What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

Yeah, I was hoping for a RGO sale as well.

Ya'll got me hooked to Hades. Now I REALLY hate Meg, to the point I don't think I can even watch the Disney Hercules movie anymore

I'm trying not to read up on optimizing runs and just learn it through sweat and blood.

Ooh, RGO is down to $20 on steam. Hopefully it gets a discount on switch as well.

jason10mm wrote: Yeah, I was hoping for a RGO sale as well.

Ya'll got me hooked to Hades. Now I REALLY hate Meg, to the point I don't think I can even watch the Disney Hercules movie anymore

I'm trying not to read up on optimizing runs and just learn it through sweat and blood.

Had a COVID scare the last two weeks, so I've holed up and played stupid amounts of Hades.

I didn't get my first escape until run 51, but now I've gotten up to around 30 wins including a 9 win streak. Shield is what I use when I'm tempting higher difficulty runs, and fists go fast. I'm terrible with the gun, even when I've looked up strats for it. I started watching some youtube stuff some time around 10-15 wins.

I may start a thread on Hades and/or its influence from the previous Supergiant games.

I've started two games that just came out on Xbox Game Pass...
Dragon Quest 11 - this is my first foray into the world of Dragon Quest. I'm not terribly far, but so far it's... fine. There hasn't been much of a real choice to make yet. Very linear. Maybe this will change. I suspect it's kind of a JRPG thing, which I really don't have a lot of experience with.

Control - Holy shit, I can't believe I slept on this one. This game is fucking rad, and you should play it. From the makers of Max Payne. Really makes me wish I had a Series X instead of my first gen Xbox One. Load times kind of suck. I suspect I will finish this one, which is high praise.

A local place had COD Cold War for $30 as a holiday sale, so I picked that up. It sure is one of those!

FINALLY broke out of the gravity well that is Destiny and set up my PC, which has sat neglected for the past 6 months (couldn't remember where I put my WiFi antenna, so bought a new set. Getting old sucks). Re-downloaded Steam and played my old standby Enter the Funyun Gungeon, and realized how badly my skills in the game had atrophied.

Next, I played Risk of Rain, and then wondered why I stopped playing it. Yeah, I unlocked all the achievements but for something that looks like it belongs on a C64 just got me nostalgic. I have Risk of Rain 2, but yet to download it.

Then, played Exit the Gungeon. And to that I say, FUCK that game. I have YET to beat the first boss, because Kaliber is a little bitch and enjoys changing your powerful weapon with a shit one right in the middle of combat. I'll keep playing it, but I sometimes want to throw the keyboard at the wall.

I'm really looking forward to Cyberpunk 2077, but I am apprehensive about the user interface because it looks like the game allows for some pretty complex actions. I poked around the internet a little yesterday, and saw that there will be a hardcore mode that doesn't even have a user interface, so maybe I am not using the term properly. I want a game where doing things is relatively intuitive and doesn't require me to exit real-time gameplay and break the sense of immersion. I don't mind a complex interface for a turn-based game, but an FPS game should be smoother.

If witcher3 was any indication, there will be several systems and sub systems. I find a controller with triggers, bumpers, sticks, and the like to be a lot easier than k+m. Plus my hands are no where near as strong as they used to be when I was typing out stuff all day long so complex keyboard controls just cramp them up. Hell, I can barely write out a page of notes these days, my college self would laugh at old me and steal my wallet!

Back to playing too much Space Haven again. The latest update is forming better shape to player progression within the game; whereas the earlier release was a free-for-all you now have to start small, run away from aggressors, grab what you can along the way, and slowly build up until you become the biggest shark in the tank and can start to sweep clean entire systems with impunity. The devs have also added in space stations where you can walk around and meet the locals and sometimes hire someone to join your crew, plus there are opportunities to save members of other factions who then become refugees who you can return to friendly ships to build favour with them.

At present I have two ships in my fleet and readying to build a couple of smaller gunships so that we can take on the home system of the pirate faction who are the arch-enemies in the game. I haven't yet explored running multiple enemy factions or buying favour to create allies, which would certainly make the early game a lot tougher.

There is still a point where you reach a critical mass and then largely want for nothing so clearly some more ground to cover in further development, but I remain surprised that a game can be this well-featured and still only be in Alpha release.

While waiting for delivery of my new graphics card so I can play Cyberpunk 2077, I spent some time playing more Vampire: Bloodlines. The games are not entirely dissimilar, since Bloodlines is an FPS/rpg that includes a bit of hacking. Of course the tech level is lower and there are supernatural elements, and I am playing a crazy vampire who has supernatural stealth and can make others go crazy.

This last session, I was running an errand for a local nightclub owner. She owes some money to Russian gangsters and needed me to notify them that she didn't have the money to make this week's payment. The conversation quickly went south as I informed one of the thugs that he looked like a bear (reference can be taken either as animal or hairy, overweight gay man). As the three of them leveled their guns at me, my next multiple choice dialogue menu offered a special option that would cost me two blood point. Using that, I convinced the big thug that he was an actual bear and his friends were salmon. Several gunshots later, two of them were dead and the third was looking around in confusion as I walked away.

