Category: Whatcha Playing

Whatcha Playing, Geekly? August 2025

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Happy Wednesday, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. Since it’s Wednesday, we have another post from our Whatcha series. Today’s topic is games, both video games and board games. We’ll hear from Season and Skye soon, but I’ll kick things off this post with the games I’ve been playing over the past month.

Kyra’s Board Games

Bruno Cathala’s Kingdomino takes the simple mechanism of laying dominoes beside a starting castle (domino piece) and allows players to build their own scoring tableau. Each domino has two sides. Each side will belong to a terrain type, and players attempt to connect like terrain types, chaining as many crowns (which will be printed on some dominoes and determine how much each terrain scores) as they can to their largest collection of each terrain type. Kingdomino has restrictions on how far out from a player’s starting castle they can build, and this is where the game gets tricky.

I don’t know how many times I’ve ended up with dead corners (corners that I can’t legally add another domino), but it’s satisfying every time I can put down my full complement of dominoes. Kingdomino is a quick game. The 15-30 minutes printed on the box is accurate. I love Kingdomino’s selection system. Each player has two royal meeples. One will claim the current round’s domino, but the domino you select in the current round will affect when you can select a tile in the next round. Each tile’s backing has a number. Typically, the more valuable tiles have higher numbers, and if you pick a higher value tile, you’ll pick later in the following round. Brilliant!

While many board games grant an advantage to seasoned players, Uwe Rosenberg’s Spring Meadow almost requires players to have a similar experience. The person who taught me and a couple of other noobs how to play Spring Meadow skunked us. Spring Meadow has an intriguing mechanism of players choosing a polyomino from a communal display and then placing the polyomino on their player board filled with holes. You’re trying to fill each row or column (depending on your board’s orientation), scoring points for each filled row or column with some added bonus points.

There are tricks involved, a dash of luck, and not all of the polyominoes are created equal. But you won’t know the best plays during your first playthrough, and if you’re playing against a seasoned Spring Meadow player, they will easily beat you. Despite my utter failure of a first play, I enjoyed Spring Meadow. I’ve since rematched the person who taught me how to play, and I managed to eek out a victory during our third, two-player play. Spring Meadow is fantastic as a two-player game against players who know how best to place their polyominoes.

I’d include Lotus in the group of games where it’s best played when all players involved have similar experience. The same person who taught me Spring Meadow also taught me Lotus, and the result was similar. I have yet to replay them at Lotus, but I plan on it.

Players compete to complete flowers. Seriously, the image above is what most Lotus cards look like. Lotus is a stunning game. It’s quick to teach, but knowing when to add pedals or use an ability makes all the difference. Usually, new players will misuse their abilities, unlock the wrong ones first, or add too many pedals to make a flower easy to complete and leaving themselves open for another player to take advantage of an opening. Lotus is the definition of a game that’s easy to learn but difficult to master. It doesn’t have a lot of moving parts, but the parts that are there are chef’s kiss.

Kyra’s Video Games

I gave Bleach: Brave Souls a try this past month. Notice how I didn’t say I played Bleach: Brave Souls. Bleach: Brave Souls offers an autobattle function. I did more watching Bleach: Brave Souls play itself than playing the game. To be fair, Bleach: Brave Souls is a ten-year-old gacha game. During boss battles, players borrow the featured character from a random player (chosen from the tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of players). Typically, I’d borrow a character from a player who had maxed out their character five or six years ago. Most boss battles had a cutscene. I would skip the cutscene, and the borrowed character will have already beaten the boss. Did I really play Bleach: Brave Souls?

Bleach: Brave Souls was a nice trip down memory lane. I wish the game had tightened the story a little bit. Each scene from the manga received its own level, so there are hundreds, if not thousands, of story levels. I gave up on Bleach: Brave Souls after a few days, but I could see the game being fun years ago, when it first released. I like the chibi character designs.

Those are the game highlights for me this past month. Let’s see what Season and Skye have been playing.

Skye’s Board Games

The fabulous Kyra Kyle has done it again. While Dorf Romantik was not a game they created, they were the ones who introduced me to it. Props to them, because I thoroughly enjoyed it! Dorf Romantik takes concepts from games like Catan and Carcassonne, but manages to be a special kind of fun. With the help of your fellow players, y’all gotta build the best town you can. It’s Sim City without financial stress. What can I say?

