January
It Takes Two (PS5)
The Witcher 3: Complete Edition - Sword and Story difficulty (PS5)

February
Unravel (PS4 game on PS5)
Carrion - Platinum (PS4 game on PS5)
Resident Evil 2 (Remake) - Standard difficulty, Leon (PS5)
Shadowrun Returns - Normal difficulty, Decker (PS5)

March
Elex - Normal difficulty (PS4 game on PS5)
Metroid Prime Remastered - Normal Difficulty (Switch)
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Switch)

April
Forspoken - Normal difficulty (PS5)

May
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (+ DLC) - Normal Difficulty (Switch)
Turrican Anthology Vol. 1 - Turrican 2: The Final Fight - Challenge Mode (PS5)
Turrican Anthology Vol. 2 - Mega Turrican: Director's Cut - Challenge Mode, Normal difficulty (PS5)

Bounty Train

It's not that easy to get into the game because it's shortcomings are visible right from the start, combat feels clunky and irritating (though it does get a little bit better), there a are few minor but annoying interface issues and the music gets annoying after a few minutes. However it was worth the second look for me because it's a great homage to those old german trading sims, more on the casual side and rather comparable in style to Vermeer than Patrician though. The game tries a lot to keep the game varied but does run a bit out of steam (haha!) towards the very end game but then I haven't played a game of this kind that does not. 8/10

Zoo Tycoon

Even by 2001 standards controls a rather subpar, the game completely lacks a challenge and any variety in gameplay and lives completely off it's cute theme. Just not for very long. 5/10

The Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon. Broken Sword goes console/3D/Tomb Raider. Which makes it sound bad but it's actually pretty good. Once again you're controlling George and Nico as they go up against neo-Templars in an Indiana Jones-like story. The writing is very sharp and the characters' interplay is a lot of fun.

The gameplay is fully 3D and clearly designed with console controllers in mind, which is kind of a pain on PC. I know there are ways to get it to recognize a gamepad on PC, but I was too lazy and just played with the keyboard, which resulted in a lot of awkwardness when camera angles would change and cause the controls to flip or something. Most of the time that doesn't mean much, but there are a couple of fast action sequences where it got frustrating and caused me to die multiple times. There are also some QTEs, which I usually failed at first because the game doesn't signal them very well and I would be dead before I realized I was supposed to be poised over the action buttons. And there are some fairly easy stealth sequences. On the bright side, the game is decent enough to restore you right before any deadly sequence, so dying doesn't cost you much if you forgot to save.

The puzzles are mostly pretty easy and avoid moon logic. The hardest ones usually come down to just scouring the environment for something you can interact with or using all your items on something. Puzzles involving combinations of inventory items, which could have lead to more complicated solutions, are minimal. There's a lot of scampering about the setting, looking for places to climb, jump over, or shimmy across. George and especially Nico come off like a couple of Ninja Warrior all-stars for some of the stuff they pull off.

The worst thing about the game, and this isn't a fresh take, is that it relies a bit too heavily on Tomb Raider-like puzzles in which you have to slowly push very large blocks around. I'm not sure these kinds of puzzles were ever fun, but they were all over games of this generation, and in this one they feel like they were thrown in to pad the game out. They aren't even clever.

Did the series truly need to shift over to this style? Probably not, but they did a pretty good job of it anyway.

Road 96, Jan 11 (Xbox Game Pass)-I liked the narrative structure of this game. The plot itself was ok but nothing too groundbreaking. The idea of a series of independent player characters interacting with the same set of NPCs throughout a narrative at different points in time was pretty interesting. Unfortunately I couldn't finish the game because of series of crashes kept occurring and I couldn't progress any of the mini episodes. It was a good effort but felt very rough around the edges especially due to the game crashing.

