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.
February 17, 2024 - Day 413 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 449
Game: Edengate: The Edge of Life
Platform: Steam
Released: Nov 16, 2022
Installed: Feb 10, 2024
Unplayed: 7d
Playtime: 31m
Edengate: The Edge of Life is a third-person post-apocalyptic walking simulator.
You play as Mia Lorenson, who wakes up alone in a deserted hospital. It starts out feeling a little bit like the opening scenes of The Walking Dead, then goes in a different direction.
"Walking simulator" is often considered to be a bit of an insult to a game, but one of my favourite games of all time (Firewatch) is a walking sim.
It's got my interest piqued, but it's not quite as "keep-going" as I found Firewatch. I'm still interested in seeing where it takes me, and finding out what Mia has to do with the apocalypse that unfolded while she was unconscious.
I have a theory, but if it turns out to be correct, it will be so on the nose I'd probably come back and lower the rating; at this point, Edengate: The Edge of Life is:
February 18, 2024 - Day 414 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 450
Game: Iris and The Giant
Platform: Steam
Released: Feb 28, 2020
Installed: Feb 2, 2024
Unplayed: 16d
Playtime: 27m
Iris and The Giant is 2.5D RPG/roguelike/deckbuilder. It's kind of hard to pigeonhole.
You play as Iris, and the game is an exploration of her mental health and struggles with anxiety. Cut-scenes that start to flesh out the backstory can be triggered during battles.
As deckbuilders go, it's quite unique, and the game has a certain melancholy air to it.
February 19, 2024 - Day 415 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 451
Game: Sheepy: A Short Adventure
Platform: Steam
Released: Feb 7, 2024
Installed: Feb 19, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 42m
(The next few reviews will be very short, because I played each game on the day while I was sick, but I didn't have the energy to write the reviews.)
Sheepy: A Short Adventure is a 2D pixel-art platformer.
You play as an abandoned plush toy ("Sheepy"), who's brought to life inside an abandoned factory.
A pixel-art platformer is exactly the kind of game I would have avoided at the start of this ridiculous project, and it would have been my loss.
Both the soundtrack and the visuals of this game are gorgeous, and it's got the gameplay just right to match. This game is utterly glorious - and it's free! (link below)
Niche - a genetics survival game is a top-down hex-tile turn-based strategy game with roguelike elements.
The single player game opens with a cutscene of a kitten-like animal being stolen from its family by a bird of prey. In mid-air, the kitten scratches the bird, and is dropped, where it wakes up alone on an island.
Your goal is to get back to your family... in a manner of speaking. "Adam" will only survive 14 days (unless injured), and so needs to find a partner, and mate, with Adam's descendants eventually finding their way "home".
At this point I was already on the verge of tears, and learning of the gameplay pushed me over the edge.
It might have been recoverable if the gameplay had been better, but it's just clunky. Adam died within a few days on my first run, because of how clunky the UI is, and in trying to climb onto a rock in the water, it was unclear that would, in fact, leave Adam in deeper water, taking damage.
On the second run I did a bit better, but found the whole thing just a little bit too clunky and complicated.
February 21, 2024 - Day 417 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 453
Game: Basement
Platform: Steam
Released: Nov 11, 2016
Installed: Feb 1, 2024
Unplayed: 20d
Playtime: 19m
Basement is a 2D side-view pixel-art business simulation strategy game about coming up with the money to fund the development of a new video game, in much the same way that Breaking Bad is a drama about a high-school teacher's struggles with the American healthcare system.
In both cases, the protagonist turns to drugs as a way to make money; in Basement, it's weed instead of meth, by way of Fallout Shelter or Mr. Prepper.
Much like Mr. Prepper, Basement is not really my thing; I just found it:
February 23, 2024 - Day 419 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 455
Game: Pink - Summer Carnival 2023/2024
Platform: Marvel Stadium
Released: Jun 7, 2023
Installed: Feb 23, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 2h
OK, so this obviously isn't a game, but it is the reason there's not an actual game review for yesterday.
I've never seen Pink in concert before. This is my second live concert in three months, and with all due respect to Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters, my experience at Pink's Summer Carnival 2024 last night set a new bar that I can't imagine being topped.
I found the Foo Fighters almost unbearably loud; I spent the whole night with my watch alarming for sound levels of between 103 & 109dB, and wearing ear plugs.
Comparatively, my watch went off twice last night when the volume momentarily exceeded 100dB.
The downside was that compared to AAMI Park's seating, the Marvel Stadium seats are more flexible, and the rows are closer together. I'm 6'3" with legs that go all the way up, and while the seating at AAMI Park wasn't comfortable, at Marvel Stadium it was excruciating, with flexible plastic seats meaning the punter in front crushed my already-twisted legs on more than one occasion.
