I think I'll try The Last Stop at some point.  I didn't hate/almost liked Virginia.

10 - Enjoyed Omno (Xbox Series X) played over the last two nights. Missed one animal at the start somewhere and not going back to 100% everything. It’s Journey-like without having the emotional feeling that Journey builds to. However, props to the one man (plus composer who is adding a couple of points to this game as I felt the music was excellent) - [8]

I’m guessing it gets vastly better after the first 50 or 60 islands or so which were a bit simple and dull and repetitive?

You might enjoy the dude's other stuff, if you've not tried them, moot. They're similarly well constructed, with similarly glorious complexity curves & aesthetics/maps. Specifically:
- Cosmic Express
- Sokobond
- A Good Snowman (Is hard to build)

As I said above i think, I challenge anyone to name an indie with four distinct games as good as those.

Ah yeah think I saw that.

The impressive thing is they're each a risky different core mechanic, but in each case it just builds and builds. Snowman probably the weakest (and in fact closest to Monster's Expedition in feel), the other two in particular are toppest of tiers. So a triple pack is what you want, when the mojo fits.

I keep dropping into monsters but there’s times I genuinely get stumped (see what I did there). I just can’t work out what to do and often on islands with only a couple of trees. Keep coming back though. Think it may well be the colour palette that pleases me so that I’m happy to return. It reminds me of Alba, Lonely Mountain, A Short Hike, Wide Ocean and Firewatch. Genuinely think it’s the choice of colour tone in all these games that just subconsciously appeals.

They've changed the colour of a couple of trees in the Switch version (included possibly the recent update for other formats too).  I've been watching some secrets vids and earlier versions don't seem to have.....a certain signifier that I don't want to spoil.  Which seems absolutely essential to me, not that it's a pushover either way.

27: Rym 9000 (PC) 3/10

I could only manage about 15 minutes with this one.  It is a shmup made by Sonoshee, who made Critters for Sale, a point n click game I recently enjoyed.  It seems like a competently made shmup from what I can tell.  I can barely look at it though.  It certainly has a vision and a distinct art style.  Epilepsy warning for this video.



I was exhausted after playing it.  Perfect if you don't like not having a migraine.


28: Gears Of War Tactics (PC) 7/10

I liked a lot of this game but was pretty over it 2/3rds of the way through.

Really nicely made Xcom style turns based tactics game.  It has its own spin and encourages aggressive play (IE you can get in close to finish off a downed opponent and the rest of your turn will get an extra action that round).  Visually it's very clear and there's never any doubt whether your units are sufficiently covered, what skills they can use, what the enemy is up to (the ones you can see, anyway); like I never found myself accidentally walking over a mine or left out in the open.  All perfectly good.

I thought it was let down by a bad story that didn't really feed into the missions.  It was always like 'hey, we need better weapons to fight the baddie, lets go loot this base' and it's pretty much the same mission you've done half a dozen times before.  I wish there were more unique missions were something relating to the plot happened within them.  It's a bit much when you will sometimes have to do a bunch of mandatory 'side missions' towards the end when you're a bit sick of it.  Just filler stuff.

Biggest issue is you can't speed up or skip the enemy's turn.  Half the game is watching them fart arse around.  The strongest monsters move the slowest too.  It death when you're struggling, near the end of a mission with half your team on low health, having to watch some fat arse alien with a bazooka swaggering around and taking half an hour to line up an easy shot that will kill probably someone and make you restart.

Also I would do something about the first round of games like this; if you play properly it always takes a couple of rounds before you meet an enemy, edging your team forward in cover.  It takes about 5 minutes for anything to happen.  And the thing that happens is watching the enemy take their turn for 90 seconds.  This might just be a whinge I came up with during the last 3rd of the game when I wanted it to be over, though.

That's a lot of complaining for a pretty good game.  I think this is one of those games where they could make a sequel and it would be twice as good.  I won't revisit this but would definitely try a new one.

80. DOOM Eternal - Curse of the Ancient Gods Part One - Xbox Series S (5hrs)

Picked up the dlc double pack at half price.  I don't think the Series S is doing much to it on a 1080p display but I don't think there was much that needed doing.  Load times are now ridiculously quick, so that was a bonus.  I enjoyed the main campaign (and gave it an 8 ) but I was definitely in the 2016 camp overall.  I mostly play games to unwind and Eternal is so relentless it's not something I could ever relax to.  I made the decision early doors to knock this down to I'm Too Young To Die and didn't regret it for a second.  In the right hands it's a bona fide masterpiece but with me holding the pad it's a bit too Clockwork Orange eyelids.gif.  I respect the hustle but I can't embrace it as my previously above average skills have dadbodded themselves down to what might be described as cackhanded efficiency.  I felt like the baby mode should've been normal difficulty tbh, which basically cements my scrub status.  It's a next level FPS and it would be rude to find fault with the core mechanics, so I'll lay the blame at my own doorstep.  I will complain about the way this leans into the pinpoint jumps for the just about half decent platforming bits though - it can be an annoying game outside of skirmishes.

