Do you like cats? Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be a cat? Lying around all day, chasing your own tail, knocking things off of ledges (or tables), and leaving your mark on everything with your claws sounds good, right? Well if you’ve ever entertained such fantasies in your own mind, you can now see them realized with Stray, one of the most adorable games that came out last year on Steam and PlayStation. It’s headed to Xbox on August 10.

It’s a great little game, but it’s too short. I finished the game in under 6 hours. It probably would have taken me longer to figure everything out, but I had already watched Paul Soares, Jr. play through much of it on his channel. You can check out his playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEbtIY4p_ltoIZzlhNL0JMnI4di0HYQ-o

My other disappointment with the game is that you can’t choose your cat, you have to play the orange one. I don’t mind orange cats, but I would have liked to have been able to choose a black cat or calico in loving memory of the cats I’ve had.

I was concerned about the lack of a manual save option, but the game's auto save feature was just fine.

Other than that, Stray is pretty good. It has environmental puzzles, but they’re not usually too difficult. There’s a bit to be explored and making discoveries is fun, so is traversing as a cat. The setting, story, and lore of the game are all very interesting and sci-fi. It is enjoyable and you don’t have to worry about a litter box or fleas!

If you like cats, sci-fi, exploration, and some light puzzles, you’ll probably like this. Let me know what you think about this and if it’s something you’re interested in.

For a game play review without major spoilers, check out Stray’s “Before You Buy” video on the gameranx YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/-Wj479wiMg8 (PC issue mentioned, but I had none.)

I just found an announcement that Shredder's Revenge is getting a DLC. It says "new game mode," "new character colors," and even "new playable characters," although the only one listed is Usagi Yojimbo. You can wish list it and get more details on Steam. There isn't a release date or price announced yet, though.

Let me know what you think.

"The History of Diablo" is a great 15 minute video giving some details about the history of Diablo in time for Diablo IV's release. I think it's a must-see for Diablo fans.

Let me know what you think about it and if you're getting into Diablo IV today.

One of the things I like most about games that are sequels is seeing how a game I enjoyed got improved. This is especially true when it comes to PCBS2. There are new tools and lots of QoL (quality of life) improvements, which I often see in sequels I enjoy. PCBS2 gives you more to work with and unlocks a lot of good stuff quickly without too much leveling up progression needed.

One of the things I love most about this game is it’s amazing soundtrack, which has a beautiful mix of rock, rap, and techno. “Hard to Believe” is often in my head and “No Fear of Falling” really strikes a chord with my heart strings. There are a couple of references to COVID such as in “Antidotes,” “hard everyone lock down, hard everything lock down.” You can check out the playlist on the official PCBS YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyTsMZIO5Z4&list=PL1qw64qmrhBNK1zw712CLmDO9AKbJrv-l You can also buy the soundtrack and check out the lyrics of each song here: https://pcbuildingsimulator.bandcamp.com/album/pc-building-simulator-2-original-soundtrack

I think PCBS has a good tutorial for learning how to build a PC, teaching you what each component is and what it does. PCBS2 doesn’t seem to have that unless I overlooked it. It does have multiple tutorials to show you how to do everything. I think there’s less guess work when it comes to troubleshooting, too, and you’re given more tools. One of them is a tablet that makes the office PC obsolete and redundant.

The tablet is always with you. You can access it any time by pressing “T” on your keyboard. Once you unlock it, and you do so quickly, you really don’t need your office PC. There are a couple things it can do that your office PC can’t. For instance, there’s an app that uses the tablet’s infrared camera to check the thermals of a running PC. Sometimes faulty components that need to be replaced will be running much hotter than everything else. There’s also an app allowing you to customize your work area including pictures, workbenches, walls, floors, and ceilings.

One way in which PCBS2 is different is that it gives you a big workshop and storefront. In PCBS, you have only one workbench until you level up and pay for additional workbenches. Even then, it only gives a total of three, but PCBS2 doubles that and doesn’t require much to unlock.

