sakesushi

Reading through all the responses here, it's fascinating the different stages we're all in with COVID-19 and how much just a few days can change things. Here in Vegas, we just got our 15th reported case, so we're just starting with the spread of the virus. The Trader Joe's we stopped by after work here was pretty barren of the frozen stuff, the canned stuff, but no one was fighting people for things like others have mentioned here (another nice reminder of why I don't social media).

My work is a very small engineering firm so we really haven't reacted too much to the pandemic aside from hand sanitizer around the office and a friendly reminder to use it. One of my big curiosities is the Raider Stadium; is it a matter of time before they delay construction of it altogether? And will the buildings we've been working on be postponed as well?

Lastly, it's forcing me to judge every drop of alcohol I have. A weakened immune system is easy prey for the virus!

I like to mix myself a quick cocktail with any game I'm playing, but I can't drink to drunkenness without getting super sick and headachey these days. More to the spirit of the question would probly be Smash Bros. Melee, some great drunken college brawls at the time! My current jam is Stardew Valley - super chill when you get into a groove - but recently, sipping along to Outer Wilds and fittingly? depressingly? Disco Elysium were a nice experience.

I've only played it on the Switch so I have no straight comparison to PC or other consoles. I prefer the controllers to the touchscreen controls personally, but I play it both docked and handheld. It controls pretty well with the controllers, there's just a few hiccups that you need to get used to. Some things are untaught conveniences (i.e. toggling up to the relics to see what they do), some things are weird inconsistencies (pressing Y(?) on some screens will show you what a card upgrades to, and does nothing on other screens).

I haven't had trouble reading the text docked or undocked. The game hiccups a bit here and there when loading during battles (during enemy transitions, for example) and load times - as with most Switch ports - can feel a bit lengthy, but that performance has definitely improved since the Switch launch.

Other than that, it's a solid port! Played a ton of the game, ascended a handful of times, still hop in now and then. I'm not 100% sure if the port is up-to-date to the PC content, so if the 4th deck is a make or break for which you get, you may wanna look that up.

Wow, you have some long games on that list! Lots of good stuff, but if I were tackling a backlog like this, I would be happy getting through just a handful of these games. (I'm in a similar boat, but my deadline is Animal Crossing, and I somehow got myself sucked back into Indie Animal Cros- Stardew Valley).

Dunno how you feel about scary games, but I couldn't get anywhere into SOMA. I hear it's much more palatable for us scaredy cats when you toggle the monsters idle, turning basically into a walking sim. Haven't tried it myself, but I intend to one day!

Final Fantasy XV can be a long or short story, depending on how much side content you do. If you wanna play in the spirit of the game, it'll probly tend toward the longer end of kinda just doing whatever until you figure "that was fun, lemme go wrap this thing up!" Of course, like plenty of open world games, dropping it partway works fine, but I did enjoy the mainline story even if it isn't particularly mind-blowing.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is longer than I thought - I haven't finished it a decent number of chapters after I thought it would wrap up - but it has a really good momentum to it to carry you to the end.

Play River City Girls on Normal! Like most beat-em-ups, the increased difficulty is just number tweaking to artificially make fights longer and has actively been pushing me away from the game! Must. Drop. My. Difficulty!

You might see a recurring theme here, but pick-up-and-play is very much at home on the Switch, docked or on the go. Makes it perfect for a lot of indie games that make the jump to Switch. A few of my favorites:

• Slay the Spire
• Celeste
• Baba Is You
• Hollow Knight
• Children of Morta
• Oxenfree
• Night in the Woods
• Firewatch
• What Remains of Edith Finch

Load Our Last Save: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - When Ben first got Owl down one bar, he faked mercy before absolutely murdering Ben in glorious fashion. Also playing Kidz Bop's rendition of "Hot In Herre".

There were some good jump scares in one of the RE2 Remake Playdates. I think there was one of Abby complaining about how terrifying Mr. X is right before he kicks the door in on her face!

I remember playing MW3 when it first came out. It was unlike anything I'd played before. Using nearly every single key on the keyboard - I remember keys 1 through 0 being hotkeys for tenths of throttle, 1 being 10% max speed to 0 being 100% max speed I believe? - was an effective way to immerse me into piloting a giant bipedal machine and lasering the hell out of other mechs. That ended up being my only exposure to MechWarrior; the next MW game I saw was MechAssault, which sounded like an arcade'ing of the series that I had no interest in. This new game and Battletech might be a fun way for me to get that nostalgic feeling back!

I love the bosses in Remnant! The game's dynamic completely changes between solo and co-op, so grab a buddy or two on mic to really get the full experience from that game.

The bosses in Remnant do pale in comparison to those in Sekiro though:

Every boss in Sekiro gave me a feeling of accomplishment, of learning, of understanding of the world, up until the very end, but those two had an extra layer of drama that really set them apart from any other bosses this year.

@shiftygism: Holy crap, with that haul, you're set for all of next year! Good luck getting through all of them!

I haven't been looking at much, though my friend's eyeing either a Switch or PS4 bundle. I did pick up Disco Elysium ($32 - the video game "intellectual" in me required I find out if it's 100% my friend's jam) and Outer Wilds ($25 - not discounted, just needed it in my life).

Though I enjoyed the first two games quite a bit, having a baby makes VR practically irresponsible to use at most times of the day. The game itself does seem pretty cool, but outside of the possibility of well-developed VR interaction, it's likely going to be an entertaining enough adventure with a beloved character.