2026 VIDEO GAMES CATCH ALL THREAD

[StevieNippz]

497 hours into Balatro and I'm only two gold stickers away from the Platinum trophy. They both happen to be absolutely worthless and I keep getting heartbroken on the last round of Ante 8. I've tried to get away from trophy chasing but this one is so close and I'm determined to join the small group who have 100 percent completed it. I thought the Jokerless challenge would be the last one for me but I mastered that months ago

 

 

I put all that rage into re-downloading the game and knocked one of those stickers out. Now I just need to get lucky one more time!

Edited March 28 by StevieNippz
Game progress

[Dragon]

Kenshiro from the Fist of the North Star

 

[odessasteps]

28 minutes ago, StevieNippz said:

497 hours into Balatro and I'm only two gold stickers away from the Platinum trophy. They both happen to be absolutely worthless and I keep getting heartbroken on the last round of Ante 8. I've tried to get away from trophy chasing but this one is so close and I'm determined to join the small group who have 100 percent completed it. I thought the Jokerless challenge would be the last one for me but I mastered that months ago

I just want to get all the decks and I’ll be satisfied. 

[RIPPA]

Fucking SpiderMan making me ugly cry by helping out a random Grandpa

[Cliff Hanger]

I like City of the Wolves. I like Fist of the North Star. I don't like this crossover.

[Zimbra]

14 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Fucking SpiderMan making me ugly cry by helping out a random Grandpa

Have you done the pigeon one yet?

[RIPPA]

18 minutes ago, Zimbra said:

Have you done the pigeon one yet?

I JUST FUCKING DID

WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!?!

[Cliff Hanger]

Speaking of Spider-Man: I bought that new retro collection, because sometimes I do stupid shit with money. Max Carnage and Separation Anxiety are worse than I remembered. Arcade's Revenge, meanwhile, is a lot less infuriating? Maybe it's just because over the last 30 years I've learned why EU/AU platformers are so different from JP ones, I don't know. But i'm having fun with a game i owned and absolutely fucking hated as a teen and beating stages i never could back when I had much better reflexes.

(The two arcade games hold no surprises, I've played them too recently in physical arcades for that. And Silver Surfer is still a game with pretty good graphics, an all-timer soundtrack, and absolutely dogshit design.)

[Zimbra]

3 hours ago, RIPPA said:

I JUST FUCKING DID

WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!?!

A PlayStation superhero game did not need to bring out the big emotional guns like that

[JLSigman]

Larian really loves to make you work for the story in the Divinity games. 

[Casey]

Crimson Desert is game of the year just for the fact that I can go around looking like Doctor Doom and hit some German suplexes on enemies. Also I can dress up my pets in cool armor.

[odessasteps]

I heard a streamer say today it has 141 collectible missions.

[StevieNippz]

At 501 hours finally hit that elusive Platinum achievement for Balatro. I'm going to have so much more fun in the future playing it now that I'm not trying to draw terrible jokers anymore

[Casey]

58 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

I heard a streamer say today it has 141 collectible missions.

Yeah, but a good chunk of them aren’t just “go find X amount of whatever”. Most of the collectibles have challenges with them when you get them (IE defeat 5 enemies in 30 seconds), which basically level up your character(s) and are tied to mastery. I think I’ve stumbled upon like 5 already just by wandering around and doing random stuff.

[Craig H]

Holy fucking shit. For anyone here still playing ARC Raiders, their endgame content is a fucking nightmare in a good way. 

And Marathon has worn out its welcome with me. I keep trying to get into it, playing it over ARC Raiders and every time I do I regret it. I only keep going back because I think things will improve.

The problems with Marathon are...well, there are a lot of problems with it with only a few good parts. The good is that the guns sound awesome, movement is pretty neat, the variety of classes is nice, and the contract system makes the most sense out of any game I've played in recent memory. That doesn't mean that last one is "good" though, but it's not bad.

