September 3, 2023 - Day 246 - NewPlay Bonus Review
Total NewPlays: 267

Game: Starfield

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 6, 2023
Library Date: Sep 3, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 6h30m

Starfield is a first-or-third-person space-based RPG set in a post-Earth universe... but you probably knew that already.

I'm aiming for no spoilers here.

My kids bought me Starfield Premium as a Dad's Day gift, which meant I spent far too much of yesterday sitting in front of my PC.

I will spend far too much of tonight doing the same thing, in all likelihood.

Todd Howard, Executive Producer at Bethesda has described Starfield as "Skyrim in space", which is ridiculous, because I'm enjoying Starfield.

My entire playtime for Skyrim (the original 2015 edition) was 5.8 hours.

When the Skyrim Special Edition was released, I started over. I completed 6.3 hours.

I essentially got to the same point each time and got bored; it's not that I *dislike* Skyrim, it just didn't grab me and make me want to keep playing.

I do wonder whether more than a decade playing WoW just burned me out on fantasy RPGs.

I sank far more time into Fallout 4, but gave up on that because 50% of the time my 130+ hour save game crashes on load, and Bethesda's response was "start over".

Uhhh... no.

So Starfield feels more Fallout 4 than Skyrim to me, but YMMV.

Which is another interesting thing, now that I think about it. Fallout 4 and Skyrim feel like they have a lot more in common with each over than with Starfield, particularly when it comes to the UI.

Starfield feels... different.

The two games it most reminds me of are Star Citizen (thanks for the free weekends reminding me not to spend money on it!), and No Man's Sky.

However... there are a couple of things that have surprised me so far.

"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.” - Douglas Adams

In No Man's Sky, space *feels* big. Overwhelmingly so. (Total playtime, 13.9 hours).

In Starfield (so far!) not so much. You open a star-map, choose a planet, choose a location, and effectively fast-travel there (launches and landings are cool though).

Then there are the space battles; I have a T.16000M HOTAS (thanks, pandemic!). I love to kick back in Chorus and shoot down a bunch of space bad guys.

In space, no-one can hear you scream in frustration at the mouse & keyboard controls for space battles. I assume it works with a controller, but thrust into an unexpected battle, I didn't get to the point of trying that yet.

That's the extent of my critiques. Starfield's launch is everything Redfall wasn't, and Starfield is:

5: Excellent

#Starfield #FirstPerson #RPG #Space #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 4, 2023 - Day 247 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 268

Game: Ring of Pain

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Oct 16, 2020
Library Date: Sep 25, 2022
Unplayed: 344d (11m10d)
Playtime: 22m

Ring of Pain is a roguelike card game, written by a Melbourne-based dev.

Because it's Melbourne, and I know people who know people, it would make me nervous to say anything bad about it.

It's helpful then that I don't actually have anything bad to say about it.

It's a weird and decidedly creepy roguelike, in which a half-human half-bird creature has summoned you to a nest (I think), where your goal is to survive.

I actually played it for longer than I intended to.

Even though I'm not a huge fan of card-based roguelikes, Ring of Pain is:

4: Good

#RingOfPain #Cards #Roguelike #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 5, 2023 - Day 248 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 269

Game: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Anniversary Edition

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 6, 2011
Library Date: May 29, 2015
Unplayed: 3021d (8y3m7d)
Playtime: 23m

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Anniversary Edition was released in 2021 as a free update to Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, with all of the previously released DLCs and add-ons included.

The game is a third-person shooter-hack-and-slash combo.

A few minutes after starting the game I found myself thrown straight into combat as an Ultramarine Space Marine(?), with the game throwing multiple combinations of mouse button and key presses at me, as a barrage of Orks attacked me.

Such frantic combinations as "Press f then mouse button 5 then e". My dude, I have no idea which button on my mouse is mouse button 5. I can't even tell my left and right apart most of the time, let alone which of the other seven buttons on my mouse beyond 1 & 2 are which.

Even the G Hub software just calls them "Forward" and "Back". It took a torch and a minute of trying to find the right viewing angle and distance for my 49yo eyes to work out which button had "G5" stamped into the plastic ("Forward", for the record).

Trying to remember which of the buttons are which in the middle of a pitched battle was a lot, particularly when - on top of all this - the mouse view is bizarrely restricted, even with my mouse set to 3200 DPI.

I had to pick up my mouse, move it, and put it down again more than once just to do a 180 degree sweep. I don't think I've had to do that since mice were functionally male.

After surviving that mission, and slowly starting to mash the right buttons in the right order, I started to feel like the game was making sense.

I was slamming my way around the map, Orks getting splattered by my big gun, and my big knife making short work of any Orks who got too close.

Unfortunately, as with many other games that have a few years on the clock, there are games that have been released since that provide a similar gameplay experience with a better user interface and/or user experience.

In practice, if the Warhammer 40k branding were stripped away, the battle gameplay feels a lot like Outriders, but less refined; unfortunately for the game, I have no emotional bond to Warhammer or 40k, so there's not a lot to keep my interest.

If I'm in the mood for "big weapons make enemies go splorch", it's probably going to be Outriders or Gears of War before this.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Anniversary Edition is:

3: OK

#Warhammer40K #SpaceMarine #ThirdPerson #Shooter #HackAndSlash #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 6, 2023 - Day 249 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 270

Game: Astral Shipwright

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Nov 12, 2022
Library Date: Sep 2, 2023
Unplayed: 4d
Playtime: 45m

Astral Shipwright is a spaceship building and trading... game.

I added this to my Steam library after the dev who created it and another game decided to shut down his game development studio, and made them both free, and open-sourced the code.

There's absolutely no intro, no tutorial. You're just in a space dock and you start building your ship.

Once you've built a working ship, and you're ready to fly, you discover that you've got no money left to buy fuel, or hire crew, or buy resources to sell elsewhere.

You delete your save, start over, build a smaller ship, buy that stuff, and spend a lot of time clicking on things in the process of buying something here, flying there, selling it, buying something else, selling it elsewhere, and slowly upgrading your ship.

It's pretty bare-bones; it feels more like a demo than a completed game, yet strangely compelling. The bones of something interesting is there, and for free, the price was right.

Astral Shipwright is:

3: OK

#AstralShipwright #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 7, 2023 - Day 250 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 271

Game: Mirror's Edge Catalyst

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jun 7, 2016
Library Date: Nov 26, 2022
Unplayed: 285d (9m12d)
Playtime: 24m

Mirror's Edge Catalyst is a first person parkour & melee game.

Today I also learned, after giving in and playing it without playing Mirror's Edge first, it is not in fact, a sequel. It's a reboot.

I use a Logitech G13 Gameboard for my gaming, which has a terrible design flaw in the thumb button, which causes the activation lug for the microswitch to snap off.

I have the thumb button set to "jump".

I've had some replacements 3D-printed, but they usually don't last more than a few months.

