The games we played

As a huge Far Cry fan I thought this game would be pretty amazing. The maps are horrible, the combat is frustrating, you have to walk too much, and there too many bugs to even begin to list them all.

As I started to write up my favorite games of , I realized that they were mostly the same as the ones I played and wrote about in our roundup last year. For a fresh perspective, I turned to our adult daughter, Annie, who is much more adventurous about exploring new titles. In an increasingly chaotic and unstable world, I was in search of a meditative game where I could escape from everyday life and transport myself to a worry-free place.

Townscaper is an adorable and whimsical indie city builder with no purpose or end goal. The game starts as an endless ocean with a randomly generated grid pattern. Click on the water, and a small building appears with a soothing drip like a pebble falling into a pond.

Click again, and it morphs seamlessly into a tower or archway. Build canals, courtyards, stairways, and bridges by clicking to add or remove buildings. Sometimes birds will land on the rooftops or colored bunting appears across a narrow street. Make a little seaside city inspired by the Italian coast, or a grand palace and grounds on a mountainside — the choice is yours.

But I challenge you not to think too much. I saw a playthrough of Hollow Knight and fell in love with its cute characters. However, Hollow Knight is incredibly difficult for beginners, so I found Ori and the Blind Forest which has similar gameplay but is slightly less impossible to play.

Ori, a sort of cross between a rabbit and a fox, is the sole beacon of light in a dark world as he whirls and spins and leaps over spikes and bugs and creatures that have poisoned the forest, attacking them with pulses of light.

The world is immersive and beautiful, and I finally got over my fear of dying in a video game and am growing more comfortable with button combinations. After over deaths at only a third of the way through, my resilience has improved enough that I only sometimes want to throw the controller at the screen, which is excellent progress for me. But Odyssey takes the cake by throwing Mario into a set of single player 3D worlds.

Ride a stone jaguar to mow down cacti and collect coins. Make a stack of goombas to reach a tall platform. Taking over the T.

It was the first mainstream console-based video game I completed all by myself. Odyssey provided a virtual escape from lockdown and transported me to immersive landscapes with quirky characters and epic music at a time when I needed it most.

This innovative puzzle game is short but truly shows that there is so much untapped potential in video game mechanics. You are presented with a two-by-two grid with four tiles. I'm sure you've heard the stories. Mending shoes, growing fields, reuniting lost loves.

But what do they get in return? Not so much as a word of praise! The fae courts are very big on manners, you know. The slightest lapse in decorum can have Introductions are an important part of first impressions! Oh, my feet are practically jumping with excitement! I could just dance for an eternity! Dance with me! One time I managed to trick all the sylvari in a grove into thinking I was a member of their court! The other spriggans were all cheering my name for days! Comment by Devious05 Ended up leaving my party and turning off all addons to do this quest.

Comment by Liqweed What a boring quest wasting my time. I hate this bot-filter quests. Comment by Salazans What a pathetic place Ardenweald is. Comment by Damologist one of the crappiest quests ever! Comment by Ultim8MCfan I was typing in the correct commands and it still was not working. It took me a couple tries to figure this out.

Comment by drpimento started out with introductions are Nothing more was said until I got morphed. Tried it again and the exact same thing happened.

Comment by tazzerer The worst part of this quest is not even emoting. It's the fact that you wait for like 1 min after every emote. Comment by Azrial92 I have made a small script in case you are super lazy. You still have to target the Playful Trickster and the script will repond with the apropriate command based on the text matched.

Comment by Vlad This quest takes like 3 minutes. I'm super lazy and impatient, so I wrote this when leveling my alts to use the opportunity for a 3 minute break, stretch my legs, get a cup of tea, whatever you want to do in 3 minutes, you can squeeze in just fine by having the game play the minigame for you! This is how it works First, copy the top line of code, and paste it into your chat, repeat for the second line of code as well.

When done, simply start the minigame, make sure you target the Playful Trickster and that's it! NB: This is only going to work for English clients, sorry! The Games We Play. IsQuestFlaggedCompleted Please keep the following in mind when posting a comment: Your comment must be in English or it will be removed. Unsure how to post? Check out our handy guide! Simply browse for your screenshot using the form below. Screenshots containing UI elements are generally declined on sight, the same goes for screenshots from the modelviewer or character selection screen.

Please review our Screenshot Guidelines before submitting! Rachel escapes to her hometown of Carlsbad. But trouble may have followed her.

Stephen Drescher is home from Iraq, but his dishonorable discharge contaminates his transition back to civilian life. He summons the courage to contact her. Rachel and Stephen, who have vastly different feelings about the games they played and what might come of their reunion, must come to terms with their pasts before they can work toward their futures. ISBN Shawne Steiger wrote her first story when she was seven.