What Game/s are You Playing? Daily / Whenever Check :) (GAMEPLAY)

[Aussie2B]

Pregnancy sure has a way of being all-consuming. I felt too nauseated and exhausted in the first trimester to even look at games, did some gaming in the second but had a lot of other things I was trying to get done then too, and now in the third I'm back to being exhausted and dealing with a litany of other symptoms that keep me from ever having the time, energy, and concentration to get invested in a game. 2020 seems like it's gonna be a real bust for me when it comes to being at all productive in terms of beating games. But I have casually dabbled in a little bit of stuff lately. My husband hooked up the N64, so I played some Wave Race 64. I've always really loved that one, from the gameplay to the graphics, sound, announcer, pretty much everything about it, yet I've never gotten serious about. I only just now took the time to go through the options and clear all the data from the previous owner, so I can start on unlocking everything myself. It's pretty interesting that you can transfer the cart data to a controller pak and vice versa. I can get first place in the circuit on the normal difficulty without much effort, but I still struggle with the higher difficulties.

My husband also bought the Terraonion MODE for Saturn and Dreamcast, so now we're actually putting our Saturn to use. We only own a couple US releases, and I'm not about to pay the stupidly high prices on secondhand Saturn games these days, so outside of occasionally borrowing games from others, our Saturn was generally untouched. Now with the MODE, it's loaded up with games, and I briefly toyed with a couple. I played a little Puyo Puyo Sun and then Arthur to Astaroth no Nazo-Makai-Mura. I already have the former for N64, but I never played the latter before. Pretty interesting puzzle game, and the Ghosts 'n Goblins theme is super fun of course. Lots of cute little animations and interactions.

[YoshiM]

Aussie: if you like the Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move games, Saturn I think has the best version of BAM 2 Arcade in my opinion. It even makes use of the real time clock for the splash screens (all seasonal).

I beat Zelda 2 Friday night. It was bitterseeet: on one hand, even with saves spots it was still a challenging game. On the other there's good reason it's kind of a "black sheep" of the series (not counting the CD-i),

[ArcadePerfect]

Resident Evil 3: Remake :). Also, I agree with the person above, Bust A Move 2 on the Saturn is great! I've always wanted a CD-i console, primarily to play 'Hotel Mario'.

[YoshiM]

I had to shift my afternoon client time to tomorrow morning, so I was able to get a lunch break in today. Gaming target: Super Mario 3! When I fired it up on my 3DS, I noticed I had a save. Level 2 with 6 lives, a few decent power ups, a P wing and 2 warp whistles.

6 lives...should be enough. I warped to Level 8. I waited almost 30 years, I don't have time to cut through the other levels (another day, maybe). The tank division in the first board wasn't too bad-not like how I remember. I died a couple times because on the 3DS the screen is so BLACK and I couldn't see the cannon balls as opposed to when I played it on my tube TVs years back. I adjusted my screen and how I was sitting and that helped. The boats also weren't as bad as I recall either-I got through that ok. I'm wondering if just coming off of Zelda 2 helped my skills at all.

On the next board the weird pits with the grabby hands were pretty kind, only sucking me into two of the levels that I was able to get out with a couple leaf power ups. The sky ships...oh my the sky ships...I am thankful I had the virtual console. While I could probably have beaten it the old fashioned way, it would have taken time I can't really dedicate to it like I could years back. After a few restarts of my game save, I got through it. I had no idea Boom Booms could FLY- THAT tripped me up. Level 8-1 I was able to get through, though I got stuck after coming out of a pipe where 3 1-ups were. I figured I could probably fly after running back and forth between the pipe and the Bullet Bill cannon but I had to contend with that Koopa Para Troopa and then I'd get blasted by Bill. I forgot I could pick up turtle shells and use them for shields. So I did that and flew to the end. Level 8-2 wasn't too bad as I recalled I could sink into the first sand pit and go down a pipe to get close to the end. I now have 9 lives and I've saved by the fortress.

I was so jacked-I forgot what it was like to play these old Mario games. Wednesday lunch can't come soon enough.

[Aussie2B]

I love the Puzzle Bobble series. :) We usually play the MVS versions, but I'll have to check out the Saturn versions sometime.

Speaking of puzzle games, I've been playing a little of The Next Tetris on PlayStation. The Tetris topic we've had on the board probably inspired me some, but what I'm really doing is trying to get acclimated to the one-handed ASCII Grip controller I recently bought. I got it mostly with the intention of playing RPGs with it, but before I get invested in something like that, I figured Tetris is familiar enough and has a control scheme simple enough that it would be a good match for the controller. I suppose other puzzle games would work too, but I own very few for PS1. The controller messes with my brain a little, considering all the muscle memory I have with the standard controllers, but it feels pretty good and fairly natural. I can definitely see this working for me with games that have simple control schemes and/or aren't too demanding on reflexes. It probably helps that I managed to find a brand-new one (for real cheap too, surprisingly and happily), so I'm not fighting with a worn-out, grimy controller.

My motivation in picking up the ASCII Grip is to, maybe at some point, put it to use while breastfeeding. I certainly don't expect to have much time or energy for gaming immediately after my baby is born either, but I'd like to set things up to be as convenient and accessible for me as possible if I do feel up for it in the coming months. So to that end, I also played a tiny bit of Densetsu no Starfy 2 on my GBA SP. I've packed my SP in my hospital bag, and while everything about labor and delivery is totally unpredictable, if I do have time to kill and feel up for gaming at some point during my hospital stay, I figure I should take games that are relatively familiar and not too demanding or challenging. I've already beat the first Starfy, so I got the familiarity there, and I also found it pretty easy. But I at least wanted to get a file started in the second game so that I'm past any intro stuff and can familiarize myself with this game's menus and such. So I'm all set to continue that at any time.

[YoshiM]

I *finally* put Super Mario 3 to bed. The last tank with air support battle wasn't as bad as I'd thought it'd be. Bowser's castle I thought was going to beat me to a pulp but after a couple tries I got to the highest door and just a hop, skip and jump I got to Bowser. I lost my fire flower but I was able to keep the anxiety reigned in to let him defeat himself. That felt good. What felt even better was starting over-it gave me a full inventory of P-Wings! I blasted through the first world and I did NOT pick up any warp whistles. Going through each level was a hoot! I started world 2 with about 10 lives and I saved it for the day. I think I might just play through this world by world.

I had some time left, so I fired up Super Mario World. Wow....what a difference in speed! I was used to playing Super Mario 3, which had a brisk pace. SMW feels slow in comparison and that's probably by design as there's seems to be a lot more going on with the levels. I got through Iggy Koopa's castle relatively unscathed except for the boss fight. I was pelting Iggy with fireballs but I wasn't sure if they'd do anything. I lost my fire flower, so I just pushed him off the edge of the platform, which I didn't expect to be tilting! I do find that I'm not a fan of Yoshi, but I'm not sure if it's because of how he's used or the fact that I'm used to his latter abilities like hovering a bit while holding jump. I'll give it a couple worlds to see if it grows on me.

[YoshiM]

I'm putting in the effort to get through Super Mario World. I just arrived at World 3 and it's kinda jiving with me but still not. It's weird and it's a feeling I had since I first played the game when I first had access to a SNES back in the day. It's like "Once you had Mario one through three, these others just aren't for me." I got a little bit of the action jitters getting through some platforming bits (that bit of anxiety where one slip up meant certain doom but then you stick the landing) but not like other games in the "original trilogy" where I still keep coming back for more. It has some more elements for puzzles (like the first Ghost House and then the second world tower) which I really didn't see in the past games.

I'll get through World 3 and then I'll probably go back to Mario 3 for a good compare/contrast.

[Aussie2B]

I'm still playing a little one-handed The Next Tetris on PlayStation here and there. I haven't bothered to pull out a memory card for it, so I just start on the default settings each time and play until I run out of time. I don't think I've passed the set of stages where you have five rows of junk to clear. Getting through three stages like that in five minutes is tricky. Though I could probably do better with a standard controller. Every now and then, I'll mess up where I place I block, even when they're not dropping fast and I have plenty of space before they touch down. I guess, when I'm pressing down to speed things up, I sometimes end up pressing slightly to the right or left. So far, I've been sticking to using the ASCII Grip in my right hand, since I'm right-handed, but when it comes to d-pads, I'm obviously more used to manipulating them with my left.

