Assassin's Creed Valhalla (catching up with these, Valhalla is such a beast with how big it is)

Ni no Kuni II (fun little JRPG)

Final Fantasy XIV still occasionally.

I finally picked up Baldur's Gate 3 again and just got to Act 3 last night. It's been as good as advertised.

I revisited Aeon's End, the cooperative deckbuilder that's often hailed as one of the genre's finest.

A few years back, my wife and I picked up the physical version, eager to dive into a new co-op board game after playing a lot of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle, which we love.

Our initial experience of Aeon's End was brutal. Even the starter boss felt like we were trying to take down a raid boss with starter gear. The game earned its reputation as the "Dark Souls of deckbuilders," but our experience seemed extreme even by those standards. We eventually shelved it, chalking it up as too punishing for our tastes.

Fast forward to present day - I spotted the digital version on sale for $3 and decided to give it another shot, mainly to see if we had been playing it correctly. Turns out, this was pretty enlightening. The digital implementation revealed that we had been inadvertently making the game harder than intended (apparently this is a common rookie mistake, according to veterans). The rules are written in such a way that it's easy for this to happen.

While I can now consistently defeat the first boss, something became clear: even with the correct rules and a more manageable difficulty curve, the game just doesn't click. I don't find it fun.

I think there's something to be said about how digital adaptations can serve as learning tools for complex board games. They remove the rules overhead and let you focus on pure strategy.

So, yeah. Not playing this one anymore. I should sell my physical copy.

All sorts of games.

Wetrix
HYDRO THUNDER
Wave Race: Blue Storm
XmasEye 007 (Goldneye Mod)
How the Gruntch Stole Christmas (Banjo-Kazooie mod)

I probably forgot some other games, its all on my YouTube Channel!

F-Zero X

This was probably the highlight, I came up with the "Zoda Stream" pun and HAD to do it! (Zoda is a character in F-Zero X)

I tried Balatro this week. Played enough to finish one run of Ante 8. Took me a handful of tries. Interesting game, but I didn't find myself enjoying it as much as other deckbuilders.

mostly dragon quest monsters: the dark prince and replaying disgaea 5

it turns out if you have a lot of spare time you can actually 100% a disgaea for the sixth time

I just got a Meta Quest 3 so I will be trying some games on it soon. The Thrill of the Fight looks like fun & exercise.

I've been playing through the classic NES Mega Man games on stream, since I found out one of my good friends I sometimes stream for has never seen them. It's been really, really good, not just replaying them on my own but getting to talk about what I love about Mega Man to an uninitiated party. Looking forward to getting to Mega Man X and more later on.

We're not gonna do the Gameboy Mega Man games for this, and we're DEFINITELY not doing Mega Man DOS, but another friend did bring to my attention this fan-made recreation of Mega Man DOS on an NES Mega Man engine, and we might give it a try:

Legend of Legacy HD. Fun little RPG. It reminds me of the old GameBoy SaGa games in the way characters level up and gain new moves, and the music is great.

Assuming I keep seeing good things like this, Stalker 2 is gonna be my next game after BG3. Been looking forward to it since the first details started coming out.

On the switch i just got the marvel vs Capcom collection. I pre-ordered stalker 2 for my computer, but because we haven't fully unpacked in our apartment, I don't have a set up for my pc yet. Playing on the floor is killing my back, but I am very much enjoying stalker.

With some of my previous games finished, I've just barely dipped my toes into Void Stranger. I love the gameplay, and I've only just had a glimpse of how mysterious the story is. Sounds like it requires a lot of unorthodox thinking to uncover the secrets, and all the real freaky things under the surface. Really looking forward to it, although I'm only playing it when I stream, once or MAYBE twice a week, so I won't get to progress all that fast.

Played the usual International Superstar Soccer 98 today and Perfect Dark with Mario Characters.



Gang, you might enjoy seeing some of the first game against Jamaica because I named half the team after vgchat Forum Members.
I mean, they put some of you on the bench including Jesse Smith, but still...should be amusing

Wrapped Starfield DLC, started Baldur's Gate 3! Somewhat overwhelmed already. Kinda just want to play for chaos.

I've been meaning to buy Balatro and give that a go. I've heard so many good things. I might pick it up on the Apple store, since it seems like the perfect game for an iPad.