I tend to avoid online multiplayer games. The hatred coming from online players is enough for me to stay clear. However, I made an exception for Star Wars Battlefront II. The fiancé received Star Wars Battlefront II as a gift for his birthday, and as I watched him play, I realized this game might be something I would like. A month has passed, and I’m already at level #28. Between online multiplayer matches, I was also playing through the Star Wars Battlefront campaign, which stars Iden Versio & her Infernal squad. I’m pleasantly surprised to say the campaign rocked.

Star Wars Battlefront II takes place immediately after Return of the Jedi and before The Force Awakens. The campaign follows Iden Versio, a commander of the Inferno Squad, an Imperial Special Forces unit. Iden’s team goes through several missions together which contorts Iden’s views of the Empire. There’s not much else I can say without spoilers, but the campaign does allow you to play as major characters in the Star Wars universe.

I went into this campaign with low expectations. Usually, multiplayer games including a story mode are mediocre. The major highlight of this game was Iden Versio. I thought she was an excellent main character as she’s smart, sophisticated, and has a grey moral compass. She has to contemplate her relationship to the Empire after major decisions are made. She isn’t a villain, but I wouldn’t call her a hero either. Her comrade, Del, is another character featured in the story. The professional relationship between Iden and Del develops over the course of the campaign.

The missions were pretty short but fulfilling. At first, I hated the flying missions, but after a while, I found I was enjoying flying in Iden’s TIE fighter. Some of the missions felt nostalgic as they returned to familiar planets with our favorite characters. The voice acting for Luke, Lando, and Leia was decent. The only character I felt was slightly off was Anakin. His voice doesn’t even sound like Hayden Christiansen.

My one minor complaint with Battlefront II is the dismissal of the prequels. Padme isn’t a playable character, which is mildly annoying. Padme could have easily been included with several outfits and her blaster. I could see her having special abilities, including boosting her teammates with health bonuses. In defense of Battlefront II, the game was meant to promote the new Star Wars movies being released by Disney, so the prequels weren’t something that had to be addressed.

Battlefront II is one of the games I will remember as a game that got me through COVID-19. Any Star Wars fan will be thrilled at flying a TIE-fighter or entering into battle with Obi-Wan. Battlefront II can be played on Xbox One, PS4, or Windows.

Last month, I spent $250 on Magic: The Gathering cards. I’m sure some of you are thinking, “How could she spend that much money on cardboard?” Magic: The Gathering is the only deck-building game I’m currently playing, and I wanted new cards from the Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths set. Plus, I spent this money at my local game store, and during a time like this, we need to support local businesses. In my Magic: The Gathering haul, I bought three commander decks. I was able to play Kalamax, the Stormsire, who is the ultimate dinosaur.

Before I begin this discussion, there’s one point I need to make. Wizards of the Coast has been under fire recently for racism and mistreatment of their African American employees and players. Wizards of the Coast needs to hire more POC writers and illustrators to alleviate this situation. By buying the Ikoria set, I provided profit to my local game store along with Wizards. Since this is the case, I will link at the end of my post a couple of charities to donate to because Black Lives Matter.

Kalamax, the Stormsire, is the commander in this Ikoria commander deck. Kalamax has a converted mana cost of four for a 4/4 elemental dinosaur. Kalamax aims to attack other players, as this activates the special ability. If Kalamax is tapped, whenever an instant or sorcery spell is played, the spell is copied. Whenever a spell is copied, Kalamax receives a +1/+1 counter. Kalamax’s main goal is to copy spells I play, which in turn makes Kalamax more powerful.

When I first played this deck, it was unorganized. I had to spend time planning out my turns to make sure I played my spells in the correct order. After a few turns, I was able to catch on to how I needed to play Kalamax to make this card the most effective. I played with a friend of mine and I almost lost to her cat deck. Somehow, I managed to defeat her after killing her cats and boosting Kalamax. I ended up swinging at my opponent with Kalamax being at 25/25. There’s a land in the deck that allows me to give Kalamax trample. Trample means even if Kalamax is blocked by creatures, Kalamax can still “trample” over the creatures and hit that player’s life total.

Kalamax is a blast to play. The deck is already built, and it runs well, which means I didn’t need to purchase any other cards to play it right away. This deck is ideal for any players who play instant or sorcery cards. If you’re a beginner to Magic, this deck may be challenging to play at first, but after a couple of practice games, you will be able to thrash through your opponents to win the game. Kalamax, the Stormsire, can be purchased online or at any local game store. It’s retailing at $41.99 if you purchase the deck at Target. Prices may vary depending on where the deck is purchased.