I also played some Baku Baku on Saturn. I'm not a big fan of the prerendered CG (Donkey Kong Country, this is not), but it's a fun puzzle game. Playing the Saturn version makes me want to get my Game Gear operational again all the more so I can get back to that version too. I usually don't play puzzle games that often, but they've been nice lately as something I can squeeze in with making basically no commitment.

For my birthday, my husband got me a copy of The Jetsons: Robot Panic for Game Boy. I don't care about the license, but he thought I'd like the gameplay. I guess he must've been trying random Game Boy games on his Raspberry Pi at some point and was pleasantly surprised with it. And it is indeed pretty fun, as I'd expect from a Taito release. So far, I've beaten Elroy and Judy's stages and almost got to the end of Jane's before I ran out of lives and wasn't in the mood to restart her stage from scratch at that point in time. It took a little trial and error to figure out what each character is capable of. Elroy is straightforward, but I lost some lives in the process of figuring out the magnet boots and jetpack. I imagine the next time I play I'll be able to reach George's stages.

[YoshiM]

Friday nights and Saturdays the wife and I let the kids play video games for a good while. If we let them play over the week for short bits, we got fighting and arguing so this has been working so far. This weekend I had my daugther, so she could get in on the action. Only problem for her is that she and the eldest twin stepsister bump heads as the sister feels she's an "alpha" while my daughter WANTS to be an alpha. So the sister gets sway over the other girls their age, so they sequestered themselves in the study room to play DS or Nintendo Land on the Wii U. My three youngest boys were playing Amazing Frog? on my computer in the living room so I decided to expose my daughter to "Little Big Planet" on the PS3.

She never played it (too young at the time I was still with my ex) and I couldn't remember HOW to play it, so it was a good opportunity to start at the beginning again. We accidentally hopped into an online session but just were spectators. Two of the players, whose Sack People were decked out in outfits, opened their Pop Its and were showing some thing like an icon for the sack person-like they were telling us we needed to get them dressed or something. We hopped out and started the regular game. We then dressed our Sack People (mine a Shakesphere wig, red and white striped swim trunks, a curly mustache, glasses and a wolf tail. Hers was mostly the Merris [?] character's hair and outfit from Metal Gear Solid but with a wolf tail attached). The experience was a lot of fun as we both got to play with each other rather than others and no feeling of having to jump off if someone else was jonesing to play. We got to one of the challenges where there's a lot of trapese like swings before it was time for me to stop to make supper.

I forgot how cool that game was and now it's upgraded to "awesome" as the multiplayer was great! Unlike relationship-ending games like Rayman Legends or New Super Mario Bros Wii/Wii U and the like, you weren't given stupid motion BS that could break your play. In LBP, at least thus far, it was standard controls-we just had to work together to get through the puzzles. We almost had our swinging rhythm down on that trapese part in the challenge as she or I would grab onto the other's Sack Person during the jump and then swing our guys simultaneously to get to the next trapese.

[jb143]

A recent play through of the Portal games got me wanting to finally go back and play the original Half-Life...which I only played for a bit probably like 15 years ago. I wasn't sure if it would even work on a Windows 10 PC but I quickly discovered I could enter the CD-key into Steam and add it to my library for "free". I somewhat quickly got to the part I remember getting stuck on when I quit the game before (the blast pit) and am now at the rail/rocket part. For being a 20+ year old FPS game, it still really holds up well today. When I finish I'll probably move on to Half-Life 2 which I've owned for many years now but never gotten around to playing.

[YoshiM]

I had a personal friendly reminder not to play angry. Long story short-long night of cooking, cleaning and then doing after hour work which lead me to being tired. Today I get a call from home that we have to pick up my second eldest step daughter from college TONIGHT as she's not comfortable with the lack of masking or social distancing and the school said she has to go this very day. So I'm looking at a total of four hours of just driving after working until 5. Needless to say, my lunch break was cut short as I had to clean out my car but I got a little Super Mario World in.

Not a good idea.

Level 3 wasn't so bad but I was making some bone headed mistakes. I was more "run and jump" than slowing down and checking things out. I'm one stage before the castle and I called it quits. I shoulda played "Animal Crossing: New Leaf"and just shook trees to help pay off my house.

[YoshiM]

Super Mario World Log...stardate today.

Got through Level 3 and 4. The game mentioned something about a "red switch" and I was thinking "WHAT red switch?" I saw red outlines of squares but I was thinking that a switch block was coming up and that I could probably go back to take care of things. Come to find out, with a little reading, that I blew past it in Level 3. I'm so used to Mario side scrollers being linear that I never thought to pick up a P-switch, carry it BACK in the level to a wall of stones, hit the switch and then go down into a pool of water where a key and keyhole are. Then the switch palace is unlocked. Now I'm starting out in the Illusion Forest or whatever it's called. I am now officially farther than I have ever had been in that game in my life.

It's definitely more puzzle and platforming than the NES games. The only time I associated solving puzzles in a Mario platformer was Super Mario 64 where the 3D forced you to explore. On one castle, I had to contend with big spinning spiked balls that blocked my way. I was able to dance around the different balls that came from behind and in front but I could not figure out a pattern to get past. Then I thought I saw a potential way-can Mario duck UNDER the ball as it passed over the block it was chained to? The answer was YES- I had Mario pulling his hat down over his head and that big, cavern filling ball flew over his head by a few pixels. Dang-this game forces one to use some eagle eyes.

The question I'm asking myself is-am I enjoying the game or am I playing it out of compulsion to finish it? Hard to say.

[Aussie2B]

I'm still just casually playing The Next Tetris on PlayStation as I wait in this awkward, in-between phase of trying to go about day-to-day life while knowing I could go into labor at any minute. I'm getting better at taking into consideration how some blocks can split apart. Still not getting much of any further, though. Sometimes I get a bad run of blocks and end up wasting too much time.

[YoshiM]

I put Super Mario World to bed. It's just not grabbing me. After playing SMB 3, this just feels a little pale in the play department.

I put the 3DS in the drawer and decided to try something different in the control department. I pulled out my DSi XL (as I don't like playing regular DS games on my New 3DS-for my eyes the resolution doesn't make the games look great on the 3DS screen) and fired up Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. I played Phantom Hourglass but I hated the controls. I recently picked up Spirit Tracks as I liked the premise (and lack of the same timed dungeon you had to go through all the time) and I wanted to try the stylus control. I gotta say, I'm enjoying the ride (no pun intended) so far. I just got the Forest Track Tablet and saved my game at Whittleton after getting turned around trying to find Gabe in the woods. For whatever reason, the combat is clicking for me and I'm liking the ability to switch between being Link and controlling Zelda to possess things.

If I get through this I might just get Phantom Hourglass again to add to the collection.

[YoshiM]

Just took care of the Forest Temple and acquired the Snow area tablet in LoZ: Spirit Tracks. My train has been updated with a cannon, which has been a fun little add-on (note, do NOT shoot the innocent Lon-Lon looking livestock sitting on the tracks-they charge) I found the Bunny Sanctuary (?!) and acquired the Bunny Net and nabbed my first snow rabbit. I stopped at the first town to save my game as my lunch break flew right by while I was playing.

The puzzles so far aren't fiendish but you have to pay attention and experiment. In the Forest Temple, I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to hit this switch right at the beginning. The only thing I didn't do (which I found out when I looked it up) is that while holding a throwable item, I could tap on a target and Link will throw the item directly at the target. I was trying to toss the acorn thing in the direction OF the switch-never occurred to me to tap on it. So hopefully that'll be the last time I look things up. I got run down by a Phantom back at the Spirit Temple because I ASSUMED he was going to be walking in a circular pattern but didn't sit and actually WATCH his movements. I ran from a safe point to get the next light pearl-thing and he and his buddy were on top of me. THEN I looked at his movements and slapped my forehead.

