This is where I track the games that I'm currently playing. I try to update it once per month if I've been playing something new (to me).
Show year: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, ALL
December 2016
Witcher 3
Witcher III: The Wild Hunt is an open-world, third-person role playing game with plenty of action and violent monster-hunting. You play the hero, Geralt of Rivia, on a quest to find his apprentice/ward Ciri who is being chased by The Wild Hunt, sort of a gang of ghosts. That's the shortest possible description of the game's expansive story, which is rich and multi-faceted to a fault. This game has long cut scenes and plenty of them, and that's ultimately the reason I quit playing before finishing the game. The story is just to tedious. But the gameplay is amazing, the world is large and beautiful, the graphics are top notch, and I still racked up 45 hours of enjoyable play. Killing people from horseback with your sword is one of the most satisfying game mechanics of all time.
Rocket League
As a general rule I don't care for sports games, and I really detest soccer. I would have never bought this game if I didn't have so many friends that play it. I finally got it on sale, and it has been a rewarding purchase. Rocket League is "vehicular soccer" where you control a rocket car and try to hit a giant ball into the opposing team's goal. It's a very well crafted e-sports game in that it takes a few minutes to learn the basics, and hundreds of hours to master the advanced techniques needed to compete with decent players. I've enjoyed playing this game with my friends, and with my 13 year old nephew who is a significantly better player than I am.
November 2016
Cities: Skylines
Cities: Skylines is probably the best city builder since Sim City 3000 which came out almost twenty years ago. It's everything that EA's 2013 reboot of Sim City should have been. It has the familiar zone types, an intuitive interface, and all the familiar elements of classic city builders. It also adds advanced road construction mechanics along with a traffic simulator that really adds to the entertainment value of the game. There are still some annoying micromanagement elements, and some pace-of-growth issues, but overall it's a solid title and will be added to my favorites list. The game also has myriad mods available for it, and can be turned into a pure sandbox with infinite money and building unlocks making for even more hours of fun.
October 2016
Space Run
Space Run is a tower defense and ship-building game with the goal of delivering cargo. The player must construct a ship with various shields and weapons capable of repelling the hazards and threats encountered during a "run." The player must build on the fly and manage the ship's assets in realtime during the mission. Credits earned from delivering cargo can be used to unlock new items and modules for the ship. Space Run is reminiscent of the board game "Galaxy Trucker" and so it had some automatic appeal for me. I got a solid 9 hours of play out of the game, but did not finish it. It's a pretty good take on the well-worn genre of tower defense.
Tropico 4
Every entry in the Tropico franchise has failed to hold any interest for me, and so I don't know why I thought 4 would be any different. I picked it up in a Humble Bundle for next to nothing, so I can't say I feel cheated, but I played well under one hour before hanging it up. It tries to be a resource management city builder with a cold war caricature of a plot, but it just doesn't do it well. The game has decent reviews, and there is a big base of fans of the franchise, so don't take my word for it. But it's just lacking something.