What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

Just wanted to drop yet another enjoyable experience in Payday 2 over the weekend. I'm just bopping about, playing the Nightclub heist and two players line up to want in. One was a vet, and I let them in. The other was a newbie, no Infamy, almost but not quite at 100. I hemmed and hawed, but relented and let them in.

The rest of the heist went fine. BabyKitty, the newbie, was doing pretty well but it was obvious that they weren't really familiar with the heist. However, with good coaching from the other player, they did well. We finish the heist, sorta. During that pause, BK types a chat message, thanking us for allowing them to play. And I responded, no problem as I am the helper of noobs.

The "sorta" is because since I didn't have the ability to hire an expert driver, our 1st vehicle crashed and we wait for a second vehicle for the loot. It was the Park Escape, so we started moving the bags from the van to the center of the park. I was on van duty, since I could throw the bags farther. On one instance, since I'm wearing my headset and I'm just goofing off, I say "YEET!" when I threw a bag to the park entrance. Hilarity ensues:

BK: (typing) Did the game just say, "Yeet"?

Me: (headset) No, that was me, the host.

BK: (typing): THIS GAME HAS VC?

Me: Uh, yes? (really confused)

BK: OH THANK GOD, I THOUGHT I WAS GOING SCHIZOPHRENIC FOR A MOMENT!

They then typed something to the effect that another group of players implied to them there was no voice chat.

Needless to say, the escape was successful. We went our separate ways. Later that day, I decided to pull up the prior player list to add them to my friend's list. I was happily surprised to see a notification from them asking to friend them. Obviously, I did so.

My standing policy is to only play old video games so I've been playing a lot of Skyrim lately. For all that game's myriad faults, it has two really good things going for it. First of all it is truly an open experience. You could play for hundreds of hours and possibly never even sniff the main plot. The second thing (the big one) is that it's one of the only RPGs to actually allow you to drop in after taking months off. It's pretty much the only epic roleplaying experience that doesn't require your undivided attention for hundreds of hours in a row. (Seems like Elden Ring scratches a lot of the same itches, but I haven't played so I wouldn't know.) Anyway, more like that please.

I've also stated playing Knights of the Old Republic 2, which I bounced off of last year after a couple hours. I'm about ten hours in this time and it's working for me better. Both KotoR games are pitched at just about the perfect level of crunch for what I want in the classic Western RPG genre. They are complex enough where you can experiment with different builds, non-linear enough that you can do things in a different order, but not complicated enough to constantly have to consult a wiki to figure things out. Also, they aren't 75 hours just for the main quest. More like that please, as well.

This is more, "What VIDEO GAME(s) do you no longer play?"

Deadspin.com is paywalled, but I like it. This article was up there: defector.com/how-a-top-world-of-warcraft...-its-breaking-point/

I used to raid in WoW with a guild that was really good. We never got realm firsts, but we didn't try; it was mostly folks with day jobs. We still saw all the content we wanted, and were pretty good at it. I quit when Mists of Pandaria came out due to burnout, and have never really gone back.

About the article above:

• Minor nit - "breaking point" to me means the guild disbanded. This was just a World First raiding guild failing for reasons and pissing a big pile of real cash money away. Ex: Archimonde used to be a guild killer because he pointed out bad players in a raid* and people would get pissed. These guys had a bad streak.
• WoW evidently now has what they're calling a split loot system. Master Looter is no longer a thing at the topmost levels; you can now swap a piece of loot if you already have a better piece in that slot. So these World First folks have alts and second string raiders running other raids to get good loot, which they then pass on to the progression team.
• The mind-boggling part of this article was that the guild in question (Liquid) rented a block of rooms and conference rooms at a hotel for three weeks, and raided with everyone in person. Serious bucks.

Just had to share that. My wife, daughter, and coworkers won't care.

*We finally got Archimonde short-staffed, when we looked around and saw that all the 'good' players were on. One-shot kill that night.

I'm still playing Tiny Tina's Wonderland, having just started a third character. Also getting back into Vampire Survivors to check out all of the changes they have made.

But mostly I've been playing Dungeon Fall, which you have never heard of because I am currently creating it. It's got a couple of months of development to go, likely. It's a simple arcade game in which you are falling down an endless cavern, grabbing treasure as you go and avoiding obstacles, of which there are many. I haven't made a video game since 2017, and it has been extremely rewarding to get back into it. So much so... I don't think I'd care if I never made another board game.