There are now three types of workbenches, each with it’s own specialty and you can change them anytime a PC is not on them. You’ll be mostly working with a “build” bench that lets you do all the PC building and troubleshooting. Another workbench allows for water-cooling customization where you’ll take individual components like a GPU, motherboard, or RAM. The last workbench allows you use spray paint and stickers for case modding. You probably only need one of each for the last two, while the rest you may want as “build” benches.

The storefront includes one of these workbenches, it’s mostly there for tinkering with the PCs you’re going to sell. There are multiple spots (four I think) to put a PC for sale, so you can sell many of them at the same time. You can buy a PC from a store app, which contains at least one broken part. You can then replace the part (or completely remove it if it’s an extra) and resell it. If you give the PC a name, overclock, or customization, you can get more money for it, too.

The game play is essentially the same as the first game. As I mentioned in my review of PCBS, you take over a PC repair shop. Potential customers will email you, asking you to fix their computer problems, build them a PC, or request that you give their PC a customization. Email from them also contains plenty of info like what needs to be done such as run virus scan, paint case, or replace a part. Once you click “accept” the customer’s PC will arrive in your store the next day for you to work on.

It’s pretty simple game play, but there’s plenty to do. Some customers want you to do something simple and the game tells you what to do. Others are more mysterious requiring you to figure it out on your own, which isn’t usually too difficult. Some customers want their PC to meet a certain score on a benchmark like 3DMark and Cinebench. There’s an app that helps you decide which parts will give you a certain score.

There are resources online about PCBS, including Steam guides that are still relevant. You might get a BSoD (blue screen of death) and not know what’s wrong (because they’re not very descriptive), but if you “Google it,” you’ll be able to find your answer easily. I got one of these recently and realized I forgot to apply thermal paste to the CPU I replaced.

The game has gotten three updates and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more, because they’ve added content and features. One of them introduced cable customization, which lets you color each individual cable, so you can have multicolored cables. Usually they add new parts and partners (PC companies like Phanteks).

PCBS2 is an Epic Games Store exclusive. Months ago, I did a Google search to see when or if it is coming to Steam and it seems as though it will not, even though PCBS is there. PCBS had a lot of workshops customized for different PC brands, like Razer, but PCBS2 doesn’t seem to have that and thus no additional DLC to pay for.

There’s actually a demo for this game, so if this sounds like something you’re interested in, you can check it out before buying. The game is only $25 and I think it’s definitely worth it. Also, check out the PC Building Simulator YouTube channel for game play videos: https://www.youtube.com/@PCBuildingSimulator

I think this is a cool game, especially for someone like me who’s a PC building enthusiast. I’ve already played this game on two different PCs, because I built a new one this year. I may keep playing so that I can unlock my hardware and build “Azura Azula” in the game. If you’re a PC building enthusiast, you’ll probably like this game, too. If you’re just starting out, I think I might recommend playing the first game a bit. Just a bit, though, enough to get through the tutorial and maybe a little familiar with the game play.

Let me know if this sounds like something you’re interested in. If you’ve played it, let me know what you think about it and if you have anything you’d like to add to this.

I did a more thorough job of explaining the game play in my review of PCBS, you can check that out for more details: https://cheerfulghost.com/games/32203/pc-building-simulator

There's a trailer for ARK: The Animated Series, which is based on ARK: Survival Evolved. One of the most notable aspects of the trailer is the cast, which includes very many recognizable names such as David Tennant, Michelle Yeoh, Russell Crowe, and Karl Urban. Vin Diesel is in the cast as well, but he's actually playing a much larger role in the development of ARK 2 and likely this as well. His likeness is used as one of the main characters, Santiago.

