What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

Leaning back into darkest dungeon again. Great game. I really think that radiant (easy mode) is the best bet not because it's easier (it is) but because it wastes a whole lot less of your time grinding heroes to get resolve (XP) and level up.

I tried a couple of times to get into Darkest Dungeon. I always fell off of it pretty quickly. I'm not sure exactly what prevented it from grabbing me.

I haven't played much lately. I usually do a match or two of Apex Legends each day, but that doesn't take very long. Even if you win it only takes about 15 minutes.

Some Steamworld Heist on Switch. I took the difficulty down to "regular" which seems to be a good choice.

The next Animal Crossing has been pre-ordered. I want Doom Eternal as well, of course, but priorities....

Getting back into Door Kickers lately, too. That game is just cool.

I picked up a couple games for the Switch on the last sale. one of which was Stardew Valley, which I played for a while on Xbox. It's a perfect on the go switch game. Each day is ~20 minutes.

Well, my kids started to play and started asking about the co-op option that was on there. I guess it's been added since last time we played.

I have two Xbox's, so we fired up co-op. and playing with another person really takes up the enjoyment of this game to another level. just planning the day, wandering around and working together. Just great fun.

Then we ran into a experience breaking bug, where you can't re-join a co-op game. so the host carries his progress and therefore the farm continues to grow, but any of the other players have to create new characters every time. So that sucks.

Aw, that sucks lj. I hope that gets sorted out. I can never get into STARDEW VALLEY. I don't know why, it seems right up my alley. I have it on the Mac, maybe it's the control scheme there, which is kind of bad.

Still DARK SOULS for me. I toured the Painted World of Ariamis, came back to Amor Londo, and spent 30 lives getting by the frigging crossbow jerks on the building edge. I eventually stopped killing the guys along the way and just ran up there, parried the knight once he takes his sword out and waltzed by. Now I am looking around a knight-infested chunk of the castle before the inevitable Smough/Ornstein fight(s).

Had some hairy moments against Ornstein & Smough. If you've played any SOULS games, or BLOODBORNE, the bosses are big, tough, and usually fast as hell with unique movesets. In this fight, there are TWO of them. I got rolled a few times. Decided to reverse hollowing and become human. You can only do this at bonfires (save points), and being human means other players can invade your game and kill you to take it. And in Anor Londo, they will. You've got about 10 minutes from the last time they came in and killed you. So, I spent my ten minutes getting back to where the boss fight is, but had enough time to trigger a couple of white soapstone signs from players that I invite in to my game to help me in the boss fight. They start spawning in (it takes a bit), and then I am invaded. I am running to the boss fight (hitting the fog door that triggers the fight expels the invader.) I have to dodgeroll past a couple huge guardian knights (not hard, but not a straight path), the helpers are dodging them too, and we're all dodging the invader, and I make it in. Invader expelled, and I have two buddies in this fight. We split up and manage to confuse Ornstein enough that we can take turns running in for swipes, while Smough stomps around smashing pillars down with his me-sized hammer. Once Ornstein dies, Smough gets pissed, heals to full, becomes twice as big, and is lightning charged. Again, we're circling at safe range, dashing in for strikes, trying to stay away from his hammer and healing when we screw up. He's pretty low, I am in there, and he floats into the air for his ass-smash one-shot lightning blast, and I forget to unlock my target and sideroll instead of backroll and get killed. As my death animation ("YOU DIED") fade out is happening, they both rush in and take out Smough, I see his Soul enter my inventory as the screen goes to black. Whew.

This is one of the best games I have ever played. That it can still command this kind of online presence 8 years later is amazing.

Dark Souls. It took me fucking ages to take down that Quelaag beeach. Even with help from Maddo the Maddo.

Unfortunately, had to pack it in when trying to kill those knights in the bottom of a well in the void. I just could not do it. Obviously after the first 50 000 deaths I got bored thinking of how to do it differently.

"The Four Kings," yeah, I've only read about them. I've returned the Lordvessel and the GodWurm told me to go get some big souls and they're on the list. I just pissed off a huge cat and think I am closing in on Sif, the Sword-wielding 30' tall husky. Reader, you might be thinking this all makes sense in game, but I can assure you it does not.

From what I could see/read, the big strat against the Kings is put on the biggest fucking armor in the world, maybe dip yourself in Iron Skin, and tank all their damage as you hack them as fast as possible. You basically can't move, but it doesn't matter. The key is to beat them faster than the next one appears. If there are ever more than one, you will die. Looking forward to it!

I'm about 50:50 with dodgy-swordfighting and riposte murdering everything in the game. If you have a sword/shield? Riposte. If you have a club/axe? Dodgy poke poke.

Biggest fist pump moment in a video game since Sekiro last year in Darkest Dungeon, I pulled out an incredibly difficult fight with the base invasion boss on the last turn before he was about to murder my lvl 6 highwayman and probably party wipe me soon after. It felt gooooooooood.

Picked up Sonic Mania during a sale since it seemed to be regarded pretty well as being a lot like Sonic 1 and 2. I played a fair amount of Sonic 2 at a friend's house as a kid and have fond memories. As it turns out, Sonic is a bad platformer. It all just feels super messy and like I'm completely passing by and missing more than half the level. Only got a few zones in before dropping it.

I had a lot of fun with Control. Third-person action game where you are traversing a massive government building to stop the spread of an extra-dimensional threat. You get a handful of fun powers like telekinesis, levitation, taking control of bad guys, etc. You get to upgrade your powers, as well as your transforming gun. The world-building it fantastic, most of which comes through collectible documents that are great to read and videos you pick up.

Killer Queen Black is the home version of the 5v5 Killer Queen arcade game , modified a bit. I love playing the arcade version with a big group of people, but being able to play this online whenever I want is a big plus. It's basically a single screen arena multiplayer game with 3 paths to victory.

I grew up with Nintendo only but some of my friends had Sega. I could never understand the tempo of Sonic. Was I supposed to race through or look for/collect secrets?
Some people love the series and there may be something there but I never got it.

These days it's nothing but Civ VI. Though I did take a little time yesterday to try out Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, which I bought years ago on GOG. It's definitely from 1999, from its interface to its graphics, but after a couple hours with it I can definitely see myself sinking some time there.

About equal time between Enter the Funyun Gungeon, Skyshine's Bedlam: Redux, and Convoy. I'm actually surprised at myself that for being so long in the tooth, EtG is getting easier for me. I'm unlearning the DODGE ROLL EVERYTHING! and just moving my character slightly out of the bullets' way.

Bedlam just wants me to make a GW 1e campaign, same feeling with Convoy.

Killed the Ceaseless Discharge in DARK SOULS. Like most bosses in this game, it's tough right up until it's easy. Probably the easiest boss yet, once I figured out what the hell to do. Anyway, the lava it was ceaseless in discharging drained away and I could explore more the the Demon Ruins. Which I promptly left because I was getting rolllllled. There's a "too many Capra Demons" problem down there!

I went to New Londo Ruins and dropped and regained 20k+ souls and a precious liquid humanity like seven times to ghosts and exploring before one bad roll made it gone for good. This part of the game is bad. I like this game a lot, but this part is Not Fun. Too many geometry problems to solve that could result in death, and with the camera issues and the ghosts moving through walls, ceilings, and floors, this whole place is a mess.

I think that any time they lean into janky and shitty platforming or trial and error environmental danger the From games suck. The giant poison swamps, etc.

I haven't tried the lava stuff but the poison swamp is pretty easy to navigate with the right resistance armour.