What have you played in the weekend?

Stellaris - 3.0.3 beta really works for me. I keep getting my ass kicked by a federation mid game - those are no joke now.

Sunless Sea - after a few failed attempts over the years, I tried again in anticipation of the Sunless Skies update next week. A few hours in and it’s clicking better this time, I may make it all the way through this time… What great atmosphere.

Shadowrun Dragonfall, till a bug erased all my progress through a section. Then I switched to Dragon Age Origins, which I never won back in the day. Want to complete and then finally try Dragon Age Inquisition.

Fort Triumph. Which I like much better than For the King.

This weekend I played some Orcs Must Die 1 (one of my profiles in it is bugged somehow because it’s not granting me newly earned skulls for upgrades, grrr), and some Ghost of Tsushima, which is amazing in every way.

Can I lost boardgames I have played on the weekend, or is this digital stuff only?

If the former, lots of Too Many Bones.

Much fun.

Someone else likes it. Yay! That you like it more than For the King. Boo! :)

I like them both just in reverse order.

I played Monster Train nonstop as I just picked it up last week. I don’t know if it is a perfect game in the roguelike, deckbuilding genre, but it seems to be a perfect game for me.

I think Telefrog was talking about Fort Triumph in the last podcast? Although whether he actually liked it or simply subjected himself to it was not quite clear!

I played a bit of my first Shantae game, the DSiware recent port. It’s been neat although a bit too teenagey. But refreshingly stupid in a way. The game itself is very tight, I like it.

I started playing Horizon Zero Dawn last weekend. I am always slow starting a game but with 6 hours in I see this as being something I may get a lot of hours in. I think I may still be in the tutorial, although I have done a few side quests already and the danger of attacking something new has ramped up.

I do love how the save spots are bonfires, er, campfires.

I played some loop hero (a nice time killer) and a load of Geneforge Mutagen on the iPad.

I didnt remember the game was that well written. The world it depicts is so gray. I am playing in a very different fashion this time, not siding with anyone, and I love that the game seems to acknowledge that. Also there is barely any save reload need this time around, as you are not fighting to keep your fabrication alive.
The more I am playing, the more I am liking it.

I also bought another little game, inspired by thraeg, on the epic game store. But I’ll save talking about that for later as I will have lots to write about it, and I am already approaching the wall of text size.

Dragon Age Origins. Going for the win this time, I hope.

Now that it’s summer and I’ve got time to sink my teeth into more substantial gaming, I picked myself up a copy of Subnautica Below Zero and have been enjoying the hell out of it, despite the usual (minor) Subnautica frustrations.

I took a break from Bloody Rally Show due to a bit of burnout (I was playing it every day for over a year), but this weekend I did a few races and had a blast.

For me it was mostly The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (finished it Saturday morning), No Man’s Sky (I just had to get that Normandy frigate from expedition #2) and The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II (yeah, the first one finishes in a cliffhanger so I just had to start playing the second almost immediately).

Got Hades on Switch over the weekend, really liking it so far. Fantastic artwork, good voice acting, and I like the way you’re limited to one weapon type.

Playing on the Switch Lite, I wonder why these developers can’t make the text bigger. I had the same problem with Supergiant’s other games. Not just the text, the main character is teeny. Boggles my mind why they can’t have selectable text/UI sizes. Had this same issue with the other game I started playing recently, Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

I’ve been on an Orcs Must Die (1) kick recently and gotten to the maps called Chaos Chamber (when you first get the Weavers to boost your powers OR your traps), Chokepoint (when you first get fire bracers) and The Arena. Finally managed to 5-skull them all within the last week. Chaos Chamber and Chokepoint by the skin of my teeth after countless tries.

Then managed to do The Arena (a relatively open map with two doors and two rifts, a bunch of columns and a big central raised platform for archers) on the third or fourth try, go figure.

This weekend after some technical struggles I managed to play some Battlefield 1 through Game Pass Ultimate, and decided to play The Saboteur again. Weird issue with the controller on that one-- turns out, it works with the wired 360 controller just fine, but not so much with the genuine Xbox One controller connected via USB. Also played a bit of the start of Just Cause 4 through the Xcloud streaming beta and it inspired me to install it on the XSX. At least the head bad guy in this one doesn’t have the worst fake accent EVAR, unlike the dude in JC3, good Lord was that one terrible.

Old World - Monster Train - Battle Brothers in a loop for about two solid days.

All great in completely different ways. Generally, I stick with one game to the exclusion of all others until I burn out and never come back. I am trying to spread the love out a bit more.

Have you played the Trails in the Sky games?

I started playing the first one ages ago but stopped for a while and was then completely lost. Are those necessary to play the Cold Steel games? I’ve had those for the Vita for a while and just picked up III for the Switch, planning to play them after restarting and finishing Trails in the Sky & SC, but I feel these will just end up in my backlog indefinitely at the rate I am finishing games these days (and the length of these JRPGs). Can/should I skip the Sky games and just play the Cold Steel series?

Well, Cold Steel follows from the events described in the Trails in the Sky games, so there are numerous references you’ll miss if you didn’t play the previous series, even if most of them are not crucial to understanding what’s going on.

That said, Cold Steel is self-contained enough that it can be enjoyed even if you didn’t play the Sky games. So I’d say yes, you can skip the Sky games if you don’t feel like playing them (and it won’t hurt the experience much, I suppose), though you’ll possibly enjoy Cold Steel more if you do.

Still grinding out a mission or two of Red Dead Redemption 2 each week.

My new main is Galactic Civilizations 3 with some but not all of the DLC. I bounced off 1.0 at release but I’m really enjoying it now, it’s got me excited for the next iteration whenever it’s fully out (I guess 2022?).

I have 30+ hours into Horizon Zero Dawnand I am enjoying most of it. It is kinda a mix of Skyrim, Assasins Creed and Sniper Elite, with some Bioshock mixed in. I will eventually tire of the crafting, which while not required certainly makes things easier, but so far I am having a good time being a female brave kick ass.