"I was born to a family that harnessed the winds and could read futures in fire and water. Yet my mother kept her secrets. Then the werewolf came, sharing his madness. Now it’s my turn to keep secrets...."
As promised, some short (1:23min) phone video impressions from Sunday's varied hike in the beautiful Ester Mountains[1] (mainly filmed during descent only, since the steep way up was mostly without any grand views)
Any recommendations for good SFF/speculative books that are written first person? My wife and I are really enjoying reading the Murderbot books aloud to each other. Part of that is the great writing and sparkling personality of the main character, but I think part of it is also the different vibe of first person writing, where the narrator is telling a story to the audience. I'd like to find more books like that.
I'm not one for "New Year's resolutions", but I am one for overly ambitious projects.
For 2023, Project365 is "One New Game Per Day".
Given that I have 634 unplayed games in my Steam account and {mumble} unredeemed bundle Steam keys, there's a reason my unplayed collection is tagged "Pile of Shame".
I'll pin this to my profile, and give a brief summary here each day (or x, if I miss x days due to work or stuff).
I'll play 15-30 minutes of (at least) one new game I've never played before (or played less than 15 minutes of). I'll give every game at least 15 minutes, even if I hate every minute of it.
I'm also open to suggestions; if you reply to this thread with a game, I'll schedule it, or tell you what I thought of it.
One of the things that's come up is that I have a bunch of games that I've played once, and not touched again.
December 28, 2023 - Day 362 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 391
Game: Lightmatter
Platform: Steam
Release Date: Jan 16, 2020
Installation Date: Dec 28, 2023
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 2h12m
Lightmatter is a first-person puzzle platformer, and answers the question "What would you get if you mashed up Portal and one of the best two-part Steven Moffat episodes of Doctor Who, Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead?"
Featuring a Cave Johnson-like voiceover, "Virgil", the CEO of Lightmatter is going to guide you out of his facility after a small technical issue occurred during the demonstration of his Lightmatter renewable energy source.
The small technical issue being that there were some big explosions, and touching a shadow will kill you (a la Moffat's "Vashta Nerada" from the aforementioned Doctor Who episodes).
The game wears its influences on its sleeve too, with Virgil making mention of Aperture Science and taking multiple digs at Cave Johnson.
Fortunately the game is different enough from Portal that it doesn't feel like a retread, and immediately dragged me in for an enjoyable couple of hours.
I'll go back to finish Lightmatter next time I'm deep in a puzzle mood because it's:
January 7, 2024 - Day 372 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 407
Game: The Red Lantern
Platform: Steam
Released: Dec 9, 2021
Installed: Jan 7, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 34m
Rating: 3 - OK
The Red Lantern is a first-person narrative-driven game about dog-sledding, with some roguelite & survival elements.
It's the sixth game in this month's Humble Choice bundle, and it's an interesting title, that I wouldn't have picked to play.
Making a snow-change, you open the game by meeting a series of dogs, needing to select 4 of them to build a dog-sledding team in Alaska.
Once you've picked your doggos, you reach your destination, and have to make a several-day sled trip to a remote cabin through a procedurally generated environment. The game is the story of that trip.
If you fail, you wake up again in your van, "from a nightmare", and start the sled-trip over, with more resources based on your previous experiences, with your ultimate goal to reach the cabin that's marked by the red lantern hanging outside.
If you're a dog person, this game might definitely be up your alley.
I was going to describe Clustertruck as a first-person game of "The Floor is Lava" while jumping between moving trucks, and then discovered that's exactly how the devs describe this physics-based platformer.
You start each level on top of a moving truck and you need to get to the goal at the end of the convoy as fast as possible without touching anything that's not a truck.
It requires pinpoint timing and coordination, two things I am lacking.
Unfortunately, while it's well executed, I did not enjoy Clustertruck; it's a:
Legend of Keepers is part management sim, part turn-based strategy, part roguelite.
Turns out that all those dungeons that gamers raid are managed by the "Dungeons Company".