Haven't tried this since I don't have the hardware, but I did enjoy this digital foundry video about the ray traced doom source port

Vysetron was talking up Peglin on twitter, so I went and got it. It’s a little more expensive than your average digital impulse buy ($18), but I had a good 3 hours with it yesterday, and will likely return for more. It’s basically slay the spire meets Pachinko and it somehow works. I laughed out loud at times.

Haven't been playing much video games, a little of Payday 2 (a heist or two and then I quit playing), and 3 abortive attempts of Bigfoot, an asymmetrical 4 v 1 game made by some Ukrainian devs. I say abortive because, the first two times playing, I was sucked in the immersion, with the ambient forest noises (wolves howling, insects chirping), and I started to grab equipment to hunt the Big of Foot.

Then, it started to get dark, and my lizard brain said, "Bigfoot big, you small, you die quickly." And I noped out of the session, having that exact same anxiety when I started playing Depth (sharks v. divers). I tried again, but the result was the same.

This past Sunday, I told my wife about the game and how fear inducing it was to me. I loaded it up and she watched me do my load up of equipment.

Then the harridan I married.... RAN HER NAILS DOWN THE BACK OF MY NECK. I jumped six feet in the air, cursing up a storm at her. She laughed and left the room saying, "It could have been worse, I could have ran my nails down the door." She knows I have a low startle reflex, so this would have more than likely worked. I was mad for about ten seconds and then laughed with her as to how good she got me.

The game is still in Early Access, and this is one of the rare times I actually bought an EA game, due to the word of mouth of my friends. Unfortunately, with the war going on, the devs have stated that development has stopped for the foreseeable future.

I just released my latest video game, Dungeon Fall. It's currently only on itch.io ( hotseatgames.itch.io/dungeon-fall ) but a Steam release will be coming.

Here's the trailer, it may be your cup of tea.

Been playing the shit out of Infernax, which is now on Game Pass. It is a Castlevania-inspired game, with some modern sensibilities. Definitely got the 8-bit graphics and music. It's super cool, and I have actually been able to power through the harder platforming parts because I like it so much. Worth a look if you have any fondness for Castlevania, or even just the Metroidvania genre.

My wife and I played a fair bit of Nintendo Switch Sports, which came out on Friday. The bowling alone, especially with the cool global online mode, is pretty much worth it for us. Otherwise, it's pretty much like you may have heard. Badminton is quite good but two player; tennis is OK; soccer is slow but kinda fun online with four on a side; I haven't really figured out the swordfighting yet; volleyball is eh.

Payday 2 - Yes, played a bit. Nothing really to write home about, save kicking and banning a player who cheated to unlock the Scarface DLC after it was removed from the store due to the licensing agreement expiring. Stupid Welsh word for carrot actually typed in "I'm going to have CHEATER above my head." Sure enough, I checked his account afterwards and saw that he had the PD2 Scarface icon. I also remembered that I've played with him before, so it was a no brainer.

Primal Carnage - Jurassic Park meets TF2. Hell of a lot of fun, but this game is extremely MP-centric. No bots, but the environments are fun to run around in regardless. Nobody plays this hardly anymore, so I might have to break down during a sale and buy it for my friends, so we can play.

Deadburg Short lived game in my account. Bought it because it's like Minecraft (procedurally generated Minecraft buildings and environments, with you and the zombies looking like actual assets from a zombie game - Read: not blocky) and the fact that all you had to do was walk in any direction to the horizon, and the game would generate buildings, trees, etc. I enjoyed it at first, but in the end, it felt repetitive and not in the fun way. Refunded.

Bigfoot] - Finally got over my spinelessness and played several full game over the weekend. Atmosphere aside, the game is fucking hard solo, as it is just you and the AI cryptid, no bots. And the cryptid doesn't mess around. Seeing that the AI's MO is come at you, beat you like a red headed stepchild, and then run away; only to come back and do it all over again. The best tactic is to do your investigating during the day, then hunkering down at location and hope he doesn't find you. Only lasted about 3 nights before being killed by him first game.

One of the scariest moments was when night fell and I found an abandoned treehouse on the second night. I ran in and the place has lights all on. So, I turned off the lights, set bear traps on the stairs leading up to the treehouse, and then sat in a corner of the building so I could look out the entrance. There's a downed tree trunk that is a natural bridge running in front of treehouse. Well, I'm being quiet as a church mouse, and then I hear it.

Loud, thudding footsteps.

