Gaming

Vampire Survivors has got me back in its grip. The Ode to Castlevania DLC dropped on Halloween. I really don't understand where the time goes when I play that game.

Also picked up Webfishing, an absolutely adorable time. I don't know that I really consider it "playing", the actual gameplay is pretty basic, but I've enjoyed the peaceful nature of it and have had fun just chatting.

This is seriously dating myself, and probably hyper-specific, but it feels more like chatrooms back in the late 90s to early 2000s. Most of the rooms I've been in have been relaxed. Having a talk about life while someone strums "Simple and Clean" on a guitar somewhere in the background. A bit of roleplay going on.

The small lobbies, the small map, the chill gameplay, all makes for a cozy, welcoming place. Like you really did just stumble across someone's campsite, and they invited you to sit.

When this group of people on discord are online: Helldivers 2. It's a nice way of killing time while chitchatting.

When not: Factorio with the recently release Space Age expansion. Absolutely loving it.

Veilguard, Session, and a lot of Skate 3. It’s all been an adventure.

I just found my way back into Hell Let Loose so I'll probably stick woth it for a bit.

Singleplayerwise I am currently trying to get through Kingdome Come Deliverance. But it's hard to fimd the time.

When I don't have much time or feel like a bit of casual gaming I play a round of Hearthstone Battlegrounds :)

Well, the Monster Hunter Wilds Beta test ended. I'm devastated honestly, because I didn't get to play it enough! It started the day I had work and ended 2 hours after I got off today. I misread the timezone and I thought it ended on the 4th and 11:59am in my timezone. It ended at like 8pm or so.

So that's too bad! Other than that ~8 hour treat that I thoroughly enjoyed, I've finally gotten around to Dragon's Dogma 2 and I'm enjoying it as well (though slighted now after my favorite series was ripped away from me). It feels a little floaty for some of the characters, but it so far has been a good experience. I've been in a bit of a gaming slump so it's been nice to relax some and play some nostalgic games right as winter is hitting.

The gaming slump I was in had me pretty much only playing Phantom Brave and sifting through little games like Sonic Mania, so I'm looking forward to the games I have on my radar cause it's really the first time in a while!

Oh also, Amanda the Adventurer 2 came out and my partner and I played through it a little bit. It's pretty good, although it isn't the most straightforward. We had to use a guide for quite a bit of it and, while we were close to the right track for each puzzle, we just were not on the ball with what the developers wanted from us. I think the first game was a lot like that though if I remember, and so really what matters more with that in mind is how they continue the story and the atmosphere, which they really nailed. The perfect amount of corporate conspiracy supernatural demon cult technological red herring horror.

All in all, I guess being an adult means winter is gaming time cause I've been pretty much too busy the rest of the year to really want or have time to game. For me, a big part of gaming is how I'm feeling, sometimes I want point and pop, sometimes I want laid back, sometimes I want something new, and sometimes I want to make numbers go big. And sometimes, I want to do other things that aren't gaming, which makes actually gaming feel a little guilty.

Playing FFXIV for the first time.

I don't really care for multiplayer games as much since I don't like to commit my time to others to play games (I like being able to get up and leave when I need to), but there's a solo challenge that sounded fun, so I'm giving that a shot.

I finally added all of my accounts to https://playnite.link (a FOSS, all-in-one game library manager), which reminded me of the RTS Loria that was given away last year or so; I think I'll finally crack that open soon, figuratively speaking.

V Rising. I just started playing and am already hopelessly addicted. Please send help.

For those not familiar, it's a Diablo-esque (with direct controls) open world hack and slasher with light RPG elements, but a comparatively much stronger crafting, building and upgrade component, so much so in fact that there are barely any character upgrades beyond some unlockable spells. The core gameplay loop revolves around finding resources (by killing enemies - ranging from humans and animals to all sorts of supernatural creatures and beings - opening chests and farming resources in the environment), then refining them and thereby unlocking new items and things to build in your castles. The latter can be built pretty early on, but in the beginning, it's little more than a few palisade walls (and no roof) protecting a handful of crafting stations and storage chests.

