Day of the Tentacle Remastered

Date played: June 22nd
Platform: PS4

I finished Day of the Tentacle Remastered! It turns out, I was really close to the end, all I really needed was to have that contract signed by Dr. Fred and sent to Hoagie for him to mail it from the past. Getting the signature was a pain in the ass though, since I had to find the exact line of dialogue that would convince Dr. Fred to sign.

Still, I got it signed and sent it to Hoagie, who mailed it to future Dr. Fred from the past. The contract resulted in 2 million dollars deposited into Dr. Fred's Swiss bank account. When he learns the news, he promptly contacts a travel agency, but he'll never get a chance to go on the trip... Instead, I got Bernard to order a diamond via telephone shopping.

We installed the crystal into the time machine and the two teenagers, stranded in time, are brought back to the present. Purple tentacle has been hard at work though, sending copies of himself back in time. He had enough for an entire army even! Our three heroes got the brilliant idea of going back in time once again, to yesterday. They can switch off the sewage pump and prevent the tentacles from ever gaining sentience.

Some of the tentacles from the army had already gone back in time with two of our machines, so we only had one left. The three teens got in together, against Dr. Fred's warnings which were based on the movie The Fly.When the kids came out on the other side, their bodies were fused together! They still had their own heads, but the torso was Hoagie's, the midsection was Laverne's and the legs were Bernard's. That didn't deter them at all, so they tried to find their way to the pump in the basement.

Purple Tentacle somehow managed to create a shrink ray during his travels through time, and he chased us with it for a while. After a bit of chasing around and getting shrunk a few times, we picked up a bowling ball and went to the basement. We used the bowling ball to knock out some tentacles and deactivated the pump near a tied up Dr. Fred.

The final scene

Purple Tentacle did not like that at all, so he shrunk us, then turned on the pump again. I had to find a different way. After lots of funny conversation with Purple Tentacle, I convinced him to use the shrink ray on Dr. Fred, which then reflected off the stethoscope he wears on his forehead and hit Purple Tentacle himself!

The teenagers squished the bad guy under their feet and the future was saved! Also, it turns out their bodies were not fused together, but that they had simply been tangled together inside their clothes... Day of the Tentacle was funny, cute and full of absurdity. However, some of the puzzles are just too obscure, and it would have been better with some sort of hint system. Instead, I had to rely on FAQ's and walkthroughs a little too often.

Overwatch

Date played: June 21st
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night takes place on Horizon, the new map, once again. We lose the first point pretty quick, but I melt some faces off with Symmetra defending the second point. 

Overwatch

Date played: June 20th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night takes place on the new map, which just released. It's called Horizon and it's set on the moon, where Winston grew up. It's a point capture map with attacking and defending teams. It's quite large, but it really forces the battles in some very central areas.

The first point is pretty rough to attack unless the team is coordinating well because there's tons of good little spots for snipers, turrets and defensive heroes. The second point is even more difficult, thanks to distance from spawn and all. So far, I'm really enjoying the map, but it's pretty damn demanding.

This play has me on attack as Reinhardt. We make a final push to the last point and it stays into overtime for an absurdly long time. I focused on protecting my team and throwing out fire strikes as often as possible. It was hectic, and when we won, my heart was pumping real fucking hard. It was wonderful.

WipEout Omega Collection

Date played: June 19th
Platform: PS4

I didn't really know what to play last night, and I didn't want to play too long, so I settled on doing a good chunk of races of WipEout 2048. It's too bad that this was the series last real game, because it was one of the best. It's got some of the coolest tracks, a great look and the different classes of ships for each manufacturer adds some variety.

But by far, the best thing about 2048 is the incredible sound design. I really can't play this game without pumping up the volume way up. They fucking nailed the engine sounds. They feel a little bit like Formula 1 engines, but with lots of distortion and a few weird little sound elements. On top of that, the thumping music and great surround sound mixing add even more to the experience.

I ended up playing through the entirety of the 2049 campaign, the second one in this game. The difficulty is starting to ramp up a little bit too, requiring 4th place instead of 5th to pass. The time trials are tighter and combat events require more points. I finally got my first "fail" during one of the time trials. I missed by less than half a second, but in a game like this, that's kind of a lot. I tried again and got it on my second try.

Zone mode is fucking glorious

I also ended up playing many Zone events, which are longer than most events due to the way they are structured. This mode is like the epitome of WipEout, minus the weapons. The main attraction is speed of course. In Zone mode, the ship constantly accelerates, taking throttle control away from the player and leaving only the air brakes. The incredible color scheme just makes the whole thing even better! It's also one of the best ways to learn the different tracks since you're forced to take every corner at max speed for all speed classes. I fucking love Zone mode...

Lego Jurassic World

Date played: June 18th
Platform: PS4

With the weather a little rough today and nothing special on the agenda, I figured it would be a good time to play a video game with my 7 year old daughter. I asked her what she wanted to play, and after a bit of discussion, she settled on Lego Jurassic World, which we haven't played in over a year.

I convinced her to play with me in split screen by telling her I would protect her from any bad guys. We ended up playing through all the levels of the second movie and the first level of the third movie. The Lost World has lots of great scenes for a video game. The best moment was when the baby T-Rex is wounded in the mobile operations center and the mother comes to get her young back.

The screen split had me controlling Ian Malcolm, hanging from a rope and dodging debris, while my daughter was at the top, just outside the vehicle. She had to fight off a few small dinos, then attach the winch from the truck to the dangling vehicle. She then had to get in the car and pull, balancing the power in the center by tilting the joystick. She did great!

Another good scene was when a T-Rex chased us in the woods, or when we had to break some glass by making Malcolm's teenage daughter scream like an opera singer. Fighting off Raptors in a small building was another great moment. These games are pretty simple, but the fun of using Lego pieces to solve puzzles, the funny cut-scenes and the great animations make it lots of fun to play with the family.

Overwatch

Date played: June 18th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night features some aggressive Reinhardt play, defending on Dorado. I had a great Mercy with me, but the rest of our team was a little too passive, so I had to compensate with some nasty pushes. I got a second wind when Mercy revived me at a key moment.

Puyo Puyo Tetris demo

Date played: June 17th
Platform: Switch

I booted up the demo for this fantastic puzzle game and played a couple of multiplayer matches. There's really not much to say about this game, except that it's really a lot of fun. We played the mode where it switches between Puyo Puyo and Tetris at intervals, which keeps the action exciting and can fuck up some good moves. I also love the crazy art style and great use of colors.

Overwatch

Date played: June 15th and 16th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is one of my best plays ever as Tracer. Defending on Volskaya, we hold the enemy team back at the first point. Their Genji and Lucio were annoying as hell...  I ended up fighting against every member of their team and even got the play of the game! I feel like most of their team ignored me unless in a one on one battle, so I managed to stay alive the whole match.

