The Gaming Diary: Chapter 3

[Seno]

Final Fantasy XV (PC) - Been ages since I got into a Final Fantasy game (as in FF9 on the PS1 on release)

Super Mario 64 (Switch) - I've converted a very tired n64 controller to bluetooth and a hall effect stick with a 8bitdo kit, so its pretty cool to play this with the original pad on a modern system

[Link41]

Monopoly (NES) - A quick round of multiplayer tonight is in order I believe.

[Link41]

Ice Hockey (NES) - Some multiplayer is in order tonight.

[Disposed Hero]

Persona 3 Reload - I've got about 25 hours in this now and I like it well enough, it just pales in comparison to P4 & 5 in my opinion.

Death Stranding 2 - Finally finished this but probably should have put it down a long time ago. I can't believe there are people who think this should have been GOTY.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart - Finished this a while back and was very pleasantly surprised. Amazing game that I would recommend to everyone.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - This game was ok. Some really good elements but also some half-baked concepts in there. Not amazing, but still worth playing.

Metroid Prime Remastered - I wanted to followup MP4 with the original just to compare. It's really amazing how far ahead of its time this game was. Still an awesome game, although the late game traversal can be very tedious.

Rayman 2 - The latest game that my friend is making me play since it was recently added to the NSO. It's got some of that N64-era jank but I like it. 3D platformers can be extremely hit and miss for me but this one is pretty good.

Sonic Adventure DX - Started this on a whim because Rift Apart has made me want to check out some more 3D platformers and I have some nostalgia for this from the Dreamcast days. Super janky and dumb, but it's fun. I only play it a bit here and there between other games but it's been nice revisiting this one after ~25 years.

Black Myth: Wukong - I started this on a whim and honestly didn't like it much at first, but it grew on me after a while and now I'd say it's one of the best games I've played in quite a while. I'm at the tail end of it now and just about to wrap it up, but this has been an awesome 40-ish hour experience, albeit with a few frustrations here and there. It's also based on the Chinese mythology and Journey to the West, neither of which I was very familiar with before, but everything happening in this game is so interesting that I've already ordered a copy of Journey to the West that I'll probably never read.

[Disposed Hero]

Persona 3 Reload - Sitting at around 30+ hours and my thoughts are the same. It's a good game but it's not keeping me as engaged as I'd hoped. Kinda ready to wrap this one up but I probably still have a good ways to go.

Rayman 2 - Just finished this and it was pretty good!

Sonic Adventure DX - I really don't sit down with this one often but hope to finish it eventually. I've finished Sonic's story and am about halfway through Tails'.

Hollow Knight - Finally got around to playing this and I will say that it's pretty dang good. I got really frustrated in the early game with not knowing where to go, but it's been mostly smooth sailing after getting some crucial traversal abilities. I've technically already beaten it with the most basic ending, but I'm doing postgame stuff now and hope to get the true ending.

Metroid Dread - I started playing this around New Years since I was at my parents' house a lot, but I tried to go back to it after over 2 weeks and the controls just felt completely foreign to me. Playing so much Hollow Knight lately really didn't help. This is a replay for me anyway, so I'll probably just put this one down for now.

[Link41]

Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) - Passing the controller and seeing how far we can get tonight.

[Ghost Soldier]

^Sounds like a great night of gaming. The wife and I play SMB 3 together to. Lately, I've been leveling up in Final Fantasy II SNES.

[shaggy]

I've been playing Indiana Jones and The Great Circle.  It's such a great game.

[Disposed Hero]

Persona 3 Reload - I've been playing this a bit more often but my thoughts are still the same. Still enjoying it well enough but trying to make some real progress.

Hollow Knight - Finished this with the true ending and really enjoyed it overall, but some of that postgame content was pretty tedious. I don't know how anybody would figure out how to find some of this stuff without a guide.

Sonic Adventure DX - I don't sit down with this one very often, but I made a big push to make some progress after finishing Hollow Knight. So far I've finished Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy's stories and have done a mission or two in Big's. As janky as the game is, the Sonic story was fun enough, but most of the characters' stories after just feel kind of weird, almost like an afterthought.

Doom: The Dark Ages - I'm a few missions into this and it seems pretty good. I really think Doom 2016 was as perfect as a Doom game can be though, so every deviation from that formula always feels like a weird choice to me, and this one deviates quite a bit.

Stellar Blade - Since I really enjoyed Black Myth: Wukong, I wanted another action game that sort of matched that one, and this is one that came up in searches as an alternative. Like it often happens with these types of games for me, I really didn't enjoy it at first, but something clicked during the first proper boss fight and now I've been really into it.

Jet Force Gemini - My friend and I started playing this on the weekends since it's on the NSO. Pretty janky since it's a third-person shooter on the N64, but it's an interesting game for sure. It's a little bit of a struggle with the controls sometimes, but we're enjoying it well enough.

FIST: Forged in Shadow Torch - I actually started playing this right after Hollow Knight, but my first impressions weren't great so I've sort of already abandoned this one, but I might come back to it and give it another shot. We'll see.