On the down side, some of my recent activities have caused me to lose a couple of points of humanity, which makes the crazy whispering in my character's head louder and more frequent. I also inadvertently breached the Masquerade, which increases the chance of vampire hunters showing up and also earned me a rebuke from the Prince.

I jumped into and have really been digging 'Wargroove' on the PS4. It's basically a more robust version of Advance Wars with a fantasy theme but since it looks like Nintendo has given up on Advance Wars and I adored that series then it's been a real treat. The hotseat multiplayer is awesome and I can see myself returning to this one for a long time to come. Also- the dog commander is cute as hell.

My son has discovered Among Us which is basically digital werewolf with a cutesy sci-fi skin. He is really really good as the imposter, shiving unsuspecting players left and right. I think I'm becoming scared of him....

I'm stunned at how good Nier: Automata is. Though given the development studio, I guess I shouldn't be. Not sure why I slept on it for this long, but now that I've uninstalled Cyberpunk... I'm giving this one a go. God, the music!

Now that the current gen of consoles is winding down I guess I can formulate my list of what for me were the best games of the generation. I opted for the ps4 this cycle (thanks almost entirely to Bloodborne) and although as a whole I found this generation less interesting than most previous cycles - there were still some gems, even if a lot of them were ports of old games or titles that could comfortably run on older hardware.

So, in no particular order- these are the games I most enjoyed during the life of the PS4:

Darkest Dungeon - I probably put more hours into this than any other title and I STILL haven't crested the final titular dungeon. It’s the peerless atmosphere and constant tension (that counterintuitively actually relieves my real-world anxiety) that keeps me glued to this one, crushing run after and merciless plunge.

Sunless Sea- Similar to DD, SS is a ridiculously challenging roguelike that nonetheless absolutely enchants due to its incredible atmosphere. The most impressive writing I’ve encountered in a videogame to date combines with a wildly evocative soundtrack and the kind of ‘doomed and haunted mariner’ theme that seemed tailor made for me, to craft an unforgettable world.

Ketsui Deathtiny- The first of several bullet-hell shmups on this list, with K:D - the coding and curation wizards at M2 managed to create the definitive port of one of the premier Cave shooters from a bygone era when zen-like focus and reflexes honed to a razor-finish guided pixelated protagonists through a near psychedelic curtain of danmaku rain.

Battle Garegga – Another M2 port, this time from the Raizing stable. Garegga proves timeless in its appeal and with the new modes you actually stand a chance of completing it without being some kind of twitch-endowed deity. Plus you can change the projectiles to pink now so you can actually see the damn things. Relentless but, like Ketsui- wildly addictive.

Jamestown+ - This weird western take on Danmaku has fast become my favourite modern shooter- eclipsing even darlings like Crimzon Clover and Rolling Gunner due to the sheer originality of its premise, stunning graphics and music that never fails to impress even genre neophytes. More accessible than most- this is a fantastic entry point to the masochistic delights of the bullet-hell genre.

Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater 1&2 -A recent addition to the list but as firm a reminder as the originals of the importance of pure gameplay in an industry all too fond of poorly written movies masquerading as games. I’m almost stunned they didn’t screw this one up. Awesome.

The Pinball Arcade (Volumes 1 &2) – Classic tables (Arabian Nights you are sublime), great hotseat multiplayer and endlessly replayable. Essential for any silverball afficionado.

Valfaris – Sequel to the also awesome “Slain- Back from Hell”, Valfaris improves on almost every aspect of what was already an excellent side-scrolling love-letter to the Ghouls n Ghosts/ Castlevania pantheon and throws in possibly the best pixel art of the generation.

Bloodborne- Yeah it had to be here. Even though the Souls series was much more impactful last generation, this was the highlight of the crop this time a round- eclipsing both DS3 and Sekiro with its lovecraft-indebted shadow and successful spin on the DS template.

The King of Fighters 14 – Terry Bogard is still the man.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - It’s no Symphony of the Night. How could it be? That game is encoded in or DNA now. But Koji Igarashi and his team at Artplay gave starving Castlevania fans a tribute that hit all the right notes to satisfy a cult starved of entries since Order of Ecclesia rounded out the Metroidvania’s of old.

Divinity:Original Sin 2 – Two words. Couch Co-op. A fully fledged ISO RPG designed with local co-op in mind proved to be a revelation. My partner and I adored the time we shared with this one and we can’t wait to see what Larian can achieve with Baldur’s Gate 3.

There’s probably a tonne of games I forgot but these are the ones that sprang most readily to mind when I look back on time with the PS4. In an era of creatively bankrupt AAA ‘press x to story’ games it was cool to encounter some classic sensibilities as well as some forward thinking design that still had the capacity to engage me even as return even further into the embrace of analogue gaming in my dotage.

AT least 2020 has a pretty full slate of games for a year end review. I can only imagine what the movie sites are doing... "So, Bloodshot or Birds of Prey.... Oh hey, Monster Hunter!!!".