I’ve already put in 33 hours on The Show, and I didn’t get it all that long ago.
It’s a crime that The Show isn’t available on PC. The only halfway decent baseball game on PC is Super Mega Baseball 4, and while it is entertaining, it isn’t licensed by MLB and in no way compares to The Show.
MLB The Show 24 update:
Tenni and the Red Wings were doing pretty good in the first part of the season, but then Tenni suffered a herniated disk and was put on the 60-day injured list. When she got back, Rochester was three games below .500 and nine games out of first place.
So, time to put in some work.
MLB The Show 24 update:
After a 3-for-3 game in her second Minor League Futures All-Star appearance (including 2 HR), Tenni got called up to The Show!
The first person she called was her childhood friend, pitcher Mia Thomas.
We had a video of commentators talking about the historic occasion.
Then she met Lane Thomas of the Nats, who gave her a pep talk.
Then she walked into Nats manager Paco Figueroa’s office.
And… My God… The first game of her MLB career will be at Dodger Stadium.
MLB The Show 24 update:
Nats lost Tenni’s MLB debut 9-7, but she did get a 2-run home run in the top of the 6th to briefly put Washington ahead.
She fielded questions from the press both before and after the game.
My very first fielding situation in MLB (Tenni is a first baseman) was completing a double play on Shohei Ohtani, of all people.
Tales of Arise
Highly recommended if you like JRPGs.
Wow, this was the best Tales Of games I’ve played and I’ve played a few. If you like JRPGs in general and are looking for one, this is a great one. I paid $8 and it was worth 5x that much.
I’ll rank the games for you if you are interested in the series:
- Tales of Arise
- Tales of Abyss (thank you @smilingbandit for letting me borrow this years ago!)
- Tales of Symphonia
- Tales of Phantasia
- Tales of Vesperia ←-widely loved, was only OK for me.
Anyone not aware, Tales Of was for the longest time the 3rd biggest JRPG series, behind Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. I’d say nowadays, it is also behind Persona and possibly Shin Megami Tensei in general(Persona is a subset of that series).
A strong series that consistently puts out high quality games.
I really liked the start of Arise and its use of bold colours, but the plot fell apart towards the end.
I notice Berseria isn’t on your list, which is my personal favourite. Any plans for that one?
(Zestiria was weak.)
Been playing Enshrouded the past two weeks or so. A beautiful open world survival/crafting game. Sort of like valheim but much much better. It’s still in early access and we’ve put hundreds of hours into it already and the map is still only half filled in! The combat could be fleshed out a bit more, but it’s not horrible. And the word on the streets is that the next update will address combat.
Yes, it is on my waitlist right now. It will be the next Tales game I play for sure. I also have Tales of Graces F remastered on my waitlist. Just waiting for time and price drops.
I started Cabernet today, a vampire game.
Been playing Mafia: The Old Country. It very much hits the definition of “More Mafia” in the style of the first and second game. They seem to have taken the middling reception to Mafia 3 to heart and went back to a pretty linear cinematic story game versus an open world. I’m sort of glad that I recently replayed Mafia 2 because otherwise I’d be complaining that Mafia: TOC was slower paced but it really isn’t. There’s chapters, especially in the beginning, where you feel like your game play was just walking around and doing a few menial tasks but that’s pretty much how all these games went. It’s all the usual story beats: starting off as penniless riff-raff until you’re taken in and start doing small jobs, proving yourself, getting brought into the family but of course it’s not as wonderful as it seems, an obnoxious buddy, disapproval of those who knew you prior, yadda yadda but that’s exactly what I’m here for. It’s also very pretty to look at c.1905 rural Italy.
When not doing that, I bought some AD&D game bundle and am leading a party through the SSI Gold Box titles. All based on my current Pathfinder group, we have made our way through Pool of Radiance and are now into Curse of the Azure Bonds. I played these back in the late 80s/early 90s and I don’t know if I’d say they “held up” for a new player but I’m having fun. The Steam versions come with the “Gold Box Companion” built in for easier stuff like training levels without needing a Hall or auto healing the group when you camp. They unabashedly make the games easier but I’m mainly playing for nostalgia and giggles, not to challenge myself this time around.
Finished Thief Puzzle (several weeks ago; forgot to mention it). There were a few tricky levels, but none anywhere near as painful as 211. (There were a couple levels, 355 and 396, where the solution was hard to reach because the game was originally designed for vertical screens, but that was obviously unintentional.) It utterly baffles me that this was ever allowed into what was otherwise a simple, breezy game where the point was trying stuff and seeing all the funny reactions; there was absolutely no justification for having That One Level. Or if they had to have it, make it the final level. Incidentally, finishing the final level does nothing; you go back to the level select with 400 forever marked uncleared. This further indicates to me that the Playables are either early or unfinished versions. I’m very likely going to pony up the $3 for the game on my Fire tablet just to get the proper vertical-screen and unlockable items experience. I’m now consider the Playables largely advertisements for proper mobile games. I think a full version of Polysphere or Tall Man Run would be pretty awesome.
