Puyo Puyo Tetris demo

Date played: May 9th
Platform: Switch

I tried another Switch demo today, this time for Puyo Puyo Tetris. In this weird mashup game, the two iconic puzzle games are combined to make for some really cool multiplayer action. Unfortunately, I had to try it alone, but I still enjoyed what I played.

I lose to the green guy!

There's nothing ground-breaking here, it's still just Tetris and Puyo Puyo, but it's packaged really nicely. The mode I tried swaps between the two games at set intervals. The objective is to beat the CPU or Human opponents by making lines and blocks appear on their screen after clearing some of yours. It's a known quantity, but the beautiful art and great interface make it a pleasure to play.
I would love to play more of this, but it seems like it would really be enjoyable only in local multiplayer. I might pick it up when it's cheaper or something I guess.

Blaster Master Zero demo

Date played: May 9th
Platform: Switch

Blaster Master Zero is an old school 2D action game featuring lots of platforming and combat. The art style is very good and sets the tone for the game quite well. The music is fantastic too, making every moment more enjoyable than it should have been.

The story is completely ridiculous. Something about a frog named Fred I think. It really doesn't matter though, as the game is all about it's gameplay mechanics. Most of the game is played from a 2D, side-scrolling perspective where you control a versatile space vehicle. This thing can jump, go underwater and most importantly, it can shoot stuff and kill it.

This boss was the most fun I've had in the demo

The other portion of the game is played from a 2D, top-down perspective as the hero exits the vehicle and fights on foot in areas that are not accessible with the car.

Both the vehicle and the hero have lots of different weapons that are useful in different situations. The game is hard, but not that crazy, at least from the two levels in the demo. There were even a few boss fights, but the only one that stood out was the last one in the second level. I had to use my new hover jumpjets to navigate around it's attacks, then target one small area of it's body to damage it. I like Blaster Master Zero quite a bit, but probably not enough to play it some more...

Overwatch

Date played: May 8th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is my best use of Soldier's Ultimate that I can remember. On the Oasis map with the launch pad, I spotted the bulk of the enemy force standing just below the jump pad, but above the point. Just before reaching the pad, the enemy Mercy revived a bunch of people... I jumped into the pad, activated my Tactical Visor Ultimate and shot in the general direction of the Mercy. Combined with our Hanzo's Ultimate, I ended up with a quadruple kill and play of the game!

Bound

Date played: May 8th
Platform: PS4

Today was a weird day. Due to massive flooding in my town, most government buildings are shut down, including schools. I decided to take this opportunity to spend some quality time with my daughter, including a quick 30 minutes of Bound.

These sequences are always great

I played through one level, and it wasn't anything that great honestly. The platforming was kind of standard and a little boring compared to what I had seen previously in the game. My favorite gameplay moment was an eerie walk through a cylindrical structure as the perspective twisted around with my dancer. There was also a pretty cool backstory in the level where two giant creatures fight each other. I think one of them was on my side, and the other is a villain.

At the end of the level, there was another carpet sliding sequence, which are really easy, but also a lot of fun and great to look at. My daughter had a smile on her face during the whole sequence. 

Overwatch

Date played: May 7th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is a solid defensive play as Symmetra on the first point of Hollywood. A pesky Tracer was my biggest worry, but I got her pretty good. Sorry for the bad video quality!

Jack Box Party Pack 3

Date played: May 6th
Platform: PS4

I spent some time with my brother, his wife, and 3 other people last night. We ended up spending most of it playing Jack Box Party Pack 3, which is about as close to a physical board game as I've seen a video game. The concept is really cool. The host opens up a match on the PS4, then people join the game with their cell phones by going to a website and typing in a code. Players choose or write their answers on their phone, and the results are compiled on the TV. It's a great concept and it works flawlessly.

The games themselves are fantastic. For example, in Trivia Murder Party, trivia questions are asked and everyone answers. When someone gets the wrong answer, they play a mini-game to see if they live or die. For example, one of the mini-games was a speedy math contest. At the end, the dead players compete against the living, answering questions until someone wins.

My t-shirt got second place!

Tee K.O. is a very unique game where players must draw something funny on their smart phone, using a rudimentary paint application. They must then write funny slogans. At the end, the images and slogans are randomly combined to create t-shirts. People then vote on the best t-shirt. This one was really funny... The winner was a badly drawn skull-car with the slogan "Life is Life".

Quiplash was great too. The game presents a topic, and people must write funny things as their answer. For example, make a funny name for a movie starring an Otter. "Get Otter Here!" was the winner on that one!

My favorite of the games was Fakin' It. In this game, a question is presented to all players on their phones, except for one person, who is the faker. The objective is to find out who the faker is. An example question could be "Raise your hand if you have buttons on your shirt", or "Make the face you would have at a Justin Bieber concert". Based on the reaction of all players, people then vote to find out who the faker is. It's really great, and it forces people to look at each other and study their reactions. I formed a good team with one of my brothers because we would kind of use each other as a baseline for the questions. It worked, but it was also easy for both of us to know when the other was the faker because of it.

Jack Box Party Pack 3 is a lot of easy, stupid fun. I think I just might need to buy it for my next group activity. When a few players dropped out, we swapped out Jack Box for a few rounds of 2V2, local multiplayer Rocket League, and it was a blast, as usual. 

Gears of War 4

Date played: May 3rd
Platform: Xbox One

Having recently completed Horizon, I wanted to start a new game, and Gears of War 4 was staring at me on my shelf, so I booted it up and played the first few missions. I played the first 3 Gears games when they first came out, skipping only the coldly received Gears of War Judgement. The combat has always been the main appeal of Gears, in fact, it's pretty much the only thing that matters in this series. I chose to play on Hard, since it's "The way it's meant to be played" according to the developers. It's also how I played all other games in the series, so I hope I still have the chops to handle it!

The game opens in a kind of weird way... Set years after the events of Gears of War 3, a woman is giving a speech in front of a large crowd. As she explains some of the events prior to Emergence Day, the game cuts to the first mission, set in that era.

I played a faceless soldier and had to shoot my way through some soldiers, then blow up a communications tower. This first mission really didn't give a great first impression... All the characters that spoke were roughneck soldiers with giant faces and an unhealthy amount of anger... The environment was pretty boring looking, full of industrial structures. The enemies were as boring as could be, they are just armored soldiers.

There were a few cool sections where I had to take cover from turrets, showcasing the importance of flanking in the game. Basically, this mission sucked. It was a bit of a tutorial too, so I understand why it's there, it just felt uninspired. At least the explosion of the comm tower looked cool...

The lady continues her speech, and speaks of Marcus Fenix and his friends who eventually destroyed the Locust, during Gears of War 3. The game then cuts to a squad of soldiers fighting for their lives on Emergence day. The visuals are a lot more interesting here, with lots of great architecture and lots of cool looking creatures.

In fact, the enemies were probably the coolest thing about the game so far. I mean, even the simplest of enemy soldiers is a real challenge and a pain in the ass to kill, so when bigger monsters are introduced, it gets difficult and frenetic in an instant. When a Corpser showed up as a part of the tutorial, I knew this game wasn't fucking around. Corpsers are giant spider-like creatures that are insanely powerful. I was given access to the game's famous Hammer of Dawn weapon, a laser targeting system that shoots down laser beams from a satellite in space.

