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So, what are you playing?

by: Randy -
More On: What we're playing
Microsoft makes huge play acquiring Skyrim and Fallout publisher for $7.5 billion, its largest games acquisition since Minecraft. One NPD analyst says video game consumers will "happily pay" for more expensive $70 games on next gen consoles. And for this senior CS:GO team, age ain't nothin' but a number.
 
So, what are you playing?
 
Eric Hauter
I'm super late to the party, but I've been digging into the Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2 Remake for review. I'm loving it, but it is just as punishing as I remember. It's interesting what pieces of my muscle memory remain, and what pieces have vanished since I set aside Pro Skater 4 back in the early 2000s. I remember when playing Tony Hawk games for the first time, I could barely skate in a straight line without falling down and wrecking myself. I'm coming into this remake with a definite advantage. I can pop into a grind with no effort at all, and can manual between tricks pretty easily. But I'm still having trouble fully exploring the environment. I never played these games. I started with 3 and 4. So the secrets and weird pathways are still a mystery to me. In many ways—for me, at least—this is like getting a long awaited sequel instead of a remake.
 
I'm also still eyeing Spiritfarer on Stadia. Maybe this weekend, when I have a little more time to play, I'll dig in full force. I like the idea of gathering materials and building my ship for spirits. I've just been too sleepy to pursue it very far.
 
Randy Kalista
Got ganked for the first time in EVE Echoes. I'd forgotten how crummy (and crucial) that feels in this mobile EVE Online spinoff. Apparently a new thing going around on Reddit is to ambush people in low security asteroid belts with a small mining vessel so that people don't suspect you're aggressive—because, y'know, you're in a mining vessel, not a fighter. But as part of your ambush, you've got a combat drone that zips over and rips another player's mining vessel to shreds. That's how you collect a kill mail on another player and scoop up their MK3 equipment. Oh well. Something something Welcome to EVE, I suppose.
 
Ragnorium is pretty rad, but also pretty early access. It's a top-down survival-crafting sim, where you're shooting off clones onto a ruined planet, trying to make grass skirts and cutting tree branches into clubs. There's also a Holy Crusade on the way, but I haven't even survived my first run in with a nearby tribe. The developer got a lot of complaints, but I love the pixelated screenburn art style. It looks like I'm observing all this Rimworld-y gameplay on a deep-fried CRT monitor from low-earth orbit.
 
And for some reason all this talk of Microsoft acquiring Bethesda has got a couple of us itching for some Fallout—any Fallout—but most likely Fallout 76 since that's the one I've played the least of. The last time I logged in, if I remember correctly, some rando on my server dropped off hundreds of gift bags in front of my C.A.M.P., each bag with hundreds (thousands?) of credits in them. I'm still figuring out how to keep myself fed and watered while walking around and enjoying the sights. Daylight hours were extended from eight to 13 hours in-game, but I think you're still stuck jamming food into your mouth every single hour of real-time gameplay. It's tedious for someone that would rather just be exploring and shooting zombies.