[jammajup]

Tutankham (Atari 2600)
Uniwar S (Arcade)

[gbpxl]

I put Super Mario World to bed. It's just not grabbing me. After playing SMB 3, this just feels a little pale in the play department.

I put the 3DS in the drawer and decided to try something different in the control department. I pulled out my DSi XL (as I don't like playing regular DS games on my New 3DS-for my eyes the resolution doesn't make the games look great on the 3DS screen) and fired up Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. I played Phantom Hourglass but I hated the controls. I recently picked up Spirit Tracks as I liked the premise (and lack of the same timed dungeon you had to go through all the time) and I wanted to try the stylus control. I gotta say, I'm enjoying the ride (no pun intended) so far. I just got the Forest Track Tablet and saved my game at Whittleton after getting turned around trying to find Gabe in the woods. For whatever reason, the combat is clicking for me and I'm liking the ability to switch between being Link and controlling Zelda to possess things.

If I get through this I might just get Phantom Hourglass again to add to the collection.

I didnt know there was anyone who didnt like SMW. To me its a masterpiece. The game is a little more accessible to me than SMB3 was. I have a hard time with some of the Bowser levels as well as the final world in SMB3. The nut things you have to keep jumping on to move along the bolt always trip me up.

[YoshiM]

I didnt know there was anyone who didnt like SMW. To me its a masterpiece. The game is a little more accessible to me than SMB3 was. I have a hard time with some of the Bowser levels as well as the final world in SMB3. The nut things you have to keep jumping on to move along the bolt always trip me up.

I've always had that feeling since it first came out. I was so entrenched in the "original Mario Trilogy" that his 16 bit debut left me cold. I dunno. Though the SNES wasn't a fave console for me- I became more a Sega guy with the Genesis as I was into arcade style play. I didn't play anything Mario again until the N64, which I love to this day.

[YoshiM]

On a more modern note, I finished "Firewatch" on the PC Friday night. I liked the story and how it played out but the ending deflated things for me. I read an article about why the devs did what they did, which, to not give away the ending for those that want to play it, is kind of like bringing up something one needs to face in the real world when really they play games as a way to escape. In a less cryptic sense: lets say you are playing an "Indiana Jones" game and you're leading him on an adventure to solve a mystery whose road is fraught with life threatening peril. You spend your time weaving in and out of danger until you get near the end and then you find out that the treasure isn't really what the clues led you to believe and the mystery isn't really much of a mystery but was a fable to place the veil over something much more mundane. Then you're basically told that you should go back to the university and actually teach your students history.

On a more fun-for-me note, I got to see Skyrim on my rig and it was a thing of beauty. I defeated the first (?) dragon near Whiterun and was awarded the title of "Thane"and was given a nifty Axe of Whiterun (or whatever it's called) and some sort of "war maiden" or whatever her title is. However, I had so much loot that the axe put my encumbrance over the edge so I had to slowly trudge to a general store to unload some of my crap. I think I'll actually finish this game when I'm like 55 or something.

[jb143]

I finally got through Half-Life. It certainly was worthy of all the praise it received back in the day. If I have any complaint it's that it felt way too long. Now maybe that's because I bought it for $4 at a thrift store 15 years ago and didn't feel like I needed to get my moneys worth, but there were several places that I was sure was about the end, only it wasn't. Then when I finally got to the end and thought it would be a boss battle, it just kept going with a whole new confusing series of levels.

I do plan on starting Half-Life 2 soon, but first, as a palate cleanser I decided to play through the 2004 version of Sid Meier's Pirates!...since I'm sort of on an older-ish PC game kick right now. I've played it several times in the past, and enjoyed it quite a bit. But never felt like I ever did very well. I think I just wasn't playing it right so this time I'm planning on going all out and seeing how well I can do.

[YoshiM]

I'm now going through the Snow Temple in Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Getting to the temple wasn't hard but I got another taste of the "hey-we're going to extend this game by making you have to find someone to tell you the path on how to get to the temple". They did this with the Forest Temple and now again with the Snow? It wasn't bad but just ate up more of my time. I hope the other realms won't pull this. The pairing of the Aoukiri (or whatever they are called-da snow people) had me for a bit as I couldn't see the proper pairing but I got that figured out. My notes weren't the best-should have done it more of a table style.

The temple itself is good with more environmental puzzles. There are parts where you need the fan, but the sucky thing with that your control reverts back to moving rather than blowing when a puzzle is solved. So if you're on a platform where you could fall, get injured and respawn where you started, your sudden shift of control could cause you to fall and then having to start at the beginning of the puzzle area. Another control gripe was during the boss battle, which I couldn't finish as my break ended. The "roll"action didn't always want to activate when you gestured and sometimes how you were positioned on the screen prevented fast movement in the direction you wanted while close to a wall. You can get attacked from different angles so trying to navigate that with a stylus is kind of a pain. If I had D-Pad control I could zig and zag easily, so I was internally screaming at Nintendo for forcing players to use the touch screen for sole control. That boss is a really neat puzzle itself, so I can't wait to try and give it another whirl on Friday (hopefully).

[YoshiM]

I beat that Snow Temple boss after another try. It seems like the action slows down during the fight as I'm running around trying to avoid getting burned or frozen. Not like in the NES slow to a crawl but like the frame rate drops. It just felt like Link was just jogging, even though I was able to avoid getting hit. Another nit pick is when I used the boomerang to hit a torch and then attempt to hit the boss, it wouldn't target the boss. I was even drawing circles on him and there was no indicator that he was targeted. Then I let the boomerang fly and it just zoomed around his person harmlessly. There were a couple of times where I got clobbered because of this. Not sure why the targeting wasn't working when it should have. I manage to beat the boss and move on.

The third bit of the Spirit Temple was a bit of a head scratcher but I got that figured out with the lights and such. I now have the Ocean(?) segment unlocked but I need to get a bridge builder. I stopped at that point.

The Friday before last I got some Skyrim time. I went on the quest to find "Nettlebane" that some priestess needed to get sap from this special tree which has a name that escapes me. It's been a while since I accepted this quest so I didn't quite remember what a "nettlebane" was. I assumed it was a plant I had to get from this remote location. So I stumble out there and sudden come across a pair of witches flinging fire at me. Lydia and I dispatch the first pair and then further up the road a second pair attack. Once they were dealt with (and after leaving their corpses out in their underoos so I can sell their magicky cloaks), we are suddenly slammed by huge fireballs. I made my way around and I see this harpy-like-witch-thing slinging flame. I hid behind a convenient tree that's big enough to be a shield and take pot shots at the thing, depleting my arrows. After I died and restarted a few times, my approach worked, widdling the creature down while it ran out of juice to throw the big balls about. I run across a log to the platform and slay the thing with my frost sword. I discovered Nettlebane is a sacrificial blade and saw the body of some sort of woodland spirit creature on a type of altar. Ahh....makes sense now.

I travel back to the priestess with the blade, who said she didn't want to touch it. I get sent to the tree to get the sap. I do that after poking the roots that block the way with the blade, forcing them to move out of the way. Then we are attacked by that same spirit type creature, which kill us a couple times. On the third restart, we slowly go down the path and I pick off the creatures from a distance with my bow then bring my shout and blade to bear. We got out of the place alive but we couldn't fast travel as a bloody orc woman was sneaking around us. Lydia spotted her and nailed her with some arrows. We get back to the priestess, complete the quest and I learn more about regenerative magic.

I tried playing some Skyrim today at work BUT my saves didn't sync yet. No way am I attempting the harpy witch again....

[Canija]

For the last 2 months I have been playing Valorant all day long :) nice shooter from Riot Games (like this studio). Before that I was a fan of CS GO and must admit that Valorant resembles CS GO a lot but still it is a great shooter, my opinion. From time to time need help (https://overboost.pro/valorant-boosting) from pro gamers to upgrade my char's level when I lack time but that happens not often.

