Recent reviews by C0ff1ncas3

Helldivers is a great game that rewards cooperative strategy, team support, and individual skill. It has a compelling live service narrative and is always changing

Valheim is obviously still in early access and a lot of what it's doing isn't new but something about the approach, theme, and art style come together to create a really enjoyable experience. I think it's best played on a shared server. I'm looking forward to the game growing over time. There are some rough spots - transitioning to the Swamp is a pretty brutal difficulty jump, some of the tools use a bit more stamina than I think they should, the gear and exp loss can be rougher at time(like if you die in the water). The community has created a lot of excellent mods if you want them though so many issues are resolved by that.

Admittedly I didn't play the first Vermintide and what I recall of the first L4D game doesn't fill me with fond memories. That said, Vermintide 2 makes me want to shave my hair into a mowhawk, dye it red, get full body Dwarf tattoos, and declare myself the new Slayer King. The hack n slash game play is solid. Aim and skill matter but don't prevent you from just jumping head first. The smart use of gear as the primary means of advancment creates a solid motivation to play. combined with the enchantment qualities of gear and class skill trees as supportive of the defined playstyle of classes helps every level and gear choice feel like it matters. Vermintide is also probably one of the few examples of how you can use loot chest in a game and not ruin it. (P.S. it's not letting you buy them or making items exist behind paywalls.)

As a Warhammer fan there isn't a lot of lore or story here. This is both a pro and a con. You can jump in and start cleaving Skaven in half but other than some quick voiceovers you don't have much else intersting going on. Though talking isn't what the End Times or Vermintide is about. No, it's about murdering things and it delivers.
Vermintide takes place in the End Times setting of Fantasy which is cool, but here's hoping VT3 takes us into the glory that is the Age of Sigmar.

Let me tell you how good Civ games are.
You think things like: "I'm gonna play Civ for a couple minutes/hours." then you family calls and wants to know where you've been for the past week.

A touching tale with an excellent sound track. I found both stories captivating.