Almost 10 years ago, I stumbled on Cook, Serve, Delicious! on Steam, hooked up an Xbox controller to my PC, and quickly became hooked. At the time, there weren't many cooking games, and this one had a certain charm. It starts easy (squirt some condiments on a corn dog, pull a beverage) but quickly becomes complicated as chores pile up and dishes require extra prep or a selection of random ingredients (like nachos with grilled meat, jalapenos, and queso).

I did previously stream the first 30 of Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!! and interviewed creator David Galindo about Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!.

After months of playing co-op Let's Cook Together (which is the gold standard for us now), relearning this game - newly ported to consoles - proved tricky and the co-op mode was a non-starter. That said, the skills are slowly coming back to me and I am enjoying revisiting this amazing (albeit a little dated) cooking-themed action game:

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

I was an early adopter of Cyberpunk 2077 on the Xbox Series X, and actually enjoyed it for a while - though I didn't ever finish it. I recently picked up Phantom Liberty with the intention of going back to it.

Turns out, getting to the new DLC isn't very easy, nor does CD Projekt Red seem to understand the idea that some players may be returning after a long absence. The first thing I had to do was completely re-spec my character's perks and implants, which alone almost led me to quit. Then I had to wait for the call to go to the entrance to Dogtown. When I arrived, there were a large number of enemies who instantly took me down. I thought I was just going to a new district, no muss no fuss.

Next I started a new game and asked it to fast forward to Phantom Liberty. I created a new character quickly (nudity warning!) and got a recap of the main story from Johnny, which doesn't appear if you just play through the main game. I then grabbed a nearby motorcycle, drove to Dogtown - and got gunned down again.

Around that point, the game actually crashed so I cut the feed, reloaded my original character, and then took about an hour offline to reteach myself how to play and eliminate the very tough set of enemies guarding the area.

Here's the first part of my experience, which shows two different ways to get near the Phantom Liberty kickoff point as well as the re-spec process:

 

After beating down most of the baddies (again, it took AN HOUR), I reloaded only to run into a massive glitch. When you load a game, nearby straggler enemies are dormant (as you can only save when not in active combat) - but when I found the Songbird and started talking to her, they went ballistic. The first eight minutes are very funny as shots blast through and around us while she explains the DLC's premise. As soon as the game resumed to give me a new perk ability tree, I was toast.

I reloaded, took out the enemies, and then played through this interaction again as well as much of the intro to Phantom Liberty leading to the main title appearing:

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

A Little to the Left might fit the category of OCD simulator, tailor made for those of us who want everything in its right place but fall short in our daily lives (not unlike the appeal of PowerWash Simulator). That said, sometimes there is more than one possible solution.

This is one of my shorter streams as I didn't want to burn through too much of the content. I show the first few puzzles in Chapter 1 of the main set, take a run at the Daily Tidy (maybe you can see where I went wrong?!), and sample a Halloween-themed bat puzzle from the archive. You will see the first appearance of the cat, who occasionally tries to interfere with your progress (just like real life!):

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

I remember playing the original Tomb Raider on a Mac back in the day, but never finished it. Based on the buzz around Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, I decided to pick it up. The controls do take some getting used to - switching to modern controls made it easier to maneuver but then I needed to relearn how to use my guns.

I used the toggle feature to show the differences between the originals and the remaster, so if things get fuzzy that's not the game - that's me switching between the modes. The cutscenes are the same graphics but with higher resolution (so you'll see old-school jaggies vs the smooth modern look). Gameplay is where the remaster really shines as there are new models and better lighting. In the video, you'll see how to save and exit a game and access the additional titles in the collection:

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

I picked up Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Don't Dry as part of a collection on Xbox One, and thought I'd stream it as a sort of pre-game for Valentine's Day. It's your basic point-and-click adventure with some surprisingly lewd references for a console game. Like most games of this type, there's a lot of chatting with people and trial and error until you find the solution.

