It’s been a little bit since the last one of these. So, what am I playing lately? Here’s a hint:

I mean, I also play some other games. Let’s catch up.

For big full-screen computer gaming time I’m split between Warframe and Last Epoch, with Satisfactory taking a backseat for a while outside of the occasional weekly coworker co-op sessions. The family unit (the kids and I) are firmly in endgame mode for Warframe, which means a lot of time grinding for minor improvements in gear rather than doing leaps-and-bounds stuff and unlocking whole game modes. It’s an MMO, after all, where would it be without a grind aspect?

Meanwhile, Last Epoch is definitely scratching that “Diablo-clone” itch, though I’m already starting to see where they’ve built some grind into that game as well. Once you hit the mid-game you can be tempted to do crafting stuff but you can’t really see a lot of improvement from that system until you get base gear drops with higher potential to have affixes applied. On the other hand, the game’s generous enough that the drops you get along the way will keep you clearing monsters handily as long as you pay the basic amount of attention to what you’re doing. The only base class I’m not getting much enjoyment out of is Acolyte, the “necromancer type.” I’ll have to revisit that one after reading up on possible play styles.

I finally uninstalled Skyrim and Final Fantasy XIV. Again. (And stopped my subscription payment on the latter.) I am at peace now with the fact that I’m never, ever, going to “finish” either of those games. So be it!

On mobile, I’m trying out Etheria Restart’s beta. This game’s meant to compete with Honkai Star Rail (still my main mobile game) but also with Epic 7 and similar games as well. The beta definitely has some jank to it… there’s one entire character who seems to be missing combat sound effects. Whoopsie. Also, there’s a small chat log window that shows the last two lines of whatever global chat channel you got assigned at login, and while you can minimize it… it’ll reappear as soon as you load into a new fight. Every. Time. I don’t need to know what rude slurs random other players are slinging at one another, honestly. A request to allow minimizing that permanently as a toggle was the main part of my feedback in their recent player survey. All that aside, the game seems… fine? It’s fine. I’m not committed to it but I am keeping an eye on whether they make real improvements by launch time in early June.

As for HSR? They’ve announced the date and character selections for their Fate Stay/Night event, the first collaboration in the 2-year-old game’s lifespan. We’re getting Saber and Archer, the latter as a free unit, in early July. Vyx and I joke about how it’s not a real mobile game until it’s done either an Evangelion or a Fate collab, so here we are. Am I pulling for Saber? Sure, why not. (On the downside, it looks like they’re being a bit scummy with the pull tickets for the event, creating a whole separate currency, so if you’ve been accumulating golden tickets… maybe stop doing that if you want “Say-bah.” Just hoard your jades.)

Other than that, I still play Gems of War daily, though I just use it as a low-key boredom-relief match-3 game. I’m not doing any grinds in it or giving it much of my money. If someone had a better match-3 offering I might have bailed by now but… it seems like nobody’s making those anymore. So be it. Ten years and counting, eh?

I suppose I should revisit Fields of Mistria at some point, huh? Maybe later…