After killing the Corpser with the Hammer of Dawn, I thought I was safe, but it was just the beginning. The next segment was really difficult for me... Still equipped with the Hammer of Dawn, I had to hold a position, defending it against a swarm of enemy attackers. In addition to the normal Locust soldiers, there were half a dozen Boomers in there. These big guys take a lot of bullets to kill, but even worse, they have grenade launchers that hit real fucking hard, sometimes even killing instantly. At the end of the sequence, some large flying creatures attacked. These guys go down relatively fast with the Hammer of Dawn, but they shoot a powerful explosive that kills instantly.

I died during this sequence. I died a lot. Probably at least 5 or 6 times... In the end, I was able to succeed by just using cover a little better and being more aggressive with my weapons to avoid getting overwhelmed.

The final sequence in the prologue was a giant fucking battle where hundreds of Locust swarm a facility. They brought lots of firepower, including a pair of Brumaks, which are probably the most terrifying creatures of the Locust. These giant bipedal monsters are armed to the teeth and are very durable. I shot at the enemies with a turret to the best of my ability, but it was a losing battle. Just as I was about to be overwhelmed for good, the guys from the Gears 3 story deploy the neutron bomb that ended the war, saving the few remaining COG soldiers.

That's when the game finally starts for good, title screen and all. The story and the motivations of the characters are really unclear, but I don't really care, I'm here to shoot stuff! The main character, JD, is pretty generic, but it's super weird because he's voiced by Nolan North, who also plays Nathan Drake from Uncharted. While he voices the character differently, it's still really close and kind of odd.

There's a young woman named Kait, who is portrayed as a bit of a rebel. There's another guy, Del, who seems to be either our medic, or like a tech guy. Then there's the old man, Oscar, who has clearly seen a lot of shit. He's the most experienced of the crew, loves to drink and doesn't tolerate bullshit. He's also Kait's uncle. The characters aren't too bad, but they aren't great either. They are very predictable and cliché, but it's not as bad as the characters from the first 3 games.

It looks like their job is to get into a large facility and get some object. Just as they are about to enter the large structure, a solar wind storm begins. This was an moment since the wind is very powerful and would often send debris from the environment flying all around the place. It also looked really cool, with great lighting and solid sound effects. After the storm passes, the crew enters the facility and is immediately confronted by an army of humanoid robots.

These guys are a lot of fun to fight. They go down relatively quickly, but they come in large numbers. They also have little rolling EMP bombs that roam on their own. I shot my way through dozens of these bad guys using a variety of weapons. I've come to really like the little submachine guns that the robots use. We reached the building where we'll find the object, but I stopped playing as the second chapter of the first act began.

So far, Gears of War 4 is pretty cool, but it's not amazing. The combat, enemies and level design is top notch, but the characters and story haven't impressed me much so far. I'll stick with it because I really like the battles, but so far, I'm not invested in the story.

Day of the Tentacle Remastered

Date played: May 1st
Platform: PS4

Having recently completed Horizon Zero Dawn, I figured I would play something different, something that isn't an open world game. So I turned on my Xbox One with the intention of finally trying Gears of War 4. Since I almost never play this machines, I had a massive 3.7 GB software update. So I let that run for a while. Then when that was done, I had to update the controller's firmware... Weird, yes, but ok sure, it's not that long. Then the fucking game had to be installed, which takes a while, then download it's own update, sitting at a staggering 37 GB. I let it run and decided to try something else.

I settled on Day of the Tentacle Remastered. While I'm not a huge fan of these old adventure game mechanics, I love the writing, and it's why I come to these games. It was the same with stuff like Monkey Island, Full Throttle or even Grim Fandango. I had never played Day of the Tentacle though, so I was pleasantly surprised by the brilliant writing.

The story is fucking stupid, yet pretty funny. Some tentacles roam around and a purple one drinks from a contaminated water supply. This somehow makes him want to take over the world. The game features three heroes, an old nerdy scientist, a young metal-head guy and a frazzled teenage girl. They get teleported to different eras and areas when using a special device.

I can switch characters at any time to progress their portion of the story. There's also going to be a way to transfer items between them, which I'm sure will play a big role in the puzzles.

Honestly though, what keeps me interested is the flurry of funny jokes, puns and dumb things that happen. It's ridiculous in the same vein as Airplane! or even Monty Python. I solved a bunch of little puzzles, each more outrageous than the next. For example, I stuck a squirrel into an ice cooler to make him more resistant to manual labor (a hamster wheel that powers a big machine). But now the little fucker is angry and won't let me touch him! I don't know if I'll stick with this game, but the writing is good enough that I want to see more of it.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Date played: April 30th
Platform: PS4

I finished Horizon Zero Dawn!

What an incredible experience... I played quite a bit yesterday, starting with a visit to the ruins of GAIA Prime, at the top of the Bitter Climb. This is an area I had recently cleared of enemies to reach a Vantage point, so thankfully, all I had to do was climb. The entire mission was really just a bunch of story, as Aloy attempts to find the Master Override that will be required to destroy HADES.

I learned a lot from the facility since it was the living quarters of Zero Dawn staff, right up to the end. It's a heart-breaking story really, but also a story of hope and strength. Basically, the Zero Dawn staff ran out of time and decided to stay and work instead of leaving for the secure facility that would let them live out their lives in peace. All of the senior staff agreed to stay, with one last ditch effort to save humanity. When the robotic invasion was finally reaching it's climax, the door to the facility broke and wouldn't close properly. As the heads of each system argued about who should go out and fix the door, never to return, Elizabet went out herself and shut the door, only to be left to die outside. At least she saved the group...

It wasn't for very long though. The Faro Industries leader, Ted Faro, had second thoughts about the Apollo system, which holds all of human knowledge, history and culture. In the hopes that the new world born out of Zero Dawn would avoid the mistakes of the old world, Ted decided to shut down the Apollo system! It was a brazen and destructive act, but it wasn't even the worst of it. The fucking guy also decided to kill all the remaining system heads... I don't really understand his reasoning, but it's what caused so many problems with GAIA and her systems. Aloy got the Master Override from a terminal and attached it to her lance.

During the mission, I gathered the last of the fuel cells required to unlock the ancient armor. I went back to the ruins where Aloy first found her Focus and solved a simple puzzle to get the powerful armor. This thing is absolutely ridiculous... It generates a sort of force field that prevents damage, then recharges. The trick is that it has quite a few charges before being depleted, and it charges up really quickly, so it's really overpowered. Turns out, that's not such a bad thing though because the last mission was full of difficult combat encounters.

During the previous mission, Sylens told Aloy a ton about himself and his journey towards knowledge. When GAIA was destroyed, he was the first to investigate the area and soon found Hades. The machine offered to exchange knowledge for information. And so, Sylens became Hades' guide to the new world. Hades would ask all about the world, it's residents, it's machines, etc. In exchange, it would give Sylens tons of information on physics and other important topics.