Rocket League

Date played: June 13th
Platform: PS4

During E3, Nintendo announced that Rocket League will be coming to Switch, which made me feel like playing this amazing game again a little bit. I ended up playing half a dozen matches last night and while I was rusty, I still had some sick moves and played pretty well. I got MVP a couple times, even though I didn't win all that much.

I push past all the opposition, which leads to a breakaway goal

I took the time to set up a new, cool looking car before playing, using one of the newer vehicles that I hadn't tried out yet. I think it looked real nice. Playing Rocket League again feels like getting into a comfortable pair of old slippers. Warm, cozy and comforting. The Switch should be a great platform to play this wonderful game, so I'm sure I'll be an idiot and buy this game a third fucking time. 

Gears of War 4

Date played: June 11th
Platform: Xbox One

I played the end of Act III, Origins, where the group finally finds Marcus Fenix, who had been captured by a Snatcher earlier. Thing is though, we had to fight the terrifying monster head on... But first, we had to fight many battles before, including a few difficult ones. There are new enemies thrown in, like deathly accurate snipers and morale boosting fatties that wield giant weapons. It's not an easy game.

Still, I fought through and faced the Snatcher that captured Marcus. These monsters are very difficult to beat. They can one shot kill anyone with their dart attack, they can swallow humans in one gulp and they run faster than they should... Still, it has some weaknesses. When it swallows a party member, it's belly can be shot to free the person and stun the beast. After dying more than a handful of times, I abused this tactic to kill the Snatcher.

Long story short, after the battle, the team conveniently found Marcus in one of the nearby pods. There was a cliche movie moment here, where they pretend like the guy is dead for way too long, then he miraculously wakes up after you think he's dead. Marcus vomits his heart out and gets ready to go.

The opening few chapters of Act IV were pretty simple in terms of story, but they were full of great action moments and fun battles. The combat is really the only reason I play this game, since the shooting is really satisfying. It's hard as fuck though. For example, at one point, I had to fight a Snatcher accompanied by half a dozen Drones and some Juvies... It was difficult.

The escape from the deep abyss that served as a home to the Snatchers was very exciting. The group of 4 got onto some big cables, then shot their holdings for a fast ride up to the top. What's cool here is that I was in control of the character as the rope climbed up! I had to dodge debris and even fucking Juvies as we ascended. I even shot a few enemies and mechanisms with my pistol as I went up. It was lots of fun and it looked great.

Outside, we had to face another windflare, but this time, there were a ton of enemies in the way... I jumped into a mechanical loader exosuit, straight out of Aliens. I could stomp enemies at close range or ram them from a distance with a sprinting move. This thing is extremely powerful and mows down enemies easily. It can also move large pieces of debris. I had to use it a few times in a couple of different spots.

Carriers are awesome

The most interesting battle was against a huge monster that looks a lot like a gorilla. Carriers are big, jumping enemies that are relatively sluggish, but have strong defenses. They can also shoot out little floating things that target the humans. I loved fighting these guys because they move slow enough to flank, but they take a shit ton of damage before they die.

The group is trying to find Kait's mother, though I'm not really sure where she is or where we are. But that doesn't matter. Shooting enemies is fun enough on it's own!

Action! Rope shit! Motherfucking monster gorillas!

WipEout Omega Collection

Date played: June 11th
Platform: PS4

I'm knee deep into the 2048 campaign, since that's the game that got the biggest upgrades and honestly, I tend to prefer 2048 to HD and Fury in general. I'm starting to unlock a few ships here, including the amazingly powerful Qirex fighter, which is slow and hard to handle, but has tons of health and strong weapons.

The Qirex fighter proved invaluable during the 3 or 4 combat events I raced in. Combat events are unique because they really aren't a race at all. In fact, they are closer to Mario Kart's balloon battles than anything else. The objective is to make as many points as possible by hitting opponents with weapons, or even better, destroying their ship. In this mode, there's even the option or turning the ship around to fire at incoming ships, which is really cool.

The Qirex Fighter speeds through debris and explosions during a combat event

The Qirex hits hard, so it's a really good ship to use for these events. I tend to focus on staying a little bit behind the pack, but not too far, then gathering weapons as fast as I can and shooting at everything that moves. It works pretty well. I also forgot that Zone mode was included in 2048, and it looks even cooler than in WipEout HD. I love this game...

Overwatch

Date played: June 11th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night isn't anything very special, but it does show that using the right character at the right time can make a big difference. We were being slaughtered, attacking the first point on Numbani, so I switched to Soldier 76 to be a bit more versatile (I was using McCree). Grouping up with our Reinhardt, I help push on the point and eventually take it, thanks to some powerful healing my Mercy and a bit of luck.

WipEout Omega Collection

Date played: June 10th
Platform: PS4

I didn't play a lot of games yesterday, but I managed a few races in WipEout 2048. One of the things that is most unique about 2048 is how it categorizes ships into different categories. While there are only 5 teams here, each has 4 ships with different stats. So far, I've only unlocked the regular Feisar and it's "Fighter" class counterpart. I also have the Qirex "Agility" ship. This makes it easier to pick a team based on their design instead of just their stats.

2048 has some of the coolest tracks in the series

I really like the tracks in 2048, since most of them have at least one shortcut or alternate route. They are also way more grounded than the other games, since this takes place about 50 years before. Everything is a little dirtier, everything is a little bit more believable. I played just a couple of events, and I was surprised to see myself placing 3rd in one event, but I think I had picked the wrong type of ship.

WipEout Omega Collection

Date played: June 9th
Platform: PS4

My first victory

The mid 90's were a strange time. The internet was just starting to be more common. Techno music and raves were at the height of their popularity. Hackers was a "cool" movie. The whole world was going through a transformation, thanks to the World Wide Web. At the same time, 3D graphics were becoming more and more common in video games.

That's when WipEout was born. A product of it's time, but also something that is so well designed, it might just be timeless. Racing games were still in their early days, at least for those attempting 3D graphics. I had been playing many PC games at this time, like The Need For Speed, Stunts, Screamer and Ridge Racer. Of course, I can't forget about F-Zero also, since WipEout so obviously inspired by it. It wasn't "really" 3D, but it was the first futuristic racer with a third person view.

Then I played Wipeout XL on PC. That was a fucking revelation! The antigravity craft soared around the twisting futuristic tracks, to the beat of heavy techno music. I fell in love right away and became a hardcore WipEout fanboy. This is seriously one of my top five game franchises in history, up there with Mario and Civilization. I played them all. The original on Saturn, XL on both PC and Playstation, Wip3out on PS1, WipEout 64, Fusion on PS2, Pure and Pulse on Vita, HD and Fury on PS3 and finally, 2048 on Vita. The series is fucking glorious and the only one I really don't like as much is Fusion.

