Unoriginal and Uncreative【Game-Log: Post-October 2025】
I got a bacterial throat infection in late october that didn't do much except sap a lot of my energy. Sitting around playing computer games was the perfect way to spend time. Family matters then delayed writing this log.
Major Timesinks and Finished Games
I hit a limit in Megabonk. It's a good game, but the end game is grating. There seems to be more effort put into making the "meme humour" more annoying than there is to make the late game appealing.
Dispatch is a superhero themed drama game from ex-Telltale developers. It has great visuals and acting talent, fantastic characters, interesting enough scripts and choices, and some of the worst quick-time events I've ever seen in the game. Fortunately the latter can be switched off with no detriment (other than that they are baked into the choreography). The game is being released 2 episodes every week, and I am through 4 of 8 so far, and so far I think it's excellent.
Dead Finger Dice is a game where you play gamble your literal fingers in a game of dice against billionaires. It has a notable black and white dithered style, and is by the creators of 2024's fantastic Psychroma. It's also a massive disappointment. It advertises "Permadeath" but has no such thing, and is in fact reliant on multiple runs and the incredibly cumbersome 8-step process to preserving inventory accross runs. The story and lore of the world is kind of interesting, but I learned everything in one moderately succesful run and everything else has been boring busy work.
Trimjob is a simple 2D "golf" game where you launch lawn-clippers at unmowed plants, and attempt to trim them all in as few interactions as possible. As a game you play once to experience the whole thing it's perfect for it's $3 pricetag. It claims to have replayability, but I see no evidence that this would be interesting at all.
Dead Static Drive is a game about running around desert towns haunted by cosmic horrors. It has been in development for 55826 years. It was apparently still only 80% complete, because nothing seemed to work properly at all. Something obviously went very wrong, because it's a clearly not ready.
Necesse was a game I purchases in early access some years ago but never actually played, and it recently reached a full release so I decided to give it ago. It's a top-down variant on the Minecraft/Terraria format of crafting a base, then exploring and fighting to get better materials. It's surprising simple and fun at just that, with a good range of gear and environments. But what makes it stand out is that you can manage an area as a village and recruit NPCs of different types to do assorted tasks for you and/or join your adventuring crew. The interface for this is stripped down from most city builders, but is simultaneously more satisfying than 90% of them.
Q-UP is an idle/incremental/"clicker" game pretending to be a competitive e-sport themed around coin flipping. The actual matches are literal coin flips you can't control, but there is a hex grid of interlinked skills you can use to improve your personal rank and make the number go up. In between matches a hilarious plot plays out in your email inbox and equipment store text. One of the best pieces of satire in an eternity.
The Séance of Blake Manor is a mystery adventure game played in the first person where any meaningful action takes a minute of in-game time. The player is sent to Blake Manor to locate a missing woman within a weekend. Most of the game is an atmospheric and challenging mystery game that works both as a game and a mystery. In this regard it is near perfect. Unfortunately a terrible tutorial/introduction that isn't representative of the game (two consecutive in-game hour long mysteries that need to be solved or it's game over) is a poor start to the game. Beyond that it has a few spectacularly bad bugs or specific pieces of evidence that illogically gate progress. I was left feeling like I'd played 90% of a great game, with the rest of it stolen from me.
Tried Out or Revisited Briefly
Hole is a weird extraction shooter set in endless levels where you loot things and engage in gunfights, then escape via a microwave. Strange and quite well done.
Football Manager 26 is spectacularly broken. Not quite to Dead Static Drive levels.
OnlyCans: Thirst Date is a strip club simulator where there are cans of soda instead of naked people. A+.
Onirism is shooter where you play as a small girl trying to recover her teddy bear. Very specatacular style reminiscent of big budget console platformers. The third buggiest game mentioned Today.
Evil Egg is a fast paced dual joystick shooter. frenetic and difficult, but great action. Also free.
Deep Space Exploitation is an Asteroids clone but you are mining gems from the asteroids and using the revenue to improve your ship. Has friction for some reason, which makes it feel simultaneously less satisfying, but more cumbersome.
Worldbox added the scourge of "unlocking" for some unknown reason. Still a neat sandbox.
October Game of the Month
Pager
The best game I played in October was Pager. Surreal and clever, and constantly making me think "Just one more floor." but in a good way.
All Games Played
Automobilista 2: GREAT
Megabonk: Good
Hades II: Good
House of Necrosis: GREAT (Notable)
Dispatch: GREAT (Notable)
Dead Finger Dice: OK
Trimjob: Good
Dead Static Drive: Mediocre
Necesse: GREAT (Notable)
Q-Up: GREAT (Notable)
The Séance of Blake Manor: Good
Hole: Good
Football Manager 26: Mediocre
Onlycans - Thirst Date: Good
Onirism: OK
Evil Egg: Good
Deep Space Exploitation: OK
Worldbox: Good
I got a bacterial throat infection in late october that didn't do much except sap a lot of my energy. Sitting around playing computer games was the perfect way to spend time. Family matters then delayed writing this log.