As a newly hired Dungeon Manager, it's your job to place mobs, hazards, and occasional spells between those so-called "adventurers" and the treasure at the end of the dungeon.
I started out figuring I'd be bored, and was kind of into it by the second round. I'm not sure if it quite hits my "good" level, but it comes close, so Legend of Keepers is (for now):
January 26, 2024 - Day 391 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 427
Game: Elderborn
Platform: Steam
Released: Jan 31, 2020
Installed: Jan 26, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 22m
Rating: 1 - Nope
Elderborn is a first-person Soulslike slasher melee-combat game.
The game opens with a bombastic monologue from the lead character (at least you can choose their gender), who lays out a brief history of how you got to the point of entering the locked-down city of doom, but there was nothing unique about it that grabbed me. It was just... filler.
(Sidenote: If your game supports 3440x1440 ultrawide, you need a FOV slider. Playing a first-person game through a fisheye lens is not fun.)
The graphics and design feel average. It feels like they forgot the narrative part of a Soulslike that gives you a reason to press on.
Ultimately, the biggest problem with the game is that it's just boring. Run to room. Cut down undead. Run to next room that looks like previous room. Cut down undead. Rinse and repeat.
Cyber Hook is a retrowave-themed first-person parkour-with-grappling-hook 3D platformer.
Another game pulled randomly from the spreadsheet of doom.
Love the aesthetic, found the game somewhat frustrating due to the default key assignments, and my lack of general coordination.
In Just Cause, the grapple is deployed with the right mouse button, and shooting with the left.
In Cyber Hook, this is inverted. I swapped them around, which helped, but the mechanic feels just different enough to be frustrating; I have to think instead of just reacting.
The shift key is assigned slow down time, instead of speeding things up (most games assign it to run).
Speedrunning is not really my thing, so Cyber Hook just feels a bit:
February 8, 2024 - Day 404 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 440
Game: Scorn
Platform: Steam
Released: Nov 4, 2021
Installed: Feb 8, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 17m
Rating: 1 - Nope
Scorn is a first person horror survival adventure puzzle game. It's the second game in February's Humble Choice bundle.
This was in my "never playing that" list, and seeing it show up in the bundle was a moment of "suck it up, princess."
However, for day 404, it was definitely a case of fun not found.
The game is viscerally disturbing, with the environment being all flesh, bone, and metal; a Gigeresque fusion that just had my brain screaming "GET OUT, QUIT, NOW!"
After exploring the tunnels of the first level, and sticking my avatar's hand into far too many squelching control interfaces, I was glad when my 15 minutes were up.
February 15, 2024 - Day 411 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 447
Game: Fantasy Blacksmith
Platform: Steam
Released: Nov 16, 2019
Installed: Feb 1, 2024
Unplayed: 14d
Playtime: 33m
Rating: 1 - Nope
Fantasy Blacksmith is a first-person work simulator, where you get to play as a blacksmith in a fantasy setting, making swords for adventurers.
If it sounds like an interesting idea, that is correct. It's an interesting idea.
The execution, on the other hand, will push you to build your first sword so that you can immediately fall on it, and put yourself out of your misery.
It's like the devs on this game thought of the worst possible way they could do every single thing in this game, and then found a way to make it buggy as well.
Some games are so bad, they cycle through to being some kind of perverse pleasure.
This is not one of those games. This is a game that makes Snowtopia look like a masterpiece of UX design and user-friendliness.
This is a game that will have you longing for pixel art, just so the game is actually bright enough to see what you're doing.
It feels like something that was coded by a repurposed Nutrimatic Drinks Dispenser, producing something which is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a game.
Every single game element seems to be a psychological challenge to see how hard you can push a user before they break and throw their mouse across the room.
While it doesn't reach the nadir of Edge of Twilight - Return to Glory, it does put in one hell of an effort.
You do not play Fantasy Blacksmith. You suffer through Fantasy Blacksmith. It's a painfully obvious:
February 27, 2024 - Day 423 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 459
Game: Paradise Lost
Platform: Steam
Released: Mar 25, 2021
Installed: Feb 2, 2024
Unplayed: 25d
Playtime: 23m
Paradise Lost is a first-person walking simulator set in an alt-history 1980 where World War II did not end in 1945, and the Nazis managed to survive until (at least) the 1960's, before setting off nuclear weapons and retreating underground.
