Agamon

I have Game Pass, so I'll definitely try it. The idea of pretty much the entire world being mapped put is pretty cool.

I was listening to IGN Unlocked, their Xbox podcast, and they talked about whether someone besides Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo would actually try putting out a console, and consensus was, Why would anyone do something stupid like that? I know the fanboys in their echo chambers like to think this is the biggest thing since bread came sliced, but 99% of the general population (probably higher, actually) know nothing and care nothing about this thing.

SoR4 is considered hard? And here I thought I sucked at beat'em ups....

PS4 The Last of Us Part II (1047 min) PC Terraforming Mars (214 min) Oculus Quest Beat Saber (284 min) BoxVR (150 min) About halfway on my NG+ game of TLOU2, and I'm playing on a higher difficulty, which means more dying, and I'm taking my time to take in the scenery and try to find all the notes, safes, cards and other collectibles, they did a good job giving the collectibles some narrative value. And I thought playing again that the story wouldn't have the same punch, but the lack of surprise is replaced by expectant dread, which I think is worse, lol. And regardless, the gameplay is still super-tense. Played Terraforming Mars with friends on Sunday, which was fun, but we didn't quite get to finish as we ran out of time; one player was unfamiliar with the board game and all of were new to the video game version interface. Next game should go more quickly.

PS4 The Last of Us Part II (694 min) The Last of Us Remastered (801 min) Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Remastered (48 min) Oculus Quest Beat Saber (405 min) BoxVR (52 min) So, I finished TLOU2 on Wednesday. What an amazing experience. I've had a hard time articulating how much I enjoyed this game, but when I wasn't playing it, I was thinking about it. And when I finished it, I continued to think about it. Then I tried playing another Naughty Dog game, Uncharted 3, and I just couldn't get into it, because I was still thinking about TLOU2...so, I decided to replay the first TLOU New Game +, which I kinda wanted to do before playing the new game, but forgot. Finished that and the Left Behind DLC, and now this evening I started a new NG+ run of TLOU2. Hopefully by the end of that, I'll be able to focus on something new.... Also, I picked up BoxVR this weekend to supplement my BS VR gaming. And I'm very sore today, lol. It's a pretty good workout of muscles I don't use a lot.

Finished The Last of Us Part II. What a ride. I can die now, I've played the best game, full stop.

You'll have no issues at all. I've got both a desktop and laptop and I'm able to dl any games on either at the same time. It's the account that matters, not the device.

PC ARK: Survival Evolved (583 min) PS4 The Last of Us Part II (917 min) Oculus Quest Best Saber (533 min) More ARK earlier in the week. A couple tamed dinos and a second base has been set up. Still getting my butt whooped when I explore to far from my starting spot, despite getting to 35th level, but I'm figuring out some tactics for dealing with some of the trickier fauna. Then TLoU2 released Thursday night, and it's been nothing but that since. Wow, the story and acting managed to one up the first game somehow. And the stealth action is right up my alley. Really enjoying it.

Only had a chance to play for a couple hours after it unlocked last night, but so far I'm mightily impressed with The Last of Us 2.

Injustice: Gods Among Us is free on Steam, PS4, and XB1. https://store.steampowered.com/app/242700/Injustice_Gods_Among_Us_Ultimate_Edition/

I'm still waiting to see more info. The price is right and apparently no microtransactions, which is nice. VR mode is cool. Flight stick accessibility is great. A short, learn-the-ropes single player mode before moving to 5v5 multiplayer isn't really my cup of tea, though. So, this just might me want to go back to the old LA games...

I'm wondering how many of the games shown are exclusive to PS5? I'm expecting to be able to play SM:MM on PS4. A lot of the indie/AA games are going to be on Switch/Steam/Epic, for sure. Horizon Zero Dawn is about to become available on Steam, so I'd be surprised if Forbidden West is the same in a few years. I didn't really see anything that would convince me that I need one of these. Which is good, I'd accept the odd shape if it was all matte black. So, definitely waiting for that, at least...

