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

Done with Magic: Arena. Got bored of it, and they just tried to squeeze players one too many times.

Taking a break from Stellaris, but that might change as early as tonight. :p I just need to decide what empire I want to play. Megacorp? Criminal Megacorp? Driven Assimilators? Rogue Servitors? Hivemind? Or my usual, the Last Best Hope of the Galaxy, but I kind of feel like playing the bad guys this time.

I got Cuphead for my birthday, so I've dabbled in that. It's not something I can really play for long without getting stressed out, though, so I play a bit here and there. It's still pretty great, though, and as difficult as it is, the learning curve is actually very satisfying. I definitely plan on seeing it through to the end, barring hitting any walls that are more frustrating than fun. :p

And I've played a ton of Hollow Knight. I love the gameplay, the aesthetic, and the lore. It's a pretty great mashup of a Metroidvania game with a Soulsborne bend, and starring bugs. I don't know that I have much else to say about it, but it does what it does extremely well.

Speaking of Hollow Knight, I've been reading through the excellent Mausritter, a short tabletop RPG. It's a "sword & whisker" game, so it's the same idea as things like Redwall, Mouseguard, or Mice & Mystics. It mashes together some great old-school renaissance designs, and they credit their inspirations. For those who it means anything, it's based on Into the Odd/Knave, with the magic system from the Goblin Laws of Gaming, and a layout inspired by Mothership. For everyone else, it's in the vein of classic role-playing games like old-school Dungeons & Dragons, but with some very cool new rules, and written in a very clear and concise way. Highly recommended.

The reason I mentioned it after Hollow Knight is that it really makes me want to tweak it to feature bugs instead of mice, and run a Hollow Knight-inspired game. :D

I've also played some more Blades in the Dark. We finished Blood in the Chocolate, so now, finally, we can play the game more as intended, with more improvised, single-session heists. We're still getting the hang of it and adding in rules we glossed over before, but it's really starting to click. We're at the point where plotlines just seem to generate themselves as the different components bounce off each other, and it's great. (I've also been listening to the Campaign podcast, which begins with Star Wars, and it makes me want to run the Blades in the Dark-inspired science fiction variant, Scum & Villainy. Or the official Star Wars game their playing. Either/or.)

I had a chance to play Pathfinder 2e and it's... fine. Maybe I just like lighter, more flexible games now, or maybe it was just overwhelming to suddenly be thrown into a session without reading any of the rules first. The book layout, while prettier, also seemed to be organized way less effectively than it ought to be. It also makes some really stupid decisions. There's a three action economy, which is great, in that you get three "points," essentially, to spend per turn. Fine so far. It's a D&D game, right? So you're probably going to need to move and attack... only they're called stride and strike, which seems like they're intentionally trying to make it harder to find when scanning the rules. So, playing an alchemist, I looked up how to make things. Then I flip to where it says what I can make, and pick the classic Alchemist's Fire. Then I had to flip how bomb-type items work. THEN I had to flip again to how to make an attack a strike. I'm sure a lot of it will improve with experience, but it seems like there are still some weird choices here that should have been ironed out in the beta (which they had the gall to release as hard copies for sale). I have to admit that this is my reaction as someone thrown in the deep end, though, with a group where no one was really familiar with the game, so I haven't given it a fair shake just yet. Just initial impressions.

And finally, the ongoing Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Still in the underdark (too much Abyss in Out of the Abyss for my tastes), but we had a really fun session where the party just... just fucked everything up. We arrived in the city of Menzoberranzen, immediately said the wrong things, and had to run from the cops (after stealing a bunch from a shopkeeper and blaming him for it, since we WERE going to pay for our purchases until he ratted us out to the fuzz). One of our wizards used some questionable teleportation to escape, but ended up hiding in a hole in the ground in a nearby park because the disguise spell cast on him expired. I led the others in an escape using Darkness to hide our trail, Pass Without Trace to help us sneak through back alleys, and then Darkness again, which not only blinded our pursuer, but made the giant lizard they were riding panic and throw him off. Then we had to use Message spells to reunite with our Dwarven wizard who, again, buried himself in the ground to hide.