Full List

include me

2022 list
2021 list
2020 list
2019 list
2018 list
2017 list
2016 list
2015 list
2014 list
2013 list
2012 list
2011 list
2010 list

1. Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour
2. Starr Mazer DSP (abandoned Early Access content)
3. Unreal Gold
4. Z-Exemplar
5. Duke Nukem II (RigelEngine for widescreen + 60fps)
6. Jazz Jackrabbit Collection
7. Wild at Heart
8. Screamer (Championship Mode through Bullet League)
9. Maki's Adventure
10. Rocket Knight (2010)
11. Haiku the Robot
12. Celeste (w/Invincibility + Inifinite Dashes assists for Chapter 9...)
13. Skábma - Snowfall
14. Gunman Clive 2 (as Ms. Johnson)
15. Beholgar
16. Cyberia

Emulated Arcade titles counted separately
1. Alpha Mission (Easy difficulty, cheating checkpoint gameplay through unlimited rewinds, died a billion times)
2. Metal Slug (Normal, 3 lives/credit, 24 credits)
3. Metal Slug 2 (Normal, 25 credits)
4. Metal Slug 3 (Normal, 46 credits)
5. Shock Troopers (Normal, ~11 credits)

I'd like to say that it's been a busy week, but I lost power in the evening on January 7th and didn't get it back until the evening of January 11th. I still managed to finish some games and more importantly, encounter some cats....


Night Call - Available on GOG!
https://www.gog.com/en/game/night_call
I strongly recommend having a dedicated video card if you're interested in this game even though it isn't specifically required.

The issue is entirely that my laptop can get a bit warm when playing this. The game has one very special passenger: Crouky, who will show up randomly and is a good boy that pays for his cab ride. I'll leave it up to you to decide if a game is worth purchasing for one super intelligent cat.


Empty. (by Dustyroom)
Although it doesn't have an actual cat, there is a maneki-neko figure in the game in both one of the levels and on the level select screen. The only negative with this game is that it doesn't have a proper exit, making it necessary to minimize the game first to close it. The game can be downloaded for free.

https://imgur.com/IbM1OYK.jpg
https://imgur.com/yK7zW1k.jpg


Brink of Consciousness 1: Dorian Gray Syndrome
While the game is short at only 2.5 hours for the main game, it still manages to feel like it's dragging and has long overstayed its welcome to the extent that I'd be very hard pressed to recommend this one. Also the only cat in this game is one small figurine, but no amount of cats would redeem this game's short comings.

https://imgur.com/F4WsY8a.jpg


Brink of Consciousness 2: Lonely Hearts Murders
This one is so loosely related to the other game that it can be played by itself. It has a better plot, more cats and is just a better game overall. Unfortunately, it's not likely to show up on GOG as there is a bug in the bonus chapter, plus the other game isn't worth bringing here. As a consolation, here's all the cats that I found:

Clicking on the mouse toy (https://imgur.com/HIlj7ZK.jpg) will cause a bunch of cats to pop up with a meow (https://imgur.com/bJnHpg8.jpg) If you don't click on the black cat, you can click on the mouse again (and again and again) to watch them swap spots. https://imgur.com/4yqNdYJ.jpg

The next cats are three black cats out in the cold. (https://imgur.com/J0bTyDP.jpg) They're part of a puzzle where you need to give them a fish. Once they have their fish and you take the valve handle behind them, no more kitty close ups. https://imgur.com/3xbUKmM.jpg - https://imgur.com/y2QJ7Av.jpg You'll see them in their box with their heads down eating their fish though, which I didn't screen capture.

The third cat situation is a plague with the image of a cat on it. You really don't ever get a good look at the thing, so no screen shot for this either. There's also a cat image in one of the late game puzzles (https://imgur.com/Har1lBX.jpg) and a late game hidden object screen. (https://imgur.com/dHWyXil.jpg)

Storm Boy: The Game (XSX)

It's just a really short visual novel with a set of mini games that you don't even have to do. It's based on a Colin Thiele book. I bought it because it was $1 on a sale and because of the memory lane effect. Storm Boy and other Thiele children's books, like blue Fin and Magpie Island, were part of growing up and going to school in Australia in the 70's. I remember reading the book in class when I was 8 and then we all went on a school trip to the cinema to watch the brand-new movie adaptation at the time. This game adaptation is very and short and sweet, it would be nice experience maybe for a very young gamer that is at the age where they can read.