The Night Cage is a game that’s right up my alley. As a big fan of cooperative games, horror, and eldritch themes, The Night Cage is perfect for a dark game night with your friends. In a Lovecraftian setting, you find yourselves in a place of eternal darkness. You’re trapped in the Night Cage, and you must escape. The corridors shift and change direction. You only have a candle, and monsters hunt you at every turn. Good luck.

Skye’s Video Games

Lately I’ve been into casual phone games. Tap Gallery is a simple game about tapping arrow blocks to reveal a hidden image underneath. That’s pretty much it. While not the most complex, what appeals to me about Tap Gallery is its premise. It’s satisfying to watch every block slowly disappear from the screen. Sometimes that’s all you need in a game, and Tap Gallery has me hooked.

Cryptogram, while still a casual phone game, requires its players to use their brains. As you can likely tell from the title, Cryptogram is all about decoding a hidden message by following the clues given to you. Cryptogram helps stretch your brain while not being too difficult. Many of Cryptogram’s hidden messages are famous quotes from historical figures. Wait, you can solve puzzles and learn history? Sign me up!

Season’s Video Games

I’m kicking things off with a classic platformer. Psychonauts was released back in 2005 and is one of the more unique platformers I’ve played. Each level takes place inside people’s minds, so the player learns about each character by playing through their level. The level itself represents the character’s cognition of the world, but there are collectibles called “memory vaults” within each level. These memory vaults allow the player to sneak a peek into each character’s past through pictorial storytelling.

Players also spend a fair amount of time roaming the campgrounds in the overworld. I spent several minutes chatting with my fellow campers, collecting arrowheads to upgrade my gear and scavenger hunt items. Most objects/creatures in Psychonauts allow players to interact with them in some form, so there’s never a shortage of things to discover. I used clairvoyance on everything. Everything.

Fallout 4 has been out for ten years, but this is my first time playing it. Dead serious. I’ve never been crazy about open-world RPGs. In the past, I’d try them for twenty minutes before wanting to play something else. I tried playing Fallout: New Vegas on Steam many years ago, and it crashed every few minutes. I got frustrated and gave up on it. That said, I’ve enjoyed Fallout 4 so far. I like to stop tracking quests periodically so I can explore the world. I’m a digital hoarder, so picking up everything and being over-encumbered is my way of life.

I have one question for you, Geekly Gang. Why do radscorpions burrow under toilets?

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here again. That’s all our writers have for what they’ve been playing this past month. Feel free to share what you’ve been playing, Geekly Gang. Thank you for reading, wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Whatcha Playing, Geekly: July 2025

Published on by Kyra1 Comment

Happy Wednesday, Geekly Gang! The Geekly writers have another month of video games and board games to discuss, but we’d like to hear about the games you’ve been playing, too. Whatcha been playing, Geekly Gang?

Kyra’s Games

Kyra’s Video Games

I haven’t played many new video games this past month, but I have gotten into a decade-old mobile game, Clicker Heroes. Yes, this is a hella old mobile game, but it’s new to me. The monsters remind me of the monsters from My Singing Monsters. I’m guessing that’s on purpose. Oh! I may have to redownload My Singing Monsters. Clicker Heroes is a standard idle game. The idea of the game playing itself while you’re gone isn’t new (it’s at least a ten-year-old concept at this point), but Clicker Heroes does a good job of executing the gameplay. I wonder if I can level up my heroes enough to break the game.

Just because I haven’t played many “new” video games doesn’t mean that haven’t been replaying games. Terra Nil and Dorfromantik have dominated my video game hours this past month. I’m writing reviews for both of these cozy games. These reviews should be posted in September. That let’s you in on how far into the future these reviews are. Terra Nil is an anti-city builder (you’re trying to reclaim the earth for wildlife), while Dorfromantik is tile tile-laying video game, where you’re building a pastoral landscape. Both are chill games. I love playing them for the vibes.

