2026 VIDEO GAMES CATCH ALL THREAD

[SirSmUgly]

23 hours ago, odessasteps said:

I’m just bad at RDR racing. I lost the first race to Bonnie because I didn’t remember the horse mechanics.  It took a bunch of tries to win the cart race and same with the West Dickens race right before Ft Mercer. I just help but spam the A button.  I don’t remember when hors riding in RDR2 is like but I presume it’s the same or at least similar. 

In RDR2, you lose less stamina by timing your button presses with the horse's gallop. If you spam the button, they tire out super quickly. You have to hit the button press on the sound of the horse's hooves hitting the ground. 

I haven't played the first RDR in a minute, but I think it also had that mechanic. 

[JLSigman]

On 1/6/2026 at 3:52 PM, JLSigman said:

Gonna give Evil West a spin next, thanks to @SirFozzie and his free key.

This is, like, over the top vulgar, but the combat isn't terrible. It feels short, especially on Story mode, so I'll probably finish this by the end of the weekend.

[SirFozzie]

It's a good thing I own all these turn-based strategy games, because this sale would have set me back at least a couple hundred otherwise..

 

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/HoodedHorsePublisherSale2026

 

(my highlights include Xenonauts 2, which is old-school X-com like, Battle Brothers, and more.. plus they announced today they have inserted a clause with their developers's contracts that forbids them from using AI)

[Cliff Hanger]

I am loving the shooting part of Ball X Pit, but the base building is frustrating. I'm not that great at spatial relations sometimes, and trying to get shit organized so that a harvest will both get some building done and gather some resources so I don't have to play 8 runs before I build the next thing is frustrating.

[supremebve]

28 minutes ago, Cliff Hanger said:

I am loving the shooting part of Ball X Pit, but the base building is frustrating. I'm not that great at spatial relations sometimes, and trying to get shit organized so that a harvest will both get some building done and gather some resources so I don't have to play 8 runs before I build the next thing is frustrating.

I got a lot better at it when I realized I can move buildings at any time and just move anything that I don't need to hit around all the things I do need to hit.  So any upgrades and resources to in the middle, and everything else is built to bump everything back into the middle.  The way I did it was aim all the way to the right into a small opening that made it so it was really easy to bounce into the area, but really hard to bounce out.  

[tbarrie]

1 hour ago, SirFozzie said:

It's a good thing I own all these turn-based strategy games, because this sale would have set me back at least a couple hundred otherwise..

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/HoodedHorsePublisherSale2026

Old World for 90% off is an insanely good deal, for anybody who likes a nice, meaty, deep 4X game.

[odessasteps]

Genius

[Zimbra]

We finished Caravan Sand Witch (Thanks, SirFozzie!).  It was fun, low key exploration just how I wanted but didn't stick the landing at all.  Still an enjoyable use of my time.

Next up is Psychonauts 2

[JLSigman]

Evil West is, unfortunately, just not very good and not very fun. I kept finding reasons to play Zuma's Revenge instead of it.

Tried to play a free game called Harbinger, but unfortunately my video card is not good enough for it. le sigh 

Looking back over my Steam library of things I started and then walked away from for one reason or another, decided to give Divinity II: Developer's Cut another go. I don't remember why I walked away from it, because it's gorgeous, runs on my machine, and being a Ranger is a valid choice. 

[RIPPA]

Here we go again

GameStop closed a bunch of stores yesterday (most stories say the number was over 400)

They closed the two stores that where within 5 minutes of me and there is now only one store open in my county.... which oh btw, is frequently listed as the richest county in America

So glad I stopped shopping there and made sure my son had used up all his old gift cards

[twiztor]

2 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Here we go again

GameStop closed a bunch of stores yesterday (most stories say the number was over 400)

They closed the two stores that where within 5 minutes of me and there is now only one store open in my county.... which oh btw, is frequently listed as the richest county in America

So glad I stopped shopping there and made sure my son had used up all his old gift cards

470 per this website. don't ask me why there's a whole blog site dedicated to the closing of GameStop stores. my local surprisingly is not on the list, despite that it's in the long-past-its prime mall and never has much business. i know the topic's been covered to death, but man, GameStop just has no idea how to succeed in this market. Their stores are just full of junk. Games are an afterthought. and used games are sorely overpriced. i stop in there sometimes if i'm in the area, but there's never anything that even remotely interests me so i haven't bought anything there in probably over a decade.

