Soooo....
You may notice that I haven't updated this page since 2021. Rest assured I've been gaming. Quite a bit, actually. I just lost interest in keeping the page up on a monthly basis. I'm adding this note as of April 2026.
So what have I been playing since? Well, just to make a short "including but not limited to" list....I've put over 4100 hours into New World Aeternum. My PUBG hours hit 4500. I've put hundreds more hours into Satisfactory, purchasing it on Steam (in addition to the original on EPIC) so that I could get all the achievements again. Valheim, Enshrouded, Conan Exiles were also played through with friends again. More recently I've played ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6, both of which are solid. Oh, and DooM: The Dark Ages of course!!
I've also enjoyed hundreds of hours in DUNE: Awakenings, online with friends, as well as Helldivers 2. I dabbled a little in Path of Exile 2, but didn't really get into it. And one more game that must be mentioned, because it was absurdly fun, was Schedule I -- where you live out all your drug dealing empire fantasies.
My number one favorite of the last five years has to be New World. Sadly this MMO by Amazon Studios is being shut down in Jan of 2027. It was a no-subscription (buy once) three-class MMO with tons of great dungeons and an amazing character respec system that didn't pigeon hole your character into one role, you could move between healer and dps or tank in the middle of a dungeon if you felt so inclined. I consider it a masterpiece of the genre, and I don't regret a single one of those thousands of hours I put into it. I also met some new friends through the game, a few of whom I've met IRL which has been great.
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.