Around four hours of play, a DM who had to do some major on-the-fly encounters, and in the end, we made very close to zero progress with regards to the main plot. It was great.

I have been playing Truberbrook. I tried it during the Backlog Burner event last month, and I've returned to it.

It's a point-and-click game like Day of the Tentacle or Full Throttle. It's got good voice acting, great animations, and a bunch of cute little puzzles. I have been enjoying it; it's very soothing. If you are looking for something that requires fast reflexes or in-depth puzzles, this is probably not for you, but if you want to experience a story in the same vein as the games I've mentioned above, then this is a good modern game that looks beautiful and has a nice little quality of life addition that some of those games lacked (or I didn't know about) - you can hold down the space bar to see which things on the screen are actionable. As a result, I think I won't get stuck or have to read a walkthrough; everything is straight forward enough that I can just experience and enjoy the story, which is delightfully weird.

Played Rocket League for the first time in ages (~2 years i think). It was my podcast/lecture game for a while and so i racked up hours and it became my most played game on steam at nearly 1000 hours. (the only game close to that time is CK2 at ~900 and then slay the spire at 250).

I was around mid diamond (solostandard) when i last played so i was fairly good. All my car mechanics are still there, i can fly, move in the air, get my car at the right angles but everything else is gone. I'm always in slightly the wrong position, i wait slightly too long to jump or too slow to attack the ball, cant rotate for shit etc. Very frustrating.

It's still the perfect game to play while listening to stuff. I've already listened to a talk on the Wagner Group and a couple of ones about Islam/Ramadam.

I've download Offworld Trade Company but havent got around to playing it yet.

I've been playing a few games in circulation:

GTA IV - A while back it got released on Steam as a Complete Edition. I've completed the game at least twice, and in the past I've had mixed feelings about it, but that was pre GTA V days. Now that I've gone back and I am at a point of nearly completing it, I can say I've definitely enjoyed it, but it isn't without faults.

The first third of the game I feel does a great job at setting up the stakes and the drama. Sure, it is a bit slow to get in on the violence, but it's clearly more concerned at fleshing out a serious crime drama at the expense of the wacky comedic violence of the past series - and I think that's why I didn't like it as much before. In context to GTA V where it is a wacky crime game through this shallow lens of "everything is shit and fake lolol satire", GTA IV really shines.

The second third does a good job at increasing the action and teasing the "special someone" Niko is after. I would actually say it's a bit too good as the game sort of hoodwinks you into believing you found the person, but the guy Niko chases after was one of the innocent people, Bernie Crane.

Talking about Bernie Crane, he is the game's main gay character, and wow this character and the interactions with him aged poorly. He is a NPC who so overtly feminine that I can only think they made Bernie like this because the writers thought this level of camp was a thing to laugh at, not enjoy for the sake of expression. Bernie's NPC walking is even some weird feminine walk. It's not even that, it's the way characters in game refer to him as a f*g constantly (even Niko does this) and Bernie just takes it because... ? Also, his love interest plot is partially a scathing attack on politicians, but I can't help it's also a horrible perception of gay people, and as the only openly gay person you encounter in the game, I feel like all of this is horribly written, even if Bernie has some great moments later on.

Also, a lot of the more "positive" NPCs in the game that Niko meets (Brucie, Bernie, Roman) are often treated as a joke even though they have moments of decent positivity that Niko should lean into. It's a shame, as if it wasn't for Rockstar's low level cynicism in anything, it would make Niko's attempt at growth that much more interesting.

The last third of the game drags on a bit. It doesn't help that Niko keeps going on about the "special someone" and as a player, I was already teased during the second act of the game, so this just feels incredibly aggravating. But to be fair, once you do meet him, it is a bit of a relief, if not equally tense. I think the moment where Niko meets the special someone could have been a bit more fleshed out in terms of story, but I can't think of a way how. I just feel like it happens and then it's over so quickly after such a long buildup.

So yeah, GTA IV. Decent, if not a bit of a problematic game/

Saints Row IV - Got the new patch on the Switch, but it kept crashing my game every time I started it up so I gave up on it. The port feels pretty poor if I'm being honest. I love the series, but not this particular port.

