#9 - Nightingale

 

I had an extremely busy day yesterday and didn’t remember to post until about 11 PM, so I decided to skip a day. I was almost too busy to post today, too! Good thing I’m not tying myself to a daily posting schedule. 😅

Nightingale is a new MMO that’s still in early access. You play a person from the early 1900s who passes through a portal into the Fae Realms. I forget what’s happening on Earth, but some sort of ominous fog called “The Pale” or something is spreading across Paris, forcing you and a bunch of other explorers to travel through the portal to escape it. And then you find yourself trapped in the lands of the Fae.

A fae named Puck offers you assistance in finding a safe realm to visit and gives you a card that helps you cleanse the realm so its inhabitable. Knowing what I know from stories of the fae, I was very hesitant to trust him, but the game doesn’t really give you any alternatives. So… into the Fae Realms we go!

From there, the game is an open world crafting game, kind of like Enshrouded. You learn how to craft tools, defenses, houses, etc. You can make extravagant fantasy homes, or just rudimentary structures to keep you safe. There are all sorts of things to explore in the world, too. Plenty of questing, discoveries, enemies to fight, other humans to interact and trade with, etc.

The screenshot at the top of this post was taken after cleansing my first realm. Below, you can see a couple shots of what it looked like when I first arrived there. It was dark and dreary, with an “enraged sky.”

Also, here’s a look at my custom character and her inventory and stats.

I’ve only played a couple hours of it so far, but it’s been unique and enjoyable. I hope it only gets better as it nears a full release date.

#8 - Satisfactory

 

Hey, look! It’s a Space Giraffe Tick Penguin Thing, stuck in a walkway! This guy kept walking onto my factory floor and getting trapped in weird places. I turned my back for one second and somehow he got his head stuck between my walkways! Dude… I had to remove the walkways so he could get back on all fours and move on.

Satisfactory is my #1 most played game on Steam, with 741.5 hours as of this post. I know, rookie numbers, right? But I have a library of over 3,500 games, so dedicating this much time to any single game is a major feat of accomplishment in my book.

Although I don’t think it really counts, because I’ve definitely just left the game running 24/7 for like a week or two just to build up resources in the background. 😅

In my early gaming sessions, I didn’t care to explore. I was too busy trying to get a centralized factory hub working, so I tried to build everything off my initial hub. When I needed resources that weren’t nearby, I would track them down, then build spaghetti lines of conveyor belts back to my main factory so I could continue building in one location. This screenshot above is just a hint of the nightmare that was my original messy build.

I’ve since learned that exploring is key in this game, and getting multiple factories producing resources off many nodes around the map will significantly improve production times. I can’t wait to unlock trains so I can migrate mass quantities of resources between my multiple factories.

Satisfactory has been in early release for several years now, but they just officially released 18 days ago, and the full game has been quite enjoyable! I love that there’s a background story now and not just “we dropped you on an alien planet, start harvesting resources.” I started over with a fresh new factory, and thanks to a bunch of tips from YouTubers (primarily TotalXclipse), I’ve made significant improvements to the way I build.

Also, my wife was finally curious enough to check it out, so she’s working on her own factory build now! My wife isn’t an avid gamer like me, but she enjoys playing a few co-op games with me and my friends, so it’s fun when she gets interested in a game I’m playing.

I enjoy factory-building games like this, but Satisfactory, with its first-person view, really feels like you’re in the world actually creating something. It’s definitely my favorite of the genre. I’ve struggled get into other factory games that didn’t put me right into the action. Like Factorio. Same general concept, but the overhead view of everything makes it harder for me to feel like I’m a part of the world I’m building.

Plus, I hate defending against swarms of aliens in Factorio. Just let me build in peace! Satisfactory has some aggressive alien creatures, but only if you disturb them in their home location, and they only attack you directly while you’re in the area. They don’t follow you far, and/or attack your factories and mess up your production.

