Wow, I haven’t heard of that game in SO long. Last I remember the one guy working on it had lost months of work and was ready to give up.
This killed it for me as well. And I was a die-hard D4 fan at first. I got into the beta, had a blast there, got to the endgame at release, had a number of characters in the endgame, including a couple of seasonal ones, but I hated the idea that old characters had to miss out on new stuff.
I know that the original Diablo was based on old roguelike games (which I grew up on, including the original Rogue) and this sort of feels like it’s going back to that original concept, where you made a character, had a run that went as far as you could, then started over with a new one. But that only works for a single-person, offline model. It does not work with an online, persistent model. When you bake character obsolescence into a game, you lose the progression that drives online games. It was a very bad decision on the part of Blizzard and I think the poor reception reflects that.
I have played every version of Diablo as it released. I loved the original one and used to play at my high school buddy’s house where we’d play together over LAN. I did play D2. It was really fun until later on in the campaign where the game threw unending hordes of low-powered enemies at you. I realized that it went from an exciting adventure to a chore akin to cleaning a room. In fact, I started calling my character an “exterminator” because I felt like I was spraying clouds of bugs. Challenge turned to tedium, and I gave up before finishing it. To this date it’s the only version I never completed. Not that it was a bad game; it was such an improvement over the first one with so many new features, that all of the subsequent versions have been more of a variation of it rather than a complete change. But the actual design of the campaign at a certain point lost me.
I am not sure I will play D5, given how disappointing D4 turned into and the money I spent that seems now like a waste. At this point I’m thinking I won’t.
I looked it up and there’s a dinosaur mod for Project Zomboid now too, ha! So now I really can prove I’d do better than the Oak Street family. Boy, that was not a good movie.
Still working on Cyberpunk, but some flash sales then the Steam Autumn Sale hit and I went on a bit of an RTS spending spree. Bought Commandos: Origins, Shadow Tactics, Desperados III, Company of Heroes 2, Easy Red II, and a combination of bundles that yielded Call to Arms and CTA: Gates of Hell Ostfront and all the DLC.
Not so much “recently” as soon, but it looks like I’ll be losing hours to WoW: Forever. I’ve played WoW since vanilla, and enjoyed Classic when it was just Classic up through Lich King through not since.
I still play retail with my friends weekly, and a bit throughout the week (alts, crafting and gold farming). But I’m current through the story and have enough alts to have been ready to go back to deep dives in my single-player games.
But WoW: Forever is what a lot of my friends (and to a lesser extent, myself) have been wanting. No more rushing through the game to do end game raids, no facerolling the world through OP gear), no helicoptering into and out of every situation. Basically, Vanilla plus updates graphics and lessons learned through 20 years of rebalancing.
Well, ideally, that remains to be seen. So looks like that’ll be my weekend time sink in a bit over a month.
Yep, I’ve been living in the beta. Looking good so far!
By the way, I visited San Francisco a week ago and I spent a lot of time saying “hey, that place from Watch Dogs 2 is a real place!”.
I also have been looking forward to that particular electronic entertainment service.
I’ve been on/off Classic since it was released, but with huge gaps. Also, I still have my retail box set from 2005.
Certainly more real than Watchdogs 1 where as soon as you head north from Chicago you find yourself in a coniferous forest with mountainous terrain.
I was always amused that Watchdogs 2 features the Richmond-San Rafael bridge, but neither Richmond nor San Rafael.
Played the demo for Task Force Admiral a while ago and couldn’t help myself once it was on sale and had to buy it. Only 10% off, but I was obsessed with that demo. Still in Early Access but a few of the main campaign scenarios are available now and the Battle Generator works, though there are currently only two theaters and a handful of ships for each side.
Little to no micromanagement, you are truly the task force admiral worried primarily about the big picture and letting subordinates carry out your orders. The hook, and the rub, is that like a real admiral, once the planes have left the carrier, there’s little you can do to directly affect how the actual battle goes, but you can watch the whole thing in real time and direct your own little personal WWII movie, and the graphics are surprisingly well done for such a lightweight program.
