Last Weeks Gaming

Last Week’s Gaming – December 2nd, 2019

So you know how life loves to throw challenges your way?

Not much gaming this week. And not ‘Hey wow I tried 7 games I forgot about’ not much.

Lots of things happening at the Den of Delightful Diversions. I will update everyone to that on Wednesday, alongside this weeks Yeti hunt. But until then, the gaming I did get in is awaiting some attention!

Villainous

Oooh I have been waiting to play this one, and thanks to an Alpal purchase I finally got the chance!

Villainous is hard to explain quickly, but it is a heap of fun. It’s like a really, really streamlined Magic the Gathering/Netrunner style card game. You have your hand, your opponents have theirs, and you largely play your own game.

You can play cards against other players, but you play special cards from that character, so the Genie doesn’t mess with Captain Hook for example.

Hoping to do a formal review on this early next year, but for the holidays if you get the chance play Villainous for yourself – you will be glad you did. Also, having Hades and Scar in two different expansions is just mean :p

Each character plays in a unique way, with a simplicity of game flow I wasn't expecting.

Pokemon Shield (Switch)

Yep, I am still chipping away at the latest Pokemon outing.

I have now collected four gym badges, but I am thinking that I will give the challenge a rest for a little while. Instead, I am going to focus on Poke Jobs and filling out my Pokedex for a little while.

New jobs have opened up that give you more than XP (but that as well!). Now I think I might just have to think about building up a couple of tailored teams, rather than just power leveling various Pokemon as I usually do.

I am four badges in now, but I think I will stop the gym challenge for a little while

Terminator: Resistance (PS4)

I only got to play a little bit this week, but I think the final push will be a pretty long one. Which is unfortunate, because I think if I don’t finish Terminator: Resistance this week I don’t think I will anytime soon.

Not becuase it’s a bad game, I am really enjoying it. At the moment I know I am about to be really busy again, and that will cut into my time. It’s like when you have to stop watching a series for a couple of weeks – you will pick it back up immediately, or it will be a long time later.

Oh, and I really wish network security was just playing Frogger. It would make my life so much easier 😀

Get your dot from one side to the other. There is even a checkpoint in the middle. Hacking of the future!

What about you?  I hope you got some great games in.  Or are you looking forward to a new one?  Let me know!  Shout out on Facebook or @JohnHQLD me on Twitter!

Until tomorrow,

JohnHQLD

Last Week’s Gaming – November 25th, 2019

What a week!

It was a long week after coming back from a work trip, but it’s over now. Time to start a new week!

Alpal showed me a couple of really fun games that worked well with my tired brain 🙂 There was a lot of Pokemon in there as well!

Slide Quest

Back when I was a youngling, I would receive presents of these mazes with small ball bearings in them. They were a dexterity puzzle game, and I am sure everyone has played one at least once in their life.

Slide Quest is a similar game with modern tabletop design. Underneath the ‘level’ is a single base with areas for holes (traps) and areas to put various other obstacles on the board. And there are 20 levels to complete!

I don’t think you could play this one solo, but if you play with a group, the cooperative nature of the game shines. A lot of people will pass on this, but if you want a simple small party game with a challenge, check it out!

There has been no tabletop game that made me feel so 'old school'

Ticket to Ride: New York

Ticket to Ride. Alan R. Moon’s breakout modern classic is a game that still tops many introduction game lists today.

Ticket to Ride: New York takes this familiar gameplay, but applies them to a single city. The most significant change you will see is you no longer use trains – taxies are the order of the day. Scoring has changed, and you can receive bonus points connecting to certain areas.

It’s simple, it’s super quick, but it’s still Ticket to Ride. Seriously, we played two games with three players in about 40 minutes, including setup etc. If I can convince Alpal to play a few more games, expect a formal review soon.

Want an uber quick version of Ticket to Ride? Pick up New York

Pokemon: Shield (Switch)

Pokemon Sword and Shield is a funny one to me. On one hand, I have seen people complaining about the changes. On the other hand, everyone I know that is playing it is having fun. I even know one person playing both at the same time!

At it’s core, Pokemon Shield is your standard Pokemon RPG. You can now walk around a 3D world, and there are new mini-games. There is even a dedicated wild area for Pokemon hunting.

I am up to the fourth gym, and have caught 62 Pokemon at the time of writing. By the time you read this I will probably have more entries in my Pokedex. If you have a Switch and are a Pokemon fan, give it a play and enjoy.