[Aussie2B]

I've resumed Densetsu no Starfy 2 on my Game Boy Advance SP, but not under the circumstances I expected. Unfortunately, I had a number of complications during labor, so I didn't touch anything for entertainment the entire time I was in the hospital. Since returning home, I've found my hands are either completely occupied or both free, so I haven't used my ASCII grip since being pregnant. I didn't expect to be able to do any gaming that would require both hands while in the midst of newborn care, and truthfully I've barely had any time to myself that isn't better put toward sleeping, eating, showering, etc., but Starfy has been great for playing in 5-10 minute bursts. Save points are frequent, and the game even makes auto temp saves too. And with it being easy, I can continuously make progress in those tiny chunks. I usually find myself playing after I've put the baby down in her crib and I'm waiting to see if she'll stay asleep before I crawl into bed myself. Or sometimes I'll play while she's sleeping on my chest. I'm up to the eighth area, Tenkai, the sky kingdom where Starfy is from. Even the story is apropos for me right now, what with Starfy having to rescue his mom in this one and the other parenting themes (Ogura creating children who are then the bosses of each area, like the Koopalings, saving the turtle kids, etc.) I'm very pleasantly surprised with how good of a choice this game was for this time period. Now I'm just worried that, once I'm finished with it, I'll struggle to find another game that works so well for me. Any game that takes longer to start up, saves less frequently (or not at all), or puts up more of a challenge would probably be a no-go. Then again, considering how slowly I'm working through this one, maybe newborn care will be a little easier by the time I'm done with Starfy.

[jb143]

I've resumed Densetsu no Starfy 2 on my Game Boy Advance SP, but not under the circumstances I expected. Unfortunately, I had a number of complications during labor, so I didn't touch anything for entertainment the entire time I was in the hospital. Since returning home, I've found my hands are either completely occupied or both free, so I haven't used my ASCII grip since being pregnant. I didn't expect to be able to do any gaming that would require both hands while in the midst of newborn care, and truthfully I've barely had any time to myself that isn't better put toward sleeping, eating, showering, etc., but Starfy has been great for playing in 5-10 minute bursts. Save points are frequent, and the game even makes auto temp saves too. And with it being easy, I can continuously make progress in those tiny chunks. I usually find myself playing after I've put the baby down in her crib and I'm waiting to see if she'll stay asleep before I crawl into bed myself. Or sometimes I'll play while she's sleeping on my chest. I'm up to the eighth area, Tenkai, the sky kingdom where Starfy is from. Even the story is apropos for me right now, what with Starfy having to rescue his mom in this one and the other parenting themes (Ogura creating children who are then the bosses of each area, like the Koopalings, saving the turtle kids, etc.) I'm very pleasantly surprised with how good of a choice this game was for this time period. Now I'm just worried that, once I'm finished with it, I'll struggle to find another game that works so well for me. Any game that takes longer to start up, saves less frequently (or not at all), or puts up more of a challenge would probably be a no-go. Then again, considering how slowly I'm working through this one, maybe newborn care will be a little easier by the time I'm done with Starfy.

Congratulations on the new baby. When ours was a newborn, while my wife got much needed breaks, I found myself playing through the first 2 Warcraft games and a couple point and click adventures since I could hold him sleeping in one arm and use a mouse in the other.

I finished Pirates a week or so ago. Did much better than I ever did in the past, but still feel like I barely scratched the surface with the game.

[YoshiM]

Congrats Aussie! I remember my first wife having quite the time when my first child was born. She didn't get a lot of time to do much as she had to constantly pump as our daughter wasn't able to breast feed. About the only things she did was go on Facebook and maybe get a chance with the DS with some Animal Crossing: Wild World. I did pretty much everything in the house before my daughter was born (one of the big reasons why she is an ex, but that's another story), so what free time I had was gone as I took care of things at night as I was a night owl, so I somewhat know the feeling. My son with my second wife was another story as we pretty much had a village in the house to take care of a lot of things. My wife had to go back to work in a week, so that was not fun for her as she was no where near done healing.

Game wise I've been definitely seen what all the "fus" was about with Skyrim. I figured out how to get my game saves manually, so I was able to continue my adventure. I'm on my way to the place at the top of "7,000 steps" to visit the Greybeards. On my travels I stumbled across a cave with a bunch of bandits living in it. I didn't try talking to them as the guard pulled a weapon on me, so it's been no-holds-barred through the whole romp. I have the ability to "zoom" with my bow (at the cost of stamina) so my guy is becoming a regular ebony Legolas. I was able to play a bit that night as my wife and second eldest watched "Phantom of the Opera" on YouTube. One of my older step sons was watching me nail bandits from a distance, with him chuckling behind me when I sent one flying over a railing down a waterfall and then the other plopping to the floor as he looked for his buddy.

Once I was done there, I traveled more and found a troll, which I remembered from D&D I needed to use fire to slow its regeneration. I got up to the town Ivarstead and finished the Barrow mission, which was pretty clever theme wise. Going through that place I picked up a lot of arrows, which I used to fell a lot of animated Daedric corpses that popped out of their sarcophagi from a distance. I was hidden, so when they were triggered they didn't see me, triggering the 2x damage multiplier. I also have that extra 40% damage perk (I think it is), so thanks to zooming, I pretty much got head shots for most of the targets, dropping them instantly. Only the two zombies on either side pedestal crypts in that room took more arrows to kill. The big bad wasn't bad either as I could pelt him as he got close (though he moved fast for being dead for so long), do a shout and then Lydia jumped in, slammed him with her shield and brought him to his knees. I did the coup de grace and that was that. In the next room I got the "Peace" shout.

Now I just need a dragon to kill....

Tonight the wife works late so I'll hopefully have a chance to continue.

[Ostin Powers]

I'm still just casually playing The Next Tetris on PlayStation as I wait in this awkward, in-between phase of trying to go about day-to-day life while knowing I could go into labor at any minute. I'm getting better at taking into consideration how some blocks can split apart. Still not getting much of any further, though. Sometimes I get a bad run of blocks and end up wasting too much time.

Not long ago I watched on YT a short video from the Tetris Championship. It was the final of the tournament. While watching I found myself thinking that tetris still remains a very entertaining game :) I used to be a fan of Tetris some time years ago :) now I switched to Destiny 2. It can seem too difficult for rookies. No wonder that Bungie will make a clearer learning for Destiny 2: Beyond Light. If Destiny 2 seems unpassable you can get the help here https://skycoach.gg/destiny-boost (https://skycoach.gg/destiny-boost)

[YoshiM]

I tried out the free game that Sega released that was to be a reboot to Golden Axe, which they named "Golden Axed". This game had a LOT of potential from just the one level I played of it. All the control concepts you knew from the original game work here. You can only play as the barbarian. You can now attack (and be attacked) in eight directions. Sega added a "strong" attack which is slower but can be used to knock enemies back. I couldn't get magic to work, but that could be because they never set it up.

It's too bad it got, um, "axed". This could have been a fun retro-homage.

After that it was back to Skyrim. I met the Greybeards and got the "Ro" to my "Fus" and learned the "Wind walk" (or whatever it's called) shout. Came back down the mountain and got attacked by some cultists claiming my character was not the true Dragonborn. Wiped them up and am now on my way to where they came from to find out who set the hit on my guy. I came across a fortress on my way there, which had bandits (of course). I wiped the ones out in the courtyard but was having issues finding a way in. I could wind walk but Lydia was left behind.

As I searched for a way for Lydia to walk up and into the fortress, a dragon came swooping down! Nearby was a small group of folks, fighters and some mohawked spell-slinger. I lent my character's bow and blade to the fray and the dragon went down fairly easily. I absorbed the dragon's soul but moved back to the fortress, not talking to the group. I found the secret "escape" cave and went in. I think I cleared most of the bandits, but I stopped after wiping out four or five folks in a large hall.

[YoshiM]

Still on my Skyrim kick. I got through that fort and apparently took care of a mission for that group of people that were camped outside. I continued to the place where those cultists came from in order to take care of that end. I sprinted through the rocky hills and down the mountain, nimble as a goat. I came across this sprawling valley with pools of water here and there. It was quite the sight. Then I noticed a dragon circling the sky and attacking. Lydia and I were off to the rescue!