I picked up a couple of games from Steams Autumn Sale - Rider’s Republic and WatchDogs 2. I’ve played them both before so I know I’ll enjoy them. I already fired up Rider’s Republic, which I already own through Epic (I think) but I had issues running it. Not just a lag, but a screen freeze every 30 seconds. It was maddening. So far, so good on the new download - I even have my progress saved.
It’s not my usual fare, but I’m really enjoying the mobile game Dragonfist Limitless. It’s a beat-em-up with extreme grinding set in a DragonBallZ-like-world. You train & fight to move from power level 1 (that of an average human) to power levels in the thousands or millions. Plenty of humor along with many, many DBZ references.
Been meaning to update my mobile game situation for several weeks now, so here’s finally getting around to it. I’ll start with the “hex out” games I’ve uploaded. As I mentioned before, any time an idea gets hot, a whole bunch of games mimicking that idea (often with nearly the exact same features) spring up in the Google Play Store, and it can be tricky figuring out which ones are worth my money, and, more crucially, time. Hex out is a simple concept, tap the free hexes to remove them until they’re all gone, with things like rotators, destroyers, obstructions, redirects to mix things up.
Hexascapes is as basic as it gets; the only complications are rotators (rotate pieces to different positions) and destroyers (shred any tiles that touch them). There are no move limits and no penalties for wrong moves. It is an enormous game; I’m 115 levels in and still nowhere near close to finishing the very first block, and these are big levels. It’s definitely the noisiest of the hex out games I have, but not to an irritating level. It’s completely free (seriously, I haven’t seen single payment option); combined with it’s no-frills nature means that I absolutely love it. Perfect “just one more round” game.
Hexout is also pretty relaxed (no timed events that I could find), although less noisy and more complicated than Hexascapes. I got this later than the others, so I haven’t seen all the features, but I expect the usual array of rotators, obstructions, hold spaces, etc. Like Hexascapes, there’s no payment option, so I can play as much as I want without guilt.
Hexarrow…brr. Okay, don’t get me wrong, there’s a reason I paid full price and stuck with it for this long, but you’d better be ready to make a commitment. Not only is the monetization ferocious and relentless (I lost count of how many subscriptions it kept constantly trying to force on me, let alone the regular shop items), you will be under the gun literally every second you’re here. That’s because of the “races”, which are extremely fast timed events which you have no option to avoid, and multiple overlapping events with very tight windows. The levels are on the difficult side, and many are super-tricky if not next to impossible to complete without assistance. Fortunately money is plentiful enough that you should be able to afford assistance when you need it. You actually have some nice options here, the usual hammer, for smashing individual tiles, the drill, for creating spaces for tiles to fall into (invaluable when you have tiles facing each other and no clear way to free either), and the bomb for destroying a radius of tiles. There’s even a match-two board for garnering a whole bunch more money. This isn’t a hardcore game by any means (as evidenced by the fact that I didn’t drop it like a bad habit wihin the first 30 seconds), just be prepared to run.
Hexa Shift is similar to Hexout, only…less satisfying. There are only two assist items, hammers and bombs, and money is so scarce that you’ll be having to watch ads to get them the vast majority of the time. And believe you me, I need a lot of bombs. It’s insane how many painful levels there are. Worse, moves are incredibly sparse, and if you have to run out, you have to buy a 5-move stock, which means…you guessed it, another ad! And you bet you sweet potato I did it; the last thing I want is to lose my momentum, or, worse, a clear streak. Worse, trying to figure out these levels usually gets so stressful that I often appreciate the break! (I always play in front of my computer, so time still gets used constructively.) It doesn’t speak well for a game anytime a player finds not playing it more enjoyable than playing it. I’ll keep at it for a while because I paid good money for it (Sunk cost fallacy for the win!), but it won’t be with any great amount of enthusiasm.