There is always encouragement as you make your way through the Gym Challenge

Onirim (Android)

Warriors of Waterdeep has been uninstalled. I have another ‘big’ game that I want to play, but Pokemon took over my at home playtime. Oh the horror :p

What I did do was go back to an old favourite – Onirim. A great solo set collection/card drafting game, Onirim is great to pick up and put down. You need to unlock 12 doors, which you do by placing three cards of that colour in the playtrack. You cannot play the same symbol twice in a row, so planning and some card counting does help.

I thought I had already reviewed Onirim on the site, but apparently I have not. Guess what’s coming up Friday?

I am playing with the expansions here, but Onirim is one of those games that gets in your head at any level

Munchkin: Quacked Quest (PC)

I love the world of Munchkin. It is a great parody of so many things that I love, while somehow standing out as unique.

When I fund out Munchkin was going digital, I assumed a digital version of the card game. Instead, we get a Munchkin theme and flavour over Overcooked meets Diablo with a dash of Mario Party.

And, it works. I have only played one proper game and the tutorial, and not even on the system I purchased it on – Switch. Munchkin Quacked Quest is on Game Pass, so try it out for yourself – you will know in 10 minutes if it’s for you or not.

This room just started. It looks peaceful. That won't last :p

Terminator: Resistance (PS4)

So this one took me by surprise. Late Sunday, I thought I would finally sit down and look at some of the games that have been piling up. I started with the top of the pile (the latest acquisition), and that was Terminator: Resistance.

And played for about 9 hours straight.

As a shooter, it’s a fine stealth game. It’s on rails in terms of mission progression, but the areas are all large and great to explore. It takes a franchise I love, and tells it’s own unique story. You are just dropped into the shows of Private Jacob Rivers, and then off you go.

Example of an easter egg nod - if you know Dr. Silberman, this was great to find

Plenty of nods for fans, but none are required to enjoy the game. For example, I loved the choices of name during one quest, and Rabbit was very confused why I thought they were awesome.

Terminator: Resistance will probably be finished next weekend, so it might be my next review game!

What about you?  I hope you got some great games in.  Or are you looking forward to a new one?  Let me know!  Shout out on Facebook or @JohnHQLD me on Twitter!

Until tomorrow,

JohnHQLD

Last Week’s Gaming – November 18th, 2019

Why is there always hours for work, and not for games?

It was a big week, and a few tech issues have hit. First with image uploading (I still need to fix last week’s review of the Hori Split Pro controller for the Switch), and today I can’t get my gameplay footage off my Quest. Grah!

But that’s enough of those things, onto the good things from last week 😀

Warriors of Waterdeep (Android)

A week away, you know I was going to play on the phone again. There are a bunch of pack promotions out and I am getting absolutely hammered in PvP play.

And I don’t mean just I am losing a lot, which can happen. I mean a level 9 ranger can kill 3/4 of my level 10 team in one shot on the first turn. Before my team has had a chance to have a turn, and we are supposed to be armour buffed.

I don’t think I will be making it to the end of my month at this rate. But I do have another android game that I hope will take it’s place. And it has board game roots.

Tune in next week to see what I think!

I think I have finally had enough of this mobile game. Wonder what the next one will be?

The Legend of Zelda – Link’s Awakening (Switch)

I got to get in a solid amount of play on the Switch while I was away. I was hoping to have more time to finish a game, but that’s how the dice roll sometimes.

Playing through a beloved classic for the first time like this leaves me in a bit of a pickle – do I blatently say what I have been doing as many know, or leave it quiet just in case?

Either way, I am progressing at what I think is a good pace and I can now hit like a truck. I think I am in a good place to pause for a while, because a new Switch game is taking my time away now!

I forgot how hard and how convulted fetch quests used to be!

Beat Saber (Oculus Quest)

On a tropical wonderland, what else do you do but bring VR gear and enjoy the game?

I have spoken about Beat Saber before. It is my go to VR experience for new players. The lack of walking around helps with initial motion sickness, the game is intuitive and most of all fun.

With the heat starting to bear down on us, I really want to start getting back into Beat Saber properly, but it looks like it will be early morning sessions for a while. I will try and update the playlist with the new pack during the week as well!

Well that was a terrible cut - but it was a cut!

Vader Immortal: Episode 1 (Oculus Quest)

I have been waiting to sink my teeth into this one, and I finally got my chance.

And now my Quest won’t connect to my PC, so I can’t download any of the footage – it’s the week of tech problems this week!