The really funny part is the quiz they give you if you say you're more than old enough to play - it took me several tries to pass the test:

 

Wet Dreams Dry Twice sounds like a spy-themed comedy but it's actually more of the same looney sexist comedy that permeates the Leisure Suit Larry series. In this one, Larry is preparing for nuptials on a tropical island and he's accompanied by an AI that greatly resembles Cortana from Halo. There's no opening quiz this time, but a lengthy optional recap of Wet Dreams Don't Dry for those who didn't finish it or don't recall the outcome. Also, some bad mariachi-style music including an ode to alpacas:

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

After playing Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion last year, I decided to try out the sequel, Turnip Boy Robs a Bank - which I like even better. I know, I'm surprised too!

The game dynamic is that you repeatedly rob the same mob-controlled bank, using the proceeds to buy tools and powerups and the knowledge gained during previous attempts to guide you to richer rewards. I found I grasped the dynamics much faster (for example, swapping between melee and projectile weapons better suited to different enemies).

This runthrough is a little on the short side but covers all of the core elements of gameplay pretty well. Also, it's fun:

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

Buying into the hype about Palworld (clearly a knockoff of Pokemon that takes things to a violent place Nintendo will likely never go) and finding it free to play in Xbox Game Pass, I decided to take the plunge. I almost immediately beat two Pals to death, built a PokeB--, I mean Pal Sphere, and immediately threw it at a corpse only to have it vanish. I then spent most of my time looking for more magic-infused fragments to try again only to starve to death because I couldn't find a way to equip the food in my inventory. I didn't get far enough to craft a weapon (I did make a few arrows - alas, no bow).

This reminds me enough of Ark that I'm tempted to skip it. But I may try again to see if I can get a weapon and start exploring the main story - if I can survive the tutorial, which I failed here on the easiest difficulty:

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

Let's Cook Together is like Overcooked! only simplified, which makes for a great couch co-op experience. To succeed you need to coordinate quickly with your cooking partner so that when you toss food for them to complete, they are ready and won't drop it. You see, the kitchen is segmented and only some ingredients and appliances are on each side. One person might julienne the potatoes and toss the raw frites to the other player to put in the fryer.

Timing is everything, and this is way more fun than we expected:

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

I interviewed some staff for Disco Elysium in 2019 at PAX West, and never imagined it would be released on consoles as it seemed more like a PC/Mac only sort of game. It actually plays really well on Xbox, and I'm already hooked on the unconventional storytelling mixed with RPG elements such as skill check rolls. You wake up not sure of your identity and have to piece together your identity while investigating a murder.

The voice acting alone is worth a look/listen:

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the Telltale adaptation of The Expanse, based on a TV series I never heard of (though probably should check out due to the frequent comparisons to Firefly). I do love a good Telltale game, but so far this one is leaving me a little cold.

It takes awhile to get started and the brief combat interaction is generously described as cursory, though the exploration at the end seemed promising. I did buy the Deluxe edition with all five chapters and a bonus episode, so I'll probably stick with it:

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

I've generally enjoyed Zen Studios' Pinball FX series over the past decade or so, though losing dozens of collected tables with the latest reboot left me ignoring the latest release. But I decided to download the standalone Pinball M as it leans into horror and mature content and includes a free table, the Lovecraftian Wrath of the Elder Gods, to get you started. After the brief tutorial, I demo'd the other tables: Chucky's Killer Pinball, Duke Nukem's Big Shot, The Thing, and Dead by Daylight (which lets you choose whether to play as killer or survivor!). I also explored some of the new modes - there are a lot of ways to play!

Overall, despite my sucky timing and lack of mad skillz, I had a lot of fun and might grab the full collection if it ever goes on sale:

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated, a remake of an earlier game from 2003, was an impulse buy - but so far it's pretty fun. Battle robots, smash tiki boxes, and collect items including health in the form of fresh underpants. There's a small arsenal of moves to learn, which are mostly covered in the tutorial here.

Check it out and see if a trip to Bikini Bottom might be in your future:

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

Another Artifex Mundi hidden object game, but The Myth Seekers 2: The Sunken City seems to be dumb but fun (and much better than the Santa mystery game from a few days ago). Stupid story, check. Overly dramatic acting, check. A mysterious amulet that possesses any who touch it, check, check, check! Find the recipe for... glue! Put out a chemical fire! Open a secret room by moving statues around.

