I played a bit more Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice ahead of the sequel in a few months. There are a few major components to the game’s core loop, and the one I’m not thrilled with is its hidden object puzzles, but the rest of it is working for me.

When I’ve got some podcasts to get through, Palworld has proven to be a great second screen game. There are some things I’d like to see them tweak about the progression, but they’re very small complaints thus far. Ultimately, this game is working for me in a way that Pokemon hasn’t in about 20 years.

I thought I would take a break from Pillars of Eternity after finishing the first game, because it did become quite exhausting late in the game, but after a discussion with some friends, I ended up excited to jump right into Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, and so far, it’s answering nearly all of my issues with the first game. For one, more quests can be resolved by being clever and avoiding combat, plus when the combat does happen, it’s far more readable. As a blessing from the gods themselves, the quest log also lets you know if a quest is too high level for you, so you know which content is intended for your current level without checking it out early and dying to an enemy mob in a few seconds.

Ahead of Combo Breaker, I’m also back on the Skullgirls grind. My Black Dahlia mix and setplay are weak, and I’m giving my opponents too many opportunities to take their turn back, so I need to tighten that up.