Eventually, it became clear that Hades was very focused on the Spire, the odd looking construct that towers over the land. Hades was starting to formulate a plan to take over and burn the world to ashes once again. Together with Sylens, they built the Eclipse. Sylens wasn't a really bad guy or anything, he was just really hungry for knowledge, but that led to much violence. Eventually, Sylens found out Hades' plan, but the machine was smart and sent out an order to the Eclipse to kill Sylens as soon as possible. Sylens spent the rest of his life in hiding, using his Focus and workshops to survive and gather information. When he saw that Hades was interested in Aloy, he started getting involved...

From all this and the information we found in the facility, we deduced that Hades and his army of Eclipse soldiers and machines were on the verge of attacking the Spire and Meridian. Aloy inspected the defensive sites and got some rest. Al of her friends were there to help, including Varl, Sona, Erend and even Petra, the Oseram forger.

The first part of the final battle had me fighting some Eclipse soldiers, which I defeated rather easily. The next part was a lot cooler and definitely more fun as I used some of Petra's insane cannons to defend against a swarm of machines, including about 4 Deathbringers, a flock of Longlegs, some Ravagers and even a few Fire Bellowbacks. The Deathbringers were the real problem as they would often destroy my cover and would deal heavy damage, but the canons are very powerful and I took them all down without too much trouble. At the end though, a Stormbird showed up and kind of fucked up my defenses. I still managed to take it down and survive, but it was quite a scramble.

Unfortunately, Hades has a very well prepared attack and the defensive ridge fell to the machines. Aloy was buried under some rubble in the process and was thought to be dead by her friends. When she woke, Aloy headed straight for the Spire, as Hades had already managed to activate it. The destruction of the world was underway...

When I reached the Spire, all my friends were there again, fighting for humanity, fighting for Earth. Needless to say, they were quite happy to see Aloy rejoin their ranks. That's when the final battle started. It was just the one Deathbringer, but it was a much stronger Deathbringer than any other. It had a shit ton of health, powerful weapons and was periodically joined by Ravagers and other machines.

I fought this battle for a long time, and I actually died twice. It's funny though, I didn't die from damage, seeing as my ancient armor is completely stupid powerful. No, I died from being knocked around and fell off a cliff. Twice...

The final battle

Anyway, I did manage to beat the fucker with lots of dodging, a variety of failed attacks until finally I settled on fire arrows to make it overheat. I was then able to damage it's exposed, overheating parts with my Sharpshooter bow. I took my lance and stuck it deep inside the Hades core, destroying it for good!

Aloy saved the world! There was a lot of exposition here, with many characters making cameo appearances. Everyone was so happy, and there was a real sense of accomplishment and it felt like a great ending. There's a great bit of dialogue in there at one point that says that hope is important, and that individual people CAN make a huge difference in the world. To make the world a better place. It really resonated with me and made me feel happy...

However, Sylens hadn't said his last word... Having left the story after the events at the facility, before the final battle, Sylens is shown. He has a special little container and manages to draw out the last remaining figments of Hades from it's impaled carcass! With a bit of a smirk in his voice, he tells Hades that he's in charge now, and that they'll do great things together. Horizon 2 confirmed?

Horizon Zero Dawn is an absolute masterpiece that will be forever remembered as a classic. Not only is it a marvel of technological achievement, it's also a piece of art, a fun playground to explore, a intriguing and interesting story and a great place to have some fun battles against robot animals. It's also worth noting that Aloy is one of the best video game characters ever, at least in my mind. She's believable, which is a hard thing to do in games. She also has very strong, positive values, a fun attitude, a lot of heart and she's got one hell of a voice actor. It's also very refreshing to have a woman as the main character, and we don't even see a boob crack the whole game. Aloy is one of the few video game heroines that isn't treated as a piece of eye candy for horny perverts...

Horizon Zero Dawn

Date played: April 29th
Platform: PS4

The Nora lands have been completely invaded by the Eclipse. Deathbringers roam the smoking ruins of Mother's Cradle and Corruptors are a common sight. Aloy is understandably shocked and saddened... Still, I couldn't be deterred from my quest to find all the grazing dummies for the trophy, so I explored my homeland in a new light, fighting machines and Eclipse soldiers along the way. I got my damn trophy.

The main quest led me to Mother's Heart, which was under siege by a Corrupted Thunderjaw. This might be the strongest machine I've fought in the whole game, but since I had the help of the cornered Nora and the beast was alone, save a few weak archers. I used a machine gun that was left by the Nora to start the battle, then ripped off the Thunderjaw's Disc Launchers and used up all their ammo. The big motherfucker still wasn't down, but I destroyed it shortly after.

This corrupted Thunderjaw was no joke

The siege lifted, I entered the Heart of the Mountain to speak with the Mothers and to learn more about Aloy's origins. There was a lot of conversation between the women, but Aloy stayed kind of distant. I entered the mountain and spent the next 30 minutes reading data log entries, watching holographic recordings and learning about the past. Spoilers ahead...

So basically, Hades took over the whole Zero Dawn system. As a protective measure, Gaia will destroy Hades, but will have to destroy itself in the process. Aloy was created to reproduce Elizabet's genetic makeup, which will allow her to shut down Hades somehow. I didn't quite understand it all, but clearly, Aloy is a person of great importance, but she is more hurt than anything that she's a tool rather than the child of loving parents.

After all this, the Nora revered Aloy as a messenger of the Goddess, but that pissed off the game's heroine instantly. She gets angry with them and gives them a big speech about how the world is bigger than their little tribe, and that their old ways need to change. The Nora responded well to this, particularly the younger ones. They vow to help in Aloy's quest to save the world.

I must now go to a remote northern area to activate some systems, though I kind of missed some of the details. Aloy and Sylens will team up to explore the secrets of the Old World. 

Horizon Zero Dawn

Date played: April 28th
Platform: PS4

Before returning to Nora lands, I decided to get the last of the vantage points, hidden far to the north in a snowy area. There was a lot of climbing and platforming, but the biggest problem was the horde of enemies that patrolled the area. Stalkers, Watchers, Ravagers and Glinthawks were roaming the area in large numbers. In my first attempt, I ended up dying when a Ravager pushed me off a cliff, so I had to try again.

The last vantage point was hidden behind a plethora of dangerous machines

My next attempt was way more organized and prudent. I started by overriding a Ravager and letting him do his thing against the others. I helped a bit, but stayed hidden in tall grass. I finally reached the vantage point and got the trophy for getting all the vantage points.

I'm getting really close to having all the optional trophies, and the only one that's been bugging me is finding all the grazer dummies in Nora lands. I used a map from a walkthrough and systematically going to every village that has dummies. I found two or three that I had missed, but I can't enter the Embrace without continuing the story.

During my travels to find the dummies, I also picked up a couple of low level side quests that I had missed earlier. One of them was stupid simple... I just needed some Chillwater, a Lancehorn lens and to deliver some arrows to a kid in a watchtower. The other led me back to Carja lands to find a guy. When I did, he needed help picking up some stuff he dropped when he was attacked by a herd of Tramplers, so of course, I had to kill them. There were about 6 or 7 Tramplers, so it was no easy task. Once again, I used the Override ability to gain an advantage, and I stayed at very long range, taking occasional potshots with the marksman bow.