This one didn't last the game.

The thing about this game (which looks gorgeous!) is that learning each of the moves feels a little bit frustrating to try and pull off, but once I started to "get" it, it felt good.

When I managed to start stringing them together it felt great.

But then when you get into that flow state, where you start anticipating the moves just before you need to pull them off, that feels amazing...

...until the jump button stops working.

Anyway, looks like I'm pulling my G13 apart again tomorrow to swap out yet *another* activation lug.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst is:

4: Good

#MirrorsEdgeCatalyst #FirstPerson #Parkour #Melee #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 8, 2023 - Day 251 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 272

Game: Synced

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 8, 2023
Library Date: Sep 8, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 1h4m

Synced is a free-to-play third-person post-apocalyptic sci-fi co-op PvE or PvP looter-shooter with roguelite elements.

Today's apocalypse is brought to you by [spins wheel]... nanotechnology!

This is another Tencent game. Fans of Ring of Elysium (a F2P battle royale set for shutdown on December 1st) assert that Synced is just Tencent recycling game assets, but as I never played Ring of Elysium, I cannot verify this.

I have, however, played Synced.

It feels like a game designed by sticking a bunch of post-it notes with gaming-related words on a wall, and throwing darts while blindfolded until a set of ideas was assembled to wrap around the core gameplay element.

Of course, being a Tencent game, the core gameplay element is microtransactions.

The tutorial puts you in the shoes of "Deadcut", a "runner" (yeah) who's a gambling man with a sarcastic running commentary.

Joy. I get to play as a man. I never managed to enjoy pretending to be a man in real life, I prefer not to play one in a game.

The basic tutorial lays out the story, introduces you to your... familiar? Nano tank? Nano pal who's fun to be with?

During each level, you can weaken a nano mob to the point your can "Sync" with it (thus 'Synced') and... then it lives in your nano-infused arm except when you need it?

Once introduced to the basic gameplay loop of killing mobs, collecting power-up goop, and trading that goop for power-ups at regular "exchange stations" that offer "random" power-ups (the roguelite bit), you then make it to "Haven".

The sassy leader of Haven declares that you must be something special to make it there all by yourself; she sends you off on your choice of 3-person PvE or PvP quest... with two other players with identical avatars. I feel so special.

There's a touch of PUBG to the looting, with a much smaller weapon selection; you fight your way through the nano mobs, and nano minibosses to the nano boss of the level as "the surge" (yes, really), grows in strength until it reaches 100%.

There's a safe zone around the mini bosses & bosses when they've zoned in, and if you're outside the eye of the storm... erm.. in the surge, you'll be taking constant damage.

Finish this part of the tutorial, and suddenly you can become one of the other two F2P "runners", or pay for the battle pass (nobody expects the Battle Pass!) to increase your choices.

I assume that much like Ring of Elysium, Synced will last for a few years with a handful of whales paying for the Battle Pass, until Tencent rebrand their studio and release their next big microtransaction-looter.

I'm really not sure who this mashup microtransaction engine is aimed at; Synced is just:

2: Meh

#Synced #ThirdPerson #ShooterLooter #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 9, 2023 - Day 252 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 273

Game: Rock of Ages 2

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Aug 28, 2017
Library Date: Feb 2, 2019
Unplayed: 1680d (4y7m7d)
Playtime: 15m

Rock of Ages 2: Bigger & Boulder is a bizarre tower defence boulder-racing game.

There's a bunch of games that never made it to being reviewed this year. Many of them were multiplayer games; some of which are still on sale, but invariably had no-one to play against, other than bots or the bizarre individuals who get their kicks from hacking a game and then killing anyone who tries to play.

There's another group of games that didn't make it. Frequently ancient, wouldn't run on Windows 10. Alas, their time has come and gone.

Rock of Ages II is a little weirder. It's just over six years old, but absolutely refused to load.

Load > Crash. Load > Crash. Load > Crash.

[Tech support mode on]

Event viewer is recording the crash, but not making it clear what's at fault.

To the Googles!

One fix says to disable networking.

That... actually works. Not a good solution, but it must be something new in Windows 11 network code, right?

Actually, no.

I went through a stage of this project where I just started all the games for a minute to shorten my "year" list for unplayed games.

When I started ROA2 previously *before* I upgrades, it had worked fine without crashing.

Digging into the Steam discussions: "Changing this global OpenSSL variable fixes it!"

No, thank you. I don't think I will.

A bit more on the Googles leads to a page on Intel's website, that explains that certain versions of UE4 contain an older OpenSSL library, that triggers a crash on 10th Gen and newer CPUs, and by setting that OpenSSL variable, it tells UE4 to ignore the SHA extensions.

However, it only needs to be set in the launch options for the game, not globally.

We're off to the races.

Literally. This is a game in which you play Sisyphus (I think?) and roll a boulder through an obstacle course towards the castle of your AI opponent (who are various historical figures acting in decidedly non-historical ways).

Inside your castle, workers are quickly carving your boulder from a solid rock. While this is happening, you frantically set up your various defenses to try and knock the AI's boulder off course, while they are doing the same.

As soon as your boulder is ready, you roll it towards their castle, and try to smash down their door. Boulder hits door, does damage, rinse and repeat.

First one with a smashed door loses. All of this is wrapped in a classical music soundtrack with Pythonesque graphical stylings.

I lost, beaten soundly by Joan of Arc (!)

I think, if I were in the right mood, Rock of Ages 2 would be:

3: OK

#RockOfAges2 #TowerDefense #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 9, 2023 - Day 252 - PlayOn Bonus Review 2

Game: Tina Tina's Wonderlands Chaotic Great Edition

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jun 24, 2022
Library Date: Oct 26, 2022

Playtime: 10h42m

This month's Humble Choice bundle dropped on Wednesday morning AEST, and in an unsurprising turn of events, the first game in the bundle, the "AAA game" is Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Chaotic Great Edition... which I already own.

So y'all get a PlayOn review. I opened it up for a few minutes to show my 11yo ("no, that's not the kind of game I like")... and I was still playing an hour later.

I have a weird relationship with the Borderlands games, and the ad campaign for Borderlands 3 typified my problem. "Guns! Guns! More Guns!!!"

I... don't care. There comes a point that trying to manage and juggle all those weapons becomes frustrating. "Do I keep this gun or this one with slightly different specs?" Which guns do I keep, which do I sell?

It just becomes overwhelming. I've spent almost 45 hours in Borderlands 3, and it feels like about half of that was just inventory management.

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is essentially Borderlands 3 wrapped in a fantasy setting, so a fantasy-themed action-RPG first-person shooter.

The conceit of the game is Tiny Tina (Ashly Burch) from Borderlands is Dungeon Master for a tabletop game called Bunkers & Badasses (wink wink), with you, and two other players, Captain Valentine (voiced by Andy Samberg(!)), and Frette (a robot voiced by Wanda Sykes(!!))

