What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

There's basically no in-game documentation on base building and it's maddening; I just ended up looking everything up. I think I ended up with three total bases: one in the shallows, one about 700 m away from it, and one near the big tree in the Lost River (and yes, there's plenty of nickel to be found in and around there). The place in the shallows, the high point where the base almost breaks the surface if you build there, is a good first base location.

I used solar cells for power but for my deep water base I used a nuclear reactor. You find a ton of uranium and it lasts a long, long time. I only used one fuel rod when I played because by the time it ran out I was already at the endgame.

Something else that helps a lot is to go grab samples of gel sacs, blood vines and acid mushrooms; and then plant them in exterior garden beds. They grow fine at shallow depths and when you hack mature plants with your knife you get multiple seeds back before the plant is destroyed, resulting in a full bed of deep water plants in a very short time.

And my sense of direction in video games, as it is in real life, is awful, so I used a lot of buoys to mark points of interest. It eventually got to the point where I never ventured out in my Seamoth or Prawn without at least 2-3 buoys because I never knew when I'd discover a wreck or cave entrance.

Ah_Pook wrote: Not sure if you can chain power transmitters though.

Absolutely, I had a transmitter chain going nearly a quarter of the map.

So I downloaded a few games that recently popped up on gamepass. Conan:Exile is a survival game that after subnautica feels really sterile with all the jank but none of the charm. Plus being able to alter breast or "endowment" even without actual nudity just seems so....2015

So I fired up Mechwarrior 5 and oh man, was THAT a mistake! All the fun of running a merc Lance with great graphics and glorious lasers lighting trees on fire and carving grooves in plassteel. Has me looking for the new(ish?) Clans boxed sets even though I know damned well that a 5 minute 2v2 duel in MW would take 2 HOURS on tabletop (or 20 minutes in the very similar and equally addicting BT game by Harebrain).

I have been playing my way through Dysmantle wherein you climb out of your post-apocalyptic bunker and start hitting things with a crowbar. Once you have broken enough stuff you can upgrade your tools and build new ones and then start hitting a greater variety of things. Eventually you need to start hitting the hideously mutated remnants of humanity that are lurking all over the place.
As satisfying as it is to smash stuff up, there is also a story behind the island you are on, the cause of the apocalypse, and some suspicious sounding organisation who have herded the last survivors into a deep underground complex. All of this is teased out as you roam the map and I was pleasantly surprised to find lots of puzzles and side-quests that make for a far less linear experience than I was expecting. Plus, of course, the monsters get tougher and more numerous as you level up and start to swagger around with machetes and baseball bats and the like. The downside is that at times it can be a little grindy when you need to dismantle the contents of an entire building to get just what you need for the next level on one of your weapons.

Control is FREE on Epic Games Store today, and if you have not played this fantastic gem, now you have no excuse.

Control rules and you should get it for free. I just finished ultimate edition. If you just follow the plot you'll get the best stuff. Don't feel like you have to track down side stuff unless you want to, though the writing and setting in those things are usually very good.

Picked up Game Builder Garage on Switch today. Imagine Mario Maker, but for... anything? I'm sure there are limitations but I don't know what they are yet. There will always be limits when you aren't really "writing" code.

The lessons are extremely well done and I think kids who have an interest in making games will absolutely love this.

My current goal is to complete all of the tutorials and then try to make my 2017 banger (cough) of a Steam game, Record Store Nightmare, inside Game Builder Garage.

Been grinding at subnautica. Had some great times, had some of those grindy and uncertain times.

But man, the moment you construct and get in the Cyclops is a top tier gaming moment. It has been an absolute hassle to research, cost a lot of shit, was hard. And then you make this thing and it's whole design is perfect. You get in it. You walk around it. It has incredible kinesthetic feel for a 3d object---you can go to the engine room, it has exterior cameras. You can paint and name it.. it looks great. It's incredible.

My kid finished subnautica on creative and was so enamored with ideas for how the sequel is frozen that I just had to buy Below Zero to see what the story actually was.

Needless to say I'm 3 hours into Below Zero

It runs much better on my X, is just as bright and wonderful, and they on ramp the gear really fast. Plus there are some much needed UI improvements like pinning recipes so you know if you have all the stuff when you go shopping.

At its base it is still the same game, but it's a.lot of fun. You can JUMP!! (if you could jump with the Y key in Subnauticaa ll this time, please don't tell me).

You could jump in subnautica 1 for sure

Ah_Pook wrote: You could jump in subnautica 1 for sure

I got hung up on the geometry of the land soooo much. In damn near every game I've ever played jump is A, B, or maybe X.

Never Y

Anyway, lots more land in B0 so far.

Been playing a whole lot of Civ VI lately, as per normal. I think I've played more in the past couple months than at any other point over the last three years. I think the most recent round of DLC has really taken the game to an all-timer status for me. The new civs and leaders are all a lot of fun, but I think my favorite thing has been the little variants like the Secret Societies and Corporations. Those are a really fun way to provide corners for the players to enjoy.

Stellaris has also been on and off for me. My only other Paradox game that I've experienced is the Crusader Kings games, and I like Stellaris a lot more. Its rhythms are much closer to a traditional 4x game, and so it's been way more intuitive for me. I'm not sure if I will invest in any of the DLC, partially because I already play enough Civ and I don't need another strategy game to consume my life. I also think that I could actually use something with less detail, instead of more. But I do really enjoy it, so who knows?

My kids have been playing Bowser's Fury on the Switch. I have also been partaking, I like it a lot. I was always a little disillusioned with Mario Odyssey, I think because it seemed to think combing every inch of a level's geography was way more fun than I ever thought it was. When there are SO many collectibles, each individual one becomes less interesting. But Bowser's Fury is probably my favorite iteration so far of the "collect-a-thon" Mario games. Also, Super Mario 3D World is I think my favorite Mario game now. I used to stan for the Mario Galaxy games, and those are great, but 3D World is what 8-year-old me imagined when I conceived of 3D Mario.

Mushihimesama released on the switch out of nowhere yesterday, with Espgaluda 2 and Dodonoachi Resurrection scheduled to follow. So if you like Cave bullet hell shmups that's great news! I used to love bullet hells many years ago, but I haven't played them seriously in forever. I think my brain melted out of my eyeballs, but it's still fun times

Also, Advance Wars 1+2 remake, oh word Nintendo?

I'm super stoked for the Advance Wars remake but they took some gorgeous and joyful pixel art and turned it into a bunch of generic looking, muddy 3D assets. It doesn't look terrible but as someone who loves pixel art, the GBA version still looks better. The important thing is that the gameplay should remain amazing so I'm still excited.

The first update for Loop Hero has been released. store.steampowered.com/news/app/1282730/.../2979675609111741492

Perhaps I'll jump back in and check it out. You can save mid-loop now!