Mastodawn

【Game-Log: Post-November 2025】

A lot of Demonschool.

Major Timesinks and Finished Games

I'm still playing Worldbox as a background game. It's still fun to build worlds of civilisations of bizarre combinations of species and watch them fuck each other up. It's still annoying you have to unlock random options through byzantine achievements.

Most of my time in the last 3 weeks has been playing Demonschool. I literally just finished it. It took me a little under 50 hours and was fantastic all the way. I will right more about it separately, but it is an utterly fantastic game.

Old School Rally version 1.0 released and I played a fair bit more of it. Enough to know that it's still a lot of fun. Quite a few events, and some new routes, have been added to the progression. Though annoyingly some of the new content seems to be awkwardly jammed into parts of the progression I've already finished and doesn't offer much new.

I also played some Dirt Rally 2.0, which is fine. It's very realistic in some ways, and has a large collection of cars. But equally there seems to be a magical self-correction in some areas (turn into a cliff face on a straight and you'll magically end up facing the same way again with no input), but not others (dip a wheel wide off a ford and the car levers itself over and unable to move.) The constant server pinging is completely obnoxious too, almost every menu or loading action is associated with 5-10 second delay as a result. Additionally one of the DLCs I bought has a credit bonus that renders most of the career rewards and progression meaningless, this is mandatory, any attempt to remove or undo that bonus so I can actually play the career mode as intended is intercepted by the many server pings and undone.

Tried Out or Revisited Briefly

Formula Legends is a racing game that straddles the line between arcade and F1 sim. It has a really neat style and great cartoony representations of every era of F1 since the early 60s. Unfortunately the handling was so bizarre (losing grip = turning the steering wheel less) that they had to rebuild it rom the ground up, and the new version was broken in a different way (you can lock the breaks while exiting a hairpin).

ASTRONAUTILUS is a side-scrolling shmup inspired heavily by Star of Providence. It copies that game so well, that any unique things added to ASTRONAUTILUS just feel wrong and broken because of how otherwise similar it is.

Eufloria Classic is an updated version of Eufloria. It's still pleasant and relaxing to play, but I'm not sure how much is actually changed.

I dipped into Nuclear Throne's 10th anniversary "Update 100", which adds some modernisation and a new character. I didn't play much, but Nuclear Throne is still great and these updates seem helpful. Although the animation on the menu at 120FPS is uncanny.

Tingus Goose has some insane art about wholesome parasitic Goose monsters. Game is fine, but the surreal art is the draw. The developer has some sort of Crypto side-gig that drains my interest in the game.

November Game of the Month

Demonschool

As above, so below.

All Games Played

Automobilista 2: GREAT

Worldbox: Good

Demonschool: GREAT (Notable)

Old School Rally: GREAT (Notable)

Dirt Rally 2.0: OK

Formula Legends: Disappointing

ASTRONAUTILUS: OK

Eufloria Classic: Good

Nuclear Throne: GREAT

Tingus Goose: Good

bison ✅Dec 8

thanks game

#worldbox #motivation #motivational #wisdom #success

Unoriginal and Uncreative Nov 24

【Game-Log: Mid-November 2025】

IDK, it's November I guess.

Major Timesinks and Finished Games

Rue Valley is a narrative driven timeloop game with the RPG mechanics of Disco Elysium... for about 5 minutes. Having explained and tutorialised it's many mechanics in the first 3 or 4 loops, the game just drops 75% of them. For much of the rest of the game it becomes an extremely broken, but compelling narrative adventure with a good mystery and multiple interesting storylines. Then it decides it wants to be bad again and makes you sit through an arduous one hour sequence ending in a fake ending. Then there's a narrative driven epilogue that is less compelling than the earlier game. I can't recommend it to anyone.

Necesse is still a lot of fun. It's flattened out a bit, but I still enjoy both town-building and adventuring, and I have things to work toward.

Likewise Worldbox really has added a lot in recent versions. I've had a lot of fun building different sandbox worlds and watching them implode themselves in many different ways. It's also still a shame that the unlocking process gates so many features, and is so at odds with the rest of the game.

I started an adventurer character in South East Asia in the latest Crusader Kings III and have had a great time guiding their dynasty through assorted misadventures and fuck-ups (including writing a fake legend that resulted in my character becoming the heir to the King of England, despite being based in Bali). At some point I decided to conquer a local realm and thus the game reverted to the usual CK3 fair of managing a ruler. For better (assorted intrigue and lewd plots) and worse (losing a war based on the games fictional numbers unrelated to the actual state of the world.)

Demonschool is a game I've been waiting literal years for. It's an rpg set in a school on a demon-infested island, but with puzzle-ish combat encounters in the style of Into the Breach, rather than turn based combat + grinding levels. I've really enjoyed it so far (about 8 hours in), the story and writing are great with a ton of well-written incidental moments. The aesthetic is perfect, and there is an incredible soundtrack to go with it.

I finished Q-Up (as one character), which ended in the perfect manner for such a game. There's a cool cameo at the end too. There are a few minor gaps that are a bit annoying, where your "gameplay" has to catch up with plot requirements, but otherwise it's perfect satire.

A Case of Fraud is a small scale mystery game where you have to fill out a corporate org chart similar identically to the Roottrees game earlier this year. Instead of having a fake internet, it dumps a whole lot of evidence on you in one go, which can be more or less frustrating depending on context. I enjoy it, but I'm afraid I'll have lost the thought train necessary to continue it.

All Games Played

Automobilista 2: GREAT

Necesse: GREAT (Notable)

Q-Up: GREAT (Notable)

Worldbox: Good

Rue Valley: Mediocre

Crusader Kings III: Good

Demonschool: GREAT (Notable)

A Case of Fraud: Good

Unoriginal and Uncreative Nov 11

【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

Generale Specifico Oct 16

#worldbox non lo avevo ancora incrociato

GUERRA EPICA TRA LE 20 REGIONI ITALIANE. - WorldBox [ITA]

https://youtu.be/JkueQqWH-kI

#videogiochi #simulazione #curiosita

GUERRA EPICA TRA LE 20 REGIONI ITALIANE. - WorldBox [ITA]

YouTube

Matthew Brown Sep 29

World Boxed: A story of sorts

The first five chapters of World Boxed is available to read on my website, now.

World boxed charts the narrative in my head as I play World Box.

#games #story #WorldBox #writing

Canadian Curmudgeon 🍁Sep 15, 2025

#pcgaming #gaming #worldbox #godsim I'm looking for an immersive god sim. Been intrigued by Worldbox but it looks eye-wateringly busy. Any comments here on it? Or other suggestions? Not sure about Reus 2 (demo didn't enthrall me).

James Endicott Jul 26, 2025

I was trying to get my last gene unlocked in #WorldBox and made an interesting discovery. If bees become sentient, they have their own architectural style instead of using the default bug one that beetles and ants use.

CC: @olivvybee