Finally, another side quest had me battle against a Stormbird. They are easy for me now, I just tie them down with the Ropecaster, freeze them with grenades then use explosives to deal heavy damage. I'm now ready to continue the story and return to Aloy's homeland.

Overwatch

Date played: April 28th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is a solid little run as Orisa on Lijiang Tower in Competitive mode. I particularly like how I take out D.Va twice in almost the exact same way. 

Overwatch

Date played: April 26th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is one of my best Soldier 76 moments, taking place on Oasis. I had a great team, which helped a lot of course, but I was quick and accurate and did really well. There's just one weird moment where the enemy team's D.Va was just jumping around in the little basement room. I shot her a lot, but she didn't seem interested in playing the game... 

Overwatch

Date played: April 24th and 25th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is a textbook example of how to play Reinhardt aggressively while still being on point and useful. This is on the first point of Dorado on attack.

Overwatch

Date played: April 23rd
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night has me defending the first point on Volskaya Industries as Mercy. The opening moments were weird because I joined the game just as it was about to start, so by the time I reached the point, our Reinhardt was already dead. I kept Hanzo and Symmetra alive long enough for him to come back and defend the choke, I even end up helping him get a very impressive play of the game. Next, I take out a flanking Reaper with my trusty pistol.

I'm eventually taken out by a combination of Reaper's and Pharah's Ultimates, but I feel like I did my job pretty well.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Date played: April 22nd
Platform: PS4

I finally got back into Horizon, starting with a side mission to find a healer for a wounded woman in Sunfall, the Carja city. I found a healer in a small town south of Sunfall, but the motherfucker was a real dick and didn't want to help unless I brought him a Thunderjaw heart. I hunted one down, took it out and brought the spoils to the healer, who then healed the woman.

As I was about to continue the main mission in Sunfall. This led me to a courtyard where the Sun King, Itamen, hosts a big military council of some sort. Basically, they want to capture a man named Uthid for crimes. Itamen is nothing but a young child though, so he gives full control of the city to one of his advisers, a dangerous man on a power trip. I was approached by a mysterious woman named Vanasha. She says that Uthid is innocent and that I look like the kind of person that would help...

I agreed to help, and was tasked with finding Uthid. This led me to a mountainous area where I climbed many cliff-faces and rocks. I eventually found Uthid by following a trail of machine carcasses. He seemed to be ready to die to the bounty hunters send by Sunfall, but Aloy fought the enemies off with him. This big battle eventually led to killing the proxy king guy.

This turned out to be the perfect opportunity for Vanasha and her colleagues to free Itamen and send him to Meridian. My job was to clear the path between Sunfall and shore where they would board a boat to Meridian. This was no easy task, as a corrupted Rockbreaker stood in my way. I used freeze grenades on it, then destroyed it with blast bombs. Itamen the young Sun King was welcomed to Meridian by none other than Sun King Avad. They were all very grateful for me help.

I spent a bit of time gathering collectibles and I think I'm just missing one vantage point now. I managed to get all the skills in the process too, since I got a few skill points as rewards for the missions. It was finally time to get back into the real story, so I found a way inside the Zero Dawn facility. Spoilers ahead!

There was so much revealed during this mission, I don't even know where to start. Basically, Zero Dawn is a project to destroy all machine life on Earth, after humanity has been made extinct by the machines. Elizabet Sobeck put together a crack team of experts, each with one piece of the system to lead. The bigger elements are named Gaia and Hades. Gaia is the system to restore life to Earth, and Hades is the system that can destroy machines and life as needed by the algorithm.

I learned a lot about the details of these systems by exploring the facility. I even learned that Mother's Womb is one of the places where human life was to be resurrected, so it seems that Aloy was created there and doesn't have biological parents. It's all really somber, but there's also something great about humanity pooling all it's resources to save life and humanity.

Another important part of the system is how it can create any kind of machine to fill it's needs. Basically, the system is made to terraform Earth back to health after the robots have decimated the environment. For example, Stormbirds are there to filter the atmosphere. Snapmaws to clean the water. Grazers to stimulate flora growth, etc. The predatory machines are new, and there must be a reason why the system decided to build them in the cauldrons.

I gathered some data from a computer that will help open Mother's Womb, but was captured by the Eclipse shortly after... They stripped me of my weapons and destroyed my Focus, then put me in a cage in an arena to battle robots, gladiator style.

Aloy rides a Strider to escape the arena, all thanks to Sylens

Without weapons, this was a tall order... My opponent was none other than a corrupted Behemoth, which is never easy to kill. I had to make it charge at Aloy in a way that would make him hit some pillars. After a few hits, the platform above the arena fell down, where I got my weapons back. I killed the Behemoth pretty easily then, to everyone's surprise. The big bad guy sent down a couple of Corruptors, so I was in real trouble.

Thankfully, Sylens decided to finally show his face in person. It was quite an entrance too, as he barged in riding a Strider, followed by a trio of Ravagers that made short work of the Corruptors. I hopped onto a Strider and followed the mysterious man. He made me a new Focus and apologized for being such a dick all the time.

During my time as a prisoner, I learned that the Eclipse had sent some warriors to attack Nora lands, so now I must go back and help them survive the attack. Then we'll have to go back to Mother's Womb also. The story is really captivating now and the revelations are shocking. It was really emotional to learn that the humans of the old world basically killed themselves trying to save the future of life on Earth. 

Overwatch

Date played: April 22nd
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is a strong defense as Symmetra on the first point of King's Row. While my defenses were eventually destroyed, it was still really satisfying to see the enemies being melted by my turrets as they try to cross the choke point.

Overwatch

Date played: April 20th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is a nice little run as Pharah trying to take the point on one of the Nepal maps. We lost that game pretty badly, but I think I did pretty well with her overall.

Overwatch

Date played: April 17th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is a solid run as Soldier 76 in the last moments of the round on Lijiang Tower. I had a great team, which helped a lot... Still, I feel like I was at the right place at the right time, and I didn't fuck up. I start off by taking potshots at the enemies from a distance through a choke point, then move closer just as I activate my Ultimate. It was good timing because I ended up killing a bunch of enemies and taking the point to win the round. 

Grand Prix Story

We won!

Date played: April 16th
Platform: Android

I don't play a lot of mobile games, but yesterday, I decided to buy Grand Prix Story while watching the Formula 1 race on TV. It's cool because it plays almost like a free to play game, but without the timers and special currencies and stuff.

You get to manage a racing team, starting out with little roadsters all the way to high speed race cars. There's a lot of stuff going on.... Drivers, mechanics, training, sponsors, cars, parts, payroll, research, upgrades, cash management and of course, the actual races. While there's no direct control during the race, the improvements made to the team and car are visible from race to race, so it's pretty satisfying to watch the adorable little cars race around the track.

This game is the perfect distraction for a racing fan like me...

