I'm not one for "New Year's resolutions", but I am one for overly ambitious projects.
For 2023, Project365 is "One New Game Per Day".
Given that I have 634 unplayed games in my Steam account and {mumble} unredeemed bundle Steam keys, there's a reason my unplayed collection is tagged "Pile of Shame".
I'll pin this to my profile, and give a brief summary here each day (or x, if I miss x days due to work or stuff).
I'll play 15-30 minutes of (at least) one new game I've never played before (or played less than 15 minutes of). I'll give every game at least 15 minutes, even if I hate every minute of it.
I'm also open to suggestions; if you reply to this thread with a game, I'll schedule it, or tell you what I thought of it.
One of the things that's come up is that I have a bunch of games that I've played once, and not touched again.
Wylde Flowers is a 2.5D farming and life sim with a touch of magic. Literally.
You play as Tara Wylde, a woman who, having spent her childhood in the town of Fairhaven and moved to "the city", is now returning home to look after her grandmother.
As you explore the town of Fairhaven after arriving at the dock, you'll find the only flag flying over the mayor's office is a pride flag, and you know this is a queer little game.
As you meet the fine folks of Fairhaven, more than one mystery starts to unfold, and one of these is the discovery that your grandmother is a witch... as are you.
I actually knew something about the game before I started it; I knew it was from a Melbourne-based dev team.
It's why I was a bit taken aback when the entire voice cast appears to be American. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it was just a little unexpected.
It was getting very late when I departed Fairhaven, and I'm looking forward to going back.
March 15, 2024 - Day 440 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 475
Game: Everhood
Platform: Steam
Released: Mar 4, 2021
Installed: Aug 4, 2022
Unplayed: 588d (1y7m11d)
Playtime: 18m
Everhood is a pixel-art adventure RPG rhythm game mashup.
While it's an incredibly self-aware game that revels in its own weirdness, it effectively gates that weirdness off by the use of the rhythm game sections.
To progress in the game, you need to beat various characters in rhythm games, a la Rock Band, Guitar Hero, or Beatstar.
With one slightly, and incredibly frustrating difference. Instead of having to hit the marks on the beat, each rhythm section gives you five columns where you need to dodge pulses coming from the boss of the moment.
Even on the easiest level, I found myself frantically mashing the arrow keys and dying continuously.
Which means restarting the battle. Over and over.
I finally quit in frustration after 15 minutes, just to find I'd only been playing for 10 minutes.
I went back into the game, and found that if I stayed in the centre column, and mashed the up button with just the right timing, and no dodge attempts, I could manage to beat the first rhythm game.
A few minutes later the second rhythm game sent me back to the escape key to quit out.
While it seems like a fun game is somewhere in Everhood, am I going to go back and try to find it?
March 16, 2024 - Day 441 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 476
Game: When Ski Lifts Go Wrong
Platform: Steam
Released: Jan 24, 2019
Installed: Dec 21, 2022
Unplayed: 451d (1y2m24d)
Playtime: 45m
When Ski Lifts Go Wrong is a 3Dish physics puzzler set in a ski resort.
I like puzzle games, I like physics puzzlers, this should be a no-brainer, and for the most part it is.
I don't like to complain about a game without being able to specifically explain my frustration, but in this case, there's something that feels very inconsistent and counter-intuitive about the controls.
I find myself constantly having to stop and think about the controls, which takes me out of the zone that puzzle games normally put me in.
With a more intuitive control system, When Ski Lifts Go Wrong could be so much more than:
March 17, 2024 - Day 442 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 477
Game: A Musical Story
Platform: Steam
Released: Jan 24, 2019
Installed: Dec 26, 2022
Unplayed: 447d (1y2m20d)
Playtime: 28m
A Musical Story is part visual story-telling, part rhythm game.
I've never played anything quite like it.
There are no words, other than the opening menu. The entire story is told through vignetted painted memories of the lead character, a musician named Gabriel, and varying musical motifs.
There are only two keys used, but it requires perfect timing to follow Gabriel's musical odyssey through the 70's; it forced me to focus and feel the music, to find that part of me that used to stand on stage and find the zone.