Short version – Vader Immortal is a fanboy experience. The gameplay so far has been fairly ‘meh’, but I have loved exploring each area. Without spoiling anything, the feeling in your gut when you enter hyperspace is everything you want it to be. The world around you feels real, even if a bit blurry and pixalated in the distance. Looking up and seeing a Star Destroyer travel in front you is awesome.

It's promotional, but flying to this fortress made me grip the virtual helm for support

And that’s before you meet Vader.

Hopefully in a week or two I will have the Quest talking to my PC properly, and I will show off some of this properly. Until then, if you get the chance to try it, take it – but don’t jump on the buy button until you know it’s for you.

Pokemon Shield

Well, I have been waiting for this one, like so many others.

I decided to play through Shield, with Rabbit taking Sword. Wonder how this will go?

Early initial impressions – I love it. I know there will be a lot of old school Pokemon players that will disagree. From someone that played Yellow, then Moon, and finally Let’s Go, I am loving the changes.

The visuals are great, and the Wild Area is a great idea. Online play is fun, but it’s not required and feels just as awesome.

I just need to find the second gym leader, hopefully I can squeeze in that little quest before you read this 😀

The similarities between your character meeting the new gym challenge and the new game are suprisingly similar

What about you?  I hope you got some great games in.  Or are you looking forward to a new one?  Let me know!  Shout out on Facebook or @JohnHQLD me on Twitter!

Until tomorrow,

JohnHQLD

Last Week’s Gaming – November 11th, 2019

The big video game week

When this goes live on the site, I will be waiting in Brisbane Airport to travel to another work conference.

Yay for the sites, boo for cutting into my games time!

But I did get to play quite a bit that I enjoyed this week, in quality if not in quantity.

Jackbox Party Pack (2 and 6)

Last games night I thought a low effort party night would be just the thing. And it really, really was.

You can read my review of Jackbox Party Pack 6 here, but we all had a great night fumbling through the games. And that is really all you need. Even Alpal enjoyed it, and she is not a fan of the ‘vidyah games’ as she calls them 😀

Flicked between two versions, and had a great time of it. At one point in the future, I think I might try to arrange a stream of the Jackbox games where everyone watching can join in as well!

I thought Alpal was an alien, and I knew Nel was. Look at Harley, the evil alien, lauging at us as we eject the human.

The Outer Worlds (Xbox)

Oh man this game! It has the Fallout flavour of play I enjoy, and the story branching that I love in The Witcher games. It’s amazing!

I finally finished it on XBox this week, and while I am away with work I am going to use that time to see if I want to go on an achievement hunt with it.

If you have Microsoft Game Pass, give it a go. If you enjoy well crafted stories and a fun open adventure, you will get a lot out of it. No XBox? Grab the Game Pass for PC and play it there!

Expect a full review in a couple of weeks 🙂

Actually got a gun with recognition of quest work in game. A pleasant surprise!

Warriors of Waterdeep

Still slowly slogging away at this game, but honestly I am coming close to the end.

I have about 2 weeks of VIP bonuses coming, so I am still trying to slog away that way. See how I end up.

On the plus side, I have learned how to record fottage from my phone. Yay! So with any luck, next week I will have a bit of a video of gameplay to add to my review to show you how the game works a little better 🙂

Yeah, I have a lot of chance this fight lol

What about you?  I hope you got some great games in.  Or are you looking forward to a new one?  Let me know!  Shout out on Facebook or @JohnHQLD me on Twitter!

Until tomorrow,

JohnHQLD

Last Week’s Gaming – November 4th, 2019

On the Planet, Downforce Free For All with Palm Trees everywhere

It’s been so many weeks since I have played a decent amount of tabletop, that I am out of practice for the articles titles.

What can I say – Sorry Not Sorry :p

The Outer Worlds has pretty much dominated my console gaming this week, to the point I picked up Luigi’s Mansion 3 but have yet to put it in the Switch!

Without further delay, on to what I did actually play this week.

Narwhal Free For All

It’s summer isn’t officially here in Australia, but the heat has started. So what better game to play than a water based dexterity game?

Narwhal Free For All is a fun dexterity kids game. Essentially ring toss or quoits, all you have to do is get your coloured rings onto the narwhals or the central iceberg.

Points are simple: 1 point for any narwhal other than your own, 2 points for the iceberg or 3 points for your narwhal. One player each round spins the paddle wheel to create movement and difficulty, and the ‘fish’ ends the round when it does one lap of the pool.