Kyra’s Board Games

My gaming group has played even more Flip 7 over the past several weeks. Flip 7 is one of those games we play as a warm-up or as a quick change of pace game. Essentially, Flip 7 is a large group game of Black Jack with specialty cards. The game’s easy to pick up, scales really well, and is a great way to bring in people who aren’t already board game enthusiasts. My Monday gaming group meets at the public library, so we get a lot of random people who walk up to the table. Flip 7 works as an introductory game. It combines just enough new elements with a classic card game.

Prior to joining my gaming group, I hadn’t played many Set Enterprises card games. But we’ve been playing Quiddler, which is a quick and fun word-building game, and Karma, where players try to empty their hands, but they have three cards face-down that they don’t know what they are until they’re played. I’m a bigger fan of Quiddler than Karma, but I appreciate what Karma’s trying to do. The face-down cards cause enough chaos that they even the playing field of a standard card-shedding game. Still, there’s a little too much luck involved (for my tastes) with the Set Enterprises card games I’ve played. But I do really like Quiddler. It’s short enough that I don’t mind the heightened aspect of luck.

I could talk about a handful of other board games, but I’m certain Season and Skye may mention them in their write-ups. I won’t swoop in with any of their entries. Speaking of which, let’s see which games Season and Skye have played over the last month.

Skye’s Games

Skye’s Board Games

I’ve heard good things about Cretaceous Rails for a while–mainly from Kyra and Season–but I haven’t played it until now. I had fun. Cretaceous Rails is a simple board game about creating a dinosaur tourist resort by time-traveling to the past. While I didn’t do so well my first time, I rarely do, I still enjoyed Cretaceous Rails enough to want to play again. Cretaceous Rails is one of those games that has several interesting elements that can only be properly explored across multiple playthroughs. I intend to “git gud.” Also, it’s trains and dinosaurs. Together at last! What’s not to love?

Skye’s Video Games

Over the past month, I’ve migrated back to mobile games. Meow Tower is one of the phone games I’ve discovered. In Meow Tower, you’re a human making an apartment building for cats. That’s pretty much it. You get to know each of the cats individually; you design each of their rooms to their liking. You progress through Meow Tower by solving puzzles, specifically Nonogram puzzles. If you’re unfamiliar, Nonograms are spatial puzzles that force you to uncover hidden images given the available clues. If you like brainteasers and cute cats, Meow Tower is a great leisure game.

Last Stronghold is another phone game. I know, I lost a good amount of gamer-cred this past month. Last Stronghold is a basic zombie survival game. What appeals to me about Last Stronghold is its focus on building up your base, exploring the world around you, saving other survivors, and shooting zombies in the face. I just described every zombie game in existence. Dang it. My favorite thing about Last Stronghold is its art style. Call me petty, but that’s pretty much it. With it being an offline phone game, Last Stronghold also has a significant element of leisure to it, which allows you to go at your own pace. Last Stronghold is by far the most benign zombie apocalypse I’ve ever seen.

Season’s Games

season’s board games

Wingspan is technically a board game, but I’ve played the Steam variant. I’m still counting it since I have physical copies of Wyrmspan and Finspan. It’s like the same thing. The interface on Wingspan is easy to follow. Players can tab between different zones, and the game will remind them in which order to take actions. It’s definitely easier to learn how to play Wingspan through the Steam version since there’s a tutorial. My only nitpick with this version is that players must remember which birds are holding eggs whenever they need to spend eggs. Players can click on the zone where said bird is, but there isn’t a separate interface.

season’s video games

I completely forgot a Persona 5 gacha game was getting released on June 26th. I got an ad for it on YouTube the other day and was like, “Oh. Yeah. I forgot that was a thing.” I’ve gotten a decent way through the story so far, and it’s definitely made me nostalgic for the original Persona 5. The combat hasn’t changed, except that it can be sped up, and they’ve included auto-battles. Some other minor differences include synergy between characters instead of confidants, and, as far as I know, there isn’t a finite amount of time to complete the story.

Persona 5 The Phantom X has players progress the story similarly to the original Persona 5. You must complete the first Palace and learn mechanics. Story-wise, it’s better than other gacha games. I wouldn’t expect anything less from a Persona game, even if it’s a free-to-play gacha game. I’m also digging the character designs. Unlike most gacha games, there are an even number of men and women characters, and they’re adequately dressed. I’m not a fan of boobs in my face. Just saying.

