Games

Cossacks 2! I genuinely don't understand how this gem of a game doesn't have a not so large but extremely hardcore community that fixes all the bugs and QoL with mods. Now I haven't really played any other RTS games within the Napoleonic setting, but from what I've seen this one easily takes the cake in terms of historical accuracy.

Even though it has quite a few aforementioned bugs and the economy management system mostly focuses on capturing nearby villages for raw resources, I implore all history nerds to play this shit and bring it to life. Morale, fatigue from extended marching, effective range of fire, troop variety, different formations give different bonuses etc. But also the little things like the trees and hills giving cover and range bonuses, being able to capture enemy cannon, troops marching faster on roads and even troops being demoralized if a formation is broken near them.

Although this depth is absolutely amazing for a game that's literally 20 years old, it's probably the reason why the game isn't as popular as it rightfully should be.

E: Also, be aware that if you do play it, it might not work on windows 11 or 10. Strangely enough it runs well on over wine for me.

I've been sinking hours into ARC Raiders these last couple of weeks, and while this game is intentionally frustrating, it is also so much fun. There's a learning curve for one, but it's also absolutely terrifying sometimes when you have no idea what type of lobby you've landed in. Thus far, I've not met a single unfriendly player (as in insulting people), but I have been mowed down multiple times before. It sucks that there's no dedicated PvE or PvP lobbies, but it's fun regardless. You just have to be willing to get yourself killed.

Trying out Aether and Iron think steampunk nior NYC with a disco elysium style RPG system, so far just in the "tutorial" and it's interesting. Also has pretty good VA work

had a great day with arc raiders yesterday; got all my workbenches leveled up to 3 and started taking down some of the bigger arc (bastion, bombardier, rocketeer, leaper) solo so confidence is growing! also only got ratted once and it was straight ruthless shit just shotgunned in the back by the dude who didn't even knock me out or loot me, they just ran off to their next victim, only did it for the love of the game. and it was on a naked stella night mode run sooo can't be too mad.

other than that playing a little jedi survivor, got both that and fallen order for like $10 on steam, beat fallen order already and have been really enjoying the slop. wish the force powers were better but eh, the lightsaber combat is great.

Got hooked back again on Diablo 2, going through classic mode rn with a hammerdin.

Mostly Grey Zone Warfare. The update really breathed some life into it and as someone who was there from release, it's actually good now. PvE is a bit lacklustre, but PvP is good and could be great with some changes. Needs work (ballistics, AI, lighting, FOB respawning), but it's good enough that I've put some good dozens of hours into it. I'm feeling the steam wane though, dunno what I'll hop to next.

Other than that, played Menace and it's great. I'll wait for more content before actually committing to finishing it, if it can be finished.

I've been having a rough month (stomach issues) and so I'm fending off depression with stardew valley (year 1 winter just reached) and slay the spire 2.

I just pissed away something like 130 hours in an Assassin's Creed Odyssey cheevo-hunting playthrough. I hit 100% a little bit ago, and now I'm doing the post-game/post-DLC wrap-up stuff on Korfu island. There is a hilariously broken character build that I'd like to try out on a New Game+ run that involves a 16-bit integer arithmetic underflow bug in the game engine's damage calculation code and results in smacking everything consistently for about 2 billion damage per hit.

I'm on the fence about whether I actually want to go through with it, though; the "everything is parkour" control jank really started getting to me about 80 hours in, right around when I started the DLC zones and couldn't just sail/climb/ride everywhere. I fucking love telling my character to run forward, only to get hung up on a rock no higher than my big toe and the game just gives up and I stand there like a dumbfounded dipshit for 8 seconds while shouting, "The W key! It does NOTHING!" Par for the course with Ubislop, I guess.

I'm not sure what to play next, but it will probably be either Octopath Zero or finishing my sad attempt at an Honor Mode playthrough in BG3.

I got an 8bitdo pro 3 so I've been dipping back into the souls games to try it out. I've made some macros for Executor in Nightreign and between those and the responsiveness of the dongle compared to Bluetooth my game has really stepped up

My PSPlus sub is expiring in June so I figured I'd go through the catalog. Decided to give Far Cry 6 a spin. Only 2 hours in but I'm really enjoying it so far. Caught me at a very revolutionary time in my life. Never played a Far Cry game before but this ain't bad.

installing death stranding 2 as we speak.. hopefully it works on my vm

Nice work 47 this'll be a Luau the townsfolk won't soon forget.

Head for exfiltration.

I've been playing:

Botany Manor: What a cute little game! Puzzles were easy to medium (barring one or two that confused me enough to look up, only to realize I had either missed a mechanic or had the right idea but didn't follow through enough), and really just serve as a way to guide you through the scenic, titular manor--don't expect to rack your brain. I'll call out the music specifically as being a big contributor to the whimsical, "hike up your skirts and run through the garden" vibes.

This Ain't Even Poker, Ya Joker: Saw Northernlion play it which got me interested. One of the uncommon incremental games that doesn't overstay its welcome, I even hung around for a half-hour after I got all achievements just trying to optimize my deck. That doesn't sound like a lot of time but an extra 10% of fun past the completion point is pretty good!