Narwhal Free For All sounds to simple to be fun, but once again looks are decieving

It sounds too simple to be fun, but it was a quick bit of silly fun. The paddle wheel seems to be the weak point of the build, but there was still movement happening.

Maybe not for a whole games night, but for younger players or a silly quick filler game this is a great game. Watch a slightly not according to Hoyle round below 😀

Planet

Another Alpal special this week was Planet from Blue Orange games. A card drafting/set collection game at it’s core, the game goes for a set number of rounds and has you creating your own planets.

There is your primary planet type secret goal, where you need a certain number of a certain terrain to make points. Each round (after the early couple of rounds anyway) has you fighting to compete for various goals. Meet the goal, keep the card for end game scoring.

You can be aiming for the most forest that doesn’t touch deserts, or the highest number of ice areas. There are heaps to go for, and becuase they are laid out from the start you can plan accordingly.

This Blue Orange game took me by surprise. It is amazingly deep yet quick to play.

While many games do similar things with cards, having the magnetic tiles attach to your planet make for a great tactile experience.

Alpal has said I can borrow this in the near future for a formal review, so look out for that soon!

Downforce

I have spoken about Downforce a few times, and reviewed it already here on the site.

It was only a two player game, and Alpal managed to trick me into spending SO MUCH on cars (joking, I made poor financial choices :p ), but it was still a great game.

Hadn’t played Downforce in so long. And if you check out the instagram page you can see some of my attempted distraction tactics!

I lost overall, but we had a great time as always with this Restoration Games classic.

It's an old favourite. Well, if you can call 2 years 'old'.

Palm Trees

Completing the silly little games was a gem called Palm Trees. The concept is simple – give cards to other people to hold in their hands/fingers and create palm trees.

The first time someone drops fronds or refuses to play, everyone else scores. Simple, quick, and like Narwhal Free For All more fun that in deserves to be!

You need fairly nimble fingers because of the way you have to hold the cards. I think I had an advantage because of my large hands for once!

I will see if I can borrow it for a review soon as well. It’s far from a great game, but it’s a quick fun filler that I think a lot of people would enjoy.

Do not play Palm Trees with magicians or people that do cardistry!

Tetris 99 (Switch)

So as you would have seen on the Twitter page, there is another Grand Prix event for Tetris 99 next week.

In preperation, I thought I would fire up the Switch and have a couple of games – I mean, make sure all the updates are done. Yes, that was it 😀

I played a couple of rounds, then thought I would try out an Invictus match as I hadn’t in a while. The first game I dropped out really quickly (around 70th?), but the next round I was in the groove.

When we hit the top 10, you don’t see the tetromino drop anymore – it’s just sitting there on top of your stack. I need more practice!

Ten times I have tried the Invictus mode. This is my best placement yet!

Warriors of Waterdeep (Android)

A few more dungeon clears, a few more battles, and everything is still as up and down as before.

I did manage to level up enough to unlock a new character, which I thought would be fun. And it kind of is.

Problem is now I have an extra character to ‘earn’ cards for, so my progress is slowing down even more I think. My normal grind is showing less progress than normal, and I can’t see a way out without spending the cash.

Marketing wise Warriors of Waterdeep has the formula down. Quick battles that can be played in a couple of minutes? Check. Enough mindless fun that you want to keep playing? Yep, it’s been a couple of months now.

It took me a month to grind up enough to face this boss. I am not doing it for another dungeon.

Just enough carrot to get you to say ‘Oh hell I will just buy some cards’? Not quite, but I am getting tempted. If their pricing wasn’t so ridiculously high I probably would have bought some packs by now.

I figure two more weeks, then when the VIP club expires and I start getting those nags I will be uninstalling Warriors for good.

The Outer Worlds (Xbox One)

Oh wow. I am loving The Outer Worlds so much right now. It’s all the best bits of Fallout, set in outer space. The number of bugs etc. is also really minimal which is nice.

I have put in just over 24 hours now, and I am up to Level 22 of 30 (apparently, according to the achievments). I have spent so much time on Monarch (one of the planets), and I don’t think I have even found all the quest starters yet.

My only complaint at the moment is a little bit of pacing, but overall it’s moving fine and I am enjoying exploring the Halcyon colonies.

If you have Game Pass, try it out. It’s already included, and well worth the look.

I just love the humour in this game.