PC ARK: Survival Evolved (961 min) Switch Kotodama: The 7 Mysteries of Fujisama (233 min) Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle (268 min) Oculus Quest Beat Saber (529 min) Started the week on the Switch going back and forth between Mario+Rabbids and Kotodama. Because of the silliness, M+R looked like it'd be a nice laid back simple turn-based strategy game, but man, it's tough. Kotodama was on sale this week, it's a visual novel/match 3 game that isn't terrible, but I'm glad I didn't pay more than a couple bucks for it. But then ARK was one of the free games on Epic this week, so I gave that a go, and it's been pretty addictive. I've only played the single player version of the original Island map so far, but it's fun crafting and exploring and domesticating dinosaurs. The plan is to play multiplayer with my bro when his new PC shows up this week and it'll be nice to have some backup because some of those dinos are nasty. My gear is currently on the edge of a swamp where a crocodile-type thing killed me. That'll be fun to go fetch....

It's itch.io, so quality is not to be expected. But there are some gems in there, so the price is more than right.

PC Civilization VI (981 min) Twilight Struggle (82 min) Switch Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics (204 min) Oculus Quest Beat Saber (411 min) Finished my Civ6 game, won with a domination victory (take all the other capitals) and had to bee-line to Spain's and Russia's capitals before Spain won a diplomatic victory. Hungary's capital got nuked by me and then a little while later it was hit with a meteor and wiped from the map. In fact, there were meteor strikes every other turn after the modern age started, and all but one hit me (granted, I was 2/3 of the map by then, but still). Apocalypse Mode is crazy. Got Clubhouse Games, which is pretty cool.played a bunch of Mancala and Backgammon and a bit of Golf, President, Slot Cars and Klondike Solitaire, some with my brother, who also picked it up. We also played Twilight Struggle, and I won with Russia when I forced my bro to play a card that started WW3. Well, I guess I won, but realistically we both lost, right?

Hopefully. Riichi sure doesn't look simlple...

I went to perorder it last night and it was already released, so I play a quick game of backgammon. Beat the normal AI, but it made some smart moves.

Never played Shogi, so I would likely be a lesser opponent than the AI. Looking forward to learning the Asian games, Hanafuda, Riichi, Takoyaki. I know Go, but both that and Hearts are not included, which is a bit confusing. Instead, we get the worst board game ever created, Ludo (aka Sorry/Trouble). Monopoly is chess compared to that game....

PC Civilization VI (905 min) Tabletopia (131 min) Oculus Quest Beat Saber (357 min) Lighter schedule this week. My Gran Columbia Civ game is going alright. I very much doubt I'm going to get a domination victory, even though Bolivar has some great bonus for unit movement and strength. I've only just taken Carthage's capital, there's 6 more civs and we've hit year 1700. Doing pretty good with science though, so I might be able to fall back on that. Tabletopia was another game of Wingspan, and I didn't do all that well, but it was fun nonetheless. And of course, more Beat Saber. Still not tired of playing that every day.

I'm strangely excited for this one. A bunch of games I've never had a chance to play, mixed with a bunch of games I haven't played since I was a kid. Looks like it's reviewing pretty well, too. Can't wait!

PC Civilization VI (494 min) Old World (585 min) Tabletopia (227 min) XB1 Golf With Your Friends (182 min) Human Fall Flat (64 min) Oculus Quest Beat Saber (666 min) Finished my Old World game and won, getting 10 leader goals first. I had 5 leaders over the game. The game is well done, it just needs some tweaking. It seemed the game updated over the week I played in fact (and broke the name of one of the cities, adding "cityname_" to the front...). I'll try it again in the summer, I think. Meanwhile, the new DLC for Civ 6 came out, so I'm trying the new Apocalypse mode, which bombards the world with constant natural disasters. I'm a sucker for punishment, settling my 4th city on a flood plain next to a volcano... Online, we played Dominant Species once more on Tabletopia. The arachnids won this time, and my insects came in last. Also played through the Castle level of Human Fall Flat with my brother before giving Golf With Your Friends a try. That game is both hilarious fun and a tad frustrating. I can't imagine playing 12 players at a time with ball collision turned on...

