Remember when I sold my Retroid Pocket 2 to a coworker? He needed hello getting it to work more toward his game style so I helped him out. Cool little device. Glad he is enjoying it more than me. #gamer#gaming#videogames#vidyagames#retrogaming#mastodongaming
Wario64 on Twitter
The saga ordering a physical copy of Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster continues. SE’s website originally said it was no longer available, then changed to a waiting list. 900+ in line as of this post. Word is these are not reprints but cancelled orders. 😳 #gamer#gaming#videogames#vidyagames#retrogaming#mastodongaming
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.
Apr 13, 2023 - Day 103 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 110
Game: God Eater Resurrection
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Aug 29, 2016
Library Date: Mar 31, 2018
Unplayed: 1839d (5y13d)
Playtime: 45m
God Eater Resurrection is a bit of an odd duck of a game.
Firstly, you cannot (and never have been able to) buy it directly on Steam, as it comes bundled with God Eater 2: Rage Burst
Secondly, it felt a bit like another game I'd played in the past six months, and it turns out that Code Vein is (apparently) set in the same universe.
Unlike the soulslike world of Code Vein, though, GER is a hack-n-slash.
As for the game itself, it would have been difficult to stop the game at 15 minutes, because at that point, having spent a few minutes in the character creator tweaking my avatar, it was still in the intro video, setting up the universe. All up, it was 19 minutes from when I'd started the game, until I could first move around in-game.
The between-mission area has a fixed camera, and I couldn't find a comfortable playstyle on K/M or with controller, but in-game fighting has a free-movement camera, and I ultimately settled on K/M.
There is a LOT going on in switching weapon modes, and managing the different options in-battle, but it feels like it might be worth getting to know it a bit better.
Apr 14, 2023 - Day 104 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 111
Game: Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Aug 16, 2017
Library Date: Jun 6, 2018
Unplayed: 1773d (4y10m8d)
Playtime: 25m
I feel like I should tread carefully here; while a voracious reader when younger, I've not encountered the works of Ken Follett, but apparently The Pillars of the Earth (henceforth, "Pillars") was a "worldwide best-seller".
Pillars came in a Humble Bundle, and it's not a game that I would have purchased on its own. I'm not familiar with the source material, or the author, so the branding isn't a hook.
However, if the storytelling and gameplay game can grab me early, this isn't necessarily an issue. Unfortunately, Pillars very much seems to lean into an assumed familiarity with the source material which was strike one.
Strike two was "Oh. It's a point-and-click adventure."
I've made no bones about my feelings towards point-and-click. The Full Throttle remaster hooked me. Deponia was a bit hit and miss.
Strike three was the game pacing. It's... slow. There's a lot of slow moving from place to place, a lot of things to click on that don't seem to do anything.
The thing that tipped me over the edge, though: the game made it almost impossible to quit out. In the end, I alt-tabbed and closed it.
Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth is a solid:
Apr 15, 2023 - Day 105 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 112
Game: Satellite Reign
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Aug 18, 2015
Library Date: Apr 20, 2018
Unplayed: 1822d (4y11m27d)
Playtime: 28m
I have a soft spot for cyberpunk themed games, and one of the unexpected side-effects of this project is discovering how many cyberpunk-themed games that aren't Cyberpunk 2077 I already own.
Satellite Reign is a cyberpunk-themed class-based real-time strategy game.
So far, at the point I'd reached in the game, part-way through what just may be a lengthy tutorial, there's not a lot to critique.
It's a nice, solid little game, and I'm part way through a rescue mission. It captures the dystopian cyberpunk aesthetic nicely, without feeling like a straight rip from Blade Runner, but does feel like it draws from that well, as well as Cyberpunk, and William Gibson.
I'd love to make this a long deep review, but I'm wrestling with fatigue today in a way that seems to have fried my ability to write.
In any case, I'll definitely be going back to play it again, just to see how it unfolds.
Apr 15, 2023 - Day 105 - NewPlay Bonus Review
Total NewPlays: 113
Game: Fortified
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Feb 4, 2016
Library Date: Jun 7, 2018
Unplayed: 1773d (4y10m8d)
Playtime: 29m
Fortified is 1950's-inspired alien-invasion third-person 3D tower defense game.
It's boring.
I played across two characters, over three levels, and it was just just... boring.
A good tower defense game needs your weaponry and income to scale up appropriately to whatever you're fighting. That balance can be difficult to achieve. Orcs Must Die manages it. Fortified does not.
The "attack" buildings feel incredibly slow and underpowered, and the monsters feel generic and annoying, rather than threatening.
I like to at least reach a checkpoint, or finish a level in a game, and not quit out mid-level, but in all seriousness, I should have, because playing longer to complete the last level didn't make it any more entertaining, which is a fundamental issue. If a game isn't challenging, then it needs to at least be fun.
I can't even offer a hope that there's something under the surface. While 1950's-style the interstitial graphics and interface would feel at home in a pulp sci-fi magazine, the in-game assets feels like generic cut & paste models from a free unreal library.
Could Fortified be more than the sum of it's pulpy parts?:
I had to get that out of the way, because this game went unplayed for a very different reason to normal.
It came as part of the October 2018 Humble Bundle, and the idea of playing it terrified me.
When I was a child, for a few years, my dad used to take us into nursing homes on Sunday afternoons, as he visited people and played guitar and sang hymns for them.
I hated it. I hated the smell, and it frightened me, and I could not explain why.
I've worked in an aged care adjacent role for over a decade; I've spent far more time in the company of folks in aged care than I ever expected I would.
But I understand now what it was I hated; I hated being around old men, because I was terrified of becoming an old man.
I mean, I know you can't "catch" old man, it's just part of living as a man... and for years I found the idea of myself as an old man terrifying, as in "I would rather be dead". (cont...)
Apr 17, 2023 - Day 107 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 115
Game: The Darkside Detective
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Jul 27, 2017
Library Date: Jan 7, 2019
Unplayed: 1561d (4y3m10d)
Playtime: 16m
For someone who's not a big fan of point-and-click adventures and retro pixel art, I certainly own a lot of retro pixel art point-and-click adventures; case in point, The Darkside Detective
One of the things I think I don't like about it is that I like to play games fullscreen, and pixel art at fullscreen on a 32" monitor can feel overwhelming.
The gameplay has to overcome that. The Darkside Detective did, at least in the first "chapter".
The puzzles weren't so deeply complicated that I had to spend forever tracking back and forth to multiple locations, and then trying to work out the exact combination of multiple weird objects to make something work.
It also didn't take me two hours to make any progress; I completed the first chapter in 15 minutes. I didn't need to spend interminable amounts of time waiting for a character to walk backwards and forwards across a screen (I'm looking at you, The Secret of Monkey Island).
As far as point-and-click adventures go, The Darkside Detective is:
Apr 17, 2023 - Day 107 - NewPlay Bonus Review
Total NewPlays: 116
Game: Dead Island Definitive Edition
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: May 31, 2016
Library Date: Dec 4, 2018
Unplayed: 1595d (4y4m13d)
Playtime: 20m
Dead Island is another first-person zombie killing game, but this time it's set on a resort island.
It's a pretty run-of-the-mill "kill zombies, collect stuff, make stuff, kill more zombies" gameplay loop. Being set on a tropical island seems (so far) to give it a slightly different feel to other zombie games.
But it also felt kind-of familiar, not just like other zombie killing games, but like I'd played it before.
When I logged out, and looked up who'd made it, that feeling made sense; Dead Island is made by Techland, the same studio who make the Dying Light franchise.
Techland know how to make zombie games, but with the familiarity of the gameplay loop, if I was in the mood for killing zombies, I'd probably choose Dying Light 2 over this, as a more recent game with gameplay improvements.
Apr 18, 2023 - Day 108 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 117
Game: Wizard of Legend
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: May 16, 2018
Library Date: Dec 29, 2018
Unplayed: 1571d (4y3m20d)
Playtime: 22m
Wizard of Legend is a top-down pixel art roguelike dungeon crawler, and if you've been reading my reviews, none of that bodes well.
The game starts out in a museum that talks about a bunch of wizard arcana and wizards, that's effectively a tutorial level, which I assume was kitted out with a bunch of NPCs who were named after people that crowdfunded the game or something, but there's nothing that says whether you should speak to them or not.
Lots of things to read that do nothing except provide flavour text.
I probably spent close to 15 minutes just getting through that section, and most of it felt like wasted time.
Then I got into the game proper, and it was definitely wasted time.
Apparently a lot of people like this game. I am not one of them; Wizard of Legend was definitely not my book of arcana. It was just:
Apr 19, 2023 - Day 109 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 118
Game: Super Daryl Deluxe
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Apr 10, 2018
Library Date: Feb 2, 2019
Unplayed: 1537d (4y2m17d)
Playtime: 51m
I've said before that games had me stumped for what "kind" of game they were; Super Daryl Deluxe is somewhere beyond that. It defies my abilities to describe in. It's a one-of-a-kind.
I mean that literally. It bills itself as a "RPGvania", which explains the platforming, mashed up with the RPG, and a dash of roguelike, and then liberally doused in Napoleon Dynamite. If you Google "RPGvania", it's the only game that comes up.
