Another update : it’s “almost Christmas” update ! (part 2)

• The Stanley Parable
  

  2 hours playtime

  6 of 10 achievements

• Pixel Puzzles: Japan
  

  8 hours playtime

  26 of 26 achievements

• Pixel Puzzles Ultimate
  

  31 hours playtime

  42 of 964 achievements

• Clustertruck
  

  3 hours playtime

  9 of 19 achievements

• One Finger Death Punch
  

  7 hours playtime

  85 of 152 achievements

• The Darkness II
  

  3 hours playtime

  10 of 50 achievements

• Football Tactics
  

  54 hours playtime

  38 of 70 achievements

The Stanley Parable : I quite don’t understand the hype this game is blessed with. Ok, it’s fun for half an hour, when it makes you realize how you’re constantly manipulated by video games, when it catches you off-guard or when it puts a finger on all the unsaid things and stereotypes of the game industry. But that’s for an hour, top and other than that, I didn’t see any message. Too bad in my opinion because it could be a perfect vector for a political stance but the dev seems to have decided to stay in the grotesque rather than in the thought-provoking. The good points are 1) I didn’t pay for it (another gift from a generous friend) and 2) you can explore (almost) all the possibilities in less than 2 hours.

Pixel Puzzles Japan : I was gifted this game, lured by the Japanese background but I was sucked in it and finished all the puzzles in a month. The trap was set : details below.

Pixel Puzzles Ultimate : beckoned by PP Japan, Steam had me install PPU and before I had the chance to draw breath, I found myself buying a handful of DLC. To start with, the game is free with a few complimentary puzzles but you can buy many more, on every possible theme (countries, seasons, animals, events…). Oh, that guilty pleasure… I feel like an old person (well, I AM getting old but not THAT old) to enjoy playing puzzle on my computer. Oh come on, I’ll be at ease with myself : as a kid, I already liked real puzzles and this game recalled me of that time. It’s not very elaborate, not very beautiful but it’s a perfect occupation to kill time when you want to play a game but don’t want to kill things, explore places, jump platforms or kick a ball. Gee, already 31 hours of play !

Clustertruck : “FTF game”, as in “fun then frustration” game. In the beginning, for the first worlds, I was enjoying myself so much : unwillingly, I was moving and swinging on my chair like crazy to help my character to jump over the damn moving trucks or to slide under bars, holding my breath on scary final dead-jumps, etc. But, then I arrived toward the 7th world and things got worse gradually : by that time you don’t see the finish line by far, so you have to make blind hyper-jumps and on top of that, the ever-changing pattern of the truck movements and the quibbling physics really got on my nerves. When I watched the final “boss” on YT, I decided ending this game was definitely not for me. Another unended game till the end of time. Boohoo.

One Finger Death Punch : I’m still amazed by all the fun you can get from such a 2-button mash brawler. Well not so much with mashing buttons because the game requires a lot of self-control if you want to reach the end : I did and I’m proud to paint it green. There are still a helluva number of achievements to unlock and I will certainly get back to it, by little sessions, like I did until now.

The Darkness 2 : this one was part of an October challenge of mine. The deadline was close but I decided to give it a try, without conviction. You know, I’m a bit allergic to FPS (both litterally and figuratively, because of the dizziness and headache it gives me sometimes) but this one seems to have a distinctive flavour, with these powers of the Dark you have, in addition to the ubiquitous guns. From my 3 hours playtime, I sensed the story and the main character were also at the verge of being original : OK, you’re a mobster but with super-powers, so you can kill with style ; OK, you’re a killer but you try not to be too evil, because you still linger on your first love (OK, she’s dead but when you’re as powerful as Death itself, is she ?) ; OK, you’re Death’s equal but aren’t you just nuts ? Me being me, I didn’t have the courage to go really far into the game because between the lines, it basically remains a FPS where the action have you alternate shoot (or eviscerate) and cover. But, someday, I may be brave enough to spend the 3 or 5 hours left to completion, just to see if the scenario reveals itself up to my hare-brained ideas.

Football Tactics : my gem of the month ! This is just a little game in early access, from a small Ukrainian studio, but imagine the illegitimate child of Football Manager and XCOM : if you’re turned on by these 3 ingredients of turn-based tactics, management and football, the latter being surprisingly the less important, you might belong to the targeted audience. It’s a shame this game isn’t more well known : eventhough it’s still in early access (the target being Spring 2018), it is quite well polished.
I had already played many hours when I had bought it, many months ago and it was already a lot of fun climbing from lower leagues to the top levels (well, I have to admit I never reached the first league yet). The big October update made it even better: it completely revamped the specialization of players and it now entices you to build the team you want, so that you can always adapt to your opponent’s team. Game after game, you gain XP to refine your players’ playing style and improve their abilities : you can also simulate these games if you want to gain time or if you don’t like turn-based tactics and just want to focus on the stat sheets and management. You can download on the workshop some mods to play with English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Russian, Japanse or whatever-you-like real championships, with real team names (but fake players name, though you can personnalize them if you want).
And the cherry on the cake : there's a demo available on Steam (a feature getting rarer and rarer that needs to be encouraged) ! Go get it to give FT a chance. I’d be really happy if someone tells me he tried the game on my recommandation.