Gaming

I started Hades recently and have been enjoying it a lot. I'm debating if I should pick up Sonic Frontiers, it's been forever since I played a Sonic game.

Still playing Final Fantasy XVI. The story and characters are fantastic. Now that I've put some time into it, the combat feels pretty great. Excited to see where it goes. I feel like I'm still in the first quarter of the game.

Lots of overtime sapping my will and time to play games.

I think I'm about 2/3 of the way through Disco Elysium.

More Final Fantasy 14. I've started the Heavensward post-game content (I guess you can call it that?).

I'm done with all the optional dungeons and raids you unlock after the base story, and now I'm continuing with the story quests that were added in later patches. There's just so much time-wasting, back and forth bullshit, that it's just a chore, though. Start quest in town A, go to town B for a short cutscene, go to town C for another short cutscene, go back to town A for yet another cutscene. Since you can teleport everywhere by this point, it doesn't take long, but is just so boring. That's why I'm constantly queuing for random dungeons and hang out in the Gold Saucer, basically avoiding the story.

As for classes, I've mainly played Reaper, which is fun, and today started trying out Dancer, and had a good time as well.

I finally got around to playing the Portal series. I played 2 first (it was a free Games with Gold pick) and thought it was great, so about 20 or so puzzles through the first Portal now. I'm kind of surprised the series ended with one sequel.

Elden Ring. Always Elden Ring. It's massive. Don't know when I'll finish everything I want to.

Deep Rock Galactic - I should have probably picked it up earlier. It's such a wonderful co-op game with so many memorable, epic moments happening.
Very charming atmosphere, too.

I've been seeing a lot of good stuff about Baldur's Gate 3, but for a variety of reasons a bunch of other CRPGs I've played haven't clicked with me. So, since I owned Divinity: Original Sin 2, I decided to pull that back out and focus on it for a bit to see if it got my attention this time. The very early start up trying to break out of the fort is a bit rough, but once you get past that it gets compelling fast. The tactics play out really enjoyably, and I really find it enjoyable to take bigger encounters, if I get stomped, and figure out the optimal positioning I can set myself up in to beat the odds on the next try. After a good few too many hours I'm finally off the first island and it's starting to open up for real.

This might have convinced me to the BG3 first and save Starfield for a while, even though that and FF16 both look damn good too.

Been playing through Borderlands 3. I always loved the pretense and style of the older ones, but the shooting just never felt good enough moment to moment to stick it out. This one's finally got it and I've been enjoying my time, even though the characters and dialogue are funny at rare times, and mostly pretty terrible.

Dave the Diver. It's a great blend of Subnautica, Recettear, and absurdity.

Horizon Forbidden West - don’t like it as much as the first but I’m determined to finish it before moving on to something else

Horizon: Zero Dawn, almost non-stop. The mechanics can be a bit finicky sometimes, but the story and world building keep me coming back.

There are a lot of little things that I really don't like about it and these almost certainly exist because it was originally exclusive to Playstation. I sometimes find my self a bit irked because there was so much more they could've done to make it a classic. Instead, it's just good enough.

Doing another run in Satisfactory. I'm building a mega base building vertically and horizontally. I'm around 30 hours in in this run, made coal after about 6 hours and I'm still working on oil, but getting there. I've gotten to the last tier before, stayed a while, but never pushed long enough to obtain the employee of the planet cup or to buy everything in the awesome shop.

Mainly spending my time on Cities Skylines, trying to contain the hype for the 2nd one. Really excited to see what Blizzard does with the D4 seasons... Also excited to play Ratchet again after not owning a PS since the PS2.

Surprised nobody else has said Tears of the Kingdom yet. I’m like 110 hours in and still haven’t beaten the main story. There’s just so much to do!

Borrowed Metroid Dread at the library. I love the game, but I'm having a real tough time. It's a little too hard for me, but I'm still hoping to finish it.

I'm working through some of the older Ace Combat games after playing Ace Combat 7 and really enjoying it. Finished Ace Combat 4, and I'm moving on to 5 next and then zero after that.

Warhammer 40k Boltgun

Finally getting around to playing the halo infinite campaign. Fingers crossed it’s okay for an old geezer who’s been playing since the original Xbox release.

Got back to Minecraft - probably not for long as it was mostly something to fill the time rather than a real need to play it again. It's a good game for that anyway.

