What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

Stardew Valley. It's sucking my life out. Totally awesome. Harvest Moon without all the annoyances.

I have Stardew Valley, and it just has never stuck with me. I think I might just not be suited to life sims like that, Animal Crossing, or Harvest Moon.

I finished playing all of the Bioshock series. I liked it all a lot. I wrote about it over on my blog if you want my not-very-original observations.

It's here if you want to read it.

Playing more Destiny than a human should be allowed. Last night, after finishing a SIVA Heroic Strike, I was gifted with an EverVerse Box. I got this from it and I nearly pissed myself laughing.

Second Monster Train win was facilitated by two things. First, starting artifact Sketches of Salvation. You start each fight with 4 random creatures from your deck summoned on your second floor. It ignores capacity. Second, the cavern event that let me get 6 copies of a fully upgraded Spike Hollow (largestone + quick). My Stygian hero posted up on floor one behind a spike hollow and dumped Frostbite on guys, all my other units were position agnostic tanks so whatever got summoned on floor two was an unstoppable wall, and then whatever was left when on floor 3... And got descended into floor 2 to make it even more ridiculous. Oh and I had a bunch of Sap cards too. It felt broken AF, in a fun way

Yeah, you kind of have to do something broken-feeling to beat Seraph. Especially on Covenant 25 (which I'm not at yet), where it gets 1000 extra health.

That Sketches of Salvation is an artifact I've been on the fence about because I can be kinda particular about my rows (and I have been playing a lot of Umbra where which is far right really matters).

If you want to get your first Hellhorned win, I recommend sculpting your hero so he ends up doing 50 damage x2 with the +20 damage on Slay... that seems to give the best scaling.

Jexik wrote:
That Sketches of Salvation is an artifact I've been on the fence about because I can be kinda particular about my rows (and I have been playing a lot of Umbra where which is far right really matters).

Yea, it only seemed like it would work with certain units. Basically you want only huge expensive units that don't care about where they go. The 6x event is what really blew it open, as it let me get a huge load of exactly that.

Edit: here's a good example of Sketches in action lol. 2k first round DMG vs Seraph... Seems fine.

www.reddit.com/r/MonsterTrain/comments/h...app&utm_source=share

I succumbed to the hype and night Ghost of Tsushima yesterday, and man it's pretty fucking excellent so far. Here's the thing, it's basically Assassin's Creed 2.8: Akira Kurosawa edition. But I like an open world game, and this one is quite well done so far. And it absolutely nails the samurai cinema vibe. And it is flat out jaw droppingly gorgeous. So... If you want to wander around a map checking it question marks... This is a good one of those. Seems like faint praise I guess, but you 100% know what this game is. The samurai movie vibe and the aesthetics are what set it apart.

Took a break from Destiny to play Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor.

Nice change of pace, but unforgiving in certain areas (The cat beasts I just leave in their cages. Those fuckers are a four legged death sentence. When I do let them out. I just run away and watch the Orcs get ripped to shreds.) The controls are a lot looser than Destiny and it feels like I'm piloting a helicopter than a Gondorian Ranger.

Despite the complaints, I LOVE the Captain system. I also love the "upward mobility" of the Uruk pecking order. I also loved the fact that when you die, the Uruk that killed you usually gets promoted. And the ones that kill you repeatedly (Like that *@&@^$! Bow Master) SMACK TALK YOU! "Yer not any better than the last time!"

Just you wait, fuck head, I'm going to INTERROGATE the fuck out of you and enjoy it.

Don't you get tired of this, ranger? I find you. We fight. You die!

Went after Blorg the Bow Master last night. Tracked him to a stronghold, sniped the urusk to thin them out. Then, had the terrible tactical decision to attack a captain guarding the front by his lonesome, which attracted ALL the boys to the yard. Including Blorg.

Being overwhelmed, I ran away. And promptly got dropped by a poisoned arrow from Blorg. Dick.

Then, I hunt down another Uruk and during the fight, guess who shows up? BLORG, who give me the above quip. Again, I run away. But this time I get dropped by another captain, making him more powerful.

I'll get you Blorg.... I got your number.

The latest DLC for Borderlands 3, Bounty of Blood, is the best part of the entire game. Fun missions, dialog that was written by an adult, a fun vehicle... just a great experience so far.

Some of my enjoyment could be due to my having hit the level cap and I am absolutely WRECKING fools.

Back into Paths of Exile which is a free Diablo like but better. I've dropped about 20 smackeroonies on this game so I have a well organised stash but as they change the game every three months, I see no harm in that. You need to follow a build guide because the skill tree is enormous but it is very rewarding. The community that you trade with is generally good if you can put up with young men whinging about their girlfriends when they aren't trading. Mostly ignorant or naive comments though not toxic. There are 10 'acts' to get through which really constitutes the tutorial because the real action starts after that. Super immersive but I like this kind of game.

Grim Dawn is pretty good as well. Good immersive story and a one off payment for the game.

When I'm not doing that I'm teaching Paths of Glory to beginners which is fun.

My nephews (not kids - one just turned the big 3-0) are into PoE. I personally don't like my Diablo lookalikes to have skill trees that complicated - I just want to wreck shit. But if that is to your liking, I'd recommend it.

I've been playing so much Disco Elysium. I think it might be exactly the kind of CRPG I've wanted since I've gotten into the genre...

- Unconventional setting
- Focus on social interaction rather than combat
- Really terrific characters and writing
- Terrific pacing on quests.
- Transparent, well-designed mechanics

It's so, so good. I can definitely see myself replaying it down the line. It's like a version of Planescape: Torment that isn't burdened by a need to adapt D&D mechanics.

Boy, on one hand you're relatively progressive so the straight up communist themes might have some appeal but I'm not sure how your religious perspective will fit into Disco. I'm led to believe it is some real chapo trap house leftism in the writing.