Bit of bonus Lego fun

Not one of my activities, but Alpal has been powering through some amazing Lego creations as always. The upgrades to Wahro0nga village are coming along really well, and you can see those in the weekly Yeti Hunting Puzzles 🙂

One thing she showed me was a Merry-Go-Round she made with an alien theme. One of the carraiges is even a cow!

I took a bit of video of us playing around with her new creation, so I thought I would share it here as well 😀

What about you?  I hope you got some great games in.  Or are you looking forward to a new one?  Let me know!  Shout out on Facebook or @JohnHQLD me on Twitter!

Until tomorrow,

JohnHQLD

Last Week’s Gaming – October 28th, 2019

Oh, it’s great to be back at work. No really :p

The downside to PAX Aus being sooner is in the middle of my post PAX blues, I am now getting Facebook reminders of what we got up to last year. Boo!

But PAX is over. Reality steps in. Or I can escape to The Outer Worlds…

Funkoverse – Harry Potter (4 Piece Starter and Expansion)

What can I say. Funkoverse has managed to capture my imagination a lot more than I thought it would!

I ended up going out and buying all of the DC and Harry Potter sets after playing with Alpal. Now I just need to track down Rick and Morty and The Golden Girls 🙂

This week we played a capture the flag scenario using 3 characters each. This increased the time of the game quite a lot, but not in a terrible way. If we were playing with two pieces, I would have been more inclined to play another game, but one took a fair bit of time.

Hopefully I can get a few more games in next weekend, and a full review will be coming soon!

My team of Hermoine, Bellatrix and Voldemort was definitely weird, but it was fun!

The Legend of Zelda – Link’s Awakening (Switch)

So I have cleared the second dungeon, but I still have a long way to go!

Wednesday night, I came home from work and just needed to chill. Link’s Awakening was the perfect game for this. It took about an hour to find where I was and clear the dungeon, without stretching my tired brain overly.

I did spend a bit more time fishing, but not as long as I thought I would in the claw game. Considering it’s based on a 26 year old GameBoy game, everything is holding up gameplay and story wise really well. It’s no Witcher, but it’s a great bit of fun 🙂

It was fun running around with Chomp Chomp. Need to time when to wait for him to attack better though!

Warriors of Waterdeep (Android)

So I have been having a lot of fun playing Warriors of Waterdeep, but the frustration level is steadily rising.

A new type of quest came with the last update – Battle Quests. Similar to the PvP battles where you can unlock chests and get a rating, Battle Quests unlock prizes when you win a certain number of battles.

You get 3 tries, then you can pay for another entry if you wish. 600 coins intially, now 30 gems. Sounds good, right?

Well, check out the match image. My team is at the bottom, the person I played against up top. Level 8, 9 and 10 characters against a team of Level 4s. It was a rollover. And it’s a match that should never be allowed to have happen.

And this is my biggest problem with Warriors – to compete, spend money. A lot of money. And while I am not saying devs shouldn’t be paid, Warriors of Waterdeep is asking way too much.

I have cancelled my subscription now, and I will stop playing near the end of November when my current bonuses stop.

So going against an opponent half my level, in a pay to compete match. Nope.

The Outer Worlds (XBox)

Fallout in space. I have been looking at The Outer Worlds for a while, but honestly I expected less on launch.

Fallout: New Vegas was far from bug free when it launched, to the point I didn’t play it for 2 years while patches and DLC came out. But when it all came out, New Vegas was an awesome game.

As The Outer Worlds is included in Game Pass, I thought I would give it a go. And what a go I gave it. Playing for 12 hours straight on Saturday, I am really, really enjoying it.

Everyone has been raving about The Outer Worlds, and I know why.

What about you?  I hope you got some great games in.  Or are you looking forward to a new one?  Let me know!  Shout out on Facebook or @JohnHQLD me on Twitter!

Until tomorrow,

JohnHQLD

Last Week’s Gaming – October 21st, 2019

PAX AUS WAS AMAZING!

Well, post PAX blues have come and gone, and reality is knocking. Back to work tomorrow – boo!

But PAX Aus was amazing. Thanks to everyone that joined in the PAX XP Hunt as well – it was a lot of fun!

I didn’t get to play quite everything I wanted to, and I only played a few ‘standard’ games this round. But it was a heap of fun, but I made one major mistake. I didn’t record most of them! I will talk about a few of them that I can remember, but PAX was PAX. A whirlwind of fun and activity and lines!