Because the two concerts were so close together (Dec 6, 2023 & Feb 24, 2024), while they're stylistically different, I can't help but compare them.
Firstly, although stylistically different, both Dave Grohl & Pink can hold their own, both as musicians, and lyricists. They can both tell incredible stories with their songwriting, and both have an ear for a hook.
They also both have an incredible stage presence and charisma.
However, whereas the Foo Fighters concert was just sheer motherfing rib-shattering wall-of-sound territory (Dave said "motherfer" so many times within two hours it would make Samuel L. Jackson blush), Pink's performance was a (literally) jaw-dropping spectacular.
The integration of the staging and live video made the Foo Fighters video choreography look laid-back by comparison.
I was aware that Pink's shows involve acrobatics, but before the concert started, I said to my wife that I couldn't see where she'd be able to do it.
From the opening moments I discovered that my imagination is not big enough. From the moment she opened the show with "Get the Party Started" while dropping on a swing from a concealed location 50 metres above the stage, to closing out the show with "So What" while literally flying & tumbling on a harness above 2/3 of the general admission audience on the floor of Marvel Stadium, and right out to the edges of the level 2 seating, the show was mesmerising.
To see two amazing performances within 3 months is an incredible privilege; last night, however, was quite literally the most incredible live music experience of my entire life.
February 24, 2024 - Day 420 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 456
Game: Neoverse
Platform: Steam
Released: Feb 19, 2020
Installed: Feb 1, 2024
Unplayed: 23d
Playtime: 34m
Neoverse is a 3D-ish rogue-lite deckbuilder.
It didn't get off to a good start. There are three main characters, all women. The opening cutscene seemed to be entirely about them engaging in various battles aimed at the male gaze.
One of the main characters featuring in the game art is a character wearing a skintight silver bodysuit, viewed from behind and below the waistline, with her butt being the focal point.
As for the game itself? Nowhere near that. It's set in a multiverse, where you and two other characters need to enter universes to fight a series of staged battles to unlock more cards and save the universe(s) through card battles.
As rogue-lite card battlers go, Neoverse is (just barely):
February 25, 2024 - Day 421 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 457
Game: Black Book
Platform: Steam
Released: Aug 11, 2021
Installed: Feb 2, 2024
Unplayed: 23d
Playtime: 43m
Black Book is a rogue-lite deckbuilder RPG.
Black Book is set in 19th century Russia, and is a card-battler/RPG built around Slavic folklore.
You play a woman who lives with her uncle, whose betrothed husband-to-be seemingly unalived himself.
Not willing to accept this, she seeks out and makes a deal with the devil to become a witch, and seeks to break the seven seals on a tome given to her by her uncle, which may contain the power of something which can save him from Hell.
The "cards" in this case are spells within a spellbook; it feels much like a very dark Slay the Spire, with an RPG layered over the top.
However, the devs have layered an incredible amount of Slavic folklore into the RPG side, which (due to my upbringing) left me feeling a little bit uncomfortable.
February 26, 2024 - Day 422 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 458
Game: Undying
Platform: Steam
Released: Dec 7, 2023
Installed: Dec 20, 2023
Unplayed: 68d (2m6d)
Playtime: 30m
Undying is an isometric zombie survival game, with a twist.
Undying is set in the immediate aftermath of a zombie outbreak. With survivors having been shepherded into safe zones, the survivors are being extracted, one safe zone at a time.
Anling and her son, Cody, are in one of these safe zones, which is overrun by zombies during the extraction. The extraction fails, and Anling and Cody make a run for their lives, finding a car, and returning to their home.
Their home becomes their survival base, with all of the standard trappings of any number of other survival games, just with extra zombies.
With one catch - Anling was bitten by a zombie while escaping, and needs to teach Cody how to survive before she turns.
This adds a somewhat melancholic layer to the game, knowing that (playing as Anling), you're on borrowed time, and as a parent, this affected me quite deeply.
As you go through each step of building and repairing items, you encourage Cody to observe, which levels him up, allowing him to do more of these things himself.
February 27, 2024 - Day 423 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 459
Game: Paradise Lost
Platform: Steam
Released: Mar 25, 2021
Installed: Feb 2, 2024
Unplayed: 25d
Playtime: 23m
Paradise Lost is a first-person walking simulator set in an alt-history 1980 where World War II did not end in 1945, and the Nazis managed to survive until (at least) the 1960's, before setting off nuclear weapons and retreating underground.
A lot of folks aren't big on walking simulators, but one of my favourite (ever) games is a walking simulator - Firewatch.
