What Have I Been Up To???

When I started doing this blog last year it was during a gaming funk where I felt a bit lost as to what I should play and was aimlessly poking at things but not really enjoying what I was doing. The A to Z concept pushed me to get into a game and stick with it. It has worked out really well and as some of you may have noticed I have not written an article or review over the last few weeks, the reason being I have been busy playing games in the time I would do the write ups. It's not that I don't enjoy doing the blog but I wanted to spend the time doing what the blog originally pushed me to do, which was play games. Mission successful!

This week I am just going to write a catch up article covering what games I have been spending my time with and some short thoughts on them.

Alphabear : Hardcover Edition

A word based puzzle game. You have to make words from the letters given to you on a board, each letter used in a word grows your bears. The words get you points and bigger bears get you points. Letters only stick around for a set number of turns before they become unusable rocks that block bear growth. It's real good if you like that type of game and it can be played in small minute chunks (was originally a phone game so that makes sense). Sometime it is easy other times my brain refused to make words and it's hard. Sometimes there is a timer, that's the only levels I don't like.

Vermintide

The sequel to this game just came out and people are really liking it so in typical fashion I went back and played the original which has been sitting in my library for some time. This is a first person 4 player co-op game set in the Warhammer Fantasy world. You are fighting back against an invasion of Skaven (rat-men) through a series of ever more difficult missions. It plays well enough but there isn't a huge amount of variety and it mostly takes from Left 4 Dead without really adding enough of its own to keep me interested. The sequel seems to have learned and grown from this first outing into a fully realized game of its own. Vermintide is alright but I think I have played as much as I am going to.

The Signal From Tölva : Polar Expansion

I wrote about the very enjoyable The Signal From Tölva almost a year ago and the free expansion campaign finally came out so I dove right in. I talked about wanted more when playing the game the first time and the expansion gave me exactly that, set up a prequel to the core game (but should really be played after due to how it is set up) filling in mysteries while adding more with the base game play still being great. The developers have created quite the interesting world with this game and there is a lore hole that I hope they fill over the course of more games and expansion.

Pit People

Just started this one recently and as a fan of Behemoth's games and style of humor I am enjoying it very much. Turn based combat, open world exploration, funny and well designed there is a lot going on with Pit People. Each battle has specific goals and strategies that keep it fresh and while I am only 4-5 hours in I have seen a crazy variety of enemies, allies and items to equip. This one will probably get a full write up when I finish it.

Other Games

I am still slowly playing through the giant monster that is Final Fantasy XV, some of the new sheen from my first impressions have worn off but I am still very much enjoying the characters and the world. I dipped my toe briefly (well 12 hours briefly) into Warframe and all the deep huge pile of systems that game has, I liked what I saw but haven't gotten back into it since I reached a point in the game where it "really starts" and I have to figure out what is next. Finally I broke a rule and am playing Slay the Spire, a game in early access. It is a card game, specifically a deck builder, endless dungeon runner that is good, very good. It too will probably get it's own review down the road.

So that is all for now. New articles will pop up as I feel inspired and when I am not so deep into playing that I remember to write them :) Thanks to everyone who reads these!