What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?

Today, I want to talk about UNBEATABLE, a rhythm game where music is illegal and you do crimes. I've been playing it this past week, and I've been so captivated that I've even been high-score chasing in the arcade mode, something I've never done before. I'm not a rhythm game fan, but I think UNBEATABLE is making me into one -- turning me into even more of a transgender stereotype. And it all started not with the rhythm mechanics, but with the story mode.

UNBEATABLE is one of the most voice-y games I've ever played. What I mean by that is that is that the dialogue and the writing style are very strong, very distinct, and probably very divisive. There's like a fifty percent chance you love it and a fifty percent chance you get annoyed by it; the voice is a bit late-millenial, with goofy self-aware jokes and flowery metaphors and a level of earnestness that you might find unbearable. At points, this really didn't work for me; at other points, it worked so well that it broke my heart. In either case, though, it's rare for a game to have a strong voice at all -- even very good games more often shoot for a sort of realistic, accessible style -- and UNBEATABLE's strong voice synergizes neatly with its equally distinct art direction and its well-worn "bandmates rebel against the system" core plotline (that later gets delightfully subverted).

UNBEATABLE consists of I think 5 episodes (or is it 6?) where you play a sort of walking-sim esque level with optional exploration and minigames and dialogue choices, and then end with a big, explosive, lo-fi musical set piece that can last as long as fifteen minutes, that blends regular dialogue scenes with rhythm game portions, and that often integrates non-rhythm inputs from the minigames. These sequences are some of my favourite moments from any game this year, not just because of their incredible energy and the great music behind them, but because of how well they're integrated with the themes and the characters, and how heartfelt they can often get. In particular, the final chapter of the game broke me to pieces -- without even resorting to melodrama. I immediately went and wrote an effusive Steam review that said: "all great art, I think, speaks to the time in which it was written. UNBEATABLE sings." And then was shocked to see the general consensus around the game settle into the 87% positive 'yeah, it's pretty good, but...' camp.

People experienced some pretty severe jank with this one, and it is missing some key features, like a chapter replay function, and yeah, some people found the narrative voice off-putting. But for my part, I found that where I experienced these frustrations, they were massively outweighed by the parts of the game that worked for me. Whether it be the quiet montages of your main character composing a song, whether it be the neat way that the dialogue system lets characters talk over one another, whether it be the very particular and carefully-crafted ambience of the nostalgia-inducing world, whether it be the loveable and well-realized characters, the game's empathetic perspective, the way it so neatly and seamlessly unified its themes about art, family, hopelessness and politics with its left-field sci-fi worldbuilding without ever feeling dour or depressing -- there was just so much that worked about this story, to an extent that it might be my pick for game of the year, coming at the back of Silksong with a steel chair.

I think, if you're interested in games as an artistic medium, UNBEATABLE's story mode is almost a can't miss experience. Even if some of the stuff it does doesn't land as well with you as it does with me, it's so interesting, distinct and dynamic that it's absolutely worth a look. Just make sure you take all the photos with Quaver in Chapter 3-- I discovered through watching streamed playthroughs that my favourite musical scene in the entire game is completely missable if you don't.

Soo, I finished UNBEATABLE and my heart was broken and I didn't want to just move on, so I opened up Arcade Mode.

I think rhythm game people are a bit like fighting game people in that they love and will evangelize their genre but will never do a good job of making it sound appealing. I, someone who DNFed Hi-Fi Rush, who played Just Dance on the Wii as a kid by just moving the hand that held the Wii remote, who will only barely tolerate rhythm sections if they're part of a genre I prefer -- a minigame in a gacha, a boss fight in a metroidvania -- was expecting for the rhythm part of the story to be something unpleasant between story segments. So I was shocked by how much I enjoyed the musical sequences in UNBEATABLE, and how badly I wanted to improve my scores in arcade mode.

UNBEATABLE uses a two-lane system that some long time genre fans call simplistic, but that means it's a good jumping on point for a beginner like me, while the toughest charts are still complex and varied enough that I have no hope in hell of ever clearing them, so there's room to grow as well. The reason I want to eventually try to clear my favourite songs from the game's entirely original score on UNBEATABLE difficulty (or higher) is that the skill demanded by a rhythm game is different from any I've experienced in the medium. The way it works is that each 'note' you have to play, or each input, is clearly telegraphed, but there are so many telegraphs that the challenge is to parse and respond to all of them, within tight windows, in sequence. It's not unlike the experience of playing an actual instrument, really; the skill you're learning when playing a rhythm game is sight-reading: quickly parsing cues into inputs, or failing and getting overwhelmed. It's not too different from a hard boss fight in, say, a souls game, but it requires less decision making and more precision and speed. And I've found it pretty fun, in a slightly brain-off way. Rhythm game flowstates are like nothing else in gaming -- where something in me short-circuits, and I don't even know what's happening on screen, or what buttons I'm pressing, but somehow, it's sounding right and the combo isn't dropping. And this isn't unique to UNBEATABLE, but UNBEATABLE is the first game where I've actually been convinced to experience it, so I'm very happy to have played it, and unlocked a whole new genre to play and love.