The villain of the campaign is the evil "Dragon Lord", voiced by Will Arnett (!!!)

Honestly, it was the voice cast that got me across the line for Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, and I have no regrets.

Yes, the inventory management is just as frustrating as Borderlands 3, but the switch to the "fantasy" environment and the humour of the interactions between the characters makes it a lot of fun.

If you enjoy the humour of the Borderlands series, and enjoy fantasy games, then you'll probably enjoy TTW. If not...

If for no other reason, if you don't already own TTW, it makes this month's Humble Choice bundle a steal, whatever else is included.

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is:

5: Excellent

#TinyTinasWonderlands #FPS #Fantasy #ARPG #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #PlayOn

September 10, 2023 - Day 253 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 274

Game: Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Oct 27, 2010
Library Date: Apr 21, 2015
Unplayed: 3064d (8y4m20d)
Playtime: 47m

Dragon Age: Origins is a third-person fantasy RPG that was released on November 6, 2009. The "Ultimate Edition" was released almost a year later, containing all of the DLCs that had been released for the game.

I'm not sure how this ended up in my pile of shame. As I mentioned in my Starfield review, I feel like WoW burned me out on fantasy-themed games, and I don't feel like I would have bought this intentionally.

But here it is. I wish I hadn't waited quite so long to play it.

DA:O is almost 14 years old. It's been sitting in my library for 8 years. Graphically, it feels like a like a game from 2009 (although it supports ultrawide screens out of the box!). It *really* needs a FOV slider, because that's a lot of field of view.

The character creator is pretty good, particularly for a game of this age, but the character animations feel a little wooden.

But... the story. It just hooked me straight in. I was invested in the relationships between my character and her family almost immediately. I looked up, and almost 45 minutes had passed.

Looks like I'm going to have several RPGs on the go at once. I've also read commentary that says that DA:O has a lot in common with Baldur's Gate 3 (on my wishlist), so at this rate, I'm never going to get to the end of my Pile of Shame.

Even at this early point in the game, Dragon's Age: Origins seems very:

4: Good

#DragonsAgeOrigins #RPG #Fantasy #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 11, 2023 - Day 254 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 275

Game: Deceive Inc.

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Mar 22, 2023
Library Date: Sep 11, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 21m

Deceive Inc. is a first-person multiplayer PvP hide-and-seek extraction shooter mash-up. It's the second game in this month's Humble Choice bundle, and I'll admit that I was a bit disappointed to see it.

I'd looked briefly at Deceive Inc. on Steam in the past and added it to my "Ignore" list, because it didn't really seem like my kind of thing, and having played it now, I was right.

Deceive Inc. does seem kind of unique. It's part Among Us, part Midnight Ghost Hunt, part extraction shooter, with bit of Deathloop's swagger, all by way of Fortnite's graphical styling...

...as well as Fortnite's monetisation model. It seems almost impossible to release a AA game now without including a battle pass of some kind.

It feels like so many games want to be the next Fortnite, and I don't want to pay for a battle pass in any of them, particularly a paid game (*cough* Diablo IV *cough*).

As a game, it's stylish (in that Unreal Engine 4 way) and the gameplay is OK.

The biggest problem for me is that I despise solo PvP extraction shooters [exasperated sigh in the direction of The Division 2's Dark Zone], and I just don't enjoy hide-and-seek style games that much, and mashing them up like this is like offering me peas and corn as a meal.

It might be that if I played one of the 2v2 or 3v3 modes with friends, I might enjoy it more, but if I was already down to play something with friends, this probably wouldn't be on the list of options to begin with.

Deceive Inc. is:

2: Meh

#DeceiveInc #FirstPerson #PvP #ExtractionShooter #HideAndSeek #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 12, 2023 - Day 255 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 276

Game: The Forgotten City

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jul 28, 2021
Library Date: Sep 12, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 3h42m

The Forgotten City is a first-person narrative-driven adventure involving time loops, and an ancient Roman city.

It's the third game in this month's Humble Bundle, and if you're a fan of narrative adventures (eg. Firewatch) or time travel gameplay, this might be the game for you.

It was a bit slow at first; I was 10 minutes in, and I was thinking it wasn't really a game for me.

...and that was three and a half hours ago.

The graphics are pretty good, the sound design is great, but the narrative is excellent.

However, I'm not going to write a longer review. The problem with this game, and it's highlighted upfront by the devs is that to say too much about it spoils the game for those who haven't played it.

Thus, please consider my three and three quarter hours of straight playtime, and having reached one of four endings my way of saying that The Forgotten City is:

5: Excellent

#TheForgottenCity #FirstPerson #Adventure #TimeTravel #HumbleChoice #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 13, 2023 - Day 256 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 277

Game: Aces & Adventures

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Feb 24, 2023
Library Date: Sep 13, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 24m

Aces & Adventures is a fantasy RPG deckbuilding roguelite using poker mechanics.

It's the fourth game in this month's Humble Bundle, and the first where, in spite of a tutorial, I had no idea what was happening half the time.

I don't know. I'm still not sure exactly what happened.

You play as one of several classes, each of which (other than the first) you unlock by playing. I completed playing "Spring" as a dwarf warrior and unlocked the rogue class.

It's turn-based combat, in which you have three decks in play simultaneously. The attack deck which is a standard 52 card deck, a second deck of ability cards, and a third deck of upgrade cards.

At least I think that's what was happening. Admittedly, I'm very tired right now, which might have stunted my understanding of how to play, but I muddled my way through to completing the first... section? Quest?

In any case, I think I need to give Aces & Adventures a pass this time, and blame it on myself, so for now it's:

3: OK

#AcesAndAdventures #Fantasy #Roguelite #Deckbuilder #HumbleChoice #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 14, 2023 - Day 257 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 278

Game: Patch Quest

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Mar 3, 2023
Library Date: Sep 14, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 24m

Patch Quest is a top-down 2D twin stick roguelike-metroidvania-monster catching bullet-hell mashup.

This is the fifth game in this month's Humble Choice bundle.

With cutesy cartoonish graphics, you run around a "patchwork land" armed with a lasso and a gun-that-is-not-a-gun-but-really-it-is-a-gun, to capture monsters and ride them while you shoot others with the not-gun that makes them "fall asleep" and disappear.

Unlike last night's game, it's not that I'm too tired too understand it, it's just that it just all feels kind of bland.

There's a basic story to try and provide a reason to want to care about this odd maze full of monsters and give me a reason to catch or not-kill them, but I was kind of glad when I was done.

Patch Quest is just kind of:

2: Meh

#PatchQuest #TopDown #Twinstick #Roguelike #Metroidvania #HumbleChoice #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 14, 2023 - Day 257 - RePlay Review
Total RePlays: 8

Game: Aces & Adventures

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Feb 24, 2023
Library Date: Sep 13, 2023

Playtime: 52m (1h16m total)

Aces & Adventures is a fantasy RPG deckbuilding roguelite using poker mechanics.

