November 5, 2023 - Day 309 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 328

Game: Minoria

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Aug 27, 2019
Installation Date: Oct 21, 2023
Unplayed: 15d
Playtime: 19m

Minoria is 2D Metroidvania about nuns vs witches.

The game is set in the middle ages, with the character designs being vaguely anime-styled.

Attacks are telegraphed by a glowing circle that appears around mobs, yet I still managed to die a lot.

Unfortunately for this game, I've played some excellent Metroidvanias this year which resulted in Minoria just feeling pretty:

2: Meh

#Minoria #2D #Metroidvania #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 6, 2023 - Day 310 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 329

Game: Anno 1800

Platform: Ubisoft Connect
Release Date: Apr 17, 2019
Installation Date: Nov 6, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 2h20m

Anno 1800 is a 3D real-time strategy city-builder, set in the 19th Century.

I bought it today.

"But Allie, you have too many games. You have new ones coming on Wednesday morning in the November Humble Bundle! Why would you buy a new game?"

Ubisoft had a free weekend, and I made the mistake of installing it. Then playing it. Had I not played it (wouldn't be the first time I installed a game on a free weekend and forgot to play it), I wouldn't have encountered an antagonist so eminently punchable (Edvard Goode) that I wanted to keep playing solely to grind his company into dust.

With a 20% discount on top of the already discounted price through Ubisoft taking it to a historical low of AUD$17.99, it was almost impossible to say "no".

In terms of actual gameplay, it hooked me early, and I was suddenly staring at an in-game popup that said "It's been two hours, how about a cup of coffee."

Anno 1800 is:

4: Good

#Anno1800 #CityBuilder #RealTimeStrategy #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 7, 2023 - Day 311 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 330

Game: Townsmen - A Kingdom Rebuilt

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Feb 27, 2019
Installation Date: Oct 21, 2023
Unplayed: 17d
Playtime: 25m

Townsmen - A Kingdom Rebuilt is an isometric real-time strategy city-builder, with a medieval setting.

I got a whole bunch of games on the 21st of October. I was talking with my son about how I'd skipped a couple of months of Humble Choice in the past few years, and he gave me most of the games I was missing (because he didn't want them).

Included in those games was Townsmen - A Kingdom Rebuilt; this review could also be "A tale of two city-builders".

The graphics in Townsmen are quite cute, and it makes Townsmen look like it could be a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, that's the best part of this game, because the actual gameplay is incredibly frustrating.

As an aside, in-game grammar and spelling mistakes immediately break my concentration. One typo is an oversight. Multiple typos and grammar errors sets my teeth on edge. This was not a good start for Townsmen.

The biggest issue I had with Townsmen is that it's less a city-building sim, and more of a city-micromanagement sim. I want to build buildings. I don't want to have to go to each building independently and assign and unassign workers (particularly in early game).

Buildings also degrade over time, and can catch on fire if they degrade too much. How do you know? Apparently they start to change colour. So now I have to remember to look at each building individually to see if it's changed colour and might need repairs. To repair a building, click on it to bring up the building interface. Click on a drop-down menu, and choose "Repair Building". Actually, this building is normally that colour, and doesn't need repairs. Like I said, micromanagement.

The tutorial levels give tasks, and give optional tasks, and would intermittently stop everything to remind me to complete the task I was *working* on.

"You need more wood, build another sawmill. You need another worker to build the sawmill. Build a new townhouse. You need more wood for the townhouse."

So I'm going around pulling workers from other jobs to put them on different jobs so I can complete the jobs to complete the tasks, which you've just paused the entire game to remind me to complete.

Anno 1800 hooked me so deeply that it was a case of "two hours already?", where this had me checking the clock repeatedly.

It's not just that it suffers in comparison to Anno 1800, compared to all of the other citybuilders I've played this year, Townsmen - A Kingdom Rebuilt is:

2: Meh

#TownsmenAKingdomRebuilt #CityBuilder #RealTimeStrategy #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 8, 2023 - Day 312 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 331

Game: Almost There: The Platformer

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Feb 19, 2019
Installation Date: Sep 7, 2019
Unplayed: 1523d (4y2m1d)
Playtime: 15m

Almost There: The Platformer is a minimalist 2D platformer.

This game takes everything I hate about platforming games and distils it down into a pure essence: Eau de Platform.

This game makes Celeste feel like a relaxing walk in the hills. Celeste made me want to at least keep trying before giving up in frustration. This made me look up at the clock every thirty seconds wishing for sweet release from my self-imposed straitjacket.

"Almost There" was what I whispered to myself as the clock slowly, painfully ground towards the 15 minute mark.

Almost There requires pinpoint precision to do... well, everything. Beat the timers on each level to get three stars. Land on the tiny platforms. Beat the pointy insta-kill moving spikes. Wall jump to avoid the lasers. Avoid the moving lasers.

The dev describes it as being "designed specifically for fans of the hardcore platforming genre" and playing this made me wish WWE 2K23 *had* finished downloading tonight.

To be clear, this game is not a bad game. This is a game that exists to mock me; a game that exists to remind me that it doesn't matter how hard I try, there are some games that will never be "for" me. That's OK with me.

I hate this game. This is a game that does exactly what it says on the tin, but a game that I will never be able to enjoy.

For lovers of hand-eye co-ordination, this may be the peak of platforming experience, but for me, Almost There: The Platformer is a solid:

1: Nope

#AlmostThereThePlatformer #2D #Minimalist #Platformer #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 9, 2023 - Day 313 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 332

Game: WWE 2K23

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Mar 17, 2023
Installation Date: Nov 9, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 51m

WWE 2K23 is a pro wrestling sports sim. It's game #2 in the November Humble Choice bundle.

I am not a sports fan; my wife passionately fills that role in our relationship. I'll occasionally watch a game with her, but sports just don't do anything for me.

Then there's professional wrestling. Not only do I not see the appeal, I find it actively repellent. The showboating aggressive and sweaty men give off the same vibe as the boys who used to bully me aggressively and incessantly at school.

There are few sports I want to know less about than pro wrestling, which puts playing a game like WWE 2K23 somewhere south of playing an F1 game, and almost at survival/escape horror levels.

Although, to be honest, I once went on a hyperfocus bender on the performance side of pro-wrestling, so I know what a heel turn and face turn are, but the sports side? I was even LESS interested in knowing more.

I was fully prepared to dislike this game. I WANTED to dislike this game. I figured I'd get in, play 15 minutes and get out, have a little rant about it, and free up 80 gigs of precious SSD space.

I loaded it up. The game aggressively loading up on the wrong monitor helped. Forcing me straight into a tutorial without first letting me adjust the settings? Pump it into my veins. Hiding the settings menu somewhere other than the options menu? Just trying to get it working has eaten up a good chunk of my 15 minutes. I'm ready to rant.

However, it's not a fair review of *the game*, so into the tutorial with some guy named Xavier Woods, who's part of "The New Day". Already learning things I don't want to know.

Xavier tells me that I need to train so that one day I can face off against John Cena. The tutorial walks me through the various moves, and combos, and it takes me a bit over 15 minutes to complete.

There are a LOT of moves to remember. At least now I can give it a fair review... except it's straight into a Wrestlemania ring. Xavier is now dressed in pink and yellow spandex, and is going up against his first opponent...

John Cena. Apparently. I can't see him, but I know he's there (sorry, not sorry).

"One day" is today. I'm wrestling John Cena. I can remember *some* of the moves from the tutorial. I'm... oh no...

...I'm enjoying this.

I'm playing WWE 2K23, and I'm having fun. I beat John Cena.

I BEAT JOHN CENA.

I put down the controller. My hands are aching.

I just had fun.

Playing a pro-wrestling sim.

Who even am I now?

I'm not about to sit down and watch WWE any time soon, but I'm not getting that 80Gb of SSD space back, either.

For a game that I was prepared to dislike SO much, I can't quite believe the words I'm about to write: WWE 2K23 is actually really:

4: Good

#WWE2K23 #ProWrestling #Sports #Sim #HumbleChoice #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 10, 2023 - Day 314 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 333

Game: Friends vs Friends

Platform: Steam
Release Date: May 30, 2023
Installation Date: Nov 10, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 16m

Friends vs Friends is a combination multiplayer PVP FPS and deckbuilder.

