2026 VIDEO GAMES CATCH ALL THREAD

[RIPPA]

On 4/16/2026 at 4:48 PM, Technico Support said:

Spider Man 2 was rushed and feels like a jumbled mess of plot ideas, and changed antagonists just as the third act began, but isn't nearly as bad as the SM2 subreddit makes it sound.

My favorite one was a dude who melted down because he had to play as Miles but insisted he wasn't racist. It was because he hates Miles' "generation" and that he could related to Peter much more because he was trying to find a job and start a family.

He then revealed he (the poster) was almost 40

[RIPPA]

I am (unsurprisingly) enjoying the fuck out Hades II

Just got to Chronos for the first time so I feel like I am making progress (I have gotten past the Cyclops the other way but I really only go up to gather resources. Yes I finished the incantation)

I really really really really appreciated how fucking weird it was to take a bath with Odysseus

[odessasteps]

20 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

My favorite one was a dude who melted down because he had to play as Miles but insisted he wasn't racist. It was because he hates Miles' "generation" and that he could related to Peter much more because he was trying to find a job and start a family.

He then revealed he (the poster) was almost 40

I mean, I can understand the point in theory, it’s how I feel about Metal Gear 2 and Raiden.

[Cliff Hanger]

So i guess what I needed to break out of my 2 year malaise of never sticking with narrative games was for WWE2K to burn me out just as Hades II hit. I'm currently in a grind phase, losing to Scylla and Polyphemos and trying to decide if I'm ready to turn on God Mode now or gather moon dust for a bit to try and keep going on full difficulty. Every time I start to get frustrated, a reagent I need but have had trouble getting lands in my lap and unlocks something new to try...that doesn't help me beat those bosses. 

 

[SirSmUgly]

I find a lot of success running with Hestia's scorch boon and simply burning Scylla to death. 

Scorch on the attack or special and Demeter's freeze boon on cast...aw yeah. 

I leaned on Hephaestus's burst-of-damage boons in the early going, but I eventually learned that the effect boons (Hestia, Demeter) and boons that let you zone and control crowds (Apollo on any weapon attack or special that covers an area) make life about a billion times easier. 

Hera on cast + the Apollo boon in which your cast grows in area is great too (especially when you add a specific boon given to you by the character in the special room in Tartarus).

Edited April 21 by SirSmUgly

[StevieNippz]

I played about 40 hours of Hades 2 on the Switch, beat both the main bosses a couple times and moved on to more stuff in my backlog. I picked it up on PS5 last week and am having even more fun, can't put it down! I've got 4 victories on each main boss and I've been getting better at not using all my Death Defiances.

My best boon combos involve Scorch, Frost and chain lightning. I got all achievements in the first Hades but not sure if I'll pull it off in this one, some seem very difficult! I'm definitely going to unlock the true ending before I move onto something new

[RIPPA]

I have now gotten to Chronos twice both times I have died with him having less than a quarter of health 

I am almost there. I just need to get better at reacting to his “final stage” for lack of a better word 

[Cliff Hanger]

Beat Polyphemos on my next surface run after posting that, using the Flames (which I usually don't love.) Died on Charybdis because I had no idea if I could win and so I prioritized the reagents in the room, guaranteeing that I would not.

[Casey]

Vampire Crawlers (it's basically Vampire Survivors but a dungeon crawler deckbuilder) came out today for $8.99 if you own Vampire Survivors and I've already sunk like 6 hours into it on my SteamDeck. Demo progress carried over and achievements popped retroactively for anything you managed to get in the demo, so I booted up the game and immediately had to suffer through the slow pop-ups of at least 40 trophies lmao

[JLSigman]

Putting some time into Divinity: Original Sin 2, and my complaints stand - it's too damn difficult to know where to go next. Maybe I'm just too old for this shit these days, but I like at least a general idea of where my party should go, and which of 6 main quest options to take first, and to NOT die against mobs of villains way higher than me when I randomly choose. The fact that there's not a good detailed guide on GameFaqs is ridiculous.

 

I'm seeing good reviews for the next Diablo 4 expansion, and damnit I need a newer computer. 

