Serrano

I've been juggling three different games lately; Aliens: Dark Descent which is a creative take on an RTS/Xcom/hide and seek hybrid. I had a lot of fun playing this, it does a good job of making you care about your soldiers and mourne their loss in the same was as Xcom, and the missions play really well. There are a lot of good mechanics from several game genres blended together in a way that works. I really hope they make a sequel because the game built a great foundation to grow from. Avowed was great. I liked the combat a lot and all of the areas were gorgeous. For me, I much prefer a game like this that is similar to Skyrim (I know it's not trying to be Skyrim) but is smaller and more focused than a big sandbox where after a certain point I feel like everything I'm doing is pointless. It took a little while before I was invested in the plot and the characters but once the story got moving I really liked each of the hub storylines as well as the overarching plot. The companions were great too, the banters at camp were a really good alternative to long branching conversations with characters to give them personality and depth. The last game I played through was a VR horror game called Wraith: Oblivion. It's a world of darkness game so it's the same setting that Vampire: The Masquerade takes place in. I really enjoyed this title, it was a murder mystery/hide and seek horror that takes place in a big modern day mansion. The mansion itself was beautiful and I actually really liked just exploring this amazing house, I wish once you beat the game there was just an option to freely explore during the day with no threats. It's also genuinely a whole different experience playing a game like this in VR, there were moments where the game became super creepy. I hadn't read any of the source books for Wraith when I started playing so this was a really good introduction to that IP. They don't tell you when they're lifting mechanics from the book but if you play the VR game and compare it to the rulebook for Wraith: 20th Anniversary edition, the devs did a fantastic job of incorporating the lore and some of the more interesting Wraith specific ideas about ghosts and hauntings.

The **** Marines shall rise once again! 😂 DoW was one of my most beloved games, it's a brilliant RTS and I honestly don't think any game in that genre has managed to out-do it when it comes to having so many different factions with their own truly unique play styles, mechanics and strengths & weaknesses, and managing to keep the game incredibly fun despite all that. I hope this generates enough hype for DoW 4.

Maybe I *want* it to be a mutalisk aerobic flight simulator for the Wii, where you have to use those sticks to flap your arms/wings. Because now that you mention it, that actually sounds kind of novel.

I started playing Disco Elysium. I put on most of my clothes. Reached for my tie which was on a ceiling fan, then had a heart attack and died and went to the game over screen. That counts as completing a playthrough right?

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According to ChatGPT NWN still has a small but active community with "an average daily peak of around 1,159 concurrent players", so good for them I guess and it is sincerely nice that those players are being catered to. I'm not super enthusiastic about a NWN expansion personally (I know it's the easiest to make new content for but I think the Aurora Engine has aged horribly) but I'd love for publishers to be encouraged to dust off old classics like Baldur's Gate 2 and Neverwinter Nights 2 and make expansions in those engines.