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

October 10, 2023 - Day 283 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 302

Game: We Are The Dwarves

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Feb 26, 2016
Installation Date: Sep 11, 2020
Unplayed: 1124d (3y29d)
Playtime: 20m

We Are The Dwarves is, apparently, a real-time tactics strategy game, about space-faring dwarves.

The game provides an intro, which is... confusing. It seems that this particular universe is made of stone instead of dark matter.

Our trio of stonefaring dwarves get into an accident, and then you have to... I don't know, and I don't really care to be honest.

Firstly, this is another game that uses a version of Unreal Engine 4 that uses a known buggy implementation of OpenSSL; the bug is only triggered on >10th Gen Intel CPUs. There's a workaround for it, but without the workaround, it will crash right after starting. It's the third game I've encountered with this bug since upgrading my PC, but it's a bad start to a game experience.

The game gives you a Steam achievement called "We all hate tutorials", and I don't, particularly when your odd game is so frustrating to try and play. I'm not even going to get into the voice acting.

I finally worked out where I was going wrong after wandering around a level over and over for ten minutes, but that pretty much meant that I'm just not interested in fighting with the game further.

We Are The Dwarves is a:

1: Nope

#WeAreTheDwarves #Tactics #Strategy #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

October 11, 2023 - Day 284 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 303

Game: Forza Motorsport

Platform: Xbox Game Pass PC
Release Date: Oct 10, 2023
Installation Date: Oct 10, 2023
Unplayed: 1d
Playtime: 36m

Forza Motorsport is a racing sim, and the latest release in the Forza Motorsport series, which is... a little confusing?

The previous Forza Motorsport was Forza Motorsport 7, not to be confused with Forza Horizon (1-5), which is a more arcade focused racing game.

It seems that Forza Motorsport is intended to be a reboot; however, I do not have enough experience with any Forza Motorsport games to provide any comparison.

I do, however, have a lot of experience with Forza Horizon because FH4 was the racing game that finally "clicked" with me.

My history with racing games goes back to the original Test Drive in 1987. For years I attempted to play racing games with keyboard and mouse, and steering with a keyboard and mouse sucks.

I never completed Test Drive.

I tried racing several more times over the years, nearly throwing a PS2 controller in frustration with Gran Turismo 4. I just never clicked with racing games.

Until Forza Horizon 4. Maybe it was the timing, the Xbox One S controller, maybe it was the arcade nature of the Horizon series, and the tunes, and the fact that most races weren't endurance events.

However, I suspect it was mostly that I could rewind when I screwed up and could finally finish a race "on the podium" instead of losing control most of the way through a race and having to do the whole thing over.

...and using an Xbox controller.

That lead to more practicing, which lead to better driving, which lead to more winning, and more fun.

However, sim & track racing still weren't my cup of tea. Rally racing was worse [scowls at Dirt & Dirt 2.0], an exercise in frustration.

When @triana suggested to me that Motorsport may have brought some of that Horizon magic to track racing, I said I'd give it a try.

She was correct. Just the "simple" addition of rating my driving in each track section, suddenly has me focusing on how better to improve to beat my previous ratings.

Adding driver assists AND talking me through the reasoning behind them (at least in the tutorial) helped me better understand how and when to brake and accelerate.

Also, it's REALLY pretty. If you love cars, Forza Motorsport renders them, and the tracks, and the environment gorgeously.

I still don't think I'm going to end up as a huge driving sim nerd, but Forza Motorsport may have hooked me. It's pretty:

4: Good

#ForzaMotorsport #ForzaMotorsport2023 #Racing #Sim #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

October 12, 2023 - Day 285 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 304

Game: Lineage II

Platform: NCSoft Launcher
Release Date: Apr 27, 2004
Installation Date: Mar 31, 2022
Unplayed: 560d (1y6m12d)
Playtime: 20m

Lineage II is a third-person MMORPG.

Originally released in 2003 in Korea, an English edition was released in 2004.

I knew I'd installed it at some stage, and had to dig through my backup drives to work out when. I got an Amazon Prime gaming code for in-game gear, and thought I might finally take a look.

It was definitely an exercise in clock-watching. The MMORPG I've played most recently was Final Fantasy XIV, and comparing the two is like chalk and cheese.

Lineage II is built in Unreal Engine 2.5 and it feels ancient. After a couple of grinding quests, I was glad to log out and uninstall it.

Lineage II?:

1: Nope

#LineageII #MMORPG #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

October 13, 2023 - Day 286 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 305

Game: I Am Not A Monster: First Contact

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 27, 2018
Installation Date: May 14, 2019
Unplayed: 1613d (4y4m29d)
Playtime: 18m

I Am Not A Monster: First Contact is billed as a "retro sci-fi tactical turn-based strategy" game.

By retro sci-fi, they mean early-mid 20th century pulp sci-fi.

If you like that kind of sci-fi, this might be right up your alley. Unfortunately, it's not really my cup of tea, and I couldn't really get past that to lock into the game.