As I discussed, here’s the link to ways to help the Black Lives Matter movement. If you’re not able to financially give, there are other ways to help. This includes voting, signing petitions, protesting, and other resources to be an ally in this movement.

During Quarantine, I signed up for Xbox Game Pass. Xbox Game Pass has over 100 console and PC games to play. Besides more popular games, there are quite a few indie titles here as well. I recently downloaded What Remains of Edith Finch, but I also finished playing Costume Quest 2. Costume Quest 2 is one of my favorite games I played in 2020 because it appeals to my joy towards Halloween.

Twins Wren and Reynold are getting ready to trick or treat on Halloween night. Suddenly, dentist Dr. Orel White teams up with a time wizard to go back in time while also unleashing orc-like creatures on their town. Dr. White, being a dentist, wants to get rid of Halloween forever. This can’t happen because Halloween is the best holiday that’s not a holiday. Wren and Reynold jump around in time to stop the dentist and bring Halloween back.

One of my favorite parts of the game is the battles. As you encounter the Orcs, you enter into battle with your Halloween costumes. Each Halloween costume has a different ability. My personal favorites were the dinosaur, the pharaoh, and the wizard. The battles themselves remind me of Pokémon battles as you take turns using your attack move until you build enough to use your special move. There are also attack cards that provide additional bonuses in the game. I forgot to use them when I had them, but they did help me win my battles.

I’m an achievement hunter by trade, and I liked that most of the achievements were fairly easy to unlock. I’m only missing one, but it’s a difficult achievement, so I intend on going back in the game and playing it on a harder difficulty setting.

I cannot recommend Costume Quest 2 enough. If you love Halloween as much as I do, this game has to be on your gameplay list. I love this game so much that I would buy this game on Steam to play it again. Steam has the first Costume Quest game, where Xbox Game Pass does not. If I play both games, I will buy the Steam bundle, where you can buy both for only $20. This is a game that I’d replay again in the future, especially near Halloween.

In quarantine, I was looking for new games to play to occupy my time. I’m playing Jedi: Fallen Order currently, and while I’m enjoying the game, it’s a game that I prefer to play on the weekends. I was looking for more casual PC games to play during the week, where, if I had a stressful workday, these games would relax me. Monster Prom fills this fix as it’s the perfect casual game to play during the week.

Monster Prom is a game in which you have three weeks to secure a date for prom. The exception is you’re a monster at a high school filled with other monsters. During each round, you can pick which part of the high school to interact with, which allows your predetermined monster to socialize with the other monsters. At each social interaction, your character makes a choice, and this choice earns you hearts with the monsters. The more hearts you have, the more likely the monster you ask to prom will say yes.

Monster Prom is a well-made dating simulator game. In character creation, you can pick your pronouns, and the game includes they as an option. This is a small feature to add, but it leads to gamers feeling heard while playing the game. All the monsters are unique in their own way. Damien is the angry devil, while Liam is a hipster vampire. The monsters combine high school stereotypes with their monster counterparts.

While playing through Monster Prom, there are secret endings to unlock. The secret endings are the prom outcomes, for example, if your date says yes or if you’re left without a date for prom. Combined with the Steam achievements allows for more replay in the game.

Monster Prom is a fun dating simulator game with detailed dialogue and interesting monster characters. Let me know if you have played Monster Prom in the comments below. If so, let me know who your favorite monster is. Monster Prom can be purchased on Steam for $11.99.

Last Friday, I spent four hours and drank four hard seltzers to beat Kingdom Hearts III. Kingdom Hearts is known for having brutal boss battles, and Kingdom Hearts III is no different. I almost quit, but I persisted and finally defeated Master Xehanort. Since completing Kingdom Hearts III, I wanted to reflect on my favorite levels and general thoughts about the game.

Kingdom Hearts III shows our memorable key wielder, Sora, as his strength is at an all-time low. He travels with his companions, Donald and Goofy, to regain his strength and learn the “power of waking,” the ability to restore lost hearts. It’s revealed how Sora has Roxas’s heart along with two other hearts bound to his. This power will be useful to prevent Xehanort from opening Kingdom Hearts, casting the world in darkness.

Kingdom Hearts III has levels in many of the newest worlds from recent movies. Olympus and Port Royal make a reappearance, along with new levels from Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Tangled, and Big Hero 6. The best level was the Toy Story level. Starting at Andy’s house, the toys make their way to a major toy store. Sora can enter these gigantic toy robots to fight Heartless while wandering the toy store. As a ’90s baby who grew up with older Pixar movies, Kingdom Hearts III appeals to my nostalgia for these movies.

