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In my Weekend Gaming Hands

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these and it’s also been a while since I’ve had a new game to try out, but thanks to Gamepass I can dip in and dip out whenever I like, so I’ve decided to take Forza Horizon 5 for a spin. I also have been eyeballing Metroid Dread since its announcement, and this weekend seems like as good a time as any to jump in. I’ve also been working through the original Metroid on the Switch Virtual Console, so it’s Metroid-time all the time around here.

What are you playing this weekend?

In My Hands

Wow, it’s been a while since a post has gone up around these parts. Video gaming is still happening, just at a less frequent rate. Either way, the Resident Evil train doesn’t stop and we’ve got another entry in the main story line, which means a new copy is safely resting in my hands (one of which is going to be sliced off, unbeknownst to me):

This has actually been in my hands since last Friday and so far I’m about three hours in (hence the previous mention of hand loss) and so far it feels like a combo of RE4 and RE7. More thoughts to come.

The Year of Finishing Games

I declared 2019 to be the Year of Completing Games and for the most part, it was. I completed games both new and old. In no particular order, I completed:

  • Resident Evil 2 (twice!)
  • The Division 2
  • Destiny 2
  • Bioshock Infinite
  • Dead Rising

I had meant to write this post as a sort of end-of-the-year wrap-up, but I never got around to it. Then I figured during corona-virus-lock-down I’d put some time into it but that never materialized, either. Finally, six months into the year I started thinking about it again after I picked up Resident Evil 3.

You see, 2020 was going to be the Year of Playing New Releases. After thoroughly enjoying Resident Evil 2, I had high hopes for Resident Evil 3. It was supposed to be the Chosen One, selected to kick off the Year of New Releases. When it released with mixed reviews, it threw me off my game. If I couldn’t start the year off with a bang, what would the rest of the year hold?

It turns out that 2020 is actually the worst year in the history of years. In terms of video games, it isn’t exactly bursting with many stellar titles. Sure, Animal Crossing: New Horizons released this year, we do have that going for us, but honestly, that’s about it. (Actually, Animal Crossing came out at the best possible time, right at the start of quarantine, when things starting going south.) AC:NH might end up being my Game of the Year.

There are a few tent pole titles in 2020, like Doom Eternal and the FF7 REMake, but honestly, 2020 isn’t looking that great.

Halo Infinite anybody?

So I’m extending the Year of Completing Games into 2020 (So far this year I’ve already finished RE3, Dead Rising 2 and the B ending of NieR:Automata). I’ll be delving back into the Steam backlog and making the most out of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. I’ve taken advantage of the new Steam Library organization tools to keep track of games I’m working on (and games I really need to play). Next to finish will be more NieR:Automata endings and Dead Rising 2: Off the Record.

Are you working through a backlog? Playing a new release? What are you playing this weekend?

In My Zombie Killing Hands

What’s this, a new blog post at buttonmashing dot com? It’s true, we are still around, still gaming and most importantly, still Resident Eviling.

Released earlier this year, RE3 reviewed a little less favorably than last year’s REmake, RE2. I thoroughly enjoyed RE2, it was one of the first games that I completed during 2019’s “Year of Completing Games”, so I was quite excited to jump into RE3 and then quite dismayed at the initial reviews. Most reviews said it was still a good game just not as good as RE2, so I cooled my heels until it went on sale. Which it did this weekend, so here we are.

With the game. In my hands. Time to dive in!

Weekend Gaming – Birthday Edition

I’m giving myself the gift of some gaming this weekend for my birthday. I’m not exactly sure what that means, but my gaming has been so scattershot lately. I have started a handful of games and haven’t felt anything that really feels right. 2019 was the year of finishing games and in 2020 I’m looking to be the year of playing new releases. Nothing in January really set my hair on fire, so I dabbled with some older games. I got into Dead Cells on my Switch for a minute, downloaded and started Ori and the Blind Forest on PC and actually jumped back into Hex: Shards of Fate for old-time’s sake.

Photo by Rohit Choudhari on Unsplash

I reinstalled Divinity: Original Sin. The initial hour or so didn’t necessarily grab me, but there was enough of a story that I may go back.

I finally got around to trying Tokyo 42 and that was fine but again, nothing amazing. I was hoping for a Syndicate-style game and it came close, but not quite what I was hoping for.

I picked up Hollow Knight and SteamWorld Heist in the most recent Steam Sale, so I have plenty of new games to give a go this weekend. Just have to make a decision and get going.

What are you playing this weekend?

Sewing Thimbles In Short Supply

Apparently sewing thimbles are all the rage for video game characters missing tips of their pinkies. I spied with my little eye a particularly pale pagan priest sporting this in the newly released Diablo IV trailer:

Where does one acquire rubber bands in Tristram?

So did Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite turn into a bad guy in the Diablo Universe? Was this a Blizzard homage to the BioShock universe?

Can we take bets on the next pinkieless character? Samus?

Overland [PC] Review

Our blogger and streaming extraordinaire Nick recently posted his review of the PC horror/survival game Overland. Overland landed a respectable 7.5/10 and seems to be a solid, albeit uneven, game. Might be worth a look if turn based horror is your thing: 

Overland can be enjoyed on its surface merits. It is a stylish, humane and sober turn-based survival game. It is a story generator that forces tough, desperate decisions. It has infinite replayability and is catnip for achievement hunters. But I see a game that can do more, even within its confined spaces and limited narrative.

Launching Buttonmashing Galleries

We recently started toying with the idea of collecting screenshots of games we have been playing and creating galleries . With the ease of simply pressing a button on the Switch controller or hitting F12 in Steam, we’ve begun to amass a collection of screenshots we find particularly charming, poignant or funny. Some of the screenshots come with a story and others are just moments in a game we want to share.

The gallery is small at the moment, as I work through my Steam screenshot library, but we have big plans to expand the library to include a wide range of games and images.

We don’t use any special tools others use to turn screenshots into works of art but the simple, home-grown approach works for what we’re trying to convey — captured moments in time that caught our attention or took our breath away. We hope you like them, too.

So head over to the Gallery Page and watch this space as we add more.

Weekend Gaming

The kids are back in school, it’s an off Friday for the Buttonmasher and the weekend is laid out in front of us, full of opportunities to get some gaming in and watch some pro Dota (The International 9!).

Right now, there isn’t a particular game that has my full attention. For a while I was playing the charming (and maddeningly frustrating) Rogue-like Below but I have cooled a little on that (you can only do so many corpse runs before you want to give up). So what to play this weekend is wide open.

The year of completing games is still in full effect. With Destiny 2, Resident Evil 2, and The Division 2 already finished, there are a variety of games in varying states of completeness I could return to. The Division 2 has new DLC. My six-years-too-late run through Bioshock Infinite is nearing a close. I’m near the end of another run through Dead Rising (the OG), I started poking around in NieR:Automata again (and remembering how good that game is) and for completeness sake, I should pop back into Thimbleweed Park and put a fork in that one. Oh, and for good measure, my fellow buttonmasher Nick has got me thinking about Pillars of Eternity, too.

Now that I look at that list, I am suddenly overwhelmed, which normally means I won’t play any of them and end up wasting time playing Dota 2. But not this time! Something, somehow, will get completed this weekend.

What will you be playing?