Recently gotten into Police Life. It’s fairly similar to the work-and-build Playables of its ilk, particularly My Mini Mart and My Perfect Hotel. You have to take the inmates around to various activities and then free them after they’ve served their time. You continuously earn money with which to expand the prison, hire employees to take over tasks, and improve both you and the employees’ efficiency. The employees’ speed is highly limited, so even after hiring them you have to do most of the heavy lifting. Eventually you’ll get access to another, less efficient prison, eventually working toward cleaning up the whole country. Oh, and keep your eyes open for emergencies which require you to run all across the prison. This is one of those games where you’ll always be running up against something…not enough money, not enough levels, not enough time. I do hope it leads up to something good (although after my experiences with My Mini Mart and My Perfect Hotel, I’m not optimistic), but mainly I just enjoy spending a few minutes a day turning nothing into something.
Heretic and Hexen remastered. Didn’t know they were working on it but saw it mentioned in my feed, bought and downloaded it. It is a light remaster (sprites haven’t really been upgraded), it’s mostly an interface that works on modern OSs, easy cheat code system, and apparently some changes in the puzzles as an option. Looks and feels just like old times, which is great.
NBA 2K25 on PS4.
I’ve been playing as the Charlotte Hornets with a starting five of Mark Williams at center, Obi Toppin and Benedict Mathurin at forward, and Ayo Dosunmu and LaMelo Ball at guard.
We finished with a regular season record of 71-11, best record in the league. Very late in the season, Ball suffered an injury.
We beat Miami in the first round 4-1 (getting Ball back in Game 5), swept Cleveland 4-0 in the conference semifinals, and have a 1-0 lead over Toronto currently in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Mostly I’ve been playing Caves of Qud, some Master of Orion II and after some years of hiatus, Skyrim. The latter being because after playing the Oblivion Remaster I got a sudden hankering for more Elder Scrolls gaming.
I’ve just started replaying Outer Worlds - since I had/have many Blizzard bucks from WoW, I bought the premium edition (found money as it were) for the sequel, which is supposed (I know, supposed) to start October 29 (-5 days if I want to use the privilege of the premium package, but that’s just begging for bugs!). With my limited time to play, I figure 2.5 months will let me dive through the whole story again, and the dlc so the lore and style will be fully refreshed.
NBA 2K25 update:
My Hornets swept the Raptors in the East Finals and the Mavericks in the NBA Finals to win the title. We lost only one playoff game throughout the tournament.
I picked up Mark Williams’ and Benedict Mathurin’s one-year player options for 2025-26 but they’re not eligible for extensions, and it’ll be expensive to keep them past this upcoming season. Especially given that Williams led the league in rebounding and averaged more than 20 points per game, making the All-NBA Third Team.
Before the opening home game of the 2025-26 season, we had a ceremony in which the players received their championship rings. They were wearing special jackets with a golden Hornets logo on the front, and “Champions” on the back. Then they raised a championship banner, which, unfortunately, isn’t permanently added to the arena. (But they will be in NBA 2K26).
I downloaded “Fragpunk” on Xbox….the trailer sold me a VERY different game…I thought it was maybe a battle of the bands kind of game but with combat and being music themed…. but this is just a slightly rocky Saturday morning cyberpunk hero shooter with some basic Team Deathmatch modes. And I am, pretty frickin’ good at it?
Each character has some special abilities and you can select from a huge number of perk cards…but weapons don’t seem to really have much of an upgrade system. It really seems players dont take advantage of the special abilities unless they are outwardly for offense.
I recently finished Murders of the Yangtze River. It was an interesting detective game set in early 1900s China with some great characters. I found the deduction to be fairly difficult at times and the mysteries quite complex, but the game does help you, and there’s a hint system should you need it. The translation is a bit rough at times. The phrasing sounds a little unnatural at times, but the correct meaning gets across, and it’s understandable. Highly recommended if you like classic murder mysteries with locked room mysteries, complex contraptions, and finding contradictions in testimonies and evidence
I’m currently playing Blue Prince. I’m currently about 40 hours in, and getting to some of the endgame mysteries. I’ve been extremely impressed by what I’ve seen so far. It might take the number 2 spot of my all time favorite puzzle games once I finish it. Number 1 would be Baba is You, which is in a league of it’s own. Blue Prince is a roguelike escape room style puzzle/mystery game, and those elements work together better than you’d think most of the time, though it’s not without it’s flaws. In the endgame I sometimes find I’m trying to find a specific combination in the roguelike room drafting to solve a wider meta mystery, and there is some randomness involved. Always having multiple different mysteries to work on means that no run is truly wasted, though.
I’ve started playing Oblivion the non-mastered edition. It’s definitely clunky, but the side quests are more interesting than I remembered. I haven’t gotten to the point of having to shut down a whole bunch of Oblivion gates (which I remember as being quite tedious when I played it way back when).
I just picked up the deck-building RPG Slay the Spire on Steam and oh my God I cannot stop. I haven’t been this into a video game in years. I slayed the Spire with the warrior guy and the watcher lady but not the other two. Tonight I unlocked Ascension whatever the hell that is. But I want to go and finish with the other two characters before I check that out.
For me it’s that perfect sense of feels really hard but not impossible if you work at it. I’m impressed by the depth of the game’s mechanics. You can get really deep into strategy.
The Watcher is definitely my favorite character both because of the Eastern religious influences and the pretty colors.
I usually don’t like failing or taking risks in games, but the campaigns are so short and you can learn so much by taking those risks I’ve found myself going, “Why the hell not? Let’s see what happens.” Sometimes I just decide to play recklessly and see where it takes me. Every failure is a new insight. It’s really cool.
And the characters are truly distinct in how they operate. It’s almost like playing four different games.
I mean this game has practically no story, and mediocre graphics at best, but it’s freaking genius. I don’t know how they did it.