Last Game You Played

[Dragon Lord]

You'd think that, but Ethan's model in RE8 is different from RE7. For one thing, Ethan is wearing a hoodie in RE8. So, without knowing how his head is articulated in RE8, there isn't an easy way to just plop Ethan's head into RE7. Also, given RE7s age, that would have to be a quest for the modding community, because ain't no way Capcom is gonna go back and do that, even if it is an RE Engine game and would be relatively easy to do.

Edit: Holy Fuck, they exist! I don't know how, but they exist! I actually bought RE7 for 10 bucks a little while ago, not knowing this existed! *Downloads immediately*

Do we ever get to even see what Ethan wears in RE7? As far as I recall there's never a shot of him from a non-first person perspective so the best we see of his top half is the sleeves.

I can't help but find it funny how polar opposite this is compared to your view of vanilla Elden Ring.

The really funny thing about the whole thing is that I had the same thing happen with both Elden Ring and Nightreign -- I had a huge dislike of them at first, especially Nightreign to the point that I refunded it after an hour when it first released, but then went back to them a little later and gave them another try and ended up falling in love with certain aspects of them enough for me to become obsessed with playing them. 

Nightreign definitely comes from the multiplayer aspect of it though. When I first went back and tried the game for a second time, I intended to only play solo or with my two close friends who also play it. But about... a week and a half ago I finally decided to dive into random trios to see what it'd be like, and oh man has the game become even more addicting for me now. It's so fun to play in random trios (it's still more fun to play with a friend or two that you can voice chat on Discord with while playing though). Of course in my usual fashion I did end up beating all of the content in the game my first time completely solo, including doing all of the character quests solo (which isn't easy because one of the DLC characters who is a terrible solo character requires beating the DLC boss 'Dreglord' with, and doing that solo was a huge pain in the ass), so once I was doing all of that, then I decided to start trying games with randoms. Actually, I did it twice, as I cleared all of the content on both the PS5 and Steam versions solo, with the only exception is that I did the character quest I mentioned with my friend on PS5, after giving it multiple attempts solo. Not sure how I pulled doing it twice on Steam (I killed it solo once, but realized I didn't start the quest and had to do it again), but I just couldn't get a good enough go at him on the PS5 version to do it solo before my friend and I ended up clearing it together.

What do you get for doing quests? I always had the impression Nightreign didn't have unlockable things except for maybe character classes because of having to find things in the world per run.

You get to learn of that character's backstory, but more importantly, you get Relics that are designed specifically for that character, and in some cases they can be that character's best-in-slot Relics. Like in the case of Guardian, the Relic he gets at the end of his Remembrance Quest has two very important Guardian skills on it. Normally Relics can only have one character class skill on them, but Relics from Remembrance quests are special and can have multiple. This is important for condensing Relics so that instead of needing to use 2 of 3 slots to get those important skills, now they are both on one and that frees up both of your other Relic slots for whatever you want. 

Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster (Steam)

Man, I love finally having this available to me. It hasn't been that long since I finally got myself to fully complete the game on 3DS, but I'm still enjoying the hell out of playing this again. Surprisingly, this port might be the best Square Enix PC port out the gate. Normally SE PC ports have a plethora of problems that take weeks, if not months, to finally get smoothed out, but so far I haven't experienced any issues with this port. I even get 800+ FPS on it! Not that it matters for a turn-based RPG, but hey, seeing big number makes brain happy.

I like how they handled getting villagers for rebuilding Norende too. The fact they came up with a GOOD way to carry over the Street Pass function of finding other players to be part of your village/be summonable in battle is surprising for modern day Square Enix. Perhaps they are finally learning how to pull their heads out of their asses and get back to actually making some decent video games. Time will tell. 

So far though, 10/10 port (at least from my experience) and getting to relive the joy of playing this amazing JRPG again was totally worth the $30 I pad for it (and would have been worth the full $40 otherwise). 

