Inspired by true events from this morning

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All your games now have to start with the same letter, which one are you going with?

I went back to Fallout New Vegas today. I’m hoping to wrap it up before I start to miss the game and so I can move onto either FF 7 Remake or Alan Wake II. Unfortunately I caught something last night and I wasn’t in the mood to start Lonesome Road, so I went back and grabbed an achievement I missed in Old World blues and also to sell off some more of the gold.

Turns out I missed getting all the personalities for the Sink. So I went back and did that since I thought it would be easy. I ended up running out of ammo fighting scorpions though and was lazy and decided to just sprint past them and tank the shots. Somehow I didn’t die from it, and managed to grab the last 4-ish modules.

I also had to go by Higgs Village for one, and was creeped out by it more compared to last time. I think it’s because I slowed down to appreciate it. Anyways, I got the Toaster up and running and I have to say it’s my favorite of the personalities. I wish I had one irl. So I picked a screenshot I took of my conversation with it for today’s screenshot

I hope to tomorrow to get over what I caught and start lonesome road. If not I may just start it anyways though because I don’t want to put it off too long before I fall out of the mood for New Vegas.

If you don't retain some kind of actual ownership, they will not be allowed to use terms like "buy" or "purchase" on the store page button. I hope there aren't huge holes in this that allow bad actors to get around it, but I certainly loathe the fact that there's no real way to buy a movie or TV show digitally. Not really.

EDIT: On re-reading it, there may be huge holes in it. Like if they just "clearly tell you" how little you're getting when you buy it, they can still say "buy" and "purchase".

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/balatro/id6502453075

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.playstack.balatro.android

It appears Google Play is having some kind of payment gateway issue at the moment, so count yr blessins.

GOAT

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning, Fatesworn DLC for PS4 played on PS5.

Played this game to 100% on PS3 originally. Was fun to play it again completely, and then get a bit more story beyond the original release with this DLC.

I have always felt this was an under-appreciated action rpg with a lot of great lore, fun characters, and varying environments.

The world and lore was created by R.A. Salvatore (fantasy writer), art sonehow directed by Todd McFarlane (Spawn creator), and originally funded by Curt Schilling (baseball player), and then at one point the IP was owned by the State of Rhode Island.

So basically you're getting a story in and out of the game Ha Ha. It was wild to watch this over the years come back to life with a re-release.

Note: Apparently lemmy can't handle large pics. Had to shrink it. So it gets potato quality like my previous Vita screenshots.

I love a good racing game, and Forza Horizon 5 has been quite enjoyable. I like that I can drive around freely on the map and jump into events anytime I want to. Or just dick around and get combo points for doing cool stunts in the wild.

This Porsche has been my "daily driver" in this game. So far, it's been my favorite car to get around in. Just because the handling is really nice in the game; I don't really care for Porsche's in real life.

I also really enjoyed their collaboration with Hot Wheels. I daresay their Hot Wheels events are far more fun than anything else going on in the game. It's fun to be playing in real cars on an oversized track, which make you feel like you're driving a tiny toy car. But I also really like the Hot Wheels Unleashed games, so maybe I'm a bit biased. Also, I collected Hot Wheels when I was a kid back in the '80s, so the idea of driving in a life-sized Hot Wheels car is amazing to me. #LifeGoals.

Hot Wheels. I've said it too much and it sounds weird to me now. I believe the term is "semantic satiation."

Plus, the visuals are gorgeous! I suppose I should mention that I built a gaming computer earlier this year just so I can max out graphics on my games. Most of my screenshots are in 4K resolution ([dons my IT technician hat] Officially 2K, but marketing departments call it 4K) and I'm playing on a giant 48" OLED monitor. It's important to have the best visuals in my games to get that immersive feeling. Especially in a racing game.

What I don't like is all the micro-transactions to buy individual cars. I enjoy unlocking more cars to play in my racing games, but I'm not about to spend real money to unlock a single car that might be interesting to drive around for 15-20 minutes.

I will play 100+ hours of challenges to eventually unlock a single car before I spend the $3 to immediately unlock one. First off, that's the whole point of games - to play them! Unlocking content should be part of the gameplay, not something you can skip if you have the money to throw at it.

Secondly, I'm very anti-corporate greed, and unfortunately, games are run by businesses who care more about making money than actually making good content. So the enshittification is spreading.

There was a time when gamers balked at DLC - if you didn't have all content in a base game upon release, then what was the point? But every company jumped on the DLC train, and we've gotten so used to it in the past decade or two that it's almost expected that a game will release extra content after the fact now. If it weren't for Steam, I'd probably never play games. They're not the perfect company, but they've done more to support the gaming community, providing reasonable deals and permanent access to your games, even if publishers pull them from the store. But that's a rant for another day. I digress.

Also, I hate that this game is super expensive! It sat in my Steam wishlist for ages until I got a pretty decent deal on it. No way I'm paying $60 on the low end for a base racing game. Interestingly, there was a time a year or two ago, when I noticed Forza Horizon 4 was even more expensive than Forza Horizon 5! I dunno what the deal was, but I guess it must've had a larger player base at the time, so they jacked up the price.

Anyway, the TL;DR is that Forza Horizon 5 is a fun game with beautiful graphics, but gaming companies are evil, including whomever makes/distributes this game and all its overpriced and useless DLC.

This is going to be one of those "Ubisoft investigates Ubisoft and found that Ubisoft did nothing wrong at Ubisoft"-situations, isn't it?

Today’s game is the very First Lego Batman. I’m taking a break from Fallout New Vegas so I don’t speed through the whole thing and decided to relax after a 5 Hour Coding Marathon for a class with this.

Ik the body chalk outline has been memed to death. But I had forgotten about it until recently and after remembering it I wanted to share it.

Came across this video critiquing the gameplay of some out of the sheer number of "cozy" games coming out recently.

Wondering what everyone's opinions are on cozy games. Do you feel the same or do you have differing opinions on them?

They seem to be very caught off guard by Star Wars: Outlaws' underperformance, and after investor pressure, are trying to massively course correct. This is what happens when you vote with your dollars!

Nexus Mods link

I was absolutely giddy about playing this game the first time I saw its trailer! And it lived up to the hype. Squirrel With a Gun, as the name implies, is a ridiculous game about a squirrel who gets into a secret underground compound, steals a gun off an agent, and then goes nuts (pardon the pun), disrupting the best laid plans of the secret organization. It has a slight flavor of James Bond while also just being a wacky "get that squirrel!" type of game.

It's a sandbox puzzle game, giving you a neighborhood to run around in and simple puzzles to solve, like how to cook hamburgers when the propane grill is leaking and won't ignite. (Gee, I wonder how to solve this with only a gun at my disposal...🤔). Or how to score a touchdown when you're 6 inches tall and the football field is covered in agents. Or even how to get a drunk passed-out groom off the roof and to his wedding on time! You're rewarded for solving problems with a giant golden acorn (read: secret technological device shaped a lot like an acorn) that you shove into your cute little cheeks before scampering off.

For some more story screenshots, here's a few more of your grand entrance to the first boss fight.

Also, here is your initial meeting with "Father," the first boss of the game.

Finally, here's the funny cutscene after you defeat Father. I love that the squirrel rides the explosion from the secret underground compound back up to the surface.

I've put a little over 4 hours into this game and it's just silly fun. If you want to experience life as a squirrel (who happens to have a gun), this is a fun game to run around in. Especially when you find enough acorns to unlock better weapons, and even a toy car to ride around in! Plus, you can find cute hats, costumes, and even different fur colors for your squirrel to wear. As if he wasn't cute enough already. 🥰