What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

That's interesting, Barney. Most critical outlets are saying it's the best year for games in a long time. tbh, it surprised me because you're usually pretty in line with critical opinion!

Ive always been off the line with video games, music and books, often television as well (I think Sopranos and game of Thrones are the only ones where I tow the line).

With video games, I’m way off. I think Ocarina of Time and Metroid Prime are widely considered two of the best games of all time and I don’t dig either. And I like shooters and adventure games Too.

I haven’t heard 2017 spoken off with well in terms of video games. I remember years where there were at least ten incredible titles released in a single year. I think the tear Bioshock was released was a killer year if memory serves

Here's a 2nd place finish I had in PUBG where I choked real hard at the end. I was so disappointed in my self. Also my first real attempt at video editing.



5 kills ain't so bad though.

Reported for speedhacking

Star Control reboot is coming out soon and I’m going to get into the beta when $ is back in stock

Started playing EUIV with a bunch of expansions. Gulp.

Starting with that classic EU move of a one province minor in the HRE, Bremen. Going to try to create colonies. I got into some wars in northern HRE but got an unlawful annexation and refused to set it down. Now DOW from the emperor, though, we're buddies.

See you on the other side.

I got Horizon Zero Dawn and it's ok so far, but it's not really grabbing me. I'll play around with it some more. I think I haven't yet gotten to the point where it really opens up.

I also restarted The Witness. Gonna try and get more of the environmental puzzles done.

I've run low on space for my PS4 and was thinking of swapping out the drive, but then I remembered that dicking around with hardware and hoping I don't get fucked over is why I went with console gaming in the first place. I settled for backing up saved game data on a thumb drive and deleting more games. Fucking Doom, which I need to finish, taked up *75GB* on the drive even though I have the damn disk for it.

I've been enjoying Zero Time Dilemma, which is the 3rd game in the Zero Escape series, which started all the way back on the Nintendo DS. Essentially you have a "Saw"-style scenario in which 9 people are trapped in a bunker and have to survive various trials in order to escape. The rules also state that 6 of the 9 have to die in order for anyone to get out.

The game is created with multiple play-throughs in mind, and to facilitate that they show you the entire branching network of story paths and let you jump to any spot you've completed so that you can make a different choice (various points give you an A / B choice, creating a branch).

While a lot of the game is watching cut scenes and making those A/B choices, sometimes you end up in escape room sequences that can be pretty tricky at times. All 3 games are now available on Steam, so no need to break out the old Nintendo portables. I won't say they are the best games out there, but they have a "style" that appeals to me. Recommended.

Paladins - A FTP hero shooter like Overwatch. I like it a lot more. Slower TTK (Great for us old guys), a good mix of characters, and pre match load outs and in match upgrades (more healing received, damage reduction, + damage vs shields etc) that give min maxers the ability to make their hero play a little differently than another guy using the same hero. And currently playable without spending a bunch of cash.........until the next patch hits. Then they revamp the customization system and monetize it behind card levels that come from loot boxes (Exactly what EA just took major crap for) - They've been stalling the patch for like 2 months now on consoles because of the backlash, they did some non-substantial tweaks that change nothing, some promises to look at costs for boxes, etc. and have already rolled it out to the PC users. My queue times can get up to 10+ minutes for competetive. This is the second FTP in the last 4 months that I have had the pleasure of watching die a craptastic death after inept management bungled monetization. Well it hasn't died completely yet, but the game was up to four! currencies, before they wrecked their gameplay with the new system.

Diablo III - I bought the Necromancer pack and created a season character. Hey, it's Diablo! Great for mindlessly making lights and particle effects. I find the game oddly sedative and a great destresser. Plus, who doesn't love the BLING sound when a legendary drops.

Madden 18 - gonna try Long Shot tonight. Just downloaded it since it was on the $24 sale on Xbox store.

