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Lego Jurassic World, which was available on every system under the sun when it came out in 2015, is one of the best Lego Games to date. It's fun. It's interesting. It covers Jurassic Park 1-3 and Jurassic World. It's not overly stuffed with busy work that takes forever to complete, either. There are not difficult flight missions involved either. As with all Lego games, there is an funny take on the events of the movies. They also took advantage of the dinosaurs giving them different abilities that are then used in solving puzzles. This is a very enjoyable game if you like Jurassic Park and Lego games. Affiliate Note: If you purchase Lego Jurassic World via the links above, Gay Authors receives a small affiliate referral reward.

So, I thought I'd bring up another Lego game, as they are great for mindless entertainment. There is an absolute ton of these things too. Today's Lego game is Lego The Incredibles, based off Pixar's The Incredibles. (Probably the best theme music for an animated flick too). This game is narrowing in scope of something like Lego Marvel Superheros 2, despite having super heroes being a common thread. The story follows both The Incedibles and The Incredibles 2 and is an enjoyable romp through the highlights of those movies. The city, New Urbem, has lot of different superhero activities to stop crime. The races in the game are mostly manageable and the flight races are a LOT better done than Lego Marvel Super Heroes or Lego Batman anything. I'm almost done wrapping up the achievements, which has been considerably less tedious than some of the other Lego Games. Though the 75 hit combo is tough since the AI often gets in your way or kills the guy you need to complete the combo. Fun game and a great distraction from stress. (mostly) (If you buy from the links above, Gay Authors gets a small affiliate fee)

I have always been a sucker for roller coasters since I was tall enough to ride them. I've driven all of the eastern United States to ride real coasters and even made Six Flags Over Texas an essential part of the 2008 Dallas GA get together. From a gaming perspective, I've owned all the Roller Coaster Tycoons and a few of them more than once. So that brings us around to Planet Coaster Console edition, which is a Launch Title on Xbox Series X and being part of Xbox Game Pass (i.e., you can play it free if you have Game Pass). So, of course, I loaded it up on the new system. The gamepad control of what is considered a PC game took some getting used to. However, outside of some quirkiness in Roller Coaster design mode, it works really, really well. On the Series X (and presumably Xbox One), you can also plug in a keyboard and mouse and play that way as well. I've been playing the game to relax from all the stuff going on and avoid the stress of work. It's fun. The game looks great, and it sounds great too. I will say there are a few weird freeze bugs that I hope they correct soon. However, it could always be related to being in Alpha Pre-Flight (buggiest software) for the console with bugs. Which is to say, I see more bugs than most console people see since my Xbox is running experimental operating system software. Has anyone else played yet (on Xbox, PC, etc.)? What do you think?

So, with Microsoft announcing that they are buying Zenimax Studios and its subsidiaries, including Bethesda Studios, the next big title has seen a bit more news. Starfield, presumed to be coming in holiday 2021 timeframe, has a single announcement trailer. This thing is looking to be more hard science fiction. The trailer's visual and music gives off a 2001: A Space Odyssey/2010 vibe to it. (I like 2010 much better than 2001, from a movie standpoint while acknowleding that 2001 broke a lot of new ground and did some really cool stuff for it's release date. It's just too SLOW from today's short attention span perspective). Anyway, Starfield. This looks like a day one pick up. Though, it will be under the Microsoft umbrella by then, so this would be a free release to Xbox Game Pass subscribers. (really hard to beat that price) Anyone else looking forward to it?

Cyberpunk 2077 got delayed until Dec 10, 2020. It is looking very interesting. Everything I've seen says it's pretty polished. And it is so customizable, that you can customize your personal equipment, if you know what I mean. As this is Cyberpunk, it is definitely a Mature rated game. The number of F-bombs in the trailer kind of gives that away too. Is anyone else looking forward to this? I know I am, but I'm definitely concerned that I'll drop right down the rabbit-hole on it. It's huge and will be an incredible time sink.

Ubisoft ended up shifting a lot of games to this holiday dropping 3 major IP's in a 4 week window. Immortals Feynx Rising (originally Gods and Monsters) is a new game world. This is high on my list, as I like the look, the gameplay as described and a general interest in Greek Mythology. I will most likely get this near launch. The character seems very highly customizable, which is cool. Anyone else interested in this game?

