What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

Oh, I forgot to slag on Eve a little bit. I've started it three times now, and have never made it a whole month. It's almost the opposite of fun. Maybe I'm chasing some kind of exciting space MMO unicorn that's WoW in space, to remind me of back when I liked WoW a lot.

My Hamburg playthrough of EUIV is coming along swimmingly. I'm only three provinces but one of the expansions adds the ability to develop your city so you can go with a "tall" strategy, so Hamburg is a well developed metropolis that has embraced the Renaissance. Wurtemburg unexpectedly won the HRE election over Austria, so I allied up with them and they granted me elector status which is awesome.

Once I pump my trade ideas a bit, I'm going to go colonization. I doubt it'll be successful, I'm just too small and poor, but it could be fun to have some Canadian provinces colonized by a North German city-state.

It's a good game but obviously pretty impenetrable. Worth figuring out, though. You have to pay absolutely religious attention to your alliances and the other alliances in Germany. I'm bordered by Brandenburg now and with Saxony and Anhalt in the neighborhood things could go south really quickly if I don't maintain powerful allies.

It's been video game mania at our house since Santa officially delivered the Switch that I've had, have been playing, and kept hidden since launch. There was one incident where my son saw it- "Daddy, that looks like a Nintendo Switch down on the couch!" "It's not, it's a video game thing I got sent to review and I have to send it back."

The biggest hits are actually Arms and Snipperclips. Arms is going to go down as underappreciated by the world at large, I fear. It's too weird and wacky for the mainstream public, and it really feels more like a 1990s Sega game than a modern Nintendo one, although it has Nintendo's level of quality and charm.. It needs a story-based adventure like in Splatoon and some of the characters are almost uncomfortably awkward (the clown girl, wtf). But it is also brilliant, and features the best motion control fighting ever. There's quite a lot of depth, psychology, and skill involved, and it's really fun to play. Snipperclips is a wonderful multiplayer puzzle game, once again with Nintendo quality and charm, and some truly hilarious gameplay. Very inventive, and a great "show what the Switch can do" title.

Pokken Tournament DX is also getting a lot of play...and we hit a major milestone. River beat me legitimately in a first-to-five competition. I didn't sandbag or hold back, he totally whipped me. I felt like we had crossed a threshold that we can never go back over.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe though, he ain't beating me. I roll EVERYBODY. I am that fucking good. I played against maybe 10 different people at one of those Switch demo events before Christmas and I just aced 'em all. Nobody drifts as good as I do. I should seriously compete professionally.

I'm still not quite connecting with Breath of the Wild, which makes me sad. I keep trying, so that says something. I keep getting into situations where I spend 15 minutes trying to climb a mountain or something and getting frustrated.

Picked up some indies too.:

Rocket League is better on Switch than PS4, IMO. I like playing it handheld better than on TV for some reason.

Oxenfree is on sale for $4.99 but it is total garbage- something something about teens that talk like voice actors that go to some island to drink and jibber-jabber, they wind up opening a portal to blah blah. "Gameplay" is choosing from three dialogue choices in between the Teen Nick discussions.

Stardew Valley is deadly. I sat there all day yesterday looking forward to going to the Egg Festival in town. I wondered if I should wear a tie while playing the game. Tonight I am going to harvest some kale and see about starting a cauliflower field, then I'm going to find Robin's axe that she lost chopping wood. Good god.

Enter the Gungeon is GREAT. I almost didn't get it because the whole indie roguelike/twinstick thing is pretty played out, but I liked the promise of 200+ weapons and as many items. It's really fun and fucking hard. It's very much like Binding of Issac, but without all of the poop junk I can't stand. Really digging it, really like how they brought in some Cave-like bullet hell business.

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is really neat but I've not played it much yet- want to wait to get the kids to help pilot the ship, I think they will really dig it.

Thumper is pretty cool- sort of a dark, psychedelic rhythm game.

It's technically a video game, so Anki Overdrive warrants discussion here. It is the breakout hit Christmas present of 2017. We are LOVING It, even though it is WONKY as fuck. When it works (which is like 90% of the time), it's like a hybrid of slot cars and a live-action, IRL Mario Kart. You control these robotic cars with your mobile device- I haven't quite sorted out how it all works, but I _think_ the app actually does most of the work. The cars scan the track (which has no slots or anything like that) and then I think it calculates where the turns are so that it can adjust the speed of the two motors to make it turn. You don't technically steer the car, you just change lanes but that does impact your speed and control. Controlling speed is really more important- sort of like slot cars in that regard.