Dunno what next, I've still gotta get back to Another Crab's Treasure but I play that on my desktop and it's so much easier to just lay in bed or on my couch and do laptop games... maybe I'll do Is This Game Trying to Kill Me? The free preface was cool

I have been trying to finish up Pokémon ZA on Eden. There was a bit more fun than I expected, but a lot of shitty decisions and choices throughout the game development as expected. I can't give up on it though so I'm pushing through till I can play the next game, which I think is going to be Digimon Cyber Sleuth

I got drunk and watched the 70s musical jesus crhist super star with a buddy. We then played peggle multi-player and finished off with the exploding judo league. I think it is legitimately good and free and cool.

Finally jumping into the Resident Evil franchise on RE1, since most of the early games were on sale. Been fun and I'm wondering why I held out so long.

Also played a bit of the Demon Souls remake after a break of a couple weeks.

On my commutes I've been playing a combination of Slay the Spire and Balatro.

Not been playing too much lately. I played a little Melee for the yearly Slippi April Fools event where the Unranked stage list is switched out for previously legal stages, that was fun. My wife and I have been playing the Super Mario All-Stars version of SMB3 before bed a bit lately as well. I played a lot of the GBA version growing up, but I've never played this version before. It's been nice hearing the music in better quality, but I do kinda miss the Mario voice lines lol. I tried finding a ROM hack to back-port the voice lines but it looks like no one has done it. Makes sense since it doesn't seem simple and I can't imagine many people want the voices to begin with.

ff14 w/ my boo

Getting back into Elden Ring pvp after seeing some gameplay videos online and getting the itch to invade some players again

Continuing playing Forza Motorsport 2's career mode. The increased difficult has meant upgrading more often rather than buying just a vehicle and using it for an event. Soundtrack still good, doesn't play during races but would definitely end up distracting.

Pirated Final Fantasy 16 and been going through it

Been putting Gamenative and Gamehub through their paces on an Odin 3. It's a device that should be relatively futureproof as drivers for it's current chips get better, and it's been killer so far. WIth some tinkering, I've seen people running RE Requiem on it. While I like tinkering with settings and junk, I don't really have an urge to play that one, so I can't say much more than "yeah, it looks like it ran pretty smooth to me on this little Android handheld." I also don't fuck with Winulator, it's too complicated for me. **

Been playing:

NFS Rivals

Get to the Orange Door

Ultrakill

DMC 4

Other than that, I did start getting into Warframe, it's fun to be a space ninja with a sword and machine gun. I ain't gonna put any money into it, but I haven't really felt limited by that yet (granted, I am NOT far in the game, just about to start levels on Venus after the Earth boss).

Switch emulation runs real well - currently doing:

Burnout Paradise

Risk of Rain 2 (I have it on Steam, but I've been having fun on a fresh file with the DLC pirated)

Forgive Me Father 2 (love some cthulhu)

Gal Gun 2 (yeah, yeah, it's simple and silly)

Hyrule Warriors 1

** If anyone is like I'm happy to talk about it. I'm an emulation junkie.

Just got an r36s and added the og RE2. But I saw it has like 800 some odd arcade titles, so I hit random and it landed on Michael Jackson's moonwalker. Just posted one of the most bizarre creations in that game to the retro gaming community that I affectionately called dick robot.

Just finished Deltarune chapter 4 yesterday, damn that was cool, I missed the chapter 3 secret boss fight, but did every single other, the chapter 4 secret boss was super cool. I have a save point ready to do the Snowgrave route, but I don't know if I want do that right now. So now I gotta find something else to play. I have a bunch of demos I installed, but I don't know what I'll do.

A bit of League and some Theme Hospital (1997).

Just picked up Kingdom Come Deliverance II from a discount site. I liked the idea of the first one but ultimately found it a bit too frustrating to finish. Heard enough good stuff about the sequel smoothing out the edges to give it a try.

Finished Famicom Detective Club: Emio The Smiling Man last night. It was okay. I get what they were trying to accomplish but it turned it into more of a crime-drama than a detective-mystery.

Continuing my TOTK playthrough.

Got all the things I can get in Warframe, so now I'm buying the things I can't with plat from big trades (a few lucky rivens). I'll need to farm some resources, plus Voruna Primecomes out next week, so I'm not done yet, but soon.

Been playing some Slay the Spire and having a good time. Beat the Heart first time I saw it with a poison build and then have never even come close since lmao.

Played some more Total Warhammer 3 Coop as Greasus and everyone is now trying to kill me. Tamurkhan, Sayl, Villitch, Dechala, all declared war on me within a turn and then Kugath backstabbed me and took out my capital while I'm busy in the north. At the same time all of my trade partners have been wiped out so I my income dropped from +5k to -1.6k. Balance seems pretty fucked, Dechala always comes out on top, and Sayl is way too tanky for a caster lord. I remember when Vlad was considered OP, little did we know just how good we had it back then.