June 2026 Progress Report
Finished Witcher 3 base game, It’s huge! I beat it in Deathmarch first go and I’m very proud of myself, it was a surprisingly fun challenge and I’m excited to explore Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, I’ve seen the loveliest screenshots (on accident, mostly still trying to keep spoilers out) of Toussaint and the map is pretty significant. I know I’ve been saying this a bit, but Instead of “I hope to 100% Witcher 3 this month” I hope I don’t, I’m having too much fun dragging it out. Let’s see, I’ve replayed Lost Ember: Rekindled which was a huge delight, it’s the same game but with significant graphical and quality of life improvements from the base game, but! The Rekindled edition (which randomly showed up in my library one day) also has an after story! A new map! A new mechanic! I picked up an Idle game, Ropuka’s Island, to game while I game to help me feel a bit better about productivity but I found it a bit too hands off for my liking but Fish to Fish had a big Dave the Diver free update which was worth revisiting - I also played Duck Detective: Ghost of Glamping! While I wish the story leaned more into the spooky vibe, the animations were fun and it’s still a solid game.
I haven’t picked up anything from the Summer Sale as of yet but It’s looking to be DLC for Jurassic Park and possibly Planet Zoo, with The Invincible, Gone Home, Battle Chef Brigade, Gone Home and finally, finally, Mass Effect Legendary Edition. That seems like quite a bit though…Still debating! This July I’m hoping to beat Blanc, Neva, Chants of Sennar, Etrian Odyssey HD, and Amber Isle. Spicy.
Total games added to backlog: 4 (Ropuka’s Idle Island, Ghost of Glamping, Amber Island, Super Hexagon)
Total completed: 3
5-16+ hours to complete, Lost Ember: Rekindled is the 2025 remaster of the original 2019 Lost Ember, featuring major graphical improvements and quality of life changes, and a brand new DLC which includes a new map to explore – and more importantly, an afterstory! For the storyline, you play as a Earthbound Spirit, a Wolf who can posses other animals, traveling with an Ember, a human Soul, through an ancient primitive civilization the Ember used to live through when it was still a thriving settlement as they travel to find their afterlife, the City of Light. While the storyline can get confusing, particularly in the end, it’s mostly because of the famously used game trope of a (in this case, deeply) unreliable narrator, and as a wolf who cannot contribute to the Embers one sided conversation, you’re left to figure out what’s right and wrong, and piece together the truth for yourself.
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I last played Lost Ember in 2021, and after Rekindled unexpectedly appeared in my library, I figured it would be a good idea to play it again. The game is more beautiful than I remembered and just as fun to explore. Still using the same graphics card (GTX 1080 my beloved) now as I did then, I did a casual side-by-side comparison and that make it clear the visual overhaul was significant enough to confirm my justification of replaying the game. Controlling your character is smoother and there have definitely been more than a few quality of life changes, though mushroom hunting is still quite complicated if you aim to 100%, the chapter select kindly informs you which areas those last few are hiding in. Overall, it’s a lovely game that’s worth checking out if you enjoy animal or wolf protagonists.
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Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping
2-3+ hours to complete, Ghost of Glamping is a sequel to The Secret Salami where you once again play as Duck Detective Eugene McQuackin, but this time – with Apprentice InvestiGator Freddy! While on a spooky glamping vacation near the haunted and abandoned Sunny Lake Sanatorium, a theft occurs on the very first day. With ghosts potentially haunting the lakeside and every guest and employees hiding secrets, it’s up to Eugene and Freddy to gather clues, interrogate suspects, and uncover the mystery of this campground!
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It was a fine detective game that I sorta enjoyed as much as the first, but I was kinda under the impression it would lean a bit more into the spooky atmosphere than it actually does. Freddy, while a fun addition and provides plenty of optional commentary through your investigations, doesn’t play much of a role throughout the story despite being the assistant, which was a bit disappointing. Overall, while I still enjoyed it and still recommend it as it’s pretty fun and has full voice acting with plenty of things happening, I do hope the next game will be a bit longer than two hours…
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200-300+ hours to complete, Ropuka’s Idle Island is a true idle game in which there is barely any interaction on your part. You have a little frog companion that lives on an island on your desktop that cuts grass with scissors and occasionally naps. As time passes, you get coins which you use in a lottery to get random furniture pieces and decorations, which you may use to decorate the island, and points from cutting grass which you can use to increase Ropuka’s or the islands status to get more points faster for the lottery or more growth.
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While I personally found I didn’t much like Ropuka’s Island, I realize that’s on me for expecting more options to interact and do things on the island with Ropuka – BUT, I will however gripe a bit that to get 100%, you need to collect each furniture piece a total of five times, you can win multiples of the same item via the random lottery, which is completely rude and unnecessary. Regardless of that nonsense, the pixel art is cute, the music is chill,there is no pressure to do anything or complex game mechanics that require you to actively participate in the idle game. While I wish I could set it to rain forever objectively it’s a fine, if boring, idle game.