I'm playing a little Conan, some Conan, with a bit more Conan on the side when I feel up to it.

I might manage to log in just to stand there and get invited to the clan at some point

I see Ox has played Elden Ring. I'm giving it a go. I'm not usually a "Souls" fan; my reflexes are a bit crap and I don't have the patience but this one seems a little more forgiving. I can't play much (stupid elbow still) but using a pad I can manage an hour or two. I've gone in blind, don't want to know anything, playing offline, not watching any videos or reading any guides. Let's see how long it is before I get incredibly frustrated at it

good luck!

Very much needed lol. I fought one mini-boss in a dungeon and killed him first time but there's a big golden guy when you get out of the 'tutorial' area who has murdered me about 5 times already and a sort of general type guy roaming some ruins in the overworld with his easy to kill minions; I've taken him down to the tiniest sliver of health but then he caught me. No real boss kills yet. Not played much yet either. I'm enjoying it though. You don't lose absolutely everything like you do in the other games when you die so it's more forgiving whilst still being evil and making you want to cry

Past month or so I noticed the PC’s power button is loose (no spring tension) and doesn’t work at all. Almost as if someone broke it *looks at 4 yo daughter*

Oh that's so not nice, blaming your "drunken adventures" on a small child .

I disagree, isn't that what you have kids for? To blame them for stuff?

I've currently got Core Keeper on the go along with Elden Ring. A sort of Stardew Valley, Minecraft, Terraria style game. It's in early access, which I normally stay way from, but it's got a ton of content and is actually priced like an early access game at just over £10 rather than the £40+ that some of them seem to think they can charge.

Yeah I've been going hard on Elden Ring...it's an amazing game, the world looks absolutely fantastic and it's brutal. But it's also frustrating and has a really steep learning curve. I gotta admit that at some point I did go "fuck this, I'm never gonna be able to finish this game" but then I realized I was in an area that was just way too dangerous for my current level. I ventured into more "level appropriate" regions and suddenly I was back on track again. This game doesn't really hold your hand or tell you when you are fighting very dangerous enemies vs easier ones, which makes this pretty easy to mistakingly do. There are no level indicators, no barriers, no 5000 icons on your map, so you gotta feel out a lot of things and explore.

I beat 3 of the main story bosses now but there are still plenty more to go I think. I am not good at this game and like Pev I don't have any experience with Souls like games so I am still finding my way. But I think I'm slowly getting there. The payoff when you do beat certain challenges, areas or bosses is extremely gratifying though, exactly because it is so hard and unforgiving. And the design, world building and graphics are really amazing. I keep coming back to it.

Pev, that golden guy on the horse is kind of a "fuck you" from the game creators haha. You're right, you meet him almost immediately upon finishing the 'tutorial' dungeon, patrolling that general area. But he is really way too high level for most players to tackle at that point. He becomes more viable around level 25 so yeah...best ignore him for now. He frustrated the hell out of me for the longest time too!

I keep wanting to get back into it properly but with covid I don't have the concentration for it. I did have a little explore the other day. I found a wood with some huge bears. Threw one of my magics at it, barely did anything and the bitch chased me for ages! I'm having the odd exploration session but not going too hard on it yet; part of me wants to wait for Niall to start playing but then I keep seeing how much of the map of Horizon: Forbidden West he still has to uncover so if I wait for that it's gonna be June!

I have now killed a beastman in a cave near the start and that guy wandering the ruins. I haven't gone near any story bosses yet. I found the swamp dragon and can regularly get it down to 2/3rds of its health gone with my magic but as I'm still only level 11 I just don't have enough to kill it at all. I also tried to kill the Nocturnal Cavalry and almost got him but he 1 hits me easily so going to need a couple more levels there too.

Enjoying it though!

Still playing Conan Exiles (Isle of Siptah). I like building. I may need to post some pics of my stuff.

Playing a bit of Back4Blood, but not enough to really have a strong opinion on it yet.
Started playing Quantum Break (also came with the Humble Ukraine Bundle). Good so far, but I'm barely started into it.
Also playing Crying Suns. It reminds me a lot of FTL, though it's definitely its own thing.

I installed X-Morph: Defense, but couldn't get it to run, so I uninstalled it for now. I may troubleshoot more later... it looks pretty interesting. I think I saw Peltz had it... any problems getting it to work on your end?

I've been playing more different games. Played delta-v: Rings of Saturn... you basically fly a ship around harvesting minerals in Saturn's rings (2-d). It's surprisingly enjoyable... it's the worst part of many games made into the main focus of this one, and it's not bad. There's an economy and you can buy new ships and upgrade them, etc etc, but the main game is blowing up little rocks and harvesting them for resources.

Also started playing Satisfactory... with a name like Satis-Factory, I think I may be bound to enjoy it. Anyway, fun so far. It's been out awhile, but I didn't realize it was still in pre-release. That's fine... I'm enjoying it for now. It may get a bit grindy for me eventually, but I'm persistent if nothing else.

About two weeks ago a video of Star Citizen gameplay found its way to my youtube suggestions. It looked ok so I decided to check it out. Got the cheapest package and surely enough the game is playable, fairly stable for alpha, has stuff to do although it's quite shallow. The only progression currently is money and scaling mission rewards. The game revolves around ships of course but funnily I found myself doing more on-foot combat missions.

Performance wise it averages around 40fps in most places aside from the large city hubs.

Won't be releasing any time soon.

Star Citizen is insanity. It's raised over $400million and been in development since 2011, yet it's nowhere near close to release. It's like Duke Nukem Forever, but in pre-release. Elite: Dangerous started at roughly the same time and has been released and had numerous expansions. It blows my mind. It seems to work though... there are 400 million reasons it's still alive I suppose. So long as you enjoy it, more power to you.

I can't believe there's an actual working something of it, even if it's alpha. That game is like the longest running hoax/tax dodge/experiment to see how long you can string people along for ever! Glad you're enjoying it though

I've decided to break my no early access rules and got V Rising. Just installing it now. Anyone else thinking they might get it at some point? It's another Ark/Conan Exiles type game but you're a vampire so you have to plan around avoiding sunlight.