Edited April 22 by JLSigman

[J.T.]

So I'm now Level 80ish in Helldivers 2 and I am working on my third Level 5 Super Destroyer upgrade. The new Major Order is Automaton / Cyborg centric so I am considering maybe firing up Starfield or watching AEW after I get done with my Personal Order. Killing clankers is hella stressful.

I both love and hate fighting Automatons. The encounters are very combat heavy but they're not good opportunities to try other load outs. If you've got something that works, it's better to stick with it. If you are hoping that your team will properly prep for the fight, you're hoping in vain. 

I end up being the sniper / spotter that tries to keep his team alive and I am usually the guy that has to kill heavies because no one bothers to bring Anti-Tank strats. More often than not, lowbies looking to get carried often play on difficulty levels above their weight and they have the lifespan of mayflies. If you are the sole reason our Reinforcments are zero ten minutes into the mission, you should consider playing at a lower difficulty.

These are the same people that get upset in chat when you don't respawn them immediately after they die and never seem to notice that you are trying to deal with a strat jammer at the time, or that you are waiting out the respawn cooldown timer so that you can get them back in the game. If you play this game, you know what I mean.

Edited April 22 by J.T.

[Zimbra]

I've got clears with everyone on Slay the Spire 2 except for the Ironblood, which is killing me because he was my most reliable clear in 1.  I just can't seem to stack enough strength to do enough damage to clear the act 3 elites.

[SirSmUgly]

15 hours ago, Casey said:

Vampire Crawlers (it's basically Vampire Survivors but a dungeon crawler deckbuilder) came out today for $8.99 if you own Vampire Survivors and I've already sunk like 6 hours into it on my SteamDeck. Demo progress carried over and achievements popped retroactively for anything you managed to get in the demo, so I booted up the game and immediately had to suffer through the slow pop-ups of at least 40 trophies lmao

I don't usually play deckbuilders, but I'm tempted. It's ten bucks on Switch, which is where I'd play it the most. 

Maybe after I finish Hypnospace Outlaw, which I bought for two bucks on sale and which is a neat little game. 

[RIPPA]

None of you fuckers told me about the second phase and I am so irritated right now

[JLSigman]

With Divinity: Original Sin 2 crashing every few hours, usually in the middle of combat, I finally just gave up. Obviously my computer is shit. So I went to GOG and fired up Torchlight. 

[SirSmUgly]

On 4/23/2026 at 5:12 AM, RIPPA said:

None of you fuckers told me about the second phase and I am so irritated right now

Oh yeah, you should watch out for that second phase, bruh. He has two insta-kill moves. 

[Dragon]

You might get Tifa in Street Fighter 6.

[SirSmUgly]

17 hours ago, Dragon said:

You might get Tifa in Street Fighter 6.

Give me that Ehrgeiz character pack, and I'll finally buy SF6. No Wolf Girl Jo, no sale. 

[RIPPA]

21 hours ago, SirSmUgly said:

Oh yeah, you should watch out for that second phase, bruh. He has two insta-kill moves. 

Did finally beat him for the first time. Still not sure how to avoid the insta-kill moves. Like I know what the mechanic is but I must be looking in the wrong spot to ID the safe spot.

Basically got through by brute strength and many death defiances

 

[Cliff Hanger]

I just want to say that i love Scylla and the Sirens writing a pissed off nee song after you beat them the first time. 

So far, not having the best luck and haven't been able to repeat my victories over Scylla and Eris. But I'm building a nice stockpile of reagents and finally opening up some of the shit I had been struggling to gather driftwood and iron for so that's nice.

[RIPPA]

Got so good at beating Chronos that the game was all "yeah... maybe go in the other direction now"

[StevieNippz]

I'm in the endgame now but there is still so much left for me to unlock and story to progress. I don't want to say too much too avoid spoiling anything. Seems like I totally missed some extra aspects for all the weapons as well so there's even more to discover. I said it before but what a great sequel. Might take a break and get back into Crimson Desert but Hades 2 is so addictive 

[J.T.]