Those two things go together like chocolate ice cream and nachos; I like both of those things, but not in the same bowl.

It's the fourth game in this month's Humble Choice bundle, and is reinforcing my theory that some devs are trying use the bundle to juice their player base to try and reach critical mass.

The opening of this game took me by surprise. I do not remember another game that has a fully animated theme song intro.

For a moment I was genuinely wondering whether this was a cartoon of some kind, because it feels just like the opening to a 90's Saturday morning cartoon.

The theme song alerted me to the fact it was a deckbuilder, but not that it was also a FPS, so when I found myself staring at a cel-shaded 3D environment, and while the environmental design and character designs were well done, I was at a loss as to what to do next.

I wandered around hoping that I'd trigger some kind of tutorial, some idea of how to play the game... nothing.

I found a shop, and guns I could try out, but no idea how to obtain them. I couldn't work out how to start a match, and I didn't want to start a match without knowing how to play.

Eventually I gave up, and started a 1v1 quickmatch; I muddled my way through, winning 1 out of 5 matches. I tried a 2v2 match with bots, in which my "team" lost both times.

Turns out, the guns are cards in your deck, you win matches, get cash, use the cash to buy new cards, build a new deck (or upgrade the old one).

After the 2v2 match, I spotted a question mark icon tucked away in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, which on a 3440x1440 screen wasn't exactly obvious, and it contained a set of instructions for how to play the game.

For me there are few issues with the game; the first one is in the title. It's a game that would probably work best with 1 or 3 friends (multiplayer options are 1v1 or 2v2).

With everyone either in the same room in a LAN game, or all on voicechat together, this could be amusing, because some of the card effects were amusing. Playing against randoms? No-one to laugh with.

Some cards were confusing "If I play this, does it affect me or the opponent?" No idea, even after playing it...

...because it's a PVP FPS. The pace of the game means it either feels like nothing is happening, or feels like everything is happening, as I'm trying to shoot, and look at my deck, and not get shot, and pick out a card, and I'm dead.

Unfortunately, Friends vs Friends feels like it had potential, but it all ended up just a bit:

2: Meh

#FriendsVsFriends #PVP #FPS #Deckbuilder #HumbleChoice #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 11, 2023 - Day 315 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 334

Game: Prodeus

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 24, 2022
Installation Date: Nov 11, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 28m

Prodeus is a post-modern retro FPS, and is number 5 in this month's Humble Choice bundle.

Some time in 1994, a 20yo sat down in front of a friend's PC, as the friend said "You have to see this!" and fired up a new game his dad had downloaded.

I was stunned. The same computer we'd played Captain Keen & Wolfenstein 3D was showing a true 3D environment first-person shooter (even IF the mobs were bitmaps).

But it wasn't just the visuals. It was the sound. The cheap speakers plugged into the SoundBlaster were emitting snarls and growls, that felt like they were just about to burst in and kill us, and all of my hairs stood on end.

I'd never experienced anything like it. I was watching him play Doom.

I've lost count of the number of FPS's I've played since. Tens of thousands of digital opponents have been blasted into pixels in all kinds of environments, and it's rare now to get a chill playing a FPS.

Yet firing up Doom (or Doom 2), and hearing those snarls & growls can still give me chills, and in spite of having them installed, I don't play them.

When I played Doom Eternal for the first time, it felt like they'd captured the spirit of Doom, with all the advances of modern tech. It was fun, but it didn't feel like that moment in 1994.

Prodeus has all the little Doom-like touches; armor shards & health bottles, exploding barrels, secrets stashed here and there, but with added up & down mouse camera movement.

However, that could still describe countless boomer shooters; the difference is that Prodeus has somehow managed to capture the *atmosphere* of Doom, in a way that I can't remember experiencing in a very long time.

I felt like I was playing a true spiritual successor to Doom, and that's tough to pull off.

But technology is not the only thing that's changed in the last almost-30 years. I've lived through some real-life horror. The mix of adrenaline and fear, that rush that I got from playing Doom in 1994, it hits differently now.

Reaching the end of the first level, seeing that Doom-like end-screen didn't give me a rush of excitement, just a sense of relief. My jaw and my shoulders are tight and sore. My body reacts in a different way.

This was a hard review to write. It's taken me almost three times as long to write as I spent playing.

These reviews are primarily about my feelings towards a game, and whether I want to play it again, and Prodeus is difficult.

As a game, it deserves an "excellent", but as I game that I'll play again? I don't know. As I wrote earlier, I have Doom and Doom II installed on Steam (and Doom 3). I have less than two hours playtime across all three games.

Prodeus' 1.29Gb install can stay on my SSD, because it's:

4: Good

#Prodeus #FPS #Retro #BoomerShooter #HumbleChoice #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 12, 2023 - Day 316 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 335

Game: The Legend of Tianding

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Nov 2, 2021
Installation Date: Nov 12, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 21m

Game number 6 in the November Humble Choice bundle is The Legend of Tianding.

This is a 2.5D side-scrolling beat-em-up platformer, which is based on a Flash game from 2004. Both games are based on the life of a real Taiwanese outlaw during the early 20th century.

It was a bit of a frustrating start. The game doesn't support ultra-wide screen, and instead of letterboxing, stretches 2560x1440 to 3440x1440.

The graphics are done in a comic-book style, which is well done, but other than that, it's a perfectly functional beat-em-up.

The Legend of Tianding is:

3: OK

#TheLegendOfTianding #BeatEmUp #SideScrolling #Platformer #HumbleChoice #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 13, 2023 - Day 317 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 336

Game: SCP: Secret Files

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 14, 2022
Installation Date: Nov 13, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 56m

SCP: Secret Files is an odd game that's based around SCP (which stands for "Secure. Control. Protect."), and is a collaborative story writing wiki about paranormal anomalies.

I'm not going to try and explain SCP beyond that; you either know what SCP is, or you don't, and if you know what SCP is, you either know if it's a "you" thing, or if it isn't.

I know what SCP is, and it's not a thing that grabs me. In SCP: Secret Files, you find yourself as a new recruit in SCP, (the organisation that the SCP wiki is ostensibly about), and working through SCP "casefiles".

I played through 51 minutes of this game because I wanted to see how the first story ended (one of several different stories within the game), and it was somewhat disappointing.

SCP: Secret Files?

1: Nope

#SCPSecretFiles #SCP #HumbleChoice #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 14, 2023 - Day 318 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 337

Game: SCP: Secret Files

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jun 2, 2022
Installation Date: Nov 14, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 20m

Souldiers is a 2D pixel-art Metroidvania Soulslike platformer, and the last of this months unplayed Humble Choice bundle games.

It has a fantasy setting, which involves being saved from death due to machinations within the kingdom by a Valkyrie only to have to fight in the land that you're taken to, and I didn't get much further than that in 20 minutes.

The devs have put a lot of thought and effort into the backstory, but it's not one that grabs me.

Once again, I'm staring at a fairly average Metroidvania in a year when I've played such excellent Metroidvanias and Soulslike platformers, that a game really needs to bring something different to the table to grab me.

Unfortunately, Souldiers didn't, and it's just kind of:

2: Meh

#Souldiers #2D #Metroidvania #Soulslike #Platformer #HumbleChoice #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 14, 2023 - Day 318 - RePlay Review
Total RePlays: 10

Game: Hardspace: Shipbreaker
Platform: Steam
Release Date: May 26, 2022
Library Date: Jun 20, 2021

Playtime: 59h20m

Hardspace: Shipbreaker is the first game in this month's Humble Choice bundle, and on the short list of games that I've completed - on July 24, 2022.

Also, you may note that the "Library Date" predates the "Release Date", and this is not a typo.

It was released in Early Access in 2022, and I did not once regret buying it.

Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a 6DOF first-person action-adventure sim, in which you play a blue collar space worker, who has signed up to work with Lynx Corporation as a ship breaker.

Living in space, it's your job to dismantle, sort, and destroy, recycle, or recover, all the parts of junked spaceships.

There's just a small catch. While you can make good money ship breaking, Lynx Corporation uses cloning technology, and when you sign up with them, they own you and your DNA until your pay out the billion credit debt you incurred in training.

Ship breaking is a dangerous job, with a lot of risks; for instance, one of the big ones is death.

But that's OK; if you die, Lynx will just reconstitute you, and you get to keep on working. The cost of the reconstitution is added to your debt, so no biggie, right?