Animal Crossing - slowly playing less and less of it as it's eating up my precious time. I do love the time spent invested in it, but I don't love how little time I have for anything else during the day after I've done my tasks in game.

Streets of Rage 4 - man, this is a tough one for me. It seems like the people who bought this game absolutely love it and think it's the next thing close to perfection, and I... I just don't feel that way. Every few months or so I play Streets of Rage 1, 2, and 3 on my Sega Mega Drive Mini. To say I love the franchise is an understatement. And yet, when I play SoR 4, it feels like a lot is missing, mainly in terms of presentation.

Lets get one thing out of the way - the gameplay is spot on - this is definitely Streets of Rage, and even the additional changes to the gameplay feel right at home with a Streets of Rage game. My issues stem from the visuals and the sound. I love the visual design, but I really dislike the colour pallette - it's just not colourful or vibrant enough for a SoR game for me. When I think of well done colour design in a modern release of an old game, I think of Sonic Mania.

In fact, I wish they nicked the sound design from Sonic Mania too - the soundtrack, while servicable, just does not get my blood pumping like the old tracks did. It even makes me appreciate SoR 3's soundtrack as for better or for worse, it moved me. Even things like weapon hitting enemies don't sound as punchy as they should do - a lead pipe hit often sounds like simple, flat fwomp rather than the KRAK! sound of Streets of Rage 2.

SoR 4 also has a story, and this is something I didn't really enjoy in SoR 3 and I dislike it here. I get that they are trying to shake things up a bit, but I really don't care about a story. I just want to get into a brawl and beat up goons while listening to a decent soundtrack and get "into the zone".

And a minor nitpick - the old SoR games (at least on Mega Drive/Genesis) gave you continues that allow you to respawn where you died, allowing you to carry on where you left off. You lost all your points, but you could continue progression. SoR 4 does not do that - once you lose your lives, you start off right at the beginning, and the lives aren't independently set as they are in SoR 2 - they are tied to the difficulty settings. However, once you complete a level, your lives are reset back to the set lives.

It's Streets of Rage, and it isn't a bad Streets of Rage, but it isn't the game that I personally wanted. It's a shame, because I was really looking forward to one of my favourite childhood games.

I played and finished GNOG. It's a cute, simple puzzle game. It presents you with a little diorama/puzzle box and your task is to press enough buttons or move enough pieces for it to consider your task complete. It's like a cute version of The Room (no, not that The Room, the mobile puzzle box game The Room). It took me all of 90 minutes over the course of two sittings to complete.

I spent some more time in Hedon. If you haven't heard of it, it's an original game built on the GZDoom engine (a modified Doom engine). It's a fantasy setting, but almost every weapon is a gun of some sort anyway. It's an okay game. The levels are spawling and huge but it's still mostly find-a-key. When it's not find-a-key, it's find-an-item and use said item on something in the world, which may or may not be obvious to you. I spend too much time in this game wondering what I'm supposed to do next.

I started The Swords of Ditto. It's cute Zelda but I'm not exactly a Zelda fan so I don't expect to get far in this.

Finally, I put a lot more time in Layers of Fear 2. I liked Layers of Fear as a haunted house. This isn't a haunted house, but it might be a haunted boat, and they added a monster that chases you sometimes. It's still doing what Bloober Team does well, which is creepy environments and building suspense, but I find the monster to be a bit of a waste. I almost always die when it shows up, but escaping it isn't difficult at all. It doesn't raise the tension as all you can do is run through a particular path. I'm also finding this story a bit of a mess to follow. You're an actor and you're filming a movie on a boat, but there is a sub plot that may be you as a child, but the child's also on this boat. The game keeps jumping through environments real and imagined so much that I have no idea whether I'm hallucinating or reliving memories. There are collectibles everywhere, but they're all building a background or a picture so I want to complete it. They make me want to explore and root around in these creepy environments, so it's a bit of a risk/reward situation. I could ignore all these drawers and side rooms and not run into more spooky stuff, but I really want to find these collectibles.

edit: I finished Layers of Fear 2. I think the ending gave me more questions than answers. When I don't understand a game as badly as I don't understand Layers of Fear 2, I question whether it's me or the devs failing to communicate their vision to me. So I browsed around and I found this really interesting review on PC World (of all places) that loved it because of its ties and references to the silent film era, which I know nothing about it. I picked up some of the references, but nowhere near as much as this reviewer did. Nearly every other review found the game as incomprehensible as I did, but now I at least have a frame of reference for what this game is trying to do. Maybe if I were a bigger film buff, it would've spoken to me more.