This looks really interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing it. The game's lore is actually hidden throughout the game in Explorer Notes. These are hidden throughout the ARKs and easy to miss out on. You can also see some of the lore when you "ascend," that is beat the boss of the ARK you're on. You can find the Explorer Notes on Fandom here: https://ark.fandom.com/wiki/Explorer_Notes You can find all of ARK's cutscenes (including the new ones recently added) on YouTube.

Let me know what you think of this and if you're looking forward to it, too.

I just watched xisumavoid’s video (embedded) about the new 1.20 updated for Minecraft, as I did not watch Minecraft Live. I don’t think it’s incredibly exciting, but it still is interesting and I like what I saw. I really like xisumavoid’s channel (he has a second one, too) for Minecraft news. I strongly recommend xisumavoid's channel or channels.

The “Sniffer” won the mob vote. According to an article I found via Google, https://www.windowscentral.com/news/live/minecraft-live-2022 , “[t]he Sniffer is an ancient, long-extinct, which players can revive by finding underwater eggs and nurturing them. If the Sniffer is returned to the Overworld, players can use its amazing sense of smell to dig up seeds to long-lost ancient plants.“ This description doesn’t really mean anything for me, but I’m interested in seeing more about it. I didn’t have a preference, but I’m glad we got the Allay (which I still haven’t checked out yet).

Fireflies were announced for the previous Minecraft update and were shown, but didn’t make it into the game. This and some other similar examples lead Mojang to decide to only announce features that were far enough along in their development and thus most likely to be available. I think this is smart, I’m still unhappy that we haven’t gotten those little bags, I need that inventory help! I’m disappointed, too, that fireflies didn’t make it in, they would have been great for ambiance.

One of the things I think that’s cool about this update is that bamboo is becoming a wood type and I think it looks good. The jungle has always been a favorite biome of mine, but that's because that's where we used to get cats (now parrots). Bamboo wood has some of it’s own style, too, including it’s boat, which is a raft.

Camels are being added Desert Villages and I think this is great, too! I’m not fond of the desert biome and I think this certainly adds to it, making it better. Two players can ride them, which can help traversing easier, particularly since one player can shoot mobs. Camels will be bred with cactus, giving it a use finally.

There will be hanging signs, too, which I think helps make signs look better. This is in part due to this update being about self-expression and it’s really cool to see new Minecraft character models included, which feature a good amount of diversity and choice for players, not just Alex and Steve.

Bookshelves will be able to hold actual books, too, and this includes spell books. You can interact with them. I think this will be a great way to store spell books. The Librarian is my MVP when it comes to Villagers and bookshelves are extremely important in the game, IMO, so I’m looking forward to this, too. I’m always on the hunt for Mending ASAP (and I've discovered how to get it easily)!

There will be more about this update coming in a matter of days and beta/preview builds will also become available very soon. The update is expected to come out sometime next year, though.

I think there’s news about other Minecraft games, but my interest in them is minimal, so I’ll let you explore that on your own. Feel free to share what you find here.

Let me know what you think about this update! Are you excited?

I recently discovered this article on GameSpot, “Four Ways You Can Make Steam Better Right Now,” and I strongly believe it’s worth reading. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/four-ways-you-can-make-steam-better-right-now/1100-6507521/

Steam is my dominant platform choice at the moment. I’m struggling to remember the last time I played a console game. It’s been long time! I have plenty of them lying around, but I’ve been exclusively focused on PC gaming for quite a while now. I’ve come to the conclusion that my console gaming ended with the Wii U.

I know little of current consoles, but I believe they are powerful and expensive. Well, that is except for the Switch, which is the only one I’m interested in. I get very disappointed seeing videos of non-Nintendo games on the Switch. They usually perform and look so much better on PC. However, Nintendo’s always been a favorite of mine and they still make great games I’m sadly missing out on. $300 is a price I’d rather spend on a new PC part, though.