A couple of times I just didn't hit any keys and let the music play over and over, because the music is gorgeous, and captures soul music of the 70's so well.
March 18, 2024 - Day 443 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 478
Game: Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition
Platform: Steam
Released: Oct 28, 2015
Installed: Mar 17, 2024
Unplayed: 1d
Playtime: 1h30m
Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition is an isometric RPG with turn-based combat. It was released by a little-known dev team based in Belgium (pardon my language) called Larian Studios.
Larian Studios released a small indie game last year that few people heard of called [checks notes]... "Baldur's Gate 3"
In all seriousness, though, it was my experience with BG3 that made me wishlist "Divinity: Original Sin - The Source Saga" soon after, which is a bundle of Divinity - Original Sin, Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition, and Divinity: Original Sin 2, which is currently on sale in the Steam Spring Sale for AUD$21.61. Given that it's normally $121.90, the 82% discount was impossible to turn down.
I installed D:OSEE, intending for it to be my game for the 17th, and I encountered something in a game that I've not experienced in years; it took me way back to my early days of gaming.
I started the game, and it hard-locked my PC. Instant crash, everything frozen. Two more attempts, same deal.
I raised a support ticket with Larian. Played A Musical Story instead.
When I woke up yesterday, my troubleshooting kicked in. Hard lock doesn't help much in terms of logs, but there's still some working assumptions I could try out, and it turned out that it's something to do with my monitor setup.
I'm running triple monitors. Main monitor is an AOC 34" Ultrawide, the LH monitor is an AOC 24" FHD, and the RH monitor is my old primary monitor, an AOC AGON 32" QHD.
It seems that as long as I only have one monitor active, D:OSEE will start OK. I'm still trying to nail it down, because it seemed yesterday that once I'd started it successfully and set the options in-game, it worked fine with all three monitors active, but last night I started it again, and another hard-lock.
I now have it set to "Fake Fullscreen" (other games call that Borderless Windowed), and will be running it again after I post this to check.
After all that, what about the gameplay?
It's a slow start, and it feels... slow. It's the story of a corrupted magical force named "The Source", and a two-character party of "Source Hunters", that are completely customisable before the campaign starts.
After 1.5 hours of gameplay, and clearing out what turned out to be a "tutorial" dungeon, I've just reached the first main questline. Still, for a 9 year old game, there are the hints of greatness that are found in BG3.
So far, other than the maddening crashing bug, and the game's apparent inability to display my actual resolution in the list instead of dingbats(!), Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition is:
March 19, 2024 - Day 444 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 479
Game: Final Fantasy XIII
Platform: Steam
Released: Oct 9, 2014
Installed: Jan 1, 2016
Unplayed: 3000d (8y2m18d)
Playtime: 19m
Final Fantasy XIII is third-person RPG set in a scifi/fantasy dystopia. I think.
I have an odd relationship with the Final Fantasy series. I did not come to it via console.
I came to it via World of Warcraft. Back in the day, when WoW was pretty much the only game in (my) town, I was part of a WoW guild with some workmates. Our east-coast guild merged with a west-coast guild that we raided with regularly, and we now kind of roam from game to game like a band of Ronin-nerds.
At some point, I got a free thirty days FF XIV game time card in a bundle, and decided to give FF XIV a go.
I didn't get it. It felt bizarre, a mash of things that didn't really seem to mesh., but I spent a month levelling a character before deciding not to subscribe. Then Square-Enix made it free to play to level 60. Unless you'd previously had a subscription (Allie wept).
I did end up playing again many years later, and it was this experience that I brought to Final Fantasy XIII.
FF XIV is a fairly typical third-person (MMO)RPG.
FF XIII... is not.
While it IS a third-person RPG, the battle mechanics are unlike anything I've experienced before. It uses an "auto-battle" system with no direct control of the character during fights.
The other thing that the Final Fantasy games have in common is... almost nothing.
While there are some games in the series that lead on from the previous game, it seems to be more of a "Part 2" than any direct continuity.
At least as far as I can work out.