A walking sim needs to have a good pace, and a good story.
Therein lies my biggest issue with Paradise Lost; the walking pace is so agonisingly slow, that 20 minutes into the game, I was only just starting to scratch the surface of a game that seems to have an incredible atmosphere, and design aesthetic... and Nazis.
It is the story of a boy named Szymon who, after his mother's death, seeks to find the answers as to who she really was, and who the unknown man in a photo is (or was).
This leads Szymon to this abandoned underground world built by the Nazis to escape the consequences of their bombs.
Unfortunately, Nazis just feels too on the nose in 2024, and combined with the excruciatingly slow pace, Paradise Lost is an unfortunate:
February 28, 2024 - Day 424 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 460
Game: Earthlock
Platform: Steam
Released: Mar 8, 2018
Installed: Feb 1, 2024
Unplayed: 27d
Playtime: 20m
Earthlock is a third-person turn-based ARPG, that claims inspiration from JRPG's from the 90's, and really leans into the nostalgia for those games.
I lack the prerequisite nostalgia for 90's JRPGs, and as I did not enjoy this game, I cannot imagine any kind of context in which I'd choose this over Baldur's Gate 3.
February 29, 2024 - Day 425 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 461
Game: House Builder
Platform: Steam
Released: Jan 16, 2024
Installed: Jun 21, 2023
Unplayed: 27d
Playtime: 21m
House Builder is a first person building simulator. While being fundamentally the same theme as Builder Simulator that I reviewed last year, the thing that it manages to do is be more fun.
Developed by the same team that designed the Car Mechanic Simulator series (which I own, and enjoy), House Builder brings those dev skills to bear on building houses instead of fixing cars.
They acquit themselves reasonably well, for what it is. While it's not quite as boring & frustrating, Builder Simulator, at its core it's still a work simulator, just about building houses.
If you like building houses, maybe this will work for you. It's the kind of game I would absolutely need to be in the mood for, which shares mental space with Car Mechanic Simulator, Power Wash Simulator, or House Flipper, but all of them feel more rewarding.
March 2, 2024 - Day 427 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 462
Game: The Beast Inside
Platform: Steam
Released: Oct 18, 2019
Installed: Aug 13, 2022
Unplayed: 567d (1y6m18d)
Playtime: 38m
The Beast Inside is a first person horror survival game.
There's a particular kind of horror movie referred to as "torture porn". I know people watch movies like the Saw series, and Hostel series, and I genuinely cannot understand why. I'm already put off by horror movies, but the idea of that kind of movie comes close to triggering an anxiety attack.
As if the cover graphics weren't a giveaway, this game's opening cutscene movie (no pun intended), feels like it verges on torture porn.
I'm not even going to describe it beyond "VAW", because it would require trigger warnings. The scene ends with something like "One week ago...", meaning that your entire gaming experience is building towards that horrifying moment.
It did not put me in a good mental space for enjoying the game. The game is set in the 1980's, and the story and puzzles that followed were OK; the game is broken into chapters, with an interesting time-shift into the 19th century, in the same house, but I have absolutely no desire to see how the game plays out.
March 3, 2024 - Day 428 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 463
Game: Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts
Platform: Steam
Released: Nov 23, 2019
Installed: Dec 1, 2022
Unplayed: 458d (1y3m2d)
Playtime: 15m
Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts is, by definition, a first-person shooter.
However, describing something as an FPS generally involves a particular set of expectations, whereas this game is about being a long way from the target, setting up the perfect shot, and then executing.
Truth be told, in FPS PvP games, I like playing the sniper role. I like playing the Sniper Elite games, in which putting bullets in the heads of Nazis feels a little bit too good.
Just randomly killing people for the sake of killing people with the perfect shot? It doesn't do much for me.
March 6, 2024 - Day 431 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 466
Game: Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun
Platform: Xbox Game Pass PC
Released: May 23, 2023
Installed: Mar 6, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 33m
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is a retro FPS set in the Warhammer 40k universe. It feels like Doom-meets-Warhammer-with-mouseaim. It was added to XBGP this month, and so I decided to give it a shot.
Pun intended.
I think for someone who loves Warhammer, it would be awesome. However, I'm not a Warhammer girl, so clanking around in the armor, and killing everyone for Warhammer reasons just doesn't resonate with me.
In terms of gameplay, it's an OK retro FPS. The titular boltgun IS kind of fun, dealing high-speed accurate death to mobs half a map away, but it doesn't feel like enough to carry me through the whole game.
