Grim Dawn starts off really easy but once you start moving a bit left on the map the difficulty ramps up quickly. My dual class Warlock used to destroy things but now he can get mauled in a second flat if I'm not paying attention. Fun game.

I been playing DCS World online and today some monster in a Viper shot four slammers at my poor, defenseless, ground pounding AV-8b in Syria.

I managed to dodge all of them and RTB.

What a punk.

Because...Syria.

Sounds like fun...

It is. I loaded up four JDAMs and returned to target while maintaining 60 ft AGL at 400+ knots until I popped up and wiped in one pass after that.

Come and get me human scum.

Just finished playing Myst in VR, was quite enjoyable.

Well, I assume I just finished it, the game hasn't explicitly told me I've done everything but there's nothing more to do and I met the end exposition guy who mentioned there may be more to do in the future. At this stage I assume he talks of game sequels, there seems to be nothing more I can find to do.

I've never played it before despite it being a really old gaming stalwart, and I found the puzzles entertaining, and satisfying once I slowly came to realisation

Only once did I really have to look online for a clue - turned out it was just a silly UI expectation thing. There is a difference between pulling a lever do perform some action, and pulling and holding a lever to do a slightly different action
apart from that it was just a matter of thinkythinkthink.

I'm still not quite sold on the VR thing yet. The cost is part of the reasoning of course but the larger aspect is dealing with some of the limitations while using a VR headset.

It's the feeling sick for me. I understand you can "train" yourself, but I just can't get to that point.

I bought what I thought was the highest rated/best set of VR over a year ago (very expensive). The view was "wide angle". The resolution was very high -- but not high enough for my eyes. And, they had mild "screen door" effect,

I think my eyes need wide view 8K VR glasses (these were only wide view 4K) -- with "screen door" designed out. So, I sent them back and got a refund.

Someday, someone will make a set I'll keep. But, I'm not anxious to get them soon.

Yeah I realise VR isn't for everybody, luckily I don't suffer from any kind of motion sickness, and my headset is a HP Reverb G2 and it has no noticable screendoor (for me, but my eyes are not what they used to be). Also, it's not every game that benefits from it. I should say that the game/genre that benefits the most from it (so far) is the driving/racing genre. If you have wheel & pedals then the sense of immersion is maximised and the nature of the scale of the game means it's just a perfect fit.

By that I mean that most piloting/cockpit based games suffer from all the outside scenery being always too far away to be really seen in 3D, essentially becoming a 3D cockpit simulator. When you have other cars, the track, and trackside objects within human-scale 3D though that's the best of it.

Of course Half-Life Alyx is the best VR experience period, but as a genre it's not really guaranteed to be a good experience. They just nailed it for that game.

Balsa Flight Simulator - If you hurry and apply you can get an early build for free on steam - A fun little game from the same people who make KSP

Ran a custom night time DCS mission a friend made.Take off from a carrier and fly to Syrian airfield to; knock out some SAMs, a captured predator drone, a HQ buildings and tangle with some scrambled MIG25s.
We used LGB and Mavericks with the litening pod to knock out the targets. Had to use the jammer on the F18 to buy some time to get the ordinance on the SAMs before they could fire.
Learning curve can be steep, but once you start getting the module down and can run missions it gets a whole lot more fun.

FWIW A Stupid Me: Got "Assassin's Creed Odyssey" up to 45hrs. Got to Level 20+ -- but, a tiny amount of Greece covered because I spent time experimenting. Battles were harder than I remembered. I could not seriously injure or kill strong foes in "face to face" fights -- unless I cheated. That did not happen on my first 300+ hours of play time.

Okay, restarted at level 4 using an old save -- prior to meeting the first strong foe face to face. Found the solution.

As usual: Stupid me . I had forgotten a keypress (Who reads instructions? ). Without that keypress, my blows were quick but weak. With the press, they're strong enough to beat a strong opponent. I'll stay with the restart rather than go back to a playthrough based on mega-cheating.

On the AORUS gaming monitor, graphics are the best of any game I own (4K virtually all settings Ultra) -- to my eyes, other eyes may vary. In particular, the human faces are realistically detailed and use excellent animation in conversations.

I've been playing Total War: Troy as one of the Trojan factions. If you have any interest in Greek mythology (especially the Iliad) and/or warfare during the Late Bronze Age I highly recommend the game.

