Today's game is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Decided to take things nice and easy today, so i kicked back with some friends and just played some Mario Kart. Me and one of my friends even started a little rivalry because we both suck ass compared to our friends who have earned a total of like 800 hours (i have a measly 40). As a consequence we're always in the back racing each other. . Here he is waving to the camera with me (being spun out by my banana).

I had so many damn close calls racing against him. We did the Tokyo map and he threw a Banana in front of me. I just barely beat him by slipping onto the finish line. I felt like that one scene in Cars where Lightning wins by literally his tongue.

There was another time on Excitebike where one of my friends with the large hours was beating all of us. I got a really lucky shell toss in and managed to pass him at the last second. I felt really accomplished and we had a little bit of fun banter.

There weren't many more screenshots i could capture, 1) because MK 8 moves so fast that i can't capture many good ones and 2) the clips i caught were compressed to hell and back so it was hard to get good looking screenshots out of them. It's 2025, i really wish we got an option for uncompressed clips on the Switch.

I will say, MK 8 having online multiplayer makes me really thankful. Being an adult now makes it nigh impossible sometimes to get the gang all together so having this way to play with everyone is nice. I'm hoping Mario Kart 64 gets an online multiplayer mod soon with the multiple decomps.

Today's game is some more of The Last of Us. I went through the Entirety of Day 1 for Abby today. I wasn't expecting it to put us in her shoes. As much as i'm still pissed about Joel, i do like getting the different play style and getting to play her as a character. You can tell there's a character arc being setup there. I loved going through the aquarium too. It's so pretty to walk through and see all the water and fish. You can tell the put a lot of work into making this look good. Especially with all the Transparent surfaces.

The sea lion was nice to see. They're adorably cute so anything with them deserves points from me.

Later on the game gave me a shotgun in a pottery store. It was like the game was speaking to me and asked me to Channel my inner Link and destroy all the pots. And those thoughts won, i did it. I ran out of shells midway through and used a Steel Pipe, but it was fun messing around with the physics engine like that.

Maybe it's because i'm not as high leveled, but Abby's combat feels far more difficult. I ran out of Ammo in the scenario above and had to resort to bottle stuns and stealth attacks. I did end up making it though, although i had to run away at the end.

The section where our weapons were ripped away was fun too. Maybe this sounds weird but i always enjoy being stripped of strength in a game. The section looks good too. A lot of darkness with just torch light. This kind of old fashioned vibe is a good mixup from the usual "Here's a city with a ton of trees".

Today's game is Super Mario Galaxy. I played that one fever dream of a level with the rolling ball and did it first try, which is a new record for me. Usually i accidentally roll off the cliff edge on accident at least once.

I have very specific memories of this level growing up because of the ball Mario is on. I had a rubber bouncy ball that looked the exact same growing up, so i always associate that ball with this level and vice versa. A bit of an odd way of remembering this level, but definitely an interesting one.

Speaking of levels i struggle with, there's Space Junk too. I think this one has the trash minigame but also i always struggled with the vanishing platforms segment because i always forget where they are. It feels like the game sometimes changes the distance.

Somehow though, i did this one first try too. Look at me, i'm actually getting good at this game. It's a Christmas miracle. Younger me would be so proud.

Speaking of younger me, one thing i'd always do when young is just hang out in the comet observatory. It's so chill here and the music makes it almost soothing. Nintendo really knocked it out of the park with this game's presentation. I laid there and just listened to the music before eventually deciding to get off. Definitely a good way to wind down for the day.

Today's game is some more of The Last of Us Part II. I made it all the way out to the Sea today. All i have to say is 1) It's really gorgeous looking 2) wtf ND. You made the ocean actually scary. It threw me into this tiny ass boat and ramped it all the sudden up too a violent storm. Legit terrifying with how small it made me feel. Usually i don't have a fear of the water, but damn, this was well done.

Surprisingly when i was thrown out i wasn't as scared. Maybe it was because i was close to the coastline, but i honestly was far less intimidated by it. Still though, it was really well done and you can tell the knew what they were doing.

Walking through Seattle honestly looked really good in general, from the violent flood waters too the empty streets. It's one thing ND never really falters on i feel like.

Despite playing the majority of the chapter i stopped inside the aquarium because my controller bugged out. I'm going to play some more right after i post this because i feel like i'm close to the end. Who knows though? If i get some more screenshots i might post them on my pixelfed (or to my profile on Lemmy if that's an option)

Today's game is some more of The Last of Us Part II. I made it to day 3 in Seattle and apparently we're going down to the Sea. I'm excited because i'm a big ocean fan (even if i can't swim), so i'm eager to see ND's vision of the ocean.

This sewers section specifically scared the shit out of me, because there's a hidden little room i can head into for some loot. But there's a clicker merged into the wall here that the game makes you think is dormant, but when you get close... Surprise! Anyways, that sudden jumpscare scared the shit out of me.