Graphically, it's a weird combination of pulp sci-fi stationary graphics for menus, full-screen pixel-art animated transitions, and high-res gameplay, and it feels kind of jarring switching between them. It just feels a little incoherent.

There was almost something there with the gameplay, but when the game was making me feel like I wished I was playing a completely different tactics strategy game, that pretty much sealed the deal.

I Am Not A Monster: First Contact is just:

2: Meh

#IAmNotAMonsterFirstContact #Tactics #TurnBased #Strategy #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

October 14, 2023 - Day 287 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 306

Game: Blade & Soul

Platform: NCSoft Launcher
Release Date: Jan 19, 2016
Installation Date: Mar 17, 2022
Unplayed: 576d (1y6m27d)
Playtime: 15m

Blade & Soul is a third-person martial-arts oriented MMORPG.

Originally released in 2012 in Korea, an English edition was released in 2016.

Because I'd opened the NCSoft launcher a couple of days ago for the Lineage II review, I thought I'd knock this one off as well.

It looks OK, but it's an MMORPG, which means that graphics and gameplay are pretty much just a starting point.

Graphically, it's built in Unreal Engine 4, but it doesn't have that "Fortnite" vibe that so many recent UE4 games seem to have. Gameplay seems OK.

However, to justify whether or not to start a new MMORPG becomes about more than "how does it look & play", but:

- does it have a sizeable enough playerbase that you'll be able to play through zones with other people?
- is it P2W (ie. "Pay To Win" - or spending more money on the game means you can buy your way into in-game Godhood over lower-levelled players, and gank them mercilessly)
- how many other MMORPGs are you also playing?

And:
- no
- yes
- umm, too many.

Ultimately, it doesn't offer me something different that I can't find in one of the other half-dozen MMOs that I've already started playing and lost interest in.

On top of that, I played World of Warcraft for over a decade, and burned out on both WoW and MMPRPGs.

I realised a few weeks ago that what I really missed from my WoW days wasn't the gameplay so much as the shared experience of running end-level content raids with friends, all meeting up on one night, and fighting our way through a dungeon together (specifically, Molten Core, Karazhan, Naxxramas, and Icecrown Citadel all hold dear places in my memory.

Starting a new MMO where I don't know anyone, and the only people I could raid with would be PUGs and randoms? Just not for me.

All of this together puts Blade & Soul into:

2: Meh

#BladeAndSoul #MMORPG #ThirdPerson #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

October 15, 2023 - Day 288 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 307

Game: 7 Billion Humans

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Aug 24, 2018
Installation Date: Sep 11, 2022
Unplayed: 399d (1y1m4d)
Playtime: 24m

7 Billion Humans is a top-down puzzle programming game.

Really not sure which order to stick those adjectives, because the fundamental gameplay loop is solving puzzles by using simple programming logic.

In playing it, I thought it felt a lot like World of Goo, (both stylistically and audibly) and it turns out that the reason it feels a lot like World of Goo is that one of the three devs who make up Tomorrow Corporation, is the dev who created World of Goo.

As far as programming/puzzle games go, this one is pretty good, but I realised that I run into the same problem I run into with every programming/puzzle game:

I'm not a very good programmer. I'm not quite sure why. I feel like I should be good at it. I first started trying to learn to program over 40 years ago. I've written programs in multiple varieties of BASIC, C, COBOL, and TurboPascal, as well as doing years of HTML & PHP work.

But while I can look at someone else's code and kind-of work out what's going on (at least to a middling degree), I don't seem to be able to get past a point with my own attempts at coding where everything just kind of goes blank. It's like there's too many things to keep track of, and that part of my brain shuts off.

Anyway, that's where I got to with 7 Billion Humans. It's:

3: OK

#7BillionHumans #TopDown #Programming #Puzzle #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

October 16, 2023 - Day 289 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 308

Game: Arietta of Spirits

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Aug 20, 2021
Installation Date: Apr 17, 2023
Unplayed: 182d (5m29d)
Playtime: 19m

Arietta of Spirits is a pixel-art based retro action adventure game, about dealing with grief and monsters. You play as 13-year old Arietta, who is staying with her parents at her recently deceased grandmother's holiday cottage.

When I looked up the activation history, I couldn't initially make sense of why this game would be in my library. It wasn't part of a bundle, it looked like I'd bought it. Digging deeper, I found that it was a bonus game that came with the other game I'd ordered from Fanatical that day.

Unfortunately, while I like the idea of games that deal with grief, because sometimes I find them cathartic, Arietta of Spirits is SO retro that I spent much of my time glancing at the clock.

Firstly, the game includes a mechanic that I'm not terribly fond of: character graphic with a text box full of text to tell the backstory. Click, different talking head. Entire conversations like this. At least you can click through them.

Then there's the sound effects. They're /really/ retro, like C64 retro. The death noises of the mobs (see below) was really jarring and set my teeth on edge.

Start off on the adventure to... pick apples. Get stopped by dad, get given a wooden sword, to defend against wasps.