Side note: I pulled for Joker and got him on my first ten pulls. I’m a huge Joker simp lol.

Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here again. Those are all the games our writers have played over the past month. Feel free to share the games you’re playing. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Whatcha Playing, Geekly? June 2025

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Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. We have a new month and a new Wednesday, so it’s time for Whatcha Playing. The Geekly writers and I will share the games (video games and tabletop games) we’ve been playing over the past month. Feel free to share which games you’ve been playing, because we’re all part of the Geekly Gang.

Kyra’s Games

As always, I won’t include any of the gacha games I typically play. If I ever stop playing Wuthering Waves or Honkai: Star Rail, I’ll let you know. I also don’t include prototypes of tabletop games I’m developing, like Rustbucket Riots, Whirligig Pets, No Jack, Weeds, or Spill the Beans. Of course, I played those. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s get to the games.

Board Games

I finally got Sky Team to the table, and it’s excellent. This two-player only game features a fast back-and-forth between one player as the pilot and the other as the co-pilot while they attempt to land a plane. Technically, players aren’t supposed to speak during rounds, but I allow minimal communication. Sky Team is a cooperative game, after all. Players simultaneously roll dice and then place them in their designated spaces, blue for the pilot and orange for the co-pilot. Both roles have specific duties.

Naturally, I chose Skye to be part of my first play of Sky Team. You can’t have a Sky Team without Skye. We played the tutorial and narrowly lost. Skye immediately wanted to play again, and we were able to land the plane on our second try. Sky Team includes numerous scenarios, and I can’t wait to try more.

I’ve played many Button Shy Games over the last month, and the above three games are standout titles. Elizabeth Hargrave’s Tussie Mussie has a great push pull of which flower do I want to show my opponent and which to keep secret. Your opponent will choose between the two flowers: known and unknown. Jason Glover’s Stew takes a similar concept of having partial knowledge of what’s in the Stew because you know which cards you’ve played and not the ones your opponents played. If you think there are enough points in the stew, you call stew and count up points; players gain points if they guess correctly, but their opponents gain points if they guess incorrectly. And Ted Heidersdorf’s Super Slopes is a crazy game of branching slaloms down snow-capped mountains.

I’m hooked on Button Shy Games. This company packs a lot of game into a small package, a wallet to be exact. I mentioned Button Shy Games in our Stocking Stuffer Games list in December. These games are great options for that, but for $12 apiece, Button Shy Games are good any month of the year. I love their portability. I can pack twenty to thirty of these in less space than one standard board game.

Technically, I haven’t played much Cretaceous Rails over the last month; I demoed the game for countless gaming groups. Dinosaurs and trains together at last! Really? I’m surprised the combination of dinosaurs and trains hasn’t happened before Cretaceous Rails. Anyway, I’ve played plenty of this game in the past. It’s over-the-top in its production value. Who doesn’t love four different train miniatures? Seriously, the train minis aren’t just different colors, they’re different train models.

Cretaceous Rails features dinosaur miniatures. Simply put, it has table presence. You’ll hear this game roar from across the room.

Video Games

I know. I know. Ticket to Ride is another board game, but I played the version ported to the PlayStation 4, so it counts as a video game. I always loved the simplicity of Ticket to Ride. Collect enough train cards of a single color, match them to routes (between two cities), and connect cities on the ticket cards you have in your hand in a continuous route. Ticket to Ride modernized Rummy for the modern board game community. The PlayStation 4 version of Ticket to Ride is a great port of the game.

While I prefer the physical version of Ticket to Ride to a digital one, the production value is great. The base game includes the classic United States map and the Europe map. I’ve played Ticket to Ride: Europe a few times before last month, but picking up this copy (on the cheap) has led to more plays on the Europe map. I like the USA map more, but that’s because I don’t know if I quite understand how stations work. Whoops!

Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn has a silly name. Akatsuki means dawn in Japanese, so the game’s title is Dawn: Lord of the Dawn. Tee hee! Anyway, Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn is an army RPG. The story didn’t hold my interest. The game mechanisms were interesting–especially Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn’s method of combining building an army and a country–but the game overstays its welcome by one island. By the time I finished the penultimate island, I had done all the game had to offer. The final island is four times the size of the previous island, and my final hour or two of gameplay was mindlessly autobattling a hundred or so territory tiles.

On a personal note, I saw a screenshot similar to the one above and thought Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn used a card-driven combat system and got excited. The bottom left-hand corner looks like it could be a hand of cards, but no, it’s a head’s up display made to look like a hand of cards. Oh, well. Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn was on sale for super cheap, I picked it up, and aside from the final island, I enjoyed my time with this indie game. Akatsuki: Lord of the Dawn took about twenty hours to finish.

That’s what I played this past month. Let’s check in with Season and Skye.

Skye’s Games

I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I haven’t played many new video games this month to report to y’all. I got super addicted to Ghost of Tsushima and ended up playing non-stop. At least I have a platinum PlayStation trophy to show for it. The good news is that I spent this past weekend at Protospiel Twin Cities.

I typically don’t play board games unless I’m with my friends or family. Honestly, it doesn’t happen as often as it should. Last weekend, I had a unique opportunity to drive up to Minneapolis with our very own Kyra Kyle and play a host of different prototype board games. Behind these games were several different and talented designers.

Protospiel was an amazing experience. Kyra Kyle has been developing games of their own (which they’ve mentioned before), and I got to play them. I love playing Rustbucket Riots and Whirligig Pets. I even got to demo these games more than once. Co-op dice placement and programming adorable robot dogs and kittens. What’s not to love?

But I also had the pleasure of playtesting countless others. Most of these games have working titles or may not be ready to advertise, so most will be unnamed. Among the board game standouts were a simple and effective airline management game, a goofy cooking show contest game, an international travel game, and Spielcraft’s upcoming Primacy (a resource management/conquest game set in a dystopian future).

One of my favorite prototype games centered on becoming the “Master of the Seasons.” I liked its straightforward gameplay, fast-paced turn system, unique artistic design, and emphasis on strategy/point cultivation. If I ever see that game in stores, you bet I’ll be picking it up.

Season’s Games

board games

Woo-hoo! I was able to get some board game time under my belt. Elizabeth Hargrave’s Finspan got review-bombed before it even hit the shelves. I enjoyed Wyrmspan and have 3D printed resources I bought from someone in my hometown. I decided I’d collect everything in the Span series. Finspan is more streamlined than Wyrmspan and features an open hand mechanic. Players dive into the water, gather resources, and complete objectives. There are a finite number of turns each round (or week), so the game doesn’t drag.

One of my favorite things about Finspan is the attention to detail. The designers tried to be as scientifically accurate as possible to the real-world fish featured in the game. There are some artistic liberties, but you can find all of the fish in Finspan in our oceans today.

Video games

My Pokémon addiction returned when I spotted Pokémon Shining Pearl at my local GameStop. I don’t always keep up with the latest Pokémon games, but I’ll play a new one (well, new to me) every few years. Pokémon Shining Pearl is similar to previous games in the Pokémon franchise, but it features a location called the Grand Underground. After players complete the main game and unlock the National Pokédex, they may access a wider variety of Pokémon. There are way more legendary Pokémon to catch in Pokémon Shining Pearl than I’m used to in previous games, so that’s been a blast.

Kyra Kyle again. That does it for this month’s Whatcha Playing. What games have you been playing? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Whatcha Playing, Geekly: May 2025

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Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. Today’s post is a Whatcha Playing, where we’ll ask our writers what they’ve been playing (tabletop games and video games) over the past month. As always, you’re part of the Geekly Gang, too. Feel free to share which games you’ve played over the last month.

Kyra’s Games

I’ll preface my entries by saying that I won’t include my board game prototypes (of course, I’ve played these games many times recently) or any of the gacha games I still play (Wuthering Waves and Honkai: Star Rail). If I ever stop playing these games, I’ll let you know. With that said, let’s begin with the tabletop games I’ve played over the last month.

