These are some things I've been playing recently

Power Wash Simulator 2

I love the original game I've never powerwashed anything in real life and lack the room or need to do so but virtually cleaning a variety of scenarios is something I enjoy. Its a very zen game just slowly methodically cleaning everything with that pleasing ping noise as you finish a section the dirt and grime blasted off leaving clean gleaming surfaces.

The original was great and had a lot of free content they added with the Muckingham files a new pack of things popping up every so often and they had some paid DLC's of liscenced properties. If you want to powerwash Walace and Gromits house or Spongebobs pinaple or a Warhammer 40k tank or the flying train from Back to the future 3 there is a pack there for that very specific desire.

They also included a surprising amount of lore for a game about cleaning something with a jet of water. Told mostly through little text messages and occasionally in the theme of the particular level. It's not much but way more than you would expect out of a simulator game.

For the sequel they added some new tools the exiting new SwirlForce Surf Ace floor cleaner. A sort of abseiling rig for very tall things that allows you to move up parallel to a vertical face. The new scissor lift makes for a variable height ladder to more easily get at places.

The other major mechanical change is Soap 2.0. Soap in PWS1 was mostly useless, well not totally useless but often way more hassle than just brute force washing with a narrower nozzle or more powerful washer type. It was specific to the surface type so a different soap was required for glass and wood and metal and stone and misc. As well as it being a consumable item that would run out then require you to pay for a refill. I pretty much never used it in PWS1

In PWS2 soap works quite differently it's not surface specific anymore and its not a consumable it's free to use with a recharging supply (I think its basically that you can lay down a certain amount of soap and then as you then clean it off it recharges your soap meter). It also doesn't directly clean (which was how soap worked in PWS1) its a coating you apply that then makes the more stubborn dirt come of easily. It has a very nice soap shader of bubbly foam you can coat things in then you wash it off with normal water.

It does mean cleaning with soap is a two step process apply soap then wash off the soap but for the more difficult dirt it means you can use one of the larger less powerful nozzles with a larger spray area that wouldn't shift it normally or would require multiple passes so when used on the harder stuff I think it is more efficient. You can just blast it with water.

It's somewhat more of the same with slightly improved features and tweaks and some slightly better graphics

Ball X Pit

This popped up on my radar a short while ago. The best way to explain it is breakout crossed with vampire survivors. Your character can move around in a sort of corridor firing your balls at what ever angle you fancy and then they bounce off the walls and enemies to do damage. The enemies move down from the top and as you destroy them you can make paths where your balls will ricochet around doing multiple hits. So tactically plotting where to focus your fire to maximize the damage is part of it. If an enemy reaches the bottom of the screen they will attack you then despawn. They will also attack if you get too close and some enemies also can fire arrows at you that you need to dodge. As you progress the enemies get harder and 3 times in a run there is a boss character some of these are just larger tougher normal enemies if they reach the bottom intact they will repeatedly attack. Some of the bosses can do bullet hell style attacks.

As you progress and you kill enemies they drop gems gold and other resources. Collecting gems levels up your character vampire survivors style with a boost to the stats and then as you level you get the option to take an active perk or a new ball type or a passive. The different balls have different effect like elemental damage or bleed effects poison damage. Some of these active effects spawn other balls that then do damage. Then there are passive effects like more damage if you hit things from the front or the side or with certain bounces. The various active and passive skills level up gaining more damage or elemental effects and the percentages on the passive skills increase.

For the active/ball types they can also fuse or evolve max level balls. Fuse just smooshes two ball together into one that does both effects. This not only makes the ball better it frees up one of your four active skill slots to add in another ball type for more damage and effects. Evolutions combine two balls into one that does something different so fire and wind balls becomes a firestorm. These evolve balls can also then be fused to normal balls for more combinations.

It has the roguelike one more go the combination of powers like vampire survivors the character level and unlock (each character has a different starting ball like the starting powers in vampire survivors as well as unique stats) and it even has a small base building element for between runs where you lay out buildigns the blueprints you get from the playthroughs these buildings provide bonuses to your characters unlock new characters and provide resources to build more buildings. The harvesting of resources is also done by bouncing your set of characters around the town area when they hit a resource tile the collect it when they hit a building that needs constructing they progress that by one.

It has a lot going on roguelike quick playthroughs the sort of addictive randomized gameplay that feels good and keeps you playing withe each run being a little different based on the starting character the perks you pick and the upgrades you take. It can get hectic with balls flying everywhere enemies coming down enemy attacks flying around. It's a really compelling little game in that same genre as Vampire Survivors and its great to see someone take that and make something new and different with a lot of the same things that make it great.

Jump Space

I won't say too much about this one as this has been in heavy rotation on the Sunday Night Gaming of late so most folks are aware of it. This is a very good coop shooter where you help pilot a ship through various challenges.

The ship itself can be flown around and depending on the type has a pilot and a gunner as well as things like sensors to scan an area and facilities to build things. You fly the ship through a series of jumps each jump offering some sort of challenge other ships to destroy or things to loot and then after a few of these there will be some final end mission which is a bit longer or more involved depending on the mission type.

Action can take place on or off the ship and while the two people fly the ship and act as gunners up to two other players can be running around doing other tasks and keeping the ship intact by recharging the shields repairing the hull or fixing various things that catch on fire or break due to enemy fire.

It's a lot of fun especially with a group of players. It is possible to solo especially if you unlock the smaller ship type, there is a robot helper who does a lot of the busy work in place of another player.

Outside the ship you can go jetting around with the rocket pack or zipping along with the zipline that will lock on to specific points on the ship and environment. You can then use a selection of weaponry to destroy the evil robots.

A very fun new coop game. it is early access but is pretty well polished.

Ghost Town - VR

This vr game (available on quest 3 and for pc vr) I know vr game are even more niche but I've been enjoying it. Made by fireproof games the people that did The room series of games for mobile about the lovecraftian puzzle boxes and the Room VR a few years back. I love those games and this is a new game in the same sort of vein. You wander various locations solving various puzzles while freeing trapped spirits (by learning what made them stuck and then offering them items that connect them to the moral plane) all while searching for your missing brother.

The locations are wonderfully detailed and very atmospheric even on the Quest 3 not the most powerful vr kit it looks very nice and the design of the environments is good. It's not one of those jump scare games even with the spooky themes given the ghost hunting elements.

It uses a lot of the familiar puzzling elements of switches to direct power, moving cog, pulling levers, and aligning things to progress. The puzzles haven't been super hard and there is a hit system it leverages the interactivity VR gives you such that even a simple puzzle can feel fairly fun dressed up with a bunch of buttons and cogs and levers to pull in order to solve it.