The no roof thing is relevant, because as the V in the game's title implies, the protagonist is a vampire, which means they can suck blood and assume some of the capabilities of their foes. This also means that they need extra strong sun cream, but since it hasn't been invented yet and the substitute magic potion isn't very effective, longer boss fights (which are plentiful and can happen everywhere) that stretch into the day turn into an interesting game of dashing from shadow to shadow while at the same time dodging enemy attacks in order to not get roasted by the fiery ball in the sky. Before I managed to find the necessary resources and crafting stations required for building stone flooring and walls, which automatically create a roof (must be vampire magic), I had to help myself by using braziers that turn bones (a rather plentiful resource, thankfully, given the enormous kill count you rack up in this title) into a mist that blocks out sunlight over a fairly generous area.

Just like other resource-consuming stations, it keeps running even when the game isn't playing. This has advantages and disadvantages: On one hand, you can just do something else for a couple of hours and return to piles of resources having been crafted, but on the other hand, your castle also consumes another resource in order to even remain standing - although this can be turned off, at least in games you host yourself for singleplayer or co-op. V Rising is very generous in this regard anyway, allowing the player to customize virtually every balancing aspect in excruciating detail.

I'm still not very far in the game, having only just unlocked the ability to turn humans into slaves. Depending on their class (from lowly worker to skilled fighter, at least that's what I've encountered so far) and the quality of their blood, the ability of the servants you create can vary quite widely. Capturing slaves is neatly done: You have to bring their health down to at least 30%, then use a special spell to control them. You cannot cast any other spells as you are doing this. The player then needs to carefully bring the extremely vulnerable human back to their castle and place them in a coffin, which starts the conversion process to a servant. The way back home becomes a tricky obstacle course as you try to avoid any bigger fights in order to keep your almost dead human alive until you reach your destination. It's also advisable to kill all other enemies the human is with first, being careful not to use any area of effect spells that might inadvertently kill that rogue with 96% blood purity you so desperately want as your loyal servant.

If there's one thing about this game that is below average, it's the presentation. The intro is the usual cheap motion graphics with voiceover style doing the absolute bare minimum to establish the scenario (vampires once ruled the world, humans fought them, won, you slept for centuries waiting to take over again - that's it), sound effects and music as generic as the fantasy scenario, voice lines repeat themselves all the time, objects are low-poly and textures muddy even from the far away default camera perspective. It's serviceable, but clearly extremely outdated. Nobody would have been impressed by this even 12+ years ago. Effects like magic and explosions are solid though, the day night cycle is well done, the forest is dense and environments have a large number of destructible objects, so at least there's that.

Overall, I'm impressed. V Rising is addictive, challenging and motivating, with tight controls, frantic combat and excellent crafting. This is a clever, well-made game with what appears to be plenty of staying power, exposing new systems and mechanics to the player at a nice, even pace.

Life is Strange at the moment, new game in the series was released just a week ago

I've also found out this game has a Lemmy instance, but sadly it's abandoned

Finally got an invite to Deadlock. After watching a let's play and messing around with different heroes in the Hero Sandbox, I think there is just too much. I know it is a MOBA shooter combo, but between the movement mechanics, skills, and item shop, it just kinda seems they added stuff just because other titles in either genre have them. I might still give it a few matches, but it definitely dropped in priority.

Been playing through Raft again with my partner, and that's been a blast. I love a survival crafter, and realized she had not played since the full release. Kinda a cozy survival game if that is even a thing. The only downside isn't it has been moving our normal sleep schedule later, and we need to move it earlier

I think I'm close to finishing Metaphor. I have a few sidequests left before what I think is going to be the final dungeon/sequence. It's been great, and I only have very small complaints about things that don't really matter.

Finished HROT. It's a good game, like I said last week, it's basically Quake. I started on the Hard difficulty, played through the first episode, but turned it down for the others, because I wanted more run-and-gun and not creeping around corners, because enemies kill me in two shots.

Then I also played through Animal Well. A great looking metroidvania, where you don't fight, it's more about avoiding enemies or scaring them away. I saw credits after less than six hours, but then spend another eight searching for secrets. I needed help from a guide for the last couple, to get to the credits the second time, for the second ending. There's some more stuff to find, maybe a third or true ending, but I don't really care enough to do that.

