I was fortunate enough to get an invite to the Network Test for The Duskbloods on the Switch 2 this past weekend. I was able to embark into the land of dusk over the course of all three days it ran and I walked away excited about what FromSoftware is cooking up here. Like every FromSoftware game, it feels built on the back of the last game, and the influence of Elden Ring: Nightreign is clearly apparent. But interestingly, it also evokes Bloodborne in equal measure, while offering something that feels familiar, but unique.
Another mega-batch of games as I forge ahead and try to wrap up my 360 revisit. I'll stick with the physical games first.
It's amazing to me the difference when you are totally absorbed by a game. Time just flies by and everything else around you just vanishes in importance. I'm not thinking about switching games, or taking a break or anything like that, it's just Farm Together 2 as much as possible.
Valentine’s Day is coming up, so I got you all something special. Game reviews I’ve recently written over at GamerDad.com! Just what you wanted, right? Right? Well, anyway, please click on the links and read as many as you can, and maybe post a ‘like’ or comment or two. I’d appreciate it. OK let’s begin!
I rediscovered the really great 1992 X-Men: The Animated Series. The theme music is always close at hand in my mind, and I always imagined it was from a 70s era X-Men show, a time I would've watched it as a kid, but, I think, I was watching Super Friends then and not X-Men. I guess my friend Mad Krammer and I were watching X-Men in the 90s. Well, we watched it again and it's really great. Good writing, excellent animation, nothing to complain about at all. Oh, and then there's the gaming I did this week.
Wed/Thurs is my weekend right now, so that's when I do most of my gaming. This is what I did this week.
Oh boy, this one was a tear jerker for me as they told the backstory of Rocket Raccoon's harrowing past as a laboratory animal. Otherwise, it was enjoyable.
I broke out the OG Xbox and played some Halo CE, not without some technical hiccups either. Then I dove into all the Game Pass Quests for the week and month and found myself playing a lot of survival horror games. It was all a barrel of monkey laughs.
I played Switch, X360 and XSX systems. I'd like to make that Switch, PS4, XSX sometime. I always wanted to get to all three major systems during play sessions.
Again I'll break it down between games played for Xbox Game Pass/MS rewards and my own choices. All Xbox One this week. Wish I could mix it up more with the other console makers, but I only have room for two systems up at once at my friend's place and right now it's Xbox One and Xbox 360.
Donkey Kong made me a fan of Nintendo very early on. To this day, DK is my favorite arcade game of all time. I loved it for being one of the most colorful, expressive games out there. It was probably as close as you could get in the early 80s to having a playable cartoon show. So naturally, when more Nintendo games started showing up at the arcade, my young self was excited. And if any game could tear me away from DK, it was Mario Bros.
Games of the Decade: Expansion Pass #8/Blog a Day #23
Games of the Decade: Expansion Pass #23/Blog a Day #8
Did anyone else try and get a freebie copy of Watch Dogs 2 yesterday from Ubisoft? The only catch was to watch a minute of their presentation (man this screams Timeshare scam) and then you get the freebies? Well just like everyone else on Twitter, I did and I couldn’t log in because they had problems, and I figured it wasn’t worth the effort for a $10 game on Steam. Good guy Ubisoft (you rarely hear that) had a promotion where all you had to do was register after the presentation and they would just give you the game. There were some problems with that but earlier this morning I looked at the Ubisoft version of Steam and there it was. Cool deal.
I recently get the distinct feeling I'm not all that welcome gaming at my friend's place. Not sure what it is, but the fun is somewhat limited. I may start pulling back from chasing rewards and such, simplifying my gaming and maybe even doing something else. I'm trying to get into this community garden. I've enjoyed making my own food so much, I now want to grow my own food as well. Well, such is life, things change. We'll see what happens. For now, I'm still gaming and mostly enjoying it. Here's what my friend and I did today.
I was very frustrated after this day of gaming and even turned off my recurring payments to my Xbox account, thinking I was going to turn casual and forget about gaming for the most part. Well, I'm back in the groove and heading out for another game day very soon. Here's what went down yesterday.
You know what I don’t get? It’s 10am local time, there is a vehicle in the driveway, you know a lot of people are still stuck in their homes, so why doesn’t USPS guy/gal/whatever just hit the doorbell, drop the package and walk away? Instead they leave it literally on the Welcome mat instead of the nice hiding place known as the post next to the door like UPS guy? These are the same people who broke my other package from Amazon and instead of owning up to it, probably tossed it and deemed it as lost. Yes, this is how I am starting my Friday.
Mark and I both finished all the side quests and achievements for the new DLC today, not without some trouble either. I ended up returning to my True Vault Hunter, Mayhem level 2 playthrough to finish everything. At the end of the day I was on Mayhem 4, the max difficulty for now. It was fun overall. I like completing games when I can, which isn't often.
I forgot to mention the other day I also played some Forza Horizon 4. I found they added a few things and went about doing them.
Like so many other children of the ‘80s, I love Stranger Things. Booting it up is like taking a time machine back to my childhood. The pervasive synth music, the wardrobes and the cultural references instantly transport me, making it easier to get sucked into the day-to-day of Hawkins and the ever-creepy world of the Upside-Down. And just like a true ‘80s property, there’s also a tie-in video game to go along with the latest season of the show. Thankfully this tie-in isn’t quite as low budget as as the Atari 2600 and NES tie-ins of yesteryear, but the dungeon crawling brawler pales in comparison to the electrifying viewing experience offered by the show, especially this latest season.