On that note, here are some of the gaming highlights I want to talk about 🙂

Cyberpunk 2077

So we got to watch a live demo in the main theatre. I thought I was excited for Cyberpunk before – now I can’t wait!

Role playing video games are great, but there are rarely any games with true ‘do what you want’ mechanics. This isn’t being said as a complaint – the amount of work involved in developing such a thing is phenomenal.

This means games with choices and skill trees tend to get min/maxed by the internet hive mind. Again, not a bad thing, but it is how the games tend to run.

Waiting in the theatre for the demo to start. It was worth the sore legs!

Cyberpunk 2077 looks to change all that in a truly meaningful way. We saw a mid game quest and boss battle that was tackled by a netrunner (hacker) and a tank. And the changes were definitely there.

Anyone that played Deus Ex has an inkling of what I am talking about. Run and Gunner? Build yourself up and kick in the front door. Stealth player? Look for the vent/window/whatever to work around the opposition.

Cyberpunk 2077 takes this freedom and cranks it up to 11. The different builds lead to very different experiences, meaning players will have a very unique play experience. It makes the Witcher series look like it plays on rails!

I wish I could have taken some pictures of what we watched, but we were asked not to. Short version though, if you want an immersive world where you can truly make your own way – Cyberpunk 2077 will be for you!

Final Fantasy VII Remake

Another game where I wish I could have taken pics, the only game I queued up for was Final Fantasy VII Remake. And I am glad I did.

I have played Final Fantasy VII to death over the years. And I pretty much always will. It was my first Final Fantasy game, so it holds that special place for me as a fan.

What can I tell you from my hands on with the remake? It’s not the same game. It’s like Resident Evil 2 and it’s remake – yes, it shares theme, characters and experiences but it’s a completely different game and experience.

If you have doubts about it, I understand. But what I played has changed my mind. I have gone from “Yeah, I will wait until it’s on special” to “Yes please take my preorder”. It was that fun.

Don’t go looking for a pretty version of the game you already know. Be prepared to be playing a new game that shares a world, but is it’s own game.

The Legend of Zelda – Link’s Awakening (Switch)

I have never played the Zelda games, short of a quick round on the NES mini and a bit of Breath of the Wild.

While I really want to play all of them, time has been an enemy. But Link’s Awakening looks to be the game that will change that.

I have only been able to get a couple of hours in, but the game is great. Old school gameplay that is holding up so well. It did make me realise how much I have been relying on objective markers.

One dungeon down!

Link’s Awakening is a beautiful return to old school gaming, accessible to everyone. I am looking forward to trying to finish it off before Luigi’s Mansion 3 comes out!

The Witcher 3 Complete Edition (Switch)

So I have played the opening of The Witcher 3 about 5 times. I started streaming it a couple of years ago, but couldn’t keep a regular schedule up so had to give it away. I am hoping that playing it on the Switch will help with this, especially as I am going away for a week in November for work!

Before anyone starts, yes it looks bad compared to PS4 Pro/Xbox One/PC. But it doesn’t look terrible. NPC’s move funny in the distance. Grass doesn’t part when you walk through it. But really these are little things to have all of the Witcher 3 on Switch!

Blown up you can see blur and jaggies, but on the Switch screen - glorious!

Expect to hear more on Switcher 3 over the next few weeks, including a look at the mClassic I grabbed from Indiegogo and how it works with such a game!

Asphalt 9: Legends (Switch)

So just prior to PAX Aus, Asphalt 9: Legends was released on the Switch. I had heard of the series before, it has a pretty solid following on mobile. So as it was free, I thought I would give it a try.

And then played for about 12 hours.

Take simple Burnout style races and work them into small races perfect for mobile play. Yes, there are microtransactions. You can speed up improving your car by purchasing random booster packs. But I have yet to be tempted to put money down, and I have unlocked quite a bit of the game.

Some types of race have you hurtling down a mountain. It's amazing 😀

Give it a go, if you like arcade style racing games you will get a fair amount of play for free!

Warriors of Waterdeep – Android

One last push was apparently all I needed!

I have started progressing through the main explore dungeons again, but man was that a huge slog.

The grind is definitely there, and the online battles are becoming incredibly frustrating. I either face players that have little to no chance, or others I can’t even scratch. There is rarely a middle ground for a well balanced game.

At the moment I have a couple more weeks of this month’s VIP subscription, but I am pretty sure this will be my last month of playing, as great a diversion as it has been.