Yeah, when I woke up this morning, I decided to give it another shot over coffee to see just how much of my ability to understand the game had been clouded by exhaustion.

Turns out, pretty much total.

When I played it this morning, it all made a hell of a lot more sense, both the way that the various kinds of cards work, and also the synergy between them.

In addition, I could actually remember a bunch of poker hands that evaded me last night.

Essentially, each round presents you with one or more cards with a bunch of hitpoints, health points, armor, etc etc. The cards also might have certain abilities.

You get one attack per round, but triggering abilities doesn't count as an attack, so if you can clear the board before your attack, you do that.

This morning's run had a card with first strike, and another set of three cards, that each time you kill one, the rest get stronger, so it helps if you have an ability card that synergises with your draw that enables you to hit all enemies for three damage at once.

Which I did, and required two spades to trigger.

During the attack round is when the poker hands come into play (pun intended); you play your hand and then the AI attempts to defend.

If you play a single Ace, for example, the best the AI can do is block that with an Ace. Play a King, and the AI can block it with a King, or trump it with an Ace, which means you take damage.

But a poker hand? Double or triple your damage, particularly if you've collected some upgrade cards that stay with you until the end of the round. Maybe you pick up a card that's +1 damage per spade played.

It's a nice damage addition when you drop a single spade, but when you drop a straight?

That won me the round against a boss mob.

So with some sleep under my belt, it's fair to bump Aces & Adventures up to:

4: Good

#AcesAndAdventures #Fantasy #Roguelite #Deckbuilder #HumbleChoice #MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #RePlay

September 15, 2023 - Day 258 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 279

Game: Foretales

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 15, 2022
Library Date: Sep 15, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 15m

Foretales is a card-based narrative adventure game. This is the sixth game in this month's Humble Choice bundle.

Once again, I'm exhausted and facing another card-based game.

You have two characters who are off on an adventure through your fairly typical anthropomorphic fantasy land. Vorelain is duckbill and a thief, Leo is a lion and an archer.

Each has attack points and defense points, and a set of cards that you can play as either character each turn to move through the narrative.

The quirky thing is that the game is designed in such a way that you can completely avoid combat and defeat your opponents by other means.

The game has a narrator, and it was all making sense until the audio suddenly went into overdrive and the output just became a wall of static. I was able to coax some vaguely useful sounds out of the speakers by turning all of the volume controls in the game (there are five!) down.

However, one of the casualties was the game's narrator, which made the rest of the level (a "region") a little uneven.

There's an option to save and exit, however this warns you that you'll be restarted at the beginning of the current region, and I was still in the start region, so... I muddled my way through to the next region.

It feels like there might be an interesting story there, but that audio bug was wild.

Tentatively, Foretales is:

3: OK

#Foretales #Fantasy #Adventure #Cards #HumbleChoice #MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 16, 2023 - Day 259 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 280

Game: Who Pressed Mute On Uncle Marcus?

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Mar 19, 2022
Library Date: Sep 16, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 21m

Over the last 279 games, I felt like I'd played every type of game that's available. I've played games I would not normally choose to play.

Who Pressed Mute On Uncle Marcus is a FMV murder mystery, and the seventh game in the September Humble Choice Bundle, and the first FMV game I've reviewed this year.

The video quality is good, the actors are OK, and Uncle Marcus is played by Andy Buckley, arguably best known as David Wallace in the US version of The Office.

I won't spoil the storyline, but you're presented with choices to make which leads to a branching decision tree as you try to solve a murder in one night.

If you like Andy Buckley, and FMV games, you'll like this. If you don't like either or both, this probably won't be your cup of tea.

In any case, I'll probably end up playing this through, because I'm a bit meh about FMV games, but I do like Andy Buckley (he was great in Avenue 5 too).

Who Pressed Mute On Uncle Marcus is:

[3: OK] [4:Good]

#WhoPressedMuteOnUncleMarcus #FMV #MurderMystery #HumbleChoice #MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 17, 2023 - Day 260 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 281

Game: Autonauts vs Piratebots

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jul 28, 2022
Library Date: Sep 17, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 41m

Autonauts vs Piratebots is a 3D base-builder survival strategy programming game. It's the last of this month's Humble Choice games and not an entirely bad way to end the bundle.

You're sent to Rigel VII (I guess the devs are Star Trek fans?) after your base of Autonauts is attacked and destroyed by Piratebots.

The survival comes into things with the good old "build stuff from blueprints by despoiling the world around you".

As an aside, even with what we know about climate and the environment, it's kind of wild how many games just fall back on "cut down or dig up the environment, and kill things" as the basic gameplay loop.

With that said, Autonauts vs Piratebots actually makes you build sustainable forests to cut down trees once you get started; it's just something I got to thinking about while playing.

The tricky part is that once you can start creating the bits you need, you can create robots to cut down the trees. Then you program the robots how to cut down trees.

However, their axes break, so you teach another robot how to make an axe, and program it to make an axe, and wait until the axe is taken before making a new one.

Cut down a tree? Someone has to gather the wood. It has to be put somewhere. Program the bots! Run out of bots? Build a bot factory.

41m in I'd worked my way through the basics of the tutorial, but just like programming in the real world, doing it when you're tired is going to lead to mistakes and debugging, like wondering why the bot won't do what you asked because you completely missed a section of the programming.

It's more scripting that programming per se, but you get the general idea.

Anyway, Autonauts vs Piratebots is:

3: OK

#AutonautsVsPiratebots #Strategy #BaseBuilder #Programming #HumbleChoice #MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 18, 2023 - Day 261 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 282

Game: Journey to the Savage Planet

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jan 28, 2020
Library Date: Sep 12, 2023
Unplayed: 6d
Playtime: 20m

Journey to the Savage Planet is a first person comedy sci-fi adventure game.

FOMO is a curse, and when it comes to a games wishlist, it's self-inflicted. I started using tracking sites like IsThereAnyDeal and GG.deals after missing out on one-too-many ridiculously cheap games that I'd wishlisted.

The downside is that it's not necessarily the best choice when that mixes with ADHD impulsivity.

"After all, why shouldn't I buy another sci-fi game nine days after I got Starfield?"

Oops.

In Journey to the Savage Planet, you find yourself in a company exploratory ship that's "landed" on the aforementioned planet.

Unfortunately for you, the company is less Weyland-Yutani and more Jupiter Mining Corporation by way of Planet Express.

The snarky onboard computer walks you through the first steps of the tutorial, including a cheesy intro video from the founder of Kindred Aerospace, "the 4th best interstellar company!"

You've been sent out to survey this planet as a possible option for human settlement. but you're basically stranded on this planet until you can find your way off, with the help of your trusty on-board 3D printer, and "Glob", which is both food and critter bait.