Final Fantasy XIII is (at least I think... maybe?):
March 20, 2024 - Day 445 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 480
Game: Train Station Renovation
Platform: Steam
Released: Oct 1, 2020
Installed: Feb 2, 2024
Unplayed: 47d (1m18d)
Playtime: 69m
Train Station Renovation is a first-person work simulator.
I find work simulators quite hit-and-miss on two axes.
The first is whether I'm interested in the underlying work. A couple of years ago I stumbled across House Flipper, when I was deep in a depressive episode.
It was an incredibly chill way to find focus, and presented me with a to-do list, and a sense of satisfaction moving in creating order out of chaos.
The second is the UI for achieving those goals. It needs to be intuitive, and essentially disappear, allowing me to get on with my to-do list.
Train Station Renovation aims at the first one, in bringing order out of chaos, but somehow fails miserably on the second one.
I found myself constantly tripping over myself with the UI, which took me out of the zone repeatedly.
The sense of satisfaction in finishing the station and handing it over was good, but the frustration involved in getting to that point with Train Station Renovation left me feeling pretty:
Dead In Vinland is a 2D resource management & survival game with some roguelike elements.
A Viking family barely escapes a raid on their village. Mum, dad, daughter, and mum's sister-in-law escape in the raider's boat, and find themselves shipwrecked on an island.
I played through one entire loop of the game, from landing on the island until one of the characters died.
Once on the island, you need to send out the characters to explore the island, build things, gather food & water, as well as managing their encampment, and upgrading it.
Each character has five categories to manage: Fatigue, illness, hunger, dehydration, and depression.
Occasionally the camp will be raided, which leads to a turn-based combat stage.
The dialogue is incredibly hit-and-miss, with the angsty Viking teenager being more like a 21st century teenager in the way she talks to the other characters.
The game ends if one of the character's five status meters hits 100%, and the teenager unalived herself when her depression unexpectedly spiked before I could find anything to try and offset it during exploration.
The gameplay loop was just enough to keep me going, but the narrative was so disheartening, that playthough of Dead In Vinland was enough to push me from "meh" to:
Braid is a 2D platformer, with hand-painted artwork and an interesting time-reverse game mechanic.
Much like most arcade racers now, you can press a button on the controller to reverse time to just before you died, and try again.
The artwork is gorgeous, as is the music. However, I won't be continuing to play.
Braid is a game that turns 15 next month, and it's a little bit janky on newer hardware. That's fine though, because devs are releasing an anniversary edition next month that has an upgraded engine and brought the original artist back to update the artwork for the higher resolutions of modern systems.
March 23, 2024 - Day 448 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 483
Game: Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Heart of the Forest
Platform: Steam
Released: Oct 14, 2020
Installed: Feb 2, 2024
Unplayed: 50d (1m21d)
Playtime: 25m
Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Heart of the Forest is a visual novel RPG, that is apparently based on a TTRPG called Werewolf: The Apocalypse
You play as an American student, Maia, who's travelled to a small village outside Białowieża Forest on the border of Poland and Belarus, to try and find an explanation of her family history, and the forest that haunts her dreams.
I'm not familiar with the source material at all, but as visual novels go, this feels like the closest I've gotten to the experience of a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book since I was a kid.
Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Heart of the Forest is:
March 24, 2024 - Day 449 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 484
Game: Draw Slasher
Platform: Steam
Released: Oct 13, 2016
Installed: Dec 14, 2019
Unplayed: 1562d (4y3m10d)
Playtime: 15m
Draw Slasher is a 2D mobile port of what basically seems to be Fruit Ninja, but with zombie monkey pirates. I guess it's technically a hack and slash.
The translation from mobile to desktop is passable, until I got to a point on the first boss where I unexpectedly had to slash a particular pattern in a particular order, or else the boss' health bumped back up and I had to wear him down again.
Except the game didn't acknowledge two out of three slashes. Every. Single. Time.
It wasn't a great game to begin with, lacking the style of Fruit Ninja, but I just intentionally died to the boss at the 15 minute mark.
March 25, 2024 - Day 450 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 485
Game: Frog Detective 1: The Haunted Island
Platform: Steam
Released: Nov 23, 2018
Installed: Dec 9, 2023
Unplayed: 107d (3m16d)
Playtime: 39m
Frog Detective 1: The Haunted Island is a first-person (first-frog?) mystery adventure game.