Still, anyone wanting more of the same won't be disappointed.  A strong [7].  Players with the drive and patience to master it can probably add two points.  It's so goddamn DOOM.

13. 12 Minutes

The Shining carpet should have been more of a warning. 12 Minutes is a game about families, more specifically of the fucked up kind.

It plays as a point and click - I was on Series X and it was more cumbersome but not impossible. The puzzle jumps are mostly logical, with 2 glaring moments. The logic jumps are, at times, gran guignol. But the advertising (Hitchcockian) and concept should have clued me in to where we were going.

The acting, given the talent, veers massively. At times there's realism, at other times Winding Refn delivery, and is really inconsistent.

The ending was not as upsetting as I expected given the loop before, but wasn't as satisfactory a I would have liked.

That said, more of this weird and wee shit please. If you have Gamepass you will know really quickly if it will take you or not. I enjoyed the ride. Ymmv.

You’re right!  Sorry Nick/any Locusts who were reading

I also called them monsters.  But it turns out man was the real monster all along

81. ONMO - Xbox Series S (3-4hrs)

Another if you liked Journey try this adventure, with a touch of Rime.  This is the second one man team game I've played this year, and much like The Falconeer it's a heady mixture of genuinely impressive and the recurring caveat of 'for a one man team'.  It plods along nicely and successfully ups its game for the back half but I was never totally sold on it, unfortunately.  Fundamentals like a sometimish ledge grab, clumsy platforming and button placement missteps never quite let you forget that it's steeped in the spirit of Net Yaroze, which gives it a certain charm and plenty of plucky underdog wellwishers no doubt...but it's not a great game.  It is a good one though, just about, and I preferred it to one or two fuller fat Flower types (Abzu, for one).  I'm not a huge fan of the genre as they often feel like the way they feel to play is secondary to the way they make you feel while you play (or something), but I must find their laid back charms appealing on some level as I've tried quite a few.  

A fine effort [insert caveat]; some of the puzzle design is pretty neat and I liked the way you could choose which three orbs to collect to push on, rather than having to find them all. [6].  



P.S: This is dedicated to someone called Rebecca, 'without whom I never would have been able to make this journey', so at least the guy embraces his inspiration.

82. ART SQOOL - Switch (1hr)

I put a fiver on my EShop account and told Tilly she could pick anything suitable.  She settled on this almost immediately, and with a trailer as banging as this can you blame her?



You play as Froshmin, who must complete 50 art assignments to graduate from the titular Art Sqool. If you want you can plod around the numerous eyesore islands on campus and pick up various brushes and colours to expand your kitbag, but it really doesn't matter as the grading system is totally random.  You can spend ages on a piece and be told to have another go, or scrawl the word POO on the page and receive an A.  Or you could immediately resubmit the failed effort and receive a B.  Every so often you'll get a brief cut scene where Froshmin sings a letter to him mum or frets about his life choices in 645ar style, so it sashays between a [2] and a [10] for the hour or so it takes to finish.  Assignments range from PAINT A SCENE FROM YOUR CHILDHOOD to DRAW A MAN WHO USUALLY WEARS GLASSES NOT WEARING GLASSES.  The campus sections are so bad the devs don't even care how you get about, so it's possible to keep double/triple/quadruple jumping on thin air until you reach an invisible ceiling miles above the play area.  It's an atrociously bad game (worse than the 46% Metacritic average would suggest), objectively one of the worst on Switch - a towering achievement - but I swear it'll enrich your life.  I'm nearly 40 and the trailer kills me every time, we've been quoting it all day.

29: Quake (Switch) 10/10

This has aged remarkably.  Its 90's 3D graphics look very stylish now - Switch can't run the remaster with all the bells and whistles on at 60FPS, but it has a wonderful grimy occult atmosphere even at a low resolution.  You do get motion control aiming too!

Best of all it's just a fast, no buggering around FPS.  You start a level, you shoot baddies, you have a bit of a look around, but mostly you're done after 5 minutes.  It's so fast paced and the shooting is a joy, at least with the machine gun style weapons and explosives.  

The shotgun is famously not very good which is a bit disappointing.  I only used it when I was out of ammo elsewhere, or had Quad Damage on.  Also, there's only 2 proper boss fights.  That's all there is to complain about, though.

It comes with a ton of expansions including Quake 64.  It looks pretty bloody cool.  I've only played the proper game and had a cursory look at the other stuff.  Can't wait to get stuck in.  Great value.

I've also been enjoying the 12 Minutes discourse. The kotaku article is extreme but actually there's a lot I agree with.