Elden Ring: Nightreign (Steam)

While I haven't been playing this as much the last few days as normal, my addiction does continue. I've been encountering some horrid players lately though and it makes it tough to want to continue playing it. At least the few good games I have in between the shit shows makes it worth it. I had a run yesterday where I was playing with some pretty mediocre teammates, and I ended up having to break my back hard-carrying on Dreglord. They kept going down repeatedly and eventually I just had to say "fuck it, I gotta solo this guy" and I pulled it off spectacularly. Unlike my teammates, I didn't fall a single time during the entirety of the fight (double health bar boss) and I only got hit like 2-3 times the duration of the second part of the fight. It really goes to show that practice does make perfect, as I have fought Dreglord a lot and it's starting to really show. Which makes me feel really good, because it's nice to actually notice yourself becoming really good at a fight and just going "woah, I actually did that." Haha. I did have a Wending Grace (revives you if all three teammates go down) as a back-up, but didn't even need it in the end. Of course this just means the next time I fight Dreglord I'm going to shit the bed and be a complete embarrassment, but hey, I'm going to live off of the high of that fight while I can.

AI Limit (PS5)

With the upcoming free DLC, I figured it was finally time to start this game and get through it on PS5. I've already 100%'d the Steam version when it came out last year, but want to make sure I have both versions of the game ready to dive into the DLC content. This DLC won't be story focused and will instead focus entirely on combat (a second DLC is coming out later that will be a huge story expansion), so I'm making sure that my PS5 file is a different play style than my Steam one. If I remember correctly, on Steam I was using what is essentially this game's version of a Dex build, so on PS5 I am going with a pure Strength build instead. Though this is the time of game where you just keep leveling up until the point where your stats are basically even, so going with a "dedicated" style doesn't really make a difference in the end, but it does give for a different feeling play through the first time through the game.

Pokemon Leaf Green (Switch)

The nostalgia bug bit me hard and I have been (unfortunately) enjoying the hell out of it. I'm not doing any sort of challenge run like a Nuzlocke or anything, but I am 'challenging' myself to try to use a team of Pokemon that I've either never used, or have rarely used. So of course that meant picking Bulbasaur as my starter, as he's the Gen 1 starter I've used the least (though I have used him quite a bit before, so not super new to me). Other than that, right now I have a Sandslash, as Sandshrew/Sandslash is one of the few Ground-types I've never actually seriously used. Unfortunately those two are the only members of my final team that I'm able to get at this point in the game. 

The rest of my planned team is: Starmie, Dodrio, Nintetails (it surprises me too, I love foxes and yet have never actually used Vulpix/Ninetails, likely because 99.99% of the time I pick Charmander) and Jolteon (yes, that's right. Despite being a huge Eevee fan, I've never actually seriously used Jolteon. I always go with Vaporeon in R/B/Y/LG/FR). 

This games me a team of Pokemon I've basically never used, but unfortunately a lot of these Pokemon cannot be caught until further in the game either. I have to wait until after Rock Tunnel to get my hands on a Vulpix and Eevee, and then if I remember correctly, I cannot get Doduo until after the Snorlax events and then Staryu until I get the Super Rod. It really makes me realize how unfortunate it is for a lot of these Pokemon. Most players are going to set their team way before they ever get to any of these (like I have in all my previous play throughs of the Kanto games). Water Pokemon are especially screwed over, as you're looking at being a good 60-70% of the way through the game before you get the Good/Super Rods and can start catching these other types of Water 'mons. Which literally just leaves you with Squirtle family or Gyarados (if you buy the Magikarp at the Mt. Moon PokeCenter) as your only super early-game water-types available. 

Anyways, even though I definitely contributed to the problem of Nintendo's pricing, I can't say that I hate that I paid $20 for this, because I am having a lot more fun playing Leaf Green again than I should be, and what really got me was the thought of getting to play it on a nice sized screen like the Switch's, compared to the tiny little thing that is the GBA SP (seriously, try going back and playing games on this thing, you'll wonder how we ever thought it was amazing).

Other games played recently that I don't feel like going into detail about: Arknights: Endfield, Arknights, Mind Zero

[Kyng]

Civilization VII

Started a new game, as Ashoka of the Maurya Empire. This empire is good for both military and science - but, I've decided to try and focus on science here. Which will mean growing my cities as quickly as I can .

It's early on, though. I'm on a peninsula right now, which will protect me from attacks for the time being, but will limit my expansion potential later on. I'd best find some new places to settle some larger cities!