It's very cute, quite amusing, and... short. It was all over and done, with 100% achievements, in under 40 minutes. The music is lovely, and I ended the game with a smile on my face.
There are two other Frog Detective games (so far?), and I have Frog Detective 2 in my library, ready to play.
March 26, 2024 - Day 451 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 486
Game: The Forest Quartet
Platform: Steam
Released: Dec 9, 2022
Installed: Mar 14, 2023
Unplayed: 378d (1y12d)
Playtime: 22m
The Forest Quartet is a third-person puzzle game that's part narrative adventure, part jazz-themed exploration of grief.
It tells the story of a quartet of jazz musicians whose lead vocalist, Nina, has passed away. You play as Nina, a spirit interacting with the physical world to reunite her former bandmates, and help them come to terms with her death.
If Found... is a 2D hand-drawn visual novel, that's telling two seemingly disconnected stories.
One is the story of an astronaut, Cassiopeia, and her entry into a black hole.
The other is the story of Kasio, a young Irish trans woman in the 1990's, and the fallout of her coming out as trans.
The UI is unique in my experience; you only have an eraser. You move through the story, partly as presented in Kasio's journal, by erasing your way through Kasio's life, and experiencing different memories as you go.
Sci-fi? A trans woman's coming out story? It's very much right up my alley, thematically.
I just wish I enjoyed it. There's a story there I want to engage with, but I wonder if it's the autistic part of my brain that's just struggling to connect with the story of a early-20's trans woman in a queer share house in Dublin (I think?).
The metaphor inherent in the UI is lovely, but it starts to get frustrating after a while.
I appreciate the love that's gone into the story, but I just found myself struggling to remain engaged, and that's something I often experience with visual novel style games, so I found that particularly disappointing in this regard.
I wonder if it's the kind of game that I could play in a different context and would be more enjoyable (perhaps remote Steam on the iPad).
In the end, I would say that for me If Found... is:
March 28, 2024 - Day 453
March 29, 2024 - Day 454
March 30, 2024 - Day 455
March 31, 2024 - Day 456
April 1, 2024 - Day 457
April 2, 2024 - Day 458
No NewPlay Reviews
Total NewPlays: 487
It was at this point that circumstances finally forced me to take a break. I just couldn't do it any more.
When I started the project, it was about playing through my unplayed games. I've made a huge dent in the list, but added more, and it's been a pretty great experience.
However, it's become more and more like work, and I already HAVE a job.
When those two things conflict? Well... this happens.
The other thing that's occurred is that it's now taking away from my ability to settle in and enjoy the games I've reviewed.
I tried to settle in and play Horizon Zero Dawn last night. It had been a year since I'd played it.
I couldn't remember how to play it, and I couldn't settle in because in my head was the drumbeat "I have to write those reviews, I have to write those reviews, ihavetowritethosereviews" and I quit after 10 minutes.
I want to be able to have some fun again without feeling that self-imposed burden.
So I have a new plan... the April Humble Choice dropped on the 3rd, and that's going to take me to 495 games.
I'm going to go to 500 games, and then call it a day on this version of the project.
It's been a fun journey, and I've really appreciated the feedback, but I feel like right now I need to put a pin in it, and let it have an ending.
I still might do some reviews (I've got many months of pre-paid Humble Choice bundles to come), but I think I need to finally say goodbye to #ProjectONG in this form.
Victoria 3 is a grand strategy game from Paradox Interactive. It's the first game in the April Humble Choice bundle, and if you're a Paradox fan who doesn't already own it, would probably make the whole bundle worth the purchase.
Strategy games are not my go-to choice for gaming. It took me a long time to connect the dots between my general lack of enjoyment, and my ADHD.
The number of things a strategy game requires me to keep on top of simultaneously, is inversely proportional to how much I enjoy the game.
Then there are games with a steep learning curve. If a game requires me a drop a dexy to stay focused long enough to learn the game systems, that generally doesn't go well.
Paradox Interactive's games tend to be both of these things at once. They are deeply complex games, with steep learning curves, that require patience, tenacity, focus, and the ability to multitask.
