)

Was at a bit of a slow spot. Then I picked up Everspace 2 on a whim. OMG that is a fantastic game; also learned to use button style peddles for rolls. Everspace 2 combat sits at a pretty sweet spot between No Man's Sky and Star Citizen (or ED). The combat is still arcade like but you can move your ship well in 3d space.

The Rift Breaker (surprise! it's awesome)

Most recently I picked up The Rift Breaker and wasn't expecting much.... oops. Another fantastic game. Brings back some Total Annihilation memories and Empire Earth to some extent due to the massive build out of bases (if you want). The Rift Breaker somehow continues add in more resources in a way that doesn't fatigue much. They also removed "it's a running sim" issue for building your base. Can't wait to see how multiplayer works out, whenever that happens. If multiplayer works well this will be a must play for our little game group.

Jagged Alliance 3 (like really? a real deal this time?)

Cautiously curious about Jagged Alliance 3. They brought in the director from JA 1&2 and looks like they have really tried to not screw up this installment. Could be good, I'll likely roll the dice on that day one as I loved JA:1&2 and others in this genre.

Starfield (oh buddy!)

Finally, completely throwing caution to the wind..... Starfield. This is the top game on my watch list and I cannot wait to see how it plays out. I classify Bethesda Fallout and Elder Scroll games as "clutter looters" and absolutely eat them up. Whatever Starfield may be, 1000 worlds for mods to drop content on is likely going to give it a very long life. Really looking forward to this one.

Overall I feel great!

Diablo IV has been an absolute gem, and next Tuesday a big update drops for GTA:Online.

These two items will keep me busy for the Summer.

Im enoying the amount of single player games I suddenly have available. Dead island2, darkest dungeon2, totk.

Just finished ToTK, and started up Diablo 4 last night. So far so good 🔥

Tears of the Kingdom has kept me busy enough.

So many games just want too much attention.

The single-player games are bloated with crafting, mission timers, levelling trees, giant worlds that required mounted traversal, etc. They all want to be 50+ hours game time each.

The multiplayer/Live service games are battlepasses, dailies/weeklies, limited-time content. They all want to be 6+ hours a week each.

When I decide to play a game after working, I'm not playing those games anymore. I want to, and I have a bunch of them installed, but they're just sitting in my library. Games like that require me to choose to spend X hours at a time playing only that, and I'm probably not going to do that.

I love video games, and I enjoy playing those larger SP games when I do play them. But I had to dial back and stop playing a lot of 'Live service' games because the content was in passes that demanded too much time I couldn't give them. I wasn't playing enough to complete them, but their games were built around them that there wasn't much point playing them if I couldn't.

Each evening I feel like playing a game, and I just watch Youtube while playing something I can pickup and play for 30min instead - or fuck around on the internet and not play anything at all.

I decided to play Witcher 3 because it was so highly reviewed, and after playing it for ~5 hours, then going to bed and feeling like I was still in the 'tutorial starting zone', having mostly run around over empty ground. Barely any characterisation or story progression had actually occurred. With no meaningful progress or reason to continue, I just... didn't. A few days later I decided to uninstall.

I've been on an ESO kick for about 4 years. I start other games, but I'd rather be playing ESO. I have no interest in solo games, and I enjoy the mechanics. Outside of the bit of lag/disconnect in the massive PVP area (Cyrodiil), there aren't any problems that are game breaking, noticeable, or noteworthy (except by minmaxers, who complain about everything in every game).

I'm happy just plodding along in ESO solo, or in group, and have developed a large friend base there. It's turned into a much happier alternative to WoW for me, and I don't see myself doing much in other games for quite a while.

I play Destiny 2 but when that frustrates me or is down (happening a lot lately), I play Civilization 5.