I’m kind of a Steam snob, too, in that I want all of my games there. It’s nice having everything in one place, including your list of friends and just one application to run. But, Steam isn’t the only PC platform. There is also the Epic Game Store, GOG Galaxy, UPlay, Blizzard.net, Xbox companion app, and many more. There are many good things about not having everything exclusively centralized, though. One of my favorite things about having other platforms is that I have backups in case Steam ever goes down. I can easily hop over to EGS and play something I also got for free there. I haven’t spent any money on the EGS yet, but my library is huge!

Introducing categorizing your games

I haven’t been paying attention to Steam’s updates and exploring new features, so I enjoyed that this article pointing some out to me. The mention of categorizing the games in my library into lists is what I found to be most important.

Steam is certainly a top platform when it comes to PC gaming. Because of this, many of us have very large libraries, which makes it difficult to find a particular game we’re interested in playing. We can simply look through the list alphabetically, or add them to our “Favorites” list. This didn’t quite go far enough. Now we can organize them much easier into lists.

There are some recommended lists in the article. It’s a good idea to create lists for your level of enthusiasm for a game. So, create a list for the games you’re playing, the ones you want to play, and the ones you don’t want to play. Then, when you’re looking at your library on the left, you can hide the games in these lists, making your search much easier.

I created lists for what I want to “check out sometime,” or “play soon.” I have a list for games I’m waiting for an update. Terraria and The Witcher 3 are now on this list, the latter was supposed to get an HD update this year. I also have a “Windows 11” list for HDR games. My CPU isn’t compatible with Win11 and HDR looks terrible in Win10, so I’m waiting until I get my new PC build done.

One of the most important is my “Unknown/No Interest” list. I think this is something everyone needs. It helps remove a lot of games from my view, making it so much easier to find the games I am looking for more quickly. Free games and bundles are very good at adding to our library, but it’s easy to forget what some of them are. Plus, there are games we lose interest in.

I’ve also created other categories such as “Batman,” “TES,” “iD,” “Fallout,” “Square-Enix,” “Rockstar Games,” and so many more. Spending just a few minutes creating these lists and adding games to them was very much worth it. My library on the left-hand side looks so much better now! I strongly recommend everyone else on Steam to do this.

The article also mentions skins and apps that bring together our different platforms, which I didn’t see as interesting or necessary. I still very much strongly recommend reading the article, if you’re on Steam.

Let me know what you think about this article and the things it mentions. Are there other suggestions or features of Steam you’d like to point out?

I recently watched a “Before You Buy” video by GamingBolt for Gotham Knights (embedded). I’ve shared other videos of this series, so it’s definitely a channel I strongly recommend. The video is great, because it goes into some non-spoilery details about the plot and game play. If you enjoyed the Batman Arkham games, you’ll probably enjoy this, too (as I expect to).

I’ve known about Goth Knights for a while now. It’s coming to consoles and PC on 10/21/22. There’s also a Suicide Squad game coming out that looks quite similar. I’m looking forward to both of these games and will probably write something later for the Suicide Squad one.

The premise is that Batman and Commissioner Gordon are dead (or presumed dead). Gotham still needs it’s protector, since The Court of Owls has taken over. So, the Batman family fills in the void. Batgirl, Night Wing, Red Hood, and Robin are the four playable characters.

My familiarity with each character is different. Robin’s the most familiar. It took a long time before I realized there was more than one “Robin.” The Arkham games gave me a great introduction to the other characters, even if only by their real names or other identities. I’m really looking forward to getting to know these characters better. It looks like Batgirl will be the one most like the Batman we’ve been used to playing as since she uses a lot of the same abilities.

According to WB, this is the biggest playable Gotham City yet. All characters have some kind of ability for traversing distance such is gliding, but you’ll need a vehicle to traverse more quickly. Arkham Knight gave us the Batmobile, but Gotham Knights will use the Batcycle.

While traversing the city as Bat Girl, Night Wing, Red Hood, or Robin, the city will only be experiencing night time. It will change to day when you meet with the other characters in the Belfry (the Batcave is not used apparently). It looks like we’ll be seeing the characters as their regular identities when they meet in the Belfry.