I already have a day job, I don't need a second unpaid one at night.
21 minutes is not enough time for me to make a fair objective judgement of Victoria 3, but this project was never about objectivity. It was about whether I enjoyed a game enough to keep playing it.
Victoria 3 seems to be a well developed, and incredibly deep grand strategy game. Will I play it again?
The Callisto Protocol is the second game in the April Humble Choice Bundle; it's a third-person narrative-driven survival horror game.
I went into it knowing it's classed as a survival horror game, and a great demonstration of why I try to go into these game without knowing what kind of game I'm getting into.
I don't like "survival horror" games as a category. But there are "SURVIVAL horror" games, and "survival HORROR" games. Outlast is an example of the former, The Callisto Protocol is an example of the latter (at least so far?).
Horror games take me places that feel too close to emotional spaces that aren't good for me; I'm not good with that kind of fear-based adrenaline. Occasionally, though, it's doable.
I found the first half hour relatively... OK. You play as Jacob Lee, a poor victim of "names pulled from a hat".
After the intro, the camera pans forward to the cockpit of a ship, and you come face to face with good old Kirkland-brand Timothy Olyphant, Josh Duhamel.
Voiceover and mocap work was done by Josh Duhamel, with the apparent antagonist played by Karen Fukuhara, best known as Kimiko Miyashiro from The Boys.
However, when Sam Witwer shows up soon after, it becomes clear who the real bad guy of the piece is. The fact your first interaction with him is him throwing your innocent character into a maximum security off-world prison is pretty much a "I don't know what I expected moment".
What these actors bring to the game is a sense of this being more than just another survival horror shooter, a game that might actually be serious about its narrative intentions. Whether they can pull it off, I have yet to find out.
In terms of gameplay so far, I was intrigued enough to keep playing, in spite of my nerves. There are a couple of things about the game that make me uneasy.
I don't mind a bit of gore, but The Callisto Protocol is a gorefest. Which brings me to the other thing. You don't just loot bodies in The Callisto Protocol (you little murder hobo), you actually need to perform a "corpse stomp" on them for them to give up their shinies.
That just feels a bit gratuitous.
The graphics and sound design create an incredible atmosphere, and if I'm in the right mood, I might end up trying to escape from Callisto.
Humble really decided to lean into the strategy games this month, with the third game in the bundle being HUMANKIND. It's a hex-tile based 4X strategy game.
It does a lot of things in a strategy game that Victoria 3 doesn't, which gave me a considerably easier on-ramp.
It purports to allow you to progress from a hunter-gatherer tribes, all the way to a space-faring society, but I didn't get that far in 23 minutes.
It could just have been because I was tired, I just didn't quite connect with it, and I don't really have much more to say about it.
I'll possibly poke it again, but it does feel a lot like Civilisation in some ways, and if I wanted to play a game that felt like Civilisation, I'd just play Civilisation.
The version of the game included in the bundle is the definitive edition, so you immediately have all of the DLC expansions right there, but I'm not sure I'll ever get that far.
April 7, 2024 - Day 463 - NewPlay Bonus Review
Total NewPlays: 491
Game: Techtonica
Platform: XBox Game Pass UItimate
Released: Aug 16, 2023
Installed: Apr 7, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 11h6m
Techtonica is not in the Humble Bundle. If it was, I'd be torn between yelling "BUY IT IMMEDIATELY", and "RUN AWAY, SAVE YOURSELF!"
It's a first person factory automation adventure game set on an alien planet. It's not Factorio, because it's first-person, and it's got an actual narrative built into the game, instead of tacked on as an afterthought.
You're a "breaker", who's been woken up from artificial hibernation, because something has gone in this mission to colonise an alien planet.
The design and lighting and music are all utterly gorgeous, and I wish I'd never met it.
GG.deals had a link to Pacific Drive on special (that I can't afford), and when I clicked through to look at the pricing, I saw Techtonica in a bundle with Pacific Drive (that I also couldn't afford), and I went back to GG.deals, to discover it's included in XBGU (oh no).
I lovehate factory automation games. I own several of them, and I shouldn't play them.