Is there much social justice of political correctness commentary in Odyssey?

Ubi's other game "Immortals Fenyx Rising" which is also based on Greek mythology starts off really cute but later the commentary grows to be full of positive talk towards adultery and various social justice issues which became annoying and quickly a no play game for my daughter.

If its there, I don't notice it. The game stresses the entire ancient Greek world. The considerable politics revolve around the war between Sparta and Athens and the personalities of the times. The hero/heroine can develop romances with some other men or women -- or, no romances at all -- player's choice.

The politicians, people, animals look and act believably for that wartime period (remembering its fiction not a fully factual presentation). The vast majority of people look like Greeks. You come across a small number of individuals who are from other lands (as would be in real life). You cannot change the look or the name of the hero/heroine -- and there is a clever twist to that.

In addition, you are a Spartan Assassin acting independently; but, you can support anyone you choose in the war. You can try to "change history" -- its a factor in the plot.

There is a huge "behind the scenes" Greek faction which is the main enemy of everyone -- Spartan and Athenian (according to ancient historians, the "behind the scenes politics" has always been with us for at least 3500 years). The behind the scenes faction "underwrites" the killing, the crime, etc (all for the money, power, and personal-gratification it provides them).

And, you are introduced to the real Greek "gods" -- who control much of all human history -- including 2021. A type of "time travel" is central to the Assassin's Creed series. Fictional of course

Covers everything without pushing any 2021 sensibilities (at least, to my why of thinking).

Like you, I think games set in the distant past should mimic the distant past and not incorporate modern (2021) biases.

As I may have implied above, Odyssey is the best overall RPG I've ever played (to my sensibilities -- not everyone's).

I have started on Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865). Still early-access, release is scheduled for the end of this month, I believe.

I was apprehensive of the sheer scale of this game, fearing it would become a micromanagement nightmare. This does not appear to be the case: the economic/financial/political aspects can be automanaged for the most part. In fact after playing for a couple of days, I am suspecting that a lot of the economic detail is really just window dressing without much impact on the strategic campaign. But perhaps I am wrong about this...
That still leaves a lot of detail in the military operations. Supply lines and communications are essential. Expiration of volunteer contracts is a factor. Plenty of opportunities to build your armies according to historical OOBs. Or, if you want to save time, you can just auto-assign commanders (not sure if this takes into account seniority etc). I like it.

The UI has a beautiful period-feel to it, with authentic looking maps, newspaper headlines and even hand written (and unreadable) reports. Unfortunately it is also fidgety and things like positioning the map how you want it or drag-and-drop can become a frustrating exercise.

I haven't done many tactical battles (player can choose to autoresolve them). I would say that they are somewhere in between the very early Total War games (before it went 3D) and the Take Command series. Realistic-feeling movement speeds. Orders can be given at Divisional/Corps level so micromanagement is possible, but not necessary.

Several critics of this game are pointing to a brain-dead AI. I haven't spent enough time with the game yet to form an opinion on this. On paper this game has the right ingredients to make an excellent Civil War strategy game, so it would be a shame if it fell flat on the AI.

Based on my own gaming experience, it seems to be an incredibly difficult thing to make intelligent AI for either turn-based or real time strategy games. Even the highly praised Total War series has some considerable issues with the AI; primarily the fact that the AI gets obvious buffs/cheats that the human player doesn't get.

I'm not expecting the impossible, after all the AI is just a bunch of scripts put together by a programmer I don't mind the AI getting extra resources and such. All I am asking for is that it has some sense of self-preservation and that "difficulty level" does not mean endless waves of enemies.

I've had my eye on this game for close to three years now. The dev is the same one who made Seven Years War. There are many things about this that appeal to me, in particular the supply lines and logistics. Operational moves to cut and protect these lines is something I want in every game of the type, but hard to find.

I check in regularly to see how it is coming along. Comments are mixed of course, but it looks to have great promise. Whether he can get it there remains to be seen. I was equally interested in Seven Years War but I was never fully convinced so passed in the end.

Johan, we've had a couple threads about this game (Historical Strategy subforum), and if you are ever in the mood it would be great if you could post your thoughts and experience to give those of us interested a look in to it. No obligation of course, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

As for me, I've played nothing but Fallout 4 in the two or three weeks since I picked it up. Having a great time with it.

@DBond, sure, will check it out!