It didn't get much better after that (in a good way). I had my first run in with the Seraphites and they're scary as fuck. You're telling me they can use bows against me? Then i have too pull the arrows out of my arm. It's scary shit. I love it, really takes what was a power weapon in the first game and turns it against you.

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Making my way forward, i ran into a WLF again, and there was a soldier there playing on a PS Vita. Ellie ends up slashing her throat, but she drops it on the ground and there's a game playing. I got curious if it was a real game and i found some stuff online saying it was Hotline Miami, which i think is a cool detail. I love seeing real world stuff in games like this. It gives it extra detail i really feel like.

Besides that one character in the cutscene, i decided to sneak through the entire building without killing anyone. I was only after the one character so no one else needed to die. Anyways, it took me a bit to do, but i pulled it off.

There was one WLF soldier just staring up at the sky for some reason. I got so preoccupied laughing i nearly got seen by a dog. I dove under a truck to escape though and got really lucky no one decided to check.

Finally, i got to Nora. I was expecting the game to give us the control to bludgeon her with the metal pipe, but it was a detail i like to really put you in Ellie's shoes. Anyways, after that i made it too Day 3 and stopped for the day. Making it through 1 chapter seems like enough for today.

Today's game is No Man's Sky. With the new corvette update i had to play it. Games with fully functional ship building functions are what i live for and i'm happy to have it here. The game lets me get up while flying and walk around and even open the back door. I ended up opening it up and just watching the view.

Here's a view from another perspective to give you a better idea of what i'm looking at. This game does a really good job of giving you beautiful views.

I had a friend join me on my new ship (we're forming a crew) and we decided to appoint a first mate. It was a hard vote, but the Ominous Floating lightning cube i put in the corner won. May he serve the ship well (and not shock me).

I ended up giving each of my crewmembers a room to decorate as they please (or have me decorate for them since they can't edit it themselves). All this space to work with is nice, especially while flying. I can just stop or turn on autopilot now and help my friends who join me.

We flew to a new planet too break it in, and found this gorgeous planet too land on. Little did we know though that the planet had some wild weather effect, such as gravity inverting randomly and lightning storms, along with some wacky ass bubbles that come out of the ground. Nonetheless, we've decided to settle here with how pretty and (relatively) calm it is.

Today’s game is some more Super Mario Galaxy. I wanted to take a break from The Last of Us Part 2 , partly because I’m sick once again and I didn’t want to go through it so fast, so I went ahead and continue with this. I did my favorite level in this game, which is the Manta ray surfing one above. I have fond memories of surfing in this level as a child, never could get the hang of turning the Wiimote though. And god, I know I praise this game’s water, but it looks so good here. I want to swim in it.

I also went and did the flip switch level. Before I left the level I decided to look around and just see the skybox because I’ve never done that before. It was neat getting a perspective I don’t usually.

And of course, I went and battled this pain in the ass. I always struggle to time the ground pounds with him but managed to finally get it in pretty good time for me. The more tolerable controls made it easier.

I ended off tonight in the candy Galaxy and got the star there. I always struggled with this one’s moving parts but with the controller controls it was far more tolerable now.

Today's game is a Demo from a game called Dead as Disco. I saw a clip from it online and it looked really interesting. Unfortunately there's only a free Demo online, but it still looked really good so i gave it a try.

It controls kind of like the Arkham games meet a rhythm game, which while i personally struggle with rhythm games, this one in particular i had fun with. It's really satisfying to match the beat and pummel enemies.

One complaint i have is that i sometimes feel like my inputs aren't registered. Granted, Steam on linux for me has a bug where it will randomly open the web window and reset. Sometimes this isn't rendered though, so it may not be the game's fault.

Overall, there's not much to say about this game but it is fun. There's one level in development and there's an infinite Disco. The story seems kind of like a "getting the band back together" story about Charlie Disco (the player character) who came back to life. The story kind of gives me Max Payne 1 vibes too. Infinite Disco lets you import your own songs too, but i couldnt get it to sync right. It's a free demo so i'd highly advise picking it up. It's a lot of fun!

Today's game is some more of The Last of Us Part 2. I took a bit away from gaming today, because i've finally reached the point i'm writing my own Bash scripts for this. The Last of Us Part 2 outputs in too large of a size. I originally was just uploading them to Pixelfed one by one. I also had to rewrite the script a bit too because originally it was going to output too JPEG XL. Turns out though, nothing supports it. So i went with regular JPEG instead.

This diner in particular scared the fuck out of me because i went to sneak up to the window to get in and as i went to break it a Clicker lunged into view and saw me. I legit had to scramble Ellie back both in shock and in order to keep her alive. I feel like this game is a lot more prevalent with the jumpscares, because i didn't ever really feel scared by it. Unsettled? Yeah. But there wasn't any notable moments that made me jump out of my seat. Meanwhile this game has quite a few more jumpscares.

I went into this apartment building too while looting it and saw these plants still growing. I kind of wonder if they could realistically grow like that? Nearby these plants was a workbench too, which when i interacted with it, i got jumped by a group of 5 people. It was surprising and scared me yet again. I honestly had trouble taking them out though and had to scramble for my Shotgun.

