What games are you playing right now? What games are you looking forward to?

I thought it would be fun for all of us to check in now and again to talk about the various video games we've been playing recently. Or, if there's one that's not out yet, talking about our interest in that one! A quick run down of what you're doing in the games you're playing as well as your general thoughts on those games is a fun way to spark conversation. There's no obligation whatsoever but you're invited to share all that you'd like to! As for myself...

I've been playing mainly Honkai Impact and Fallout 4 for September.

Fallout 4 is...Well I don't think it needs an introduction, it's not exactly obscure and I think we've all played it at least once at this point. But what surprises me is that it surpassed my initial impressions of it. The gameplay feels vastly improved from previous games save for a few minor things, although for some of those details mods thankfully fix the problem. (I sure wish companions weren't so limited though. None of the mods that let you have more than one feel well designed.)

I've maxed out my skills and I've only got a few perks left to get, but it doesn't feel like it's become mindless despite this fact, some enemies still put up a fight, and it can be fun using the various weapons in my arsenal (Even if all of them save for the sniper rifle really do come near to one-shotting enemies). I've already logged almost 4 days worth of gameplay into the game and it's not getting old. The story writing is pretty terrible, but some of the side quests are amazing. In particular, the Constitution questline, Silver Shroud questline, and to a degree the detective quests are all 10/10 and actually manage to feel like top tier Fallout writing.



As for Honkai...There's not a whole lot I can say about it other than it's really fun. The gacha feels skippable due to the existence of character pieces, allowing you to unlock them without spending a time which is incredible for a gacha game when most of them try to (not so subtly) push you towards rolling. That's not to say they don't try and encourage you to spend money, but the fact is that it's easier to play this game without spending compared to others where you're likely to hit a brick wall before you can comfortably set yourself up as a F2P. Of course some of the best Valkyries are gacha only right now, but it's worth saving back currency for them anyway as they'll clear most of the game's content for you just by having them pretty much.

Summer event is fun despite me not being particularly good at tower defense. Elysia is OP


Also Bronya is best girl.


As for games I'm looking forward to...

Atomic Heart is a surprise contender for most exciting game that's not out yet in my book. A weird mix of Bioshock and Fallout with a soviet paint job, the subtle commentary is shocking for a game released in the west in twenty twenty two. The gameplay looks fast paced, the aesthetic is top notch, and it generally looks like a lot of love is going into it. It's probably not going to be a day 1 purchase for me, or even a year 1 purchase since I rarely buy games brand new, but if it looks good post-release I may just have to cave and try it out.

Lately I've been trying to find some games to really get into. But nothing has quite "clicked" as of yet. So I'll just go over all the ones I've tried so far.

First up is Cube World Alpha. On this game the gameplay loop sorta leaves something to be desired. But I guess that makes sense because this is an Alpha build. It's interesting enough at first. But after awhile you're just exploring to dungeons that have some crossed swords marking them on the map, and then your "quest" is to defeat the boss within.

Doing so nets you experience, platinum coins and random loot from enemies within the dungeon. I only learned this because the Water Mage is literally the best class in the game and that meant I could actually experience content beyond wandering aimlessly and attacking any enemy that looked weak enough to beat.

Gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. Might be fun in multiplayer, but there's no real goal. So... Really I think it'd only be kinda interesting multiplayer. As a "every now and then" kind of deal. Considering that it's free and an unfinished build of the game, I suppose I can't be that upset about it.

After that I started modding Doom. It started sounding like fun again, and I ended up finding some mods that are kinda fun -- also got multiplayer working, so that will DEFINITELY be fun. But singleplayer is still kinda "eh" after the initial rush of trying out some new mods. I did play Golden Souls a bit and I might still go do that every now and then, but it's not doing it either right now.

That brings me to Four Elements Trainer, a lewd VN with Avatar as the setting. I finally got to see the ending and all in all, I liked it. But now that I've completed it, it means I'm searching for another game to play. Still not a whole lot of luck on that front at the moment.

As far as games that I'm looking forward to. Deltarune immediately comes to mind, even though I don't think that's happening anytime soon as of yet. Fate/Extra CCC I'm also hyped for.

If we're talking NEW games. Sadly some of the ones that originally had my interest ended up falling apart. Like the new Saints Row game -- that's a hard pass. Atomic Heart does look pretty good though, and in the interest of actually talking about a game I'm looking forward to; Hogwarts Legacy.

The idea of making your own Wizard is pretty nifty, it just looks pretty well-made altogether, and I like that they're talking about how your choices matter, and not solely as far as the story goes. But also in your character's alignment, due to the presence of Dark Magic and Curses.

Beyond that, I've seen some others like Rise of the Ronin. The Legend Of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. But it feels like a mere handful. So much... Nonsense and drama when I just want entertainment.

So, yeah. That's about it.

I decided to play Way of the Samurai 1 again. It's a short game (each run doesn't take very long, especially if you're good at the game), but it's fun.

Very experimental, multiple routes and endings. It's the most simplistic entry of the series, but there's a strong charm to it.

Also a wide variety of weapons you can collect, not all of which are swords. But most of them are Katana in some shape or form.