Given the amount of cash I have had to spend, and the prompts to buy more for a chance to be competitive, I am nearing the end of my playtime. Next set of dungeons where I meet a wall, I will be uninstalling.

I can finally take a room like this on to progress. Took a month though!

Even though it’s not the same sort of game, I would be giving the free Asphalt 9: Legends a go over Warriors of Waterdeep now. The amount of fun that I have had has been worth it, but it’s hard to recommend a game that you have to pay as much as a new game each month in comparison.

Funkoverse Strategy Game – DC

I saw these games at Minotaur games, and was interested. Such a simple concept – a strategy tactics game using Funko Pop minis. I saw them at PAX, but didn’t buy any as I wasn’t sure.

Luckily Alpal bought the DC starter pack, and now I want to buy ALL of them!

Simple enough turn based tactics, with variable player powers. Some of the rules I was a little worried would be to ‘bookkeeping’ for a simple tactics game, but those fears were unfounded.

Prepare to hear more about Funkoverse over the next few weeks!

Who wouldn't want to play a game with pieces like these?

What about you?  I hope you got some great games in.  Or are you looking forward to a new one?  Let me know!  Shout out on Facebook or @JohnHQLD me on Twitter!

Until tomorrow,

JohnHQLD

Last Week’s Gaming – September 23rd, 2019

It was a video game heavy week

Well, I have put in work days every day this week. So tired. With a last minute postpone of the weekly gaming night, tabletop gaming has taken a hit.

But I still got to spend some time having fun!

Warriors of Waterdeep – Android

As per my review last week, I am still plugging away at this dungeon crawler.

I am in a position where I can’t progress in the main story, and the enemies are all 3-4 levels higher than me. I am getting owned.

Even in the player battles that unlock (after time) some great loot, I am getting hammered! That said, it’s still fun enough to play. Until I got some Epic loot.

One of my characters earned enough cards to level up some loot. Because of it’s quality, I also got about 9,000 XP if I leveled it up! The catch? It cost 7,000 gold. That meant spending 500 gems to get the gold I needed, and then spending another 1,000 ish gold on the character level up. Real cost? About $8.

So from the looks of it, getting to level 10 is going to cost serious cash

I am still giving it another month, but unless I can find a way to progress without spending about $60 from what I can see, this is definitely my last month.

Tetris 99 – Switch

There was another Grand Prix event last weekend, so you knew this was coming. Playing tired may not have been the smartest choice though. First game, I spent the entire time checking out the new Kirby theme, and just got smashed. Rank 97.

All time lowest rank entry in my Tetris career. But worth it! 5 games later, and I earned the Kirby theme 🙂

The new theme is really cute, with some nice touches. The badges are little Kirby’s, and the attack indicator is Kirby raising a star? Maybe a sword but I don’t think so. It’s cool either way 😀

It's cute but not overtly distracting. At least once you have seen all the little touches!

Once again, if you have Switch Online (which mine just renewed, so it’s been a year!) give Tetris 99 a go. You can play offline now if you just want to practice 🙂

Gears POP! – Android

I heard about this during the year, and an ad popped up for it so I thought I would give it a try.

Is it a great game? Not really. Two lane MOBA type game, with fairly standard collection and loot gathering. The tutorial is very bare bones, but I will stick with it a little longer.

The cute factor is completely over the top. When you earn a new character, the app opens the POP! box, and it’s ridiculous how happy that made me.

Played it for about an hour overall so far, and got a couple of level ups. The thing that makes me laugh the most is you can sign in with your XBox live account, so most of my gamerscore now comes from this game 😀

I will let you know if I am going to keep playing next week, but at the moment it’s a “Nice idea, needs a better game” thought from me.

Playing a game with POP! figures is surprisingly fun. I hope they do more in this style.

What about you?  I hope you got some great games in.  Or are you looking forward to a new one?  Let me know!  Shout out on Facebook or @JohnHQLD me on Twitter!

Until next time,

JohnHQLD

Last Week’s Gaming – September 16th, 2019

Gaming so light, it’s like I was in the Lockup!

Well it’s been a week! Unfortunately, it wasn’t for all the things I like that take up all of the time 🙁

Less than 25 days to PAX means a lot of extra time spent working, which cuts into my gaming time. Adulting is hard!

