Witches and Super Spies

November 29, 2024 by Adam in Adam's Games

My new job came with an XBox Game Pass, so I've been digging into some of the free games that come with that, along with some of the Steam games I pick up along the way.  I've recently dabbled in Starcraft, Goat Simulator, Aliens Dark Descent, and more, but it's hard finding time to get all the way through a game.

Yesterday I finished playing Black Ops 6, which ended up being a high-quality spy shooter that felt like I was playing an over-the-top Mission Impossible movie.  Yes there were motorcycle jumps and casino infiltration levels, but it was a short and entertaining experience.

On the other end of the spectrum was The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, which was a Spanish-made magical realism game about witches, fate, and friendship.  It was almost an interesting Rorchart test of who you are - I ended up sacrificing my immortality for saving the universe and my friends.  Seemed a good trade.

Diablo 4

September 07, 2024 by Adam in Adam's Games

Long ago in the 90's I remember fondly playing the first of the Diablo games with Jason and our other friends, battling our way through various evil minions together.  With the new and shiny XBox Game Pass that came with the Microsoft job, I decided to play Diablo 4, the latest in the series.

I picked a necromancer to play and pretty soon I had a had a horde of skeletons following me around.  The first boss fight took a bit of effort but wasn't too bad, so I moved up the difficulty a little.  The wacky thing was that occasionally I'd run across these treasure goblins and killing them gave me amazing loot, to the point where the game became way too easy.  My horde of skeletons became unstoppable and with the right equipment everything died, the corpses exploded, and the entire game became a walking simulator as I didn't have to fight anything anymore.

The only times I died, which was a surprise, was when the boss fight killed me instantly for standing on parts of the floor that were scripted to kill me.  Otherwise the most danger I was in was in the final fight when my health blipped down for a brief second.

Sure the graphics were pretty and the voice actors were doing their best, but the game itself was way too easy to be called a game.  Ah well, on to the next free game.