Been working my way through GTA San Andreas Definitive Edition. I haven't played this game in probably 15 years at least. Wow I forgot how much there was in it. I played 3 and VC a while back when I picked up the trilogy and I've already passed the playtime on those but still have a ton of SA left to go. I finally finished the airfield and am about to start the Las Venturas area. It's wild how much bigger this one is compared to the other two. Maybe a little too big, I'll have to see when I finish it.

Along those lines it kinda feels like they crammed two different GTA games together. The Los Santos Grove Street game and the SF/LV game. The plotlines have very little to do with each other once you leave Los Santos, they have a few connections but easily could've been a separate game/plotline.

Forgot about a lot of this game. I remember some major beats but I'm surprised how much I didn't recall.

Also how did they not fix the fucking flying in this game??? It's atrocious by modern day standards. I would expect them to have updated that with the definitive edition. Very disappointed in that.

Wish more games had stats like this one. Having to eat every day or two is annoying, but otherwise I love the stat system in SA and am sad it isn't in many games.

I'll evaluate once I finish, but I think VC is still my absolute favorite of the bunch. SA does some cool things but has some annoying as well.

I finished the main quest of Cassette Beasts and I gotta say it is a perfect 4/4, would recommend to any person that enjoys video games. It has become a favorite, I don't think I can give a reasonable fault after 30+ hrs -- any minor gripes are addressed with mods already.

It is a creature collector like Pokemon, but has a clear and distinct identity. You've been transported to the island of New Wirral, where people can transform into beasts recorded on cassettes. There's an interesting variety in the monster design! You have a lot of freedom in creating your character and can edit at any point. Your companions are charming adults (and romance able) with their own motivations and stories.

The type interactions are neat -- water grows grass so grass gets a heal, fire melts plastic turning it into a poison type, fire makes poisons release fumes, water rusts metal and lowers defense, etc. The game explicitly describes that reasoning as a tutorial when the interaction occurs and you have a type interaction chart you can check in the middle of combat. Monsters rank up in stars but the player character and their companion are the ones with levels, making it easy to pick up a new weaker monster since your own player power boosts it. You can freely remove and place stickers (moves). And finally there is a fuse mechanic, where two characters fuse their monsters together for one stronger than the sum of its parts. All these systems make for very dynamic combat.

And that soundtrack is dynamite!! It has quickly become one of my favorite albums. Shelby Harvey's vocals elevate the tracks to another level.

Less conventional: I have been looking for a decent tetris android APK that has comfortable controls, satisfying UI, and most damn importantly, NO ADS.

Found it in Falling Lightblocks.

You can also download custom themes or make your own.

The blocks move a bit quicker than the app store equivalents from level 1, but I don't mind.

Never cared for tetris but someone said it helps trauma survivors and I'll admit, I do like how it takes me outta my dark spots sometimes.

Still playing Arc Raiders, I've settled into a rhythm of very casually looting or doing easy trials solo, and then throwing away actually good gear in duos/trios with friends where kill-on-sight is more or less the norm now. The expedition to wipe progress in exchange for some minor permanent boosts is coming up but I quite like having some decent blueprints and don't play enough to justify needing to get lucky with them again. There's another update coming tomorrow which will introduce a snowy weather condition, and I love snowy maps in post-apocalyptic settings (I still miss you Division 1 Survival) so that should be a good time.

Also played some of the content in the Fractured Utopias DLC for Frostpunk 2, which adds a fair bit of content to the endless Utopia mode of the game by giving every faction its own progression tree and hub building which can drastically alter the way you develop your city. I admit I wasn't expecting much since I went through the trouble of getting all the achievements prior to this update but it's actually pretty refreshing.

I posted about playing demos a few months ago, and now... I'm playing demos again. I guess demos make me want to say something, for whatever reason. I continue to be thankful for demos being a more common again lately!

Lately there was mainly one demo that's been on my mind, for "The Willowmist Emporium of Antiques & Curiosities." The game is tagged as Otome ("story-based romance video game targeted towards women"), which, despite liking romance as a general media genre, I've avoided in the past because I don't care for the "everyone likes the same person" type of romance. And yet... I really liked it. I played the demo for four hours straight through and really liked the characters and setting/plot, and was immediately sad that the game isn't out yet (doesn't even have a release date yet). I like the comfy/relaxing atmosphere, I like that the player character is a character and not just a blank slate, I like that it has gameplay to it beyond just visual novel, I like the taste of many mysteries yet unanswered, I like that I can have the player be sassy (in a fun way) which is how I act irl. After finishing that demo I went and looked at other similar games because, apparently, I do have an appetite for this type of thing

I've been dumping hours into Hogwarts Legacy (it's free this week on Epic Games Store) and it's decent overall. Better than I would expect it to be.

It's fun to roleplay in and zoom around on a broom. There's quite a few low quality side quests but the variety of spells and other game mechanics make it slightly more tolerable.