Horizon Zero Dawn

Date played: April 15th
Platform: PS4

I didn't get to play video games much this weekend, but I did sneak in a little bit of Horizon, including a story mission. My first job was to find the last of the escaped prisoners. I talked to a few people in Brightmarket, then had enough information to find a trail that led me to the bad guy.

I then took on a corrupted zone (I thought I did them all, guess I was wrong!) with a couple of Behemoths and some Watchers. I took care of the Watchers from a distance first, then attacked the lumbering Behemoths. Freezing these guys helps a lot... I also found a Vantage point and a Banuk figure in the area.

The desert of the north-west is lots of fun to explore

The story mission was pretty damn cool. I had to infiltrate a facility and find a way to deactivate the enemy Focus network. The whole time, Sylens was kind of being a dick. There was a lot of sneaking around in the early parts of the mission as I avoided humans and machines alike. Eventually, I found a broken Tallneck and was able to override the network from it, but that awakened a trio of Deathbringers, more than I could expect to destroy.

My only option was to run. In an exciting sequence, I had to run, dodge, sprint, shimmy, climb and jump my way up some rocky, dangerous cliffs while being shot at by the Deathbringers. It was cool... I've got a mission in a village in the north-west area, a place I haven't explored yet, so I'm excited to see what's next.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Date played: April 11th
Platform: PS4

I didn't get to play for very long, I was too busy trying out Lucio in Overwatch, but I still managed to get a bit of stuff done in Horizon. I started with the last corrupted zone in the game. There were 2 Tramplers and 3 Longlegs, so not an easy fight. I took position on high ground nearby, in a spot I knew they creatures couldn't reach me. I took some components off the Tramplers from range, and dealt some solid damage with my sharpshooter arrows, but they moved out of sight shortly after. I jumped down and completed the mission with explosives.

I then spent a good amount of time just activating campfires in the southern areas, fighting a few Snapmaws and Stalkers. I was heading south-west to reach a town that had a side mission marker on it. It turned out to be some sort of prison for dangerous people, a place named Sunstone Rock. Unfortunately, three of the prisoners escaped, and the wardens asked me to find them and kill them. They've had enough mercy... The fugitives are scattered throughout the region, so I set out to find them right away.

The prison of Sunstone Rock

The first was really stupid easy... The woman has a painted face and has taken refuge in a bandit camp. Unfortunately for her, I already killed everyone that was there, so she was alone in the big camp. It took a single arrow to the head and she was dead.

The second one was more interesting. The man is a master trap artist, crafting bombs and other deadly booby-traps as a hobby. He's also pretty crazy and dangerous. I had to navigate through a gauntlet of his traps in the narrow confines of a ravine's walls. The place was littered with explosive proximity bombs, which I carefully destroyed from a distance with my Hunter's bow. In the end, the crazy fucker dropped accidentally dropped a bomb at his feet and died from the blast as Aloy narrowly avoided the explosion.

There's still a third escapee for me to find and kill out there, but that'll have to wait for next time.

Overwatch

Date played: April 11th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night features the new and improved (?) Lucio in action. Yesterday's patch made his area of effect much smaller, but the healing effect is stronger. Lucio's self-healing was also reduced. He moves faster when wall-riding now also. Finally, his weapon gets a much needed damage and speed boost.

So far, I really like it. One of the biggest improvements is that his aura's range is now represented visually with a circle around him. This makes it way easier to heal others, but also for others to get healed. They just need to enter the circle and voila!

Anyway, this play is a full match as Lucio, attacking on Anubis. We have a bit of trouble with the first choke point but as soon as we broke through, the rest was history. I'm loving the new Lucio!

Horizon Zero Dawn

Date played: April 10th
Platform: PS4

I played a ton of Horizon last night...

Last time I played, I had traveled to Pitchcliff, a small settlement in the north, to investigate a Glinthawk infestation problem. As soon as I got there, I had to fight half a dozen Glinthawks, but it's nothing that my trusty fire arrows couldn't deal with. I spoke with the town's mayor and he has no idea why the flying machines keep attacking the village, but I offered to help anyway.

Using my Focus, I found a signal coming from a quiet section of town. That's where I found the lure that had been attracting Glinthawks. There's this guy who collects scrap from remote areas, then sells exotic parts to customers. He's also very poetic, so much that Aloy had to interrupt him a few times to move the conversation along. He told me he had found the lure at a workshop, far to the north. I destroyed the lure and followed his directions to find the workshop.

It was a long road, and I had to fight quite a bit to get there. Scrappers, Ravagers, Snapmaws, Glinthawks and a couple of Watchers. At the end of the road, I found the workshop, but it was well guarded by a Stormbird. I put on my shock resist gear and took the beast down. I find that Stormbirds are pretty easy to kill. I shoot a few tear arrows first, then I try to rope them down with the ropecaster. Once that's done, I freeze them so that they take more damage, then pepper them with explosives with my sling. I deactivated some other lures and completed the quest.

There was a metal flower collectible nearby, so I headed that way, only to be confronted by yet another Stormbird! Once again, I took it down and collected my reward. I decided to go back to the vault in the first ruins and put in my power cells. There was a short puzzle, then a door opened, only to reveal that I need 2 more power cells.... On that note, I decided to spend some time exploring a bit. There's still a few areas that I haven't visited. I kind of pick a spot, then move towards any collectibles I'm still missing while activating nearby campfires.

Along the way, I fought a Thunderjaw head on, using it's own disc launchers against it. I then stumbled into a very small village, a forge really. These Oseram workers have built a small fortress in the middle of nowhere to salvage large heaps of scrap nearby. I met Petra, the town's mayor, and she is a very cool character. She's got a great voice and animation, which really makes her believable.

I picked up a few side quests in this town. It seems that some bad guys have decided to steal from the Oseram's scrap heaps, and Petra wants them out of there. This wasn't too much trouble, I just went to the place and slowly killed all the human enemies with my sharpshooter bow. Next, I had to clear another nearby area, but this time, it was machines. Nothing crazy though, the enemies were relatively weak.

The last side quest I got from the forge village was more interesting. Some hunters had gone out to hunt a Behemoth herd to get some of their valuable cables. These things are used by the forge people to build weapons and keep enemies at bay. The hunters never returned, so I followed their tracks. I found them not too far away, and they weren't lost at all. They fucked up and lost track of the herd, and they were too scared of Petra to go back home empty-handed, so they stayed out in the wild. Also,the two hunters are lovers, so maybe they got distracted as they were fondling each other instead of hunting...

Anyway, I told them I would help find the herd and asked them to join me. We found the herd, which consisted of 3 Behemoths and 2 Shell-Walkers. This was actually a pretty tough fight. Shell-Walkers can be nasty because they don't really have any big vulnerabilities and they have a big shield to protect from frontal attacks. Behemoths are extremely dangerous too, so I decided that the best way to approach this fight was to layer a ton of tripwire in a safe spot, then to override one of the Behemoths to help even the odds. This was a really good decision because, combined with my tripwire, two Behemoths were dead in the first seconds of the battle. The two Shell-Walkers and the last Behemoth were still around, but now that it was less frantic, I was able to take them down pretty quick after that.

