I didn't pick up anything from the sale this time around, but looks like you've got some good gems, Demon. My game time is going to be invested in Path of Exile for the next while haha
Easy Delivery Co. is the one I mentioned before. You're an anthropomorphic cat who works as a delivery driver along the snow mountain roads. It's somehow both cozy and slightly terrifying.
Up next are both of the Railway Empire games, and from what I can gather, it really is just Railroad Tycoon 2 or 3 with better graphics, and I already really like both of those games. If it satisfies the ability for me to build trains, I will take it.
Additionally, I ended up buying Transport Fever 2, which is basically OpenTTD but with modern graphics and now I own both games.
I also bought the first two Super Woden games because I really loved the Rally spin-off in spite of its short length.
With a friend's birthday being on next week, I also did some gift buying.
The only problem is that I haven't regularly participated in Standard for what feels like forever, so even if both of these end up being good cards, it doesn't help me that much.
Oh wow, it seems rare for game companies to actually give people a heads-up that their mods will break when an update comes out. Normally, they just have to fend for themselves and hope for the best.
I looked up the emails to see how "fair" the criticism is. All those negative comments are absolutely warranted. That's no accident, or artistic interpretation. That's some fascist employee trying to see what he can get away with, and no one except the German translator did a darn thing about it.
Yep, we've all been busy at work and want to trust our colleagues, but sheesh, GOG, the call is coming from inside the house. Clean up!
Wool stairs! I'm not the biggest fan of building with wool, but that's super duper cool to see.
Straw Beds = no respawn reset though is massive. There are way too many times when playing with multiple people that I've had reservations about dropping a bed to sleep when far away because I know I'm just going to end up forgetting to reset my respawn when I get back home haha.
That took... a long time to say lol. Also, come on. To say people shouldn't have been so fast to call them fascists is insane. It's the internet, you've been a company making games for a very long time. You know how people react on the internet. You know people crave that negative loop on even the smallest of details.
The loss of the NES and SNES controllers kinda blows, but moving away from the OG Switch is a very good move. There's no reason to be putting out a highly inferior product, even if it is cheaper for people to get into. The Switch and Switch 2 naming convention hasn't been as confusing as the Wii and Wii U, or the 3DS and 3DS XL (which had the extra computing power that was used in what, two games? lol) as far as specs go, but it would be a damn shame if we saw another holiday season where people were buying "Switch" for someone who was expecting a Switch 2, especially now that we see very few games getting Switch 1 releases.
I've been swapping back and forth between the main game and the demo lol: the demo has more characters unlocked, so I can test them out before I purchase one in the main game. Not everyone I wanted to try is available, unfortunately, and the base story is stingy with character cards, so I risked it all on Zeta: the dragoon spear-wielding lady who attacks with aerial combos. Usually I'm a shieldmaiden - pulling aggro, protecting the team, and laughing off damage as the tank - but I wanted to play a DPS and she seemed the most fun lol.
Two really great friends of mine gifted me some Steam games for my birthday.
It's this sort of truck delivery management game on snowy mountains, coupled with PS1-style graphics. The atmosphere in the game is really great.
I also got gifted Dredge, and the two Railway Empire games.
And I fully completed EA Sports WRC, so that's 112GB of free space on my computer now available. In due time, I'll probably put that 100GB back into another super-large game on my PC like Dirt Rally 2.0 or Red Dead Redemption 2. I definitely need to get a new computer.
One of the friends in question also has her birthday in just a week and a half away, and I've already bought the gift games for the occasion. It's great when you have a friend with a birthday close to yours to take advantage of Steam sales.
I love when there are content updates just around the corner when you get into a new-to-you game, especially free ones. Getting to experience new stuff right away with everyone else makes it interesting from that community side of things. It's great to hear it's been going good - I saw you on Steam playing it a decent chunk haha
I dislike the fact I will have to choose whether I want to play POE or POE2 which isn't a decision I thought I'd have to make because I was certain POE was the answer... at least for the league launch, who doesn't love a new league?
I'm of this opinion that this is total bullshit, and we should all be upset about it. I buy a lot of digital games - Steam is what it is, and the majority of my time is on the platform - but that doesn't mean I automatically want my games to be digital. I still buy PlayStation discs and Switch carts, I still want my products to be physical, even if Steam is super convenient. If Steam had a physical route, I would use it; to remove this option entirely because Sony thinks it's what the customer wants is absolute garbage. The industry has been chipping away at the physical medium for years - a lot of games literally have no physical edition - and they point at that and go "see? People prefer digital!" No, you pricks, we just didn't have a say in the matter. Putting digital download codes inside the physical cases was a total insult, but now they're putting a bullet between the eyes of the case itself, and blaming the customers for their actions. It's disgusting.