If you decide to try it out, I've heard both Hufflepuff and Slytherin playthroughs offer the more interesting distinct quests. I'm playing Ravenclaw. There's not a big difference though whatever you pick

Im almost finished playing 1000x Resist. I know I have a lot of personal bias about the developers and the subject matter, but I also feel like I can be objective enough to say, I now understand why the game won a Peabody for interactive story telling

1000 word review redacted. Ping me if you want to chat about the game

The last three months I've been playing Warframe after not playing it for 9 years, I stopped when they added the Plains of Eidolon. And oh boy I forgot how good it plays, and for a 12 year old game it still looks really good. What Warframe is basically ninjas in space that has magic space powers. And each one feels and plays vastly differently from each other. And the developers just released one of the biggest updates that the game had, in regards to story, QoL and some graphical stuff for the Tenno (what the Warframes and their Operators are called) to bring the Operator looks into modern day Warframe.

And I got in before they buffed my original main back in 2016 and oh boy does he plays soooo much better than he did before his buff.

Cookie Clicker: Progress is going very nicely and I'm at at almost a billion prestige levels. I do have some gripes about the Steam version though, and the main one is that the game straight-up freezes when I try to switch the season to Valentine's Day and purchase heart sweets. This is thankfully looking like it's not one of those games that is gonna take me years to 100%. Hopefully Orteil fixes the crashes.

Old School RuneScape: I kinda hit an impasse with training Sailing, and need a lot more money to progress my account. So I've been crafting Maple Longbows and am close to hitting 70 Fletching, which is when I'll pivot to crafting and high alching Yew Longbows.

Now that me and my buddies are preparing for our very first DnD evening, I did a little bit more research and figured that with my new knowledge it was time to start playing Baldur's Gate 3 again (which I had abandoned a year ago), but this time with a new character: Forest Gnome Bard. Combat is harder, but outside interactions are easier, so there's that.

Still playing DRG Survivor, the Deep Rock Galactic horde survivor spin off. Still having fun, even if I'm not making much progress in terms of clearing new stages. I have reached Hazard 4 by now though.

Also Started with Expedition 33, after it won the game awards, and I have to say great game, haven't been this interested in characters for a while.

I've been playing Armored Core: Verdict Day, because that is the one AC game I have never gotten to play. I didn't have a 360/ps3 when it came out, and for a long time emulation just didn't cut it. It struggles sometimes on the steam deck, but on my PC it runs just fine. Folks in the AC discord put together a pack that includes the game, updates and a bunch of other stuff. The pack includes a custom version of rpcs3, but it works basically the same on the most recent version/it isn't actually necessary.

It's an interesting step away from the speed of 4th generation AC, definitely slower/clunkier and the whole game is built around justifying that change. The world was more or less ruined by the radioactive pollution those super machines put out, the earth is just about cooked and folks are left to cobble together what they can find/make. Where 4/For Answer had an emphasis on speed and being airborne, 5/Verdict Day is about sticking to the ground and using terrain. You can still make machines that go airborne, zip around and dodge, but it's an order of magnitude slower, and vaulting over buildings/using cover is more important. I really like some of the sound design - boosters sound loud and crackly, kinetic weapons tend to have a satisfying sha-KOW, machine guns sound like big grinding things. Where AC 4 and 6 give you a sort of sports car, these are monster trucks, is how I like to think of it.

Combat is just as frenetic as ever, and more tense thanks to an overall downgrade in maneuverability. It reminds me a lot more of the older titles, where a lot can go on in a small space because things just don't move as fast. Rather than swoop over big structures and fight in the air you're almost always maneuvering between things and around stuff, using the vault to scale up and over. As much as I enjoyed 6, I think I prefer a setup where terrain is more important. You have to maintain a better awareness of it lest you get cornered/pinned, that just wasn't as much the case in the games before and after. I'm not keen on having to flip between two modes during gameplay, but as tends to be the case in these games, with enough grit and determination you can just not do it and be fine.

The parts selection is spectacular IMO. Having variants on condition and the option to slightly customize behavior is something I wish had made it to AC 6. It drives home that feeling of having to cobble stuff together, and gives you some incentive for retrying/exploring what you can do. Melee feels brutal and nasty, difficult to do but fun when you get the hang of it. I'm not a huge fan of the super weapons but they are admittedly pretty awesome when you land them. I'm excited to continue, I absolutely love these games and it's awesome to get a fresh experience after playing the others to death.

I booted up Destiny 2: Renegades late last week. I honestly didn’t plan on playing it at all, but two of my friends needed a third for the dungeon, so I decided to login and level up…. And I had a good time. Despite all of the issues with the game in the last year, Destiny is still Destiny and it feels utterly unique.

The campaign was very underwhelming, but the seasonal activity, dungeon, and the new weapons are all 10/10 absolutely fantastic. I was disappointed when renegades was first announced, because even though I’m a massive Star Wars fan, doing a Star Wars inspired expansion seemed like a lazy cash grab, but it was honestly executed about as well as you could expect. Things do still feel distinctly Destiny while clearly being Star Wars inspired, they actually struck a great balance.

Ultimately, there’s absolutely no way I go back to playing this game daily or even weekly like I used to, but the game is still fun once in a while and I’ll probably come back for a couple of weeks each season or expansion.