[Chaos]

6 hours ago, twiztor said:

470 per this website. don't ask me why there's a whole blog site dedicated to the closing of GameStop stores. my local surprisingly is not on the list, despite that it's in the long-past-its prime mall and never has much business. i know the topic's been covered to death, but man, GameStop just has no idea how to succeed in this market. Their stores are just full of junk. Games are an afterthought. and used games are sorely overpriced. i stop in there sometimes if i'm in the area, but there's never anything that even remotely interests me so i haven't bought anything there in probably over a decade.

The last couple of times I've used them were for trade-in purposes when updating a console or looking for a physical copy of a Switch game that they still had in stock. 

[Ramo2653]

My office was connected to a mall (it's still connected to the building but it's no longer a mall, they turned a bunch of the stores into apartments and offices and the main area is now a food hall since the term food court is outdated) and I used to go to the GameStop during my lunch break until they closed due to the renovations to the mall. By the end it was a bunch of random toys and 8 million copies of old Madden and FIFA games.

Only 3 in Wisconsin are closing and one of those is in Milwaukee and it's in my mom's neighborhood. I used to go there when I lived with her 20+ years ago. I'm actually shocked it was still open.

[Craig H]

I'm trying to think of the last time I went into a Gamestop...I felt like it wasn't that long ago, probably within the last two years? When I went in there it was just Funko Pops and action figures and anime bullshit and it basically looked like a Hot Topic vomited out everything that wasn't Nightmare Before Christmas or Hello Kitty t-shirts in there. And it smelled like vape juice. I couldn't leave fast enough.

Shockingly, the one here didn't close.

[Zimbra]

16 hours ago, Ramo2653 said:

My office was connected to a mall (it's still connected to the building but it's no longer a mall, they turned a bunch of the stores into apartments and offices and the main area is now a food hall since the term food court is outdated) and I used to go to the GameStop during my lunch break until they closed due to the renovations to the mall. By the end it was a bunch of random toys and 8 million copies of old Madden and FIFA games.

Only 3 in Wisconsin are closing and one of those is in Milwaukee and it's in my mom's neighborhood. I used to go there when I lived with her 20+ years ago. I'm actually shocked it was still open.

The one downtown?  I couldn't work there because I would be down at that Peruvian chicken place twice a day

[supremebve]

4 hours ago, Zimbra said:

The one downtown?  I couldn't work there because I would be down at that Peruvian chicken place twice a day

I have a doctor's appointment on Monday and the office is right around the corner from the original El Pollo Rico in Arlington, VA.  I can almost taste it.

[Casey]

They already closed the one closest to me, but now they're closing the next two (Murfreesboro & Shelbyville). Oh well, I think I've been into a Gamestop once in my life, and that had to have been in the late 2000s or something. Next town over from me has a Game Xchange so I just go there. They actually have a pretty big comics selection, board games, just as many movies as video games, and a few action figures (it's where I first found the Kotobukiya X-Men animated series "figures", and then I had to complete the collection and it was very expensive because they're long out of production). Also Funko Pops and anime stuff, but luckily I like that stuff as well.

Oh and they actually do decent credit/cash on trade-ins, unlike Gamestop.

[Zimbra]

The only good Gamestop I've ever been in was the one by UW-Madison in the early 2000s.  Because of the constant churn of college students they got interesting stuff in regularly and the staff were fairly normal by Gamestop employee standards.  They turned me on to Disgaea, Etrian Odyssey, and Katamari Damacy so I gotta hand it to them for that.