The actual mechanics of breaking up the ship involve a ruggedised spacesuit, a tether tool, and a laser cutter.

The procedurally generated ships become increasingly complex, with new dangers involved as you level up.

Each ship floats in an orbiting salvage yard with a furnace & salvage bay on both the left and right hand sides of the yard, and a recovery barge below.

You use the laser cutter to break up the ship, and the tether tool to either send recoverable whole objects to the barge, recyclable materials to the salvage bay, and junk to the furnace.

You're paid on the basis of how much usable material you recover from each ship, as well as earning "Lynx Credits" that you can use to upgrade your tools and skills.

It's a surprising amount of fun cutting up a ship, and tethering all the recyclable parts together and firing them off to the salvage bay.

As long as you don't get too close, and get recovered too, because... yeah, I died that way. A few times.

The whole thing is set to a soundtrack that wouldn't be out of place in an episode of Firefly; in some ways, the whole game has a bit of that vibe.

Hardspace: Shipbreaker isn't just a game, it's a game with an excellent narrative that has lot to say about capitalism, corporate exploitation labour abuses, and unionism.

I genuinely love this game, and it's up there with Firewatch as one of my favourite games.

It's worth buying this month's bundle JUST for this game, because Hardspace: Shipbreaker is:

5: Excellent

#HardspaceShipbreaker #6DOF #FirstPerson #ActionAdventure #HumbleChoice #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #RePlay

November 14, 2023 - Day 318 - RePlay Review
Total RePlays: 10

Game: Unpacking
Platform: Steam
Release Date: Nov 2, 2021
Library Date: Nov 23, 2022

Playtime: 7h17m*

Unpacking is the third game in this month's Humble Choice bundle, and another one on the short list of games that I've completed; this one on December 30th, 2021

My time played in Steam, however, is 0h 0m.

Unpacking is also available on Xbox Game Pass for PC, which is where I played it, and completed it.

Twice.

Unpacking is an utterly lovely, and very chill isometric pixel art puzzle game, that involves unpacking a series of moving boxes, and learning about your life. It's a game about what makes somewhere home.

Each set of puzzles is based around a time in your life, and as you unpack the boxes, you begin to tease out the narrative of your life.

The thing about Unpacking is that to explain it beyond this, risks giving away part of the narrative, and I don't want to do that.

There is so much I love about this game, both for the puzzle, but also for the narrative; those of you who've played it know exactly what I mean.

It's a game that sat with me for a long time after I'd finished it, and I ultimately decided that I want to own a copy, and put some money into the pocket of the (Australian!) devs (Witch Beam, based in Brisbane), so I bought it.

Writing about it like this has just reminded me how much I love it, and I might just need to play it through again. It's another one on my list of favourites, along with Firewatch, Dredge, and Hardspace: Shipbreaker.

Unpacking is the other game it's worth buying this month's bundle for; it too is:

5: Excellent

#Unpacking #Isometric #PixelArt #Narrative #Puzzle #HumbleChoice #MastodonGaming #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #RePlay

November 15, 2023 - Day 319 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 338

Game: BPM: Bullets Per Minute

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 16, 2020
Installation Date: Nov 15, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 16m

BPM: Bullets Per Minutes is a rhythm-based FPS roguelike. I discovered BPM when I was reading about Metal Hellsinger, and added it to my wishlist.

Joke was on me. Turns out I already owned it.

After the 250Mbps fibre was installed today, I went looking through my unredeemed Steam keys list, and spotted BPM. "Ooooh! I'll install that!"

While this has the same basic concept as Metal Hellsinger, it plays very differently.

Instead of raiding hell, you're a Valkyrie raiding randomly generated Viking-esque dungeons, rendered in an eyewatering, almost monochromatic colour palette.

You also absolutely MUST fire on the beat, or the gun just doesn't fire. Even on easy mode, the mobs hit hard. Each hit does 25% damage.

You walk into a darkened room that may or may not have a wild number of mobs in it, and you run around trying to make out where you're going, and not get hit.

If you're unlucky, there's a boss in the room, who might completely blind you for a moment... and then you're dead.

Ultimately, it was the graphics that killed it for me. I would probably persevere if I could easily make out what I'm shooting at against the backgrounds, but it just becomes too much work, particularly when there are a lot of mobs on screen.

I really wanted to like this game, but unfortunately, BPM: Bullets Per Minute is another:

1: Nope

#BPM #BulletsPerMinute
#FirstPerson #Rhythm #FPS #Roguelike #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365
#NewPlay

November 16, 2023 - Day 320 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 339

Game: Homefront: The Revolution

Platform: Steam
Release Date: May 17, 2016
Installation Date: Sep 11, 2022
Unplayed: 431d (1y2m5d)
Playtime: 29m

Homefront: The Revolution is an open-world FPS reboot of 2011's Homefront, a game I reviewed on the 5th of January.

The setting is much the same; a unified Korea has invaded the United States, and you find yourself as a member of the resistance seeking to fight back against a superior military force.

It was only when I started playing it that it started to feel familiar.

Of my 29 minutes playtime, about half of that was just watching things happen on screen.

The biggest problem though is that it's not a game that's aged well. The game mechanics themselves seem totally fine, it's an issue of timing.

Right now, while Israel's government commits war crimes against innocent Palestinians while claiming self defence against Hamas, and the war by Russia against Ukraine continues, and with an ascendent US fascist movement painting themselves as the resistance, this game does not feel like a game.

When I play a game, it's partially to escape from the world, not to remind me of it, and Homefront: The Revolution does exactly that, so it all feels a bit:

2: Meh

#HomefrontTheRevolution #OpenWorld #FPS #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365
#NewPlay

November 17, 2023 - Day 321 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 340

Game: I Am Fish

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 16, 2021
Installation Date: Jul 18, 2022
Unplayed: 487d (1y3m30d)
Playtime: 18m

I Am Fish describes itself as a physics-based adventure. It's a game about four fish, in a full 3D environment.

I don't normally talk about the developers behind a game, because I like to take each game on its own merits.

However, I Am Fish has a callback to at least one of Bossa Studios previous games, but also takes a particular gameplay cue from them as well.

In I Am Fish, you start out as a goldfish. The game opens in a bakery, where the baker hands two loaves of very wriggly bread to a customer for free, one of which ends up at a pet store, where you are currently swimming with three friends (a puffer fish, a flying fish, and a piranha).

The bread is wriggly because it's sentient bread, a callback to Bossa Studios' previous game "I Am Bread". When fed to the fish, the bread seemingly makes them far more intelligent, and after your three friends are captured and removed from your tank, you awake the next day in a round, sealable goldfish bowl, and it's time to escape... by rolling your bowl along the handily placed shelves to ground level, and then to freedom.

This is an utterly gorgeous game. The lighting is incredible, the fully realised 3D levels are wonderful, and the music is delightful.

The control scheme was designed by a sadist.

Bossa Studios are also responsible for Surgeon Simulator, and if you've played Surgeon Simulator or I Am Bread, what both of these games have in common with I Am Fish is that the games are designed with the most incredibly frustrating control schemes.

I played -and gave up- on both of these earlier games in sheer frustration. Much like platformers that require pinpoint accuracy, and playing well known guitar licks, I lack the fine motor control necessary to achieve the required goals.

There are games that are designed to reward the most dextrous & skilled players who can build up the required muscle memory to make the right moves at exactly the right time; if a player can't do that, they just become a source of frustration, and even self-recrimination.

It's why I can enjoy Forza Horizon in single player mode, but am left behind in virtually every race in online mode.

It's why I was hostile towards platformers for decades, with everything from Super Mario Bros. to Celeste just winding up my frustration levels until I feel like my brain is melting.

This is also why, as much as I want to play I Am Fish (it's just so beautiful), I probably won't end up persevering much longer, when there are so many other games I can just play and enjoy.

I Am Fish is a gorgeous, frustrating conundrum of a game, that I simultaneously want to give every rating, which averages out to:

3: OK

#IAmFish #3D #Physics #Adventure #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365
#NewPlay

November 18, 2023 - Day 322 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 341

Game: Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Nov 11, 2016
Installation Date: May 8, 2020
Unplayed: 1289d (3y6m10d)
Playtime: 24m

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation is a RTS game, developed by Oxide Games, and published by Stardock Entertainment.

