By the time you read this, the summer travel season in the US will be over, and we’re all back to our gremlin caves and our desks with piles of Cheetos Puffs. If you did some traveling of your own, did ya mark off a few places from your “Places to Visit” list? Or did you check off a few games from your backlog? (Or BOTH??)
To cap off the travel season in this part of the globe, we’ll be catching up with Tracie, Matt, Emi, Cody, and NEW friend Armando about the games they’ve played lately and what may have kept their attention while on a plane, train, or sitting in the backseat of an itty-bitty car. honk honk
You’re new here! Who are ya?!
Heyo! I’m Armando and I’m on Discord’s Integrated Marketing team!
Fall has finally started. What games have fallen on your plate in the last month?
Two games have taken up a lot of my time lately: Astro Bot and Into the Breach.
Astro Bot had absolutely no business being so amazing. I thought Astro’s Playroom was a fun platformer back when it came out, but Astro Bot dials it up to 11. I platinumed it in just a weekend and had fun every second I was doing it. The creativity in the level design and pure joy in the little moments are things I haven’t seen since I first played Super Mario Galaxy. I truly think Astro Bot has a fair shot for GOTY.
Into the Breach came out in 2018 but I’m just getting around to picking it up. It’s great on my Switch, and to me, it plays like a mix of mini-chess and a roguelite. It’s a turn-based strategy game where you command giant mechs to protect your people from the dastardly Vek creatures! My joy-cons have definitely been sweaty with how tense this game gets…excuse me while I go play it again right now.
When you’re traveling out of town or across the world, what are your go-to games for when you’re on the move?
When I’m going I’m still gaming! My Switch is with me quite often, especially when I’m in planes, trains, and automobiles. If it’s not a new game I’m playing, I tend to go back to some games that feel timeless to me. Usually, that means I’ll discover some new secret in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that I missed in my first 150 hours (pff amateur!!). Dead Cells is another go-to for me, and I think Balatro will be, too. Even though Balatro’s newer, it got to the point where I’d see those floating cards in my sleep so, yeah, that’s a good travel pick.
I don’t want to leave out my trusty mobile puzzle games, either! I’ve been trying to beat my friend’s high score of 1010! for years. Also, a lot of airplane seat screens now have 2048 built into them, so it’s great for plane rides but maybe not-so-great for the person sitting in front of me who just feels my finger swiping on their seat for an hour.
What games have fallen on your plate in the last month or so?
The long-awaited Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 released this month, and I've eagerly plunged into the grimdark 41st millennium to battle Tyranids for the Emperor of Mankind. It's been a blast playing with my crew, tackling both the main story and Operation Missions. I've even customized my character in the colors of my favorite Space Marine Chapter, the Blood Angels. (I might be diving too deep into 40K nerdiness now, but I'm not sorry!)
What are your go-to games for when you’re traveling?
My Nintendo Switch is my constant companion during many long flights. When traveling, I gravitate towards cozy games, which bring me comfort and ease in the face of travel-induced stress and anxiety. My go-to choices are Stardew Valley (exciting news: Concerned Ape just announced the 1.6 update is coming to console in November!) and Pokemon Violet/Scarlet.
What games have fallen on your plate in the last month or so?
August kicked into high gear with awesome new releases and hasn’t let up. It started with the global phenomenon, Black Myth: Wukong then Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, and now I’m obsessing over my factory setup in Satisfactory 1.0 while also herding bots in Astro Bots. No Wait.. I also got sucked into Inscryption.
What are your go-to games for when you’re traveling?
What a timely question. [At the time of writing,] I’m about to head to Japan next week for Tokyo Game Show and while I’m not sure I’ll get to all of them, these are my Steam Deck go-tos, or games I want to complete while on the flight over:
Inscryption
Dome Keeper
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
Final Fantasy VI
Dead Cells
Nine Sols
ANIMAL WELL
Melatonin
Fallout 4
Fall has finally started. What games have fallen on your plate in the last month?
One of my goals for this fall was to make progress on games that have been on my to-be-played list, and I think I’m on track! A big group of my friends have started playing the Yakuza series, so I’ve hopped on that train too, starting with Yakuza 0. I’m also happily many hours into The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt now, with probably too many minutes spent collecting herbs.
In between those, I’ve regularly returned to a few favorites, such as Among Us, HELLDIVERS 2, and Call of Duty: Warzone.
What are your go-to games for when you’re traveling?
If I’m traveling, I usually spend more time on my phone, and I try to find games that I can play in a few minutes. One of my friends has been sharing their love of chess with me, so I’ve been playing chess with Chess.com’s app! I also play Wordle, MURDLE, or Connections if I want the puzzles to continue.
I also have a pretty solid rotation of games for the Nintendo Switch:
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
New Pokémon Snap
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (will one day be The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom)
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
One of my next purchases will probably be a Steam Deck though! So hopefully more games can travel with me soon.
What games have fallen on your plate in the last month or so?
Look… I admit, when I don’t have anything immediately on my plate, I go back to my usuals, Marvel SNAP and Fortnite Festival, which I’ve talked about in this series plenty enough already. However, when I find something I want to play through, I absolutely lock in and play through the whole thing before getting back to my usuals.
Hollowbody was released this month, and it’s got everything that I vibe with: it’s a slow-paced horror game oozing with a dark atmosphere, it’s got a retro-inspired art style that makes it easy to run on many devices (like my Steam Deck), and the best part for me: optional tank controls. I will fight anyone who trash-talks tank controls in horror games.
It’s a bit of a shorter game — I completed it in just over 5 hours or so, but honestly, a bite-sized experience is exactly what I'm looking for.
Plus, after you finish the game for the first time, it unlocks a secret first-person mode to experience the game from a whole new perspective. This game is DARK, making you rely heavily on your flashlight or your gun’s muzzle flash, and I’m extremely pumped to dive in again and fight monsters jumping at me from the darkness who are directly in my face rather than being in the “safety” of a third-person perspective.
What are your go-to games for when you’re traveling?
I will NOT say Marvel SNAP again, I will NOT say Marvel SNAP aga-... oops.
But I swear it’s not just that! When I know I’ll be gone for quite a while, I’ll bring my Steam Deck with me and load up on mulitplayer games that are easy to pick up, play a few rounds, and get back to what I was doing.
These incluuuude: Dead By Daylight, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halo Infinite, Street Fighter 6, and Fortnite (via GeForce Now streaming). If there’s any sort of single-player game, I need to sit down and put my full focus on it, or I’ll lose track of any storylines or important mission tidbits.
With pick-up-and-play multiplayer games, I can play one match or two, and then not have to worry about what happened until I get back. Plus, my horrible attention span requires me to sit down and REALLY FOCUS on any sort of storyline, which is tough for me when I’m not home.
The days around this part of the planet are getting darker, and all of us are getting ready to do even more traveling for the winter season. If you find any of us on a plane or a train, we’ll probably be playing something that we mentioned above — if you say hi, just remember who plays games that are easy to pause and who doesn’t!
Do you have any particular favorites while you’re traveling? Or, do you play games that involve driving a train or piloting a plane? Tell us what they are over at our X account!