Encounter wasps. Discover that mob hitboxes aren't terribly consistent. Gets worse in the boss fight at the end of the level, when fighting a big wasp, and some little wasps.

I know from reading up after quitting out that I didn't quite reach the core gameplay about dealing with unhappy spirits, it's just... there was just nothing that made me want to keep playing.

For gamers with a deep love of retro gaming, this might be something that would appeal to them, but I'm not part of that group, which is why Arietta of Spirits is, unfortunately, a:

1: Nope

#AriettaOfSpirits #Retro #PixelArt #ActionAdventure #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

October 17, 2023 - Day 290 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 309

Game: Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig - Digital Edition

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Nov 16, 2019
Installation Date: Mar 28, 2020
Unplayed: 1298d (3y6m19d)
Playtime: 22m

Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig - Digital Edition is quite literally a digital edition of the board game.

Based on my experience with the digital edition, I have no desire to experience the tabletop version.

I played through the tutorial with the AI, and lost, then through a level against AI, and lost, and I felt like I was basically trying to work out the rules as I went.

There's little to explain what the icons on the cards mean, and most of them were hard to read anyway.

Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig - Digital Edition is an easy:

1: Nope

#BetweenTwoCastles #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

October 18, 2023 - Day 291 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 310

Game: The Quarry

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jun 10, 2022
Installation Date: Oct 18, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 30m

The Quarry is a third-person interactive horror adventure game.

I've made no secret of my dislike of horror games, and I feel much the same about straight horror movies. I'm OK with horror comedy, and there are a handful of horror movies (the original "Last Summer" movies, most of the "Scream" franchise), but as a rule, if a horror movie is on, I'm somewhere else.

When October's Humble Choice Bundle dropped earlier this month, I opened up the email to see the AAA game for this month was a horror game I'd already looked at briefly before, and added to my Steam "ignore" list.

So here we are.

The first surprise was the cast list: there are a number of well-known names in the cast, including horror staples, David Arquette, and Ted Raimi, as well Ehtan Suplee, and Lance Henrikson - which was an even bigger surprise, because for some reason I thought he'd passed away recently. Nope. Still alive and well, and doing the voiceovers for the game tutorials.

The second surprise was that while this time I wasn't going in completely blank, as I knew this was a horror game, I didn't realise it was effectively a playable movie.

Which meant it actually combines two of my least favourite things, horror games AND horror movies.

The graphics are good, with a couple of caveats.

They've used the likeness of the actors, and in the prologue you encounter a couple of recognisable faces.

Unfortunately, it feels a bit Polar Express; the uncanny valley is strong with this one.

The other thing, is that one of the characters is played by Skyler Gisondo (you may know him from The Righteous Gemstones, or Santa Clarita Diet).

He doesn't seem to blink; it becomes really unnerving, because the intro doesn't appear to be setting him up as a bad guy, it's just REALLY disconcerting.

The navigation controls are a little frustrating, with the camera swinging around wildly, occasionally leaving me wondering which direction key I needed to use. In the TellTale games of this style, the QTE key is clearly defined. Here it's a black keyboard key icon, with a small white triangle that appears at the last second to indicate which direction to go. More than once I hit the wrong key at the right time.

On the other hand, the environmental design and sound design are very well done, leading to exactly the kind of extremely heightened dread and anxiety that is the *exact* reason I don't play horror games.

If you enjoy that overwhelming tension that doesn't seem to have any catharsis, this might be the game for you. Me?

1: Nope

#TheQuarry #ThirdPerson #Horror #HumbleChoice #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

October 19, 2023 - Day 292 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 311

Game: Metal: Hellsinger

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 15, 2022
Installation Date: Oct 19, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 25m

Metal: Hellsinger is a rhythm-based FPS. The rhythm in question is heavy metal. Very heavy metal.

This is the second of the October Humble Choice Bundle games, and the second game that I'd looked at before and decided "Ah... no."

It's nothing to do with being an FPS, or a fundie* aversion to the setting, or being a rhythm game.

It was the soundtrack, which seemed to me more like death metal than heavy metal, but I'm old.

In any case, you're more likely to find me listening to Sara Bareilles than Slayer. Dire Straits rather than Dio. Counting Crows, not Cannibal Corpse.

You get the idea.

The idea of a game with a soundtrack featuring the lead singers from bands like System of a Down, Dark Tranquillity, Trivium, and Lamb of God is not my idea of a good time.

I found Nine Inch Nails in Quake was a lot to deal with.

So... I was wrong. Killing mobs in hell, slashing or firing on the beat of screaming thrashing metal is an intense but incredibly fun time.

It's not a game I'm going to play to unwind, by any means, and I can't understand a single word they're singing (which is probably for the best), but Metal: Hellsinger is:

4: Good

#MetalHellsinger #FirstPerson #FPS #Rhythm #HeavyMetal #HumbleChoice #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

*actually, the whole hell theme does still make me feel a little uneasy. Not sure I'll ever shake that.