WipEout Omega Collection gathers Wipeout HD, Fury and 2048 in one place. The graphics are improved for all games, but it's most apparent with 2048, since it was only released on Vita. It's really impressive actually. I really loved 2048 when I played it, and it's definitely one of my favorites in the series, so seeing it look so motherfucking good is quite a treat.

I played a few events in all three games. I played a shit ton of these games when they first released, so I still have the tracks memorized quite well, at least so far. I just love racing these things so much... I particularly enjoyed Zone mode in WipEout HD. In this mode, the craft accelerates constantly and speeds up gradually. The objective is to stay alive as long as possible. At first it's pretty easy, but soon enough, I was gripping the controller harder than a fat kid holds on to a candy bar, wrestling against physics as I tried to keep control of my ship.

That's what WipEout is all about. Fast, white-knuckled piloting in flashy environments, sleekly designed craft and thumping music. Bliss.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Date played: June 8th
Platform: Switch

I didn't play for that long, but I managed about an hour of exploring. I followed one of my markers, which led to a shrine in the southern portions of central Hyrule. I haven't climbed many towers yet, so I didn't see much of the map, so I followed the road towards the shrine. I spent a bit of time gathering ingredients, hunting and chopping down trees for fun along the way.

The shrine was kind of weird, because I solved it, but I'm fairly certain I didn't do it the intended way. The high-celinged room had three raised platforms in the corners. Nearby were 3 metal boxes stacked on top of each other, just high enough to reach the first platform. I put on my climbing gear, moved them a little bit with magnesis and reached the top. I got a chest, then did the same thing with the second platform.

That one had an elongated metal platform on it, which I could move with the spell. The third platform was very far away, and higher than the others, so I couldn't use the same trick to reach it. I decided to bring up the 3 boxes from the nearby platform and build a tower on top of the platform with them. I climbed it, jumped and glided to the final platform. I still have no idea why there was a long metal thing on the 2nd platform... I guess I could have built a sort of bridge? Who knows...

After a few upgrades, Hetsu remembered the way to his home

Just outside the shrine was Hetsu, the Korok forest guy who can upgrade my equipment. I had found about 13 korok seeds since the last time I saw him, so I was able to afford quite a few upgrades. I now have 12 melee weapon slots, 6 bow slots and 6 shield slots. It helps a lot! I also picked up a couple of side quests from a nearby stable.

I decided to head to the nearest tower to reveal more of the map, so I went south, near the opening area of the game. I fought a few monsters and gathered more materials during my travels, then reached a giant stone bridge. That's when I had my best "Oh shit!" moment of the game so far.

Before me, gliding graciously through the air, stood a beautiful dragon, surrounded by sparks of lightning. I admired it for a while, watching it's movements. It didn't seem hostile, but it didn't seem all that friendly either. He was pretty far, so I watched him as he slowly flew around the area, then went up into the sky, disappearing inside a mysterious vortex. That's when I had to stop playing, but the tower isn't that far away, so I'll continue my journey towards it next time. 

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Date played: June 5th
Platform: Switch

It seems my obsession with cooking continues... I spent a good amount of time just crafting recipes and selling my best meals. I then spent a bit of this money buying a helmet and some arrows, then went to upgrade the helmet at the Fairy Fountain. I also spent some time recoloring my different outfits...

After all this, I thought I should try to explore a little bit, and a lot of people had been talking to me about Mount Lanayru, a large mountain on the eastern side of the map. It turns out, I probably approached this whole thing the wrong way. I underestimated the distance of the mountain I think.

I came in from the south, near Hateno Lab, thinking I could climb my way to the mountain. It kind of worked, but the problem is that it's really cold up there, so I had to eat cold resistance food to even progress. I fought some new enemies, some ice lizard men. They are pretty damn tough, but I'm getting a lot better at combat now and rarely get hit by normal enemies. At least for now...

After a while, I figured out that I wasn't gonna make it all the way to Lanayru without some cold resistance armor, but there was a shrine nearby, so I went there to add a fast travel point, do a fun puzzle and get an orb. I got the fast travel and the orb, but unfortunately, I didn't get a fun puzzle... This whole shrine was just a fucking treasure chest! At least it was a good one, it contained some great climbing boots.

Exploring the world is a lot of fun

I fast travelled back to Kakariko village and decided to head towards some of the markers I had placed much earlier in the game. I ended up at another shrine, but this one was a lot cooler. The Sunken Scoop shrine required that I use my magnet power to grab a large metal scoop at the bottom of a basin, then use it to scoop up some metal balls and drop them into a bucket. The second room was a bit more complicated, as I had to drop a ball on top of a cage, then let the scoop sink to the bottom of the basin to activate a switch that would open the cage, letting the ball drop. No treasure here, but a great little shrine.

I explored a little bit along the way, gathering materials and trying to improve my knowledge of the land. My horse was very helpful here, and I even practiced fighting on horseback, which works WAY better than in previous Zelda games, such as Twilight Princess. 

Overwatch

Date played: June 3rd and 4th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is more like a play of the weekend. I really didn't get much time to play video games lately, but I managed a few matches of Overwatch here and there. This play has me defending on Route 66 as Symmetra. I had a hard time setting up at the first checkpoint, which we lost quickly, but I had better luck defending the second checkpoint.

Early on in the play, I place my teleporter on the ground, but I really didn't think things through that well when I put it down. It was too easy to shoot, and it was destroyed by Soldier, who was attacking from a ledge above. After this though, I have a nice rush to the point, kill the Soldier in question, then protect the objective a few seconds. I then team up with D.Va to rush the enemies as they gathered in a little room, trying to move forward. I melted face after face as I bum rushed the opponents with my laser beam. I ended up killing Mercy, McCree and Sombra in quick succession, earning myself a play of the game in the process. 

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Date played: May 31st
Platform: Switch

Well, I didn't play as much as I wanted because I was dead tired last night. Instead, I spent a few minutes in Kakariko village and picked up a side quest that led me to the Fairy Fountain to take a picture of it. I took advantage of my visit to upgrade the new armor I bought in Hateno.

Then, I spent a bunch of time just cooking. In fact, I'm really starting to understand the cooking system, and I'm starting to take advantage of it too. I filled up my inventory with food, but still had tons of ingredients, so I sold the most valuable meals I made for a lot of rupees. Since I only have 5 hearts right now, a lot of the stronger meals are simply too powerful for me, so I can just sell them for now. I also have a bunch of food items to heal when needed. At least I'm ready to head out and adventure now...

The Hearty Salt-Grilled Prime Meat was my most powerful meal creation

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Date played: May 30th
Platform: Switch

Breath of the Wild is starting to get it's hooks into me... It's weird, the game is similar to a lot of other open world adventure games, but it has a bit of a different philosophy. Usually, open world games litter the map with icons of things to do and places to go. Zelda is different, where the map doesn't show much except location names and the layout of the land. This means that it encourages real exploration a lot more than other games.