The only thing missing so far is the Sunken City from the title, but I have no doubt it's coming - and I can't wait:

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

I've played A LOT of Artifex Mundi games, and Yuletide Legends: Who Framed Santa Claus might just be the stupidest - blending two of their favorite genres, the supernatural with a detective story. Alas, it's not a great mix. Usually the poor writing and acting is part of these hidden object games' charm, but on this one I'm not so sure. The puzzles are also not my favorite, but I'm still playing so there must be something there:

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

I generally like games where you play as a miniature in an oversized world (e.g., It Takes Two, Re-Volt). I wasn't sure what to expect from Tin Hearts, but it turns out to be Lemmings with wind-up tin soldiers. The tutorial doesn't really explain the core mechanic too well, so I spent quite awhile grasping for what to do next and even reset the first level until it clicked.

After that, I tore through a few more levels. Honestly, I do not love the idea of moving blocks around a hard-to-navigate 3D environment to guide the soldiers to the exit. I think I'd rather have a port of good ol' 2D Lemmings. But judge for yourself:

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Goat Simulator 3 (the sequel to the original, skipping over the expected numbering like some game console marketer). Turns out it's more of the same, but with a few new twists. There are little nods to other franchises such as The Elder Scrolls and Assassin's Creed, but it's mostly just jumping, causing destruction, and then collapsing like a ragdoll. Rinse, repeat, unlock stuff. Definitely my Goat of the Year:

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

Car Mechanic Simulator on console is the same as Car Mechanic Simulator 2018 on PC, and the tutorial is not great - as evidenced by the fact that I ended up almost fully taking apart a car before giving up. Maybe I missed a cue, but it was not clear from the prompts what I needed to do except drive a car at the end of the tutorial. It's actually pretty funny, and I get really far into dissecting a junker in this clip - so check it out:

 

After figuring out where I went wrong, I took another run at it. You can see the vehicle I completely dissembled as I bypassed it for the other, which only needed some oil. I accidentally removed a car door, but eventually managed to restore it and take it for a test drive, ending the tutorial. I'm pretty good at racing games but found the test track in this game a formidable opponent. I then tried doing some actual jobs only to find my skills lacking here as well - but I did manage to change an air filter, eventually:

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

I played Deep Rock Galactic a couple months back on solo, but my son (you may know him as xandillionaire_grindset - he's the one in blue) convinced me to give cooperative play a shot. While I still enjoy white-knuckling it through a mission (often with his guidance!), there's something to be said for being part of a team especially on the pipeline mission.

I jumped into an existing mission, which lasted a few minutes, and then we completed the pipeline in about 20 mins (it usually takes me about an hour):

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

We love PowerWash Simulator and after two free packs (Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy's Midgar) plus the paid SpongeBob SquarePants Pack, we of course indulged in the Back to the Future Pack as well.

It took me most of the time to clear Doc Brown's van, and then I started on the time-traveling Delorean only to run into a technical difficulty with my console before I was OUTATIME (and just after clearing that iconic license plate, hm).

From what I played, I can say this is another great pack with some funny dialogue - including the suggestion that your power wash suit might make a great costume for a scene in the movie (you know the one):

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

If you know me, you know I'm a sucker for an Artifex Mundi hidden object game. Recently I nabbed The Myth Seekers: The Legacy of Vulcan (or Vulkan, as some sloppy Xbox worker apparently renamed it in the store - check the official box art, description, and every other release of the game!).

I got very excited when one of the non-player characters said "We need an expert on Roman mythology who loves puzzles!" Is it me? It's definitely me, right? OK, well it's me playing as a character named Amelia, but I'll take it. Oh, and like most of these games, there's a cat very early on. I made it's my life work to get him some milk, which is why I went a little over 30 minutes.

Anyway, check it out - the puzzles are a little more involved than most of these games, and the story and dialogue are as dumb as ever - but that's just part of its charm:

 

For more like this, follow my Twitch channel and find archived streams in my YouTube channel.

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