The other reason that I played the game right now is that the achievements are super easy and only take a minute or so each- so I could keep getting an achievement each day on Xbox whilst playing a long game on a different platform. Any day you get an achievement on Xbox is 50 reward points. Rewards points get you money or free Game Pass...therefore achievements equal money!

Pentiment, Jan 16 (Xbox Game Pass)-Really well written game, interesting plot, a bit educational even. It's got a ton of reading being essentially a western visual novel/chose your own adventure. You can't deadend yourself but you can royally piss off some characters and close off some avenues of inquiry. I did struggle a lot with failed dialogue type skillchecks even when not trying to ruffle feathers. This probably would have changed with different character background choices and likely supports multiple playthrus. In the first act I didn't realize there was a time limit to the investigation and I probably would have prioritized my interrogations differently. I would have preferred if I was able to exhaust all the possibilities before giving testimony. I didn't notice this in acts 2 or 3 probably because I had angered some characters who weren't interested in talking to me anymore. But that wasn't enough to dissuade me and I enjoyed the game quite a bit. I do wonder if a second playthru is worth it though because I imagine most of the story beats are the same and you'll only enact small changes in dialogue.

Full List

Ghost of Tsushima (PS5 PS Plus)

Samurai Assassin's Creed.

This game should probably be subtitles "follow the clearly defined footprints on the ground simulator". That's what almost every quest is, only the talkie talkie part varying. So instead of Magic Batman vision like in Horizon Zero Dawn, here they streamlined it into just follow the footprints. Okay, there are some quests where you don't follow footprints, but don't worry the developers make sure to always give you a babysitter NPC to follow. The babysitter in true Sony game style will also tell you exactly what you have to do, just in-case you're an idiot.

Then there's the main quests where stealth is often enforced for no logical reason. Quite early in the game you become an unstoppable one-man army killing machine. The combat is really easy, you can single handedly wipeout enemy camps with ease. Then you get to the main quest where your babysitter NPC forces you to go ghost stealth because there's "too many" enemies or some other BS reason. Shouldn't the plan be up to me? My plan was to go in and just kill everyone. Nice and simple, instead I have to spend 20 minutes dodging guards so that I don't insta-fail. I hate to admit it, but Assassin's Creed or Metal Gear traditionally does this better- normally allowing you to use whatever method you like, and then giving incentives or bonuses for using quiet methods if you desire.
Oh yeah, I hope you like saving hostages. Another method the devs constantly use to stop me from using my preferred charge in and kill everything tactic.

I did get the Platinum Trophy for the game though! A very easy Platinum Trophy I must admit. Ghost of Tsushima isn't bad, I just found it to be painfully middling. The quests were dull, the story was predictable, the protagonist is a boring do-gooder, the combat initially felt great but ended up becoming too easy too early. The toughest enemies were those annoying guard dogs that hit you as a pack. I just found myself playing this game on autopilot, not listening to what any of the characters said and whilst my mind drifted away and thought of something else. The only emotional impact I felt for the entire game was when my best friend died (I won't say who, no spoilers).

I really thought I'd like this game way more, I really like historical settings in games usually. But it doesn't feel historical or Japanese in the way that Sekiro does or even NioH (despite playing as a Samurai called Bill), Ghost feels like a standard by the numbers western game with a Japanese skin applied over the top.

I think Days Gone must be next. I have a suspicion that whatever prevented the game journalists from liking it, will most likely endear it to me for the same reasons.

Far Changing Tides, Jan 16 (Xbox Game Pass)-I didn't like this. The gameplay was very monotonous. The puzzles were few and far between and what puzzles were there were rather boring. The core gameplay was watching the same generic bleak landscape scroll by excruciatingly slowly.

Full List

Horizon zero dawn new game plus on ultra hard. Gog version.

So after beating in late December on hard the main game, I have beaten the expansion last week as well on hard.


Immediately decided to complete the new game plus on ultra hard.

Just rushed it and did only the main quests and single side quest.


When I got quest to go to Banuk country for the expansion I went there were i spent 1h hunting badgers and goats to be able to afford the blue gem location map.