Board Games

Someone from my game group received their copy of Super Boss Monster and brought it to the table. I love the original Boss Monster despite some of the cards being stronger than others. Super Boss Monster tries to balance cards more than the original, but most notably, it adds worker placement by giving each player a minion they can control and take an action from the town. The town becomes more than the place where heroes are generated.

Of course, that still happens, but now I can choose to give myself more perks during a turn, and as you can see at the bottom of the above picture, players draft cards into their hands, giving players more agency. But I was left a little wanting. While these new additions are great in theory, they slowed the game down to a crawl. The original Boss Monster plays in about thirty minutes. Super Boss Monster took two and a half hours. Granted, none of us played the new additions before, but there are so many new additions to Super Boss Monster, and the game adds phases to each turn that I can’t see the game speeding up too much, even if we knew how to play. I was hyped for Super Boss Monster. It’s a good game, but I’ll hold onto my original copy.

Another one of my game group members received their copy of Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The Game. This game has the prerequisite silliness needed to call itself a Monty Python game. It even comes with a set of coconuts, or should I say, horseshoes. If that wasn’t silly enough, Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The Game also comes with a catapult and animeeples shaped like cows, chickens, and pigs. You will be catapulting your enemies.

I wanted to say that I liked Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The Game more than I did, but our gaming group was workshopping ways to streamline how the game played. Most members in this gaming group aren’t designers. I’m a part of game designer groups, and I’d expect discussion on how to streamline a new game. I wasn’t expecting this with Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The Game. I’m also certain I was winning the game (we ended the game early because it ran long), and I did so by abusing the “bring out your dead” space. I waited for the followers’ discard pile to fill up, head to “bring out your dead,” and gained victory points for every follower I shuffled back into the draw deck (that’s how “bring out your dead” works). It felt cheap.

Perhaps we played the game wrong, but Monty Python and the Holy Grail: The Game played longer than it should. The catapult, while fun, slowed the game down further. I liked several elements of this game, but it didn’t make a cohesive whole.

Video Games

I went trophy hunting this past month. As a result, many of the video games I played weren’t that good. The Cat Quest series is the one exception. Are the trophies easy to obtain? Yes. Very easy. The story is a little thin as well, but the gameplay is addictive. I had a lot of fun playing each entry of the series.

The first Cat Quest allows the player to fly by flapping their arms. Watching a cartoon cat flap their arms and fly is freaking adorable and hilarious. It’s hilarable. The second Cat Quest brings in a dog character to pair with the cat. Cat Quest II had the most strategic value of the trilogy (unsure if there will be a fourth Cat Quest). But Cat Quest III has the best theme (cat pirates), the shortest runtime that promotes multiple playthroughs, and takes all the fun elements of the previous games and builds upon them. Cat Quest may have an easy-to-obtain platinum trophy, but it’s also a fun game series.

That’s all I have for tabletop and video games this month. I’ll pass this post over to Season and Skye, so we can see what they’ve been playing.

Season’s Games

Before I dive in, I’m going to level with you, Geekly Gang. I’ve hardly played anything outside of my gacha games this last month. I don’t think a single board game hit the table for me. Finals have been ramping up, graduation is imminent, and there’s a huge conversion project going on at my day job. Without further ado, I’ll share my games.

video games

Thank you to Gigi for recommending Legends of Elysium. This is a beautiful game. It combines tile laying, cards, and mana. It’s sort of like a Magic: The Gathering board game. I didn’t play too much of it, but I enjoyed learning a few strategies and crawling across the map to defeat my opponent. I don’t think there’s a campaign mode to play against the CPU. It’s more along the lines of Marvel Snap and only has PvP available. I’ll have to play some more of Legends of Elysium and collect cards. I definitely want to see more of what Legends of Elysium has to offer.

The other game I’ve been casually playing is Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei. It’s a visual novel set during the Genpei War in medieval Japan. I stopped by GameStop and thought the art was pretty, so I figured, sure. I’ll take a gander. It is a romance visual novel that allows the player to romance characters who are based on actual historical figures. Not going to lie: I Googled the heck out of the Genpei War and the figures featured in the game because history is cool. I haven’t gotten all the endings yet but, if you’re into romance, period pieces, and great voice acting (Japanese only), I’d recommend Birushana: Rising Flower of Genpei. Also, there’s blood because, you know, war and stuff.

