[Weekly - W] Now Playing

Still Puzzle & Dragons. It's about the only mobile game left that I play (with the exception of Wordscapes, on the occasion where I don't forget that the game exists until 10-14 days into a month's worth of daily quests).

It took me a long while to get back to it, but I picked Dragon's Crown back up on the Vita that I purchased from @Kendrik last year. My first experiences with the game were positive, but ultimately lukewarm. Switching from warrior to elf has made all the difference. Love me some quick, agile characters that can seamlessly switch from ranged combat to close-quarters melee.

Enjoyed another TF2sday with my ToJ peeps. Shoutout to @The Mighty Gerbil for all his hard work organizing game nights and maintaining our server!

I'm still interested in multiplayer PC games like Dauntless, Destiny 2, Deep Rock Galactic, Guild Wars 2, Warframe--I should stop listing games, this is just making me sad. Anyway, I'm interested in said games, but my windows of opportunity to play multiplayer games is so tiny and fragile that it's difficult to get anything going. That being said, if anyone's interested in any of the games I just listed, ping me on Discord! Odds are I can't play right then, but it's not uncommon for Ember to fall asleep getting the kids to sleep (something I also find difficult not to do when it's my turn) and I sometimes have a small chunk of time to play after chores are done but before I go to bed.

Kendrik said:
Back on Pokemon Go. Put in the work to clear out enough items that I could visit Pokestops again. Not going particularly ham on the game right now, but have it back open.
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Meanwhile, I'm contemplating uninstalling the game again. For a while, I was more interested in getting Pokemon GO running on a rooted Android device (and I finally did, thanks to Magisk Hide and some other neat tricks). Now that I've accomplished that, I haven't been able to maintain any interest in actually playing the game. Then again, I think the game is much better suited to people in other stages of life (and not to a dude who works full time, carts kids to and from extracurriculars, works out twice a week, and isn't inclined to go walking around downtown hitting up Pokestops and gyms). PoGo is one of those games that I wish had existed years ago when I would have time to play it properly.

Kendrik said:
Honestly, don't remember what else I've played this last week. Spent too much time sleeping instead. lol
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You have two young children. Where do you find the time to sleep? T_T
 
I'm still playing GW2 and looked into Archeage Unchained, but a friend told me it would probably be too toxic for me (people ganking low levels). I enjoyed Eve Online but got bored because I never found a community to plug into. I canceled my sub but it's still active until later this month. I should at least log in and get more skills churning :)
 
Tek7 said:
Meanwhile, I'm contemplating uninstalling the game again. For a while, I was more interested in getting Pokemon GO running on a rooted Android device (and I finally did, thanks to Magisk Hide and some other neat tricks). Now that I've accomplished that, I haven't been able to maintain any interest in actually playing the game. Then again, I think the game is much better suited to people in other stages of life (and not to a dude who works full time, carts kids to and from extracurriculars, works out twice a week, and isn't inclined to go walking around downtown hitting up Pokestops and gyms). PoGo is one of those games that I wish had existed years ago when I would have time to play it properly.

You have two young children. Where do you find the time to sleep? T_T
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On the PokeGo note: I work on a university campus. I don't have to put effort in to play. Every trip to the restroom, to another building across campus, is an opportunity to catch new things and spin stops. In any other circumstance, I probably wouldn't play. I never go out of my way to play it. lol

On the note of sleep: I sleep in the tiny windows they're both sleeping. Obviously. No other time exists.
 
Still Puzzle & Dragons. Pulled one of the best leads in the game last week and the Samurai Shodown collab begins tomorrow. I've cleared almost all content in the game and I'm playing more casually, which has made the game more fun.

Played Team Fortress 2 on Tuesday and Golf With Your Friends on Friday with ToJ and CGA peeps. Good times!

Haven't had much time for anything else this week. Planning to get back to some games where my progress had stalled (e.g. Blaster Master Zero 2 on Switch, Bravely Default on 3DS, Dragon's Crown on Vita, etc.) in the near future. We'll see how that goes.
 
Still Puzzle & Dragons.

Played a brief round of Team Fortress 2 on Tuesday.

