Games catch-up

Well, I've certainly been giving Board Game Arena a workout, and I don't see that changing any time soon... but man cannot live by online board games alone!  So, what other amusements have I found recently?

I just finished my month's-worth of XBox Games Pass, for starters.  Gave several games a go, each of which fell in the category of "looks/sounds like fun, but not nearly enough so to make me buy them at/near launch."  Each of them fell comfortably in that "yeah, this is fine, but not something I'm willing to pay more to keep playing" zone, and nothing upcoming for that service jumped out at me as needing played, so that does for that.  Bit of a shame, really... Journey to the Savage Planet is one I expected to like more than I did, and then there's Nier: Automata.  Mechanically (har!) it's an OK game, but asking anybody to play through a game three times to get the whole story is a pretty big ask, especially in this Internet age... yes, I found videos online rather than keep playing through that game.  The only game in this batch that made me say "maybe later" was when I played some Phantasy Star Online 2... and the "maybe later" there was "maybe when it's on PC, so I don't have to pay for an XBox Gold membership to play."

So, that out of the way, next is diving into my XBox One backlog.  I've skipped all the Assassin's Creed games for now, being neither in the mood for "shadowy organizations facing off through the ages" nor the "genetic memory" shtick they keep using to tie those games to the modern day.  As such, I've gotten back in to Borderlands 2 for a bit of shootery fun... finished the main storyline with my main character, and I'm starting into the "Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep" DLC.  D&D with guns, what's not to like?

Outside of all that, I did get sucked into one other oddity.  Bargain Basement Bathysphere is a free print-and-play solo game, with a bit of a legacy twist (which is a little odd, considering "you died before making it back to the surface" is a likely end to any one game).  The introductory levels ate through my afternoon yesterday.  Still, ol' Snuffbox (that's what I named my bathysphere, at the prompting of the game) is ready to make another descent into the deeps, and I now have an "aquaseum" to hold the fish and squid samples I collect from here on out... I'm looking forward to what else I discover here (without reading ahead, naturally)!