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

While I was in Cali for a bit taking care of my parent's house, I found a card show nearby their place that happens weekly, so I went and finally found some packs/singles of Riftbound! Brought it back to NYC and finally got to jam a couple of games with my friend. I really liked it a lot, the system is really simple and makes sense (besides some kinda confusing rules on a specific mechanic because I insisted on playing Teemo) so now I'm looking to do some events here in the city!

I'm also just patiently waiting for Slay the Spire 2 to come out this Thursday :)

I beat Space Marine 2 last week and also played a bit of the multiplayer. The game is pretty fun! I don’t see myself sticking with the co-op missions for that long, but it’s fun to blow up tyranids. I definitely had a blast with this cheesy shooter!

I’ve still been playing Kill Team as well and want to start to play in tournaments. I’m not able to make it to adepticon this year and I do miss going (I used to go for X-Wing miniatures), but I’ll be going to some local tournaments this year and I should be able to make it to adepticon next year! KT is rad and is definitely scratching my competitive miniature gaming itch. I’m still absolutely loving the hobby portion, as well, I’ve gotten really deep into painting and I’m enjoying the creative outlet!

I also tried out Marathon over the weekend. I’m a huge Bungie fangirl and I really want to love this game, but I think I just don’t “get” extraction shooters. There isn’t enough structure for me. It’s a shame because the gunplay is fantastic and the aesthetics are so striking and utterly unique! I want to explore this world more, but the gameplay loop of extractions isn’t compelling to me. I’ll have to wait and see on this one to see if they do anything interesting with the narrative, have pve events, or something like that.

RV There Yet has been a joy on Steam with a buddy! Fun animations and co-op puzzles.

I’ve also been playing my original copy of Pokemon Fire Red on my GBA SP since the new Switch version got announced. It’s inspired me to hop around and also play it on my Steam Deck OLED and Miyoo Mini+ via emulation. I’m tossing around the idea of picking up the new official Switch versions for both Fire Red and Leaf Green to build out an official team of Pokemon from both games and get all the legendaries/event pokemon. Still undecided on that route since I do like the fast-forward function, flexibility of ROMs, save-states, and OLED colors that are all available on the Deck.

Finished Cairn last night. Brilliant game and probably the best game I've played since Clair Obscur Expedition 33. Beautiful atmosphere, engaging and challenging gameplay, wonderful story. Like Exp 33, it treats mature topics as mature people would. However unlike Exp 33, I think it's approach is a bit more subtle, particularly when it comes to the main characters motivations and I really appreciate that approach.

I tried the demo for Windrose in Steam's NextFest and I haven't made much progress yet but it already feels like a better thought out pirate adventuring game than Skull and Bones. You've got the usual trappings of a survival crafting game with resource gathering, base building, etc., and then there's also your ship which you can improve as well, and conveniently summon to the nearest shoreline at the press of a button. I haven't had any naval combat yet, but on-foot combat is rather awkward and seems to be heavily intended for a co-op experience, as dealing with multiple enemies at a time when solo just turns into an exercise of poking the closest enemy and running away lest you get jumped. I very much intend to play this with a friend when it does come out though, and it's still a pretty solid package overall in spite of that, so I'm looking forward to release.