March 7, 2024 - Day 432 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 467
Game: Conglomerate 451
Platform: Steam
Released: Feb 20, 2020
Installed: Aug 17, 2022
Unplayed: 568d (1y6m19d)
Playtime: 18m
The store page for Conglomerate 451 describes it like this: "... a grid-based, dungeon crawling first-person RPG with roguelike elements set in a cyberpunk world."
Grid-based, dungeon-crawler RPG with a cyberpunk aesthetic, and roguelike elements... sure.
It's technically first-person, but most first-person games don't have a fixed camera and snap turns, leading into turn-based combat encounters.
It cribs from a whole lot of different game genres, and then kind of mashes them up in a way that feels like it's less than the sum of its parts.
Unfortunately, it feels like it's not quite sure what kind of game it wants to be, so tries to be all of them, and fails to achieve any of them.
Don't even get me started on the giant twin ventilation fans on the sides of buildings that look almost exactly like a graphics card twin-fan cooler.
March 8, 2024 - Day 433 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 468
Game: Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin
Platform: Steam
Released: Nov 18, 2023
Installed: Mar 8, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 24m
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is an isometric real-time strategy game, and it's first game off the rank in this month's Humble Bundle.
It's also got to be the quickest release-date-to-bundle-date I've seen.
It's good looking, but boring. There's some kind of storyline here, but it feels a lot like it relies on pre-existing knowledge of Warhammer, and much like Boltgun a few days ago, I suspect if you're a Warhammer fan you might get more out of this that I did.
Not a great start for the March Humble Choice bundle, Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is just:
March 9, 2024 - Day 434 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 469
Game: Nioh 2
Platform: Steam
Released: Feb 5, 2021
Installed: Mar 9, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 32m
The second game in the March Humble Choice Bundle is Nioh 2; it's a third-person ARPG, which is described by the developers as "masocore".
It's set in a fictionalised supernatural era of Japan in the 16th century, and I hope you like sharp weapons, because there are a lot of them to choose from.
Not that they did me much good, because I died pretty much straight away, and repeatedly.
Turns out that "masocore" is a portmanteau of "masochism" and "hardcore", and Nioh 2 is aimed at a subset of players for whom I guess soulslikes aren't frustrating enough?
It's a gorgeous-looking game, but I have low frustration levels to begin with, and this just didn't click with me.
I still want to give it another try though? So I'm going give it a (just barely):
March 10, 2024 - Day 435 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 470
Game: Black Skylands
Platform: Steam
Released: Aug 16, 2023
Installed: Mar 10, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 19m
Black Skylands is game number five in the March Humble Choice Bundle; it's a top-down pixel-art steampunk-themed... game. It's a category mash-up that's part-twin-stick shooter, part-open-world-action-adventure, part crafting-sandbox.
Within that mix of genres, I had trouble situating myself within the gameplay that I connected with it.
It's another game that I'm going to give another shot and see how I feel about it once I get a bit further into the game.
Soulstice is game six in the March Humble Choice Bundle.
It's a third-person fixed-path hack-and-slash adventure game, with a design aesthetic that I really like, a night-time post-apocalyptic fantasy steampunk mashup.
However, the biggest letdown is the semi-fixed camera, which makes this gorgeous game deeply frustrating to try and navigate.
What's worse is that the game allows you to unlock the camera during the intermittent NPC battles, which makes the design choice to leave it locked at other times all the more mystifying.
With four out of eight games in the bundle out of the way, this bundle isn't batting well.
The teeth-grindingly frustrating camera drags Soulstice down from what was potentially "good" to:
Afterimage is the seventh game six in the March Humble Choice Bundle; it's a 2D sideways-scrolling Metroidvania, with some Soulslike influences.
You play as a girl named Renee who wakes up with amnesia, and finds that her village has been destroyed. You set out to recover her memories and find out what happened.
I had to Google the details of the game, because writing this review four days later, it strikes me as not particularly memorable. Not bad, just... average.
March 13, 2024 - Day 438 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 473
Game: Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter
Platform: Steam
Released: Dec 7, 2023
Installed: Mar 13, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 22m
Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter is the eighth game in the March Humble Choice Bundle. It's a first-person simulation of a WWII U-Boat destroyer.
It started out with a series of cutscenes with some of the most wooden voice acting I've experienced since I started the project.
I then ended up in the campaign, and managed to skip the tutorial option completely.
After several minutes of frustration, I quit out of the campaign, found the tutorial, which was just a series of tutorial videos, and after the series of tutorial videos I experienced a profound sense of loss at the 22 minutes of my life I'd spent on this game.
There's absolutely nothing that could have gotten me to start over on the campaign with the fresh knowledge I'd managed barely managed scrape out of the tutorial videos.
For a WWII wargame fan, Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter might scratch a very specific itch. Do I have that itch?