Spoiler

[thumbnail=440x250]https://images.steamusercontent.com/ugc/13227866389073385835/51FD40311284F3455CB4E50480DDD0183BD5875F/[/thumbnail]

[Maniakkid25]

Screamer (2026) (PC)

I have to specify the year, because there is a 1995 Screamer that is also available on Steam. It has been a LONG time since I've bought a game on release day, but this one just kind of fell into my lap, and I immediately bought it. It scratched the racing itch for me almost immediately, being an arcade-style racer. Cool aesthetic, neat premise, reboot of a much older classic game, I had to know, so I dropped 51 bucks (Thanks, Humble Bundle Choice!), and I was NOT disappointed. Immediately from the outset, this gave me a tight racing game that is challenging, but very fun. It uses Redout-style controls (Left Stick to turn, Right Stick to drift -- the game explicitly recommends playing on controller, but you can do KBM). The game has an IN-UNIVERSE explanation for respawns, the story idea immediately hooks you in (you play as the various teammates of 5 different teams, each with their own plotline that all intersects in the "Screamer" Tournament.), and the game is unapologetic in its style. If you want an arcade-y racer with fun ideas, I highly recommend it.

There is also a Good Boy named "Fermi". He drives cars, and wears Kamina Glasses. I'm not a pet person, but he has already won my heart.

[Kyng]

The Battle for Wesnoth

Currently playing a campaign called 'Dead Water', where you're playing as a merman king, who's been driven from his home by an undead invasion. Most of my units are merfolk, but I've accumulated a few other pets along the way, like bats and a cuttlefish .

It is quite different from normal campaigns, where I'm fighting with mostly land-based units. Here, I'm having to stick mostly to the water, and use the reefs to my advantage (since I have great defence there!)

[Moonface]

Also also, one of the characters explicitly refers to Chris Redfield as a "Boulder-punching asshole", which makes me wonder how the hell that character knows about that, considering the only witnesses are Sheva and Wesker lol.

I like to think that Chris shared the story with people, possibly with Jill and the pilot if they were to ask what went down. That or Sheva shared it from how impressive of a feat it was. If the helicopter didn't presumably fly into the area right when it shows up I'd say maybe it had a camera feed running on it that got obtained by another party. The folks in Village have intel from somewhere about Chris in general because they know who he is; he doesn't seem to be a total stranger to them like Leon is to everyone in RE4.

So I just read that apparently the "boulder punching asshole" line is only in the English translation and maybe a couple of others, but that the majority of languages for RE8 don't reference that moment from RE5 at all, even in the Japanese version. Makes me wonder now whether canonically nobody else does know about that feat if more languages don't reference it than those that do, including the one that Capcom would primarily write/develop their games in.

[Maniakkid25]

Pragmata Sketchbook (Demo) (PC)

So I've been wanting to actually get hands on with this game before I commit anything to it, because gleaming actual gameplay from the trailers was basically impossible, and I was not swayed by the adorable child (do not get me wrong; she is adorable. She did not make me want to get the game, though). So, when I found out the demo was available, I immediately downloaded it and started playing, and it's REALLY GOOD! The combat is simple (it's basically a third-person shooter), but it's fast-paced because they added an element of multi-tasking. See, in order to deal decent damage to the enemies, you have to hack them with Diana (the little girl that's with you), and that requires a minigame of "make a path to the goal" by manipulating the face buttons. This is happening in real-time, meaning you could potentially get smacked out of a hack if you aren't paying attention. That's really cool! This was what I needed to see!

If you haven't tried it yet, the Demo is available on PC, PS5, Series X, and Nintendo Switch 2. The game will be releasing Worldwide on April 17, with a weeklong delay for Japanese players on Switch 2 for some strange reason.

[Dragon Lord]

Pokemon Leaf Green (NS)

The more I play of this, the less I regret spending $20 on it. I should feel bad about feeding in to Nintendo's greed, but god damn, nostalgia is a powerful drug. I'm just having a blast playing this on a bigger screen than a GBA (back then we thought this shit was amazing, but after years of having devices with screens the same of the entire GBA/SP themselves, it's hard to go back and play on the tiny screens) and not having to rely on emulation (though having the speed up function of an emulator would be nice).