Petra's experimental weapon is badass!

The final mission for the forge people was incredible... Petra had been working on an experimental weapon for a while, and she asks Aloy to test it when some bandits attack the village. The weapon is amazing... It launches a volley of powerful explosives that are strong enough to destroy rock formations and infrastructure. I shot the fuckers that attacked the village with the big weapon, then when there were a few too many, Petra told me to destroy a bridge above their heads. The explosives destroyed the bridge in one shot as bodies and debris flew all over the place. It was glorious.

I ended my evening with some more exploration to get a metal flower and a Banuk figure, in the northern parts of the map. There's still a few villages that I haven't visited yet, so I don't know if I'll go visit or if I'll continue the story first. 

Overwatch

Date played: April 10th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is a solid play as Symmetra, defending the first point on Numbani. The enemy team is somewhat disorganized at first, so had little trouble staying alive. I caught Pharah, McCree, Bastion and Tracer in my traps. At one point, I decided to push forward and rush their Widowmaker, which I did well. However, I got cocky and tried to flank the enemy team near their base. It actually worked really well, but I picked the wrong fucking target. I tried to take out Bastion, but he was being healed by Mercy and was healing himself. Even Symmetra's powerful main weapon couldn't make a dent in that... Pharah took me out as the pair were playing with me.

Tropico 5

I've reached the Cold War era

Date played: April 8th and 9th
Platform: PS4

I've reached the Cold War era! There's a lot of big changes here... There's a bunch of new buildings that effectively render some of the older ones obsolete. The cathedral, hospital, supermarket, TV station and new entertainment buildings are big upgrades to the older buildings. There's also oil and natural gas to gather now, which can be turned into very profitable exports.

Residential buildings got a big boost with the new apartment building. It's better than tenements in every way and it's not that expensive. There's also tourism now, though all of it is extremely expensive. I built a small beach area and 4 cabins for now, but I'll need to expand that seriously at some point soon. I also have a nuclear power plant, which is very powerful, but requires uranium to function, which is pretty rare.

I've built up decent relations with the USA, shunning the USSR, at least for now. I've built a lot more plantations and ranches too, to alleviate some of my food problems. Finally, the biggest addition to my city is the car factory. It takes a lot of effort to get it running, since it requires bauxite and steel. Bauxite isn't too bad, but to produce steel, I need coal and iron. It took me over 6 months of game time to actually start producing my first car after building the factory. I had to ensure good production from the mines and the steel mill, plus, I had to hire more teamsters to carry all this stock.

I'm in a pretty good place right now. People are happy, my relations are good, I've got lots of power, not too much pollution and my healthcare rating has dramatically increased since adding hospitals. I'm going to keep building stuff for a while and maybe expand my tourism services.

Overwatch

Date played: April 9th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is all about brotherly love. My brother came over to play games with me last night and one of our best moments was when I played Mercy and he played Orisa to defend the second point on Dorado. There was a nasty Sombra and a sneaky Junkrat that I had to deal with on my own, but mostly I spent my time healing my brother and my team.

Tropico 5

Date played: April 7th
Platform: PS4

Well, I tried out sandbox mode again and did much better than last time. I nailed the shit out of the Colonial era. I relied on pig farms early on to generate some cash and didn't neglect my military. I had tons of guard towers all around. I extended my mandate with the King as much as possible by completing his quests and picking the extension rewards whenever I could. This led to a very healthy colony and the cash was rolling in.

I should mention, I've changed the game's settings to make it a bit easier, particularly the disaster frequency. It really helped a lot. I was prepared to move on to the World Wars era. I had read up online on good strategies, and industries were by far the best thing for this era. I invested in sugar farms and a rhum distillery. I also explored more of the island to find some mines so that I could set up a steel mill, which is a huge moneymaker.

I love my little town, let's just hope it doesn't crumble....

I invested a lot into education, with a high school and a couple of colleges. I set up some residential areas, expanded my military and put in some clinics and churches. I established positive relations with the Axis and built an extra dock. Eventually, the Allies invaded the island due to my support for the Axis and it's Nazis. Thankfully, I had an army base by that time. My guard towers, soldiers and tanks struggled to win the fight, but they eventually won.

It's time to move on to the cold war era, but I'm not really sure how to approach it yet. The biggest change is that tourism is now an option, so I'm thinking of making a tourist area near the beach, but I'll look up strategies before it's too late.

Overwatch

Date played: April 7th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is a short push for the final point, attacking on Hollywood as Reinhardt. I Earthshatter the enemy Genji during his Ultimate, killing him, then I charge D.Va and kill her. Ana gave me a Nano-Boost as I swung my big hammer straight on the point. Our Reaper did a great job, using his Ultimate at that time and ensuring the victory.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Date played: April 5th
Platform: PS4

Following a trail of clues and teaming up with the mysterious Sylens, Aloy ventures north, past the Banuk village, to the Grave Hoard. The snowy mountains surrounding the area are littered with the husks of mountain-sized  robots. I entered the FARO facility, which must have been some sort of corporate head office of some kind.

Most of this mission was just about exploring and learning about the events that led to the fall of civilization. There were lots of data logs and audio logs to find, scattered around. I've learned that the robots did turn on their creators and started attacking en masse, just like an army really. It was also revealed that Europe fell first. The mountain-sized robots are named Titans and it seems like humans were able to defeat them with some of their best weaponry, including highly advanced tanks.

There's also a lot of info about how the whole war was just a way to earn time for Elizabet's Zero Dawn project to complete. People were drafted into a makeshift army, even if they stood no chance of survival in battle. Thankfully, it was enough for Zero Dawn to be completed, but I still don't know what that really means. While watching a hologram of some of the discussions held in the boardroom, I noticed that Elizabet's voice is exactly the same as Aloy's, so I suspect she must be a clone or something. Unless maybe there's some cryogenic shenanigans going on...

My favorite moment in this mission is when Aloy discovers a holographic projection of Earth. Remember, these people are very primitive and have real technology aside from a few weapons and what they could salvage from ruins. This means that they don't have a great understanding of our solar system either. Aloy even had a pretty funny discussion with Sylens about it. I also completed a simple lock puzzle to progress.

The Earth is a globe?!?

Of course, this wouldn't be a mission without a bit of fighting! The cultists have been messing around in the building, trying to reanimate machines and use them. Their latest acquisition is a Deathbringer, the giant machine of war that is armed to the teeth. Thankfully, these things aren't that hard to take down. They have a ton of weak points, their attacks can be avoided consistently and they move pretty slow compared to other machines. Still, they have a lot of HP, so it takes a lot of ammo. I took it down and exited the facility. My only way down was to zipline down the legs of long-deactivated Titans. It was very pretty....

Aloy and Sylens discussed a little bit and found that the next place to investigate was hidden below the Shadow Carja capital, so I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of fighting there... 

Overwatch

Date played: April 7th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night features one of the very rare times I played with Junkrat. I really don't like playing him, he doesn't fit my style, but this situation called for his ability to lob grenades into problem areas without exposing himself.

