Oct 2023: This Month's Games
a public journal of everything i've played this month
any notes should be treated as "first impressions"
Everything I played as part of Steam's Next Fest is on that list instead
any notes should be treated as "first impressions"
Everything I played as part of Steam's Next Fest is on that list instead
26 Games
this is the furthest i've made it on a repeat playthrough. dumping all my points into inland empire and shivers and while it's definitely made me some kind of freak, i'm not able to express my freakishness to other people as much as i would like. still having a good time though, this is basically the first time i've touched this thing since i finished it on release 4 years ago
absolutely unreal how fun this is. the hand to hand is great but in my very limited time with the game i've had very few chances to use it. unreservedly a fan of everything else so far, though, no additional notes.
I think people have become so accustomed to saying "oh it's different, it's good now!" that it's become functionally useless. The narrative surrounding this has been one of reinvention, one which at its most dramatic suggests that the game has changed so significantly that it's qualified to be its own sequel.
And what a disappointing sequel it would be: they can rework the skills, they can change how clothing works, and while most of the mechanical changes are better I don't know if I come away from this experience saying that it's "finally good".
In fact, I think I come away from this experience saying the opposite - this is the same game that I played 3 years ago. I'm not stupid, I see performance improvements and all the little tweaks they've made across the board, but after a certain point the most serious strikes against Cyberpunk come from the parts that are included on purpose.
And what a disappointing sequel it would be: they can rework the skills, they can change how clothing works, and while most of the mechanical changes are better I don't know if I come away from this experience saying that it's "finally good".
In fact, I think I come away from this experience saying the opposite - this is the same game that I played 3 years ago. I'm not stupid, I see performance improvements and all the little tweaks they've made across the board, but after a certain point the most serious strikes against Cyberpunk come from the parts that are included on purpose.
have done my damnedest to try and recreate the screenshot of the big fireball on the store page but no luck.
i'm not super into trains but if you don't mind things like Euro/American Truck Sim and/or drives through the countryside, this can be pretty chill even out of VR. if you don't actually want to derail at all you can basically turn off all consequences in the sandbox mode and just cruise around the map. hard to say any more than that
i'm not super into trains but if you don't mind things like Euro/American Truck Sim and/or drives through the countryside, this can be pretty chill even out of VR. if you don't actually want to derail at all you can basically turn off all consequences in the sandbox mode and just cruise around the map. hard to say any more than that
only barely touched this so far, but i'm already impressed by how good the combat feels. love jumping onto some large creature, latching on for dear life, and just beating the hell out of it. i wish pawns would shut up - i already understand the concept of an "intersection", thanks - but i still think they're a net positive for the experience as a whole
simultaneously a "proper" city builder, a game about managing supply chains, and a game about routing a fuckload of trains without destroying them. my least favorite part of transport sims is that trains are really hard to place well if you didn't build with them in mind from moment one - they take up so much space, and this sorta gets around that by having the trains be literally the only method of transportation outside of town centers
the PC version of this game is more deserving of a separate IGDB page than any of the pages for a season of fall guys, and I don't mean that as a joke
the steam release removes all the nickel-and-diming and watch-an-ad-to-continue-ing. i still think the format is a better fit for a phone - letting your train auto-run doesn't always seem to work - but with the changes they've made to remove microtransactions and other mobile game-ry i think you've got an idle game that's perfectly designed to hook me personally. travelling to a TON of different destinations around the world and balancing train cars/passenger happiness/cargo as you upgrade stations is the perfect loop to keep me tweaking stuff forever. if i drop this in the near future it'll only be because i've gotta open it on steam to play it
i suppose i also kinda wish that train cars were less solved. as it is now, there's basically no reason to run 90% of the cars once you start hitting max level on multiple cars
the steam release removes all the nickel-and-diming and watch-an-ad-to-continue-ing. i still think the format is a better fit for a phone - letting your train auto-run doesn't always seem to work - but with the changes they've made to remove microtransactions and other mobile game-ry i think you've got an idle game that's perfectly designed to hook me personally. travelling to a TON of different destinations around the world and balancing train cars/passenger happiness/cargo as you upgrade stations is the perfect loop to keep me tweaking stuff forever. if i drop this in the near future it'll only be because i've gotta open it on steam to play it
i suppose i also kinda wish that train cars were less solved. as it is now, there's basically no reason to run 90% of the cars once you start hitting max level on multiple cars
doesn't really do anything wrong - i'm not really turned off by the performance issues - but after playing transport fever i'm surprised by how BAD this game looks. all the lots look so off-the-shelf and sterile.