[Craig H]

I used to work for Electronics Boutique for two years. In the mall. I think I can look back at those two years and say that I really didn't like working there. Trade ins were annoying, we had the return policy at the time (this was 2000-2002) that was basically better than renting from a Blockbuster because you could return a game for whatever reason and exchange it for another game or just get your money back and then keep doing that. Did I mention trade ins? Yeah. That always sucked. Some dirty fucking kid brought in his backpack that smelled like when he wasn't hauling in his busted and dirty ass, cigarette smelling controllers and game systems in a filthy backpack that he was using that backpack to put fish he caught into it because the backpack smelled like dead fish.

Black Friday's sucked, day after Christmas sucked, damn near every weekend sucked, pushing Disc Doctors (remember those?!?) to fucking every customer and on top of that, sometimes, also pushing extended warranties on game systems sucked. It's worth repeating that pushing Disc Doctors was terrible because you'd show people what an example of a disc that went through one looked like and it looked worse than it did before. Working in the mall sucked. My boss at the time, while nice, had a dress code that made us wear dress pants, dress shirt, and a tie. Like, it's a fucking Electronics Boutique, not an office job. 

So many other horror stories from there, like the time a couple came in with their brood of failure and the toddler in the back took a shit on the floor, walked through it, and tracked it all around the place. The parents were still in the store at the counter when I discovered it because suddenly the store smelled like shit. Weird, right? So instead of them being decent parents and cleaning it up with baby wipes or anything, they didn't do a fucking thing. So I think I probably put my hands in at least 5 layers of our plastic shopping bags as makeshift gloves to try and clean this mess up without having any carpet cleaners or disinfectants because...IT'S A FUCKING ELECTRONICS BOUTIQUE.

There was the time that a couple came in, regulars to the store, also worthless people, and were in a rush and made note of the fact that they were in a rush because they needed to get back to the hospital where their baby was at. So to keep score...their infant was in the hospital probably because they lived in a den of filth and it was more important for them both to rush to Electronics Boutique to trade in some games to buy some fucking Gameboy Advance games. I'm glad they had their priorities in the right place.

So yeah. I will shed zero tears if and when Gamespot dies.

[SirSmUgly]

Around my way, there has been an increase in indie retro game shops, which I think is a positive trade-off. I miss Borders a little bit since I spent so much time there as a teen, but on the flip side, local bookstores have sprung up to fill that gap (and B&N making a comeback, I suppose).

When I want to pre-order a physical game, I use the Best Buy near me, and when I want something retro, I have a bunch of good options in my area.

Where the loss of all these GameStop locations would be the hurtiest is if you're trying to buy retro games in person and you're not near a major metro area. 

[Contentious C]

I actually found a place called Retro City Games at the North Vegas outlets. A PS4 copy of Outer Worlds for $10 felt like a good deal. Did feel nice to shop somewhere that isn't 100% the kind of junk vomit that we're clearly all tired of.

Edited January 16 by Contentious C

[Ramo2653]

On 1/14/2026 at 9:29 AM, Zimbra said:

The one downtown?  I couldn't work there because I would be down at that Peruvian chicken place twice a day

Yup 3rd Street Market Hall. The one time I went there they were out of the Peruvian chicken so I got the Mexican chicken and it was ok (kinda hard to make bad roasted chicken) so I need to go back there and try the Peruvian chicken. I'm probably more addicted to the hot dog place than an adult man should be.

[Zimbra]

No, I'm with you there I'm a 'drop by Costco just for a dog' guy.

We started playing The Roottrees Are Dead last night.  It's like one of those fill-in-the-grid logic puzzles writ huge so my wife and I are loving it.

 

[Dragon]

Here's your Legend of Final Phantasy Star of Mana Trigger Mon

It was released few days ago.

 

[Dragon]

Fatal Fury COTW season 2 DLC pass 

Edited January 17 by Dragon