Get Crime Boss: Rockay City instead. $20 full price with all the DLC included. Single player rougelite campaign mode. Multiplayer missions with RNG so they stay fresh. Hilarious mostly horrible voice acting by washed up celebs. Fantastic gun play. Just a great value really.

Played 3 hours last night with a buddy. No MOBA experience. We both had more fun than expected, even losing all our matches.

I already saw a community problem with people saying to forfeit within the first 10 mins and trying to abandon games. So I hope they keep the bot match options for when even the unranked queue gets shitty. Cuz it’s just a matter of time like all games.

I’ve been using it. Biggest issue is microphone recording. They did a hot fix for it just not recording your mic. But now that it works, it cuts out, which seems to be common. I may need to tweak my steam voice settings but they looked fine to me. Everything else about it is pretty great so far.

unless that vendetta is so strong he’s policing your purchases and won’t play with you, crossplay is already confirmed.

You can mod risk of rain for many more than 4 players.

I was bully on it from the demo. But it’s gotten old pretty fast. It has an item saturation problem and lack of deck forging tools, I think. When I learned the decks you unlock aren’t anything crazy or fun, just regular decks with new start conditions, I lost a lot of steam. Not leaving it behind, but my drive to play it isn’t as high.

Same opinion from time with the demo. It seems to be a GSG design philosophy to keep players from the power fantasy aspect of games, which was a big part of why DRG never clicked for me. I still was willing to give this a try when I expected the price to be in line with other titles at around $5. But they came in at the premium survivor price with much less innovation than others at that price point. Let them keep getting that bag tho. Their loyals can help fund something I really want to play like Dark Swarm.

Next Fests are my gaming Christmases. I play way too many demos each time

Feb 24 standouts for me so far:

Meta-Ghost: The Breaking Show: Solid roguelite experience. Each of the 3 characters on offer have very different playstyles and speeds. In-run upgrades allowed for powerful, game-breaking synergies. Meta progression goes beyond just stat upgrades into new(?) territory by allowing you to customize your 4 skills (main attack, special, dodge, ultimate) in different tiers. There is also the ability to “weaponize prosthetics” (its a cyberpunk universe) that was not part of the demo. All in all looks like a promising new title for the genre.

Pepper Grinder: A fun, polished Devolver Digital title? Surely not. I heard people had some hype around this one and it seems founded. Fun, old-school type platform adventure with a movement twist - you drill through sand to get around. You can attack from under enemies, there is some puzzle elements to trap doors and bombs, collectathon bits, and YOU CAN SCROOGE MCDUCK ENEMIES. Hard not to see this one as a win. Should be another solid indy entry from the dying Devolver Digital.

Raw Metal: The artstyle and dynamic camera got me in the door. I’m not a stealth game guy, but this one has my interest. Most movement is from a top down perspective while stealthing, but if discovered, the camera shifts for a cqb fight cam while you take out your enemies. Not being successful with stealth at all times seems forgiving if you can make up for it in combat. This is a roguelike title, so patience is likely required regardless of skillset.

Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse: Commonly misconceived as the third Pocketpair EA title, its just published by them, different devs according to steam page. Shares some similarities with Hollow Knight visuals, but its really hard to see in screenshots alone that its only vaguely; in-game its more apparent that it’s not a copy. Gameplay-wise, its Dead Cells-esque roguelite without the soul/cell loss mechanic, so standard meta currency accumulation. There are also other materials you acquire that you use to build up your town and the shrines that let you purchase meta-upgrades. Combat was snappy, movement and exploration felt good for this type of game. One to watch for fans of the genre.

The Age of Hell: The game to beat for me. I am a boomer shooter fan, so I’ve been eating well for a while. But there is also plenty of crap that came with the explosion of the genre. So when you find one that steadily makes you go “oh fuck yes” as it introduces more elements in the demo is a happy time. Running on GZ doom, you have a dash mechanic, great christian demon-slaying one-liners, and a holy hammer for maximum mashing with combos to boot. But wait, you can also Mjolnir that instrument of god right at all the enemies and even reflect projectiles back. And did someone say Holy Hand Grenade? The dev did at least, cuz you get one. Toss in a dragon’s breath shotguncrossbow and chaingun with crazy RPM and I am in. Can’t wait.

I still have a bunch of demos to get through. Will add more if anything else catches my eye.

Next Fests are my gaming Christmases. I play way too many demos each time

Feb 24 standouts for me so far:

Meta-Ghost: The Breaking Show: Solid roguelite experience. Each of the 3 characters on offer have very different playstyles and speeds. In-run upgrades allowed for powerful, game-breaking synergies. Meta progression goes beyond just stat upgrades into new(?) territory by allowing you to customize your 4 skills (main attack, special, dodge, ultimate) in different tiers. There is also the ability to “weaponize prosthetics” (its a cyberpunk universe) that was not part of the demo. All in all looks like a promising new title for the genre.

Pepper Grinder: A fun, polished Devolver Digital title? Surely not. I heard people had some hype around this one and it seems founded. Fun, old-school type platform adventure with a movement twist - you drill through sand to get around. You can attack from under enemies, there is some puzzle elements to trap doors and bombs, collectathon bits, and YOU CAN SCROOGE MCDUCK ENEMIES. Hard not to see this one as a win. Should be another solid indy entry from the dying Devolver Digital.

Raw Metal: The artstyle and dynamic camera got me in the door. I’m not a stealth game guy, but this one has my interest. Most movement is from a top down perspective while stealthing, but if discovered, the camera shifts for a cqb fight cam while you take out your enemies. Not being successful with stealth at all times seems forgiving if you can make up for it in combat. This is a roguelike title, so patience is likely required regardless of skillset.

Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse: Commonly misconceived as the third Pocketpair EA title, its just published by them, different devs according to steam page. Shares some similarities with Hollow Knight visuals, but its really hard to see in screenshots alone that its only vaguely; in-game its more apparent that it’s not a copy. Gameplay-wise, its Dead Cells-esque roguelite without the soul/cell loss mechanic, so standard meta currency accumulation. There are also other materials you acquire that you use to build up your town and the shrines that let you purchase meta-upgrades. Combat was snappy, movement and exploration felt good for this type of game. One to watch for fans of the genre.

The Age of Hell: The game to beat for me. I am a boomer shooter fan, so I’ve been eating well for a while. But there is also plenty of crap that came with the explosion of the genre. So when you find one that steadily makes you go “oh fuck yes” as it introduces more elements in the demo is a happy time. Running on GZ doom, you have a dash mechanic, great christian demon-slaying one-liners, and a holy hammer for maximum mashing with combos to boot. But wait, you can also Mjolnir that instrument of god right at all the enemies and even reflect projectiles back. And did someone say Holy Hand Grenade? The dev did at least, cuz you get one. Toss in a dragon’s breath shotguncrossbow and chaingun with crazy RPM and I am in. Can’t wait.

I still have a bunch of demos to get through. Will add more if anything else catches my eye.

17D chess move. That’s the way to do it

They won’t make them and people will either be selling your old fave model new or (not really) lightly used for about $500 if it was at all popular. Always buy a backup once you’re in love

Gamers: Tell us what you learned, Sean.

Sean Murray in Sam Jackson voice: Not a god damn thing!

Relieved to see it was a known issue and not something wrong on my end

Not the exact same issue, but waking up from sleep has been a problem for me for about as long. The device will make the wake sound but the screen does not come on. So I wait a good while then try to wake again and it seems shut off but then comes on as I hit the button, which sleeps it. We play this game once or twice then it works fine when I finally get it awake. That’s all without a suspended game too, just on the home or library tab.