After I mined 30 gems I bought two best adept bows and then proceed with the main quest.


The story areas with lots of lore first time took hours to explore. Now couple minutes as I just run to target and hurried up the cutscenes skip any exploration.

Few more hours of games, Few times just spamming heal potion to just power through enemies last boss dies in 5 minutes.

That makes 100% completion of the game with all achievements earned.


Great game. Over 100h in it. Hope forbidden west comes to PC as well.

Beat It Takes Two with my wife on PS5 a few days ago. It's great!

Admittedly I'm not a very big fan of its pixaresque style. It has a fairy tale story where a couple that is about to get divorced is accidentally turned into dolls by their sad daughter and they embark on a journey to turn back into human form. The protagonists are comedically dumb, the game is riddled with cheesy dialogue with stupid puns and the outcome is as predictable as it seems.

That said: it's an absolutely gorgeous game with ridiculous production value and in terms of gameplay it's perhaps the best couch coop game ever made. The basis is a simple but very competent and relatively accessible 3D platformer but the game keeps throwing new mechanics at you, all of them revolving around cooperation. Usually it's a puzzle platformer, sometimes it's a shooter, at one point it even turns into a hack & slash. Unlike the studio's previous big coop game, A Way Out, It Takes Two never feels like it's held back by realism nor does it ever feel like a poor man's Naughty Dog game or anything like that. It's consistently good and fresh and the devs have really figured out how to do a story-driven split screen game. And it's also pretty long for a story-driven coop game at 14 hours - when we thought that we were approaching the end we got a few more hours of pretty great sequences.

Honestly, even if you're not a fan of this cartoonish fairy tale stuff: if you just want a really high quality couch coop game, especially to play with a spouse, it's probably one of the best games ever made. And even though we weren't fans of the game's style we did get quite a few good laughs and even got a bit emotional at times and pretty much enjoyed the whole ride. And while the outcome is predictable, the journey is not. Honestly, the whole thing is like a drug trip and you never know what's next.

Oh yeah, the platforming does get a bit demanding at times. It didn't pose much of a challenge for me but some sequences were impossible to handle for my wife, who's not a gamer, and we had to swap controllers at times. But most of the game did not give her a particularly hard time and luckily only one player has to stay alive during the boss battles and such so I think it's a solid choice also for playing with partners who aren't particularly experienced gamers.

I hoped for it to be that way. Looking forward to it then, when I do come around playing it.

Thank you for the further insight. Rat's and stupid companion AI somehow still doesn't make it sound too bad. :D

Also completed:
[13.01.2023] New Pokémon Snap (NSW) - 21h 47m [7h 07min played in 2021] - rating 7.5

Also kind of enjoyable and maybe still the best looking game of the franchise. The stages are visually diversive and there is lot's to see, try out and photos to be taken.

It can be grindy, when you are not unlocking the next stage and you have to rerun courses. Of cause getting more/new shots, or trying to go for better scores, it can get old fast, if you retry over and over again.

But I guess that's in the nature of most games, and most certainly in this game about taking photos.

Finished Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and I really enjoyed it. It's very linear but at least it doesn't try to artificially increase the game length. Characters talk a bit too much but it's ok. A very good solo AAA.

Full list here.

Norco (XSX Game Pass)

Probably one of the best modern point and click adventures I've played for some time, at least since The Cat Lady anyway. It's not an old school try everything on everything, join everything in your inventory to everything, nor is a pixel hunt game. That's actually good for me, since those aspects of old point and click adventures are what eventually drove me away from them- these days I hate sitting there wasting time on static screens figuring out some illogical puzzle.

Norco is an odd game though. Some liken it to Kentucky Route Zero and in its weird mood and sometimes surreal story aspects- that's not a bad comparison. I didn't like Kentucky though because its story didn't make sense to me, which could just mean I'm too stupid. Norco, on the other hand, all came together and made sense in an odd way that you can easily understand. It's one of those games that won't appeal to everyone, but at around 6-7 hours it's worth trying regardless. It's on Game Pass, but also on GOG if you want to buy it, on sale right now in fact.