When I got to the battle site, I noticed three things:

1)the dragon's target was a spriggan.

2)both the spriggan AND the Dragon were targeting ME

3)Lydia was no where in sight.

I was able to windsprint away, staying close to any cover I could find. I made it to an encampment, but by that time the dragon left me alone. I slept the night but Lydia did not appear. I went to the city where the cultists came from, stayed the night there and no Lydia. I saved and decided the next time I played I'd go look for her. The next time I could play (yesterday) I fast traveled back to that fort and there Lydia was, hanging out at that camp. We fast traveled back to the city, which was beautifully disorientating due to its delapitation. We hopped a boat and took it to an island in the area of Morrowind. There we discovered the inhabitants were in a trance, building something around this earth stone. We were directed to this temple and met with a warrior named Frea who wishes to free her people. We were attacked by cultists and the fight was on! Now we're in the temple and that's where I saved until hopefully tomorrow.

As I play this, I noticed that Zelda: Breath of the Wild seems to borrow quite a bit from Skyrim. If possible, using the environment to do your combat (like rolling bombs down hills at baddies while hidden or shooting a flaming arrow at an exploding barrel in Zelda is not unlike shooting the rope on a lit lantern and dropping it on a pool of oil at the feet of bad guys). Cooking food to help boost your heath or stamina. Things like that. The difference is Zelda's dungeons and explorations are more "game like" puzzles whereas Skyrim has puzzles that are logical for the situation. The better side with Skyrim is that the bloody weapons don't break after a few uses!

[YoshiM]

Still been playing Skyrim, but it's like the magic is losing its luster. I'm in Morrowind and I met this new "great enemy" and freed these huge elemental stones from his influence and now I'm looking for these black books that has more info on this creep. I get to this Dwemer fortress (i.e. Dwarven, who are basically tinkerers in this world who made steam powered mechanisms) and I need to get these cubes to unlock where the book is kept. These cubes are used to activate doors (logical) but also used to power these pedastals which control the flow of water in various rooms, as the building is under ground.

Now, seeing as I've owned but never played much of any Elder Scrolls game, I wanted to delve into Skyrim more as the puzzles and exploration felt more "adventury" more so than "video game-y". I think I mentioned before how Zelda:Breath of the Wild befuddled me with its wanting to be like a Skyrim (with a bit more realism in various areas) but its adherence to "video game puzzles" (like the shrines, the towers, the four guardians and moving through them, etc.) and weird inventory system (I can carry triple Link's weight in food, bug and monster parts and such yet I can only carry 7 weapons, that break rather quickly) made the experience a bit jarring for me. The breaking weapons thing especially. I've arrived to a point in Skyrim where the puzzles just went video game-y with the Dwemer fortress.

Here's a race of people who crafted great machines, devices and automotons that have lasted a millenia. These people were the engineer's engineer. So why in sam hill did these people, who relied on water to power their devices, put in control pedestals that control the water level in areas THAT ARE OBVIOUSLY MAIN THOROUGHFARES? What if one of these things glitched and suddenly the staff meeting on the floor below suddenly turned into an Olympic swimming pool? Dwarves in this series, I'm assuming, were short and their metals are heavy. These poor folk would be stuck at the bottom of the pool, drowning as the tech up top yells down "whoops! my bad!". I'd hate to see their accident chart. After all the things I went through, this didn't make sense other than to give you something to solve. I want to say Rapture from "Bioshock" had more sensible puzzles than this regarding control of water (though I could be wrong as it's been a while since I played it).

Sunday I tried to get my son interested in some TG-16 action with the Turbo Mini I picked up. No go as he said it was "too hard", even though he didn't try. He wanted to play Bubble Bobble but again I did not feel its call, even though we plowed through a lot of levels last time. He opted for Kirby's Adventure on the NES Mini. He played most of it while I jumped in when he needed help. After a while I could tell he was getting about "done"as he'd try to snatch the controller from me just as I beat something or would litterally toss it at me when he can't get passed a section. Of course that happened when the big bad was bearing down on Kirby so I had to quick respond. This really showed me that there really is delay on the NES Mini as the moves I tried to do didn't always respond or do it fast enough. Next time, the CRT is coming up for NES games.

[gbpxl]

just started Breath of the Wild. its decent enough. The graphics arent that impressive. the game is massive and all but it just feels like a lot of empty space. crafting, weapons that get used up. meh. I'll play through it but once I beat it I'll probably sell it. I knew when I played Twilight Princess I could see the direction the series was heading in

The other game Im playing is Marble it Up. pretty fun

[YoshiM]

I played BotW for a while until one of my step sons was interested. I didn't realise that you vould have multiple profiles on a Wii U so I blew my progress away so he could play. Then I found out later about profiles. Doh!

I didn't get that feeling of bored wandering. After playing Skyrim I kinda miss the ability to climb and such, along with the fact I care more about the Zelda mythos than Skyrim's. While Skyrim has exotic places with a feel of different cultures, it kind of feels the same. And I really don't care about my character. It doesn't have the humor (IMO) BotW does.

I just bought it digitally for the kids for Christmas. Don't care that I paid full retail. At least the disc won't break like before

I played a little bit of "My Life in Portia" which is ok. Not fond of the "must end day to save" though. I got back into Zelda: Spirit Tracks when waiting for my wife to get done with a medical procedure. I just cleared the ocean temple, which had pretty clever puzzles.

[Genesaturn]

I just finished Yakuza: Like a Dragon and loved it. Currently working on Dragon Quest 11 which I am in love with as well. It really brings the old school rpg that has been lost for a few generations. I am also working through the entirety of the Dreamcast library. Working on Time Stalkers, which was the first rpg I played on the system back in the day. Not the best game but still enjoyable.

[gbpxl]

I just beat Mega Man 2 with a little help from GameFAQs. When you know the boss weaknesses right away, it makes the game a lot faster so you can avoid trial and error and repeating levels. It's the first and only Mega Man game I've beaten. I don't count Mega Man 3 since I used Game Genie to beat it as a kid.

[gbpxl]

Trying to play Faxanadu. not a terrible game. basically a poor man's Zelda II. I might come back to this one...

[YoshiM]

Still chugging away (ha!) At Spirit Tracks. I had to haul ice to the fire realm to put out some lava geysers, which was a little maddening. You pretty much have to take the long way on thd map to avoid the evil engines and then play the throttle on turns to not sump your load. I had enough to press forward and open up the tracks to the fire temple. I got the keys from the three bird monsters and now I'm about to startvthe dungeon delve. I mentally complain about this game but I still go back to it. If this was D-Pad controlled, I'd be singing praises.

I also got in a little Animal Crossing:New Leaf. I didn't time travel to Toy Day or New Years, but that's ok. I FINALLY got a new axe. I really got yo work at acquiring a golden axe.

[YoshiM]

I decided to go get some '00's gaming love, so I fired up the Dolphin emulator on my laptop and get some Gamecube play in. I picked up an official Switch Gamecube controller yo give me a more authetic play experience. And dang, did it ever! Besides not having rumble or analog triggers (which I can't say I noticed the difference on the original) it plays dang well.

Today I got through the Ruby cup in F-Zero X (on Novice-been years since I played) and then dabbled in some Animal Crossing. I used my soft-modded Wii to transfer my 15-or-so year game save to my thumb drive and ported it onto my laptop. I turned on progressive scan mode to clear up the 2D imagery and proceeded to play a round of "Punch Out!" In my newly cockroach cleared home. I did a little weeding and sent a fossil to the Faraway Museum for identification. Ah the simple life of patience.

My residents told me it was 60 months since I last played, which sounds right. I fired up the game to show my then young stepkids. My ex-wife's house is still there with all the trimmings (first to pay off, fish weather vane, first to reach a million bells in the bank) , so I'd hate to see the animals' reactions if I fire it up using her account! I also don't have the heart to demolish it, as I'm sure our daughter might want to putter around as that character.

I was going to attempt some Skyward Sword, but I'm not sure how well a control pad will translate. I started out on it last weekend or so but I haven't attempted flight.