It is a generally serviceable RTS.

I played through the first tutorial, and having completed it, I'm uninstalling the game.

As much as I said yesterday I try not to talk about the devs behind games, I'm talking about the devs for a completely different reason today.

I was surprised to see the Stardock logo pop up, as I don't play games published by Stardock, on principle.

Both Oxide Games and Stardock Entertainment were founded by Brad Wardell; since he happily poured fuel on the GamerGate fire, and was openly supportive of GamerGate, amongst other things, I made the decision not to buy or play any of his games.

Since I'd already started up the game, figured I'd still give it an honest review (as a game, it's OK), but will I play Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation again?

1: Nope

#AshesOfTheSingularityEscalation #RTS #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365
#NewPlay

November 19, 2023 - Day 323 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 342

Game: Injustice 2

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Nov 15, 2017
Installation Date: Mar 18, 2023
Unplayed: 246d (8m1d)
Playtime: 32m

Injustice 2 is a 3Dish beat-em-up fighting game, and a sequel to Injustice: Gods Among Us.

Fighting games aren't really my go-to, because it comes back to that same issue of fine motion control and hand-eye coordination. I'd made two serious attempts to play Injustice: Gods Among Us, and failed miserably both times.

However, after playing & reviewing SOULCALIBUR VI on January 2nd, I gave Injustice a third go, and it clicked.

Still not really my go-to, and I haven't played either game since January.

In March, Injustice 2 popped up for AUD$7, and I figured it was worth a shot.

I finally took that shot.

It was not worth a shot.

I did not get off to a good start. My first attempt involved me taking a run at the tutorial in a game that insisted it had "Full Xbox One controller support" (as did Steam), and then consistently showed a PS4 controller on-screen, and showing the wrong buttons for combos.

After fiddling with the controller mapping, I quit the game, hit the forums, enabled Steam input, and finally had a working controller.

I stormed through the first part of the tutorial until I hit the combos, where I finally got stuck for five minutes just trying to get the timing and pattern right on a particular combo.

I'd probably need to go back and have yet another go at Injustice to see if there's a difference, but fundamentally, I am completely unable to time the combo moves correctly to even complete the tutorial.

After almost half an hour, my hands were sore, I was making zero progress, and the only thing I had to show for it was frustration.

It's a good looking game, and if you're a big DC fan and good at fighting games, this might be right up your alley.

Unfortunately, Injustice 2 was a waste of seven bucks, and 45Gb of SSD space; it's yet another:

1: Nope

#Injustice2 #BeatEmUp #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 20, 2023 - Day 324 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 343

Game: Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jul 4, 2018
Installation Date: Jun 29, 2019
Unplayed: 1605d (4y4m22d)
Playtime: 26m

Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered is a third-person shooter built with a physics-based destructible environment.

Set on a partially terraformed Mars, it's a remaster of Red Faction: Guerrilla from 2009 (thus the awful pun in the name), and essentially answers the question "What if Just Cause was set on Mars, and you had a sledgehammer instead of a grapple?"

While the destructible environments are fun, for a five year old game, that was released three years AFTER Just Cause 3, the graphics make it feel like it's three years older.

I wouldn't pay full price for it at this point, but if you're looking for some Mars-based destructive mayhem, Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered is:

3: OK

#RedFactionGuerillaReMarsTered #ThirdPerson #Shooter #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 21, 2023 - Day 325 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 344

Game: Starpoint Gemini Warlords

Platform: Steam
Release Date: May 24, 2017
Installation Date: Aug 15, 2022
Unplayed: 463d (1y3m6d)
Playtime: 20m

Starpoint Gemini Warlords is part third-person space combat, part 4X strategy, and part RPG.

I'm unable to review the 4X strategy & RPG elements, because I couldn't get past the utterly dire ship controls.

Going into the game blank, I had no idea it had space combat elements, which is pretty much "OK, joystick time".

I tried using the keyboard controls, and the ship handled like a stoned snail. Switched over to the Xbox controller, and that was actually worse, because while the ship still seemed to be handling like a stoned snail with the left stick, the right stick had the camera whipping around like a hummingbird on speed.

I went into the options to try and see if I could adjust the settings, and with the controller turned on, it just completely blacked out the options, so it's buggy too.

After 15 minutes of fighting with the game to try and get it to the point it was somewhat playable, I pulled the pin.

There might be a reasonable game buried under all that hassle, but am I going to put any more time into Starpoint Gemini Warlords to try and find it?

1: Nope

#StarpointGeminiWarlords #ThirdPerson #SpaceCombat #4X #Strategy #RPG #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 22, 2023 - Day 326 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 345

Game: Internet Cafe Simulator

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Oct 26, 2019
Installation Date: Aug 17, 2022
Unplayed: 462d (1y3m5d)
Playtime: 26m

Internet Cafe Simulator is a first person internet cafe simulator. I wanted to play something simple and fun tonight. Unfortunately, I chose this.

I said last week that only a few of my reviews that get a rating of "Nope" are games that are actually bad games.

*Spoiler Alert*: Today that list increases by one.

This is a bad game. The only reason I didn't pull the pin at the 15 minute mark was because I was still trying to assemble my first internet cafe "desktop".

I thought maybe it would improve once my internet cafe was open.

Unfortunately the same care & concern that was shown in the UI & UX extends to the gameplay as well.

There is nothing even remotely approaching a tutorial. You wake up in an apartment, which you're told you've rented, with $10K in your account, and two floating signposts. One to your new internet cafe, and the other to a strip club.

There's a giant hunger bar taking up half the screen, but no directions on where to buy food.

It seems that all of the complex design work in the game went into building a working strip club.

Go to your new premises, pick up a broom, sweep all of the copy-pasted garbage off the floor, sit at the computer and buy everything you need to put together your first desktop.

Almost everything in the game is some renamed real-world item, not in an amusing Car Mechanic Simulator way, more in a "badly-ripped-off-IP" way.

All of the parts show up in a series of identically sized boxes outside your front door. Not that there's anything to explain that.

I stumbled across them. Pick up each box, carry it inside, drop it to open it, pick up the item inside, try and manoeuvre it into place, rinse and repeat until you've assembled your first desktop, and oh, it's after midnight, so no customers until tomorrow.

Go home, sleep, come back, open up, customer comes in, goes to computer, sits down, sends IM that says "Waterr. Thirsty. Waterrrrr."

I have no clue where the water is, and I'm not going looking.

Every single gameplay element feels like it was slapped together from whatever free assets the dev found in the Unity IDE, and wrapped around a single idea, but then couldn't work out how to market "Strip Club Simulator", so threw in an internet cafe as an afterthought.

I'm about to free up 4Gb of SSD space, because Internet Cafe Simulator is an unequivocable:

1: Nope

#InternetCafeSimulator #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 23, 2023 - Day 327 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 346

Game: Soundfall

Platform: Steam
Release Date: May 12, 2022
Installation Date: Nov 11, 2023
Unplayed: 12d
Playtime: 16m

Soundfall is part rhythm-based top-down dungeon-crawler, part looter-shooter.

So far, one level in, this musical odyssey feels like a dungeon-crawler in name only. So far the dungeons are brightly-coloured floating islands, adorned with equalizer level bars rising and falling in time with the ear-wormish pop soundtrack.

Existing in a third space between Hi-Fi Rush and Metal Hellsinger, this is an interesting take on a rhythm game, and the only reason I'm writing a review instead of continuing to play is that it's been a tough day, and I can barely keep my eyes open.

The only issue I have with the game is that in spite of having previously needed to calibrate my video and audio latency for other rhythm games, the calibration tool in Soundfall insists my calibration requirements for both are 0ms.

I think it's this that left me feeling like I was constantly slightly off-beat, just enough that it didn't feel quite right.

Even so, Soundfall is already fun, and I'll happily say it's:

4: Good

#Soundfall #TopDown #Rhythm #DungeonCrawler #LooterShooter #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 24, 2023 - Day 328 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 347

Game: Danger Scavenger

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Mar 26, 2021
Installation Date: Oct 21, 2023
Unplayed: 34d (1m3d)
Playtime: 18m

Danger Scavenger is a cyberpunk-themed isometric twin-stick roguelite crawler set on top of a series of skyscrapers.