This is an ARPG, but you don’t have to play each character to gain experience, since they all do collectively. Each character has their own play styles. They use different weapons and technologies. They traverse differently. They’re very interesting and the video does a great job of showing off each.

Ray-tracing is making it’s way to PC. The video points out that there’s no word yet on when or if this will make it to the consoles (PC superiority!). I’m excited about this since I now have an EVGA 12G RTX 2060 XC. While my EVGA GTX 1660 Ti XC Gaming can do ray-tracing, I wasn’t able to get a true and smooth experience until I recently upgraded (and I still want an RTX 3070!). (Random note: EVGA is breaking up with NVIDIA and it's sad, but sometimes you just have to get out of a toxic relationship. Source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/evga-terminates-relationship-with-nvidia-leaves-gpu-business/1100-6507619/)

I’m also seeing HDR as a feature on many of these new games and this is a technology I’ve only begun to have access to with the new monitor I got in December. However, apparently Windows 10 has a horrible application of this, so I’ve never really seen HDR for what it’s truly supposed to be. For that reason, I’ve decided it’s time to upgrade to Windows 11, since my i7-8700 isn’t compatible. It’s going to take me some time, so this is probably one of the games on my already created list of games to wait for until I have my new Windows 11 PC (my new build after 3 years).

Let me know what you think about this. Is it something you’re excited about, too? Are you going to be getting it when it comes out?

Official site: https://www.gothamknightsgame.com/en-us

“Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion will bring the PSP adventure to Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC on December 13.” (Source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/crisis-core-final-fantasy-7-reunion-confirmed-for-december-13-launch/1100-6507433/)

I got really obsessed with Final Fantasy when I went to college 22 years ago. While FF8 is my favorite, FF7 seems to be the fan favorite with good reason. It’s continued to receive a lot of attention long after it’s original release on the PlayStation (that’s PS1).

I haven’t played FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE, yet, but it seems to be popular. However, I’ve enjoyed many of the other games associated with FF7. The PlayStation Portable was one of my favorite handhelds. I’ve always had the Nintendo ones and I did have a Sega Game Gear, but I got my PSP about 12 years ago and I really enjoyed it. Just thinking about it makes me want to play it again.

One of the things I loved most about the PSP was that there are many FF games for it. I got all of them, or at least almost all. Crisis Core was a favorites of mine. It’s a bit of a prequel. Looking at FF7 Remake, the games look similar to me, even though I’ve only played CC.

I think I enjoyed everything about this game and I’m really looking forward to playing it again on PC. The trailer I just saw looks beautiful!

Let me know if you’re into this and if you’re going to be grabbing it.

Pre-orders: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/crisis-core-final-fantasy-7-reunion-preorders-are-live-at-amazon/1100-6504989/

Because of this year’s D23 expo (https://d23.com/), I found out about Marvel Strike Force. An announcement was made that, “the free-to-play turn-based mobile game, is getting an influx of Hulk content very soon.”

The game is currently out and installed on my phone, but I haven’t tried it yet and I know pretty much nothing about it. I’ve never owned an expensive cellphone and I hate them anyway. I haven’t played many cellphone games in part because mine haven’t been compatible with many things. I was a “mobile” gamer long before cellphones had gaming functionality. My Gameboy was my first Nintendo product and remained my primary gaming device for a long time. I eventually got into consoles and the PlayStation Portable (which I loved), but all of that ended with the PS3 and Wii U. Now you can easily call me a PC snob.

However, since I’ve been “Marvel-ously” obsessed, this news is quite appealing. I’ll check it out eventually. I’ll get back to you if I do and have thoughts to share.

Let me know if you know anything about this and what you think about it or if it's something you’re interested in.

News Source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/all-the-hulks-are-coming-to-marvel-strike-force/1100-6507329/