When you're teleported outside your ship (because no doors means no airlocks), you discover a planet that looks like it was designed by Jack Kirby on a bender. You might not want to play this game if you're prone to acid flashbacks.

Your job is to walk around this deserted planet and scan it.

Your first available weapon is a backhanded slap, but if you hold the attack hey, it's a *hard* backhanded slap.

The first critters you encounter are delightfully rounded little birds, who the scanner declare "love you", which makes it even harder to slap a few of them into oblivion to collect resources for your 3D printer, but there don't seem to be any other options.

Twenty minutes in and structures that appear to already exist on the planet indicate that this planet might not be as deserted as the initial scans appeared, and the message from Kindred's CEO upon this discovery seems to indicate that he's not quite everything he seems.

After 40 hours of Starfield, Journey to the Savage Planet is an amusing palate cleanser; it's:

4: Good

#JourneyToTheSavagePlanet #FirstPerson #SciFi #Adventure #MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 19, 2023 - Day 262 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 283

Game: Lies of P

Platform: Xbox Game Pass PC
Release Date: Sep 19, 2023
Installation Date: Sep 19, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 32m

Something a little different today. A review of Jodie Whittaker's Australian accent.

OK, not really (although it's passable, and justifiable with her backstory of having been living in the UK and returned to Australia).

As far as I remember, this is the first time I've reviewed an Xbox Game Pass game, which means I get to play Lies of P without dropping A$100 or more on it.

Lies of P is a third-person soulslike set within a retelling of the Pinocchio story. You play as P (ie. Pinocchio), who's suddenly awakened, seated in a train, in what very much appears to be mostly-human form, with the exception of a mechanical arm.

A voice calls to you to meet her at a hotel, but to get there, you first need to escape the train station, which is full of mechanical people determined to kill you.

You're presented with one of three initial playstyles, and I chose the one with the (seemingly) most straight-forward attack style (and the most HP).

Lies of P is set in the Belle Époque era. I had no idea what that was, but it's basically late 19th Century Europe through to WWII. The environment is beautiful.

One of the most lessons I learned the hard way, is don't make the mistake of skimming each of the tutorial pop-ups. Turns out they're kind of important.

Even so, by the time I hit the 32 minute mark, I'd traversed the same set of mobs five or six times, and died on the first boss repeatedly.

Blocking is incredibly important, both for restoring energy, and for staggering the mobs. Unfortunately, it requires very good timing, and I don't quite seem to be able to pull it off yet.

This is where XGPU is most useful to me. If I put in another couple of hours, and it's not a game I'm going to improve at (some of them aren't, thanks hand-eye coordination!), then nothing lost.

Not quite sure what I'll do when I have to start paying full price for XGPU, but that's a problem for 2027 Allie.

For now, Lies of P is:

4: Good

#LiesOfP #ThirdPerson #Soulslike #MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 20, 2023 - Day 263 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 284

Game: Aliens: Colonial Marines

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Feb 11, 2023
Installation Date: Sep 11, 2022
Unplayed: 374d (1y9d)
Playtime: 17m

Aliens: Colonial Marines is a Sci-fi survival horror FPS, and two out of four of those categories are games I don't like to play.

I wasn't sure what 2022 Allie thought she was doing with buying this, so I looked it up. It turns out it was part of a bundle, and for some reason I decided to install it?

That was my first mistake. The second was playing it. Technically, I only played it for twelve minutes, because the first five minutes of the game is basically a movie setting up the game as a follow-on from Aliens.

I probably don't need to explain further. Be a marine. Enter the Sulaco. Dark environment, Kill or be killed. Get killed.

There's absolutely nothing in this game that makes me want to even attempt to keep playing. Not my thing.

Aliens: Colonial Marines is a:

1: Nope

#AliensColonialMarines #FPS #SciFi #Survival #Horror #MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 21, 2023 - Day 264 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 284

This Play Intentionally Left Blank

September 22, 2023 - Day 265 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 285

Game: In Sound Mind

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 28, 2021
Installation Date: Aug 31, 2022
Unplayed: 387d (1y22d)
Playtime: 20m

In Sound Mind is a first-person psychological survival horror game, and that's a three out of three for a express train to nopeville.

I tried to give it a fair shake. The atmospheric design is pretty much exactly what you'd want in a horror game, as is the audio.

The environmental design is considerably more frustrating, with the things you can use being highlighted with an icon, and everything else just being... there.

You play as a psychologist who appears to be going quite mad, having woken up in the basement of a building in a completely flooded town.

You need to solve some puzzles, as the atmosphere got increasingly tense, I was less and less inclined to keep going.

For complex reasons, I get no enjoyment out of horror games, and this game has not changed that.

I'm sorry, In Sound Mind. It's not you, it's very definitely me, saying:

1: Nope

#InSoundMind #FirstPerson #Psychological #Survival #Horror #MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 23, 2023 - Day 266 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 286

Game: TOEM

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 17, 2021
Installation Date: Sep 13, 2023
Unplayed: 10d
Playtime: 56m

TOEM is a cozy black-and-white hand-drawn photography isometric photography game.

It doesn't sound like much when described like that, but it's absolutely lovely, particularly when coming off a couple of days of horror games.

You wake up in your grandmother's house, on the day of going to see the TOEM. Not sure what the TOEM *is* exactly, but it appears to be a coming-of-age journey within this world.

You explore the game, and you're given quests which are things to find and take photos of.

That's it. That's the gameplay loop.

Within the game there are also collectibles, and cassettes which you can play in your in-game tape player.

It was exactly the tonic I needed yesterday, and a great wind-down game.

TOEM is:

5: Excellent

#TOEM #Photography #Cozy #BlackAndWhite #HandDrawn #MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 24, 2023 - Day 267 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 287

Game: Dirt 5

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Nov 3, 2020
Installation Date: Sep 9, 2023
Unplayed: 15d
Playtime: 34m

Dirt 5 is an arcade off-road racing game developed by Codemasters.

I don't normally talk about who developed a particular game, but today is a little different.

I've always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with racing games. Mainly hate; from 1987 (Test Drive) through until 2019 I tried to like racing games, but I just didn't. Racing with keyboard/mouse is awful, and I couldn't "get" racing with a controller (PS2 / Gran Turismo).

That changed with the Xbox One controller and Forza Horizon 4. It finally clicked for arcade racing. I still don't enjoy technical racing sims.

Dirt Rally & Dirt Rally 2.0 were both an exercise in frustration. I'd heard that Dirt 5 was different, and I had a key for it, so I installed it.

They were correct. Dirt 5 is a whole different exercise in frustration.

As a racing game, it's proficient, and feels a lot like a rally cross between The Crew and Forza Horizon games.

Dirt 5 was released by Codemasters in 2020. Codemasters was purchased by Electronic Arts in 2021. Which explains a lot about why Dirt 5 has been almost impossible to play since 2021.