[jammajup]

I have plans to sit down with the original arcade Donkey Kong tomorrow and see how far I can try, I am not an expert or anything but I really want to get good at it. Playing arcade Metal Slug 1,X, 3 and Dragons Lair downloaded off Steam, remember Dl in the arcade but trying to play it now with no memory of the patterns is brutal.

[Tron 2.0]

Switch
Granida HD Collection

I been playing the first grandia again for fun for rpgs that came out in the 90's it's still one of my all time favorites.I got my physical copy of it from lrg recently,so it was time to sit down and play it.

[gbpxl]

Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee (PSP) - I bought it based on the fact that its sequel is either the highest or second highest rated golf game on GameFAQs. Easily the best golf game I have ever played. I refuse to play this sport in real life just because I think it's such a massive CO2 contributor but I love playing the games.

I use the term "sport" very loosely because if Donald Trump can play it, it's not a sport.

[gbpxl]

also playing the Mummy Demastered on the Switch. great game so far. The art style reminds me of the Metal Slug games.

just beat Castlevania. Had to pause the game for about a day due to work. Level 5 kicked my ass. I lucked out on Dracula's 2nd form. He dropped a II thing so I just spammed the holy water and stun locked him. I depleted about half of his health while he was frozen there. This game is beyond difficult. Some of the enemies are impossible to dodge. On stage 6 I just ran past most of them. thankfully it lets you start at the beginning of the final battle if you get a Game Over otherwise it wouldve taken me another evening to beat this

[gbpxl]

I decided to go get some '00's gaming love, so I fired up the Dolphin emulator on my laptop and get some Gamecube play in. I picked up an official Switch Gamecube controller yo give me a more authetic play experience. And dang, did it ever! Besides not having rumble or analog triggers (which I can't say I noticed the difference on the original) it plays dang well.

Today I got through the Ruby cup in F-Zero X (on Novice-been years since I played) and then dabbled in some Animal Crossing. I used my soft-modded Wii to transfer my 15-or-so year game save to my thumb drive and ported it onto my laptop. I turned on progressive scan mode to clear up the 2D imagery and proceeded to play a round of "Punch Out!" In my newly cockroach cleared home. I did a little weeding and sent a fossil to the Faraway Museum for identification. Ah the simple life of patience.

My residents told me it was 60 months since I last played, which sounds right. I fired up the game to show my then young stepkids. My ex-wife's house is still there with all the trimmings (first to pay off, fish weather vane, first to reach a million bells in the bank) , so I'd hate to see the animals' reactions if I fire it up using her account! I also don't have the heart to demolish it, as I'm sure our daughter might want to putter around as that character.

I was going to attempt some Skyward Sword, but I'm not sure how well a control pad will translate. I started out on it last weekend or so but I haven't attempted flight.

I just bought F Zero X. Its not an easy game. gonna pick it up later in the year most likely

[YoshiM]

I haven't really played much of anything lately. I recently got an Everdrive for the NES and I played a little bit of Castlevania 2. It's a hacked version with better translation, an actual save mode and a map screen. Tuesday I replaced the thumbsticks on my Wii U pad and tested play with Zelda:Breath of the Wild. I had to start over as my third eldest stepson played on my account as I didn't know you could have multiple profiles. He beat the game so now it's my turn.

I did try playing Zelda:Skyward Sword on emulation with a gamepad. Paaaaaiiiinnnnn in the rear. I'm going to try to link a Wiimote to my laptop and see how that goes.

The only other game related thing I've been playing around with is NESMaker. I'm learning it genre by genre and right now I'm learning the "action platformer" (think maybe Bubble Bobble meets Donkey Kong-you can jump through platforms but walk on them and climb ladders). That's been interesting. Will I actually make a game? Who knows?

[gbpxl]

Beat Metroid today for the first time. With the help of a map I printed off. My whole life, I never knew how to get the Ice Beam til recently when I looked it up. It's not a terribly hard game if you have the Varia Suit. I found all items except for 1 energy tank and 2 missiles. Not worth the hassle of trying to get them. I didn't die til I faced Mother Brain. Got her on the second try. Beautiful game that set the precedent for so many games to come.

whats kinda funny is the second time I faced Mother Brain there was a glitch that prevented the laser door things from appearing so I saved a ton of missiles by not having to blast through them

[YoshiM]

I linked a Wii Remote to my laptop, powered up a wireless Iar bar and gave Skyward Sword a bit of a try. The controls worked pretty well but I was just not in the mood for Zelda. So I fired up Skyrim again, see if my interest in that got rekindled.

Oh my...did it ever.

I got trounced a bit when trying to fire up the steam generators in the dwarven fortress due to controller fumbling. Once I got my 360 controller fingers back I and my virtual partner in death wipe out the mechanations, started the generators and took out a "master" automoton, which looked just incredible.

We got the dark book unlocked which, upon reading, took me to this dark realm of Hermaeus Mora-the Dedric prince of fate and knowledge. This was a creepy-ass place that dripped with atmosphere with surroundings made with fused pages from books, tentacles and bending pathways. I also bumped my 3rd person mode, which I thought the game did on its own which was a neat effect. I got through the different chapters and then spoke with Mora itself...a big eye with a bunch of bubbly smaller eyes appearing in greasy greenish-yellow mists.

I exited the realm and saved at a point where I have to fight a dragon. This should be fun.....

[gbpxl]

I never played Skyrim. I didnt like where the series was going with Oblivion. less focus on story... plot seemed more formulaic.. not very interesting.. fast travel to anywhere that didnt tax you made the game way too easy...

also, I liked in Morrowind that I could read everything because I can read faster than people talk.

[YoshiM]

I never played Skyrim. I didnt like where the series was going with Oblivion. less focus on story... plot seemed more formulaic.. not very interesting.. fast travel to anywhere that didnt tax you made the game way too easy...

also, I liked in Morrowind that I could read everything because I can read faster than people talk.

The main Elder Scrolls games always had some sort of formula-your character starts as a prisoner, you find you are about to be a big cog in the grand machine of the world. Arena was more of a typical RPG with a more centralized quest while all the others had multiple pieces to tackle for the main quest. You could do fast travel in all TES games. Arena you had to when going to cities/towns/etc. because everything in non-cities were procedureally developed and not connected. Daggerfall you could travel to towns on foot but going from one end of the map to the other would take literal DAYS, if I remember the article I read right. That is, if you didn't glitch through the ground when you visited a dungeon. Morrowind gave you silt striders as I don't think you could opt to fast travel without one. Seeing as how all the games are huge, I'll take fast travel any day. At least in Skyrim you can't fast travel until you visit the location, which doesn't take very long.

As for story, the games DO have story but you just aren't battered over the head with it. Unlike Link from "The Legend of Zelda" or whatever you named your character in Fable ("oh, Chicken Chaser!"), your Elder Scrolls character starts out as a prisoner and that's about it. Link is a hero of time and the game is really his, Zelda and Ganon's story. Your person is whatever you want them to be after you get sprung from jail. And then you get the "oh by the by, there's this bad stuff going on, so perhaps when you get time you can go take care of business" spiel. After that, like parents who want to run around the house buck nekkid when their kid reaches 18, you get punted out the door to strike out on adventure. The story is what your play actions make of it and whatever you discover (lore, people, places, what you do) all adds to it. And Skyrim has a LOT of lore. I think Oblivion did too, but I never had enough PC to really play that game back then.

Coming from a console world, it is a different flavor of action RPG, that is for sure. I find that with many PC games I've played over the years-console ports aside, they are a different beast. The way I'm playing I find myself becoming a jack of all trades with magic, fighting and such. What I really SHOULD do is to look at my Skyrim character not as a typical Link character, but more like how I see a D&D character. Once I train my brain to think that way when playing, then maybe I can really unlock what the game has to offer. Not so much in features and function, but experience. Maybe then my character of Trask the Redguard can create his own story.

