~ Game Over ~
Overcome Your Fears: Caretaker (PC) – Yet another Fears to Fathom clone, and not even a good one, combining the simplicity of Home Alone with the padding of Carson House.
Scarlet Skips (PC) – This isn’t a game you can beat, per se, it’s just a high score chaser. But I got my fill of it and that’s about that.
Serve or Die (PC) – “Routine job horror” where you manage a sandwich shop and spooooky things start to happen. It was honestly starting to lose me, but then the ending went bananas and was funny enough that I’d give it a pass.
Signalis (PS4) – A top-down, sci-fi survival horror that unabashedly wants to be just like Silent Hill 2. I say that, but it definitely has its very own -and very weird- identity. I thought that the puzzles were the highlight, some of them being really devious, and I’m happy to say that I solved each and every one with my own brain and nothing more. Really good game, would play again. But maybe not on the Hard difficulty next time.
The Talos Principle Reawakened (PS5) – It was real nice to revisit this game, which retains its place one of my all-time favourites. Now that I’ve played it again, I think the sequel is actually better in most ways, but that’s not to say there’s anything wrong with this one. The puzzles are great, the secret puzzles can be downright evil, and the story is simple but very (ironically?) human. I very much look forward to tackling the two additional campaigns in November probably.
Sagebrush (PC) – I found this by looking up games that are similar to Paratopic, and this was a result. It’s actually nothing like Paratopic outside of the fact that it’s a first-person walking simulator. Sagebrush is actually a very grounded story about a woman reconciling her feelings about having participated in a death cult. It’s disturbing and raw and very, very good.
Secret of Mana (PS4) – I think I’ve said enough about this already.
Heartworm (PC) – Yet another survival horror (I should have saved these for October?), but this one is a little more traditional than Signalis. You play as a young woman who somehow ends up in some kind of mixed-up otherworld, using her camera to defeat foes. It was a fine game, but not nearly as good as Signalis, and it’s a huge missed opportunity that the camera never factored into puzzles or exploration (aside from being a bad flashlight alternative) at all.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (Switch) – I thought this looked pretty good when it came out, but never got around to trying it. Then Nintendo let me have a free week-long rental so I buckled down and burned through it. Amazing game. Like, holy crap, everything about this PoP is golden. Great combat, smooth movement, excellent puzzles, creative power-ups, a massive map… Literally everything you could ask for from a Metroidvania. Why doesn’t Ubisoft make more games like this????
~ Progress Notes ~
Resident Evil 4 (Quest) – Halfway through chapter 2
Death Road to Canada (PC) – A handful of unsuccessful runs
Pokémon Pokopia (Switch2) – Just pokopin’ around
Pokémon Fire Red (Switch) – Slogging through Victory Road
Lost Sphear (Switch) – Mistral Gorge
Fitness Boxing 3 (Switch2) – Made it up to Gold I again… could have powered through to the next tier except I got shingles, which made exercise a little harder.
Silksong (PC) – Cleared (first?) Lace boss fight
~ Purchases ~
- Scarlet Skips (PC)
- Sagebrush (PC)
- Lost Sphear (Switch)
- Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster Collection (Switch)
- Silent Hill: Townfall (PS5)