The enemy team, defending the last point on Anubis, had a dangerous setup. They had a Reinhardt, Bastion and Ana standing in the back corner of the map, creating a real fortress that was impossible for our team to penetrate. I took out Junkrat to lob grenades into the corner and make them move a little bit. While I'm very uncomfortable with him and kind of sucked, it was still enough to make a dent in their defense and make them move a little bit.

Tropico 5

Date played: April 4th
Platform: PS4

I decided to try this game again, but this time, in sandbox mode. I used all the default settings, picked a nice looking island and started in the Colonial era. Things went well at first. I built a few farms and plantations, set up some nice roads and started working towards independence from the Crown. By the time I was able declare independence, I felt like I was in a good spot. I had plenty of research done, lots of citizens, an approval rating in the 60-70% range and a good cash flow.

El Presidente is dead, long live El Presidente!

Then I moved to the World War Era and everything fell apart. I was hit by a good number of disasters, like earthquakes and tsunamis. I wasn't able to get any educated workers to man my clinics. My explorers took the wrong path more than once, costing me a good chunk of cash. No one wanted to work in the military. Everything was going badly.

I still did some cool stuff, like build a high school and college. I set up more docks, teamsters and construction offices to speed things up. I established a few trade routes. I started building positive relations with the Allies, ignoring the Axis. I even had a pretty successful creamery that exported lots of cheese and such.

The final nail in my empire's coffin was the rebels. Somehow, my citizens got so angry at my methods that they started uprisings and revolts! At first, it was pretty small, and I was able to contain it with my few armed guards, but soon enough ,the riots were too large and with my shitty military, I had nothing to defend myself with. The rebels destroyed the palace with molotov cocktails and I lost the match.

I've learned a lot about the game's systems now though, and while it's a little intimidating, I want to try again. I might set the disasters to a occur less frequently though, that really killed my momentum.

Overwatch

Date played: April 4th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night has me doing pretty well as Soldier 76, attacking on Hollywood's final point. My team was kind of weird honestly, because I managed 5 gold medals as Soldier... We even had a healer! This play is kind of weird, but I deal some solid damage and have a good amount of Eliminations. It wasn't enough to win the match, but I feel like I did ok.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Date played: April 3rd
Platform: PS4

I took down my first Stormbird!

I actually had two different quests that asked that I kill one. There was the Hunter's Lodge mission, and the man who drinks machine blood. I went to the spot where I first entered Carja lands, since it seemed like it was relatively safe from other machines. After studying the beast a little bit and looking up it's weaknesses in the logbook, I settled on the Sharpshooter Bow, the Ropecaster and the Explosive Sling. I also used the armor that protects against shock since the logbook said the beast uses shock attacks.

The battle began with a volley of three tear arrows to shake off some of it's components, then shot it a bit with arrows. I dodged it's big lightning bolt attacks mostly, but when I did get hit, it barely scratched me thanks to my armor. At one point, the Stormbird landed, so I took the opportunity to tie it down with the Ropecaster. While it was tied down, I stuck it with about 10 of my most powerful bombs. This was enough to severely weaken it and knock it down and I was able to kill it shortly after. Fighting a Stormbird was a really cool experience. They are scary, intimidating and it all looks so fucking cool! I wanna kill more!

The mighty Stormbird's dive bomb attack is terrifying!

Back in Meridian, I headed to the Hunter's Lodge, only to find out that both Talanah and Ahsis were gone. Apparently, Ahsis, the Sunhawk, spotted Redmaw somewhere in the south. Redmaw is a legendary Thunderjaw that has long been a legendary trophy for the Hunter's Lodge. When I reached the place, I found Talanah being ambushed by some outcasts, which were sent by Ahsis. It seems he wants the glory of the hunt all to himself and will do anything to get his way...

I killed the outcasts and saved Talanah, then tracked Ahsis with my Focus. We reached a big clearing where he was already fighting Redmaw! Moments later, he was smacked unconscious by the robot's large tail. Aloy didn't lose a moment and jumped in to fight the beast. This guy is tricky because he only has one disc launcher, so I took that off and shot him with it, but it wasn't enough to kill him. He still had about half his health still.

Thankfully, I had carefully planned my attack and had set up and elaborate nest of traps and tripwire. As I took potshots at Redmaw, I led him towards my traps. I also froze the big guy so that I could deal more damage to him. It wasn't too long before I defeated him. Ahsis died of his wounds, still as arrogant as ever in his dying moments. Talanah was made Sunhawk and promises to make the lodge more inclusive and friendly.

I think I will move the story along next time I play. I am supposed to enter a special facility to learn more about the events that led to the world's demise.

Overwatch

Date played: April 3rd
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is all about playing Reinhardt to his strengths, attacking on Route 66... Actually, a lot of players are motherfucking chickenshit pussies when they face an aggressive Reinhardt like myself.

Watch as I push the payload almost all by myself as a Widowmaker's futile attempts at shooting me fail time after time. Watch as I march forward, ignoring Orisa's little gun. Watch as I protect Soldier 76 while he kills everything. Watch as I lead my team into the heart of battle. Watch as I get a quadruple kill with Mercy's help at the end, netting me Play of the Game. This match is 6:27 long, and I was on the objective for 3:12 of that. What a game!

Bound

Date played: April 2nd
Platform: PS4

My daughter was bored yesterday afternoon, so I suggested a bunch of activities for her to do. Her eyes lit up when I suggested we try a "ballerina video game", so I booted up Bound for the first time. Bound is a very odd game. It's basically a 3D platformer with a VERY unique look.

The game opens with a pregnant woman taking a walk down the beach. She opens a notepad and starts reading. The game then switches to a completely alien looking world. It's insane really, and very hard to describe, but there's a sea of shapes below and some very unusual architecture. The heroine is shows, a woman who wears a strange helmet and wears a ballerina outfit. Her mother, the Queen, appears and asks that the Princess ward off the evil invading their kingdom.

The heart of Bound lies in it's platforming and traversal mechanics. The heroine can jump, run and dodge. She can also dance, which acts as a protective shield against some of the harmful elements of the world. The incredible art style and flawless animation brings everything to life in a way that makes this very unusual world feel believable, even if it's complete non-sense.

Bound has a spectacular art style

There's some cool stuff with perspective too, as the Princess will sometimes be walking on walls or on ceilings, just like an M.C. Escher painting. I soon faced off against the evil creature, but was quickly defeated and was taken back to the woman on the beach.

The next level asks that I get some help from a powerful guardian to defeat the evil entity. I navigated the strange world, climbing unusual ladders and dancing through obstacles as classical music punctuates the action. It all feels fucking great...  When I found the giant guardian, he folded up a giant paper plane for me, put me on it then launched me in the air to reach another area.

In one spectacular moment, I surfed on a ribbon through the sun-soaked, alien world. There's moments here that feel like a more abstract version of Journey or something. My daughter was dazzled by the look of this thing, and the fact that the Princess moves like a ballerina made her even more lovable. I love everything about Bound.

Tropico 5

Date played: April 2nd
Platform: PS4

I've been sick a little bit lately, and my energy level is pretty low. Last night, I was real tired and kind of slow overall, so I didn't want to play an action game. I browsed my library and when I saw Tropico 5, which was a free download from PS+, I figured a city-building game would be a good fit for my mood.