Also dabbled in Dragon's Crown on the Vita, Overwatch and StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void on PC, and Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe on the Switch this week. I'm hoping to get another 8 wins to unlock some Mercy-related goodies in Overwatch before the current event ends. I estimate I'm a little over halfway through the campaign in LotV. (No, I still haven't completed it. T_T) Felt great to fire StarCraft up again.
 
Still Puzzle & Dragons, though a lot less.

Upgraded from a 64GB microSD card to a 256GB card in my Switch. What should have been a simple process turned into an hours-long ordeal. The upshot is that I discovered that my monthly bandwidth cap is 1TB. Didn't play much on the Switch this week, but now I've got plenty of free space for the future!

Played a little bit of Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle co-op with my older daughter on Thanksgiving day. Decided to pick up the full DLC set for $10 when it was on sale on Black Friday.

Recently picked up the monthly Humble Bundle for December for $9 (after discovering I had a $3 coupon thanks to the recent purchase of a games bundle) to get Yakuza Kiwami (SoulCalibur VI was an added bonus!) and have really been enjoying the game so far. Yakuza 2 was my entry point for the series and it remains my favorite in terms of story and characters. Returning to the beginning of the Yakuza series but with much, much shinier graphics has been a ton of fun so far. Maybe once I get through Yakuza Kiwami, I'll pick up where I left off in Yakuza 5 on the PS3 and get ready for the possibility of backwards compatibility in Sony's next console and Yakuza 6.
 
Still Puzzle & Dragons. Cleared the latest boss dungeon earlier today.

Bought Zelda: Tri Force Heroes for $6 shipped thanks to a $5 eBay coupon last week. The game arrived Tuesday and I'm getting ready to play my first online game soon! I'm hoping to play with @Ember and my older daughter soon, too.

Also bought Starlink: Battle for Atlas for $10 shipped because I wanted to play Starfox on the Switch. It's been fun to play so far!

Hoping to try Super Chariot and Unravel Two (also purchased during Black Friday sales) with Ember soon.
 
Still mostly playing Guild Wars 2. There's enough variety in the game to keep my interest.

I downloaded the non-game, Star Citizen, for their free period, but didn't get a chance to get online with it. I still log into the non-game, Eve Online, to keep skills running and hopefully link up with Cow one of these days :D
 
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. This game was made for me. It nails Star Wars feel, controls tightly, is difficult (I'm playing on Jedi Master) but never infuriating for me, rewards exploration, and is gorgeous to boot. It's honestly the most compelling game I've played since Spider-Man. I want to play moooooore.

That's actually the majority of what I've played this week. I think I made a little progress in Shovel Knight while watching TV one night, but that's about it.
 
Still Puzzle & Dragons. The Christmas event and gacha is rather weak, so I haven't been spending much time in the game this last week.

Played Left 4 Dead 2 Versus games with the CGA Friday night game night crew last week and it was one of the most fun sessions I've ever played.

Cleared a few level of Jamestown+ with SlothOfSpeed last night using Steam's new Remote Play Everywhere feature. After a few tweaks, we got the game working with very little latency and very few stutters. Eight years after the original release of Jamestown, the gameplay still holds up incredibly well! Much fun was had, including some very close calls.

Played one chapter of Yakuza Kiwami, but it was a great one. Leave it to Kiryu to try to sneak in to a funeral and end up punching hordes of bad guys in the face.
 
Yeah, we've been playing destiny 2 together and some WoW lately. its been good.
 
NEW YEAR, NEW GAMES

Or not.

Still playing Puzzle & Dragons, but now also on Switch with PAD Gold!

Recently resumed playing Yakuza 5 and made it through the Haruka chapter. Don't get me wrong. I can appreciate a good rhythm game, but I didn't sign up for a rhythm game when I started a Yakuza game. I signed up to punch bad guys in their faces. Nevertheless, I soldiered through (with a 1.5 year break) and made it to the next chapter, which I played through in less than a week (in part because I wanted to get back to playing Kiryu).

Since my last post, I've made more progress in Yakuza Kiwami and Persona 5 as well. I cleared the third Palace in Persona 5 and made it to Chapter 7 in Yakuza Kiwami.

Got Sundered as an Epic Games store freebie, but shelved it after 2-3 hours of play and realizing that procedural generation is cool in theory but detracts from a Metroidvania game for two important reasons: (1) it all but eliminates secrets, which greatly reduces the enjoyment of exploration, and (2) it doesn't allow the creators to give the world nearly as much character as a fixed world. In all fairness, Hollow Knight is my new standard for Metroidvania games and it's hard to live up to that very high standard.