Pick from one of four archetypes, pick a start weapon, make your way across the rooftops, shooting objects for parts, killing robots, collecting cases, and weapons, and trying not to fall off the side of the skyscraper.

It's relatively easy to write about games I don't like, or games I do like, but after playing it last night, I've struggled all day to write anything about this game.

Danger Scavenger is:

2: Meh

#DangerScavenger #Isometric #Roguelite #Crawler #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 25, 2023 - Day 329 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 348

Game: DeadPoly

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jan 13, 2022
Installation Date: Oct 23, 2023
Unplayed: 2d
Playtime: 47m

DeadPoly is a polygon-based zombie survival looter-shooter.

It's in early access; the dev seems quite active, but has recently rebuilt the entire game.

I don't want to judge it too harshly, because it has just been completely rebuilt, and the dev is working solo.

The bones of an interesting zombie survival game are there, and even with that it managed to keep me interested for 40-odd minutes.

DeadPoly is:

3: OK

#DeadPoly #Polygon #Survival #LooterShooter #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 26, 2023 - Day 330 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 349

Game: Monster Racing League

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Mar 24, 2023
Installation Date: Jun 28, 2023
Unplayed: 151d (4m2d)
Playtime: 17m

Monster Racing League bills itself as a "multiplayer combat racing game where you don't have to steer."

The drivers are cartoon monsters, with an almost generic Unreal Engine cartoon-feel, which is why the game built in Unity was a surprise.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the only surprise. Turns out that you do, in fact, have to steer, after a fashion. You just don't need to accelerate and brake. While the game is 3D, it uses a semi-fixed side-on camera angle, which makes the races and targeting weapons somewhat frustrating.

It's Free-to-Play, and like every other F2P game includes a battle pass, but with the frustrating race mechanics (a "well-timed" missile will not only knock you off the track, it will immediately drop you from first to last position, which little chance to regain any ground), the generic design of the monsters and cars, offers virtually no reason to keep playing.

While the blurb bills Monster Racing League as "non-stop fun", which is an odd assertion, because for fun to be non-stop, it would first have to start. I'll soon recover 3Gb of HDD space, because it's a:

1: Nope

#MonsterRacingLeague #Combat #Racing #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 27, 2023 - Day 331 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 350

Game: Warstride Challenges

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 8, 2023
Installation Date: May 19, 2022
Unplayed: 557d (1y6m8d)
Playtime: 23m (31m total)

Warstride Challenges feels like Doom, Neon White, and a 3D platformer were thrown into a blender with Warframe.

If you haven't played Warframe, there are times where the gameplay can become almost impossibly fast. There are certain warframes that, when grouped with other warframes, almost become uncontrollable.

Meet Warstride Challenges. It's kind-of an FPS using that kind of speed to speedrun levels, with the kind of platforms that require almost pinpoint precision, and then shoot demons, all while competing against a timer to earn medals.

Each level has (n) demons to kill before the door unlocks at the end of the level, with a series of goal times to achieve. The faster you hit that door, the higher the level of the medals you get.

As the game progresses, you need to collect (n) medals to unlock higher levels. However, as you progress, you also unlock increasingly harder versions of the levels you've already completed, where you can earn more medals, etc.

Time a jump wrong, and you die, and there are many opportunities to die. Miss shooting one of the mobs? No exit, and that run is wasted.

Go again.

After a couple of levels are completed, you also get a limited about of "bullet-time", to slow down for that sweet headshot, but it's not enough.

You can also add other players, either from the worldwide leaderboard, or friends who play, as a "Nemesis", and you find yourself competing against their ghosts.

I'm not quite sure how I came to own this game. I seemingly picked it up in early access. I recalled it being a beta, and I have no receipt for it, yet it's a paid game that I own.

I have mixed feelings about this game. There is definitely something thrilling about beating the timers, and getting higher medals, or nailing the exit door ahead of another player's ghost.

When I played it during early access, I played it for less than 10 minutes before giving up in frustration, but now that it's gone 1.0, I decided to give it another try (thus the 23m vs 31m above).

However, it's a game that's already bringing me up hard against my poor coordination & fine motor skills, which makes completing some levels in time feel more like luck than skill.

And even 6 levels in, with 3 of them also completed on Hard, my frustration levels are already starting to exceed my fun levels.

Still, I think I'll probably end up pushing of a bit further in Warstride Challenges until the balance firmly tips against me, so I'll say it's:

3: OK

#WarstrideChallenges #FPS #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 28, 2023 - Day 332 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 351

Game: Pinball FX

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Apr 13, 2023
Installation Date: Aug 22, 2023
Unplayed: 98d (3m6d)
Playtime: 17m

Pinball FX is a pinball simulator, and is a sequel to Pinball FX3.

Bit of an odd game to be reviewing, but it's literally the only thing I played yesterday, and is my only review option.

Pinball FX uses the razor business model of giving the game away for free, and selling the tables as DLC.

Over time I'd collected quite a few tables in Pinball FX3 (14 hours playtime), but I'd specifically downloaded it for one specific table - The Getaway: High Speed II.

This pinball table is a core memory for me. I spent countless hours and dollars playing the real-world version of The Getaway. Any arcade I entered (or still enter!), I will scan for this machine. Given that it was released in 1992, I'm usually disappointed.

When Pinball FX3 presented the opportunity to be able to play it again, whenever I wanted, I jumped on the opportunity. For what it is, it's great. It's not the same though.

In 2021 the dev team behind Zen Studios announced that they were going to reboot the Pinball FX series in Unreal Engine 4 (with a now-expired exclusivity deal with the Epic Store), and that all future tables would be released on Pinball FX, not Pinball FX3.

Of course, existing tables that were purchased for FX3 do not transfer to Pinball FX, meaning if you want to play your tables in FX, buy them all again, sunshine.

However, they've since made concessions, and you can buy a "bundle" for any owned DLC that provides the FX version of the table at 50% off.

For the Black Friday sales, they heavily discounted all of the DLC, which meant that I was able to upgrade my Getaway table for $2.64.

As for Pinball FX itself? It's good. The interface is a lot cleaner that FX3. The flippers seem feel a little bit... off, but I need to investigate more.

However, what it DOES do properly is ultrawide portrait mode, which was broken in FX3.

Playing Pinball FX3 on a QHD monitor in portrait mode was a revelation (thank you again, @atomicpoet), but it was miserable on an ultrawide in portrait mode.

Pinball FX, however? Being able to see the whole playfield AND part of the cabinet brings a whole new sense of immersion, and enjoyment, and feels as close as I'll get to owning The Getaway (real table? AUD$5500) which makes that $2.64 worth it.

The thing which takes the edge off is the seemingly ever-present microtransactions built into the game. They don't seem to be necessary, and I'll likely continue to ignore them.

Even so, I'm more than happy to declare Pinball FX:

5: Excellent

#PinballFX #Pinball #Simulator #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 29, 2023 - Day 333 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 352

Game: Forspoken

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jan 25, 2023
Installation Date: Nov 29, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 71m

Forspoken is a third-person ARPG, with a magic-based weapon system, and parkour oriented open-world(ish) traversal.

You play as Frey, a young woman who was abandoned as a newborn, and grew up in a series of foster homes; after aging out of the foster system, she found herself living on the edge of society.

The game opens with Frey entering a New York courtroom, leading to a lengthy cutscene with minimal interaction. Several scenes like this follow, which slowly (and frustratingly) introduce you to the basic mechanics of interacting with the world.

Hijinks ensue, resulting in Frey being transported through a magical portal to the land of Athia, where she finds herself bonded with a magical (and sarcastic) talking vambrace she calls Cuff.

Once in Athia, a "beautiful and cruel land" under a matriarchal rule of "The Tantas", the game introduces you to the rest of the gameplay mechanics and the spell-based combat system.

Forspoken was released in January this year to some fairly mixed reviews. Having read through the reviews, I'd decided that it probably wasn't a game I would play, even though it has a female protagonist.

However, Forspoken is only an "unplayed" game on a technicality. Square Enix made a demo of the game available earlier this year, which I installed, played five minutes of, and utterly hated. A few months ago, I decided to give it another go, and fell in love with it.

The magic-based combat system requires some getting used to; playing the demo exhausted was not a success; when I wasn't exhausted it all clicked into place. Steam does not count time played on demos against the full game, so here we are.

