It's a good time to be a gamer.

[Wakanda]

I recently bought Black Ops 6 while it was on sale for Thanksgiving. I haven't played a Call of Duty game since Black Ops 2, and vowed that I would never play it again.

But I was like... y'know what, I'll just buy it and play zombies. Well it turns out that the multiplayer is actually really fun now compared to 10+ years ago because they added skill-based matchmaking in 2019, so now the game feels a lot less daunting and on smaller maps like Nuketown, Stakeout, Racket etc. you can respawn instantly and just start killing.

No waiting to respawn or long runs back to the action like there is in games like Overwatch. Also the matchmaking is pretty legit. Even some of my girl gamer friends who normally can't play FPS are able to stomp in solo queue. Game becomes a little bit harder for them when they group with me due to my higher matchmaking, but it becomes easier for me when I play with them [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] so I naturally like it.

That being said, Black Ops 6 zombies feels a little lackluster after playing Helldiver's 2, but I can't talk too much smack on it considering I still haven't beaten either map - which I've been trying to do so I can unlock the cool cosmetics and what not.

But also Marvel Rivals just came out, and if you're a fan of Marvel Comics and/or OW, you will probably love this game a lot. (It's free to play BTW). The art-style is really amazing, and IMHO the kits the characters have are much more interesting than Overwatch. Like Loki is a healer, which on paper sounds boring, but he's a stealth character who makes clones of himself who can also heal. He reminds me of Shaco from League of Legends, if Shaco was a healer.

And then Path of Exile 2 came out. And it's so good. It feels more like Dark Souls than Diablo. The fighting actually requires critical thinking and out-playing mechanics rather than just grinding to get better gear so you can one shot mobs. The graphics are actually really good too.

This is the first time in a while where I feel like there's more games that I want to play than I actually have time to play. Which is also why I'm hesitant to buy the early access for Pantheon [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] I would rather wait a couple of months and see what people say.

But I also want to play P99 during the Xmas bonus, so it's like.... again, a really good time to be a gamer IMHO. This is not an advertisement btw. I just feel like it's been a long drout since there's been games that actually appeal to me as a boomer P99 player.