There is a literal gamebreaking bug, in a game that is less than three years old and remains unfixed. Quite simply, my initial start of this game was a fluke, because after that, it crashed every single time.

It's a known issue. It is unfixed. I put on my technical support hat, and went hunting. It appears that older DRM (Denuvo in this case) does not get on with the e-cores in 12th and 13th gen Intel CPUs.

Gigabyte released a workaround patch for 12th gen Alder Lake CPUs that parks the e-cores to enable compatibility, and I located an app (ParkControl) that will allow me to do the same, and it works consistently.

This is for a game that EA *still* sells.

The Steam forums have multiple posts about it crashing on startup, as do the EA Dirt 5 forums (for Xbox Game Pass PC and Steam).

EA just doesn't appear to care, which is no surprise at all.

Dirt 5 is:

3: OK (for racing)
1: Nope (for EA & DRM)

#Dirt5 #Racing #Rally #Arcade #MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 25, 2023 - Day 268 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 288

Game: Planet Alpha

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 15, 2018
Installation Date: Oct 14, 2019
Unplayed: 1442d (3y11m11d)
Playtime: 22m

Planet Alpha is a 2.5D sci-fi platform puzzle game with stealth gameplay mechanics.

You are a tall, slender astronaut in a fishbowl helmet, who awakens on an alien planet, and sets off on a left-to-right journey of survival.

The game initially opens at the resolution of your main monitor... on your leftmost monitor.

Since my main monitor is an ultrawide, and my leftmost monitor is a FHD monitor that's up and to the left, this is... irritating. Only made worse by the fact that the game doesn't allow you to specify which monitor to start on.

Oh well. WIN+Shift+Right Arrow, and it's on the main monitor. And away we go and... crash.

For the third time this month, I spend more time troubleshooting a game than playing it. This turns out to be the same issue as Rock of Ages 2. Using a version of Unreal 4 that has a buggy version of OpenSSL that triggers a crash on >10th Gen Intel CPUs. Add a start-up command, and finally we're off.

First off, this is a gorgeous looking game. The alien environment is truly alien, and lighting is used to great effect.

It is completely wordless. There is no explanation as to why you're there, or what your goal is. No obvious backstory.

At first there's a lot of climbing and jumping, and getting timing right.

Then you're introduced to the fact that you apparently have the ability to control day and night, and move the environment backwards and forwards through the day-night cycle at will...ish. When the game lets you, for specific puzzles.

Dev forbid you should use the ability for the stealth puzzles.

Ah, stealth mechanics. The gameplay mechanic I love to hate.

There are particular contexts in which I'm OK with it. This is not one of those contexts.

A few minutes after encountering the day-night magical power, you find yourself in a room that makes the whole game even more confusing. I'm not sure what it was trying to communicate, but the angry robots who smashed through the walls and started hunting you certainly seemed unhappy about it.

How do you avoid them? Stealth mechanic. Does it work? Sometimes. The game's 2.5D environment means I'm never quite sure whether they can see me or not, until they shoot me and I die. Several times.

This is one of those games where I *don't* like the stealth mechanic. There are also no save points, just "chapters", but no clear indication as to where chapters start and finish.

In the end, while the game is SO very pretty, there's just nothing to motivate me to keep pushing right on the controller.

Planet Alpha is pretty:

2: Meh

#PlanetAlpha #Platform #Puzzle #SciFi #MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 26, 2023 - Day 269 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 289

Game: Rage 2

Platform: Steam
Release Date: May 14, 2019
Installation Date: Nov 22, 2022
Unplayed: 308d (10m4d)
Playtime: 32m

Rage 2 is an open-world post-apocalyptic FPS.

Do you like things that go "splorch" when you shoot them? If you answered 'yes', Rage 2 might be the game for you!

Rage 2 is a sequel to Rage, a post-apocalyptic FPS. I played 27 minutes of Rage back in 2022, and found it a bit repetitive and grindy, and visually it was many shades of brown, grey, and black.

Rage 2 is BRIGHT! There's a woman with a blue mohawk and white facepaint screaming out of a pink and yellow background on the Steam header, like an escapee from Mad Max Fury Road.

The game is set about 30 years after the end of Rage, and the antagonist from Rage who wanted to take over the world is back, and he's pissed.

...and mostly robotic. He's been living underground and has amassed a ragtag army of mutants to... take over the world.

Where Rage felt grindy and repetitive even within the first 30 minutes, Rage 2 felt more... fun. However, I've only really completed what is essentially the intro, and gotten my first vehicle and a handful of quests, so maybe it will turn out to be less fun as time goes by.

In any case, I now have an alternative post-apocalyptic shoot-and-splorch game to Outriders.

Rage 2 seems:

4: Good

#Rage2 #FPS #OpenWorld #PostApocalyptic #MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 27, 2023 - Day 270 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 290

Game: Tunche

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Nov 3, 2021
Installation Date: Aug 9, 2023
Unplayed: 50d (1m19d)
Playtime: 21m

Tunche is 3D-ish brawler/roguelike set in the Amazon jungle.

Playing as one of five characters (one of whom appears to be Hat Kid from A Hat In Time??), each with their own backstory and reasons for being there, you attempt to make your way through the jungle, wildly mashing buttons and brawling with whatever pops out of the repetitive jungle screen to clear levels and collect whatever pops up.

No matter how I tried, I couldn't mash the right buttons in the right order, and even though I made it through all the way to the first boss, I got mashed by the boss, and didn't feel any desire to try again.

Tunche isn't really my thing, just a bit:

2: Meh

#Tunche #Brawler #Roguelike #MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 28, 2023 - Day 271 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 291

Game: Void Bastards

Platform: Steam
Release Date: May 29, 2019
Installation Date: Sep 25, 2022
Unplayed: 369d (1y4d)
Playtime: 19m

Void Bastards is a cel-shaded FPS roguelike, in which you play a reconstituted criminal, raiding successive space stations to collect spare parts on behalf of the AI controlling your stranded prison ship, so that it can be repaired, until you die. At which point you'll be replaced by another reconstituted criminal to continue the job.

Literally reconstituted, as it seems that in this universe, prison means being freeze-dried and powdered and placed into storage.

Each space station presents different challenges to overcome, while trying to collect parts, food, and fuel (to make it to the NEXT space station). You're also collecting equipment to build yourself upgrades, while trying not to get dead, but at least upgrades survive each death.

The next couple of weeks of reviews will probably be pretty short, while I'm on leave.

Void Bastards is:

3: OK

#VoidBastards #FPS #Roguelike #MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 29, 2023 - Day 272 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 292

Game: Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 22, 2017
Installation Date: Sep 29, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 15m

Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf is a deck-building turn-based tactics strategy game set in the 40K universe.

It showed up in a Humble Bundle offer, with all but one DLC included, at the lowest tier - AUD$1.56.

The catch is that the game is being delisted from Steam on October 12th.