I tried out Neversong on my iPhone. I did not like it. The movement of the character seems inappropriately cartoony in an otherwise serious story. It seems out of place with the rest of the characters and artwork.

But the real issue is that it does nothing whatsoever to teach you how to play the game. There are literally no on-screen controls drawn. You're just supposed to know that the left half of the screen allows you to move the character left and right, and the right half of the screen allows your character to jump. It's never shown, there are no affordances, etc. I tried it because I've played mobile games before, but someone trying this for the first time would be utterly lost.

Once you start playing, it's not at all clear what your goal is. The first "level" has you go in circles. You get to what should be the end to go to the next level and you're back at the start. You have to realize that there's a very subtle clue that gets you out of the cycle. I figured it out after my 10th time around. It didn't feel like I had accomplished something, it just felt like a waste of time. It didn't get much better after that, so I stopped playing.

Out of sheer boredom I tried playing DOTA2 again after a 5 year hiatus.

This game is different from the one I remember. They introduced this "Turbo" mode that speeds up the game dramatically and fixes the most frustrating thing about it where the game gets decided in the first 10-20 minutes and then you spend another hour being brutalized. Turbo games rarely go over 20-30 minutes and it's a whole lot more fun. I don't know why this isn't the standard game style at this point.

It's still completely opaque and impenetrable if you're not familiar with it though.

I'm playing NaissanceE. It's kind of a weird game. It's this first-person platformer, but kind of obtuse to do anything as the world you are moving through doesn't really seem designed for platforming, or at least designed to make platforming as difficult as possible. The game is creepy, but it's definitely not a horror game, at least not in the traditional sense, but it still feels... unsettling. I'm not sure if I like it or not, or what to really think about the game, but I guess I'll keep playing.

I also picked up XCOM 2, reinforcing how terrible I am at strategy games. I feel like I'm getting better, but I definitely deal with the mind control enemies... poorly to say the least.

I have been having some computer problems as of late, which is a real shame because I have finally gotten into the flow of The Bard's Tale IV. The start of the game is rather painful because there are so many hard to miss deathtraps (in the form of overpowered enemies) and there is no random encounters to level up with. But this game clearly has a lot of passion behind it, from a really incredible soundtrack with great folk-style music, right down to the writing. The voice acting is especially good; it just seems like there is so much more joie du vivre than I'm used to hearing.

I started playing Deliver Us The Moon. It was included with PC subscription of Microsoft Game Pass and it looked cool. I haven't finished it yet (I think I'm about 90% complete with it) and I have mixed feelings. The game play is pretty good and has some interesting mechanics, like navigation through zero gravity. It's also interesting that the game switches between first and third person as well.

Some have called it a walking sim, but I disagree as you definitely are able to die/fail and have to start a section of the game over. It is definitely supposed to be a narrative focused game with minor action and puzzles. Over all I would give the game a 6 out of 10. The story is somewhat interesting, but the characters don't get developed enough to generate the attachment we need to care what happens to them. The puzzles are also too simple in my opinion.

Also the game is very poorly optimized. My computer exceeds the minimum requirements but still struggles with frame rate issues. Other reviews of this game have mentioned this as well so I don't think it's just my machine.

All things considered the game is good enough that I don't feel it was a waste of my time, but not good enough for me to recommend paying more than $10 for.

I just bought Paperball for like 12 bucks. I've always liked this sort of ball puzzle game, from Super Monkey Ball to Neverball, and am looking forward to Rolled Out. I stumbled into Nick Robinson's video about Paperball and knew I needed to try this game. There's a free demo, and I was sold. It's some good fun, the puzzles have that Monkey Ball feel, and as frustrating as it can be, it doesn't feel discouraging.

I've also been playing SMB and SMB2 on Dolphin occasionally.