After dispatching them i came to this dumpster which is the best damn dumpster i've seen in gaming yet. Like, damn, Naughty Dog knows how to make a damn good dumpster. Anyways, i stopped here due to some plans for the evening with friends. I half picked The Last of Us though to test my script. I'm really proud of it, even if version 1 was defeated by nothing supporting JPEG XL.

If i had more time i would have found a way to work a 404 joke into today, but i couldn't come up with anything good that wouldn't just be me suddenly switching gears to another game. Anyways, so it's some more of The Last of Us Part 2. The main screenshot for today i actually only picked because damn, does it look really good. It's a really out of the way area that i almost walked right past.

The Museum section was creepy as fuck. The wolf jumpscare actually got me too. With the fact that game just made me fight a bunch of dogs, i was half expecting it to make me fight some wolves too with how they showed up (easy way to reuse AI and i could see some good metaphors for the Wolves).

The literal writing on the walls was creepy as fuck too. I was half expecting to get jumped by some guy in here, i'm glad it turned out he was dead though. It was a bit sad though, poor guy seemed to genuinely regret what he had done.

And you damn well know i put a hat on all the dinos i could find. Even everyone's favorite. It was fun going around putting it on them and running around.

I stopped at the car chase. I don't know if it's just me but it felt like Naughty Dog's Uncharted was showing. This felt ripped straight out of the games, specifically 4. I was honestly surprised i made it all the way through without dying because i've been neglecting to upgrade the pistol and my controller was bugging out for some reason. I did it though.

Today's game is some more The Last of Us Part 2. To avoid the mistake i made last time i'm going to just be prefixing it with a spoiler tag due to how story heavy the game is, along with affixing the game's title to the end (just for The Last of Us Part 2 so people know what game is being spoiled).

I finally got a chance to pick it up again today. These last few weeks have been hard due to my classes starting up. Luckily i planned them in a way that's pretty light on me, but adjusting has been hard. I worked my way into the subway section today, which was a nice change of pace from the usual city scapes i've been looking at a lot.

During this section and the section right before (pictured above), the game did an amazing job of making me feel really fucking tense in a way the first game had not. Like, there were these guys all over the building really fucked up in gruesome ways, then you find out it's not who you thought it was that did it, and suddenly i felt really fucking nervous because i'm in a big ass space and kept having to slip in and outside too. So i could get jumped from damn near anywhere and not realize.

The Subway does the same thing well too, because it introduced the new Zombie type (the shambler), and fuck, they're scary. I felt like the first one with the bloater played it's hand a bit too quick and hinted at it too early. This one? It throws a Crispy Deep Fried Corpse at you, tells you that a bloater didn't do it, and then leaves you navigating tight tunnels where you easily could get pinned in. Then, once you finally get a glimpse of one, the game goes "Yoink" and drops you right down near 2 of them.

They're not too hard to kill, but fuck, being thrown down in front of them was scary. Then they blow up so i had to panic even after i thought i was safe. It was a really good way of introducing them and it had me tense. I'm still nervous to see who mangled the corpses in the section before though.

I have a hunch that it's whoever this lady is judging by how everywhere she is, and how much that logo is matching up, but we'll see.

Today's game is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Usually i'd emulate it, but i got a chance to play it again on Native hardware and got to join friends for multiplayer tonight. I'd never gotten to do Multiplayer to be honest, the most i got was playing on a single system with siblings and that was my experience. Getting to actually play online felt vastly different (or maybe it was nintendo's shitty netcode).

We originally did 1v1 matches, but for our last match of the night we did a 4 person free for all. One of our friends picked DK, which, we have a in joke that if there's one thing we can all agree on, it's: Fuck that ape. It originates from getting our asses kicked on Mario Party 2 by him. Ever since then he's been public enemy #1. We all ended up teaming up to defeat DK (In good humor of course).

After the great enemy was defeated, we attempted to sue for momentary peace. The pink two got the left half of the map, and Sephiroth got the right half of the map. The peace didn't last long though after Kirby invaded the right half of the map. I fought hard, but lost to the other two. They quickly turned on eachother and Kirby won.

Before our free for all though, we also did quite a few 1v1 matches as i mentioned before. One of them was the two pink guys against eachother. Kirby got his ass handed too him but somehow won. There was a brief moment where they cuddled up and napped together.

Once Kirby woke up though the bloodshed resumed.

I also went against the member of our friend group who plays a lot of this game. I'm far more casual when i play, but damn, i wiped the floor with him as Sephiroth. The contrast between the two matches was almost comedic. Kirby Vs. Jigglypuff almost seemed like a light tussle, and then Bowser and Sephiroth were over here fighting like the fate of the universe was in the balance.

After these few matched (along with a few others i didn't capture screenshots from) we ended up stopping for the night. It was nice being able to play with friends like that and honestly it's the first day in a bit that i've been able to just relax. Hopefully i'll get to do it again because that multiplayer was fun.