I found myself messing around in Hateno Village, speaking to everyone, visiting the shops and just walking around. After doing this for some time, I decided to take care of a side quest that required me to go to Hateno beach and kill 7 monsters there, who have been causing problems for a farm in Hateno Village.

I walked towards the beach, taking pictures and gathering items as I went. The view was spectacular, with the ocean nearby and lots of big hills and cliffs. I ran into some new enemies, found some new item types and fought monsters that were a little too strong for me.

The 7 monsters at the beach were not easy to kill. The group of Bokoblins and Moblins were much stronger than what I've fought so far. They had more health and more dangerously, stronger weapons. This also meant that I got to play with some new weapons, including a very reliable spear. One thing that's been bugging me a bit is that one handed weapons are kind of rare it seems. I much prefer them to two handed weapons, but I often have to resort to the latter due to the game's durability system.

Fighting at Hateno Beach

After clearing the beach of enemies, I went back to Hateno to turn in the quest, then went to Kakariko village to learn about the photo memories. It seems that I have 12 pictures in my album that were taken by Zelda herself back before Link was frozen in time. I must figure out a way to get to these locations based on the pictures to unlock "memories". I have a feeling it's gonna be pretty hard to find them.

I'm not sure what I want to do next, but I feel like I should probably start heading in the direction of a Divine Beast, though I'm sure I'll run into a ton of fun shit to do along the way.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Date played: May 29th
Platform: Switch

Well, I'm on a trip for work for a couple of weeks, so it was the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the Switch's portability. I figured I might as well get back into Zelda, since I ignored it in favor of Horizon for a long time.

When I first booted up the game last night, I had forgotten the controls and was scrambling to figure stuff out again, but after a few minutes I was ok. I also decided to bring my Pro controller since it's so much better than the Joy Con. This was a wise decision... Everything feels just a little bit better with the Pro controller.

I had left off at Hateno Village, but I haven't actually explored the village proper yet. Instead, I spent some time fiddling with the new picture taking abilities of my Sheikah Slate. I ended up wasting so much time just taking pictures of stuff I ran into... It's kind of fun really.

Then, I got a bit frustrated because I got a quest to go to Hateno Beach, but I didn't have the map open for this area yet, so I spotted the tower in the distance and headed there. I fought a few enemies on the way, which was a good refresher for the game's combat system. I even practiced parrying with my shield when I found an unescorted enemy.

I practiced parrying with this guy for a while

Parries are difficult to pull off though. Locked on to the enemy, Link must have his shield raised, then the parry button must be pressed just prior to impact. The enemy is then stunned and loses hold of it's weapon. It can be followed up with strong jumping attacks and such. It's a great move, but it's risky... The window of opportunity is very short.

It turns out, that damn tower was a lot further than I expected. It didn't look this big from a distance, but when I got there, I was surprised by the height of this building. The climb was fun, as I had to navigate through some spiky thorns that grew around the structure. I got to the top, got my map filled out a bit and jumped down, gliding across a large river to safety, towards Hateno Village.

Back in town, I started lighting blue-flamed lanterns, scattered around the city. I don't know why I did this, but it's quite satisfying. That's because I can now spot Hateno Village easily in darkness from a distance. I then decided to complete side quest that asked for a picture of a specific mushroom. I headed towards the nearby forest, fighting Bokoblins, Moblins and Keese. I got my picture and turned in the quest.

Now here, I got a little confused, because the dude at the lab showed me how to unlock pictures of the past, or something. I didn't quite understand this part... I stopped playing at the entrance of the village, so I'll start exploring it next time I play.

I'm starting to find myself just walking around, killing some stuff, picking up some stuff, taking pictures of stuff, doing other dumb stuff. I love it! I'm also noticing some serious performance improvements since the last time I played, which was prior to any real patches. The game runs noticeably better in general, so that's really cool. 

Day of the Tentacle Remastered

Date played: May 28th
Platform: PS4

To kill a few minutes before bed, I played juuuuuust a little bit of Day of the Tentacle. It's nice to have a relaxing and funny adventure game like this to play once in a while. Last night, I did a few things, but the most important was that I managed to power up both Hoagie's and Laverne's time travelling porta-potties.

Laverne had the best scenario, as she had to find a way for the dolled up mummy to win the human contest. The three categories are hair, smile and laugh. The first thing to do was to eliminate the best competitor by throwing fake barf on the floor next to her. The guards believe the human to be sick, so they disqualify her. Great!

My friend the inanimate mummy, shown here in the human contest of the tentacle people.

The fork that held up the spaghetti and meatballs wig on the mummy worked wonders and awed the judges. The horse dentures made for a nice, big smile. The judges discussed if whiteness mattered or not, since the mummy's teeth were disgustingly yellow, but in the end they decided that size was the most important factor. Finally, the robotic voice box stolen from the mutilated corpse of a balloon clown impressed the judges even more than the spaghetti wig! "Ha. Ha. Ha." the voice box emitted. Our mummy won the human contest!

I did other weird shit like this with Bernard and Hoagie. Hoagie's quest was a bit duller, but still, it had exploding cigars, smoke signals, a canary that doesn't need to feed turned into a smoke alarm, etc. All sorts of dumb, funny stuff.

The only thing left to do is find a crystal so that Bernard can power his time machine. I think I'm close now, since I know I have to get the contract signed, but I have to explore a bit more first.

Overwatch

Date played: May 28th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is a badass push as Soldier 76 on Anubis point B.

I survived an absurdly long time, fighting off spawn campers, since we had been having problems pushing for the last 3 or 4 minutes. Thankfully, I got a ton of kills from safety, then pushed forward when the momentum was on our side. I used Tactical Visor to attack the choke point, then our Mei used hers, trapping a group of 3 in the corner, fresh for the picking! I rushed in and shot them all to death, then with our Reinhardt just catching up to the play, we took the point in a flash. It was a very fun "life".

Overwatch

Date played: May 27th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is classic Lucio on Lijiang Tower. Lots of action, lots of Ultimates and lots of jumping around! I die at the very end of the round, but it was enough for us to capture the point. Lucio is great at just staying alive and on point, which matters more than you could think.

Day of the Tentacle Remastered

Date played: May 26th
Platform: PS4

I wanted to play something slow and relaxing late last night, so I booted up Day of the Tentacle. I still had a few ideas to move stuff forward, but none of what I was doing worked. You see, old adventure games like this are particularly inscrutable at times. I had to resort to a guide to progress unfortunately. Seriously... Here's one example from last night.