Civ 6 isn't a mobile port, they somehow made a version of the game for mobile, but it has an entire keyboard of hotkeys and can bring a PC to its knees if it isn't relatively current. Does Epic have the DLC? I just started an Apocalypse Mode game and the natural disasters are like handing the mouse to a 12-year-old to play some of your SimCity game...

PC Jackbox Party Pack 4 (104 min) Jackbox Party Pack 5 (49 min) Jackbox Party Pack 6 (110 min) Old World (663 min) Remember Me (112 min) Tabletopia (136 min) XB1 Streets of Rage 4 (63 min) Oculus Quest Beat Saber (483 min) Played another session of Remember Me early in the week, got busy in the middle of the week, and then Epic did their free GTA V/Mega Sale/$10 coupon thing on Thursday and just before clicking the purchase button on Anno 1800, I remembered the pre-release of a game called Old World. Which promised to be a cross between Civilization and Crusader Kings set in the Bronze Age , and I'm all, just inject that into my veins, please. Civ 6 has a monthly DLC pass starting next week and CK3 is out in the summer, so I though I'd jump into Old World now, despite it being in pre-release. And I love it. So many awesome little QoL improvements on the 4x genre. I mean, it has an undo button. An UNDO BUTTON! In a 4x game! Whaaaaat? And the massive amount of events that happen in the game compared to CK2 (1-5 ever year(turn) is both fun and a tad worrisome that it might get a bit repetitious over multiple plays, but so far there's been none in the one play though, and I understand each of the player nations has a lot of their own own stuff, so Egypt will play a bit different from Babylon or Greece or Rome. And the art in the game is amazing. I'm currently playing Rome in a 4-player game. I'm on my 4th leader (who's in his 50's and was severely ill when I last saved...). Carthage was kicking butt until they started a war with me and Greece, and now they're in last and Assyria has taken advantage of our squabbling to quietly grow super powerful. Anyhoo, got to the end of SoR4 in my play though with my brother. And the Tabletopia game of the week of was Stockpile, which I trounced everyone at, though the game has a fair amount of variance, so I admit a lot of the trouncing was luck based. Also did some Discord Jackbox with my friends back home whom I, once again, wasn't able to visit as planned.

XB1 Human Fall Flat (96 min) Streets of Rage 4 (51 min) PC Remember Me (175 min) Tabletopia (572 min) Oculus Quest Beat Saber (634 min) Echo VR (37 min) Caught up on some TV more this week than gaming. Decided I needed to take a break from Persona 5. I want to go back, the story is interesting, but the gameplay is kinda lacking, so we'll see. Started Remember Me this weekend, and it's interesting. Tomb Raider/Uncharted style platforming, DMC/God of War style fighting (with customizable combos), plus puzzles where your altering others' memories in a dystopian cyberpunkish 2084 Neo Paris. Played some more online with my brother, same games as last week. Streets of Rage 4 is great, they really nailed the SoR beat-em-up style. The Human Fall Flat time was all one level (Castle) and we weren't even able to finish it, which I think means we need to start back at the beginning of the level. At least we have all the puzzles for 4/5ths of the level figured out. We were going to try Moving Out, but apparently that is only couch co-op... More online board gaming on Tabletopia this week. Two games of Wingspan, I won the first one, and while I came in last in second one, the scores were close (79, 79, 76). Also played a lengthy game of Dominant Species, where my arachnids came in second to the reptiles. Haven't talked about Beat Saber much lately, but it's my most played game, so I guess I should mention it. It's still my primary source of exercise right now. Getting better, but there are still a lot of tough maps that confound me, even some of the base game's Expert+ levels. Echo VR is a free-to-play 3-on3 team sports game where the goal is to throw a disc through the opponent's goal in zero-g sphere arena. Neat game, but online team games aren't really my shtick, but I thought I'd check it out, it's a pretty popular VR game.

From what I understand, each cart has its own emulator.