Packingdom is a search game with a bit of a twist: All…excuse me, MOST of the objects are in plain sight (I’ll get to that in a bit), but you have to obtain them in the exact order the game provides (I think this is predetermined). Taking any item out of order throw it into your spare inventory, and if all 5 spaces fill up, you fail the level (unless you watch an ad for help; I’ll get to this too in a bit). This itself wouldn’t be a massive complication, except for three things: 1. The objects that are heavily obscured or completely behind another object, 2. The objects that look almost freaking identical to another object and are easy to mix up and clog your spare inventory before you even know it ARRRGHH CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP, and 3. The objects that, due to their location, force you to collect antoher object (never on the open list, so this also clogs your spare inventory). Even worse, there are only two open items at any one time, so if there are just two items you can’t find or are buried under other junk, you are just flat-out screwed. (I find this especially galling because the whole game has a very cutesy, colorful motif which was clearly aimed at children, and it’s an extremely high-stress game where failure can strike like lightning.) You can add a third open item and can even continue after failing (which also removes all your inventory-clogging items until they come up on the open list, which definitely helps), but the price is…you guessed it, MORE ADS!! 
And at that point, the intrusion seems like more a relief than anything. Oh yeah, there’s also a “clear 3/5/7 levels in a row to gain reward” incentive, which I appreciated in Magic Wool mainly because that game wasn’t trying to royally screw me every freaking second. 
As you can imagine, I’m kinda ambivalent about this one. I mean, it is fun when the level is reasonable and things are going well, it’s just that “reasonable level” here is like “friendly fundamentalist”.or “pleasant-tasting bittermelon”. I’ll hold out for a while to see if it gets better, but for now it’s definitely still in the “When exactly does this get good?” phase.
Still haven’t decided on the right hole game.
I’ve been playing a puzzle game called The Artisan Of Glimmith, which is a tessellation game where you fit pieces into grids. The graphics and setting are that you are making stained glass windows, but that’s not too important. The rules that you have to follow as the puzzles progress get more complicated, and right now, after over 600 puzzles completed (out of approximately 1200 I think), I am at a difficulty level that is really doing my head in. I’ve abandoned it for now, but maybe will return to it if I could get in the zone. It was very satisfying up until then, though.
I’ve started playing it based on your recommendation and I’m liking it so far. The training stuff and the grind is a bit tedious but you see clear improvements from it so it’s acceptable. I do like the humor in it too.
I’ve been playing Trails in the Sky: Chapter One, a remake of a JRPG I had never played.
It’s really good.
It took me a long time to finally win a national championship with Kent State in College Football 26, which begins Dynasty Mode in the 2025 season. Though I never failed to have a winning record and reach a bowl game, I would often lose that bowl game.
I made the College Football Playoff a few times and invariably lost in my first game.
But I started to turn things around in the year 2032, when I won my first playoff game and lost in the following game. In 2033, I won my first Atlantic Coast Conference championship (having joined the ACC a few years earlier after the Mid-American Conference became a little too easy for me), and then I proceeded to have a magical run through the College Football Playoff in which I had three very closely-contended games and finished off by beating Notre Dame to win the 2033 National Championship.
Vacation update. I’ll start with the negatives since I don’t want to dwell on them (no, really). Suck It Up - Unbelievable high-stress crap with Sasuke Stage 4-level time pressure (even worse since it was advertised as relaxing). Cube Land - Teasing luck-based bullcrap which lets you complete 95% of the level and shoves a middle finger in your face. Packingdom - Ultra-cheap bullcrap that hides items and forces you to grab inventory-clogging items all over the place. All deleted and resoundingly roasted on the Google Play site. Find The Cat and Find The Cat 2 are cute but get annoying when there’s just those 1-3 items you Just. Can. Not. Find, plus there’s no purchase option, only neverending money-sucking subscriptions. Not my thing, deleted.
Little note on Maze Madness… for some weird reason, has changed the previously minimalist sound effects into a tinkly-bells effect punctuated by a kiddie voice, apparently because Ashita Game felt compelled to nuclear-strike the idea that this is a game for children on account of it not subjecting you to heart failure-levels of stress every fifteen seconds, which is completely meaningless to me on account of, y’know, not having flipping children, and strikes me as really stupid in any case because in my experience children are vastly MORE likely to be mega-hardcore foaming-at-the-mouth degenerates who will gladly run through 500 brick walls to make one tiny step toward completing a level. Hey, I should know, I was one! 
Well, thankfully, although it’s a bit annoying, it’s not enough to throw off my enjoyment of the game (I haven’t changed my 5-star rating, but it’s definitely a low 5 now), I just wish there were an option for the “classic” sound effects. Swear to Marisa, I remember a time when options weren’t seen as pure evil that had to be completely excised at all costs. C’mon, even Touhou LostWord has voice options, dangit.