This game was released in 2017. I finally wrapped up 100% the game over the weekend. If you have played the Lego games, then you know the formula here. From a story and humor standpoint, this is another entertaining game from Lego. But it also has the the Lego Game downsides here that are amplified. Flight controls and vehicle controls particularly in the races you are forced to do to 100% the game lose the game 2 stars right off the top. They are horrible. You fight the controls or the camera or both in the flying races. On the ground races, you have to race through an uncleared course, so random cars, pedestrians, or your own partner appear randomly and block your path, throwing you out of the race. The only improvement here is that it has an option to restart the race anytime you don't get gold. The other horrible downside is the character Gwenpool. Think the worse, obnoxious, air-headed Jersey Girl type that is constantly butchering English with horrible trite phrases. Until you beat all her missions, which involves beating all the story levels first, she's a constant nagging voice that loses the game another 2 stars. Although I have all the Lego Games to date, future ones are now on the "Wait List". Is the game worth it? Well, the story levels were fun and the story interesting (for a Lego game). The frustration doesn't really strike hard until you attempt to complete the 100% achievements. If you don't do that, it probably won't bug you.

I have played a few hours of this game and it is holding my interest. The game is an open world sandbox where you can enjoy a number of tasks. The biggest one is that you can recruit any person you see. Anyone. Once you have recruited them, you can play as them. The game does a very good job of making people sound different. Thus far, it seems occasionally repetitive on occupation. For example, the recruitment mission for various types of doctors seems to be nearly identical. So, if you recruit only one or two people per job type (and there are a lot... there is an achievement for having 15 different types, if I recall correctly). Normally, I'd describe the game as a dystopian future and leave it at that. But looking at all the crap going on in 2020, I'll call the game "2021 but with working Holographic and more human-like A.I.'s." It is certainly loaded with extreme big brother tech companies, etc. Story wise, it's interesting, but not outstanding in any way. (so far). This is definitely more of an open world game, make your own story, type of thing. There are plenty of opportunities for "I wonder if I can do that" sort of things. Let's say, you can get a James Bond-Style car complete with guided missiles. That was fun. Hacking a construction zone and flying around the city is fun too. I'll post more some time in the future... but if you are interesting in checking it out, it comes in a lot of flavors. Below are affiliate links to various version of the game. Purchasing from below gives Gay Authors a small affiliate reward that helps support the site.

They announced the big game that Microsoft's big new studio, The Initiative was working on. They are rebooting "Perfect Dark" On the surface, this looks interesting. I'm definitely down with "spy genre" games. They are absolutely right that it is undeserved and there is a huge upside potential. Unfortunately, they also posted an interview with the developers and it almost completely turned me off from the game, not from the game itself, but from the pedantic virtue signaling all the developers were doing in the interview. I can only hope that the Game is all Show and no Tell on the social commentary stuff.

I finally sat down and played Immortals - Fenyx Rising today. It's on sale digitally and on various sites. I put links to Amazon USA below (they are affiliate links, Gay Authors gets a small cut if you order the game from the link) This game has a nice gameplay loop. The narrators are entertaining and the world is very colorful and beautiful. I am playing on Xbox Series X and the game plays great and I have not encountered any bugs so far. (Unlike all the other games out at the moment...) This game is was clearly inspired by Zelda Breath of the Wild. If you play it, let me know what you think. I'll post more on it later.

I have been doing some retro gaming the last few days. I've been playing my copy of Assassin's Creed: The Enzio Collection, which is Assassin's Creed II, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed: Revelations. They are, collectively, the best Assassin's Creed games in the series. They are open world, but they were trying new things and the story was much tighter than the latest games. If you like AC and haven't played these, they are a super bargain normally, but are on sale in many places for under $15 at the time of this posting. In playing the game, it brings back fond memories. They really did a good job making you engage with the characters and the story. This was before they want all cookie cutter. Though these 3 games came out one after another, they were more like a really big game, then 3 separate ones, plot wise. In fact, ACII ended on a cliffhanger and Brotherhood picked up right where it left off from a story point of view. I really miss the Ubisoft. That's not to say it's perfect. It still has the god-awful randomness of jumping into midair, usually to your death. The parkour climbing and jumping has been refined over the years, but it is STILL an issue in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, what 10 games later? They also have some sweat-inducing climbing and timed events that still drive me batty. Those, thankfully, disappeared in later games. but the games in later years grew to be so bloated. It takes something like 80 hours to get through the story in Valhalla. Yikes. ACII is something you can jump in, enjoy and then move on. I hope Ubisoft remembers sometime that you can make a game that is fun without requiring you to dedicate your existence to it.

Just a thread to post about Gaymer things, and memes... To start: The Elder Scrolls Online, don't nearly have enough ass slider. Can barely get a bubble butt on my Khajiit.

If you are looking for a distraction... this does a good job of that. It is not as powerful as the Xbox One X, but it's hard to tell unless you uber snobby on your 4k screens or have a 4k projector. Anyway, it's a good system with some great exclusive story based games. For my comparison on gaming systems, I posted a little topic in the Video Game forum, if you haven't read it.