I also decided to check out Rain World, but I'm not really sure about this one. For some reason, the game resolution is 768p, which scales with nothing. This means, unless you play on a cheap or old laptop, that uses that resolution, the game will be blurry (or a tiny window). There isn't even a x2 scaling option or something. Luckily there is a mod fixes this, but it's still baffling, that this is even needed. Like Animal Well, it's also a game, where fighting isn't really the focus (although you can to some extent), but most of the time I was fighting the controls. I'll give it a bit more time next week, but unless it suddenly clicks with me, I'll skip this one.

Since I'm in the mood for some metroidvanias right now, I played through another one, Haiku, the Robot. It's a pretty cookie cutter medroidvania, not bad, but also doesn't do anything special. You find abilities, like a double jump, short teleport, morphball, stuff like that. There's also a system like the Charms in Hollow Knight to enhance certain parts of your skill set. I usually like pixel art graphics, but I really didn't vibe with the enemy design, and everything else is once again pretty basic.

Earlier in the week I started Remnant II with a friend, but the beginning was really rough, so much so, that I don't know if we'll continue. The levels and bosses are randomized to some extent, so depending on your luck you might get easier or harder bosses. Our first boss (or event) was pretty terrible. We had to run down a tower, while we were chased by lighting (but also couldn't be too fast, because of more lightning), and had to shoot some stuff in the middle of the tower, all while enemies spawned. The worst part about this "boss" was that basically everything, except the enemies, was a one-shot death. I was terrible at this and constantly failed, but we eventually made it through. The next couple of bosses were better, but not by much. Who knows if we'll ever get back to this one.

Then the same friend and me started a coop Baldurs Gate 3 run today. I guess we're doing an evil run, since he picked Dark Urge and we're going to raid the grove next time. I played through the game once, around the time of the 1.0 release, and wanted to do an evil playthrough anyway eventually, so this is fine with me.

Popped back into Diablo 4 for a couple nights for their Halloween event.

Finished Alan Wake and its DLCs! I always forget how much I love this game. It makes me very happy to have replayed it again.

Next on the Remedy list is Max Payne, which I just started last night. I also love this game, but man, I always forget how terrible I am at it. I don't know if it's because it's an older game or because I play with mouse and keyboard, but my coordination is absolutely abysmal. But, I'm still having fun, and that's all that matters.

Started resident evil 7 never played it before Im liking it so far. And started state of decay 2, got it on the steam sale but haven't played it that much

Over on another reddit/beehaw-like site, there's a "Backlog Burner" event. Basically playing games in one's games backlog during the month on November. And boy do I have a backlog.

I started with This War of Mine. I didn't play very long, nearly 1.5hrs. It wasn't bad. I think I just got bored. I might go back to it at some point? We'll see. It's just slow to start and not a lot of direction. I'm kinda the type that at least in the beginning of a game, I'm gonna need a little direction and a push.

For the second game I've played so far, I tried Signalis. Now THAT is an awesome game. So far anyway; only about 3hrs in. I will say, I don't normally like playing horror/suspense games like this. I'm too much of a wuss. But Signalis has kept me hooked. I'll only play for like 20-30min at a time, before my nerves start getting to me (lol), but I do keep going back.

Otherwise, just playing FFXIV as usual. And also finishing up Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice. Finally on the last case, "Turnabout Time Traveler."

PC:

• Super Animal Royale (completing the new bp and halloween event!)
• Left 4 Dead 2 (updating my mods)
• Vampire Survivors (playing thru the new dlc!)

Mobile:

• I Love Hue (i'm close to completing it)
• Magic Survival
• Impossible Dungeon
• Heroism
• Eternium
• Pou (dk how much that's gonna last)

Pokemon ROGUE EX a ROM hack to turn Pokémon into a rogue like (or lite or whatever). You reset to home everytime you lose all Pokémon and you earn money and get new Pokemon to start with. It's a lot of fun. I beat the second gym, is as far as I am.

I've been playing A free Zelda Rogue-like and A fast-paced, Rogue-like FPS: Mullet Madjack

Both are fantastic games with a lot of replay value!

I've been playing Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord. About 35ish hours into this save and so far I enjoy the game a lot. It does some things better than Mount and Blade: Warband but unfortunately some aspects of the game are less developed than in it's predecessor. Overall I think unmodded Bannerlord is better than unmodded Warband but Warband has an absolutely massive catalog of incredible mods. Maybe Bannerlord will get there one day.