Started playing New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe on the Switch again and I think it finally clicked for me. Been enjoying it a lot more now than I did before.

Also started playing through Kirby Star Allies after (finally) giving up on waiting for a really good sale and instead buying it on eBay. The game itself is a lot of fun, but playing with my two children (who are both very intense) can be...challenging at times.
 
Still Puzzle & Dragons, though not as much. My interest in PAD Gold on the Switch fizzled very quickly.

After starting the game in 2016, I finished Yakuza 5 last week. The game's finale is a 2-hour long marathon with zero save points. Fortunately, I stocked up on recovery items and gear before passing the point of no return and cleared it on the first attempt. With over 70 hours of play time logged, I still cleared the game with a completion rate under 20%, which is a testament to the staggering amount of the content the game has to offer.

I'm taking a break from the Yakuza series and waiting to start Yakuza 0 (which I recently bought when it was on sale for $6.79) until I wrap up or at least make progress in a few other single-player games.

I've cleared 13 missions in StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void and hope to play more soon.

After stalling out in the second chapter of Bravely Default for years, I decided to start a fresh playthrough and I've enjoyed what little progress I've made so far. The game is gorgeous in 3D and I've discovered I prefer the Japanese audio to the English voice track (though the rapid pace of Tiz's speech can be jarring at times).

I've also made a little more progress in Bastion on the Switch. I'm hoping to finish that one soon. (I made clearing Bastion a personal requirement for starting a playthrough of Transistor.)

Other "in progress" games include New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, Persona 5, Dragon's Crown, and Blaster Master Zero 2.
 
Still Puzzle & Dragons.

I'm pleased to report that my second attempt at Bravely Default is going very well and I'm getting close to catching back up to where I stalled out on the first attempt (partway through Chapter 2). I've really been enjoying the game and I'm much more emotionally invested in the characters this time around. I don't know if it's because I'm in a different season of life this time around and Agnes' and Tiz's struggles carry more weight or if changing the voice language from English to Japanese really makes that big a difference for me. I think listening to the voice track in a different language (with better acting, sorry English language VAs) lets me focus more on the words, as odd as that may sound.

I've also made progress, albeit slower due to the non-portable nature of the PS3, in Persona 5. I previously cleared the third Palace and now I'm approaching the next major plot point. I feel like 20% of Persona 5 is combat and 80% is deciding who I want to spend time with.

Yesterday was one of the best TF2sdays in recent memory. Thanks as always to @The Mighty Gerbil and the time and effort he invests as ToJ TF2 Chapter Leader.

Played 2 gift quests in Warframe during the recent 7th anniversary event. Always fun to hop in and slice and dice as a space ninja. :>
 
Still Puzzle & Dragons.

Progress in Bravely Default has slowed, but not stopped.

I go back and forth on whether I want to continue playing Persona 5 on the PS3 or wait for the (potentially very far away) day when I buy a PS5 (assuming it will play PS4 games) and buy Persona 5 Royal. So far, I'm leaning toward finishing the game on the PS3, but the game's awkward pacing (long stretches of story and social link events punctuated by short bursts of combat and monster collecting) makes it difficult to maintain any kind of momentum.

This past Tuesday's Team Fortress 2 game night was a blast! I'm always impressed that a game that released 12 and a half years ago (wow, has it really been that long?!) continues to maintain a faithful player base today.
 
I'm either a day early or 13 days late, depending on your perspective.

Still Puzzle & Dragons. Finished what I intend to finish for the current event, which runs until 4/20, so now's a good time to just log in for daily rewards and play other games.

Speaking of other games, I am very pleased to announce that I FINISHED THE SECOND CHAPTER OF BRAVELY DEFAULT! Why am I shouting? Because my first attempt to play through the game stalled out near the end of the second chapter. My second attempt has been much more enjoyable, perhaps because (1) I changed the voice language to Japanese, (2) I enabled autosave, and (3) I played more aggressively by using Brave far more often and disabling random encounters far less often.

I've also been making slow progress in Persona 5 and it seems like the plot is about to ramp up considerably. I'm excited to see what comes next!
 
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