Story hasn’t changed on Thief Puzzle and My Mini Mart. I’m all caught up on daily puzzles on Magic Wool and have way more coins than I know what to do with, so that’s going to be a 5-minutes-a-day thing for me now; in all, a very good purchase. Gossip Harbor…I’ll get back to it when I’m up to it. It is a completely free game with no ads, so I’m certainly inclined to be lenient.
Now the hex games. Hexascapes is grinding along swimmingly. Hexout is still a pleasant trip, and I’ve only run into one or two really tricky levels so far. Hexa Shift is still full of annoying unavoidable bomb ad breaks, and that’s never going to change. 3/5; not a complete waste of time, but it’s definitely an after-everything-else game now. Hexarrow…I’ve softened a bit on. Yes, the literally constant forced races are utterly insane, yes, the constant sales pitches are annoying, yes, the levels are gridlocky and take time to figure out (which makes placing in the races even harder). But rewards are so abundant that you can always call on help when you need it. When you run out of a certain tool, just spend a bit of cash (which you’ll be raking in tons of) for a quick refill. Worst case scenario, when you run out of moves, you can simply buy more for a very attractive price. Absolute worst-worst case scenario, you can watch an add for more cash, tools, or moves. Once you get the match-two board (which will happen quickly), you’re going to be swimming in cash and tools. There should never be a situation where you can’t complete a board. The most important thing is to get into a mindset where all the itmes are there to help you (and the races are brain-dead rigged bullcrap where placing is pure luck and cheapness and nothign else), and you’ll have plenty of fun with this.
Three others I’ve added in the meantime. These will probably be the last for a while, as the games I have now are eating up a lot of my time and I don’t know what else would be good.
Maze Escape - Slide around pieces of various colors to wall panels of the same color to destroy them. Some pieces are frozen at the beginning and are freed only after clearing a certain number of pieces; some have two colors which must be destroyed in order. As with most mobile puzzle games, the challenge is how efficiently you can clear each level, as simply succeeding shouldn’t ever be a problem. I’ll see if this game ponies up some tougher challenges in the future, but for now, it seems like I can go at my own pace and conquer a few levels at a stretch. Definite like.
Jigsaw Family - A jigsaw puzzle game on Android! Took 'em long enough! 
The premise is one you’ve probably seen in numerous treacly ads: A bunch of poor wretches are shivering in their ruined homes/businesses, and you have to put their lives back together by completing the game’s tasks, in this instance completing jigsaw puzzles. There are also some block puzzles and rotating wheel puzzles for variety. My big beef so far is the overreliance on COMBOS 
, a mechanic to screw over players who have an excellent run over all but just happened to get the misses at the wrong times, which also frequently leads to the player being one, one, WUUHH-UHHHNNNN piece short of the prize and getting nothing, nothing NOTHING, thereby also invoking the most hideous vile evil disgusting execrable practice of reality television. (To reiterate: 
) Other than that, it’s a really breezy game where you get to turn bad into good. That’s a keeper! 
Tap Block Out - Sort of a cross between an arrow out game and a sliding piece game. The screen contains a variety of yellow, blue, green, and purple blocks of various sizes and shapes, Tapping a block makes it slide in a cardinal direction toward one of the four colored borders: yellow goes up, blue right, green left, and purple down. If the block completely unobstructed, it hits the border and is destroyed; destroying all the blocks clears the level. Much like the arrow out games, it’s theoretically possible to clear every level with no mistakes, but you have to be really careful since one tiny blocked section locks it in, and some of these are easy to overlook. My only minor quibble is that it’s not possible to zoom in, which makes precision aiming a bit tough on the more crowded levels. I’m definitely liking this one! It looks like something where I can take as much time as I want and ask for help when needed (which should be very rare). What more can I ask for?
I’m a bit late to the party, but Enshrouded has just come out for the PS5, and I absolutely love it so far. The difficulty level isn’t too harsh (unlike Abiotic Factor which seems immediately gruelling) and it’s very beautiful (unlike Valheim’s character models). My favourite thing is that becomes apoarent that the whole world is built on a 3D grid of cubes like Minecraft (but smaller cubes) but disguises that amazingly well.