And don't get me started on "product licenses": going fully digital means they can take your games away from you at literally any point they want, and since you only bought a license, there'll be nothing you can do about it. Steam may come crashing down one day, ripped apart because "boo monopolies", and that'll be a fucking tragic end to my library.
If Sony doesn't reverse course, then I'm done being a PlayStation fangirl. I've owned every console of theirs except a PS4 (because of monetary reasons), but I won't be buying the next one.
After flitting about between games trying to nail down something that'll spark interest and accumulate some miles, I found Granblue Fantasy: Relink. Someone recommended it because I enjoy Monster Hunter, I played the demo, and now I'm hooked.
It does play like Monster Hunter a bit, but instead of individual weapon loadouts you have unique characters who themselves have different abilities and attacks. I'm still learning the game, playing through the story, so I haven't yet found the right character for me: "Vane" sounds the most appealing, being similar to the Lance from MH Wilds (slow DPS but sticks to the boss like glue, very tanky, and can shield allies and draw aggro). However, I hear his DPS is quite lacking, so outside of his defensive abilities he's not contributing to the fight as much as you'd want: better to find someone who can aid the team and kill the boss in a timely manner.
In the early game/story you only have one or two character tickets to utilize, so picking the "right" character from the 25 or so that exist is quite important. I can eventually acquire them all, but if I don't want to slog through with the starting team (or worse, a recruited character I don't like), I have to choose correctly.
An expansion for the game drops in four days, too, so that's exciting. As far as I can tell it's a free add-on, which is a very nice bonus for someone who just started playing.
No me thinking it said "June Jenesaisquoi" (like "je ne sais quoi", but one word).
Anyway, I started a new play through of Breath of the Wild. I dropped the game back in 2023 because it didn't click with me, and I'm happy to report it's going a lot better now.
I also started getting back into VR, mainly short sessions of Syth Riders and Pistol Whip.
Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve is an incredible drive (digitally, I haven't physically haha) and one of my favourite F1 races of the year. The entire track is just filled with such great corners and the top speed on straights makes for coming out of those corners correctly so vital.
I am still solidly shite at the hairpin, but wall of champions does not have my name on it yet because I am not ballsy enough to be 1cm away from it lol. I'm hoping to go to the grand prix in the next couple of years, especially now that its a bit earlier in the year so there is less chance of the heat being dreadful.
Good mention about Celeste! Another fantastic indie hit from Canada.
Fun fact: The online servers for Ridge Racer 7, a PS3 launch title, are still online to this day, and you can still find people that are still playing it with not much difficulty.
Sony has always done a really good job of maintaining the relevancy of their older consoles. Case and point, the PS2 was discontinued in January 2013... less than a year before the PS4 was launched.
The PS3 is one of the strongest consoles of all time (not necessarily in power, but in terms of culture), so it's not that surprising to see that it's still up. This does truly mark the end of something meaningful, and it's impressive that it lasted as long as it did.
What Are You Playing? - Junoesque July 2026
I didn't pick up anything from the sale this time around, but looks like you've got some good gems, Demon. My game time is going to be invested in Path of Exile for the next while haha
What Are You Playing? - Junoesque July 2026
What did you all buy from the Steam sale?
Easy Delivery Co. is the one I mentioned before. You're an anthropomorphic cat who works as a delivery driver along the snow mountain roads. It's somehow both cozy and slightly terrifying.
Up next are both of the Railway Empire games, and from what I can gather, it really is just Railroad Tycoon 2 or 3 with better graphics, and I already really like both of those games. If it satisfies the ability for me to build trains, I will take it.
Additionally, I ended up buying Transport Fever 2, which is basically OpenTTD but with modern graphics and now I own both games.
I also bought the first two Super Woden games because I really loved the Rally spin-off in spite of its short length.
With a friend's birthday being on next week, I also did some gift buying.
How Were Your Violet Hold Pack Openings?
In my first 10 packs or so, I opened a Karov the Broken and a Zuramat's Prison. In back-to-back packs too!
The only problem is that I haven't regularly participated in Standard for what feels like forever, so even if both of these end up being good cards, it doesn't help me that much.
Palworld Warns Players to Fully Remove Old Mods Before 1.0 Launches Tomorrow
Oh wow, it seems rare for game companies to actually give people a heads-up that their mods will break when an update comes out. Normally, they just have to fend for themselves and hope for the best.
