What game are you playing?

[Speed Racer]

#####in' love all 3 Mass Effect games.

If BioWare could add ME3's multiplayer mode in a future update, that would be icing on the cake. That's some of the most fun I ever had in online play. Usually mained Turian Sentinel or Salarian Tech.

Carrying a team as a biotic Volus is... a feeling only the most righteous can achieve.

I read somewhere that EA is "open" to adding it back in as a future update.

[TheRedPriest]

Because God forbid they include everything on the disc.

[Johncarllos]

Still playing Hades. GOTY for me.

Finally got an RTX 3070 and Ryzen 5600X, so I've been playing Control (through Library sharing) to enjoy the ray traced goodness.

DLSS 2.0 is possibly the biggest gamechanger in PC gaming in the last decade. It feels and looks like absolute magic. Running at Native 1440p, Control with Raytracing runs at maybe 20-30fps depending on the scene. The difference with DLSS on is RARELY noticeable and I'm steady 60+fps, often in the 90+ realm.

If the rumored Switch Pro uses the NVidia DLSS cores in its GPU, you will NOT be disappointed with the insane capability of its upscaling.

[Speed Racer]

Because God forbid they include everything on the disc.

The devs didn't plan to include it at all; they removed it so it wouldn't be necessary to achieve the "good" ending for the end of ME3, which you didn't need anyway if you had played across all three games and did everything.

[Speed Racer]

I beat Mass Effect last night. That was a shorter game than I remember it being, and I'll be starting up Mass Effect 2 soon.

[TheRedPriest]

FINISH THE FIGHT!

[Snare]

im playing digimon.

[TheRedPriest]

Gabumon is going to get themselves canceled.  Not that Agumon looks much brighter.

[Snare]

Oh, Digimon should have been cancelled around the time they got actual hentai artists to illustrate the darn things. They've attempted to eroticize driders, literal plants and anything else that can vaguely suggest a female silhouette when squinting.

[TheRedPriest]

What about the actual females?

[Snare]

What about the actual females?

Solely protected in battle by lingerie. It's awful.

[TheRedPriest]

That's an odd spelling for awesome.

[Snare]

Were it a practical choice for battle, I'd be all for it. Expression of the self and all that jazz. But leaving ones digital bosom exposed is how one dies from wayward javelins.

The game goes on and on about this badass "chrome digizoid" and all the cool knight men and gundam dinosaurs wear armor made out of the stuff and meanwhile the tiddy brigade is going in with their guns just completely hanging out, no game plan in mind.

I'm currently penning a sternly written letter to Mr. Digimon at Bandai. Unfortunately as a Canadian I cannot write anything harsher than "my apologies".

[TheRedPriest]

It's not "leaving one's digital bosom exposed", it's keeping one light enough to dodge attacks and move faster in battle. 

[Speed Racer]

I snorted at "Thespian? But I thought you liked guys."

Started up Mass Effect 2. Trying to be careful as ##### so I don't get anyone killed.

[TheRedPriest]

That's why I never finished Disgaea 1.

[Speed Racer]

Still playing Mass Effect 2. Once I do the Reaper IFF mission I have to finish the game, so right now I'm picking up the rest of my team and doing their loyalty missions. I accidentally did the mission where we had to crash an asteroid into a mass relay last night; I was way to #####ed up and I thought it was going to be a simple "find out what happened to the missing ship and pick up the scientist" straightforward mission, but noooooope.

[Snare]

Still playing Mass Effect 2. Once I do the Reaper IFF mission I have to finish the game, so right now I'm picking up the rest of my team and doing their loyalty missions. I accidentally did the mission where we had to crash an asteroid into a mass relay last night; I was way to #####ed up and I thought it was going to be a simple "find out what happened to the missing ship and pick up the scientist" straightforward mission, but noooooope.

I have reason to believe that your "too #####ed up" is probably my "just normal" 

[Speed Racer]

I mean, if your normal is being baked most of the time, then yes, you'd be right.

[Snare]

It's not my fault they opened 4 dispensaries within 3 minutes walking distance from me. My country is a pusher! Even Buddha would /noclip through the wall!