For $1.56? Yeah, why not.

There are only 2 DLC missing; one is free, and I got the other for $1.02 with Steam's "Complete your bundle" option, so for a grand total of $2.58 I got an OK-ish turn-based tactics game.

Having played it, I actually feel like I got a bargain (I'll add a link to the Humble Bundle page below.)

Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf is:

3: OK

#Warhammer40KSpaceWolf #TurnBased #Tactics #MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

September 30, 2023 - Day 273 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 293

Game: Gladiator Trainer
Platform: Steam
Release Date: Nov 26, 2016
Installation Date: May 14, 2019
Unplayed: 1600d (4y4m16d)
Playtime: 19m

Gladiator Trainer is available on Steam, and is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a game.

It has many things in common with games. For instance, it has pictures. Graphics would infer some kind of movement. This game from 2016 contains less movement than Defender of the Crown (1986).

It's a "game" about making slaves fight as gladiators. Lovely.

Upon launching the game, like many other games, it throws you into a launcher first. The launcher is entirely empty, with the exception of a button at the bottom of the screen that says "Play Game".

Which then takes you to a main screen. While being set in a medieval-style fantasy land, it inexplicably has an anime girl on the main screen.

Presented with the option of keyboard control or mouse control, I chose the suggested mouse control.

This was a mistake.

It meant that clicking *anywhere* on screen at the wrong time would select the highlighted option.

That's when the highlighted option was selectable. Sometimes a list is available that presents options, but you can only select one.

Surprisingly, this game is still available on Steam. Normally priced at AUD$2.95, it's currently a steal at AUD$0.82.

That is, if you buy it, you'll feel like you've been ripped off for 82 cents.

I (apparently) got it as part of a bundle, and I still feel ripped off. This immediately dropped to the second worst game I've played this year.

The best thing you could do for yourself is search for this game on Steam, and then add it to your ignore list, so you may never need to suffer as I have suffered.

Gladiator Trainer makes me wish I had a lower rating than:

1: Nope

#GladiatorTrainer #MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

October 1, 2023 - Day 274 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 294

Game: Where The Snow Settles

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jul 23, 2021
Installation Date: Jun 26, 2022
Unplayed: 462d (1y3m5d)
Playtime: 35m

Where The Snow Settles is a third person narrative-driven walking simulator.

As young farmer, Aurelia, you and your hunter sister Esta set out of a journey to find out why your village has been trapped in a seemingly endless winter.

It's a somewhat gentle game.

Where The Snow Settles is:

3: OK

#WhereTheSnowSettles #WalkingSimulator #MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

October 2, 2023 - Day 275 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 295

Game: Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Mar 20, 2013
Installation Date: Nov 1, 2014
Unplayed: 3257d (8y11m1d)
Playtime: 18m

Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space is a top-down space exploration "roguelike".

You get a ship, you explore a randomly generated area of space, travel from star to star, and collect things, then try to make it back to the home star before your twenty year mission is up.

Coming off the back of playing Starfield for a couple of hours, it's a bit of mood whiplash.

Each star is a particular number of light years away, so the goal is to not travel too far away before heading back.

I'm genuinely not sure where the "roguelike" element that the developer used in the description comes into it. You can't upgrade the ship with the things you find. You throw them in your cargo bay, or trade them, and the sum total of stuff in your cargo bay is your score.

Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space is:

2: Meh

#MastodonGaming #Gaming
#Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

October 3, 2023 - Day 276 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 296

Game: Yoku's Island Express

Platform: Steam
Release Date: May 30, 2018
Installation Date: Sep 7, 2019
Unplayed: 1487d (4y26d)
Playtime: 15m

Yoku's Island Express is a sideways-scrolling Metroidvania... pinball mash-up?

I've been playing a LOT of Cyberpunk 2077. Sorry, Bethesda, CD Projekt Red is my master now. I quit out of CP2077 at 11:55pm last night, and was like "oh no!", and randomly grabbed an unplayed game.

The thing about this project is stumbling across a game that blows my mind with just how bad it is... or how good.

Firstly, if you've known me for any period of time, I have a bit of a thing for pinball; there's one specific pinball machine that if I see it in an arcade, I WILL play it until I'm dragged away.

As usual, I opened Yoku's Island Express without any idea of what I was getting myself into. I assumed it was some kind of cutesy 3D platformer, which is why it had sat unplayed for so long.

I have regrets. Four years of missed opportunity.

You play as a bug rolling a ball (a la dung beetles, but it's a *white* ball) around a tropical island, in which you've just taken over the role of postmaster. You're given a delivery quest to a part of the island obscured by clouds.

You need to traverse the island by rolling your ball, collecting fruit bubbles, completing quests, and navigating via flippers and bumpers.

Honestly, I'm not sure I can really do it justice with words. The idea of a Metroidvania using pinball mechanics seems too wild to work, but it does. It's so damn fun.

Note: You absolutely want a controller for this game.

For reasons that are not entirely clear, it's recently jumped up to AUD$29, but accordingly to gg.deals, it normally sits around AUD$5. The demo is available on Steam for free, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Yoku's Island Express may be one of my favourite games this year. It's:

5: Excellent

#YokusIslandExpress #Platformer #Metroidvania #Pinball #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

October 3, 2023 - Day 276 - RePlay Review
Total RePlays: 9

Game: Cyberpunk 2077 + Phantom Liberty DLC

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Dec 10, 2020
Library Date: Dec 25, 2021

Playtime: 94.3h. It's complicated? (CP2077 has a launcher, which I sometimes launched, but didn't play, and Steam counts the launcher being open as playtime, which is why I have 1750+ hours in Warframe).

For anyone who's been living under a rock for the past three years, Cyberpunk 2077 is CD Projekt Red's follow-up to The Witcher 3, and is based on the Cyberpunk series of TTRPGs, of which I've played... none.

Truth be told, I've never played any TTRPG. I grew up in the era of the Satanic Panic, and I was the fundie Christian trying to save my friend's soul by getting him to quit D&D.

Same friend who decades later was one of the first people I came out to as trans, and the first person to ever see me dressing as myself.

This isn't really a digression, given the themes of identity and body modification in CP2077; the game touches some very sensitive parts.

In CP2077 you play as a mercenary, "V". (You choose gender/sex at the start of the game). I'm not going to go into the plotline, because there be spoilers.

CP2077 was released in a blaze of glory, followed by a million screams of "WTF is this, CDPR?"

It was an utterly gorgeous disaster. It had multiple systems that had been stripped out of the game compared to the demos, and it was delightfully buggy.

It was released two months into my breakdown, and I had a VERY bad Christmas in 2020. I had no desire to game at all, or do much of anything. By Christmas 2021, I was myself again (thanks chems!) and got CP2077 for Christmas.