I wish I had more to share this time around. Skye, whatcha been playing?

Life Is Strange Video Game

Skye’s Games

I know I’m late with playing Life is Strange. I’m glad I finally got around to playing it. Life is Strange was released a decade ago, but the game remains relevant and rich in story, characters, and atmosphere. Story-driven games are great at making the player question their own morals, and Life is Strange is no exception. In fact, player choices are even more complicated by allowing players to rewind time and try for the best possible outcome.

Life is Strange wasn’t the first game to feature player choice, but it popularized the genre. For good reason, too. My favorite part is collecting all the Polaroids. I wanna make my Max the best photographer she can be. Life is Strange also happens to have an easy Platinum Trophy to obtain. Don’t judge me! A plat is a plat.

Ghost of Tsushima is another game that’s been a long time coming, and worth it. Ghost of Tsushima has been one of those games that’s difficult for me to put down. One of my favorite aspects of open-world RPGs (or JRPGs in this case) is the exploration. I love gallivanting into the unknown and, bit by bit, uncovering every piece of the map.

Not only is it fun to explore, but Ghost of Tsushima’s combat is stellar (with a learning curve), the story is interesting, and I love its setting of 1300s Japan. The first thing you’ll notice about Ghost of Tsushima is that it’s gorgeous. I haven’t had much time to play any other games, but I’m glad I managed to check Life is Strange and Ghost of Tsushima off my list.

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle again. That’s what we’ve been up to in terms of board games and video games this past month. Be sure to let us know what you’ve been playing because we’re all part of the Geekly Gang. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Whatcha Playing, Geekly: April 2025

Published on by Kyra5 Comments

Today marks our first post for Geekly’s Whatcha Playing series. In this series, the Geekly Gang will share which games (board games and video games) they played over the last thirty or so days. We welcome you to join the Geekly Gang and share the games you played this past month.

Kyra’s Games

Before I get started, I’m not going to include any of my prototypes. Of course, I’ve played my prototypes plenty of times this past month, but I’ll include those games with our upcoming “Fifth Wednesday, Personal Updates” post. Until then, I’ll discuss the games I’ve played this past month that I didn’t design.

Video Games

I fell down The Survivalists rabbit hole. For a week last month, I spent almost every day trying to build each structure and cook every recipe. I’ve never played The Escapists. The Survivalists are set in the same world, and I don’t think I missed too much for not having played the game that inspired its world. This game plays like a low-pressure version of Ark: Survival Evolved. Obviously, I like this game. I played almost forty hours in just over a week. Yikes!

I’ve been keeping up with Wuthering Waves and Honkai: Star Rail. Geekly has a review on both of these gacha games. I haven’t played too many video games this past month besides these three games. I’ve mostly played board games.

Board Games

I played Dice Throne for the first time this past month. It’s a little too combat-heavy for me; I would’ve liked a few more things to do besides worrying about positioning, defense, and damage output, but what’s there is intriguing. I like how each character’s dice are unique, but they retain a six-sided die’s classic numbering. Players can trigger abilities by matching symbols or using numbers. This is a clever mechanism. It makes most die rolls useful, and I like purposing my dice each turn.

I also played We’re Doomed! for the first time, too. We’ll have a review on this one in the coming months. We’re Doomed! is a raucous party game with a real-time element. The world is doomed. You need to work together to build a large enough spaceship for everyone to leave the planet, or you could screw over the players. Players take on the roles of world leaders. Each player has the same five options for actions each round, but the role a player has gives them a bonus for one of those actions. The game’s event cards can disrupt the game flow to a point where the game breaks, but We’re Doomed! is dumb fun.

From one silly little game to another. Don’t L.L.A.M.A. Card Game is designed by board game legend Reiner Knizia. It reminds me a bit of Uno with a twist. You attempt to rid your hand of cards by matching the number on top of the discard or playing a card higher than the card showing. The cards are numbered 1-6. Llama cards count as 7s. Don’t L.L.A.M.A. Card Game is a quick, award-winning filler card game. I highly recommend it.

I could list more but I’ll let Season and Skye share their games. Thanks for reading.