My Super Destroyer is now fully upgraded. It's nice to be able to actually direct my Mortar Sentries to fire on specific targets and the time it takes for my support weapons to hit planetside is noticable.

Now I start the grind to max level and hopefully get the last four achievements for the game. Naturally they are the hardest but there are some decent guides on how to solo them.

I'll probably start playing some Starfield as well and check out the new update.

[SirSmUgly]

Vampire Crawlers is fine, I suppose. You're not really building a deck before each run so much as building a deck during each run with each level up. I don't know, man. One day, I'm going to play a deck builder that blows me away. It's probably not this deck builder, though. I'll keep playing it, but it's not going to be the game that finally gets me to stop making regular runs in Hades 2. 

I still need to finish Hypnospace Outlaw. I want to punch Professor Helper in his goddam face.

I've been spending enough time with my N64 lately that I'm thinking of getting a RetroTINK and creating a set-up in my office. I'm thinking that I'll get a 40-inch CRT that has a built-in VCR and then make a lil' retro space with my VHS tapes and my pre-2006 video game consoles set up.

Paper Mario 64 is interesting. It's a good game, but it basically is just SMRPG with a bunch of characters that Nintendo owns and a badge system, and it's a bridge between that and TTYD, which is PM64 but perfected to a point. It's really too bad that they only made the two Paper Mario games, though. At least the series ended on a high note and didn't overstay its welcome with a slew of mediocre-to-bad games. 

I also got a copy of NFL Blitz 2000. NFL Blitz 2000 is good even though my team's QB is Jon Kitna. Dammit. Milo's Astro Lanes is not good, on the other hand. I need to get Brunswick Circuit Pro ASAP.

Here's my standing list of N64 games that I still want to get to complete my collection, which is meant to be curated rather than complete:

• Snowboard Kids (I lost my OG copy, sadly)
• Snowboard Kids 2
• Donkey Kong 64
• WWF War Zone (I also lost my OG copy)
• WWF Attitude
• WCW Backstage Assault
• Brunswick Circuit Pro Bowling
• Fighter Destiny 2
• California Speed
• Mischief Makers
• Rocket: Robot on Wheels 
• Tom and Jerry in Fists of Furry (I saw a copy of this, passed it up thinking that no one was going to buy it anytime soon, and was proven wrong when I stopped by the store the next month...FUCK)

I only buy copies from used game stores because I like the hunt and I can make sure that it's a legit cart in person. It's a fun reason to pop into a retro game store. Well, that and collecting 1990s GamePro and EGM issues. 

Edited April 27 by SirSmUgly

[J.T.]

I was able to solo the Hold My Primary achievement now that I have stronger sentries and a Force Field backpack. I chose a Terminate Automaton Enemies mission on Hard difficulty because you only have to worry about killing stuff. There are no secondary objectives and the map is small. Thankfully the mission was part of an urban campaign so your starting point is fairly defensible and there's usually friendly (and expendable) SEAF troops to run interference for you. 

My EMP Mortar Sentry kept enemies off of me long enough to for me to continue spamming my Autocannon and MG sentries. I also kept an Orbital Laser stratagem on me for when shit got really hairy.

I'm now three achievements away from Platinum on Helldiver 2. I'm probably going to have to find a team for the achievement you unlock for completing an Extreme-level or higher difficulty mission where no one dies. I have dropped in on other players' missions where we had no deaths on extraction but the achievement does not pop if the guy you replaced died and rage quit.

That seems to be an epidemic especially amongst Korean players. In addition to that annoying trait, those assholes love to call extraction when there are still objectives on the map. Over the weekend, some Korean players called for the Pelican while there was still a Heavy Outpost to destroy and an Escape Pod sub-objective to complete. They were like "TIME TO GO!" and I was like "HOLD THE LINE, BITCHES! I'M GOING FOR THE POD!"

I got booted from their game and had to complete my session solo, but somehow I was able to complete the final objectives and make the Emergency Shuttle. I was surprised. I am usually not clutch and botch things royally most of the time. I am most likely the main reason Korean gamers strongly dislike American gamers.

Edited April 28 by J.T.