Anyway. I'm hoping to play the new Mario Golf coming out this week. I guess I should wait and see if it's any good before putting down $80 on it. But I mean, it's Mario. It's golf. Can you really mess it up?

[Speed Racer]

I couldn't believe that it costs $80 and then I remembered you're Canadian.

[Snare]

Our currency is the CAD which is also an amazingly apt self-descriptor for the average Canadian!!

[TheRedPriest]

Well, your games might cost $20 more than ours, but at least you have a functional health care system.

[Snare]

Yeah, in the US release of the upcoming Mario Golf game, if Mario aggravates his groinal hernia while running for the golf ball, the subsequent ambulance ride financially ruins him. They play a little cinematic and everything. It's moving.

In the Canadian version he's rushed to the hospital free of charge and gets prescribed an irresponsible amount of painkillers.

[TheRedPriest]

No coins needed.

[Speed Racer]

Played some Knockout City last night. It's a decently fun game, but I'm at the point in my life where multiplayer isn't really for me. This is what happens when you get old and have kids. Not always in that order.

[TheRedPriest]

Honestly, I was never super fond of multiplayer stuff outside a bit of 2 player co-op for stuff like Contra and TMNT.  And I've always had ZERO interest in online games of any sort.

[Snare]

I'm really not a fan of playing against people I don't know. Everyone's always so angry and belligerent. You should've seen this psycho analysis someone did of me based on our Pokemon match.

He was mad.

[TheRedPriest]

Random lobbies and people online are horrible, but more than that I just don't like playing unless it's same room.  It's just not the same online.

[Speed Racer]

For me it's just juggling work, family, crap around the house, and my own mental health. I don't get a lot of time to play video games anymore, so when I do, I don't want to spend it with some nasally 13 year-old calling me racial epithets for fragging him in a multiplayer game. I'm pretty much all single-player games nowadays.

[TheRedPriest]

Single player is the way to go!

[Snare]

like the old sailor rhyme:

Single player? Never been gayer!
Multiplayer? Skies will be greyer

[TheRedPriest]

Nobody says that.

[Speed Racer]

Nobody says that.

Snare just said old sailors say it. Learn to #####in' read!

[TheRedPriest]

Old sailors don't even play games.  I bet Snare doesn't even know where sailors hang out.

[Teelio]

Was playing Assassin's Creed Unity for a while there, until I realized I was playing Assassin's Creed.

Been spending more time in VR lately. Aside from dicking around in Half-Life: Alyx workshop, there's Superhot & PokerVR. Superhot made me realize how out of shape I am.

[TheRedPriest]

Superhot sounds like a very unsavory VR game you only play at night by yourself.

[Teelio]

It could be that kind of game, with the right mods.

[Speed Racer]

I #####ing love Superhot. They're also the nicest people when sending a job application rejection letter.

SUPER
HOT
SUPER
HOT
SUPER
HOT
SUPER
HOT
SUPER
HOT

[Speed Racer]

I'll probably be firing up Call of Duty: Vanguard tonight, as we got a review copy in. I'm pretty stoked about that.

[Johncarllos]

Tell us how it is!

I recently beat:
It Takes Two: great game, possible the best co-op platformer ever, HMU on Steam or Origin if anyone wants to play.
Control: Fun concept and gameplay that got really stale by the final act.
Bloodstained- Ritual of the Night: Weeb-y boob-y metroidvania, but overall decent execution with loads of different builds and ways to stack the stats for creative playstyles.

Been Playing:
Dragonball Fighter Z: Still. It's so gooooood. 9/10
Guilty Gear Strive: The best netcode I've ever experienced. If you want a smooth online fighter, this is it. 9/10
Hades: GOTYAY 10/10
Tetris Effect: Hot dang do I like trippy VR tetris. 8/10

[Speed Racer]

So far my favorite games of 2021 are:

Steven Universe: Unleash the Light
Rain On Your Parade
MouseBot: Escape From Cat Labs
Crash Drive 3
Madden 22
Hot Wheels Unleashed
Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan
Unpacking
Retro Highway

[Speed Racer]

The first racing season in Hot Wheels Unleashed has arrived; it's DC Super Villains themed, with I think 6 cars to add to your collection. Pretty much as long as you do the daily challenges, it seems like you should be fine. They automatically give you a Deathstroke van/truck and it sucks until you upgrade it to "rare," but the credits and gears are flowing very nicely 3 days into the season, so I've been upgrading a bunch of my cars.

