I’ve been playing Dune: Awakening. The base-building and survival gameplay are really fun, but being ganked and/or dying in a way that costs everything you have with you is sad.

I’ve almost beaten Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines for the first time. I can see why it’s as revered as it is, because the game is excellent.

There’s one line of dialog that stuck in my head as being really dumb though. I was talking to the Anarchs early in the game while trying to get the lay of the land for vampire politics. One of them said “Communism always fails for humans, but it would totally work for vampires”. Gotta love media from the 2000s.

No spoilers please.

I started playing Battlefront 2, the newer one, with some friends because it was 4 dollars on Steam. I think it sucks, even with all the micro transaction stuff pulled out.

The visuals and sounds and vibes of Star Wars are excellent.

But heroes ruin any big game mode because they aren’t a special powerful unit that shows up once or twice a match, there is almost no delay in someone being defeated as a hero and someone else being able to spawn as them if they have the points. So you get a constant stream of Jedi bullshit all game that let’s the winning team steamroll even harder.

Factions are not balanced, especially with randoms. A few Droideka rolling into an objective wins half the CIS matches. Super Battle Droids are in every way superior to Empire troops.

Star Cards are still grindy to unlock, making small game modes also suck. You aren’t winning a 1v1 against someone who just has 40% more health than you. Let alone a squad of them all working together with maxed cards.

Spawns are an issue where you can spawn in the line of fire and die instantly or have someone spawn immediately to your left.

For 4 dollars I got my money’s worth but I think it’s a bad game in almost every respect and I probably won’t play it any more after this second week.

Death stranding 2

Kerbal Space Program. I saw it in summer sale for steam for something crazy like $5 and had always wanted to play.

the physics engine and mechanics of advancement in “science” mode are addicting. the tutorials are good for learning the system and it depends my appreciation for the knowledge and achievement of actual space programs.

I have successfully left the atmosphere and have had successful/safe multistage suborbital flights and recorded all of the associated data, but now I finally understand the mechanics of achieving and returning safely from orbital flight.

what a great game.

Borderlands 3, much to my shame.

Why did I do this? I vaguely recall liking the previous games when I was a child. Do not follow the swamp lights of nostalgia my friends, it will drown you.

Its humour is cringe and Reddit brained to an uncomfortable degree, but I’m actually kinda liking the gameplay.

I’ve already played through with a gunner, and now I’m trying a melee siren build. Don’t know If I’ll have the patience to try out the other classes, though. The game’s starting to wear thin already, and the writing certainly isn’t keeping me invested.

I’ve been playing The Finals recently and holy shit it’s a hidden gem. It’s an fps with fully destructible environments and a great movement and the utility system is a lot of fun. But since I’m away from my PC this weekend, probably Love and Deepspace for me.

1. I finished Ori and the Will of Wisps. The story is nu-pixar-tier emotionally manipulative libslop which might sound surprising for such a simple family-targeted game but the villain is one of those “I was rejected by society as a minority so… I will destroy everything” types. The platforming and bosses were really good though, it just didn’t grab me as anything beyond a good toy I guess. So it was an 8.3/10 for me.

2. I played Minishoot’ Adventures and shelved it after beating the true last boss. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good twin-stick shooter and decent metroidvania with addicting exploration, however I find the artstyle a bit bland and the story is pretty much non-existent, so I can’t be assed to do the optional post-game battle challenges without any exploration in new areas sprinkled in. It was a 7.5/10 for me pretty much.

3. I also tried Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo after trying and liking the demo, but the actual game didn’t manage to grab me so I refunded it. I didn’t really like the yoyo combat which utilizes sloped walls to pierce through many enemies, also the town you explore throughout the game was a bit boring for me.

I’m replaying Morrowind with openmw and the total overhaul modlist minus some stuff I didn’t like. It’s awesome!

I’m playing this cute little guy With a custom “abolitionist” class and going around killing slavers and liberating slaves, with a never kill a beast race rule. He rizzes people up to like him and get good deals or info, or talks shit to start a fight, then stabs them with a spear that heals him. Desecrates dunmer tombs, sneaks around and will rob you blind if you’re a dick, and since all the locals think he’s a disgusting farm implement, he’s rich as hell. Big recommend!

I’m at the monolith in Clair obscur, might pause for another Victoria communism run. Or a bout in balatro. Or maybe a few days in the life of Dave the Diver.

if you haven’t played The Alters you’re missing out. it’s a really novel idea and the story is pretty cool

Picked up Total War: Three Kingdoms a few days ago and will probably put a few hours into it until i have to make dinner.

I beat Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer on the DS a month and a half ago and moved on to playing the English translation of Shiren the Wanderer: The Eye of God and the Devil’s Navel on PSP. It’s the same base Shiren-style game but with more feature like equipment upgrades, runes for weapons, new items, new enemies and the ability to tag and retrieve lost equipment. A nice graphical upgrade too with it being on PSP.

I appreciate all the QoL features which streamlines the experience trememndously. Allies will now walkthrough NPCs without getting stuck behind them, there’s new revival and escape herbs that allow you to revive if you do or escape back to the beginning with all your items if you hit a difficult snag.

At this point, playing for over a month, I’d say it’s the best Shiren game I’ve played yet. I do have the new one that just released on PC and Switch but haven’t gotten to it yet. Honestly, the 3D chibi graphics put me off a bit too. I’ll play it eventually but I’m not in a rush. For me Shiren is a pickup and play handheld game. I play it in 15-20 min bursts on the bus.

Also contemplating playing Arcanum of Steamworks and Magick Obscura on my laptop, especially since I’m GMing a Steampunk tabletop game on Discord, but I don’t know if I have the stamina for an old school CRPG right now.

I’m helping a friend move today, but I did finish Super Mario 3D World with my nephew last week. I’m sure we’ll tackle Bowser’s Fury next.