While CDPR had ironed out some bugs, I found it somewhat of a chore to play. It just felt... frustrating? I didn't have a lot of fun. I opened it up every few months and played for an hour here and there, getting about 16 hours into the game between Dec 21, and Sept 2, this year.

Then the free update 2.0 dropped a few days ahead of the Phantom Liberty DLC, and I thought I'd give it another shot. Reviews suggested starting a fresh playthrough, and so I did, and it's a whole different ballgame.

The gameplay feels completely overhauled, and it now feels like it supports the narrative instead of fighting it. I'm hooked (sorry, Bethesda).

Per other reviews, the Phantom Liberty DLC isn't a post-game add-on, but more of a mid-game add-in. It kind-of weaves into the existing narrative timeframe, that opens up a new set of missions mid-game, and being several hours deep into the initial DLC missions, I'm glad I decided to buy it.

It's obvious that they took advantage of 2.0's systems in the gameplay design, and it feels far better developed thematically than even post-2.0 CP2077.

If you tried CP2077 pre-2.0, it's worth updating and jacking in, chooms.

Cyberpunk 2077 (+ Phantom Liberty) is:

5: Excellent

#Cyberpunk2077 #RPG #ActionAdventure #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #RePlay

October 4, 2023 - Day 277 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 297

Game: Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Collection

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Feb 1, 2013
Installation Date: Dec 24, 2013
Unplayed: 3571d (9y9m10d)
Playtime: 17m

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Collection is a kart racing game themed around Sonic the Hedgehog and multiple other Sega properties.

The biggest surprise for me is that I've owned this game for almost 10 years, and somehow just not noticed it was installed?

In any case, it's a pretty average kart-racing game, although unlike other kart racing games, part way through each lap, your car may transform into a boat or a plane.

For a 10 year old game, it plays like it's a lot more recent, or maybe kart-racing games have just reached an evolutionary plateau.

It's a DirectX9 game, and very much does not like ultra-wide monitors, but running it at 2560x1440 renders it in letterbox mode and totally playable.

The "Collection" part is that this comes with all the separate DLC content included.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Collection is:

3: OK

#SonicAndAllStarsRacingTransformedCollection #KartRacing #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

October 5, 2023 - Day 278 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 298

Game: Just Cause 4

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Dec 5, 2018
Installation Date: Jul 15, 2019
Unplayed: 1543d (4y2m20d)
Playtime: 45m

Just Cause 4 is a third-person action-adventure open-world-ish game.

You play as the ongoing lead character from the Just Cause series, Rico Rodriguez; previously a mercenary working with "The Agency"; Rico has apparently parted ways with them prior to the events of Just Cause 4.

In each instalment, Rico has been tasked with taking down a dictator in small "South American" countries.

Playing as Rico, you're required to intricately gather intelligence while designing a mission to quietly take down the dictator... but seriously, no.

The storyline of each game is basically a fig leaf for creatively blowing up as much stuff as possible.

Rico's primary interaction with the environment is a wrist mounted grappling hook, that allows you to come up with all sorts of creative ways to navigate the open-world.

You can use the grapple to quickly jump from point to point, or use it to get airborne, then switch to a parachute or wingsuit depending on your goal. You can also grapple onto moving vehicles, and then hijack them for high-speed hijinks.

Then there are the guns. You can only carry two at a time, but each gun generally has an alternate firing mode, giving you up to four options for creative mayhem with the highlighted targets; destructible environmental objects are helpfully painted red or marked with obvious red highlights.

This is not an RPG where you carefully assess which weapon has better DPS. Pick up gun, shoot stuff until you're out of ammo, pick up another gun. These small dictatorships sure like to leave weapons lying around all over the place.

One of the reasons I put off playing JC4, even though I enjoyed the mayhem of JC3, was that reviews essentially made it out to be "Rico vs the weather", and made it sound like something I wouldn't enjoy.

Anyway, they were pretty much wrong. As per the previous games, it's grapple around and blow things up. It's not exactly Shakespeare, but sometimes it's just fun to blow things up.

Just Cause 4 seems:

4: Good

#JustCause4 #ThirdPerson #OpenWorld #ActionAdventure #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

October 6, 2023 - Day 279 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 298

Game: Lumote: The Mastermote Chronicles

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Feb 20, 2020
Installation Date: Oct 7, 2022
Unplayed: 364d (11m29d)
Playtime: 15m

Lumote: The Mastermote Chronicles is 3D puzzle platformer.

You play as a squishy bioluminescent creature who has to bounce around and solve puzzles.

The lighting and music in this game is absolutely gorgeous,

Lumote: The Mastermote Chronicles is:

4: Good

#LumoteTheMastermoteChronicles #3D #Platform #Puzzle #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

October 7, 2023 - Day 280 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 299

Game: Morbid: The Seven Acolytes

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Dec 4, 2020
Installation Date: Aug 4, 2022
Unplayed: 429d (1y2m3d)
Playtime: 15m

Morbid: The Seven Acolytes is a top-down pixel-art Soulslike.

The gameplay didn't get me past the pixel-art.

Morbid: The Seven Acolytes is:

2: Meh

#MorbidTheSevenAcolytes #TopDown #Soulslike #PixelArt #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

October 8, 2023 - Day 281 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 300

Game: My Time At Portia

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jan 15, 2019
Installation Date: Jan 5, 2020
Unplayed: 1372d (3y9m3d)
Playtime: 35m

My Time At Portia is a cozy third-person post-apocalyptic crafting RPG.

Customise your avatar, and then the ferry docks at Portia where you alight to take over your father's old workshop, and become one of the town's builders.

Chop down trees, break rocks, make tools, I've done it all before in so many games, and while it's nice to have a post apocalyptic game where society has actually been rebuilt, it's a bit too cutesy for me.

My Time At Portia is:

3: OK

#MyTimeAtPortia #ThirdPerson #Crafting #RPG #PixelArt #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

October 9, 2023 - Day 282 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 301

Game: NiGHTS Into Dreams

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Dec 18, 2012
Installation Date: Oct 15, 2020
Unplayed: 1089d (2y11m24d)
Playtime: 15m

NiGHTS Into Dreams is a remaster of a Sega Saturn game from 1996. I genuinely have no idea how to characterise this game.

You're dropped almost straight into this bizarre game after choosing an avatar without any explanation whatsoever about what you need to do or why.

Apparently it was really popular, and I honestly don't understand why.

It's kind of 2.5D-ish. Your avatar merges with this weird-looking character, and you fly around the level collecting bubbles which somehow enable you to kill the level boss when you collect 20 of them, after which you get bonus time to collect more bubbles.

After the first time I died in-game, I then got semi-helpful instructions on what was happening in the levels.

The boss level? No such luck. It's almost completely different, no bubbles to collect, and somehow you need to attack the boss, but I couldn't for the life of me work out how, and eventually ran out of time.

NiGHTS Into Dreams is a big old:

1: Nope

#NiGHTSIntoDreams #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay