QUARTER BREAKDOWN
JANUARY
The Month of Racing Games
THE ROOM
Started the month with a very well-crafted puzzle game, called The Room. My wife and I really enjoyed spending time together playing The Beast Inside, a few days before, by the end of December, so we were thirsty for more puzzle and detective games. So, we picked this one. Had great visuals and it intrigued us all the way with the contraptions and puzzle elements. It did make us wonder what we needed to do next multiple times, but we always figured out what to do.
Verdict: Masterpiece
The Room is an excellent puzzle game that delivers on a fun and great experience. I can't wait to get into the sequel and see what those puzzles will do for me and maybe my wife as well. It's something I highly recommend to people that love to play puzzles and by far is one of the funnest to complete.
NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED 2012
January has been a fairly fast-paced one, where my main objective was to play and complete Need for Speed Most Wanted 2012 as a challenge for TalePlay. It's more a personal challenge as I had this game on my backlog for quite some time and wanted to give it a fair shot. I've managed to complete it on the 16th of January 100%, with all in-game achievements acquired.
Was great to experience an NFS once again as I used to play all of them up until NFS The Run. Sadly, the franchise took a downhill turn in quality with each title going from Undercover onward. The reboot or remake didn't stand a chance against the original. A lot of gameplay features were removed, especially one of my favourites, tuning your char's performance and visuals. Yes, sure, we have performance, but it used to be more of a visual matter in older entries. You could see changes happening to your car and it's kinda sar that these have not been implemented. Still not a bad game.
Verdict: Decent
I wanted to like this game a lot more, but honestly, it's not as good as the original was. Maybe it's the nostalgia, but it was also the elements that were missing from this. I wish they would bring back the formula that made Underground, Most Wanted (2005), and Carbon successful back. It's not by all means a bad racing game, just not up to par to even older entries like Undercover or The Run, in my honest opinion.
TO THE MOON
Just to cool off after intense races, I managed to spend some time with my Steam Deck. Something I normally don't do nowadays for some reason. The game ran perfectly fine on it and due to no support for any screen size, I decided that Steam Deck will be the best option to play this game on. Very unfortunate that it doesn't have proper Linux clousd save support. Yet this game was really pleasant to complete on the Steam Deck.
After completing it, I can say that I really am looking forward for A Bird Story, a game I'll be playing in February.
Verdict: Excellent
I think To the Moon is a great visual novel, walking simulator game that tells a beautiful love and tragic story of a dying man wishing to go to the moon. I am captivated by the story and can't wait to see the next adventures of Dr. Neil Watts and Dr. Eva Rosalene. I highly recommend this game!
UNPACKING
Switching back to my PC, I decided to give Unpacking a quick try after getting it via Humble Choice. Great thing that I did because I was honestly quickly bored with the repetitive gameplay. The visuals are the things that brought me in, and in hopes that the whole organizing will be something I'll enjoy, I quickly realized that by the time I reach the end, I lost my will to get to the end, but I pushed through and completed it.
Thanks to The Crew, I kept myself active and have a pretty decent time to kill. Luckily it's a short game, yet I can't recommend it if you are impatient or want more out of it..
Verdict: Decent
Overall, I think Unpacking was a gorgeous and relaxing game I enjoyed, despite my criticism. I think it's art style and sound design are amazing and are what will drive many people to try this game. I don't think it's worth the price it's asking originally for the sheer amount of stuff you can do and how repetitive it can feel after a while.
THE CREW
With the announcements of the closing of the servers of The Crew, I quickly repurposed my month to fit in this game. Despite being busy with these two massive titles, I've given other smaller titles a shot as well, such as To The Moon a fair shot over my Steam Deck as well The Room puzzle game alongside my wife, which has been a blast.
It's a shame that this game has to close. The single-player campaign was really entertaining and I managed to get to Level 52 by reaching credits. I highly advise anybody owning this game, giving it a shot before 31st of March, when the servers closes and the game becomes completely unplayable. I got the game back in the Steam Summer Sales in 2023, without knowing that this game would shut down. I'm glad that I gave it a fair shot without spending too much time. I might revisit it before it closes to play a few races here and there and take a good amount of time playing it as I didn't get this game for free.
Verdict: Very Good
Underrated racing game. It might not be perfect in many areas, it offers a vast, very detailed open world, with awesome visuals, tuning that I wish Need for Speed Most Wanted 2012 had and a large variety of race modes.
Games Completed this Month
- The Room
3 hours playtime
- Need for Speed™ Most Wanted
43 hours playtime
no achievements
- To the Moon
10 hours playtime
- Unpacking
3 hours playtime
- The Crew
23 hours playtime
no achievements