Sorry this is late. It's been a heck of week trying to catch up from that annoying downtime with the internet. Anyway, I picked up a Nintendo Switch on a whim. This is probably my midlife crisis. I'll be picking up a Playstation 4 Pro in a few weeks. lol. Anyway, for my 41st birthday, I picked up a Nintendo Switch so I can relive my youth playing Mario and Zelda. And Donkey Kong. And probably Kirby too. It's definitely a cute little toy and I seriously doubt I'll ever mess with it much undocked. Do you guys have one? What games do you like?

This is one of the reasons I bought a PS4. The game is definitely outstanding. Looks great, sounds great. Play is interesting. I'd be having more fun with it, but as an Xbox guy, I have to say the controller sucks for the Playstation and its horrible layout is a hindrance to people used to a good controller. Walking around fine. Doing battle just sucks because I have 12 years of muscle memory for the xbox controller layout. Anyway, the game is great. Check it out, if you haven't.

I have just started my own personal blog that will focus on my adventures in being a casual hardcore gamer. I'm simply doing too many things to dedicate time to gaming, but gaming is something I'm passionate about. So I've decided to start blogging about various game related things. Hardware, new games, etc. I am primarily an Xbox gamer, though I dabble in PS4, Switch, and PC. If you are interested in gaming and related topics, pop over to my new blog and give me a follow: I'll end up posting more if there people end up showing interest. My new Xbox Series X arrives tomorrow. It feels like the only positive in 2020's goat rodeo. (There I used the Word of the Day again!)

I always love playing video games that offer the player the ability to make their own decisions like the customization of their character’s appearance and skills. I especially love it when that choosability extends to romancing different characters. The best example I can think of right now is the video-game series called Mass Effect. I loved romancing Kaiden Alenko during the third game, and a fun fact is the face model for this character is an openly gay man. It’s a shame the player couldn’t romance him in the first game of trilogy if they played as a male Shepard. Rumors have been spreading that a remastered version of the trilogy is in the works. If that’s true, I hope they allow male Shepard to romance Kaiden at the very beginning because there is direct evidence that shows Kaiden and another character Ashley Williams could’ve been romanced regardless of Shepard’s gender. I’m really looking forward to playing Cyberpunk 2077 when it’s released on November. From what I watched and read, the game will allow players to romance characters of the same gender. You’re even allowed to choose who your character hookups with at the beginning of the game haha. I’m in desperate need for a video game that allows the player to have an in-depth, gay romance since other games that have this feature that I’ve played didn’t satisfy my romantic itch. Mass Effect as well as the Dragon Age series are great examples of romance done right, with other games like Fallout 4 and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey feeling like it was more of an afterthought than an integral part of the game. Do you know of any video-game romances that you remembered and loved, particularly in the LGBT department?

I have not played the original game but I like Double Fines games, (Brutal Legend comes to mind) and if you watch the xbox games event with this part, they show that the person singing the song in this video is Jack Black. This game looks like an acid trip, but very interesting.

Wow! This is coming to all systems in 2021.

I'm definitely liking the interaction between the characters. And I know Rocksteady has been doing great with games. (Batman Arkham series)

This trailer looks interesting. The gameplay looks pretty nice. They didn't tag platforms on this, which is a bit suspicious. They better not make it exclusive somewhere...

So one of Microsoft's oldest living franchise, Microsoft Flight Simulator, released a new version today. And can I just say... whoa. When I save I live in NY, people always assume this: But the city is small rancid pimple on the State of New York. Here's a shot, from 6600 feet up, about halfway between home and where I went to school. So much farm country. And that huge body of water on the top of the picture is Lake Ontario. The visuals in this game (at this distance) are crazy insane. They don't look as good when you try to zoom.. but for flight... it looks like you are looking out of plane window. It's included in Game Pass. Game Pass is $1 for 30 days to try out. Just saying.

During the big Xbox Games event today, Obsidian Entertainment announced the new Avowed. This game is set in the same world as Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2. It is looking like Obsidian's take on Bethesda's Elder Scrolls game. Since their take on the Fallout Games (both Fallout: New Vegas and Outer Worlds) were better than Bethesda's latest entries in Fallout, here's hoping they have a good go at beating them on Skyrim.

So Obsidian, one of the best RPG-centric game studios, released The Outer Worlds a few weeks ago. I've been meaning to make a post about it for awhile. I love the writing and quirky humor in the game. This is pretty much what this studio is known for. I'm enjoying the game when I get those few moments to disappear into it. And it's worth pointing out that if you have Xbox Game Pass Ultimate ($10 per month), this game is included on it for box Xbox and PC. New subscribers can sign up for a $1. talk about value! Anyway, well worth buying it too.

Grounded, the new game by RPG masters, Obsidian, is coming out soon. The demo is in trial flight on Xbox Insider. I played it a bit. It seems like a game that I'll end up dropping time into. There is a arachnophobia filter too. It prompts you when you first start. Anyone else looking forward to the game?