I put a little bit of money aside in case Forspoken went on sale, & Black Friday saw a 60% discount so goodbye piggy bank.

However, there are some little quirks to the game. Because access to the various skills is gated, I found myself trying to do basic RPG things like jump, and being unable to; at other times the game forces Frey into a frustrating slow walk for narrative reasons.

Once you start picking up the combat spells & particularly the parkour spell, the gameplay improves massively.

Also frustrating are conversational interactions with Cuff, which freeze you in place for the duration, and it doesn't let you replay conversation options, which means if you don't catch something he says, too bad. On the other hand, the interplay between Cuff & Frey during gameplay can be amusing (if occasionally repetitive).

With that said, I found myself over an hour into Forspoken without even noticing, and for my money, it's:

4: Good

#Forspoken #ThirdPerson #ARPG #Simulator #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

November 30, 2023 - Day 334 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 353

Game: CryoFall

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Apr 30, 2021
Installation Date: Nov 30, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 61m

CryoFall is a sci-fi themed 2D top-down survival game.

Realising that I'd not made a dent in my unused Steam keys this year, I picked an interesting sounding game at random, and installed CryoFall.

Lots of times this year I've had difficulty defining a game, CryoFall made it easy for me. If you've played Minecraft, Rust, Valheim, V Rising (grrr), ARK Survival Evolved, or Fallout 76 the game mechanics are fundamentally the same.

The main difference is that unlike those games, which are either first- or third-person, CryoFall is the first time I recall seeing this gameplay in a 2D environment.

I don't remember seeing the technology tree model laid out quite as clearly or extensively as CryoFall does it, which extended my playtime, but it actually helped crystallise my thinking regarding survival games.

Almost all of the games I listed above have less than three hours playtime, except for Minecraft, and Rust (neither of which I play now).

The gameplay model scratches an itch in my brain for a little while, then it doesn't. The game also has online PvE and PvP modes, but I played it solo to explore the game mechanics.

I generally lean more towards PvE multiplayer games; particularly when the game is a huge timesink like a survival game.

If the game is PvP-oriented, it's worse; returning to V Rising a day later to find everything I'd built completely destroyed? It ended any desire to play again.

What I realised is that if survival & base-building is part of the game, building towards a narrative end goal (eg. Fallout 4), or a win-state, I enjoy that element of the game; when it's the focal point of the game, without any further purpose, for me, it fundamentally becomes work, and loses purpose.

As a survival game, CryoFall's 2D environment offers something a little different to other survival games, but it's not a something I see any long-term playability in; as such, it's (just barely):

3: OK

#CryoFall #2D #Survival #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 1, 2023 - Day 335 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 354

Game: Evoland*

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Apr 5, 2013 (8 Feb 2019)
Installation Date: Dec 1, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 40m

[Dr. Strange VO]
"December 1st? We're in the endgame now."

Firstly, the reason for the asterisk against the name is because this is actually Evoland Legendary Edition, which was a re-release of Evoland & Evoland 2 in a single binary, but the games are the same; this is a review of Evoland (1).

Evoland is a top-down, pixel-art, bitmapped, isometric, 2.5D, 3D RPG (so far).

I randomly picked it out of my Steam keys backlog this morning, and I could not have imagined this game. Honestly, it's worth playing just for the experience.

The game starts out looking much like a Game Boy top-down RPG. It's a monochrome viewport, the same size as your character. A chest sits at each end of the viewport.

You can only move right.

Move right, and open the chest. Now you've unlocked the ability to move left.

Move left, open the chest.

The viewport expands.

As you explore further, and open chests, the game world expands and changes; as you play the RPG, it is walking you through the history of RPG gameplay mechanics and changes, and it's unique and utterly wonderful.

I can't speak for Evoland 2 yet, but I played this early this morning before I left for work, and I'm going back to play it now, because Evoland is:

5: Excellent

#Evoland #RPG #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 2, 2023 - Day 336 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 355

Game: Prince of Persia

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Dec 10, 2008
Installation Date: Nov 23, 2023
Unplayed: 9d
Playtime: 25m

Prince of Persia is the second reboot of the original Prince of Persia. Unlike the original 2D platformer, this Prince of Persia is a full 3D third-person game, with a few platforming elements.

I lost far too many hours to the original, not understanding why I couldn't make the pinpoint-perfectly-timed jumps consistently.

Fortunately, 2008's Prince of Persia isn't quite as unforgiving. It does, however, suffer from a couple of issues.

The game goes from the being able to control the camera while following in the game world, to occasionally and unexpectedly moving to a fixed camera at some points, to the fights themselves, which I managed to complete several of, but I'm still not sure how, as I was playing with keyboard and mouse, and the movement keys during the battle seemed to change dynamically in relationship to the camera position, and I was never quite sure which key I should be pressing.

The other issue is purely one of age. This is a game that's fifteen years old, and while it's surprisingly playable (especially compared to some other games I've played this year), the evolution of movement in third-person games in the interim, makes movement in Prince of Persia feel incredibly restrictive.

Another issue arises from the age of the game. From some follow-up reading, it appears that this particular version of Prince of Persia was meant to have a follow-up that didn't eventuate. A Nintendo DS game was released that was a sequel, but the storyline kind of just sputtered out.

As I'm finding that I'm increasingly invested in games with a narrative payoff, investing time in a game where time has revealed that this particular narrative effectively just stops dead, feels like time I could invest elsewhere.

Edited, after sleeping on it. It's borderline; I kind of feel like giving it another go, so I'm upgrading Prince of Persia to:

3: OK

#PrinceOfPersia #ActionAdventure #ThirdPerson #3D #Platformer #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 3, 2023 - Day 337 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 356

Game: Little Orpheus

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 13, 2022
Installation Date: Nov 30, 2023
Unplayed:3d
Playtime: 21m

Little Orpheus is a 2.5D sideways-scrolling platform adventure game. This is a remastered version of the iOS/tvOS/macOS game which was originally released in 2020 on Apple Arcade.

The thing about #ADHD and game sales is that I absolutely have to be stoic in the face of FOMO. In spite of having so many unplayed games, and unactivated Steam keys, I still get drawn in by shinies. I bought one game that I'd been waiting months for a price drop. I bought the Prince of Persia bundle that I'd wishlisted at some stage, and which dropped to less than five bucks (and in hindsight may have been a poor choice).

Then there was this game, Little Orpheus. I stumbled across it, and it fascinated me, and AUS$4.12 later (thanks, Fanatical and your 5% voucher!) it was added to my collection of unplayed games.

Zero regrets.

You play as a Soviet interiornaut who has returned to Soviet Russia three years after disappearing on a mission sent to explore the interior of Earth and its suitability for colonisation.

This framing device is a voiceover interview between you and a superior, after your return to the surface, wanting to know where you've been for the last three years, and more importantly, where is the titular MacGuffin, "Little Orpheus", Comrade?

Thus far, it's been nothing but a few environmental puzzles, and some timing-based jumps with a couple of QTEs, with no combat.

If the whole game is like this, I will not mind in the slightest, because this game is a visual and auditory feast. The lighting and environments are gorgeous, and the classical musical accompaniment brings to mind the classic cartoon shorts of my childhood.

It's reminiscent of another platformer that I played earlier in the year that I was somewhat unimpressed with, and the thing that separates the two is the humorous narrative of Little Orpheus has me desperately wanting to keep going to see the story play out. Little Orpheus is:

5: Excellent

#LittleOrpheus #Adventure #Platformer #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 4, 2023 - Day 338 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 357

Game: Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Oct 4, 2019
Installation Date: Dec 1, 2022
Unplayed: 368d (1y3d)
Playtime: 19m

Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered is exactly what it says on a the tin. It's a Remastered version of Ghostbusters: The Video Game, released in 2009, which is effectively a Ghostbusters-themed third-person shooter...ish.

There are some games I really want to like. I grew up in the 1980's and vividly remember Ray Parker Jr's Ghostbusters theme, and the Ghostbusters logo being omnipresent for what felt like forever, at least to a ten year old.

I loved the movie too, and saw it multiple times; suffice to say, I've always had a soft spot for Ghostbusters. I somehow missed Ghostbusters: The Video Game the first time around.

On the other hand, I'm incredibly wary of "remastered" games. Sometimes the remaster has been lovingly shepherded by people who understood exactly what it was that made the original tick, and manage to bring a game up to date, while still capturing that je ne sais quoi (eg. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2).

