Weekly Update 2026-02-08
Love is in the air
Game Releases and Updates
Gunlocked 2 Fleet Update – this roguelite shmup finally has multiple ships to pick from… you’d think this would have been an earlier priority, but, hey. I haven’t tried them out, I probably won’t touch the game again at all until full release, but I thought this was worth mentioning since it’s the most glaring single omission yet resolved in its Early Access.
Helldivers 2 tank – speaking of things that should’ve been prioritized earlier… they added a tank to Helldivers. Fucking finally. Well, it’s really more of a tank destroyer but it’s still pretty sick. The driver and gunner seats are separate, meaning to use it effectively absolutely requires a minimum of two players, but the other two players also get cute little hatches they can pop out of to provide small arms fire. It’s janky, it gets stuck on rocks and curbs and rendered completely helpless, it’s overpowered on paper but is also really easy to run over each other with, and most of all, it’s fun.
It’s the best possible implementation of such a vehicle in a game like Helldivers, and the thing stumping me now is why and how it’s taken THIS long to get into the game. Did it really take over a year for them to bugfix this? I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised, these developers were literally forcing everyone to download multiple copies of every file in the installation because they claimed it was mildly faster for people running the game off old ass HDDs. Who the fuck is playing this off an HDD? But anyway, we should have like 3x as many vehicles like this already.
Nioh 3 release – and speaking of devs finally pulling their heads out of their asses, Team Ninja has gone back to the well and given fans, and by fans I mean me, what I want, and that’s another Nioh game.
The State of Games Played
Nioh 3 only came out a few days ago, but I’ve been playing mostly that since its release. And a little bit before, since the demo progress carried over. My impression has changed little from the demo – it’s still incredibly over-stuffed, hasn’t mended the inventory management at all, and bombards you with tutorial popups and loot prompts. But it also feels quite a bit easier than the first two Nioh games, and while it’s tempting to say that it’s a balancing problem, or that I’ve just gotten so good at these games after playing the first two a lot, I think it’s a combination of factors that make it seem even easier than it actually is.
I’ve technically completed the first ‘zone,’ and happily it has revealed that the game isn’t… really an open-world in the style of Elden Ring – the regions are more like a midway point between a scaled-up Nioh map and full-blown collectathon overworld, with side trips into dedicated mission zones unlocked occasionally. The dual form juggling and shakeup of how ninjutsu and magic work is growing on me, and the boss fights I’ve done, including some challenging optional ones, have all been pretty good, with none of the weird gimmick shit that cropped up a lot in the first two.
I also got a bit further in Thief Gold, pushing my way through what is probably my least favorite of the ‘bonus’ maps and into one of my favorites of the original game. Good thing even the bad maps have some pretty funny conversations.
When I decided I wanted to check out the tank destroyer in Helldivers, I popped in for the first time in a few months and realized I didn’t have enough money to even unlock it. A bit frustrating, but it only took two missions to earn the unlock, and those were actually pretty fun - I’ve not been paying close attention to the game’s patches for a while, so I don’t know if there’s been a lot of balancing I missed, but it felt like there was a lot more interesting variety in enemies that you don’t need a bunker buster to kill.
Played some more Terraria, clearing the Dungeon and beginning to prep Hell for the Wall of Flesh fight. I’m not sure I’ve really encountered anything that’s totally unique to this newest patch, but the game seems like it’s tuned a little better than I remember, and not having to look around for where I put things to start crafting is the biggest quality of life change imaginable.
And, finally, I finished my 100% collection clear of Zexion, along the way discovering that there’s a whole secret post-game challenge area, complete with unique bosses, and holy shit is it hard. But I beat it, and you should too. Now I’m torn on which optional trial I should focus on – a classic speedrun, rolling for a good start on a randomizer, or doing a low-collection clear? Actually, why don’t I do this?
Writing
I’m very happy to have beaten Super Woden and written it up so quickly, but I wish there was… more Super Woden to play. I suppose I could do the arcade mode, but I might just move on to art of rally instead.
I’ve got a small, sweet article idea for the upcoming holiday, so hopefully I have the time to finish it this week.
I’ve been inspired to scrape together some materials for a second essay on speedrunning, but I realized I need to set it aside for the time being and probably get back to finishing some other things I’d already begun writing on.
Other
There are two more weeks until the next… Next Fest, and I’ll be trying to finish up a few games and even some old demos I’ve had sitting on my drive in preparation for it. I already know a few games that are going to have updated demos, but as usual, I’m going to be focusing on totally new things for at least the first few days.
But I’m also going to be doing some real-world projects in the interval, so we’ll see. The weather has been miserable for the past few weeks, and I haven’t gotten much chance to go out at all – I’m hoping that changes soon and I can get some fresh air more frequently.