GoG Apologizes for the Nazi Symbol Incident
I looked up the emails to see how "fair" the criticism is. All those negative comments are absolutely warranted. That's no accident, or artistic interpretation. That's some fascist employee trying to see what he can get away with, and no one except the German translator did a darn thing about it.
Yep, we've all been busy at work and want to trust our colleagues, but sheesh, GOG, the call is coming from inside the house. Clean up!
Minecraft Version 26.40.30 Preview Out - New Dappled Forest Biome, Straw Beds, and More!
Wool stairs! I'm not the biggest fan of building with wool, but that's super duper cool to see.
Straw Beds = no respawn reset though is massive. There are way too many times when playing with multiple people that I've had reservations about dropping a bed to sleep when far away because I know I'm just going to end up forgetting to reset my respawn when I get back home haha.
Really solid set of updates!
GoG Apologizes for the Nazi Symbol Incident
That took... a long time to say lol. Also, come on. To say people shouldn't have been so fast to call them fascists is insane. It's the internet, you've been a company making games for a very long time. You know how people react on the internet. You know people crave that negative loop on even the smallest of details.
Minecraft Version 26.40.30 Preview Out - New Dappled Forest Biome, Straw Beds, and More!
Okay, the cushion thing is huge.
Nintendo to Discontinue the Original Switch in the EU Starting in 2027
You know, I should have worded that better haha
Nintendo to Discontinue the Original Switch in the EU Starting in 2027
Well, good news: We're getting one more of these! Since the console is getting discontinued in February.
Nintendo to Discontinue the Original Switch in the EU Starting in 2027
The loss of the NES and SNES controllers kinda blows, but moving away from the OG Switch is a very good move. There's no reason to be putting out a highly inferior product, even if it is cheaper for people to get into. The Switch and Switch 2 naming convention hasn't been as confusing as the Wii and Wii U, or the 3DS and 3DS XL (which had the extra computing power that was used in what, two games? lol) as far as specs go, but it would be a damn shame if we saw another holiday season where people were buying "Switch" for someone who was expecting a Switch 2, especially now that we see very few games getting Switch 1 releases.
What Are You Playing? - Junoesque July 2026
I've been swapping back and forth between the main game and the demo lol: the demo has more characters unlocked, so I can test them out before I purchase one in the main game. Not everyone I wanted to try is available, unfortunately, and the base story is stingy with character cards, so I risked it all on Zeta: the dragoon spear-wielding lady who attacks with aerial combos. Usually I'm a shieldmaiden - pulling aggro, protecting the team, and laughing off damage as the tank - but I wanted to play a DPS and she seemed the most fun lol.
What Are You Playing? - Junoesque July 2026
Two really great friends of mine gifted me some Steam games for my birthday.
It's this sort of truck delivery management game on snowy mountains, coupled with PS1-style graphics. The atmosphere in the game is really great.
I also got gifted Dredge, and the two Railway Empire games.
And I fully completed EA Sports WRC, so that's 112GB of free space on my computer now available. In due time, I'll probably put that 100GB back into another super-large game on my PC like Dirt Rally 2.0 or Red Dead Redemption 2. I definitely need to get a new computer.
One of the friends in question also has her birthday in just a week and a half away, and I've already bought the gift games for the occasion. It's great when you have a friend with a birthday close to yours to take advantage of Steam sales.
Path of Exile Reveals Two New Transfigured Skills for Curse of the Allflame
Yo, this gem is gonna make a killer build
Xbox Announces "Most Significant Restructure" in Its History, Cutting Around 3,200 Roles
Well, the good news is that games aren't getting cancelled. Also that studios are keeping their IPs, that's really good!
Though it's unfortunate so many people are losing their jobs, but it's not-one's fault we've gotten here. /s
Xbox Announces "Most Significant Restructure" in Its History, Cutting Around 3,200 Roles
Wait until they make an even bigger change... cutting 3,201 people.
What Are You Playing? - Junoesque July 2026
I love when there are content updates just around the corner when you get into a new-to-you game, especially free ones. Getting to experience new stuff right away with everyone else makes it interesting from that community side of things. It's great to hear it's been going good - I saw you on Steam playing it a decent chunk haha
Path of Exile: Curse of the Allflame Launches July 24, With Full Reveal at GGG Live on July 16
I dislike the fact I will have to choose whether I want to play POE or POE2 which isn't a decision I thought I'd have to make because I was certain POE was the answer... at least for the league launch, who doesn't love a new league?
