I’ve kind of been bouncing off a few things this week. I’m playing through Freedom Planet for the first time and loving it (I’ve already bought the sequel in preparation), chipping away at Brotato, playing a bit of N++, and doing a few runs in Darkest Dungeon 2. I finished Super Mario Wonder after bouncing off it when it originally came out, and now I’m just trying to cram anything into the hole.

I just finished Ghost of Tsushima. It was a beautiful game with really fun combat, and a pretty solid storyline. Exploration was excellent, despite the rewards being a bit underwhelming, but it was one of those rare games where I wanted to explore every corner of the map. I loved the variety of the map, every region genuinely felt unique and gorgeous for its own reasons. It was also the perfect length. I did alllll of the side quests, so the main plot ended up feeling just right, not too long, definitely not too short. Highly recommended.

Under Night In-Birth II [Sys:Celes] - I’m back on my bullshit again. Uzuki arc was fun, but when it comes time for bracket I gotta lock in. And by lock in, I mean still play like a clown.

Them’s Fightin’ Herds - Glue Cup was short on commentators this week, so I volunteered to fill in. Been a long time since I’ve done proper tournament commentary, I’ve honestly really missed doing it.

Mega Knockdown - Took 4th in the second anniversary bracket. Shoutouts to Stealphie’s $100 airthrow.

Splatoon 3 - Didn’t have too much time to practice this week, but had one good session. Really trying to work on more actionable callouts, coordinating with our specials and planning a push together rather than merely announcing things after they happen.

Summon Night: Swordcraft Story - Man, forgot how annoying it was that you have to always go for weapon breaks against bosses or else you miss their blueprint forever. Also, RHDN shutdown has me wondering, if/when the third game’s translation patch ever gets finished, where do I even look to find out about it?

Slay the Spire - I can quit any time I want, I swear.

Mahjong Soul/Riichi City/IRL mahjong - Came dangerously close to losing my Master 1 rank on Soul, but got a few wins so I’m safeish now. I know I’m too reckless and I’m trying to work on that. I did play one of the best games I’ve had at club this week, had the discipline to fold several tempting hands and it turned out to be correct every time. Sometimes protecting second place through smart play is more satisfying than lucking into first.

Kitsune Tails - Cute little platformer, but maybe too on the nose for how much it copies SMB3. Kuribo’s Shoe, really?

Zenless Zone Zero. It’s very free to play for a gacha. I been liking the gameplay and story so far.

I made a little bit of progress in Dread Delusion, but not too much to report. I still think pretty highly of the game, and even though I don’t have a map yet, the world is still very navigable.

A friend and I are still making our way through V Rising. Last week, I mentioned that it was grindier than I would like, but then I remembered that we control this server ourselves, so we turned up loot drops and tweaked a couple of other settings that didn’t make sense without PVP. It’s made a pretty big difference, and now we can just get back to the core loop of hunting and upgrading. The boss fights have been really well designed too. We just fought a fisherman boss who, when you’re not too distracted by how good his animations are, will summon all kinds of different fish-themed enemies to spice up the fight. And I also just had to sit back and admire how readable all of the enemy attacks are; you know exactly when an AoE attack is going to hit, for instance.

I had played Wolfenstein: The New Order about a decade ago, but now I’m replaying it, and I would like to finish this and then move on to The New Colossus, which I have not played before, ahead of the Indiana Jones release. I miss campaign FPS games like this. There are a few on the horizon, but they’re rare now.

A little Valorant A little asphalt legends - because I was sick and asphalt is fun but less demanding

Been playing the new update for Stardeus. Having fun so far! Haven’t played for a while so it’s a good excuse to jump back in.

I’ve put many hours into “Crime Boss: Rockay City” in the last week or so. I had a lot of fun with Payday 1 & 2, but 3 left me pretty disappointed after trying it on PC Game Pass, so I gave Crime Boss a chance. Apparently it got fixed up pretty well after it had a rough launch.

Crime Boss focuses on its rogue-lite campaign, which works well enough. The game is split into two parts. One is a world map in which you plan heists, hire personnel, buy equipment and attack the four other factions to take their turf. The second part is basically Payday with fewer cops, a bit worse gunplay and smaller heists.

All this is garnished with lots and lots of 90s direct-to-video action movie charm with (phoned in) voice acting by Michael Madsen, Chuck Norris, Kim Basinger, Danny Glover, Danny Trejo and Vanilla Ice. Also licensed music by Jon Bon Jovi, The Prodigy, Body Count, Boomfunk MC’s and so on.

It all works pretty well, even though some parts feel a bit low-budget. My only real complaints: Some mechanics are not explained well or at all. It took me a few runs to understand how everything works together. Also, attacking and defending turfs gets boring after a while.

i just beat Spider-Man Remastered (2020) yesterday. It was pretty good! swinging around the city doesn’t feel quite as good as Spider-Man 2 (2004), but the combat is a lot of fun, and the story and pacing was great. once i 100% it, i’ll probably pick up the sequel when it’s on sale.

Anno 1800. I am hooked!