The bad is that...Jesus, where to start...The maps suck. They're not interesting. There are no noticeable POIs, nothing cool to check out and discover, it's just a race to get to high ground to camp and pick off unsuspecting runners/players. I can see what they were going for with the maps, but the execution is off. They clearly designed these maps with a more "normal" purpose in mind and then dropped in a garish overlay on it and dropped in randomly placed chunky, Roblox looking (to steal a familiar complaint because it's true) objects on the map that don't serve much a purpose. The major hubs on the maps are all very similar in that again, it's a race to the top to pick off runners and so many people run the same runner class which is the one that makes you invisible. Even though there are multiple classes and a different look to each class, skins are laughably bad and expecting people to shell out nearly $20 for a color swap on clothing or a weapon with no added animation like you'd see in other games is borderline lazy at best and incredibly greedy at worst. While the guns sound great, the TTK is so short that it almost doesn't matter. There is no sense of community in the game. It's a bloodthirsty, kill on sight game and I don't think that's remotely interesting coming from ARC Raiders which has a really cool community whether you're in a KOS lobby or a Care Bear lobby like me. There is a ton of comms use in ARC and barely any in Marathon. If you group up, more often than not no one communicates shit and people just splinter off to go wherever without any explanation of what they're doing or why. One time recently this happened and I finally got fed up and blurted out to my friends on Discord something like, "oh what a shock, another group that just fucks off to do whatever and I have no clue what objective they're seeking." That prompted someone on my team to finally say something, which was, "are you talking shit? What the fuck are you talking about? Just follow one of us." Oh that's cool. Really helpful when you're both going in opposite directions. And any gun fight ends so fast. Enemy AI is overly aggressive and any enemy "AI" are these UESC robots seemingly seeing through walls to know exactly where you are and they just dart right towards you. No tactics involved or anything, just a defensive line rushing towards your ass. It's also hard to distinguish clankers from real people and one clanker type from another clanker type except for the invisible ones. And enough has been said about the UI, but even after playing it every day it still is the worst shit I have ever seen. Just thrown together garbage. What loot should you pick up? I don't fucking know. All the grey loot is the same except there are multiple grey items. Same for blue loot and on up the rarity ladder. The previously mentioned guns are indeed cool, but they're also maddeningly confusing for why gun rarity is the way it is. I can't count how many times I've had two of the same gun, both the same type and even same name, but one is a bottom tier rarity level and the other is a green level, which is the next step up. The one bit of praise the game had from a bunch of outlets were just how many guns are in the game, but there aren't. It's a whole bunch of the same game, just at different rarity levels.

I'm not jumping on the Marathon sucks, fuck that game, no one should play it train, but damn I wanted it to be better than what I played of it. The most damning thing I could say is that in every instance of the game I wanted to respawn back in and couldn't. This FEELS like it should be a more normal multiplayer shooter. If there is zero emphasis on community or working together, then it should be something akin to team deathmatch, but with 6 teams involved. If you die, you respawn after a set amount of time. It has too much of that Halo or Destiny feel where you expect that to be the case and instead your time is just over and it's back to the grind again. 

Meanwhile, I go back to ARC after the most recent update and play the new event and we're all getting fucked up and laughing and trying to figure out how to beat this thing while we lie on the ground bleeding out. Or you load in, flash your flashlight on and off at someone and give the cursory, "you cool? I'm good here" and get "yeah I'm good, need any help?" in response. Players are still playing roles that weren't even designed for the game, like map sheriffs, medics that just spawn in with a bunch of bandages and defibs to revive players and they're rewarded with blueprints or other good items for their service. 

I think the best example I can give for why ARC is untouchable for me is that my Steam name is Aldo the Apache. Some people get the reference, others don't. One day the dream happens - I run across a dude whose Steam name is Hugo Stiglitz. We instantly start dying of laughter and begin quoting the movie and talking about how we never thought we'd run into this. Other players within ear shot of our open comms were asking us to not kill them and we had to reassure them it was all good. Spent the next 15 minutes basically as a duo even though we both loaded in solo. It was such an awesome experience to have had.

[Casey]

(you “beat” the new event by looting the platforms that have red lasers shooting into the sky. pro tip: smoke grendades)

I love the new update simply for the fact that it gave Scrappy and the fruit in the game actual purpose. It can now potentially give you stuff like Queen/Matriarch cores, and materials for your workbenches if you aren’t at Level 3 on them.

I was going to do my 2nd expedition next month but with this update + the new map at the end of this month, I’m thinking I’ll just wait until the next window in the Summer.

[Craig H]

I'm taking my time doing a second expedition. Liked doing the first because the reset was good, just wish that they had a more creative way of having you redo every quest again.

