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.

Baldur's Gate 3

December 02, 2023 by Adam in Adam's Games

I have fond memories of Sam sitting on my lap when he was a baby, playing the first of the Baldur's Gate games up in my office in the Friendly street house.  Twenty years later they came out with a sequel to those games and did an amazing job.  There was so much high-quality content, fun gameplay, good graphics, and wonderful voice acting.  It was bittersweet to finally get to the end of it all.

Tomb of Annihilation

July 30, 2022 by Adam in Adam's Games

Seraph, Robbie, Frankie, Jordan, Emma and I had a great first "real" session of Tomb of Annihilation.  It began by fending off pirates in which Seraph got the MVP award for setting fire to the most pirates at once.  The next big event was a dinosaur race through the streets of Port Nyanzaru.  It ended up being surprisingly fun for everyone.  Emma's character rode Jungle Princess over the finish line after a tense first part of the race.  Fortunately a touch of magic and Robbie's character foiling the other team's plans to sabotage the race all managed a win for the party.  Next up is getting together an expedition into the jungle - so many exciting places to visit!

Elden Ring

July 16, 2022 by Adam in Adam's Games

I'd been playing Elden Ring non-stop for months, a great mix of challenging fights, exploration and character development.  Every sometimes frustrating boss opened up a new area to explore and Steam tells me I've played for 150 hours since I got it.

I'd gotten to the end boss of the game and kept throwing myself at it repeatedly, far more challenging for my character build than anyone else.  Fortunately there's a way to respec your character, so I read a guide, made a character, leveled my health up at farming site, and got through with just a sliver of health left.  I think my mimic dealt the killing blow, but that's good enough for me.

The ending I chose is full of spoilers for those who want to play the game, but it's so mysterious that it's hard to even say what it means.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh

April 30, 2022 by Adam in Adam's Games

I've been DMing the Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign with old friends about once a month.  We finished our third session where they managed to board and capture the Sea Ghost.  I'd spent months printing it out, gluing it together and staining it, so it was a treat to finally unveil it for the players.  They loved it and the ability to disassemble the structure worked really well.

It was a long session where they finished clearing out the haunted house and made a scramble for the ship.  The captain and crew didn't give up the ship willingly, but after a bloody fight our brave party was victorious.

Too Many Scary Villages

February 02, 2022 by Adam in Adam's Games

I've been playing a few different games over the last few weeks, finishing up games I picked up over the winter sale.  Death's Door was first, a cute souls-like game where you play as a raven reaper, fixing the woes of the afterlife.  Next up was The Forgotten City, set in a subterranian city with ties to the afterlife.  Now I'm playing Resident Evil: Village, where the townsfolk seem mostly transformed into horrible creatures.

Maybe my next vacation should be somewhere relaxing and tropical.

Inscryption

December 13, 2021 by Adam in Adam's Games

I picked up a bunch of games during the last Steam sale and one of them - Inscryption - got to me.  It started as a creepy deck builder with escape room additions, and turned into a 4th wall breaking hard-to-describe thing.  It wasn't always great, but it was usually entertaining and at times they kept throwing new things at the player every couple minutes.

One of my favorite things in the first part is when you died you could make a card and name it.  This was my ultimate card, named after Sam, which made a copy of itself every time it was played.  I won every time I brought it out.

Eternal One

October 21, 2021 by Adam in Adam's Games

I've been playing Slay the Spire for a couple years now - one of the best deck building games I've ever played.  I spent a long while trying to beat the game at the most difficult level, ascention level 20 where everything is impossibly hard.  I finally did it tonight after an excellent run with plenty of luck along the way.  I guess I'm done playing games forever now as clearly nothing will compare.

Griftlands

September 18, 2021 by Adam in Adam's Games

I continue to be enamored of deck builder games.  I beat the final difficulty level of Monster Train a couple weeks ago.  I picked up Griftlands, which is a mix of deck building and story, with three different characters to play.  I beat them all on the easiest difficulty just today, though the game is crying out for replays.

I must have a knack for these kind of games.  My first run ended with an untimely death, but I finished the next three to completion.