Mattresses, Rubber Mice and Cartoon Animals

1. As Hoagie, use mattress with bed
2. Use bed to make it squeak and distract nearby cat
3. Steal rubber mouse from distracted cat
4. Send rubber mouse to Laverne in the future through the time travelling toilet
5. Use Boo-Boo Be Gone lotion on fence
6. Scare black cat away to make him go under the fence
7. Cat now has appearance of skunk because he rubbed his back on the white creamy lotion when he crossed the fence
8. Lure cat-skunk hybrid with rubber mouse and put cat in pocket

I don't even know what to do with the cat-skunk hybrid yet! So playing this is super weird and kind of frustrating, but using a walkthrough is letting me enjoy the game's great sense of humor, well written dialogue and fun animations while still being able to progress without going nuts. And this was just one example of many!

Getting a safe combination by recording a sleepwalking scientist being arrested by the IRS. Yes, for real.

I put a horse to sleep by giving him a lecture, I dressed up a mummy to look nicer with some spaghetti hair, dentures and a fork, I recorded the professor's safe combination through a closed circuit television system, after making him sleepwalk by giving him decaf coffee. Basically, this whole game is insane and it's funny as hell to see the absurdity play out.

Overwatch

Date played: May 26th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is absolutely spectacular. I play as Zarya on Illios, however, it's not one of my good plays... In fact, it's one of my most humiliating plays ever. To make things even worse, my buddy from work, playing Lucio, met the same fate as me. I'll just let the video do the talking.

Gears of War 4

Date played: May 24th
Platform: Xbox One

I played through 5 chapters of Act III, and it was the most interesting part of the game so far... with one exception, which I'll get to soon. Having escaped First Minister Jinn's robots, JD, Kait, Del and Marcus head for a mine near a big fort from the time before the war.

It wasn't long before we encountered some weird shit. A gelatinous, disgusting blob or organic matter stood in the path the team wanted to go through. Marcus cut through it with his chainsaw, only to find a human corpse undergoing some sort of transformation. Soon after that, we found dozens more pods, but they were more mature. When we sliced those open, a new enemy type emerged, a transformed (evolved?) human that became a feral, dangerous beast.

So this is the part I didn't like... Those enemies, nicknamed Juvies, are interesting conceptually, but in battle, they are fucking awful. They don't have a lot of health, but they move very quickly, dodge well and jump around a lot, making them difficult to hit. It's really rare that I enjoy these types of enemies in video games... The worst offender is probably the Flood from the Halo series. In this game, it wouldn't be that bad, except that the Xbox One is getting pretty slow and old, and it shows. These guys become so much harder to hit and track because of the poor framerate... Still, I fought my way through them quite often, either with the Gnasher shotgun or the Lancer assault rifle.

These are Juvies, and they fucking suck

Another new enemy appeared, nicknamed the Snatcher. As Marcus prepared to fire on it, a second Snatcher appeared and grabbed Marcus, storing him in it's large belly, then ran off. JD was devastated, but determined to find his father. Kait was also affected, mainly because she now understood how her mother was taken. It's also obvious that the Snatchers capture humans to put them into those pods.

So the group follows the Snatcher's trail to find and save Marcus. This leads them through the historical site of the fort. This place is fucking huge, and it's filled with lots of big, interesting buildings. The architecture in this series has always been fantastic. It's rare that buildings in video games feel real, but this game nails it.

Soon enough, another new enemy type emerged from a nest in the ground, very similar to the emergence holes in the previous games. They are even destroyed by frag grenades, just like the first games. These guys are called Drones, and they are basically Juvies that evolved a bit longer. They carry guns, they are tough motherfuckers and they are very fun to fight.

There were lots of big battles as we moved throughout the fort, and those are always a lot of fun. Playing on Hardcore means I die a lot, but so far, I haven't hit a point where I can't progress, so I think I'm gonna be ok. Speaking of difficult stuff, another new enemy type caused me lots of trouble. Pouncers are quadruped beasts that are heavily armored and that pounce on unsuspecting humans from a long distance. The problem is that they take a LOT of bullets to kill, which means that each battle is a struggle. I died a lot against these guys, but I'm starting to see that letting them attack my teammates first is a good way to beat them.

At the end of the fort, we found a hole in the ground where the Snatcher went, so of course, we followed. The hole led to some catacombs, crawling with enemies, then later, we reached the mine that Marcus was talking about. The next level was another "special" level, where the team had to defend a position with the help of a fabricator and it's powerful defenses.

The whole scene was set on a giant excavating machine, meant to carry people and ore back to the surface from the mines. However, the machine was heavily damaged by the enemies, which led to some complications as we went down. I died a lot here also, but after a few deaths, I found better strategies to deal with the swarm of enemies.

I stopped playing after we reached the bottom of the mine, but I'm excited to see where the game goes from here. 

Overwatch

Date played: May 23rd
Platform: PS4

There's a new event for Overwatch's first year anniversary! There's a bunch of new, amazing looking skins and lots of new emotes and other cosmetics. Also included in the patch are some hero changes, though there's only really two heroes that are getting major changes.

Orisa's damage has been reduced by 9%, which is a lot, but her shield cooldown went down from 12 seconds to 8 seconds. This means she is now better at defending her team, but is less proficient at killing enemies. Hanzo got a pretty big boost also, because his bow fully charges a lot faster, effectively giving him more damage per second.  There's other minor changes, including some changes to how Genji wall climbs and a slight drop in damage to Soldier 76. Oh yeah and Reinhardt got a minor update too! His Earthshatter now climbs up to 2 meters on top of objects instead of 3.

So anyway, today's play of the night was so fucking easy to pick... I had one of my best runs ever as Soldier 76, defending the first point on Hollywood. Granted, the other team wasn't very smart about their team composition or their movement, but still. I even managed to flank them all and get some kills near spawn and survived. It's kind of a longer video, but I get a 25 kill streak in it... so enjoy!

Bound

Date played: May 22nd
Platform: PS4

I finished Bound!

It turns out, my daughter and I only had a couple of levels left in the game, so we took some time yesterday afternoon to play it together. The last two levels were both wonderful, featuring brighter colors than the rest of the game.

The coolest section was when I had to jump on large violet balls, floating in mid-air. The game does some funny stuff with gravity on these, reminiscent of tricks used in Super Mario Galaxy. However, it wasn't as refined as what was seen in Nintendo's game. I had a bit of trouble doing the jumps I wanted to do, simply because the game is a little rough around the edges. Still, I really enjoyed the change of pace and spectacular visuals.

Bound is one of a kind

Like I've said before though, Bound is more about the experience than the mechanics, so a lot of it is just wandering through beautiful, abstract landscapes that fuck with your perspective. The little bit of story unfolded rather quickly too.

Through a series of "3D paintings" that materialize in front of the player during special scenes, I learned a lot. The pregnant woman on the beach is writing a story through drawings, and the characters in the game's world represent different people in her family. When she was a child, her parents had many fights, which were witnessed by her and her brother. Throughout the game, little bits of their home life is revealed in these paintings. In the later levels, it became clear that the father of the family left them at a young age and was absent from their lives.