Season’s Games

video games

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m a fan of RPG style farming sims (similar to the Harvest Moon franchise). I’ve lost count of how many I’ve played. I picked up Sun Haven during Steam’s spring sale. It’s got a much larger map than what I’m used to from an RPG farming sim and has options for mounts, pets, and accessories. I’m a sucker for all of these things.

One feature I appreciate about Sun Haven is the ability to choose your race, class, and free initial customization options. Your race and class give you bonuses in the game based on how you want to play. When I say, “free initial customization,” I mean you just design a character without picking a gender. You don’t even get the option to pick a gender, like most of these games require. All romance-able characters are available for the player to choose from and you can increase your bond with them based on picking dialogue options they like in addition to gifts.

Always pet Dashie. No exceptions.

I’ve also been playing Honkai Star Rail and Wuthering Waves regularly. They’re a staple of my video game diet, so I won’t go into detail. Good luck on all of your 50/50’s to those of you who play either/both of these games.

board games

Okay. I know this is a collectible card game (CCG). I recently played Magic: The Gathering with a friend and got hit with a wave of nostalgia when I got to play with my fifteen-year-old decks. I’ve only played commander a couple of times in the past, which is the standard way to play Magic: The Gathering now. You have a powerful creature (your commander) who starts the game off the field while the rest of your deck is ninety-nine cards, all of which must be unique (outside of basic land cards). It plays like a normal games of Magic: The Gathering, but you can summon your commander even if it dies, as long as you have the mana.

I’ve played a few prototypes last month, but haven’t played as many board games as I would have liked. I’ve been settling into a new position at my day job, so I haven’t had as much time/energy for board games. I’m hoping to play more this month.

Skye’s Games

Hello, Geekly Gang! Yes. I also enjoy games. So here are some that I’ve been playing lately.

Wuthering Waves and Honkai: Star Rail

Gacha friends, rejoice. I have returned to Wuthering Waves and Honkai: Star Rail. While I’ve always enjoyed these games, they can sometimes be difficult to keep up with. That’s why I took a break from gacha games. Now that I’m trying to loosen up, I thought it was a good time to revisit them. I’m so glad I did!

No gacha game is perfect, but the simple act of building your teams, finding secrets, and yes, owning as many characters as possible is enough to keep me hooked. Since I’ve circled back around to them, it’s been difficult for me to put them down. I’ll admit that grinding gets old. Please implement more multiplayer options. I’m desperate!

Pixel Art

Speaking of loosening up, Pixel Art is my go-to relaxation app. While not technically a game, coloring to your heart’s content is comforting. My favorite aspect of the app is the ability to create your own pixel art creations using images from your phone’s camera roll. Lately, Pixel Art has been my primary method of preserving my memories. Who needs photo albums when you have Pixel Art?

Final Fantasy

Ever since I was a kid, I always loved the Final Fantasy series (even if it was vicariously through watching my parents play it). Lately, I’ve started playing the original Final Fantasy. Since the first Final Fantasy game I played was VII, I’ve taken it upon myself to play each one that came before it. Thankfully, my sister has the Final Fantasy I-VI Pixel Remaster Collection for PlayStation4, so thank you for letting me borrow it. 😉

It’s surreal to see where this behemoth of a franchise started. The story doesn’t always make sense, but the gameplay is still fun. My favorite part is that even though (then) SquareSoft didn’t understand what it was at the time, the game is still clearly a Final Fantasy title. I can see why this is SquareEnix’s golden goose.

The Survivalists

Like other Geekly members, I’ve taken up this quaint yet satisfying game. Since I’ve been a long-time fan of survival sandbox games, it’s been fun seeing Team 17’s interpretation of one. Like most Gen Zers, my first survival sandbox game was Minecraft. It wasn’t hard for me to fall in love with The Survivalists.

Like most survival sandbox games, The Survivalists can become stale after a while. It can take an hour to get things done. If you’re a fan of the genre like me, you’re used to that. The Survivalists will soon join the roster of survival sandbox staples like Terraria, Don’t Starve, ARK: Survival Evolved, and Minecraft. Also, this one has monkeys. Monkey butlers. What more do you want?

Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.