#7 - Battlezone 98 Redux

 

For you older gamers out there, I’m gonna take you back a bit today.

Back in 1980 (four years before even I was born!), Atari released an arcade game called Battlezone that was one of the original popular FPS games. It looked like this:

Almost 2 decades later, in 1998, Activision published their own version of the game, also called Battlezone. This was the version I discovered, and I played that game on my Windows 95 computer all through my teenage years. But then I grew up and forgot all about it.

The interesting thing is, the 1998 game didn’t have any background music, so I put on one of my own albums to play while I gamed. Specifically, Eiffel 65’s album Europop. They were really popular in the late '90s, and that album had just dropped in 1999, when I discovered this game.

Their unique and almost haunting music made a wonderful backdrop for my game. I was harvesting resources and defending bases by myself on the moon, which felt isolating and lonely, especially when you could see the Earth far away in the background. Somehow, the soundtrack I picked just worked really well with it.

Decades later, I heard Eiffel 65’s music and it brought me back to my childhood, playing Battlezone (1998). But I couldn’t remember the name of that game, so I couldn’t look it up. I figured the game probably doesn’t exist anymore and this was just another flicker of a childhood memory that would fade into obscurity as I got older.

A few years ago, though, I bought a copy of Battlezone Gold Edition (2017) on Steam (this time developed and published by Rebellion) and despite looking completely different, it felt somewhat familiar:

That’s when I noticed that there was a Battlezone 98 Redux on Steam, and it was my childhood game!! I was so excited, I immediately dumped Battlezone Gold Edition to go relive my nostalgic past.

That’s the crisp 1920x1080 resolution screenshot in the main post; if I had a screenshot of the original game, it would be fuzzy and probably only 640x480 resolution. The “redux” version cleaned it up and and made it playable on modern 1080p monitors.

Granted, Battlezone Gold Edition is a very fun game to play, and I’ve since gone back and beaten it a few times over. They even have a 2018 sequel called Battlezone: Combat Commander which I own but haven’t played yet. It looks more like a late '90s/early 2000s video game; definitely not a big budget production. Rebellion published it, but handed off development to Big Boat Interactive.

But something about Battlezone 98 Redux really takes me back to my childhood. Of course, I had to pull up some MP3s of Eiffel 65’s Europop album and experience it the right way. 😉

What games take you back to your childhood?

#6 - Forza Horizon 5

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#5 - Squirrel With a Gun

 

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

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

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

Also, here is your initial meeting with “Father,” the first boss of the game:

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

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

#4 - Class of '09

 

I’m changing things up a bit today. I don’t play exclusively AAA titles, so here’s something a little different.

Class of '09 touts itself as an “anti-visual novel.” Instead of a typical dating sim where you get to score with tons of hot anime girls by saying all the right things, you instead play AS the girl, rejecting guys around you and wreaking havoc on everyone’s social lives.

It’s considered a period game, taking place in the late '00s. Which makes me feel really old hearing people waxing nostalgic for the 2000s. I graduated high school in 2002; my nostalgic frame of reference is the '80s-'90s. 😖

Warning: This is a very dark game. There are about 15 endings, depending on your choices. I haven’t played through them all yet, but the best ending I’ve seen so far left you single and alone for the rest of your life, working cashier at a fast food restaurant to pay the bills. A lot of endings have you murdered, committing suicide, stuck in rehab, etc. As far as I can tell, there isn’t a happy ending for the protagonist.

This particular story in the screenshot got started when I decided to tolerate my best friend being a White Nationalist and not let a difference in politics get in the way of our friendship (Oops). It led to her starting a “White Pride Party” that literally everyone in the school joined except for me.

The nerdy Jeffrey only joined the club because he was a social pariah and it was the only group that accepted him. In order to test his convictions, I asked him out on a date and forced him to choose between egging a synagogue and dating me. Which led to the hilarious line in the screenshot. And also led to the WPP turning on Jeffrey. Double oops.