My theory is that they scratch that DEEP itch for systemisation that my autistic brain loves so much. I have lost entire days of my life in this kind of game.
What Techtonica does, however, is that it ties the narrative progression to the in-game tech-tree progression, and producing enough widgets to open the next level of the tech tree and find out more of the story.
I barely moved all day. I barely ate. I managed to drink a little bit of water here and there, but I was fundamentally staring at the screen for 11 hours straight.
They built a damn Skinner box that was specifically tuned for my brain, and I locked myself inside.
This game is a dopamine-hit nightmare, and I love it, but I'm not sure if it's healthy for me to keep playing it, because it verges on "addictive" territory for me.
I hate to say it, but I must; escape while you still can, don't do what I did, because Techtonica is:
Fashion Police Squad (FPS) is a retro 3D first person shooter (FPS) and marks a change in pace, for game four in the April Humble Choice Bundle
As Sergeant Des of the Fashion Police, you patrol the streets putting an end to fashion crimes.
I swear I am not making this up.
Initially armed only with your trusty 2DYE4 gun, you shoot the boring grey-scale 2D business-sprites, with fashion, taking them from drab to fab!
As you move through the game, you unlock more weapons; unlike most boomer shooters, you need to match the correct "weapon" to the fashion crime.
Overall, it's pretty goofy, but it plays the concept straight, and it's kind of fun. I'm incredibly amused that it's in the same bundle as The Callisto Protocol, but I'm glad that I didn't try to play them back to back, because the mood whiplash might have killed me.
Game number five in this month's Humble Choice Bundle is Terraformers. It's a "turn-based colony builder and resource management game with roguelike elements", built around an Earth expedition to terraform Mars.
You start with a single base, and need to explore and colonise various areas of the planet, gathering a whole load of different resources, which in turn pay for the various "research projects" that are delivered in a roguelike card-shuffle each turn.
Some turn-based games could be categorised as "just one more turn" games. Those games in which you're so deeply engrossed, that you look up, and the sun is coming up, and you need to call in sick so you can get some sleep, and then play for the rest of the day.
The key to those games is that they're scratching a particular itch, in an enjoyable and satisfying way. There's a constant series of build-ups then payoffs, and the effort->reward loop keeps those sweet dopamine hits coming at the right intervals.
I think this is why an integrated and well-planned narrative is so important; that's frequently the key to the payoffs.
Terraformers prods at the same territory, without delivering on the same satisfaction. I clocked out at just over 90 minutes, and just felt frustrated.
At the start of the game, you're presented with a choice of two leaders. Each leader has three skills, and a permanent buff. That bit's critical, because after each in-game year, you have to select a replacement leader.
I get why it's done from a gameplay mechanics perspective, but it feels like it repeatedly broke my sense of connection with the colony.
The game sets itself up as an "ancestors planting a tree" kind of story. It makes it clear that the colonists are doing this with the realisation that they'll never enjoy the fruits of their labour. I think that might be one of the key problems with the game.
I understand that the in-game population is building towards a long term goal with little short-term payoff, but the player needs some short-term payoffs, or else it feels more like a job than a game.
On top of everything else, Terraformers gives the population a hedonic adaptation loop. As they game goes on, it requires an increasing amount of effort to keep them happy, as they adapt to life on Mars.
With the repeated loop of disconnection, the cost of research projects grinding upwards and needing more resources, and the population becoming increasingly demanding, I eventually just tapped out.
Terraformers has some interesting ideas, but ultimately it felt like the gameplay was a lot of effort for little reward, and left me feeling pretty:
The Excavation of Hob's Barrow is the eighth and final game in April's Humble Choice Bundle. It's a 2.5D pixel-art point-and-click horror adventure set in Victorian England.
You play as Thomasina Bateman, a grave-robber... sorry, "barrow-digger", who's been asked to come to a small village in rural England to excavate a barrow (a large, round, ancient grave).
When she arrives by train in the village of Bewley, the man she's there to meet is nowhere to be found, and the locals claim to know nothing of the site known as "Hob's Barrow", with the mystery unfolding from there.
In this case, the narrative does lift the game above my resistance to pixel-art games, but it's definitely a game I'd need to be in the mood for.