Dojima is also at his least useless in this entry, it's very possible to get maximum stats on a weapon through him with some save states. Once you've got a weapon with 5 Durability, +999 Life, +50% Offense and +50% Defense you're good to go.

Of course, doing this isn't enough to give you everything the weapon can do. You also have to use it in battle and unlock all the moves it has.

It's a decent game on the PS2, worth checking out even if you only watch some video playthroughs of it.

So as you know, I got some games for my Birthday! I've been playing them a lot too. Right now I'm working my way through one game, but I fully intend to play through the other as well. So let's start with Terminator: Resistance for this post.

This is a game made for fans of Terminator 1 and 2. Full stop. It captures that atmosphere PERFECTLY. Every scene about the Future War in those movies is going to be an exact match to the game.

It's a semi-open world FPS RPG. I say "semi-open world" because it's really more like Hexen. You have a hub world that serves as a hideout. This is where you can do trading, where you pick up side quests and interact with important characters in the story, and so on. When you leave the hideout is where the "open world" part comes into play.

It's more like being in a huge, sprawling level filled with main and side quest objectives. But you're also rewarded for just exploring, period. You'll find a ton of supplies and weapons by being thorough, and if you're REALLY lucky, you can even find Skill Books that grant you a single Skill Point to distribute wherever you like.

You have three skill trees. Combat, Science, and Survival.

Each one is fairly obvious. But Combat governs your ability to do damage or wield certain weapons.

You find Stealth, Weapons and Explosives in that Skill Tree. I mainly went with "Weapons", but I've heard that Explosives are pretty useful too, especially for taking out Terminators WAY earlier than you're supposed to.

Science governs Lockpicking, Hacking, and Crafting.
Lockpicking is almost exactly like in Fallout 3, New Vegas and 4. Rotate the pin and find the right angle that lets you unlock it.

Hacking is actually different, though. It functions more like the old Atari game, Frogger. Also amusingly, it plays the beats for the Terminator theme if you're good enough at it.

Crafting is where all the loot you find comes into play. Fabric, Metal Scraps, Chemical Components, etc. You can make things like Medkits, Ammo, explosives, and so on. Sadly there's nothing to do with making guns yourself, but don't worry. The game finds a way to give you something like that WITHOUT tying it to a skill.

Survival is where you find Backpack Upgrade, Toughness and Fast Learner.

Backpack Upgrade is... Well, yeah. Just an inventory upgrade. It's useful as you start picking up more things, especially if you want to sell weapons to trade back at the hub.

Toughness is also what you expect, it governs the damage reduction. Interestingly, the max level also gives you some health regeneration. That brings us to Fast Learner, which increases the amount of experience you get from everything.

You have a max level of 28, and you can find 6 Skill Books, bringing your total skill points up to 33. I believe getting all the Skill Books lets you max out everything, but it's better to focus on important skills, as I got to 28 essentially right at the end of the game, even with me going out of my way to complete absolutely everything.

Now, the big part of this; the gameplay! When you first start exploring, you're only going to have small and medium caliber weapons. Pistols, Assault Rifles and Shotguns. You can also find some Pipe Grenades. This is important to note, because if you're familiar with the movies, these kinds of weapons (save for explosives) do not harm Terminators.

And if you try to shoot a T-800 with these guns, you're going to get a "Weapon Ineffective!" warning letting you know it... However, if you're familiar with the movies, you also know that Shotguns are really good at unbalancing Terminators, and knocking them to the ground. You still won't damage them, but you can, in fact, knock them down.

If you're feeling particularly gutsy, you can even knock them down with the Shotgun, and then start throwing explosives at them while they're left like that on the ground. Hence the whole "You can take them out way earlier than expected" thing.

Fortunately, however, the game also has an array of weaker machines to fight. But it also has machines that are much tougher than the T-800 to deal with, too. Eventually you do get your hands on Plasma Weaponry, and this is where you can start fighting back. You get Red Plasma at first. It's not the GREATEST for fighting Terminators, but it actually does damage, and it gets the job done in a pinch.

Violet Plasma is where you start doing some real damage -- and that brings me to the next point. Remember how I said that you don't have weapon crafting? Well, Terminator: Resistance does give you weapon customization.

See, for virtually every machine you destroy, you get Skynet Chips. These have a stat and a percentage on them, and they come into play when you're upgrading a Plasma Weapon.

Want more damage on it? This is how you make that happen. At first it's a struggle to fight Terminators, but as the game goes on, you start fighting armies of them.

Finally, the DLC adds another layer to this already great experience. "Infiltrator Mode" lets you play as a Terminator, specifically one of the advanced models that were sent back in time. It's a Free DLC that was added, and it's intended as a single play session thing, and the better you do at it, the better your score. But it's fun nonetheless even though it's a short addition taking about an hour of playtime at most. It's also the prologue to the game's main story -- but I recommend playing the main game first, you're gonna need to know how to play the game.

That brings it to the actual DLC; Annihilation Line. In this one, you continue playing as the main character from the main game, but you're working with Kyle Reese and his squad. This DLC is meant to be based on his scenes of the Future War in the movie, and so far, it's nailing that pretty well.

Story-wise, I won't say anything about it. It's worth playing for yourself if you're a fan of the franchise, and you wanted to see a Terminator game done right.

Next time, I'll be talking about Gedonia!