[Casey]

I’ve found naked runs make the game a lot more challenging and fun. There’s the caveat of not having weapons, shield or storage space though, but it basically turns the game into a speedrun challenge with stealth sections  

I haven’t found the Survivor augment again yet, or even gotten my Gun, Medical or Gear benches up to 3 yet, so I’m focused on that (when possible). I wish they’d buff the spawn rate for Surveyors and Sentinels, though. I come across either of them in like 1 out of every 15 matches it seems like. And I usually don’t have a weapon or have something woefully underpowered.

[SirSmUgly]

At the 245 (or more) hour mark, I reached the highest Unseen rank and therefore have nothing at all left to unlock in Hades 2. 

I feel that OG Hades was harder. First, because I found it more challenging to finish a single run on 32 Heat/Vows rather than multiple 24 Heat/Vows runs. Second, because mechanically, Melinoe's ability to lay down her cast rather than flinging it as Zagreus does gives you more offensive options, and some combinations of boons can enhance her cast so much that it is positively devastating in a way that I never felt Zagreus's cast was. Third, because Melinoe has way more firepower what with the addition of the Arcana cards and the familiars. 

I was surprised to see a bunch of chatter online that Hades 2 is the harder game. Maybe I just got better at games in the interim between the two titles even though I'm old and crusty and scientifically have worse twitch?

I have a few keepsakes to level all the way up, but I'm genuinely bummed not to have any goals left beyond that. I wonder what Supergiant does next. It probably won't be Hades 3 with Zagreus doing below-ground runs and Melinoe doing above-ground runs, but it should be. It should be. 

Or they can make something new. Transistor is their only misfire in my view. Whatever it is, I am absolutely going to be there when it officially relases. 

Otherwise, this Super Mario Bros. Wonder DLC is aggressively mediocre even though I'm overjoyed to be able to run Rosalina through her paces. Nintendo never makes the type of DLC that I want. I stupidly bought the DK Bananza DLC even though I was fatigued by the main game by its end, and what I got was an unsatisfying time trial-focused addition that didn't grab me at all. This Wonder DLC has a number of uninspiring boss fights and mini-trials. I've always been bummed that we didn't get any Odyssey DLC (Sarasaland! Delfino Island! A Rhythm Kingdom with a shedload of flip-swap and beat-block sections!), but they probably would have biffed it anyway. Instead, we got Bowser's Fury, and that little game goes hard. 

[supremebve]

7 hours ago, SirSmUgly said:

I was surprised to see a bunch of chatter online that Hades 2 is the harder game. Maybe I just got better at games in the interim between the two titles even though I'm old and crusty and scientifically have worse twitch?

 

I absolutely believe that Hades 2 is the harder game.  I feel like I had a viable strategy and favorite builds very early into Hades.  I've put in a decent amount of time into Hades 2 and I still feel like my strategy is really shaky, and I don't have a single build that I could call a favorite.  It's fun, but I honestly don't feel like I have as much to do with winning or losing as I did in the first game.  I feel like I'm much more beholden to the random drawing of abilities.    

[Zimbra]

Hades 2 felt harder to me, but I never really got the hang of the omega attacks/MP management so that's on me.

Getting close to the end of Spider-Man 2

Spoiler

Yuri Lowenthal's gravelly symbiote spiderman voice is...not it

 

[RIPPA]

I only just unlocked Peter Parker's other abilities 

I spent far too long doing all the random side quest stuff

[SirSmUgly]

1 hour ago, supremebve said:

I absolutely believe that Hades 2 is the harder game.  I feel like I had a viable strategy and favorite builds very early into Hades.  I've put in a decent amount of time into Hades 2 and I still feel like my strategy is really shaky, and I don't have a single build that I could call a favorite.  It's fun, but I honestly don't feel like I have as much to do with winning or losing as I did in the first game.  I feel like I'm much more beholden to the random drawing of abilities.    

I think this is it. Hades has some game-breaking builds (and Divine Dash isn't just a sometimes-boon like it is in Hades 2). Hades 2 has more optionality. I haven't had to aim for specific boons to make successful builds as much. I got away from my crutch boons as I went through the game and can now make almost anything work even when the heat level is up in the twenties. Great point. 

[Zimbra]

2 hours ago, RIPPA said:

I only just unlocked Peter Parker's other abilities 

I spent far too long doing all the random side quest stuff

I liked the sidequest stuff a lot more in this game than I did in the first and I'm not sure why.  The spider-bots were a real bitch, though.

[RIPPA]

I just unlocked the thing where you have to follow the drone with web wings and let me tell you - I HATE that