Alright. Combining October and November here. Played a fair amount of games but only finished a handful. Cyberpunk 2077 was the star of the show with Avernum 2: Crystal Souls also being a heavy hitter. POOLS and Songs of Rats were also stand out titles.
October/November Completions
Neon Hearts City
1.8 hours, 8 of 9 achievements
Solid quick hitting point and click game. Pretty enjoyable cyberpunk-ish setting with some Johnny Mnemonic sprinkled in.
Cyberpunk 2077
57.7 hours, 22 of 57 achievements
This plus the Phantom Liberty expansion equals "chef's kiss". Obvious must play legendary game.
Hero of the Kingdom: The Lost Tales 3
4.5 hours, 24 of 26 achievements
Is the sixth installment in the series? It's a solid game same as its predecessors. Nice little adventure with HoG elements.
POOLS
2.7 hours, 10 of 24 achievements
Has to be considered one of the best liminal spaces games.
It Takes a War
0.8 hours, no achievements
Silly game with a serious message about not confusing your online and offline lives. Fun was had.
Avernum 2: Crystal Souls
74.9 hours, 28 of 35 achievements
An unquestioned CRPG classic and part of a legendary series. Holds up even now.
Songs of Rats
7.7 hours, 13 of 28 achievements
Very cool choose your own adventure RPG. Splash of Pandorum influence.
October/November Retirements
- Jumpbound - Actually a bad ass platformer, but I’m not good at platformers.
- Wandering Trails: A Hiking Game - It’s an okay walking sim, but there is no story and no goals and everything is pretty spread out.
- Short Snow - Poorly optimized, buggy, and a very sus dev as well.
- Red Dead Redemption - IDK man. I loved this back in the day, but I was far less enamored of it this time. John Marsten can’t hold a candle to Arthur Morgan as a protagonist and the quests were kinda boring by the time I got to Mexico.
- Arctic Drive - Mostly non-functional to this point in development.
- The Last Sanctum - It’s really just not good, you fight the cameras more than anything actually on screen, and it also seems like the dev is not going to fix anything.
- Ruins - This one OTOH, while definitely early and raw, has a lot of potential. It’s just not ready quite yet. The dev is very active and actively asks for advice from the people who already own the game. Which is cool. Will pick this one up again at a later date.
- Look Outside - Intriguing horror RPG, but some of the impact moments kinda suck. Like choosing to keep your shooting arm but losing all ammo. Or only finding out after the fact that a teddy bear can not only remind one creature of his humanity but also allow you to recruit him. RIP guy who was killed because the game didn’t parse out items and info in the proper order.
- Liminal Shift - Kinda like POOLS, but not as good. Meh-ish level design and stiff controls had me leaving it behind.
- Shatterland - Just bad. Which is to be expected from this subpar dev, who has already abandoned development of his other games, Last Whisper and Landfall, then began listing himself as a number of different devs on Steam afterwards, lol. Somehow, he has acquired a cult of adoring fans though. Anyway, I hope he gets it together this time around, but I’m not playing this again anytime soon.
- Spin Hero - Fun slots style RPG roguelike. Still, the charm wore out after a while.
- Swat Commander - I don’t like the controls for this one. They tried for realism but didn’t find it as far as weapon weight and sway goes. I think I would’ve preferred this to be a bit more arcade-y.
- Alan Wake 2 - Sort of. It’s actually pretty badass and has an intensely abrupt shift pretty quickly in the story that was rad. I just wasn’t in the mood to keep playing at the moment. Will definitely revisit it later on though.
Plans for December
Currently playing Assassins Creed: Shadows on UbiConnect. It’s a lot of fun. When I finish that, I’ll move on to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. And I’ll definitely mix in some shorter titles. Queen of Moths, Betrayal at Club Low, Poly Roam, and Devil’s Hangout are some of the short game candidates. Also, still playing through The Planet Crafter: Planet Humble DLC with my buddy every week or two. It’s not quite as good as the base game planet, but still a good time.
Congratulations on your assassinations!!! Best of luck with Cyberpunk!!! The DLC was so good and admittingly I liked the endings a bit more than the base game, which feels a little silly ahaha.
Where did you retire in Jumpbound? Stormy Spires??? I know there was a complicated jump in that section, but with chill mode added in, it’s a pretty short game to beat. Completing on the other hand….