What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

Which one? I am up in Fish Guy country and had to kill some demon-y dude inside a giant elephant. I don't think you have to go in order, but there was a way to beat this guy I got comfortable with. If that's the guy, he has two stages. One where he is swinging a huge spear around. You set up some Cryonis pillars as blockers and these make his spear explode and he turns into a ball and moves. After he moves, he takes like 10 seconds to get set up, and you can whale on him then. Set up some more Cryonis pillars to do more blocking. Make sure you are targeting, too, because his eye is weak, and you get more damage hitting that. Once he's down to 50%, he starts hanging from the ceiling and takes most of the floor away. Again, set up Cryonis pillars to disrupt his attacks. I kept my distance here, and just shot him with explosive arrows until he croaked. I preferred standing on the pillars to the floor, because he is tossing those radar ice cubes at you.

I think he's a big lion walking around upright.

Are you on a "mission" to get Shock Arrows near him? (Again, this is my Fish Guy area experience). If so, he is not a boss fight, and I would not fight him. He is way too tough. You can sneak around the rocks and stuff and eat some stealth foods to lower your chances of getting spotted. You make your way around the hillock where he roams, picking up arrows until you have 20 and then you can head to the top of the hill. (There are like four arrows up there, so you can start heading up there once you have 16). Some fish lady wants a picture of him though, and will give you fish guy pants if you show it to her.

I started playing the game a couple weeks ago too. I like it. Combat is surprisingly unforgiving.

I immensely enjoy Shadow Warrior (2013). It's an FPS but your sword is very prominent here.

You play the likeable, trash-talking mercenary Lo Wang. As usual the game has its share of super power and leveling system, but in short, they're very fun. I play the game at its normal level (thus as intended on how it meant to be played), and I have the freedom of using sword moves, firearms, and special powers. Sword moves are very satisfying to use, and with the exception of firearms, you can use everything in your disposal. With firearms they are limited by ammo, but I NEVER run out of them. Some games have gadgets/powers, but usually they're limited by resource. Here I'm like a madman released from its cage. However, it does get repetitive halfway through.

Mind you, it's still by BarnesTM definition, shooting people in the face.

Just watched some gameplay.

It looks cheesy as all hell... and I want it.

"Looks like you brought claws to a sword fight!"

"So where are your claws now, Skippy?"

I got pretty far in Shadow Warrior... haven't finished it and am not sure I ever will. It's fun, but I could have stood for it being shorter.

I picked up the Oculus Rift a couple months back when it was on sale (Rift plus the Touch Controllers for $400), but then slapped my forehead when I realized I couldn't even use it with my current PC. So a couple months and many more $$$ later, I finally got a new PC with the Rift up and running last week. And my mind is now blown, fully and completely. I had tried it briefly last year courtesy of engelstein, but forgot how amazing it is, and that initial taste had only scratched the surface. In particular, I want to share a little about one new title, Lone Echo, and a couple others.

In Lone Echo, you are a robot who is helping a captain of a space station deal with various predicaments involving an anomaly. You move around the station, fixing various things, and do spacewalks outside, and stuff like that. You are equipped with various tools, which the game metes out to you gradually so you learn them over time, like data scanners and a laser cutter, and you maneuver around using small thrusters on your controllers. Feels so real. For the times when I'm spacewalking, it's ridiculous because I know that I'm standing on a solid floor in my living room, and yet my brain is freaking out because I am fully in the illusion of floating out in huge space surroundings. And the graphics are great, but not 100% realistic, and yet still, I'm deeply invested in the feeling of being there.

Another cool one is Robo Recall, which came free with the system. I have almost zero interest in FPS games, but something about this is just fascinating to be part of. Again, the immersion is very real, and though you're basically just killing a bunch of evil robots, with some different challenges and objectives mixed in, the way you do it is awesome. You can shoot at them, sure, but you can also grab a robot, rip off its arm, and then use that arm to beat another robot. Or grab a robot and use it as a meat shield. So fun.

I also got the Rick & Morty: Virtual Rick-ality game, and that's great, too. It's essentially a "do this job" kind of thing, where you are a Morty clone that Rick orders around. But it puts you right in there, and has a lot of humor and inventiveness, of course.

The Star Trek holodeck has arrived, in essence. And this is really just the beginning, I'm sure. And yet, Lone Echo is already easily one of my favorite gaming experiences ever. And sure, on a certain level, it's a bit more "experience" than game, though there are challenges and things to solve. But man, I can only imagine what else we'll see in the coming years.

I find that I need to limit my time on there, though. I spent a couple hours in Lone Echo last night, and have what I suppose would be a "VR hangover" today, where my balance and visual focus is a little bit screwy.

Coincidentally, Friday I put my Vive back on after having not touched it for a long time. I checked back in with Onward, which is basically virtual reality Counter-Strike. The big difference with this game is that you slide your thumb across the controller pad to move, so you don't teleport around. This has great potential to cause motion sickness, and after playing for 30 minutes, I felt not great for awhile. You do get used to it.

A lot has changed in the game since I last checked it out; there is a proper tutorial now, and you can fight AI opponents, which is what I did. It was fun and very tense since you are "there". I am terrible at this game.

hotseatgames wrote: I got pretty far in Shadow Warrior... haven't finished it and am not sure I ever will. It's fun, but I could have stood for it being shorter.

This! But I will try to continue. Silly as it was, I want to see the conclusion of the story.