I just defeated Sabrina in my play through. My Jolteon absolutely feasted on her gym. I'm enjoying this play through so far, using Pokemon I've never actually used before (outside of Venusaur, though I've only used it like two times in all of my play throughs of R/B/Y/FR/LG).

My current team is:

Starmie: Water Pulse (will be Surf), Psychic, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam
Ninetales: Flamethrower, Will-o-Wisp, Confuse Ray, Quick Attack
Venusaur: Tackle, Giga Drain, Leech Seed, Razor Leaf
Jolteon: Shock Wave, Bite, Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball
Sandslash: Slash, Brick Break, Dig, Rock Slide
Dodrio: Aerial Ace, Fly, Pursuit, Tri Attack

I can't believe I've never used Ninetales before, especially with how much I absolutely love foxes, but here I am in 2026 using it for the first time. I usually always go with Charmander as my starter, so that's a big reason why (I've also never used Arcanine for the same reason). Starmie is another great Pokemon in the Kanto games that I never used, primarily because Vaporeon is available to much earlier and is an extremely good water Pokemon already.

Jolteon is probably a bit surprising, because I'm a huge Eevee/Eeveelution fan, but I've actually never seriously used Jolteon outside of a "Eeveelution-only" run I did on Crystal many, many years ago. I just always go with either Vaporeon or Espeon in games, because those two are my absolute favorite Eeveelutions and are really good picks for their respective types (I like Umbreon too, but it's hard not to go with Espeon for me).

Sandslash has been a nice surprise. I know compared to other Ground-types in the game (like Dugtrio) it's not the greatest. Mainly because it only learns one Ground-type move and it's at like level 50-something, but Dig has been more than adequate for any Ground-type needs I've had. Being able to teach it Brick Break (Fighting) and Rock Slide (Rock) has been nice for some type coverage too.

Dodrio has been a very fun Pokemon to use. I've always just been a Pidgeot guy in the Kanto games due to how early you can get a Pidgey and it's just a comfy Pokemon to have around. So waiting until a considerable bit later to get a Doduo has never been something I considered doing, but man Dodrio slaps.

Doing this play through is definitely making me consider doing more where I use Pokemon that I have avoided using in the past with the game. Though I'm also kind of interested in doing some Nuzlocke runs after this too, so maybe I'll do a couple of those first and then do another "never used Pokemon only" run afterwards.

Side note: Playing the slots for several hours to get two Thunderbolts, one Ice Beam and a Shadow Ball really sucked.

[Kyng]

Civilization: Beyond Earth

Haven't played this for a while (it is probably the worst Civilization game I own) - but, because the theme is unique, I do still keep going back to it every now and then .

I'm playing a game with my sister, now that she's back at home: I'm playing as INTEGR, and she's playing as the Pan-Asian Cooperative. We haven't got too far into the game just yet - she only has three cities, while I only have two cities and an outpost - and most of our time has been spent fighting off aliens . Maybe picking the 'Frenzied Aliens' option for this game was a mistake!

[Moonface]

Pokémon Pokopia (NS2)
Man this game can take so much of your time without even realizing it, especially now that I'm in the post-game so the majority of things to do now is building. I love this game but it does have a few things that could have been done better, block placing/breaking being the major one.

[Kyng]

LEGO Racers.

Was part of a nostalgic re-visit of a few older games with my sister: we also played LEGO Racers 2 and LEGO Chess .

[Moonface]

LEGO Racers.

Was part of a nostalgic re-visit of a few older games with my sister: we also played LEGO Racers 2 and LEGO Chess .

Did you (or anyone else) ever play Lego Drome Racers at all @Kyng? It was the only Lego Racers game I ever played but I don't know anyone else who ever played it.


Pokémon Pokopia (NS2)
Been working on a rest stop/bike park on the road that goes towards post-apocalyptic Pallet Town. Also found some new Pokémon today including Quilava.