Major Timesinks and Finished Games
I hit a limit in Megabonk. It's a good game, but the end game is grating. There seems to be more effort put into making the "meme humour" more annoying than there is to make the late game appealing.
Dispatch is a superhero themed drama game from ex-Telltale developers. It has great visuals and acting talent, fantastic characters, interesting enough scripts and choices, and some of the worst quick-time events I've ever seen in the game. Fortunately the latter can be switched off with no detriment (other than that they are baked into the choreography). The game is being released 2 episodes every week, and I am through 4 of 8 so far, and so far I think it's excellent.
Dead Finger Dice is a game where you play gamble your literal fingers in a game of dice against billionaires. It has a notable black and white dithered style, and is by the creators of 2024's fantastic Psychroma. It's also a massive disappointment. It advertises "Permadeath" but has no such thing, and is in fact reliant on multiple runs and the incredibly cumbersome 8-step process to preserving inventory accross runs. The story and lore of the world is kind of interesting, but I learned everything in one moderately succesful run and everything else has been boring busy work.
Trimjob is a simple 2D "golf" game where you launch lawn-clippers at unmowed plants, and attempt to trim them all in as few interactions as possible. As a game you play once to experience the whole thing it's perfect for it's $3 pricetag. It claims to have replayability, but I see no evidence that this would be interesting at all.
Dead Static Drive is a game about running around desert towns haunted by cosmic horrors. It has been in development for 55826 years. It was apparently still only 80% complete, because nothing seemed to work properly at all. Something obviously went very wrong, because it's a clearly not ready.
Necesse was a game I purchases in early access some years ago but never actually played, and it recently reached a full release so I decided to give it ago. It's a top-down variant on the Minecraft/Terraria format of crafting a base, then exploring and fighting to get better materials. It's surprising simple and fun at just that, with a good range of gear and environments. But what makes it stand out is that you can manage an area as a village and recruit NPCs of different types to do assorted tasks for you and/or join your adventuring crew. The interface for this is stripped down from most city builders, but is simultaneously more satisfying than 90% of them.
Q-UP is an idle/incremental/"clicker" game pretending to be a competitive e-sport themed around coin flipping. The actual matches are literal coin flips you can't control, but there is a hex grid of interlinked skills you can use to improve your personal rank and make the number go up. In between matches a hilarious plot plays out in your email inbox and equipment store text. One of the best pieces of satire in an eternity.
The Séance of Blake Manor is a mystery adventure game played in the first person where any meaningful action takes a minute of in-game time. The player is sent to Blake Manor to locate a missing woman within a weekend. Most of the game is an atmospheric and challenging mystery game that works both as a game and a mystery. In this regard it is near perfect. Unfortunately a terrible tutorial/introduction that isn't representative of the game (two consecutive in-game hour long mysteries that need to be solved or it's game over) is a poor start to the game. Beyond that it has a few spectacularly bad bugs or specific pieces of evidence that illogically gate progress. I was left feeling like I'd played 90% of a great game, with the rest of it stolen from me.
Tried Out or Revisited Briefly
Hole is a weird extraction shooter set in endless levels where you loot things and engage in gunfights, then escape via a microwave. Strange and quite well done.
Football Manager 26 is spectacularly broken. Not quite to Dead Static Drive levels.
OnlyCans: Thirst Date is a strip club simulator where there are cans of soda instead of naked people. A+.
Onirism is shooter where you play as a small girl trying to recover her teddy bear. Very specatacular style reminiscent of big budget console platformers. The third buggiest game mentioned Today.
Evil Egg is a fast paced dual joystick shooter. frenetic and difficult, but great action. Also free.
Deep Space Exploitation is an Asteroids clone but you are mining gems from the asteroids and using the revenue to improve your ship. Has friction for some reason, which makes it feel simultaneously less satisfying, but more cumbersome.
Worldbox added the scourge of "unlocking" for some unknown reason. Still a neat sandbox.
October Game of the Month
Pager
The best game I played in October was Pager. Surreal and clever, and constantly making me think "Just one more floor." but in a good way.
All Games Played
Automobilista 2: GREAT
Megabonk: Good
Hades II: Good
House of Necrosis: GREAT (Notable)
Dispatch: GREAT (Notable)
Dead Finger Dice: OK
Trimjob: Good
Dead Static Drive: Mediocre
Necesse: GREAT (Notable)
Q-Up: GREAT (Notable)
The Séance of Blake Manor: Good
Hole: Good
Football Manager 26: Mediocre
Onlycans - Thirst Date: Good
Onirism: OK
Evil Egg: Good
Deep Space Exploitation: OK
Worldbox: Good
Noisy Pixel - Gaming, Etc.
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