There’s another game called Class of '09: The Re-Up that I own, but haven’t played yet. It claims it’s not a sequel or a remaster, but additional stories branching off the original game. If I ever get around to finishing this first game, I’ll check it out.

#3 - Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint

 

This is my 5th most played game on Steam, mostly because I’ve played through the campaign solo once, then replayed it with a friend, then re-replayed with another friend. Plus, after the campaign is over, there are daily missions you can complete that change every day, so it’s not like you run out of things to do in-game.

Slots #4-7 in my most-played games list are all Tom Clancy games, actually. As a former military guy, I actually love Tom Clancy games. It’s fun to compare them to reality. Yeah, there are a lot of fantasy future-tech situations in those games, but sometimes a real-world military scenario plays out, and it’s fun to compare/contrast with how the military actually operates.

This particular screenshot was snapped while I was fighting a Behemoth tank. I was getting my butt kicked with little progress, so I decided it would be easier to just nuke it from the air with an Overseer helicopter with Mk. II guided missiles.

Little did I know, the Behemoth also has missiles and locked onto me as soon as I came within range. This is me bailing out before my helicopter was blown to bits. I was too close to dodge the guided missiles in time.

Below is a shot of my usual team: two of my close friends (left and right) and me (center). Ignore the floating backpack in the foreground. 😅 It glitched and stayed in place when we entered the bivouac.

My buddies modeled their characters’ appearance after themselves, but I like to play as women if given the opportunity. I was raised by a strong, independent-type woman (and also married one!), so I always lean toward women protagonists in my games. Action hero men are boring and overplayed, in my opinion. 😜

#2 - Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

 

This is my absolute favorite screenshot of mine from this game. I love it so much, I actually had it as my desktop background for a while. Just so much energy and action in this one shot! It was a satisfying scene to play through as well.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was an extremely fun game to play. Not only was the gameplay enjoyable, but the cinematics seamlessly blended into the game, both visually and interactively.

I always tell people that games are interactive stories for me. I don’t play games for a challenge or to do a mind-numbing repetitive task (coughMOBAcough). I want a good, rich story to enjoy, with at least some limited control over the plot so it feels like I’m an active part of it.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart did an excellent job with that, bouncing back and forth between Ratchet and Clank separated in a parallel dimension, and their dimensional counterparts Rivet and Kit trying to separately help them reunite and stop Doctor Nefarious and his dimensional counterpart, Emperor Nefarious.

I actually enjoyed Rivet’s story much more than Ratchet’s, so most of my screenshots are from her gameplay. She lives in a world where Emperor Nefarious has already conquered the galaxy, so it’s a dark and futile landscape. I love alternate-reality/parallel dimension/what-if stories, and this really scratches that itch.

The facial expressions of all the characters are so expressive, too! During cutscenes, I would sometimes forget I’m playing a game. And it didn’t just end with cutscenes; the characters would continue to emote and interact with their environment throughout the gameplay, so it didn’t feel like jumping from a cutscene to the game and back again. Most of my screenshots are during cutscenes though, because I was too enthralled with the gameplay to remember to stop and take some nice pictures.

For a few more story screenshots, here’s the (abridged) conversation between Ratchet and Rivet upon their first meetup.

 

Also, here’s a (spoiler-free) scene of Rivet finding out who took her arm in the past. The range of emotions she goes through, from surprise to anger to fear, is so raw and emotional! This game had its silly moments but also knew when to play it serious, and the animation really pulls its weight with the facial expressions. Such a great game!

#1 - Enshrouded

 Greetings! I retired young(ish), so I have oodles of time to enjoy my extensive Steam library. I bounce back and forth between various games every day, and I take a ton of screenshots during my gameplay, so I’ll post some of the better ones I have.

Starting with this shot from the game Enshrouded. I found this corpse under a tree with a half-written journal entry next to him.