The last level is where all the boss battles begin. Sora has to fight his way through all the major characters in Organization XIII. When I reached the final battle, I had leveled up Sora to level #43. In the future, I would have stayed on the Big Hero 6 level for longer to level up Sora to be more prepared for taking on Organization XIII. Before taking on Xehanort, I would recommend having at least 4+ hours of free time. There’s one final save point before entering the town and Xehanort’s territory. Kingdom Hearts III has designated save points, and you don’t want to lose progress in the fight and have to redo it.

Kingdom Hearts III is filled with nostalgia. The story isn’t the main reason why I play this series. I play for the characters, including Sora, with Aqua being my favorite key wielder. Besides the Toy Story level, I liked the Monsters Inc. level. I’m impressed with the voice acting in this game. Without having the original voice actors, the characters sound like the original characters from the movies. Kingdom Hearts III was worth the wait.

Last week, I was browsing games on Steam. I usually don’t like playing my console games during the week because I have terrible time management. I will start playing Kingdom Hearts III, and three hours will go by. Therefore, I play my PS4 on weekends. Steam has a wide variety of shorter games to play. I stumbled upon Spy Fox in: Dry Cereal, and all of my childhood memories flooded back to me. It was a major deja vu moment. The game was only $7, so why not buy it? This game was so much fun playing as an adult, even though it was aimed at kids.

Spyfox stars our favorite international spy, who happens to be a walking and talking fox. He is sent on a mission to stop William the Kid from destroying the world and stealing all the milk. Who wants to eat dry cereal??? Each game includes gadgets that Spyfox has to utilize in his missions. As you progress through the story, you utilize the gadgets and solve puzzles. I will be transparent, some of the puzzles took me a bit of time to solve. There was one puzzle with lasers, and it took me at least twenty minutes to figure out. For a computer game that’s aimed at kids, I still found this to be engaging.

Spyfox has many spy puns from pop culture. Spyfox’s boss is Monkey Penny, aka Moneypenny from the James Bond franchise. Professor Quack is the “gadget” duck, which references Q from the James Bond franchise. Some of the quips from the game include making fun of people who don’t drink dairy milk. For a game that was released in the late ’90s, the quips were actually pretty good.

Spy Fox in: Dry Cereal took me two hours to complete. I purchased the game on Steam, and there’s an incentive to keep playing the game by unlocking trading cards of the characters. I still have one more to unlock. Spyfox is suave, funny, and the ultimate fox.

Once a month, I get together with my brother, uncle, and our family friend to play games. It’s either a whole day spent playing Magic: The Gathering or it’s a day entirely devoted to board games. Towards the beginning of January, my uncle brought out Star Wars: Outer Rim for us all to try. This will be repetitive, but my favorite way to enjoy Star Wars is through gaming. I mentioned this in my Star Wars Destiny article I wrote recently. Star Wars: Outer Rim is no exception, as it’s a strategic game meant to be played with a decent-sized gaming group.

Star Wars: Outer Rim focuses on the planets within Star Wars that are filled with villainy and chaos. Each player picks a pilot, a ship, and a scorecard to track progress. Picking a pilot was easy when I saw Jyn Erso was included in this game. Jyn is easily one of my favorite female Star Wars protagonists to date. Seeing Rogue One representation in Star Wars: Outer Rim gives me a great first impression of the game.

The board is designed in a half circle with planets and travel routes for movement. The goal of the game is to be the most famous flyer in the whole galaxy. This can be done by completing jobs, defeating various patrols, or adventuring with more complex quests. Sometimes skill checks are required to complete a job. For example, Jyn starts with skills, but none of those skills include piloting. I had a mission where I had to utilize the piloting skill specifically to complete the mission. I spent multiple turns rolling and failing my roles because I was at a disadvantage of not having the piloting skill already. This is a huge reason why I lost the game we played.

Star Wars: Outer Rim isn’t an easy game, but not too difficult either. As I mentioned with my failed skill check, it can be difficult to complete missions without having the proper skill. Although you can pick up crew members who have varying skills to help you succeed in missions. One of my fellow players stole K-2SO from me, and I’m still salty about it.

One benefit of this game is having the freedom to do what you want with your character. With Jyn Erso, I ended up taking down a couple of tie fighters, which lowered my reputation with the Imperial fleet. It doesn’t matter who you partner with, but having alliances or enemies will impact how you fly throughout the Rim.

The only minor complaint I had was how turn order can take a bit. We had four people in our group, and I found myself feeling bored when it wasn’t my turn. I don’t think this is something that can be fixed with Star Wars: Outer Rim. The game is strategic, so game turns will take a little longer.

Star Wars: Outer Rim works best with more players. I would say three players would be ideal, recognizing that with four players, turns take longer. Star Wars: Outer Rim is made by Fantasy Flight Games and can be purchased through FFG’s website or your local game store.