Rocket League is very fun. If you have two or three friends who play regularly, I'd say it's worth the purchase. It's easy enough to learn (smooth controls, simple objectives) but the difficulty curve is surprisingly deep (mastering rocket jumps, predicting where enemies will be/where the ball will head after a hit).

There is also a pure shenanigans factor, an ever-present chance of a lucky hit making an impossible goal, or where a player can block a goal without intending to. I really appreciate this factor and it keeps things amiable and goofy, as opposed to rigid and serious. At least, that's the experience that I've had.

I'm not a huge soccer mang myself. Though to be honest, Rocket League gives me some fair nostalgia for playing the stunt modes in San Francisco Rush 2 and Rush 2049. Just with a greater team-based objective to keep everything focused.

I've only owned the game for about two weeks and it's already resulted in some great moments in private matches (that isn't to say that good times haven't been had in normal matchmaking):


(Two other videos here and here)

If you'd be the only one going in, your mileage may vary. As multiplayer-intensive as the game is, I can't imagine flying solo would be very fun outside of the 1v1 playlist.

Very nice clips, Muppet!

Picked up Overwatch on the Xbox One recently. It's good fun with friends, and while I'm still generally learning the characters and maps, somehow I managed this goodness:


Meanwhile, in Fallout 4, I am defeated by the smallest of challenges.


Also, for the two of you that don't absolutely hate Gears of War, the crew and I have been up to our ears this year in shenanigans and close matches.
Gears of War 4 Beta Clips - nice kills but mostly shenanigans, including some of the wonkiest ragdolls I've seen in awhile, 2 minutes
Mortar Madness - private match shenanigans, 9 minutes
Blitz on Mausoleum - close match where we direct a new strategy mid-match, 24 minutes

Shovel Knight's next expansion, Specter of Torment, has been released on Steam. I'm about 1/3rd in and it's been enjoyable so far! You play as Specter Knight, whose movement is heavily inspired by Ninja Gaiden. The stages feature several similar mechanical elements from the main game, but are generally redesigned and leave much to be learned. The bosses have also been updated with somewhat different attack patterns and boss room environments.

I recall several folks being thrown off by Plague Knight's expansion, as his controls were fairly challenging to grasp. In comparison, Specter Knight's controls are much more intuitive, but you really need to avoid button mashing.

From what I can tell so far, the overworld has been replaced with a stage select feature, which feels refreshing as now you can attempt stages in whatever order you choose.

So far, I highly recommend playing it! It's fairly challenging and you definitely want to have played the normal campaign beforehand, though.

There's like a million different versions of Shovel Knight now, and not all of them have been updated yet, so release info can be found here.

Plague Knight's "charge an attack button to get an addition jump" definitely turned my brain upside down for awhile. It made much more sense as time went on - but after completing the game I realized Yacht Club had posted two pages of game mechanics insight, and honestly, they described some some techniques that I still hadn't been aware of. I tend to look at it as an "oh, neat" sort of revelation 'cause I tend to love mechanical tidbits in games, but I can certainly see the "difficulties reaching the player/intuition" side of the argument.