A lot of folks aren't big on walking simulators, but one of my favourite (ever) games is a walking simulator - Firewatch.
A walking sim needs to have a good pace, and a good story.
Therein lies my biggest issue with Paradise Lost; the walking pace is so agonisingly slow, that 20 minutes into the game, I was only just starting to scratch the surface of a game that seems to have an incredible atmosphere, and design aesthetic... and Nazis.
It is the story of a boy named Szymon who, after his mother's death, seeks to find the answers as to who she really was, and who the unknown man in a photo is (or was).
This leads Szymon to this abandoned underground world built by the Nazis to escape the consequences of their bombs.
Unfortunately, Nazis just feels too on the nose in 2024, and combined with the excruciatingly slow pace, Paradise Lost is an unfortunate:
February 29, 2024 - Day 425 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 461
Game: House Builder
Platform: Steam
Released: Jan 16, 2024
Installed: Jun 21, 2023
Unplayed: 27d
Playtime: 21m
House Builder is a first person building simulator. While being fundamentally the same theme as Builder Simulator that I reviewed last year, the thing that it manages to do is be more fun.
Developed by the same team that designed the Car Mechanic Simulator series (which I own, and enjoy), House Builder brings those dev skills to bear on building houses instead of fixing cars.
They acquit themselves reasonably well, for what it is. While it's not quite as boring & frustrating, Builder Simulator, at its core it's still a work simulator, just about building houses.
If you like building houses, maybe this will work for you. It's the kind of game I would absolutely need to be in the mood for, which shares mental space with Car Mechanic Simulator, Power Wash Simulator, or House Flipper, but all of them feel more rewarding.
March 2, 2024 - Day 427 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 462
Game: The Beast Inside
Platform: Steam
Released: Oct 18, 2019
Installed: Aug 13, 2022
Unplayed: 567d (1y6m18d)
Playtime: 38m
The Beast Inside is a first person horror survival game.
There's a particular kind of horror movie referred to as "torture porn". I know people watch movies like the Saw series, and Hostel series, and I genuinely cannot understand why. I'm already put off by horror movies, but the idea of that kind of movie comes close to triggering an anxiety attack.
As if the cover graphics weren't a giveaway, this game's opening cutscene movie (no pun intended), feels like it verges on torture porn.
I'm not even going to describe it beyond "VAW", because it would require trigger warnings. The scene ends with something like "One week ago...", meaning that your entire gaming experience is building towards that horrifying moment.
It did not put me in a good mental space for enjoying the game. The game is set in the 1980's, and the story and puzzles that followed were OK; the game is broken into chapters, with an interesting time-shift into the 19th century, in the same house, but I have absolutely no desire to see how the game plays out.
March 3, 2024 - Day 428 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 463
Game: Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts
Platform: Steam
Released: Nov 23, 2019
Installed: Dec 1, 2022
Unplayed: 458d (1y3m2d)
Playtime: 15m
Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts is, by definition, a first-person shooter.
However, describing something as an FPS generally involves a particular set of expectations, whereas this game is about being a long way from the target, setting up the perfect shot, and then executing.
Truth be told, in FPS PvP games, I like playing the sniper role. I like playing the Sniper Elite games, in which putting bullets in the heads of Nazis feels a little bit too good.
Just randomly killing people for the sake of killing people with the perfect shot? It doesn't do much for me.
March 13, 2024 - Day 438 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 473
Game: Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter
Platform: Steam
Released: Dec 7, 2023
Installed: Mar 13, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 22m
Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter is the eighth game in the March Humble Choice Bundle. It's a first-person simulation of a WWII U-Boat destroyer.
It started out with a series of cutscenes with some of the most wooden voice acting I've experienced since I started the project.
I then ended up in the campaign, and managed to skip the tutorial option completely.