[NovaMan XP]

Recently I did a replay of Mega Man Battle Network 2 because I finally got a working GBA again. Also played through Metroid Zero Mission, and actually beat it, making that the first Metroid I've beaten... I owned the original on NES but I was just really bad at it. Eventually I'll get through the rest of the 2D Metroid games.

For now though I'm just gonna be playing more GBA games now that I can play them again in their original form.

[TheRedPriest]

The first racing season in Hot Wheels Unleashed has arrived; it's DC Super Villains themed, with I think 6 cars to add to your collection. Pretty much as long as you do the daily challenges, it seems like you should be fine. They automatically give you a Deathstroke van/truck and it sucks until you upgrade it to "rare," but the credits and gears are flowing very nicely 3 days into the season, so I've been upgrading a bunch of my cars.

Wait, it this a games as service/live service game?  I was thinking of picking it up, and if it is, I won't be.

[Speed Racer]

The first racing season in Hot Wheels Unleashed has arrived; it's DC Super Villains themed, with I think 6 cars to add to your collection. Pretty much as long as you do the daily challenges, it seems like you should be fine. They automatically give you a Deathstroke van/truck and it sucks until you upgrade it to "rare," but the credits and gears are flowing very nicely 3 days into the season, so I've been upgrading a bunch of my cars.

Wait, it this a games as service/live service game?  I was thinking of picking it up, and if it is, I won't be.

So yes/no. It's a racing game that has 50+ Hot Wheels cars that you can race around I want to say 40+ tracks, and if you never want to go online, that's fine. There's DLC season passes that can be purchased for extra cars, tracks, and track pieces (if you want to build your own tracks), but it's not necessary. DLC thus far are cars from DC Comics, Street Fighter, Aston Martin (so they can have a James Bond car release around the time of NTTD without having to say it's a James Bond car) and other Hot Wheels cars. They've confirmed that other car manufacturers and He-Man cars will also be coming at some point.

As for the racing seasons, this is a separate purchase from the season passes ($5 I think?). The seasons will last about 60 days, and there are three objectives you need to complete each day to keep earning XP to move up tiers that are purely rewards. If you want to compete in online races to do the objectives you can, but it's really not necessary and you can do everything in single player. Again, not necessary to purchase any of the DLC if you don't want to, although I will say that the credits (used to purchase cars) and gears (used to upgrade cars) are flowing very nicely during this racing season - I was wondering if they were going to do something like this, because otherwise the game is a tad grindy when upgrading/purchasing cars.

That being said, this game was a strong contender for my GOTY on my friend's podcast, and it still is. Even if they hadn't introduced the racing season (which again, you don't have to do unless you want to), it's a really well-made game that has a lot of love and care put into it.

[TheRedPriest]

Sounds like a half assed single player tacked onto what is clearly a money shop/live service.  That's too bad.  I suppose we're just past the days of complete, full featured games.  Unless it's a super small indie studio with an original IP.

[Speed Racer]

Ehhhhh trust me, the single player is anything but half-assed. The variety of cars is great, and it's obvious they took a lot of care into creating the tracks. None of them feel the same or pull any of that "same track, but at night! Or mirrored!" crap. If anything, pick it up on sale.

[Mikero]

So. Much. Genshin Impact.

[Speed Racer]

I got the Batmobile last night! I have only one more "regular" car to get in Hot Wheels Unleashed, and everything else are Super Treasure Hunt cars, which take patience to get (I think there's a few that get unlocked via the "adventure" mode, the rest you just have to wait for them to pop up in the store.). So I'm stoked and just doing my objectives every day so I can get the rest of the DC Villains cars - only Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn are left!