It's also clear that the game's heroine, the princess, is really just the pregnant woman, seeing herself in a creative way. When she was young, the woman loved to dance, as evidenced by some of the items I found in the paintings. Her mother was personified by the Queen. Her brother was one of the big creatures roaming around.  Finally, and obviously, her absent father is the creature that the Princess chases throughout the game. It was really fucking sad really.

At the very end of the game, it is revealed that the woman is actually on the beach near her father's house. She somehow tracked him down... I was given the choice to either knock at the door to the father's home, or get into a car and leave.

This was an important moment, and I wanted to see what my daughter would do. At first, she told me I should get in the car, but then when I explained that it was her long lost father in the house, she told me I should knock. I don't really know why, but my daughter's decision made me very emotional... The woman knocked and when the door opened, she handed the sketch book over to her father, then the credits rolled.

Bound was a very cool experience. I think the visual style and the animation is what really kept me interested, but the music was good, the platforming was decent and the story had some interesting elements to it. I loved playing it and it was a great bonding experience for me and my daughter.

Overwatch

Date played: May 22nd
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is one of my rare good runs as Tracer. I kind of forget about her sometimes, but she's one of the most fun heroes to play in Control maps. I kind of just defaulted to Soldier when we need an attack hero, but maybe I should spend more time with Tracer instead.

In this play, I roam around our objective, defending it from attackers. I was a better Tracer than theirs, so I took her out a few times. I also messed with their Hanzo quite a bit, though he's one of the few that managed to kill me. I also mess with Soldier and Mercy. This short video shows me getting a 10 kill streak and helping my team secure the point.

Bound

Date played: May 21st
Platform: PS4

Bound has sort of become the game that I play with my daughter lately, and we played one level together yesterday. This was a fantastic level... In fact, I think it might have been my favorite level yet. As usual, it opens with the lady on the beach, reading her book. She's getting closer and closer to the beach house as it started raining. Then we jumped into the notebook for another fun level.

So somehow, something went bad and broken, infected by the nasty evil cubes that are seen throughout the game. I think it's the fault of the big guy with the blank face that I've been working with and against since the beginning of the game. He blames me for the mess, then runs away.

This level was jaw-dropping

It's all kind of non-sense, but it led to some really interesting platforming. Most of the level played with perspective a lot, reminiscent of an M.C. Escher painting. There was even some great use of doorways and stairs. Nothing in this game is ever difficult at all. There's a few spots that require precise jumping, but the whole thing is really forgiving. It's more like an experience than a challenge, which is pretty refreshing. It wouldn't be worth it in a regular game I think, but Bound's unique art style and clever use of perspective makes it interesting to play, even if it's easy as hell.

The story is revealing itself a little bit, slowly. In the scenes at the end of each level, there's more and more of the story of a family. The only thing I can make out of it so far is that something traumatic happened. I love Bound for it's amazing art style, abstract levels and great animation. 

Overwatch

Date played: May 21st
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is not very flashy, but it still has a very big impact. I played with my brother, who brought his PS4 over for some dual TV play. We had tons of great plays together, but this one might be my favorite of the night. Winston isn't a great killer, and he isn't a great defender, but he's the best hero to harass the enemy team with.

In this play, I roam around the first choke point, messing with Symmetra and Mei. I run back for health packs quite a bit, then I see an opportunity to take down Mei. I jump her and with McCree's help, we kill her. I then take out Mercy and Sombra, protect the point from Junkrat and pop my Primal Rage Ultimate right as I was about to die. I push the enemy Roadhog into a corner, stopping him and anyone else from reaching the point. As I died, I heard the announcer pronounce the first point captured, and I knew I had done my job well. 

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Date played: May 18th and 19th
Platform: Switch

I've been playing lots of Mario Kart on and off here and there, playing an online race or two when time permits. Overall, I'm still doing pretty good, but the victories are getting rarer as I move up in rank. The racers are more tenacious, have better driving lines and are more accurate with their items. Still, I'm a good racer and I keep up with most people, usually fighting for the first 4 or 5 positions.

I race underwater as Mario

Yeah, there are times where I fall behind, or get a string of bad luck, I mean, this IS Mario Kart after all, but overall, I'm happy with how I'm racing. I also experimented with a few more characters and found that if I just fiddle with the wheels and gliders, I can find something that I like with most characters. The very light characters are still not my favorite, but some of the mediums have been good for me. I particularly like regular Mario, simply because he's got some fantastic animations and sounds. 

Overwatch

Date played: May 18th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is kind of weak, but I was pretty weak overall last night, so that's not too surprising. This play isn't amazing of flashy, but it was just enough for us to win the match at the first point.

Day of the Tentacle Remastered

Date played: May 16th
Platform: PS4

I needed to play a slow ass game last night after a few hours of intense combat in Gears of War 4, so I spent some time with Day of the Tentacle Remastered. I did a lot of different things, but not too many that led to any results. One thing that I didn't quite understand the last time I played is that the game takes place in the same location for all three characters, but in different time periods. The building has almost the exact same layout in all time periods... This made it a lot easier to navigate and find my bearings. Laverne is still stuck in a tree

As Hoagie, I explored a little bit more and ended up having a conversation with George Washington. I learned that the man has a wooden denture and that he loves to chop down cherry trees. Now, he wouldn't go out and show me how good he is at chopping trees, because the only trees he chops are cherry trees, but the only trees in the area are Kumquat, which have yellow fruit. So obviously, I took some red paint and painted the kumquat fruit red. This was enough to fool the founding father and he chopped the tree down!

Cut to Laverne, stuck in a tree in the future. The tree disappears due to the chopping done by Washington and Laverne falls down on her ass, only to be immediately captured by a tentacle guard. It's obvious that in the future, the world has been taken over by the tentacles and that humans have been reduced to circus animals at best.

Laverne gets electrocuted trying to escape from her jail cell

I spoke with my cellmates a little bit, an old man and a couple that are playing cards. They weren't much help, so I had Laverne call out to the guard. One option has her complaining about stomach pains, the other about having to pee. This leads to opportunities to explore more than just a jail cell and to a lot of useful information. It became apparent that if I was going to make any progress in the future, I would need a tentacle costume! I found a pattern that details how to draw a tentacle guy, then sent it to Hoagie through the time travelling toilet.

Hoagie then gave it to a seamstress, who accidentally turned it into the nation's flag, replacing the iconic stars and stripes. Back in the future, Laverne simply had to tear off a flag from a pole and put it on like a shirt, and she now looked like a tentacle!