I have a long history with Tropico. The first two games, which released in 2001 and 2003 on PC, were played a LOT by both me and my girlfriend. The second one was particularly cool since it put a pirate theme spin on the whole thing. The games were always pretty damn good, and even though I kind of fell off the series, I still love the whole concept.

Tropico 5 is more of the same, but with better graphics and some new systems. I started with an hour long tutorial that covers everything. Building stuff, managing employes, ressources, exporting goods, foreign relations, edicts, budgeting, etc. It's a complex game with a lot of systems, but most of them are relatively easy to grasp.

My burgeoning empire has just declared independence from the Crown! Viva la revolution!

After the tutorial, I tried out the campaign, which is really just a series of missions, but I don't think this is the mode I really want to play. I think I need to get into the sandbox mode and just build the little town that I have in mind. Tropico 5 is a well made, polished city-building game that I want to spend more time with, when I need a quiet game, relaxing game. The traditional South-American music is just icing on the cake!

Overwatch

Date played: April 2nd
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is a real solid play as Zenyatta, defending the first point on Numbani. I focused on healing and putting discord orbs on enemies, which allowed us to hold the first chokepoint a good long while. At the end of the play, they finally break through and get on the point, but I shut down Pharah during her Ultimate, then take out a Junkrat and Hanzo with my team's help to win the match!

Earthbound

Date played: April 2nd
Platform: Wii U

Man, this game reminded me of how brutal older games are sometimes... I was a little stuck last time, but I figured out that I could attend the Runaway Five concert in Fourside by presenting the ticket to the usher. These guys are good at making music, but from their own admission, they suck at women and money. They have now signed a ludicrously bad contract with the leader of Fourside and need my help to get out of it. After speaking to the manager, she laughed me off saying they still owe a million dollars, and unless I have a ton of gold, I can't help them. I watched the Runaway Five in concert, which was funny and a lot longer than I expected. So, for this gold, I figured I might as well try the gold mine in the desert, maybe I'll be able to do something about the group's problems.

The Runaway Five give a great show!

The Gold Mine has to be one of the hardest things in this game, and it was easily the hardest dungeon yet and that's mainly because it's just so fucking long... The monsters are dangerous and they hit pretty hard, but they aren't too bad when using Paula's magic spells. I had to find 5 mole bosses inside the mine. These guys are rough and hit real fucking hard, but one hit of Paula's strongest freeze spell kills them. The real problem is PP management. This dungeon is so long that I run out of psychic points near the end and become almost useless...

After the fourth mole, I felt like I had to leave and recover some HP and PP, but the maze is so large that I would have died fighting the monsters leading to the exit. There's an exit mouse in there, which is supposed to get me out of there for free, but I couldn't get it to work, and I have no idea why. So I decided to attack the last mole, even if I was in real trouble already. It didn't work out well at all. My party died and I found myself back in Fourside with almost no items left and a couple of dead party members. I stopped playing, but I just hope the first 4 moles are already dead, even if I wiped out...

Horizon Zero Dawn

Date played: April 1st
Platform: PS4

In the depths of the southern jungles, I confronted the elements, bandits and robots to complete some side quests. It began with a fight against a trio of Stalkers to gather their blood. My overpowered shock arrows make very short work of these guys, but I still have to be careful. I then cleared a corrupted zone of Stalkers and Glinthawks, which was actually pretty easy. Another side quest, for an ancient relic, turned out to be nothing more than a dirty ambush by some bandits... They were after my spear! I killed all the men quickly and they won't be a problem anymore.

The final bandit camp was nearby, so of course, I cleared it out. There's something special about fighting a dozen people with a bow and arrow in the rain, tribal music playing, bodies flying. It's great.... I returned control of the village to the people and returned the Stalker blood to the crazy guy. He now wants Thunderjaw blood, so I headed east to find one.

Well, not only did I find one, I found two! Since I'm now able to override these massive beasts, I turned one of them to my side and let them fight it out until one of them died. I thought I was well prepared to take on the remaining monster, but the disc launcher I had picked up was nearly out of ammo, so I had to scramble against an angry Thunderjaw. Roping it down helped me stabilize things and I took it out shortly after that.

That second Thunderjaw...

I decided to seek out the final Cauldron, which lies in the southern parts of the map. This one was way different than other Cauldrons though, as it had been opened by some humans years ago. It's since been kind of... colonized by some bad guys. It was actually a really cool look, and fighting humans inside these old buildings now filled with vegetation was very satisfying.

At the end of it, there was a big fucking fight, the kind of fight that leaves you sweating. I had a ton of tripwire laid out already, since it was an obvious spot for a big battle, and picked up a very powerful minigun from one of the bad guys. I mowed everything down with the big weapon and was able to learn how to override some new machines! Coming out of the Cauldron I had to fight even more guys, but this time there were Stalkers in the mix. At the exit, there was another giant battle, against some Glinthawks, Ravagers and Billowbacks, which fell to another fun use of the minigun.

I feel like I am coming close to the end of the game now. There's still some stuff to do for sure, but I'm at maximum level, I have almost all the skills, I have all the Ancient Vessels, I destroyed all bandit camps, I have no use for money and my equipment is pretty well upgraded. There's still a good amount of story left for sure though. 

Horizon Zero Dawn

Date played: March 31st
Platform: PS4

I played a lot of Horizon last night, but didn't really do anything story related. I did a lot of side quests though. That's because I found and explored a new city, Brightmarket. It's a beautiful little town full of interesting people and awesome architecture. I tracked relics and I followed many, many trails with my Focus.

The most interesting side quest was about a missing young woman. Her father believes she may have killed herself. However, after following her trail to a small camp outside of town, I found out she was actually meeting with her lover out in the woods. She was attacked by a Snapmaw, so I fought it. She told me her lover was missing, so I followed her clues and his trail to a large castle-like structure. It was infested with bad guys and her lover was being held captive! I killed them all with my trusty sharpshooter bow, then freed the man. Just like an earlier story in the game, the damn guy fucking dies right there as I free him. Do people just wait to be freed and then decide to die in the world of Horizon??

The great dialogue, animation and voice acting make side quests even better

Anyway, I went back to the lady, told her the bad news and helped her reconnect emotionally with her father. There's a lot of personality in the side quests. Another had me hunt or gather machine blood for a crazy exiled Banuk who likes to drink it. That means oil. He drinks oil. Says it gives him visions... As I made my way to some of these side quest locations, I stopped to gather any collectibles like Ancient Vessels and Metal Flowers, or even just activating campfires. In fact, I got all the vessels in the game! These are just coffee cups, but the people of this world don't understand that. The best cup has a picture of a Helghan soldier from the Killzone series.

I loved spending some time just going around the world, there's a lot of cool stuff to find, and more importantly, fun battles are always a part of the equation.

Overwatch

Date played: March 31st
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is one of my first semi-decent plays as Widowmaker ever... I defend the last point with my team on King's Row. In the end, it was a battle against Soldier 76 that got me in a battle that I should have won...