Other times, it feels like a cash-grab, throwing a higher resolution option into the settings menu, and slapping a "remastered" label on it.

This is a spectrum, rather than a binary, and unfortunately, Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered feels closer to the cash-grab end.

This 'remaster' feels like the first run of an agile process, with the goal of just delivering the MVP (minimum viable product, not most valuable player) to fans of the original game, rather than bringing the original up to near-parity/quality with other games of 2019.

As an example, while the game offers an ultrawide resolution, it breaks the UI, while a QHD resolution gets stretched instead of letterboxed.

A couple of years ago I made a meme about RPG designers being obsessed with fishing, and adding fishing minigames to everything.

Here, it feels like fishing IS the game. Tire out the ghost, reel it in, trap it. When I made that mental jump, it kind of pushed me out of the zone.

The final kicker, though, is the presence of Harold Ramis. While all of the original cast are voicing their characters, hearing Harold Ramis again just made me feel kind of sad, and that's very much a "me" thing, that's not the fault of the game.

I think maybe for fans of Ghostbusters, who enjoyed the 2009 original, there will be something in this that recaptures the magic.

Unfortunately, coming in cold to Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered just left me feeling a bit:

2: Meh

#GhostbustersTheVideoGameRemastered #ThirdPerson #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 5, 2023 - Day 339 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 358

Game: Liberated

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jul 31, 2020
Installation Date: Dec 25, 2022
Unplayed: 345d (11m10d)
Playtime: 23m

Liberated is a side-scrolling 2.5D platformer set in a vaguely-cyberpunk dystopian society built around a Black Mirror-ish social credit score called "CCS". The game is -quite literally- framed within a noir-styled graphic novel.

It definitely feels unique among the games I've played this year, with the only other black and white game that springs to mind being Shady Part of Me

The skeuomorphism of the graphic novel itself is very well done, with page turning animations and moving from panel to panel through the narrative being very effective; at one point, the page was illuminated with a vague reflection of the light source showing up the grain of the matt gloss paper, at which point I did a double-take, because it's a computer game!

Unfortunately, the downside of the framing is that even though the "active" landscape frames take up a large chunk of the screen during actual gameplay, the character still feels very small onscreen, relative to the scenery, which is framed by the graphic novel and the tabletop it appears to be lying on.

The game appears to be oriented towards controller-based play, with my initial attempt to play with keyboard and mouse feeling very hit-and miss. I'm not sure if my mouse pointed disappeared because I alt-tabbed out to close some windows on another, or if the game disabled it; this meant at one point I was using a gun with my least favourite targeting device, the right thumbstick.

Once a mouse & keyboard girl, always a mouse & keyboard girl.

I'm also not a fan of QTEs, which so far have featured in the game a couple of times. The game does a better job than some, by clearly showing which button needs to be pressed, but even so, I struggled to mentally map A, B, X, Y to the buttons under my thumb, and blew one run pretty much at the last QTE in the series as I mashed the X button while the A appeared on screen.

The thing that's stuck with me though, is a vague sense of unease that I can't actually place, or settle. There's something about the game I find disquieting, and I think I might need to sit with that awhile to see if the answer reveals itself.

With that said, the narrative pull may draw me back in, so at this point, I'm willing to say Liberated is:

3: OK

#Liberated #SidewaysScroller #Noir #Dystopia #Cyberpunk #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 6, 2023 - Day 340 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 359

Game: 3000th Duel

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Dec 13, 2019
Installation Date: Jan 17, 2022
Unplayed: 688d (1y10m19d)
Playtime: 22m

3000th Duel is a 2.5D sideways scrolling Soulsvania platformer. Controllers on, let's go.

As the unnamed masked character, you find yourself resurrected, with a voiceover telling them you need to fight to find out who you are.

Armoured, and armed with a claymore, you set out to kill everything in sight. Of course.

I found myself getting a little frustrated with 3000th Duel very early. Early on, the game told me to use dash (RT) during fights, and I started using it and getting my ass kicked, because it was a little premature.

Then mid-fight, I was suddenly weaponless. Then dead.

The RT is the dash trigger. RB (the bumper trigger) puts your weapon away, and I'd clipped RB with my finger.

Weirdly, LT is the map button, which found me frequently staring at a map, mid-fight.

Visually, it's OK, with more than a hint of Hollow Knight (which pre-dates 3000th Duel by a couple of years).

However, it does have an inventory & stats system which I don't recall seeing in another Soulsvania (but ADHD Swiss cheese memory, so... could be wrong...)

Overall though, it's another Soulsvania in a year where I've played several very good ones, and in learning to appreciate this particular game style, it means that my expectations have become somewhat higher.

As such, 3000th Duel is a passable Soulsvania, but not one I'm likely to return to in a hurry; it's:

3: OK

#3000thDuel #SidewaysScroller #Platformer #Soulsvania #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 7, 2023 - Day 341 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 360

Game: Wandersong

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Sep 28, 2018
Installation Date: May 14, 2019
Unplayed: 1668d (4y6m23d)
Playtime: 29m

Wandersong is a 2D music-themed rhythm adventure platformer.

As with so many other platformers, the game opens with your character standing defenceless on the left hand side of the screen, and setting out on their adventure.

The game world is rendered in a brightly-coloured papercut stop-motion animation style. It was here that I ran into my first problems with the game.

It's definitely a controller-based game, but the UI for menus is so frustrating that I resorted to keyboard and mouse - and STILL had problems.

I lost close to ten minutes (which I subtracted from the playtime to get the total above) just wrestling with the options UI and trying to get it to commit the resolution I'd chosen.

With game actually running at a reasonable resolution, I set off to the right, to embrace my destiny. A sword! Every adventurer needs a sword!

This is when I encountered what felt like the weirdest weapon interaction I've ever encountered: to use the sword you select a direction for the sword to point with the D-Pad (or left stick, but I recommend D-pad) and then move towards the target.

Enter battle... and immediately lose your sword forever as it flies out of your hands and plummets offscreen.

As it turns out, this is not a fighting platformer, it's a musical platformer.

After some further scene setting, you're into the game proper.

Fights in the game are effectively a complicated version of the memory game "Simon", with a C major scale's 8 notes instead of Simon's 4.

As an example, an early fight with a ghost involves replicating the notes and patterns that the non-vocal ghost is making. This is where using the d-pad is more effective than trying to use the left stick. You need to hit the right notes in the right order, and it's too easy to slide through a wrong note with the analog stick, meaning you need to start the pattern again.

For the most part, it's effective, and the music is quite lovely, but it's definitely a game I'm going to need to be in the mood for.

Part of the reason for that is that the bugginess of the UI extends into the game itself, with the game intermittently pixelating as if dropping to low resolution, and intermittent visual glitches.

During the battles with a ghost, the screen colours invert, and the soundtrack changes accordingly, and usually switches back after winning the battle.

However, after one battle, the colours and soundtrack started inverting and reverting non-stop, making the game virtually unplayable.

Unfortunately, the general bugginess took the edge off a game I quite enjoy otherwise, leaving Wandersong at:

3: OK

#Wandersong #2D #SidewaysScroller #Platformer #Rhythm #Adventure #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 8, 2023 - Day 342 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 361

Game: Expeditions: Rome

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jan 21, 2022
Installation Date: Dec 8, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 25m

Expeditions: Rome is an isometric turn-based RPG, which I think is a combination I haven't played this year, or possibly at all.

This is the first game in the December Humble Choice bundle.

[next morning, coffee in hand]

So, where were we?

I started up the game, and was faced with a character creation screen. The game is set in Rome, circa 80 BCE (I'm estimating the date based on the age of one of your in-game companions; some guy named Gaius Julius Caesar. Yes, that one.)

The framing is that you're the youngest child of a senator who's just been murdered, and your mother has spirited you out of Rome.

You can choose the gender and name of your character - at which point the game explains the structure of Roman names; First name, Family Name, Nickname.

If you choose to play a female character, the game prevents you from choosing a first name, explaining that women in Rome did not have a given name, just a family name, and nickname.

Playing as a female, the NPCs within the game reflect the patriarchal attitudes of the setting, reminding you of your "place" in society, and the expectations upon you.

