Pulling a Title off the Pile of Shame

 I've been spending my gaming time this past week between a couple of different pursuits--namely the excellent roguelike Hades and the game-within-a-game CrossCode.  I've also been keeping my eye on gaming news and have seen some eye catching tidbits.  One of my favorite silly management sims, Two Point Hospital, is getting another DLC!  The "Culture Shock" DLC offers up three new hospitals with a sort of artistic theme and boasts of more new illnesses than previous DLC's.  I will definitely be scooping it up!  I've also been excitedly watching any and all news from CyberPunk 2077--it's getting close, so exciting!

If you were someone who played Hades during early access and then walked away (something that I did), I would highly recommend returning to the full release.  The story has been fleshed out and now there is more to encourage your repeat trips through the underworld.  I generally get bored with roguelikes within a few hours but I have been going strong with Hades.  SuperGiant has brilliantly placed small chunks of the story and characters at the beginning and end of each effort to escape.  There's something there for different types of gamers--for those who simply want the challenge of fighting out of the underworld there are modifiers to increasingly make those escape attempts even more challenging.  For the players who are more interested in the more story based aspects of the game there is "God Mode."  God Mode makes Zagreus stronger with each death which allows players who might struggle with the combat related parts of the game to enjoy getting to see the story without the frustration of repeatedly dying over and over.

I've been playing on normal mode and I've noticed some changes--one that I've been enjoying is that fountains are more likely to appear during escape attempts (once you're purchased the upgrade, of course).  I rarely got fountains during early access.  They've also added in even more fun cosmetic items to spice up the House of Hades!  Give it a play, you won't regret it!

Even thought I'm having fun with Hades, I will generally play 1-2 escape attempts per session before I'm ready for a break.  I decided it was time to revisit a game that I had put a bit of time into several years ago and had then shelved.  CrossCode is a sort of action/adventure/pixel game that is set in the world of an MMO.  One of the fun parts of the game is all the MMO related references and jokes--it has a serious story, but the world is filled with characters and elements that will make anyone who has spent time playing MMO's chuckle.  I'm looking forward to trying to finish it and checking a title off the list of the pile of shame.