Slay the Spire 2 Beta (PC)
Switched over to the beta branch yesterday because it made changes to Ironclad that I couldn't live without if I stayed in the public branch. Managed to win on Ascension 9 with him finally, and also beat Ascension 9 multiplayer today with @ShiraNoMai.
Not too sure what I'm gonna do once I complete A10 with everyone while the game is still in Early Access. I guess I'll just treat it like I did with StS1 when I completed it and just do the daily challenges.

[Mr EliteL]

Genshin Impact

Oy. Updated for the new patch and just decided to try for Linnea on my NA account as I severely lacked Geo units, had a lot of pulls stored and somehow yet again won a 50/50 for her in four 10 pulls. I had Chasca already on my account and heck, went for either of their weapon as well setting Chasca's as the one to guarantee if I didn't get the correct 5-star. Got Linnea's bow in a 10 pull, wtf and that was after Escoffier's previously. Didn't get as lucky for Chasca's as her bow took 71 pulls, but heck I was still left with 70-odd Fates still spare which I intend to save.
Playing to build Linnea, and the two bows.

Couple days later, what the heck I went again for Linnea this time on my PS5 on the basis of if I lose I don't care but if I get her, she'll be good for my Zibai on there, won her again. I'll keep Linnea on the 3-star bow Slingshot though on there as it's a good non 5-star option for her. Got through Linnea's quest to help build her on both accounts.

On my secondary F2P, didn't go for Linnea as I intentionally have pre-farmed Lauma to go with my Nefer on there, but got to try and win 50/50 there with 20 pulls away from soft pity, as I was seeing if I could get Escoffier's C1 or a loss early but didn't.

Zenless Zone Zero

...
I should've been close to dropping but frick me, the game gave me Nangong Yu on top of previously giving me Sunna. Both this and my NA GI account have had a crazy streak of luck winning characters and some weapon/engines all from the earned in-game rewards, never known anything like it.

Wuthering Waves

Just dailies, no pulling here. Intend to play events and such before next patch.

[Kyng]

LEGO Racers.

Was part of a nostalgic re-visit of a few older games with my sister: we also played LEGO Racers 2 and LEGO Chess .

Did you (or anyone else) ever play Lego Drome Racers at all @Kyng? It was the only Lego Racers game I ever played but I don't know anyone else who ever played it.

I didn't play that one, no  . But I did play the Drome Racing Challenge online. As broken a game as that was, I did get a bit addicted to it at one point  !

Anyway, the last game I played was Civilization: Beyond Earth again. My sister and I won our game, by domination. Not a victory type we often do, but this time, we found it to be the quickest!

[Moonface]

LEGO Racers.

Was part of a nostalgic re-visit of a few older games with my sister: we also played LEGO Racers 2 and LEGO Chess .

Did you (or anyone else) ever play Lego Drome Racers at all @Kyng? It was the only Lego Racers game I ever played but I don't know anyone else who ever played it.

I didn't play that one, no  . But I did play the Drome Racing Challenge online. As broken a game as that was, I did get a bit addicted to it at one point  !

Aww I played that one too! I couldn't remember the name of it but as soon as I saw an image of the VS. loading screen it immediately came back to me. I'm trying to remember what team I played as for it but I'm not sure whether it was Maverick or Nitro.

Slay the Spire 2 Beta (PC)
I finally beat a solo A10 run!  I've been trying almost all day to win a run with Regent on A10 and finally pulled it off with 6HP left after the double Act 3 boss fight. I managed to get a build that was giving me almost infinite energy and got my hand set up to keep returning cards to my draw pile and then pull them again in the same turn to fire off a 200+ damage attack three times in a row.

[Maniakkid25]

Pragmata (PC)

Still have no idea what that word really means in-universe -- the only thing I know is that a Pragmata is an experimental bot of some kind. Anywho, the game has been fun, but what's been interesting to me is how slow the game is versus how it feels. See, I've only played for about 3 hours, but it feels like I've played it for way longer. Admittedly, I'm only in area 2, but the game feels a lot bigger than you'd initially think, and it feels like I've played for hours and hours despite the short playtime. I've got no problems with it, it's just been weird.

Also, the demo actually changed up the layout and flow of the area you play it in compared to the retail release. Kept me on my toes as I figured out where the hell I was supposed to go.