What are you playing right now?

[VictorViper]

I just started playing Cryptark from Alien Trap (Apotheon), and it's really impressing. Essentially you're a mercenary for a salvage company and your job is to prep derelict ships for scrappers. The basic loop boils down to choosing a ship, boarding it, taking out the central AI and moving on to the next bounty. But the real hook is in the approach.

There are several different defense systems, such as shield generators, alarm systems, drone spawners, repair drones, system shufflers (moves core systems every couple minutes), nuclear self-destruct systems and more, and it's entirely up to you how/when/if you deal with things. Your missions have a par time and the rewards for meeting or exceeding this are highly worthwhile. Each mission also offers three optional challenges to increase your payday, tasking you with leaving certain systems online, to not trip any alarms, to complete a mission without using supply pods or with minimal armour cladding, etc.

There are a ton of these challenges and they vary wildly. And since absolutely everything costs money - including your mech upgrades, weapons, armour and ammo, the incentive is there to try to squeeze every last penny from a mission. You can fail a mission so long as your crew can afford to field another run - each time your suit is destroyed, it costs $100K to replace it. You can even complete a mission but post a net loss. If you overspend on a loadout and perform poorly, you will end up paying for it. But it's not until the company coffers run dry that your contract is terminated and it's game over.

It's all surprisingly strategic. You need to approach each ship with a game plan and execute it, to ensure you complete all tasks in as little time as possible while coming in under budget. Yet this is still an arcade style shooter, so even when best-laid plans go to shit, there's a chance to improvise, adapt and overcome.

This is a sweet little surprise and well worth checking out.

[The Shoemaker]

Been playing a few things!

Splatoon 2 - the major of my time over the last two and a half weeks, about 60 hours in now. Salmon Run is proving to be a fairly addictive mode encouraging me to aim for the daily bonuses.

Looking back on the first Splatoon, I think the map designs were more interesting, but the maps in Splatoon 2 are more balanced. But to be fair, with all the DLC Splatoon 1 has almost double the maps of Splatoon 2, and a lot of the more interesting ones came from the DLC.

Shadow of Mordor (ps4) - played this a lot before Splatoon came out. I think I'm actually close to the end, I have the majority of the skills unlocked. The general cycle of this game works well; kill captains to fond out more about other captains, find those captains and kill them to level up and challenge more captains.

Slime-San (Switch) - Indie game where you control and slime ball that was eaten by a giant worm (my headcanon is it's the worm from nidhogg). Good platforming, great music, and surprisingly charming characters/presentation. Still early on, but it's very strong so far.

[The Shoemaker]

Splatoon 2 - Still playing! Clocked in about 90 hours now. Kreegs and I have been playing Salmon Run fairly regularly over the past month or so.

Horizon Zero Dawn - I'm actually done playing this now as I beat it the other day. Too many good things to say about this game.

It was interesting playing this game and comparing to it Zelda Breath of the Wild, as they both came out around the same time, are open world games, involve using the technology of the past, ect. Both are great, I'd say one of the differing factors is Horizon feels like a traditional open world RPG done well, while Zelda feels like a unique experience. Not to say one is better than the other, but that they do feel distinctly different despite their similarities.

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle - This one has been a nice surprise so far. Just the single player experience I needed on Switch really. Still early on, but it looks to be a meaty game. The battles work quite well, and I like the variety the overworld sections give.

[Kreegs]

Splatoon 2 Still playing this wonderful game. It is so fun and the added free content makes me come back for more! Just hit level 30. Its fun teaming up with Shoe!

Sonic Mania Playing though this game again with a Tails file and a Knuckles file. Once I beat it with both of them, I will attempt to get all 7 emeralds. I have 3 with each of my three files. Also only have 8 more Blue Sphere Stages to beat. I am not really concerned about getting a "perfect," just getting all the blue spheres is fine with me. This is still a really fun game. Makes me want to go back and play the original 5 on either the ipad or Genesis! (3 and K are not on the ipad.)

[The Shoemaker]

The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild: During my commute to school I had the desire to continue my Master Mode run. It's a lot of fun just being back running around in this world. Seeing all the orange shrines and towers again almost makes me feel like when I first started playing the game. I just love how at a glance the orange light tells you "you haven't been here yet"

Splatoon 2: Getting back into ranked again, messing around with different combos. I actually filled out my special charge up shoes with three ink resistance subs which is exciting. I also have an Ink main shirt that just needs a few more ability chunks to get 3 quick super jump subs as well.

Sonic Mania: Been playing here and there, made it to the Oil Plant Zone now. I've only found chaos emeralds in te first two zones so I might need to go back and grab em after.

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle: Working towards the end of world 3 now, finished all challenges for world 1 and 2. This game is continuing to be a joy.

[VictorViper]

Destiny 2 will likely take up the bulk of my gaming time for a good long while. The power of having a game that friends play. Offline time will be spent poking at Pyre and my Roguelites.

[The Shoemaker]

Stardew Valley - Man I am absolutely hooked on this game. I always liked the Harvest Moon games, and most recently Rune Factory 4. While I didn't get into the recent Harvest Moon games much, I did really get into Rune Factory 4. Now with Stardew Valley, I'm just as hooked. It's actually taking up TOO much of my time. I'm about half way through my first Fall season, just got myself a set of cows and chickens.

The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild - Finished a Master Mode run of the game a few days back. This game also hooked me in hard for a few days, which was surprising given that I've already 100% beat the game.

Also played a lot of Steamworld Dig 2, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and Metroid Samus Returns over the last month.

[Kong Wen]

I'm doing some flying this week, so Picross S will be heavily represented in my play time. I may even crack Samus Returns if the nonograms start liquefying my eyeballs.

[VictorViper]

Destiny 2 will likely take up the bulk of my gaming time for a good long while. The power of having a game that friends play. Offline time will be spent poking at Pyre and my Roguelites.

LULZ. Within two weeks my friend has clocked so many additional hours that I am, effectively, in the dust again. Holding out hope he'll still play (with me, for fuck's sake) at some point, but this pile of "meh" is on the chopping block. Destiny is an anti-Vic game. No way around it.

Been playing the ever-loving shit out of Battle Garegga and Dragon's Dogma, meanwhile, and it is RIGHTEOUS.

[Kong Wen]

When the TONes are on, I'm playing Destiny 2. The clan is pretty jacked, though, so we're waiting for more content.

When my phone's on, I'm playing Fire Emblem Heroes. (Fire Emblem Heroes is one close keystroke away from Fire Emblem Herpes.)

I've also gone back to finish Undertale. I'm at the hot area in my murderous first run.

Every once in a while, I pound through some Picross S puzzles. This one won't last me too long. I figure when I'm done with that, I can get started on Samus Returns... although Fire Emblem Warriors will be here by then. Still, I have a feeling Samus Returns will make a more portable-conducive experience.