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jimmy spako wrote: Mon Feb 17, 2025 5:08 am I'm not motivated to grind through Chorus at the moment, stuck on a protracted battle/mission. Still intend to return to it at some point.

I picked up the Tomb Raider Definitive Edition trilogy (originally released starting in 2013) and am about halfway through the first one. I'm stuck on a battle in the towers above Shantytown. Previously, I was able to get through the big ambushes/battles in Shantytown by running away and then luring baddies to me and picking them off, but can't do that here. Sick of getting offed in brutal fashion. This is the first gorey game I've played and it's beginning to wear on me a bit.

I started messing around with Space Engineers with the little dude. Steep learning curve but he managed not to melt down and hang with it and build some simple structures in outer space yesterday.

I also started playing Minecraft with him in earnest and it's a blast. I mostly work on abstract shit while he builds more concrete structures. The combination works nicely. We're working away at our Arctic Sculpture Village. Once I realised you could basically go all stochastic on it, running around in circles dropping blocks while switching between different aesthetically pleasing materials randomly, I really started to dig it. I do that for a while and then zoom out and impose more structure on it if I like. Basically like doodling or abstract drawing and then fleshing out more concrete parts as they emerge. We make a good team.

I completed Tomb Raider (2013) Solid game, good fun. Now three or four hours into the sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and digging it.

Also playing Lego Star Wars Skywalker Saga with the little dude. We just made it through the prequels.

My nephews have been trying to get me to play Overkill for the past year now. I finally caved and got it. I played the first level and got to the first boss and it was OK. I play on the Deck and one of my golden rules for gaming is the game must be good with a controller. It was kind of hard to play the game at first. However, I've played high-octane FPS with controllers with a lot of success (Doom 2016 was a blast). Anyway, last night, I decided to give it another try. I finally realized the power of the dash button and the location of it on the controls. Oh, and how powerful punching actually is and how it's tied to healing. This game is actually as amazing as all the reviewers say. High-octane FPS with some really cool mechanics that make it FUN to play.

Punching is necessary, because you are a robot fueled by blood. If you punch at the right time, you get a parry and it seems like this does extra damage and healing. Regular punches do some modicum of healing.

I absolutely love using the base pistol as a weapon. However, weapon upgrades are fun. It's close to what you'd experience in Doom, where you can put points into certain upgrades and then chose which upgrades you want to use. There's even a quick switch between weapon upgrades, that works pretty much the same as the quick weapon cycle.

There's a ton of action and lots of fun mechanics. Definitely a lot of ridiculousness. I mean, you're playing a vampiric robot filled with organic muscle that is fueled by blood.

Mankind is Dead.
Blood is Fuel.
Hell is Full.

Highly recommend.

Monster Train 2 out in a month. If you haven't played Monster Train, you haven't lived.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2742 ... r_Train_2/

cakes wrote: Mon Apr 28, 2025 2:55 pm Monster Train 2 out in a month. If you haven't played Monster Train, you haven't lived.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2742 ... r_Train_2/

Came out yesterday. Worth every penny.

I've been playing Civilization 7. A friend recommended it when I was getting nostalgic about Age of Empires back in the 00's. This is similar but more sophisticated. Not as constant an aggressive battle/military side, although it can go that way. Lots of layers with diplomacy, economic development, settlements, exploration and changing from different ages. The mix-match of leaders, regions is fun. I was Lafayette in Persia fighting with Queen Isabella of Egypt when I bumped into Benjamin Franklin and formed an alliance. You can even be Machiavelli, but who'd want to?

It's a real time suck. A few times it has kept me up way past my bedtime with "just one more thing" syndrome.

Pretty cool.

jimmy spako wrote: Sat Apr 12, 2025 6:09 am I completed Tomb Raider (2013) Solid game, good fun. Now three or four hours into the sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and digging it.

I'm on Rise of the Tomb Raider myself. More fun if you up the difficulty, where combat can get quite challenging. Fighting animals is harder than fighting humans. Minus for the boring storyline.


Trying out Tomb Raider 3 on the remaster. Have played the India levels some before but never really the whole game. The alternative new controls unfortunately appear poorly playtested. The action+forward command for climbing small ledges doesn't work, making them quite useless. A shame, because I like being able to freely move the camera, it adds to the experience as well. I enjoyed taking my time going down the first slope and just taking in the environment, being cautious with my steps.

Looked at the first game a bit as well. The updated textures and improved lighting make everything much clearer. I remember it sometimes being hard to distingush objects.

You may not consider it worth extra money given the OG games are also sold for basically nothing.


Not one I'm playing myself, but I've been transfixed watching videos of Farming Simulator 25. Looks like it could be extremely addictive. Everything is slow and precise and requires patience, everything costs money, and at any time you have tons of things to take care of - sounds like a real farm! The physics and the scales of time and distance feel very realistic. If I'm playing it, I'd want some kind of driving rig like he uses in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IflNUap ... fwyWhV_5Fl

I did a search of the thread back then and saw that you'd played some of the triology. I ended up playing and completing all three over winter/spring this year. I really enjoyed them. I'd definitely play whatever comes next in the series.

After that, I dove into RDR2 for a while and then had to take a break, ended up leaving the console alone for some months. Now I'm back on my bullshit here, fairly well into Jedi: Survivor and really enjoying it.

I also picked up Foreclosed for a couple bucks on sale because I liked the style. Ten minutes into it the gameplay was annoying me too much to appreciate the cell-shaded cyberpunk aesthetics. Watched a video on what it wants me to do in the early stealth scenes and will give it another go.

I've dipped my toe into Disco Elysium again and want to play it, but it often requires too much thought at times when I am too burned out. I hope to get past that and really wrap my head around how it works.

I think the game I played the most this year is the original Modern Warfare from 2007, just the bonus 'Mile High Club' mission. On the highest difficuilty it's more like a hot lap in a racing sim, as in figuiring out a line to follow and hopefully not crashing, it's addictive.

jimmy spako wrote: Thu Nov 13, 2025 12:25 pm I dove into RDR2

I came upon a video of a girl making a story in RDR2 of just riding horses and earning money through work. I like when things are used for unintended purposes like that.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ4AthEwmgo

Nice!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM9CqgIve_o

Check out Total Refusal too:

https://totalrefusal.com/home/hardly-working

https://totalrefusal.com/home/how-to-disappear