The racing is fast and fun, and the AI (yes, you can assign AI to control other cars and you can even play solo) is really surprising- on the harder levels, it can be actually pretty tough to beat. BUT THEN there are also weapons. Lots of weapons. You earn coins (not IAP coins) and buy upgrades at a weapons shop. They have all kinds of effects- AOE kinds of things, long-range sniper shots, short range flame throwers, mines, tractor beams that drag cars back to you (REALLY neat), a "Crazy Ivan" upgrade that lets you do an amazing 180 to shoot cars behind you with your front-mounted weapons, EMP pulses that cause other cars to spin out and lose control...lots of really neat options along with shields and other advantages.

BUT THERE IS MORE. There are also Supertrucks, these big tractor trailers. You can play/race with them normally (as long as you don't use the jump ramp!), and they have a special "Rage" mechanic where they go berserk and pretty much wreck anything they get next to and usually themselves. But the real reason to have them is this Takeover mode. The truck is AI controlled, and the players all try to disable it with weapons. Whoever does so, gets to control the truck until it is disabled again. The only way to score points is as the truck. It is really great.

Now, the negatives. The cars are RIDICULOUSLY sensitive. Dust on the track or on the wheels causes them to go bananas, they'll fly off, suddenly turn around 180 degrees and go the wrong way. When someone goes off track, it really should automatically pause rather than just say "Skull is off the track". You've got to keep the tracks and tires clean, which is really freaking hard unless you are in a white room.

It's all on Bluetooth, so you know how that goes too. You don't connect 100 percent of the time, and sometimes cars just decide they don't want to hook up with your device.

Battery life on the cars is a joke. Maybe 2-3 races on a full charge. They charge quick, but if you want to keep it going you really need enough cars to run a set and charge a set simultaneously.

It takes a lot of floor space to make a really good track I went all in on it, so we have the base game, three track expansions, the ramp, the crossover (A MUST HAVE), and the rails which are kind of a joke because they don't really keep the cars on the track.

The biggest problem though is that one of the cars, Guardian, seems to have a serious problem either in the app or in the car. I have bought FIVE of these, and everyone malfunctions the exact same way- it shows low battery halfway through 1 race, then the car freaks out and abruptly disconnects. I have a ticket in with Anki on it because this is ridiculous.

We have all of the cars and trucks (minus variants and the Fast and the Furious ones in the F&F starter). Protip- Skull is the best, followed by Nuke. If you get into it, get at least one extra car and one Supertruck. Shit is EXPENSIVE, but I got everything during Christmas sales for 30-35% off.

Michael Barnes wrote: Stardew Valley is deadly. I sat there all day yesterday looking forward to going to the Egg Festival in town. I wondered if I should wear a tie while playing the game. Tonight I am going to harvest some kale and see about starting a cauliflower field, then I'm going to find Robin's axe that she lost chopping wood. Good god.

Enter the Gungeon is GREAT. I almost didn't get it because the whole indie roguelike/twinstick thing is pretty played out, but I liked the promise of 200+ weapons and as many items. It's really fun and fucking hard. It's very much like Binding of Issac, but without all of the poop junk I can't stand. Really digging it, really like how they brought in some Cave-like bullet hell business.

Both of these games are amazing. Enter the Gungeon would be *perfect* handheld for 30 minutes on Switch as long as framerate is high. On the PC, it's just a little too much setup to get it ready, sit down, etc. I'd rather switch on something brain burning if I'm going to that effort like a strategy game. On the go, pick up and play though? That sounds great.

Michael Barnes wrote: ARMS... and features the best motion control fighting ever.

That's an awfully goddamn low bar.

I finally finished the majority of Witcher 3's content, up to Blood & Wine, its final expansion, during the New Year holiday.

So, what's the final verdict? Despite its many faults, I think it's a 9/10 for me. It's one of my top 5 RPGs. The amount and quality of content poured into the game is simply staggering. My best moments actually comes from the random small missions, such as when I stumbled upon pirates while on the back of my horse on a long stretch of beach, engaged them in cavalry combat (they were on foot--not my fault), and dismounted to finish them out. Afterward I looted the place. They were in a bay, with lots of wrecked ships seen over the water. It seemed they're waiting for any crashing ships and then prey upon any surviving cargo and people. None of these were in the game's story. That it was a thunder-fucking-storm during my raid only enhance the atmosphere even further. This kind of moment is very frequent in the game.

Now, the obvious weakness is caused by its character development system. A bandit could be level 3 or 25 (both not wearing pants). Same with armor and weapons (with exact same appearances). That sucks. A LOT of the skills and buffs are just number games. Let's count the things you can do to increase your numbers: skills, mutation, equipment, magic stones, potions, decoctions, oils, grindstone/workbenches, etc. Worse, the use a percentage system which means a skill is negligible for the first point invested and becomes super deadly when fully learned.