You're fairly quickly thrust into battle, at which point I was disoriented. I was faced with hex tiles, and choices on how to move the characters in my party.

"This is a turn-based tactics strategy game?"

Throughout the year I've found myself caught out trying to categorise some games.

I have no experience with table-top RPGs; I grew up in the middle of the "Satanic panic", and was taught that D&D was evil; when my only friend at high school was spending his lunch breaks playing D&D, I was on my own elsewhere, reading.

If I had any experience with TTRPGs, I would have immediately recognised it as a turn-based RPG; instead, with my history with first- & third-person action RPGs, I just didn't recognise it as an RPG, and it felt unique to me.

Even in reading up this morning, and having that "a-ha" moment, I recognised that I *have* played another turn-based RPG this year—Honkai Star Rail—but didn't connect the two, due to Honkai being third-person.

If I'd played the official Game Of The Year, I also might have recognised the gameplay (Santa, please leave Baldur's Gate 3 under the tree).

As such, it's hard to rate Rome: Expeditions comparatively; I can only really judge it on whether I enjoyed it, and... kind of? The graphics are very pretty, the voice acting is OK. I found the combat a little clunky, but maybe that was my lack of experience.

I'll probably give it another shot, (at least until I get BG3), so I'll say Rome: Expeditions is:

3: OK

#RomeExpeditions #TurnBased #RPG #HumbleChoice #HumbleBundle #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 9, 2023 - Day 343 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 362

Game: Midnight Fight Express

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Aug 24, 2022
Installation Date: Dec 9, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 16m

Midnight Fight Express is an isometric brawler.

This is the second game in the December Humble Choice bundle, and is published by Humble Games.

Two isometric games in a row? OK then. The game opens with your amnesiac character, "Babyface", in a police interview room, questioning him as to who he is and why he's been on a crime spree across the city.

There's mention of a talking drone, and then the screen fades to black, taking you back to your apartment where it all began; a large box is delivered, containing said talking drone.

"Droney" (yes, seriously) bursts out of the box, and tells us we need to start killing to prevent the city collapsing to a crime spree during the night. Droney gives the game more than a little of the "My Friend Pedro" feel.

...and away we go.

On the plus side, the game handles the isometric controls well for keyboard play. Unlike Expeditions: Rome, Midnight Fight Express has a fixed view isometric camera.

Unlike most of the fixed isometric view games I've played this year which use ordinal keymapping for WASD (mapping W to "true north"), essentially requiring the use of two keys to move "forward" (or "northeast"), relative to the gamespace, Midnight Fight Express rotates the directions 45 degrees clockwise, resulting in the W key moving "forwards" (or NE).

I loaded up a few of them after playing this, and then went back to Midnight Fight Express again to compare the controls.

I think I prefer this approach, given how frustrating I found The Ascent when needing to use two keys at a time to move (or maybe just provide an option to switch that on and off).

As best as I can remember, I've never played an isometric brawler before.

With some games, the narrative is little more than a device to support the gameplay, while others use gameplay to tell a story. While I think Midnight Fight Express is definitely in the former category, when I went back into the game to compare the controls, I ended up playing for another 16 minutes.

I wasn't initially sure felt, but I think Midnight Fight Express might be growing on me, so I'm going to say it's:

3: OK

#MidnightFightExpress #Isometric #Brawler #HumbleChoice #HumbleBundle #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 10, 2023 - Day 344 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 363

Game: Elex II

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Mar 2, 2022
Installation Date: Dec 10, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 52m

Elex II is a third-person open-world "sci-fi" ARPG; it's a sequel to Elex, which I reviewed on May 19th. and the third game in this month's Humble Choice bundle.

Usually, when someone's making a sequel, they'll take the things that worked about the first game or movie, try and amp those up, while introducing something new to give those same elements a twist.

As I'm playing through a game, I'm making notes in my head about the game, things I want to touch on when I write about it.

Elex II was released four and a half years after Elex; after playing through Elex II, I went back and read my review of Elex from May.

With Elex II, the devs decided to so something different to the usual strategy for a sequel. They instead took the elements that didn't work in the predecessor, and amped those up instead. The review almost writes itself.

The game opens with a narrator drawling the story of the planet Magalan, and the terrible disaster that befell them, leaving them in a post-apocalypse that feels like the designs of Skyrim, Fallout, and Destiny 2's EDZ got put in a blender, but the devs decided to roll their own gameplay. [Check]

They kept the aspect of Fallout's "collect all the things just in case" gameplay, but while I managed to collect a stash of stuff, an hour in I still have no idea what to do with any of it. [Check]

Combat feels mushy, and the mobs I've run into feel overpowered. [Mobs seem a little less OP now]

...and then there's the voice acting. Our protagonist is a gruff emotionless white guy who's been done wrong, and left to die by his faction. Early on, he meets a character from a different faction, and the conversation itself felt like a grind. [Check]

To call the voice acting wooden would be an insult to trees. [Actually, this changed. It's now wooden with a thick cheesy topping.]

Unfortunately, I think Elex is another game that might have been interesting in 2017, but suffers in comparison to everything that's come since, and there's little here that makes me want to keep playing.

[Dec 10] The worst thing is that last paragraph from the Elex review feels accurate for Elex II in the worst possible way. This game from 2022 FEELS like a game from 2017.

The UI is clunky, the character graphics feel firmly lodged in the uncanny valley, and don't get me started on the teeth. They're going to give me nightmares.

Oh, and one more thing. This game takes up 86.5Gb. That's bigger than Death Stranding, Horizon Zero Dawn Complete, and bigger than Cyberpunk 2077 (WITH DLC!). Wut? Why??

Elex II takes everything I disliked about Elex and gives more of the same; so, uh...

2: Meh

#ElexII #ARPG #ThirdPerson #HumbleChoice #HumbleBundle #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 10, 2023 - Day 344 - NewPlay Bonus Review
Total NewPlays: 364

Game: Mordhau

Platform: Epic Game Store
Release Date: Apr 29, 2019
Installation Date: Dec 9, 2023
Unplayed: 1d
Playtime: 19m

Mordhau is a first-person or third-person medieval combat simulator/slasher.

I picked it out of my unused Steam keys list last night, then realising I already owned it on EGS, decided to install it there.

I thought, for some reason, it was a Soulslike.

It is not. It like a twin to Chivalry II, right down to the annoying knight doing the tutorial.

Multiplayer game, enter tutorial, use the mouse to try and do a bunch of different sword moves and parries.

Unlike Chivalry II, you also get the option of training with a bow and arrow (which was OK), and jumping on a horse and using a lance.

Somehow, as frustrating as Chivalry II was, this was *more* frustrating. I could not, for the life of me, coordinate the horse and the lance, and after spending half of my playtime trying to hit the second of four targets with the lance, my frustration exceeded my patience, and I quit the game, and recovered 36GB of SSD space.

For someone who's into multiplayer swordfighting, this game might be right up your alley, which is why I'm throwing the Steam key into my giveaway list.

Like Chivalry II before it, Mordhau is a big old:

1: Nope

#Mordhau #Slasher #MultiPlayer #MeleeCombat #FirstPerson #ThirdPerson #HumbleChoice #HumbleBundle #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay

December 11, 2023 - Day 345 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 365

Game: Nobody Saves The World

Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jan 19, 2022
Installation Date: Dec 11, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 41m

Nobody Saves The World is a cartoonish top-down fantasy RPG dungeon crawler, number 4 in this month's Humble Choice bundle.

It's weird as hell. Waking with amnesia, and no pants, you set out on an adventure to find out who you are, and what's happened to the world's greatest wizard, Nostramagus.

Armed only with Nostramagus' wand (which you obtain early on from the crime scene), Nostramagus' protege sends you tumbling into a dungeon cell.

From there, you start a series of quests, leading to the ability to shape-shift, first into a rat, then into other forms, and developing skills for each form, as you level them up. This leads to further quests, etc etc etc.

It's just a mad lot of fun, and given that the RRP for Nobody Saves The World is AUD$35.95, and a month of Humble Choice is AUD$16.95 it makes this month's bundle almost worth the price, even moreso if one of the earlier games is something you want.

However, for my money, Nobody Saves The World is:

4: Good

#NobodySavesTheWorld #TopDown #RPG #HumbleChoice #HumbleBundle #Gaming #Project365ONG #Project365 #NewPlay