Weekly Update 2026-03-08
Cruise control
A lot has happened while I was taking the week off, so there’s plenty of updates to look at in this double feature.
Game Releases and Updates
Blade and Sorcery Sentara update – ultraviolence simulator gets another load of free content, this time centering around the shopkeeper’s pirate-themed home culture. In addition to new maps, new enemy types, a new armor set, and obviously some new weapons, there have been improvements to the buoyancy simulations to make NPCs more realistically drown. Fantastic. I haven’t gotten far enough with my current character to unlock the magic flintlock teased in the news posts, but I have been having fun with the magic breath potions.
Void War Destroyer and Techno-Crypts – a robotic commander and a new type of facility to invade. Again, my current run hasn’t stumbled across any techno-crypts, but they also ironically wouldn’t have much luck looting one, as they’re a bunch of filthy death cultists puking poison clouds everywhere.
Tokyo Xtreme Racer update – one of my biggest problems with this game was how repetitive the battle music got. Well, now you can change the tracks around however you like, even putting boss music in as the default battle song, and they added original versions of the new tracks too. You can even use the custom collab songs from the recent DLCs, which is nice. On top of this, they added replays, a few new cars, and most importantly, the ability to buy and drive a work truck.
Tin Can VR update – this tiny survive-room simulator tasks you with holding out in an escape pod as you’re bombarded by radiation, meteors, and mechanical failures, now in VR. VR really elevates this game a lot – flinching and turning to face the sound of impact, fumbling with parts, dropping shit and losing it, all even more immersive than before.
I still wish there was a little more going on, like the ability to start a run with a few parts in storage as a little meta progression unlock, but I’ll at least see how long I can last with the most nerve-wracking sound effects since Sonic drowning music.
Esoteric Ebb release – one of my picks from Next Fest is already out, and already a contender for RPG of the year.
Tainted Grail rebalance patch – for some reason, in addition to some fleshing out of the third act, this patch includes a bunch of nerfs to mid-late game equipment, mostly hitting crit chance and mana shield builds. I don’t usually agree with nerfing builds in a single-player game, but on the other hand, I wasn’t doing a crit-chance build anyway so I don’t care much.
Banquet for Fools release – this followup to Serpent in the Staglands has finally left Early Access, and from the demo I played a few weeks ago, it might be worth checking out… if I wasn’t already juggling too much, maybe I would.
Devil Spire Falls NPC update – with a host of new options for ordering your hapless subjugated peasants and battered bandits around, teaching them skills, and even changing their role, this sandbox RPG is one step closer to… becoming a cozy farm builder? Aww, shit.
Approaching Infinity new ships, mine layer, and DLC – the last DLC’s ship-builder allowed players to begin games with highly customized vessels, and thanks to a little contest hosted by the developer, two submitted builds have now been officially added to the base game, as fully unlockable starter options. These ships even fill roles that weren’t well supported by the default roster, or were added by other recent updates [specifically the bounty hunter ship] and make use of new equipment. The game also now has an optional meta-progression feature, with a few permanent boosts available for selection at character creation and unlocked by pursuing similar goals and quest lines as the ship and profession unlocks. Neat.
Next week will see the release of another DLC, this time adding optional run-wide conditional challenges, including massive questlines and a ‘no sector revisits’ mode. But I might be most excited for this enhancement, hidden in the patch notes:
There is now a “sniffing” sound when the smell of a planet is revealed.
The State of Games Played
Besides a lot of demos, I mostly split my time between Diablo II and Nioh 3. In D2 I’ve respec’d my Warlock into Echoing Strike – the definitive ‘broken’ build, and also a decent amount of fun. The new Terror Zone changes are also mostly fun, but I have yet to get even a single Sunder charm drop, and based on the numbers I’ve seen thrown around, I might not ever. Good thing there’s not a lot of physical immunes.
I also started a solo Paladin through normal, twinked up with gear to ease the progression of turning him into a Hammerdin to make it through Hell and a Smiter to kill ubers. Boy, I hope Warlock torches exist already.
Nioh 3’s final[?] act has been dragging on for a while now, and I’m about to push on into what I assume is the very endgame, abandoning the extra collectables and sidequests so I can see what NG+ offers. I have to say, I’m not too impressed by the fact that one of the few new bosses is an Ulcerated Tree Spirit from Elden Ring. On the plus side, I did enjoy the hand-cranked Gatling guns that you can commandeer.
With my proper VR headset back in my possession, I could finally try out the new Thief game, commit horrific acts of violence in any of the many combat simulators I have, fly planes or spaceships all I want… but what I actually did first was put some jigsaws together in Puzzling Places. Ahh~
I’ve spent a couple hours in Esoteric Ebb, chuckling at quite a few conversations, unlocking my first companion, and eating out of the trash. I might pursue the actual main quest, just as soon as I’m done grilling this gnome I found about the philosophy of Alignment shifts.
And finally, I have warmed up considerably to the new map in Battlefield 6, which just… has something to it that’s missing from most of the rest of the game, and I can’t put my finger on it yet. Maybe it’s the gas clouds that give you some amount of cover from snipers and campers, maybe it’s the elevation and back entrances to points, maybe the trenches and bunkers just remind me of prior games. Whatever it is, it doesn’t translate to the rest of the game, at least not yet.
Writing
I was both very busy and very burnt out last week, so I didn’t actually write anything – I barely managed to write this post. But I should be back in top form this week, hopefully coinciding with some game completions and finally making use of my backlog of notes.
Other
I’ve got to assemble my new desk today. Wish me luck. At least the weather is nice.
I was strongly tempted by Banquet of Fools and instead spent three hours modding Morrowind to have it crash repeatedly and then gave up.
Blade And Sorcery, H3 and VTOL-VR are the only games I miss from having a headset. Great stuff.