The art style is unique, rendered in largely greyscale with some colours in use to make them pop out, and a lot of colour washes.
The quests kept me playing long enough to get me into the rhythm of the game, and I'm curious as to where it's going.
Unfortunately, a lot like Napoleon Dynamite, that style of humour starts to become grating after a while. I'm not sure it can carry my interest for an entire game.
Apr 20, 2023 - Day 110 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 119
Game: Sundered Eldritch Edition
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Jul 8, 2017
Library Date: Jan 7, 2019
Unplayed: 1564d (4y3m13d)
Playtime: 45m
Today I found myself faced with a "pure" Metroidvania. I even Googled it to make sure I understood the term.
So, some of the games I've been referring to as "platformers" may actually be better defined as Metroidvanias, and that is to say, I don't like them.
I find them frustrating, and I lack the hand-eye coordination to pull of the moves at the right time, and somehow this morning, none of that mattered.
I thought I'd knock out the game this morning in a quick 15 minute play session, and write up a review, and that would get me focused and into work time.
Some time later, I quit out to find I'd been playing for 45 minutes. Somehow, I managed to pull all the pieces together and find a rhythm, and what a marvellous rhythm it is.
It's an incredibly atmospheric game, inspired by H.P. Lovecraft. Part old-world horror, part technology, dropping through floors, and wall-jumping, killing everything in sight.
While (as usual) I was playing in "easy" mode, it wasn't easy for me, but not so challenging I wanted to punt the controller out the window.
Apr 20, 2023 - Day 110 - NewPlay Bonus Review
Total NewPlays: 120
Game: Seven: Enhanced Edition
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Dec 1, 2017
Library Date: Jan 30, 2019
Unplayed: 1541d (4y2m21d)
Playtime: 26m
Why not a twofer?
It seems a lot of the games I'm playing are mashups of other genres.
Seven: Enhanced Edition is a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk isometric stealth ARPG.
I'm not sure that the parts gel together that well. The graphics are great, the ability to run, jump, climb, and zipline from place to place, and then pickpocketing someone to get a key to enter a new area is kind of fun... but the isometric view makes it somewhat tedious.
When trying to navigate in a stealth game, I want to be able to get a full idea of what's going on around me.
The game has a function that allows you to scan an area using your cybernetic eye, but it disconnects from your position to scan, which feels like it takes away any sense of anchoring that view, relative to where you are.
It's not a bad game, it feels like once I get through what appears to be the introduction it may develop further, but I get so anxious, and becomg so very methodical and careful in stealth games, it kind of takes the fun out of it.
Apr 21, 2023 - Day 111 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 121
Game: NeuroVoider
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Sep 1, 2016
Library Date: Jan 30, 2019
Unplayed: 1542d (4y2m22d)
Playtime: 27m
NeuroVoider is a top-down roguelite twin-stick shooter RPG... with pixel art.
I don't have a lot to say about this game, so allow me to digress; I don't get why so many indie games are done in pixel art. I'm not saying they can't be done well, I don't understand why so many people choose them.
Maybe it's selection bias on my part; a lot of my games came in Humble Bundles, and maybe someone at Humble has a huge amount of nostalgia for pixel art games.
There's the occasional one that transcends the style, but for the most part, the game has to be that much better for me to be able to get past the pixel art.
Anyway, NeuroVoider was off to a rough start for me being a pixel art game, but twin stick shooters are a huge ask.
You play a brain in a robot body, that has to shoot other robots.
I don't quite understand why, but in spite of being able to do a huge number of different things with one hand on my beloved G13, and the other targeting with a mouse, when I need to move with the left stick and aim with the right, I become incompetent.
If you're a fan of this kind of game, it might be more your thing, but I can't see myself going back to it.
Since I have a huge number of unplayed games, common sense would dictate that I don't add any more to the pile.
Sadly, it appears that I am lacking in the "common sense" department. A few days ago I caught a couple of minutes of a gameplay video of Boundary.
Boundary is a 6DOF multiplayer space-based tactical shooter. It looked like a lot of fun. It's in early access on Steam, so I added it to my wishlist.
Then Fanatical sent me an alert yesterday to advise me that it was on special for 10% off, and I had an outstanding 5% discount voucher, and FOMO minutes later, I was the proud owner of a copy of Boundary.
I played it today, and I'd love to say I was not disappointed. Unfortunately, I cannot say that.
There's very little in the way of laying out what each piece of kit does.
In-game found myself getting railed from across the other side of a space station one too many times (which is nowhere near as fun as it sounds).
It's got potential. When it's fun, it's really fun. It's just that it's mostly full of bots; when it's not, if your team is losing, there are no penalties to other players quitting out, so they do.