Playstation to Discontinue the Production of discs Starting in 2028
I'm of this opinion that this is total bullshit, and we should all be upset about it. I buy a lot of digital games - Steam is what it is, and the majority of my time is on the platform - but that doesn't mean I automatically want my games to be digital. I still buy PlayStation discs and Switch carts, I still want my products to be physical, even if Steam is super convenient. If Steam had a physical route, I would use it; to remove this option entirely because Sony thinks it's what the customer wants is absolute garbage. The industry has been chipping away at the physical medium for years - a lot of games literally have no physical edition - and they point at that and go "see? People prefer digital!" No, you pricks, we just didn't have a say in the matter. Putting digital download codes inside the physical cases was a total insult, but now they're putting a bullet between the eyes of the case itself, and blaming the customers for their actions. It's disgusting.
And don't get me started on "product licenses": going fully digital means they can take your games away from you at literally any point they want, and since you only bought a license, there'll be nothing you can do about it. Steam may come crashing down one day, ripped apart because "boo monopolies", and that'll be a fucking tragic end to my library.
If Sony doesn't reverse course, then I'm done being a PlayStation fangirl. I've owned every console of theirs except a PS4 (because of monetary reasons), but I won't be buying the next one.
What Are You Playing? - Junoesque July 2026
After flitting about between games trying to nail down something that'll spark interest and accumulate some miles, I found Granblue Fantasy: Relink. Someone recommended it because I enjoy Monster Hunter, I played the demo, and now I'm hooked.
It does play like Monster Hunter a bit, but instead of individual weapon loadouts you have unique characters who themselves have different abilities and attacks. I'm still learning the game, playing through the story, so I haven't yet found the right character for me: "Vane" sounds the most appealing, being similar to the Lance from MH Wilds (slow DPS but sticks to the boss like glue, very tanky, and can shield allies and draw aggro). However, I hear his DPS is quite lacking, so outside of his defensive abilities he's not contributing to the fight as much as you'd want: better to find someone who can aid the team and kill the boss in a timely manner.
In the early game/story you only have one or two character tickets to utilize, so picking the "right" character from the 25 or so that exist is quite important. I can eventually acquire them all, but if I don't want to slog through with the starting team (or worse, a recruited character I don't like), I have to choose correctly.
An expansion for the game drops in four days, too, so that's exciting. As far as I can tell it's a free add-on, which is a very nice bonus for someone who just started playing.
What Are You Playing? - Junoesque July 2026
No me thinking it said "June Jenesaisquoi" (like "je ne sais quoi", but one word).
Anyway, I started a new play through of Breath of the Wild. I dropped the game back in 2023 because it didn't click with me, and I'm happy to report it's going a lot better now.
I also started getting back into VR, mainly short sessions of Syth Riders and Pistol Whip.
Made in Canada: Games You Didn't Know Were Canadian
Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve is an incredible drive (digitally, I haven't physically haha) and one of my favourite F1 races of the year. The entire track is just filled with such great corners and the top speed on straights makes for coming out of those corners correctly so vital.
I am still solidly shite at the hairpin, but wall of champions does not have my name on it yet because I am not ballsy enough to be 1cm away from it lol. I'm hoping to go to the grand prix in the next couple of years, especially now that its a bit earlier in the year so there is less chance of the heat being dreadful.
Good mention about Celeste! Another fantastic indie hit from Canada.
Made in Canada: Games You Didn't Know Were Canadian
Honorable mention to Celeste. It's made by a Canadian developer, and its location, Mount Celeste, is a real Canadian mountain.
I realize this is a cop-out answer, but driving at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in an F1 game or Gran Turismo 7 is really fun too.
Playstation Store Will No Longer Be Available on PS3 and Vita Starting This Year
Fun fact: The online servers for Ridge Racer 7, a PS3 launch title, are still online to this day, and you can still find people that are still playing it with not much difficulty.
Sony has always done a really good job of maintaining the relevancy of their older consoles. Case and point, the PS2 was discontinued in January 2013... less than a year before the PS4 was launched.
The PS3 is one of the strongest consoles of all time (not necessarily in power, but in terms of culture), so it's not that surprising to see that it's still up. This does truly mark the end of something meaningful, and it's impressive that it lasted as long as it did.
Playstation to Discontinue the Production of discs Starting in 2028
Damn.
We all knew this was going to happen eventually, but there's no date that I was expecting it to come at, so it still hits like a brick.