Besides that, I got a craving for some good old PSP fun and jumped on two games there - Pangya: Fantasy Golf & Ridge Racer 2.
Despite the fact I don't really care about golf (neither real nor in video game form), Pangya is pretty fun. Nice graphics, simple but enjoyable gameplay. Just started so I'm curious how difficult it'll get later on.

As for Ridge Racer 2... played A LOT of it when I was younger, never finished it though. Still as good as remember. I'm also surprised how much of the game stuck with me - guess I had way more fun with it then I thought.

Ori and the will of the wisps on the switch. I like the game and it seems to have improved many things over its predecessor but keeps stuttering on this switch port. Not sure I can persevere ! Anyone had similar issues? Maybe something I can change in settings...

Primarily playing Guild Wars 2 and getting prepared for the new expansion around the end of August! I’m also super stoked for Baldurs Gate 3 and going to jump in with some friends!

Borderlands 3

I'm enjoying it overall, but good GODS can I tell it was 100% not designed to work for PC players.

I'm playing Tom Clancy's The Division (using GeForceNow). And I'm really liking it. Dying is not really frustrating, but challenging at most. Progression is not hard and the story is really enjoyable.

I'm super looking forward to Pikmin 4 coming at the end of this week 🙏. Been waiting a long time and everything I've seen looks great so far

Approaching the end of ffxvi. Then gonna hit Diablo 4 season 1, hope it doesn't suck too much.

I've been playing a ton of Factorio. Trying to get a megabase going steadily

Been playing through Tunic finally when league friends aren't around.

Been playing the absolute hell out of the new League Arena when they are around!

Horizon Forbidden West - don’t like it quite as much as the first but want to finish it up

Just finished DREDGE. It was a lot of fun, and the first game I ever gained all of the achievements 😄.

Stardew Valley. But I’m trying to decide if I want to buy a console to play Hogwarts Legacy.

Barony! This game scratches my roguelike itch perfectly.

I am looking forward to Blackout Protocol on the 19th! One of my most played demos during Steam's Next Fest.

Felt the itch to play some Dead Cells again, so I did that and finally got around to playing the new Castlevania DLC. Always a blast.

And I also finally got around to playing Ghost of Tsushima. Haven't gotten very far yet, but so far I like it. The combat is a little slow and janky for my taste but the enviroment and sheer beauty of the world make me want to keep playing it.

working towards 106% in Crash 4. it's tough as nails and it's not a game that shies away from slapping you and laughing in your face for the smallest screw up. The 106% demands literal perfection on each level.

but it's a lot of fun and slowly conquering this behemoth is super satisfying

Super Mario Galaxy, I didn't own a Wii, and not much of platformer gamer.

There's some really fun parts, but the motion control is annoying for the surfing section, and I still have problems aiming my stomps at enemies.

Deleted the game after a frustrating fight with that giant mandibug boss (can't aim my stomp), came back, reinstalled the game, and defeated it after watching YT video on the timing. I will give it another try later.

I tried remastered Mario 64, and quit since I have issues with the flying control. Tried sunshine but somehow it doesn't stick.

I'm admittedly playing Honkai: Star Rail, and do so daily, although I'm just waiting for new story content so it's just dailies.

besides that, I've been thinking of playing Pillars of Eternity, and hoping it would click for me this time. I struggle with focusing on one game, and will normally skip around, but I want to get better about that.

lastly, I'm really wanting to get Baldur's Gate 3, and Jagged Alliance 3. I know BG3 isn't out of early access yet, so I'm waiting, but Jagged Alliance 3 looks fun af, and I've heard lots of good things from a family member about the series.

Alan Wake Remastered. I bounced off of this when I was a kid playing on the 360, but I wanted to go back and give it another try in anticipation of Alan Wake 2. Also sprinkling in some Midnight Fight Express and Rollerdrome.

Looking forward to Baldur's Gate 3 and Lords of the Fallen.

Beat hazard 3. It's in early access and I love the simple concept of "music creates the stage". You can use digital copies of songs, or in this new fangled age of streaming it allows for a plethora of other streaming services and even just desktop live audio if you happen to have some dj streaming on twitch open.

It's basically asteroids with upgrades, bosses, and waves upon waves of musically generated ships to blast.

Each track completed awards a unique new ship to pilot, procedurally generated. There is a galactic conquest mode where all your music is made into clusters in it's own galaxy. And the solo dev of the whole thing went ahead and added upgradeable special attacks in the most recent update, which is why I've been playing this week.