[gbpxl]

in Morrowind you would be taxed with fast travel. and you still had to look for the boats and the warps. and they didnt go everywhere

[YoshiM]

in Morrowind you would be taxed with fast travel. and you still had to look for the boats and the warps. and they didnt go everywhere

I just remember the silt striders. I never got very far in either the PC or Xbox version and I'll be dipped to remember why. I know on PC I wasn't keen on combat but Xbox fixed that to a degree. I might have to load Morrowind up again on my laptop (which is a lot more powerful than the machine I tried it on years back) and put on my big boy PC control pants and give it a whirl.

[gbpxl]

Oblivion was just emblematic of the pussification of gamers. oh you cant read? Well we can make it so the dialogue is spoken and it's in short sentences. Oh you don't want to spend time traveling from one end of the map to another? well just click this button and youre there. the compass that showed you exactly where to go. like my God, give us a f***ing break. give us the dignity of trying to figure something out on our own.

[YoshiM]

I don't think the decision to have more spoken dialog and fast travel necessarily means pussification of gamers, it's a combination of giving a more "cinematic" experience and a more "convenience of play". For the former part, the industry has been pushing more toward voice acting for everything. Since the introduction of the CD-ROM drive, voices have been injected into our gaming. Games like "Star Trek: 25th Anniversary Edition" and "Betrayal at Krondor" on PC, for example, started with text but received a good voice over later on. So that's just evolution of games.

Fast travel...well...I would have thought the same as you years ago. Now with children and not a lot of time to play, the ability to fast travel, or at least movement between places not taking literal hours normally, is quite the benefit. It boils down to whether or not you want to use it. In Oblivion and above you can still go by foot should you desire.

[YoshiM]

So I gave Morrowind a shot. I didn't have a lot of time today but at least got started. I created a Redguard woman named Trisk, relative to my Skyrim character Trask. Using the questionare at the census office where you begin play, my character came up as a rogue based on my answers. I wandered around the town and checled out the sights. Dang, 3D does NOT age well. Everyone looked like pieced together action figures and the world just felt blah.

I wandered into the lighthouse and decided to get a little light-fingered. I didn't realize a dark elf was in the building. She attacked me for pilfering some gold and I fought back with my measily dagger. The way the combat was, I could almost hear dice roll in the heavens with a DM whispering "miss....miss....hit!" with a poof of red mist appearing at the hit. I won the battle and took her cash and robe for my spoils.

I ventured to Balmora via silt strider and fpund the person I was instructed by the Emperor to find. Dude was shirtless and looked like a freakish Frankenstein human the way the modeling was. That's where I stopped.

I gotta say, this game has no different tropes than the latter games. This was more specific, being about a prisoner born on a specific day would do great things followed by visions from some sort of powerful consciousness. Play wise your person walks even slower than casual compared to the newer games or practically any other game. Granted it is keyboard controlled and you can toggle running, but that sucks up stamina. Combat was pretty much waggling your weapon at someone who just stands there with no real reaction. On top of that, the game really had no atmosphere other than filling spaces with NPCs doing....nothing. Sure there was some mention of NPCs in a room by other NPCs but that was it. Ultima VII:The Black Gate felt more like a breathing fantasy world than this.

The game was essentially an upgrade to Daggerfall. In this case time, technology, better tools and dare I say graphics made for better games in this series. I'll probably poke around more but I'm spoiled by Skyrim.

[gbpxl]

Are you comparing a game made in 2002 to one in 2012 or are you comparing a game made in 2002 to a game made in 2002?

[YoshiM]

I'm comparing the experiences of the two games but if you want to do the "comparison based on release" game, I'll play. Look at GTA 3, which came out in 2001 on PS2. Looks and feels a lot more alive than Morrowind.

[gbpxl]

I'm comparing the experiences of the two games but if you want to do the "comparison based on release" game, I'll play. Look at GTA 3, which came out in 2001 on PS2. Looks and feels a lot more alive than Morrowind.

yeah I can understand the feeling of Morrowind feeling "dead" compared to games that came out around then

[YoshiM]

Today the kids asked to play the OG Xbox, so I got to play a game I didn't really play before: Halo 2. Back when it first came out I groused over the fact that Bungie took out the health boxes and didn't play it after. Of course, other games used a similar concept (no health bar but the changing of view to indicate damage that heals by itself) that I got into and enjoyed. But I never got back to Halo 2.

I got past the space assault missions but had to stop when I went planetside. Later I got to play some splitscreen pvp and found my skills are lacking.

[Canija]

At the moment it is WoW. On and off I also play different shooters like Valorant and CS GO. But I can ask other pro gamers to upgrade my char by doing different monotonous actions in the game while I am at work and that (https://skycoach.gg/wow-boost) is pretty awesome I believe ;)

[gbpxl]

I didnt know anyone was still playing WoW

[YoshiM]

I didnt know anyone was still playing WoW

Oh yeah, it still lives. According to an article I read in PC Gamer, the new Shadowlands expansion is coming or has come out.

[gbpxl]

Oh yeah, it still lives. According to an article I read in PC Gamer, the new Shadowlands expansion is coming or has come out.
I tried WoW. I went on one or two missions on my own. seemed okay, just didnt see the appeal. I didnt have any close friends who played it so maybe that was part of the problem. you always hear about guilds and what-not but honestly I wouldnt have even known how to go about finding that. one of those games that it seems really dependent on the group interaction stuff I guess.

[YoshiM]

I tried WoW. I went on one or two missions on my own. seemed okay, just didnt see the appeal. I didnt have any close friends who played it so maybe that was part of the problem. you always hear about guilds and what-not but honestly I wouldnt have even known how to go about finding that. one of those games that it seems really dependent on the group interaction stuff I guess.

I hear ya- I played Asheron's Call when it was in beta but ut didn't grab me. Before that was Sierra's "The Realm" (I think) but my computer and dial up speed was not up to that challenge.

My game of late has been "Duke Nukem Forever" on PC. I bought it at a deal of $5 and I played it years back but stopped for some reason. I had installed it on my laptop not long ago and decided to try it again. Thanksto Steam and cloud saves, I started where I left off: The Hive.

I know it had a 14 year development time, but I can't recall if the hype that built expectation was drummed up by 3D Realms or if it was a mix of media and players. It's a decent game IMO. Sure its imagery is over the top, especially the hive- it's a Gyger fevered dream. You've got the alien organics covering the walls and floors like the movie "Aliens" but with a large trio of breasts on the walls here and there that lactate when you slap them. There are near naked women that are used as incubators for aliens, who writhe about moaning in their restraints followed by them wretching as the bellies disten then retract. Duke makes no apologies for the content, which is a little refreshing. Gearbox, who picked up the development, could have tuned it down but didn't.

Gameplay wise it's really no different than the games that were out at the time. More linear, two weapon max, replenishing "ego" life bar. A cross between a Call of Duty/Halo with the Duke skin. The game had one mighty foot in the content of the late 90's but the mechanics of an FPS in the second decade of 2000-making neither audience of those time frames happy.

Since I didn't follow the hype train (even though I did play Duke Nukem 3D BITD), it hit my expectations. It makes my palms sweat during action, gives me a thrill when I waste bad guys with some style and has been an entertaining ride. I'm at the dam now, so I'm probably close to the end.

[gbpxl]

the original Duke Nukem Forever looked awesome. in the yrailer that came out circa 1999. took place in Vegas. there was a prospector in it. I liked the N64 look of it. wish that wouldve been the DNF we got

[YoshiM]

I didn't get to play much of anything this weekend except "Super YoshiM:Toilet Terror" where I had to find a better fix for a leaky toilet. But after that I gave the Ouya some love and played a little Bombsquad with my son followed by Bubble Bobble 2 on MAME. Then others joined in on Bombsquad, which became a hootin' and hollerin' match.

I also noticed a bunch of new games on the new independant Ouya servers. It was pretty neat to see the community support!

[YoshiM]

During the week it was more Duke Nukem. I'm nearing the end as I get closer to the top of the dam.

This past weekend I got to play Star Wars: Battlefront 2 Anniversary (I think it is) on the solo campaign. Gorgeous game. I updated my data drive to an SSD and the game loads super fast now. I got up to the Emperial escape from the second Death Star and stopped for the night as it was time for my step sons and my "Stranger Things" watching.