I did a lot more stuff, but this is what stands out the most. The situations presented in this game are so fucking ridiculous that I can't help but laugh out loud once in a while. I honestly wish there were more games with funny, silly writing like this. I mean, it's not stupid the same way that something like a children's TV show. It's stupid in a Leslie Nielsen kinda way, which is a very rare breed of comedy these days. 

Gears of War 4

Date played: May 16th
Platform: Xbox One

I felt like shooting shit last night, so I booted up Gears of War 4 and played through a good chunk of the game. We continued the mission, which was to extract a special device called a fabricator from a robot-infested facility. Oscar is still waiting outside, and Del is operating the elevator. JD and Kait go down a few levels with the elevator, but Del has trouble operating it.

This led to a few battles on the large elevator as Del scrambled to get us moving again.We got the fabricator and carried it back to the elevator, then of course, there was more fighting. The longer range weapons are pretty difficult to use, partly because of the game's iffy performance. I mean, the game looks pretty damn good and it runs well enough to play, but it's clear that the Xbox One is really pushing it's limits with this game. After playing Horizon on a PS4 Pro, the lackluster performance is even more evident...

Anyway, we fought our way way out of the facility with the fabricator in hand. Unfortunately, we had a special visitor waiting for us in. First Minister Jinn, the lady who gave the speech during the opening moments of the game, shows up. She isn't in person though, instead, she uses her robots as proxies, projecting a hologram of her face on the robot's head. Mysteriously, she accused us of "stealing her people", which are the remnants of the COG.

That's when things got super weird. Out of nowhere, a transport train rammed straight into Jinn, destroying her robot proxy. Then the cart stopped and opened it's doors for us, displaying the words "Get in" on it's monitor. We took the fabricator and got into the little train, puzzled by it's unexplained presence.

The next mission was more straight-forward. We just had to carry the fabricator through the facility, fighting enemies along the way. There were some new bad guys here, bigger and more dangerous robots. Some of them carry very large, heavy weapons, like miniguns. Others carry the Overkill shotgun, which is a savage weapon at close range. Finally, I encountered some snipers. They are pretty damn accurate and their shots hit really hard, but they don't have much health. Still, just getting into position to have a decent shot at them is pretty tough.

We managed to get the fabricator back to the village. The village chief, also Kait's mother, is a woman named Rayna. She's a real fighter and takes no bullshit. She doesn't exactly welcome our return and she blames us for Jinn's attacks on the village. There isn't much time to talk though as the COG forces are rapidly approaching the village.

This mission was a lot different than the others. I had to fortify the village's defenses then hold any attackers at bay. Using the fabricator, I was able to build some defenses, including some automatic turrets and some barriers to slow down enemies. There were about 3 waves of enemies, and I was able to rebuild defenses between waves, so that was fun. I even had to fight a new, very dangerous enemy type, the Kestrel.

Kestrel are kind of like a small helicopter or VTOL and are protected by a shield. The shield can be shot down rather quickly, then the vehicle can be shot. The shield regenerates also, so it's important to do as much damage as possible while it recharges. They are challenging, but lots of fun to fight. I won that battle without too much trouble, but it was a long mission.

There were a lot of cut-scenes after the fight. At one point, we brought the fabricator inside a building, but Rayna locked us inside to keep us safe. That's because a new type of enemy made it's appearance. There are mysterious, dark creatures that roam around the buildings. They are not fully revealed yet, but they seem to be savage beasts that want to attack anything that moves. In fact, JD, Kait and Del had to watch in horror as both Oscar and Rayna are captured by the monsters. It's not clear if they were eaten, killed or just transported somewhere else...

After a long time, the crew figures out a way to escape the building, but the battle has been over for a while. During the battle, Rayna managed to cut off one of the monster's hands, which is covered in small yellow crystals. When JD picks it up, he implies that only one person will know how to help. That person is none other than Marcus Fenix, which, it turns out, is JD's father!

Marcus lives in a derelict mansion, so the team heads there and find the old man in a small building. He's angry at first, since there's clearly some sort of long standing disagreement between him and JD, but he changes his behaviour as soon as he sees the monster's hand. But there wasn't much time for conversation as the COG followed the team to the mansion and attacks the old property.

This fight was really just a one on one against a Kestrel, but this time it's armed with rockets in addition to it's regular guns. The rockets are deadly and will kill JD in one or two hits at most, so it's pretty challenging. Still, the environment was easy hide in and I took it down quickly.

With no means of transportation available at the mansion, the team hunkers down and walks towards the estate's barn, where Marcus has a special little something hidden. There was a wind flare happening too... so we had to take cover through the forest. I even fought a few robots during the wind flare, which looked absolutely stunning visually. The robots stumble in the wind and their remains fly in the air after being destroyed. It was really spectacular.

The motorcycle level was really fun!

At the barn, we were quickly surrounded by Jinn's forces, but Marcus still had his little surprise. This turned out to be a pair of motorcycles known as Mules, which the team uses to escape the estate. I spent the entirety of the next mission riding that sweet bike, avoiding obstacles and firing on random robots at high speeds. This is another mission that just looks so cool. At the end of the mission, I even had to fight a god damned bomber plane while riding the bike! I had to shoot out it's engines, weapons and secondary engines. I was then able to attack the engine's core to eventually destroy the giant aircraft. I loved it. I stopped playing as I reached Chapter 3, but I'm excited to see what happens next. 

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Date played: May 15th
Platform: Switch

I played a few online races last night and for the first time, I was put into a lobby with people that had a higher skill rating than me, and it was really fucking obvious! Even the worst of racers in this group was powersliding efficiently and doing tricks on jumps. It was completely hectic and felt like anyone could win.

One of the 3 Rainbow Roads in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

I did pretty well, considering I was the lowest ranked player in the lobby. I had a few bad races, placing 10th or 11th, but I had a few good ones too. I had one victory against these guys, and it felt like I worked really hard for it, which made it that much more satisfying. Eventually, some players left and new players joined, lowering the overall skill in the lobby, and I began winning more.

Also, I feel like I'm doing a little bit better when I'm using my new Pro Controller, as the joystick is a bit more "solid" and the triggers are easier to press. I might need to look into a kart setup that has a bit more acceleration, but we'll see.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Date played: May 14th
Platform: Switch

Man, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a great game... Since buying the game, I find myself picking up my Switch way more often than before, even when I wasn't even planning on playing. Yesterday, I ended up playing it a few times, for pretty short periods each time.

I really spend all my time in the online race mode. Shit, I haven't even tried the brand new battle mode! I've been performing really well with Donkey Kong...  I also messed around with Lakitu in a heavy car, which worked really well but was a bit too light for my tastes.

Lakitu is a cutie!

I'm kind of surprised at how well I'm doing now actually. I think this will change with time as my ranking goes up, but right now, there's usually only 1 or 2 racers that pose a real threat in most lobbies. I'm usually in the top 3, but I've been winning more than usual.