After several minutes of frustration, I quit out of the campaign, found the tutorial, which was just a series of tutorial videos, and after the series of tutorial videos I experienced a profound sense of loss at the 22 minutes of my life I'd spent on this game.
There's absolutely nothing that could have gotten me to start over on the campaign with the fresh knowledge I'd managed barely managed scrape out of the tutorial videos.
For a WWII wargame fan, Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter might scratch a very specific itch. Do I have that itch?
March 20, 2024 - Day 445 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 480
Game: Train Station Renovation
Platform: Steam
Released: Oct 1, 2020
Installed: Feb 2, 2024
Unplayed: 47d (1m18d)
Playtime: 69m
Train Station Renovation is a first-person work simulator.
I find work simulators quite hit-and-miss on two axes.
The first is whether I'm interested in the underlying work. A couple of years ago I stumbled across House Flipper, when I was deep in a depressive episode.
It was an incredibly chill way to find focus, and presented me with a to-do list, and a sense of satisfaction moving in creating order out of chaos.
The second is the UI for achieving those goals. It needs to be intuitive, and essentially disappear, allowing me to get on with my to-do list.
Train Station Renovation aims at the first one, in bringing order out of chaos, but somehow fails miserably on the second one.
I found myself constantly tripping over myself with the UI, which took me out of the zone repeatedly.
The sense of satisfaction in finishing the station and handing it over was good, but the frustration involved in getting to that point with Train Station Renovation left me feeling pretty:
March 25, 2024 - Day 450 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 485
Game: Frog Detective 1: The Haunted Island
Platform: Steam
Released: Nov 23, 2018
Installed: Dec 9, 2023
Unplayed: 107d (3m16d)
Playtime: 39m
Frog Detective 1: The Haunted Island is a first-person (first-frog?) mystery adventure game.
It's very cute, quite amusing, and... short. It was all over and done, with 100% achievements, in under 40 minutes. The music is lovely, and I ended the game with a smile on my face.
There are two other Frog Detective games (so far?), and I have Frog Detective 2 in my library, ready to play.
April 7, 2024 - Day 463 - NewPlay Bonus Review
Total NewPlays: 491
Game: Techtonica
Platform: XBox Game Pass UItimate
Released: Aug 16, 2023
Installed: Apr 7, 2024
Unplayed: 0d
Playtime: 11h6m
Techtonica is not in the Humble Bundle. If it was, I'd be torn between yelling "BUY IT IMMEDIATELY", and "RUN AWAY, SAVE YOURSELF!"
It's a first person factory automation adventure game set on an alien planet. It's not Factorio, because it's first-person, and it's got an actual narrative built into the game, instead of tacked on as an afterthought.
You're a "breaker", who's been woken up from artificial hibernation, because something has gone in this mission to colonise an alien planet.
The design and lighting and music are all utterly gorgeous, and I wish I'd never met it.
GG.deals had a link to Pacific Drive on special (that I can't afford), and when I clicked through to look at the pricing, I saw Techtonica in a bundle with Pacific Drive (that I also couldn't afford), and I went back to GG.deals, to discover it's included in XBGU (oh no).
I lovehate factory automation games. I own several of them, and I shouldn't play them.
My theory is that they scratch that DEEP itch for systemisation that my autistic brain loves so much. I have lost entire days of my life in this kind of game.
What Techtonica does, however, is that it ties the narrative progression to the in-game tech-tree progression, and producing enough widgets to open the next level of the tech tree and find out more of the story.
I barely moved all day. I barely ate. I managed to drink a little bit of water here and there, but I was fundamentally staring at the screen for 11 hours straight.
They built a damn Skinner box that was specifically tuned for my brain, and I locked myself inside.
This game is a dopamine-hit nightmare, and I love it, but I'm not sure if it's healthy for me to keep playing it, because it verges on "addictive" territory for me.
I hate to say it, but I must; escape while you still can, don't do what I did, because Techtonica is:
PhantomOverload Test release 0.3 (codeberg.org)
A WIP atmospheric first person shooter game...