Bigfoot comes into my view, I see his darkened silhouette and glowing eyes, and he stops on the bridge, looking west. HE. DOES. NOT. MOVE. And I'm chanting, "Please don't look this way, please don't look this way." Sure enough, it's starts getting light and then he turns back the way he came and rushes off.

One of the last times I played was at a different park (where Bigfoot turns into the Abominable Snowman). A different set of circumstances. I'm at a lodge up in the mountains, lights on and everything. I do my patented lay-traps-leading-into building-turn off lights-and-wait. Well, I kinda screwed up. There was some gubbins on my keyboard, so I went to brush it off. It was then my finger brushed the quickfire button on my mouse.

My hunting rifle went off. Reflexively, my hands went to my mouth in horror as to what I had done. "I'm pretty sure he didn't hear that."

Another annoying, and scary, thing the game does is that some objects you find in buildings are NOISEMAKERS which you have no control over. In this instance, A PHONE RANG SEVERAL TIMES. "I'm pretty sure he didn't hear that." I was very, very wrong. THUD THUD THUD.

And he found me. He initially bashed in the windows before trying to break down the door. In doing so, he set off my bear traps with the debris. After several rounds of NOT THE FACE, NOT THE FACE!, daylight returned and he ran off. By this time, I'm barely holding on, so I decide to head back to the main camp. However, the sun stays up for what feels like 5 minutes and I'm in the middle of a frozen lake, cutting across it to camp. The moonlight is lighting up everything. And then I hear it, THUMP THUMP THUMP ROAR!!!!

I, of course, turn around and start shooting with the sooper dooper better hunting rifle I found and realized how bad the damage output was. It's like those little tanks shooting at Godzilla trying to actually hurt it. 5 damage. BF has 800 HP on the lowest setting and does nearly six times that to you when he attacks. He can go eat dead animals and bodies, while you have to run around Hell's Half Acre to find medkits, which don't even fully heal you.

Anyway, we play the beat me up and run away game. To make it worse, A GRIZZLY BEAR joined in on the fun and they double teamed me once, and then the bear ran away. At this point, I'm really hurt and just trying to get off the lake, praying that the sun will rise and he'll go away. Nope, not only did that not happen, but the moonlight disappeared and plunged everything into darkness; forcing me to turn on my headlamp to see.

What happened next was either terrifying or just downright insulting. Picture this: I'm backing off the lake, facing in the direction that Bigfoot ran off to. Sure enough, he comes back. Normally, he'll either run up to you and attack and run off. This time, he kept his distance from me and didn't close, only walking to maintain that distance with me. I even shot the thing multiple times. Nope, he kept his distance and trotted behind me. This kept up for what felt like forever. Finally, he rushes in and manhandles me so badly that I'm down to ten health. At this point, you're bleeding out and are defenseless. That's when he picked me up and ran me through with his hand.

The end.

My game Dungeon Fall got approved for Steam release on May 16. Please go wishlist it so the Steam algorithm will consider promoting it instead of the 10 millionth hentai game. Thanks! store.steampowered.com/app/1984220/Dungeon_Fall/

I checked out the newest arrival to Game Pass, Loot River. The pixel art graphics are great. Combat is a low intensity Diablo-style, but with perhaps more convoluted combos / chain attacks, etc. It's... fine.

But unfortunately for me, the "hook" for this game falls totally flat for me. Parts of the world are connected by a river, and there are all kinds of Tetris-piece rafts (tetromino?) that you can walk on, and you can shift them around to make paths or navigate the river. It's essentially one of those shitty little plastic puzzles you would find in a doctor's office where you shift squares around until you have assembled a picture. It all works, it's just that the whole raft-shifting mechanic doesn't really add much.

My game Dungeon Fall just released on Steam. It has a 10% launch discount for the first week. Here's a free key for the first person to snag it. A good review would be appreciated. Getting noticed on Steam is... well, impossible. By my count, 50 games will release today alone. F0Y30-XVTBL-JFE2X

store.steampowered.com/app/1984220/Dungeon_Fall/

Sniper Elite 5 just came out today. I am still on mission 1, because the missions are enormous. There is also a new Invasion mode, essentially allowing another player to come in as an Axis sniper, ala Dark Souls. I got killed by one. It was not annoying because you get to reload back to the point before being invaded.

I have not played enough to give a full impression but so far, if you like Sniper Elite, you like this. And I LOVE Sniper Elite.