Turn Lanes

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

SCREENSHOTS — Marvel's Midnight Suns

Firaxis Games developed Midnight Suns and also did the XCOM games. And I'm a big fan of the XCOM games! Lucky me, Midnight Suns did not disappoint. Different from XCOM in that, there was no grid and a new deck builder element, but I found it enjoyable gameplay. Plus, fabulous costumes and cinematic attacks and skills. I might have to try Newgame+ on this one. Too bad the ambient occlusion ray tracing was game-breaking — something to do with all the ruble shadows left in the wake of my destruction!

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

SCREENSHOTS — Hogwarts Legacy

Hogwarts Legacy wasn't on my radar to play. My wife was interested, and I bought it for her to play. After watching her play some of the game, I was intrigued by its environments and polished animations. I also wanted a graphics heavyweight to pit against my new Radeon GPU. The game can quickly punish FPS with ultra graphics and ray tracing on.



SCREENSHOTS — Halo Infinite

I have Halo Infinite to thank as my excuse for a computer upgrade. My old computer could have run it okay if I had realized my CPU thermal paste needed to be replaced. But instead, I bought a Radeon 6800 XT, a 34" ultrawide monitor, and — well, all new parts. The keyboard and headphones are the only peripherals to survive the transition. Halo Infinite was more Halo goodness. Besides the aesthetics you can see in the screenshots, it looked great at 120+ FPS.

Thursday, December 29, 2022

SCREENSHOTS — Batman: Arkham Knight

My enjoyment of the Batman games goes back to around 2012 when I first played one: Arkham Asylum. Now, Arkham Knight is my fourth Batman game. It keeps to the tried-and-true formula of two parts: sneaking up on bad guys or punching bad guys when sneaking fails. But this game also adds a substantial batmobile element. To really get the full experience, I removed the tactile transducer from my sofa and strapped it onto my office chair. Every punch and every 60mm cannon shot literally kicked my butt! It's a great way to immerse into the game. It was also my first game with my Sennheiser IE 900s, though I found myself going back to the DCA Aeon Flows for gaming.

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

SCREENSHOTS — Psychonauts 2

The original Psychonauts is one of the first video games I remember my youngest sister enjoying. We bonded over it and still quote Dogen lines as inside jokes. My sister gifted me Psychonauts 2 for my birthday, and I enjoyed it with my oldest daughter. It's a great series—fun gameplay, clever designs, uplifting messages.