Also the story. Really, you can do what in combat? Light attack, heavy attack, 5 signs, the 7 special moves (2 for attacks, 5 for signs), dodge, roll, parry, counter attack, quaff potions/decoctions/food (4 shortcuts button for these). And how many buttons for non-combat activities? Witcher sense, and of course, one interact button to do them all. Then, the oldie "choose your dialogue" mechanism. Really, story is just watching--admittedly well written, acted and voiced--cutscenes while making a choice occasionally. And why this is bad, you say? That's because Witcher 3 makes you to choose without knowing the outcome at all. All your knowledge doesn't matter. Writers' choice do. Realistic? Probably. Good game? I don't know. The lack of information makes "meaningful choice with consequence" in Witcher 3 feels like crapshoot.

But again, super great content, great world, great characters. Every single major map in the Witcher could have been its own game, and there are 3 of them, with the main one 2-3 times bigger than the others. Then there's 2 smaller areas. In a Steam Sale, I don't think any games can match Witcher 3's massive value. Wish the character building more solid, and the non-combat/talkie sections better.

I'll be playing this again.

I too have been playing a lot of Witcher 3. Bought physical copy of the complete edition for $25.

I do see a lot of flaws, but the good stuff is so far making up for those deficiencies. I'm no where near Sevej's level of completion, and I agree it is pretty damned good. If some of the crap could be worked out of it, I'd give it more than a 9/10.

I wasn't expecting to like this at all.

But I also can't spend a lot of time playing it. I like it, but it's not very binge worthy for me. Mostly because I know this is a long haul game, and that daunting thought makes playing for more than a couple hours at a time unsavory. But finish it I will, eventually.

Witcher is a solid 8 for me as well. the repetitive combat and the useless crafting are the knocks I have against it.

I never had to craft weapons or armor as the stuff found in world was sufficient. I was able to go through the entire game on the hardest combat setting with the same tactics. That being said, it has been a great game.

Now I have to get that Akia racing game.

Do you actually see the weapons displayed on the track or does it make a sound and then an opponent gets blown off the map?

There is a Hot Wheel branded one that may deserve a glance as well.

SuperflyTNT wrote: Now I have to get that Akia racing game.

Do you actually see the weapons displayed on the track or does it make a sound and then an opponent gets blown off the map?

Makes a sound, the LEDs on the car flash, and shit happens (usually slowing down to a crawl or spinning). I think there's also something on your screen to tell you what's up, but I haven't played in a while. The weapons try not to take cars off the track, since the game can't really recover from that on its own.

The "learning the track" warm-up lap is really interesting, as the cars sort of slowly walk around it to figure out how you've set it up.

My kids got the base set last Christmas, and we had a lot of fun with it. We never expanded it very much, since they're more video game focused. I should bust it out again, I remember seeing some v2 app updates come through my phone.

SuperflyTNT wrote: Now I have to get that Akia racing game.

Do you actually see the weapons displayed on the track or does it make a sound and then an opponent gets blown off the map?

No, you don’t “see” the weapons. The cars have lights so you know if they are firing/are taking damage and so forth. All of the sounds and tracking are actually done in the app.

There are weapon effects that can cause cars to get blown off the track. One of ours had like this haywire mine that you deploy behind your car and then trigger by pressing the button again, and it causes anyone caught in its AOE to lose control. The Supertrucks have weapons like that too that primarily serve to knock cars off the track.

The tractor beams are the best. On a straight, you get in behind someone and hit them with it and it drags their car back. If you have other weapons installed, you can then shoot them with those.

The upgrade system is really pretty complex and there are different items for every car.

There is actually a full on single player campaign too, you can run against 3 AI cars.

FWIW, Witcher 3 is better on higher difficulty levels if occasionally frustrating. It lends to the theme too, as you *always* have to professionally prepare for your quest goals, perhaps even seeking out ingredients, better potions, etc.

I’m an old slot car fiend and this may just scratch the itch.

On sale at Target for 20% off

Gary Sax wrote: FWIW, Witcher 3 is better on higher difficulty levels if occasionally frustrating. It lends to the theme too, as you *always* have to professionally prepare for your quest goals, perhaps even seeking out ingredients, better potions, etc.

Unless you being a version of medieval space marine have to chip that bandit's hit points 12 times while he kills you in two hits. No thank you. That really breaks the immersion.

A hard mode should be everyone except monsters killed in 1-2 hits. That I can accept.