So, what are you playing?

The creator of John Wick is adapting two other video games into animated TV shows. Ubisoft developer explains how the CEO's kid—who may or may not have even existed—got the whole collect-a-thon put into the first Assassin's Creed. And Inverse acts like it's going to talk about The Mandalorian, but instead dives into the D&D origins of the good ol' side quest. 

So, what are you playing?

Russell Archey
On the review side of things I've been testing my architectual skills with Poly Bridge 2 in preparation of my upcoming review (and yes, "architectual" is now a word). When it comes to programming I've always seen myself as more of a developer as opposed to a designer; I enjoy coding programs and coming up with what I'd like for the program to do, but as for what it looks like? Yeah, not my forte. That being said, it's interesting to come up with different bridge designs to get cars from point A to point B. I've learned early on that bridge design is definitely not in my future, but the game itself is still enjoyable and relaxing.

As for non-review games, I've been working through Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution for a recent YouTube project and I'm getting close to the end of the original Yu-Gi-Oh series. While I'm enjoying the game so far, it does have it's frustrating moments.  I'm challenging myself to use the Story Decks as opposed to building my own, which is sometimes like grabbing one of the older preconstructed starter decks and taking it to a tournament at your local game store. You might win, or you might get completely overrun with no chances of coming back. Trust me, the heart of the cards isn't always with you, but typically is for your opponent.

Zach Atwood
After watching a few streams of the new Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath DLC, I remembered how much I enjoyed the way the newer Mortal Kombat games tell a story. It's got me redownloading Mortal Kombat X to get refreshed with the story this weekend, and then I'll most likely move on to Mortal Kombat 11 from there. Unfortunately, I also forgot how bad I am at fighting games, so I'll certainly be button-mashing my way through most fights this weekend as my ego refuses to reduce the difficulty below medium.

With the recent sale on the Epic Games Store, I finally caved and bought Satisfactory. After the fastest five-hour gaming session of my life, I'm hopelessly hooked, so I'm sure I'll be diving back into that this weekend to continue building the most egregiously disorganized production line on the planet. The newly released Minecraft Dungeons (or McDungeons, as I call it) is also at the top of my long list of games. I knocked out the main missions this week and am looking forward to grinding through adventure mode a bit to see where the game takes me.

Eric Hauter
I have no idea why I've slept on the Watch Dogs franchise for as long as I have, but my recent purchase of Watch Dogs 2 has me rethinking my policy of ignoring these fine games. I am now officially deeply excited for the upcoming third game, as I've had more fun with the second one than any other game in recent times. Watch Dogs 2 has allowed me to jump online with my two far-flung adult sons for some shared rampaging, and we've been having a blast running around San Francisco hacking each other and causing mayhem. 

After my recent snit-fit involving how much of a pain in the rear it was to download, install, and patch The Elder Scrolls Online, I've settled down long enough to run a Templar up to level 10 (this is not a big time commitment). I wanted to get my feet wet and familiarize myself with the flow of the game before its arrival as a Free with Pro title on Stadia next month. It turns out that I've bounced off The Elder Scrolls Online so many times because I hate the starting area for Dark Elves. This time, I rolled a High Elf, and have found the opening quest line much more tolerable. Who knew?

Randy Kalista
In Fallout: New Vegas, Nuka-Cola, which comes in a rocket-shaped bottle, is largely replaced with Sunset Sarsaparilla. And there are more cowboy hats than space helmets to be found in the desert. But the Fallout universe still exists on the brink of the US vs. USSR Space Race. A science-fantasy era where human spaceflight was just within reach, and alien blaster pistols still looked like a Marvin the Martian toy line. I was bummed by Wednesday's SpaceX Dragon failure to launch—due to weather (Thanks, Florida). Considering the bad news coming out of, well, just about everywhere, I wanted something, anything, to help me rise above. For now, however, not launching humans into a potential catastrophe will suffice as good news. In New Vegas, John and I are really learning how to play the Caravan card game. Its rules are complicated and poorly explained. I've absolutely hated on it and hated its inclusion in a game that I never gave a fair shake to. But we each just got our "Caravan Master" Steam Achievement for winning 30 games. Now I've always got time for a round of Caravan, not even worried about chasing down the man who shot me.

John Yan
Randy's playthrough of Fallout: New Vegas has gotten me back into the game. We both have become Caravan Masters and I'm going to try and see if there are some quests I haven't done in my many playthroughs to try out. I've installed a bunch of mods to change up my experience for this one.

I'm also deep diving with my VR headset in American Truck Simulator. I haven't used my driving setup as much as I would've liked, and now, I think, is a good time to do some cruising around the West Coast hauling cargo.