That said I still got a couple of games in, let me tell you about them below 🙂

Lockup: A Roll Player Tale

Game night was mainly catching up, which is always great because that is a big part of holding the night 🙂

We got in a game of Lockup: A Roll Player Tale at maximum players, and it was a lot of fun. Teaching four different people that take in rules differently was a bit of a challenge. It’s not that Lockup is hard to teach, but there are a lot of moving parts to explain to everyone. When everyone takes in information differently, it is a challenge.

But by the third round everyone had a handle on the game, and it went down well. Expect a formal review in the next couple of weeks now I have played with more people.

Lockup: A Roll Player Tale is a hard one to describe, but a lot of fun when you are into it

Tetris 99 – Switch

Of course I logged in for a couple of roudns of Tetris 99 this week. There was one night I was absolutely wrecked, and Tetris 99 is a great way to clear my mind.

The new additions have been great, and the addition of the daily challenges gives me something to aim for. But.

I have found during the last weeks I have been logging in less and less. It’s no fault of Tetris, it’s still great and the new 2.0 additions have been challenging. It’s just I have so many other games I want to try that it seems to be knocked back a lot.

Still all in all, Tetris 99 is still a fun diversion for me 🙂

The Daily Missions are a nice addition, but I find myself logging in less

PS4 Troubleshooting and reinstallation

Now I know what you are thinking – that’s not a game! But bear with me for a minute.

Sunday afternoon, I was too sore and too tired to jump back into Astral Chain. I was a bit too tired for Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I had a chance to sit on the couch and play a game with Rabbit next to me, and I thought ‘Now I can play Pheonix Wright!’

Well, no I couldn’t. What started wtih the controllers being unable to correct ended up with a complete reinstallation of the PS4, so no gaming Sunday afternoon after all.

Well, it wasn't the Pheonix Wright I was going to play. But getting the PS4 back up was a game in itself!

The thing is, because of the way the PlayStation site is setup, it took me 3 goes to find the correct files – and another two to get the reinstalltion file in the right folder!

So I have chalked up the experience of reinstalling the PS4 software after what I am guessing was a bad update as a game. A game with a bad manual :p

What about you?  I hope you got some great games in.  Or are you looking forward to a new one?  Let me know!  Shout out on Facebook or @JohnHQLD me on Twitter!

Until tomorrow,

JohnHQLD

Last Week’s Gaming – September 9th, 2019

Well, a week without board games. Need to fix that!

Between work, the site backend redesign and feeling ill, I didn’t get as much gaming in as I would have hoped.

But as usual, that doesn’t mean no gaming goodness was had!

Phoenix Point – PC

From the designer of the original XCom, Julian Gollop, comes a game I backed a while ago. And I finally had time to play it!

All of the familiar squad based turn tactics are there, as well as some new twists. Improvments over the Firaxis XCom franshise are here as well. For example, when you put a soldier in Overwatch, you get to set the Overwatch arcs. The ability for deeper planning is great, but it is still a fairly streamlined experience so far.

I am only a couple of missions in, but when I get a solid afternoon to go for it expect to hear more.

From the designer of the original XCom, Phoenix Point has some unique twists so far

Tetris 99 – Switch

Well, Nintendo dropped a huge update – and I decided to give it a spin.

Daily missions and new play modes are always appreciated, and the new Invictus mode was certainly a challenge! Invictus mode is free, but only players that have achieved a win in previous games can enter it, so it’s definitely a top tier event.

There are a bunch of new modes now including head to head play, and I can’t wait to try them all out. I am sure there will be an unofficial Tetris 99 area somewhere at PAX Aus this year, even if I have to try and start one 😀

Word of warning if you haven’t already played the new version – the update took a good 20 minutes to download – it’s a big one!

Version 2.0 of Tetris 99 comes with a lot of new features. Can't wait to try them all!

Astral Chain – Switch

Well, I heard a lot of hype, but this weekend I finally got to sit and try Astral Chain for myself.

The game just oozes Platinum Games DNA. The combat is satisfying, the animations are amazing, and almost everything clicks.

The story is fairly standard anime trope so far, but that hasn’t stopped me from enjoying it. It might be a week before I can sit down with it for another few hours and try and finish another file, but so far so good.

I might need to remap the controls though. That so far is my biggest issue. And the auto-assistance I found just before I finished I am going to try and turn off to see if that helps.

This cute looking little pain was confusing at first, but once you solve the puzzle are easy to take down.

What about you?  I hope you got some great games in.  Or are you looking forward to a new one?  Let me know!  Shout out on Facebook or @JohnHQLD me on Twitter!

Until tomorrow,

JohnHQLD