I do best on tracks that allow for long drifts and don't have too many extreme corners, since my car is pretty fast, but it's also real heavy, so a succession of tight corners is hard to handle. I did end up in a challenging lobby for a few races. I'd say that about half the players in the lobby had a real chance at victory. They had good racing lines and were fast, which is a little bit unusual, at least from what I've played so far. I'm not complaining though because these were the most exciting races of the day, even if I struggled to break into the top 3. Hell, I felt good about a 6th place in that lobby! 

Jack Box Party Pack 3

Date played: May 13th
Platform: PS4

I watched the Sens win their first game against the Penguins in the NHL conference final with my brother and some friends last night. After the game, the 6 of us played Jack Box Party Pack 3 for a while. Trivia Murder Party was a good game to start with. I led the match the whole game with solid trivia answers, but I was beaten by a hair in the last round.

Tee K.O. was great too, with a few fantastic shirts produced by our group. However, the shirts we made last time I played were definitely funnier. Quiplash 2 is one of my favorite games, since we get to flex our creative writing muscles, but it's not for everyone. For example, my sister in law hated it because she isn't great at writing quickly. Still, some of the funniest shit comes out of this game.

The biggest hit of the night was Fakin' It. Finding the faker is a lot harder than it sounds, but the third round questions are great at identifying him. For example, we had a question that said "Raise your hand if you have brown eyes", which is pretty damn hard to fake. Bottom line, Jack Box Party Pack 3 feels like the future of social board games. It's a great way to play, and playing on our phones just makes it even easier.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Date played: May 12th
Platform: Switch

I didn't have much time to play games last night, but I still managed to do a bit of stuff in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. I spent some time in the Time Trial mode to try out a few kart combinations to be as comfortable as possible in the online mode. I settled on Donkey Kong, with the out of place Mercedes W25 Silver Arrow, a relatively heavy vehicle with high speed and acceleration. I am using Button wheels and one of the lighter gliders. This gives me a lot of speed and acceleration as well as really good handling.

My three online victories from last night

The results spoke for themselves once I hopped online. Out of 4 races in full 12 player lobbies, I won 3 and placed 3rd once. I'm sure I've said this before, but even with all the random items and bias against the top racers, the bottom line is that skill is more important than anything in Mario Kart. Sure, there's the occasional race where items will destroy you, taking a player from 1st place to 12th in a few seconds, but most of the time, a solid racing line and smart driving will yield good results. 

Overwatch

Date played: May 11th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the night is a hectic attack on Lijiang Tower's Control Center map as Soldier 76. The enemy team has a massive force on the point, but I pick at them from a distance, then when I see an opportunity, I use my Ultimate for a solid triple kill. I then take out a Junkrat with my rockets, heal through a McCree's attacks, then get nano-boosted by Ana. This allowed me to destroy the McCree, then quickly kill a nearby Hanzo. I was taken out by a wild Rip-Tire after this, but we won the match. 

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Date played: May 10th
Platform: Switch

I messed around some more with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe last night. I wanted to try out the new characters a little bit, so I completed a few single player GP's at 150cc. I played with Bowser Jr., Inkling Girl, King Boo and Dry Bones.

I'm usually not a fan of lighter characters, but Inkling Girl wasn't too bad. She seems to be about mid weight, similar to Mario and Luigi, but the reason I liked her is because of her amazing animations. As in Splatoon, Inkling Girl is a weird ass hybrid between a human and a squid. During tricks, she'll sometimes change shapes and show her cephalopodic form, which just looks really cool.

King Boo is one of the new characters

I had a good time with Dry Bones and Bowser Jr. also, but had to give them fast and heavy karts to get them to feel right. King Boo is definitely more my style, as he's even heavier than Donkey Kong. However, being a white ghost, he's kind of boring during races and doesn't show a lot of great animation like the others did. Still, I might use him once in a while.

I played online a few times too, but not too much. I did relatively well, though I did have one awful race where I placed 11th... I made the podium a few times, but mostly placed between 4th and 6th. I still haven't found the right kart and part combo, but I'm trying out different things, so we'll see.

Overwatch

Date played: May 10th
Platform: PS4

Today's play of the game is an aggressive defensive play as Symmetra, defending the last point on Dorado. We actually held the last point for over 8 minutes, since we played like shit for the first few checkpoints. Still, we managed to win anyway, and I think I had a good deal to do with that.

Most of our team had just died to a D.Va self-destruct and their Reinhardt was on point. Knowing I didn't stand a chance, I still moved to the payload and started attacking the Reinhardt, but he used his Ultimate and killed me rather quickly. I wasn't expecting our Mercy to revive me though, which led to a barbaric sequence as I melted down about 4 enemies with my primary weapon. That shit feels good man.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Date played: May 9th
Platform: Switch

A quick search on this blog will show that I've played a LOT of Mario Kart 8 when it first came out on Wii U. In fact, I've played a lot of Mario Kart in my life overall. I've told this story before, but Super Mario Kart is one of the games that sparked my love for both racing games and multiplayer games, when I played it against my brother in our basement during rainy days and cold winter days.

It's pretty rare that I buy a game twice, but this situation is a bit different. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a rerelease of the the Wii U original, which came out in 2014. It includes all of the base game plus DLC, as well as a few new characters and an apparently much improved battle mode. They've also added the ability to carry two items at once and a couple of new items. I've only messed around with the game a little bit, playing one single player GP and a few online races.

Mario Kart is back!

So far, this is the Mario Kart 8 I know and love, but now it's portable on Switch. It runs beautifully and looks stunning on the machine's great screen. The controls are perfect and everything is super polished. I now have to unlock all the parts for karts and stuff, so that's been fun. It also means I don't have my favorite kart combo yet, but I still only used Donkey Kong.

Online, I played rather well, placing on the podium a few times, but I didn't manage a victory. My worst performance was 6th out of 12, so not too bad. Having two items at once is really cool and makes for more action during a race.

Fast RMX

Date played: May 9th
Platform: Switch

Well, as I spent my time on a boring call at work today, I managed to complete a few Fast RMX championships. The last few cups were really cool, where many of the tracks are trickier, and most importantly, some of them are much longer tracks.

I struggled a few times, but eventually I placed at least 2nd in the last 3 cups. My favorite of the later tracks is set in a desert where there's a lot of areas that are more open than usual. It kind of reminded me of Wipeout Fusion, the ill-fated PS2 racer.

This desert track is fucking great!

Placing on the podium for all cups at the lowest speed was hard... Now I've got even harder events ahead of me thanks to the second speed class, Supersonic. I unlocked a new ship that has maximum acceleration and high boost, along with low weight. Sure, it's got pretty low top speed, but this thing has been a real success for me so far. Rochdale is now my favorite ship! I completed one cup at Supersonic speeds and placed 1st, but it was the easiest cup, so we'll see if I can handle the others!