Fallout 4 Goty edition - my kids got it for Xmas for me. Can we acknowledge that the game parts of Bethesda's RP games are horrible. I mean the combat systems in Fall Out 4 and Skyrim are from 20 years ago. In both games combat is horridly clunky, and the actual gamey part of it is figuring out which crafting/magic/skill system to break to make combat a non-issue. That said, it's a fun sand box to play in. I've burnt 4.5 hours and haven't left Concord/Sanctuary yet. You should see my melon farm.

Still ZELDA: BotW here. I have taken out the main beasties. Now I am just cruising around, finishing up my maps, riding my sweet horse. I am also a crazy death machine. The buffs you get are awesome. It is amazing how relaxing this game is for me.

I "finished" my playthrough of Zelda:BOTW a while back, but my son has been playing. Everyonce in a while he asks me to help him through a hard part.....he has yet to become obsessive with the weapons and shrines like I was, so it is like playing on hard mode. no weapons, no hearts, no stamina....

PUBG - finally chicken dinner'd Managed to hole up in a building that was smack dab in the last circle. Freaking mad-max vehicles driving in circles around me, but the blue kills everyone eventually. I shot two that tried to break into my home, had plenty of health and managed to survive the last circle a few seconds longer than the last person. The bugs still are frustrating. especially how things don't load before you land. It has now happened a couple times where I will walk into a staircase or something else that is above ground, but doesn't load until I walk through it, killing me at the start of a map.

The kids have gotten into Nintendoland, they love the ghost mansion thing.

I got a couple of new 3DS games for my birthday, so I've been playing both Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Ocarina of Time 3D.

Ocarina of Time's reputation has been well-established, but it's a nice update to a great game. But Luigi's Mansion is my first exposure to that game (never played the GC version) and I really enjoy it. It's a nice bit of action puzzling, and I like how it functions a little like a mystery, where you look for clues and little visual cues. I like the pacing of the adventures too, where it's really quiet for most of the mission and then there are a lot of ghosts everywhere. The atmosphere is great too. I like Luigi's little vocalizations, like how he hums with the music. The haunted house feel is exactly right. Great little game.

My 3DS actually started acting really screwy over the holidays. The Circle Pad started acting up, and the speakers died completely. I was expecting I would have to send it back to Nintendo for repairs (for probably nearly $100 including shipping), but I thought I'd take it to Gamestop to see if they could help me. Turns out they let me exchange it for a new 3DS, with me paying the difference. That's just fine with me, because it ended up being less that sending it in to get it repaired. I might have had another recourse, but I kind of like having a brand new system to work with.

I still have LUIGI'S MANSION on my Amazon Wishlist. It's been there for years. I heard nothing but praise for that title, and it was GotY contender for folks I respect. People that don't have a 3DS shit on that platform, but there are some fucking amazing game experiences to be had only there. People that have one don't need to defend it, or don't have time because they need Tom Nook to get off his ass and check out this sweet new basement.

I have one more Tower to get in ZELDA: BotW, then I can see the whole map. I got a fine looking horse and started wandering around. I love that they just follow the little paths and you can chill out as they gallop along. My kids were asking if I could teleport and I was like, "yeah, but this is better." It is. I made it through the creepy Lost Woods and got TheSwordofEvilsBaneTheMasterSword. I guess I should go kill Ganon at some point. What with the death of Hyrule and all.

I've been playing Super Mario Odyssey. This is a really cool game, and I have been enjoying it quite a bit. HOWEVER, their continued attempts to make me use motion controls are not appreciated. I play my Switch in handheld mode, and this game in particular seems to be at odds with that. Perhaps I am missing something, but it sure seems like Mario has certain moves that you can only do with motion controls.

The "action guide" or whatever they call it seems to entirely ignore the possibility that someone isn't directly holding joycons.

I kind of gave up on Destiny 2. I really don't like first person platform jumping, and you get a lot of it in Destiny 2. The majority of multiplayer instances will have enough jumping in it to get me killed, which is more embarrassment than I really want. After doing a ton of it, I thought, "Hell, I might as well play Borderlands 2," so I did.