also the new mechanics generally make things more annoying. i guess this game gets credit for being more pedestrian friendly than its predecessor but i just do not care about cities skylines 2 right now.
also the new mechanics generally make things more annoying. i guess this game gets credit for being more pedestrian friendly than its predecessor but i just do not care about cities skylines 2 right now.
more interesting than wrestling empire by virtue of having the exact same combat mechanics pasted into a classroom, so the bell rings and people immediately start throwing desks and shit
incremental game minecraft. less idle than you might think. it's fine as a game you put on while you watch youtube videos and i think all the systems are implemented well, but i find it really hard to get invested in making forward progress. unlike minecraft its hard to develop a really ambitious vision of what you'd like to create or do in this game so you kinda end up plunking down some crafting stations and a farm plot and go "that was cool, i guess" and then log off to play the game you're actually interested in
demo
i am VERY interested in the full game here. small patches of land and no true grid system means that your city truly feels like it's negotiating with the landscape around it. while citizens basically operate like cars, there are a lot of little details here that lend your city credibility as a "real" place.
it's not gonna be city builder of the year or anything but i think it'll be solid. my guess right now is that this'll shake out to be like a 7/10. uhhh it'll have multiplayer too, which is rare for this genre, so that's cool
i am VERY interested in the full game here. small patches of land and no true grid system means that your city truly feels like it's negotiating with the landscape around it. while citizens basically operate like cars, there are a lot of little details here that lend your city credibility as a "real" place.
it's not gonna be city builder of the year or anything but i think it'll be solid. my guess right now is that this'll shake out to be like a 7/10. uhhh it'll have multiplayer too, which is rare for this genre, so that's cool
i actually like this less than the first game. there are some QOL features but I mostly enjoyed tweaking the signals trying to get my trains working and that's gone now. in its place is... nothing, really
you can make some very cute shops in this although the early days really put some pressure on you to turn a profit quickly. it's got some neat customer behaviors, too, ones that do a good job of keeping a player on their toes early
less of a kusoge than i expected but hard to really endorse it as a twin stick shooter. the reason you play this is because you like the dog
as a game it's fine, but it would earn a whole extra star from me if it could let up for like one fuckin second. i'm not going to think less of the game if you call it a "watering can" instead of a "dribble pot" or w/e. their commitment to this aesthetic actually costs them some clarity when it comes to introducing things. they'll teach you a mechanic by saying "just press X on the plants or whatever". not helpful
solves a lot of the problems that made pocket city 1 feel kinda same-y but adds SO MUCH extra shit that just doesn't matter. i do think it's a better city builder than pocket city 1 but i am not trying to run around as a little customized mayor and commandeer people's cars when i'm playing on my phone. totally unnecessary
ambitious little indie game. not a lot here but i can't bring myself to dislike it
i'm sorry folks, wrestling just isnt for me
the intro to this DLC is, uh, incredible. i dont remember the last time i had my immersion so completely shattered due to a lack of subtlety. i guess subtlety would be breaking genre convention but i don't really benefit from The President hitting me with the guck guck 9000, telling me how cool and brave i am for continuing to fight despite my ongoing keanufication
if anyone looks at anything on this list it'll be this entry, which is why i feel bad that i dont have anything of substance to say here.
the game is just boring. i've tried many, many times to get into this but it's emotionally ankle-deep, pathing around in the dungeons feels awful, there are a million things to look at even when fighting trash enemies and i just dont care about any of it. i love its sense of style and nothing else
the game is just boring. i've tried many, many times to get into this but it's emotionally ankle-deep, pathing around in the dungeons feels awful, there are a million things to look at even when fighting trash enemies and i just dont care about any of it. i love its sense of style and nothing else
it should be a fucking crime to make insaniquarium THIS grindy, holy shit. you fire up the game and just can't do anything until you've checked in once a day for like, a week at least
legitimately couldnt even get the menus to work properly lol
made the mistake of purchasing this after watching secret base's kofie yeboah try out the MyEras feature in 2k23, only to learn that they didn't bother to bring it to the PC/last-gen edition. I Fucking Hate Take Two Interactive
3 Comments
they are very, very afraid that i'll take the wrong turn at a fork in the road, but considering how frequently they get their teeth kicked in by ordinary goblins i suppose their fear is justified
'Tis far stronger than a common goblin!
curse
6 months ago