Sunday I wanted to attempt to fix the weird pixel bleed I have on my Commodore 1702. I took the back off and played with the adjustments back there. I tested with my NES and the flash cart I have in there. I got into a little Doki Doki Panic (weird playing a very familiar yet different game), Metroid (disk version-love the file save) a Christmas Card program from I think Data East and then I stumbled into a bunch of, ahem, not kid friendly adult games. The few I looked at didn't seem to want to load Side B of the disk but one game had a decent "Crazy Climber" (where you press buttons for each hand to vlimb) game that you had to control what looked like a balding man up moving ladders to reach a girl, who threw various objects at you. No lives system, you just keep going. The "prize" was an anime image of a girl followed by a more complex ladder game on the right side. So that was a rather eye-opening experience

[Tron 2.0]

I took a break from grandia hd and i been playing cyber-shadow on switch :D It's so ninja gaiden.

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

[gbpxl]

I was playing Mummy Demastered for Switch off and on for a bit. Wasn't really holding my attention til I watched My Life in Gaming do a live stream of it last night and it made me wanna give it another chance. I am at the dragon boss right now. First time I died playing this. starting to appreciate this game more and more now and I am getting used to the Dpad and the controls. Metroid it aint but its fun

[YoshiM]

I finished Duke Nukem forever last week. It was a decent ride. Reading the timeline they include and how many engines the developers got into was eye-opening. After Duke 3D came out, it seemed like FPS games REALLY exploded and upped the ante. 3D Realms had to make something better than Duke 3D along with beating what was out or coming out. That's tough to follow-just when they got something looking good BANG another grand FPS came out that they had to exceed in quality and play. At least in my perspective looking at the timeline.

After that, only thing I played was someone's Color Computer BASIC game of fantasy enduro combat called "Mistwood". Basically turned based combat against monsters that pop out of the woods in nice clean text. Anything else game related was trying to set up my Wii to read games off of a hard drive (fail-sees the games but won't load).

[gbpxl]

beat Mummy Demastered. Great game, hoping for a sequel. not sure what to play next. I might look through my Lynx games to see if there is anything there I am willing to play through. really hoping the Analogue Pocket comes out soon because I hate the actual Lynx itself as a game machine. It's the only console I am aware of that plays Lynx cartridges

[calthaer]

I need to check in on this thread more often; missed the Morrowind / Oblivion / Skyrim discussion. Played all three but Oblivion is the only one I didn't finish - the mods I had installed must not have played nicely and it crashed somewhere during the main story. Loved all of them, Skyrim probably the most.

Lately I have been plugging away at Soul Axiom. It's probably the best adventure / puzzle game I've ever played. Story is pretty gripping and is doled out in pieces as you solve more puzzles. A few nights I've been joining a few buddies with Valheim.

[YoshiM]

I'm slightly interested in Valheim, teetering on the "eh...maybe not" side. It looks cool with what looks like decent combat but I can't tell how grindy it is. Is it real time or more like Minecraft where day and night have its own cycle? And more importantly, can I save any time?

I've continued examining my Steam list by playing Civilization 4. I used to be a big DOS Civ player and got my ex to play it, which gripped her like a bear's jaw around a salmon. We played Civ 2, which was decent but had changes that didn't mesh ("what do you mean you can't take a city with a catapult?"). We did get Civ 3 with its nice tin but our play stopped. I snagged Civ 4 as part of some sale but never got around to playing it.

It's ok, but just seems to have a lot of busy work that I think started in Civ 2, like building mines or farms. It doesn't grab me as much as the simplicity of the first game.

[gbpxl]

been playing Legend of Zelda on Switch's Nintendo Online. controller sucks but hard to beat $4 a month versus a 30 dollar NES cartridge

[calthaer]

I'm slightly interested in Valheim, teetering on the "eh...maybe not" side. It looks cool with what looks like decent combat but I can't tell how grindy it is. Is it real time or more like Minecraft where day and night have its own cycle? And more importantly, can I save any time?

Day and night have their own cycle, like Minecraft. Night is more dangerous and you can retreat to a house / bed to sleep it away. It's also the best way to pass time - there are some things, like smelting, that take time but are accelerated by sleeping through the time.

The combat is decent but this could also use some work, to be honest. There are six or seven different weapon types and, even with a few dozen hours under my belt, I am not sure what the benefit of each might be. They do different damage types (slashing, piercing, bludgeoning) but skill in each one is hard to build up. Bows are the only one so far that can do things like frost, poison, fire damage and they are largely OP. I expect this area to get attention and to become better over time.

"Saving" happens automatically and also like Minecraft. You cannot save your character and then reload if you die, and when you die your hard-earned stuff drops at a gravestone you have to get back to. Many people are making comparisons to the original EverQuest for its "corpse runs" and this comparison is apt. That said, dying comes through lack of preparation and skill and can be avoided in most cases.

The biggest grind comes if you want to get fancy and create elaborate houses, castles, villages, etc. These require a lot of resources. Otherwise it's not too bad, and there are ways to speed things up - teleportation, boats, carts. I expect that these options will increase over time as they add more things - maybe animals or something.

The game could definitely use some work. Dedicated servers broke for me (and lots of other folks) after the last patch, so they have their work cut out for them to get some of the basics down - but it has relatively few bugs otherwise. There is a wealth of content that will likely be available after 2+ years and that may be the time to jump in. If you have doubts, I would skip it for now and get it later. It might cost more later, however.

[YoshiM]

I really didn't play anything the last two weeks due to Covid. I worked half days remotely but by the afternoon I was wiped out. The kids got to get more game time than ever until the wife and I felt better and cut them off as the youngest three started to get a little demanding. I was in the mood to play sonething classic but all my gaming equipment is downstairs (save for my PC) and I had no ambition.

Last Friday I went back to work and did get some gametime in. During lunch I played some "Animal Crossing:New Leaf", whittling my mortgage down. Shampoodle came to town and I was able to get a silver shovel.

That night my wife and I usually watch murder mysteries on PBS but it's all stuff we saw over and over again. She wanted to keep watching this new show on Masterpiece online called "Miss Scarlet and The Duke". I watched two episodes already and it didn't get my attention as it was horribly predictable and was hitting "hot points" of today that were taboo and illegal back then. So I played some more "Star Wars-Battlefront".

The gameplay has now reached that formulaic feel and I know I'm playing it to see where the story goes. My character's team defected to the Rebellion, who kinda accepted them with open arms even after Leia said " did its share of damage to the Rebellion" (paraphrased). In a few months, my character is a commander and seems well liked, even though I killed many rebels by [i]shooting most of them in the face.

What were the conversations over time?

"We know you can melt the face off a target at 100 yards. Joko Raisen, an officer that survived your attack on our capital ship now dribbles his cereal on his uniform everytime he eats, gives his full recommendation and a hearty half-thumbs up. I promote you to commander".

I try with modern games.....

[nebrazca88]

Tetris on Genesis (Mega Drive)

Just because I saw a standup say you couldn't play Tetris on Genesis. It does have two-player but it's not great. Bad controls and generic music although I did like the changing backgrounds and the piece stats.

Fully licensed NES or GB Tetris in a first round KO.

Tengen Tetris in a first punch KO.

Honorable mention to the Windows 3.1 version.

[YoshiM]

I got to play a couple games over the weekend.

First was the proto leak of the N64 game "Dinosaur Planet". It was pretty solid of what I played. I just wish it was at a point where it wasn't Star Fox'd, though it looks like the level of Star Foxiness is just his character model and his dialog. The game itself still referred to Fox as "Sabre".

I also got a lot of Animal Crossing:New Leaf play in. I got to partake in Bunny Day and I milked that as much as possible. ReTail was offering a premium on furniture, so for every Egg piece I got, it went to my loan repayment. One of my twins wanted weeds pulled in her town, so I went there and did that. As she ransacked my trees last time....I returned the favor and grabbed some eggs with prizes. My small added east wing room was paid off and then some.

Now to fund that room's expansion.....