Main ListPrevious Listbold games are games that have been beaten, previously beaten, or are unbeatable.
italicized games are in progress.
standard games are games I am not currently trying to beat.
strikethrough games are games that have been abandoned.
80.
TOEM (PS5)
I don't even recall why I decided I would play this one, I know I've been wanting to, but I don't know why I finally did. Maybe I saw the game on steam, thought I'd like it, and then remembered it was on PS+. Anyway, this game is so much fun, one of my favorite types of games are the fetch quest types of games, collecting items to give to folks, doing quests for folks and getting items to further other quests, all that shenanigan stuff. The character interactions in this game is pretty good and the post game bonus area really makes you think puzzle wise how to go about doing everything with its day/night system. All in all, the game overall is pretty casual and fun, very little things in the game will require you to look things up unless you're looking to 100% the game, then there might be a few things, but the post game bonus area is pretty complex and might require looking things up which there's nothing wrong with that. I enjoyed the game so much I went for the platinum and to be quite honest, I may replay this game on PS4 or on Xbox now that it's on game pass.
Rating: Solid recommendation
81.
Axiom Verge 2 (PS5)
I think I was on a weird PS kick or something and was just looking for PS games to play. I played the first entry of this game on Switch and I've been more about achievements/trophies lately so I played this on PS5. I've heard this game didn't live up to the original's experience, but I figure the game's still gotta be good. Overall, the game is quite good, but it absolutely doesn't live up to the original gameplay wise, story wise, it's just about as convoluted and hard to follow as the original, so pretty much not an improvement in any way. Traversal is relatively fine, but the game fairly often changes things up where you are at least soft locked out of areas and stuff because it takes away functionality and then gives it back later, not your usual metroidvania stuff. I think the game was fine, but it definitely didn't make me feel like I wanted to spend more time with it and did not consider going and 100%ing the game let alone filling out the map. It's a tough one, I hate to pass on the game, but it just isn't that great by any means, isn't connected to the previous entry other than a small tangential text file, and really doesn't live up to the original. Play it if you want, but it might be a let down.
Rating: Soft pass
82.
Glass Masquerade (PC)
This game is filled with beautiful and simple stained glass styled jigsaw puzzles. I spent the majority of my time playing this game listening to other stuff, whether it just be music or some show I don't need to pay a lot of attention to. It's a real chill experience with absolutely straightforward gameplay concepts. I really don't have much to add to this one as it's really just a unique jigsaw puzzle game, but it's damned good for a chill game to just play while listening to something else.
Rating: Soft recommendation
83.
Don't Touch this Button (PS4)
This was a PS4 playthrough of a game I played last year on PS5. I mostly played it this time around because both my son wanted me to play it again and because PlayTracker's Backlog Dungeon picked the game out for me from my backlog. I may write up a "rant" about PlayTracker, it's a wonderful site you should check out that will help you clear your backlog by gamifying the experience and offering a reward of a specific Steam game key for meeting specific goals during a season (3 month period).
See
Review 133 from 2022.
Rating: Soft recommendation
84.
Escape Academy (XS)
I don't even recall why I decided to play this one, maybe I rolled it on backlog for Playtracker. I don't have a ton of experience with escape games like my wife does, but I really enjoyed this game. I will state that I don't enjoy the timed nature of this game compared to the few I've played in the past where it's entirely at your own pace, but the puzzles are simple enough here that I had no trouble except maybe the last few puzzles. Enjoyed the game enough and the achievements were simple enough that I 100% completed the game. Characters are interesting enough, puzzles are witty enough, there's enough of a plot that the game is pretty good and the ending leaves room for sequels down the line. All in all, quite a good game, I'm disappointed that I didn't really get to do any of the co-op stuff with my wife through the process, but she still hasn't beaten the game, so maybe I'll get to do that during her playthrough.
Rating: Soft recommendation
85.
100 Hidden Birds 2 (PC)
A simple hidden object game with 100 birds hidden among a black and white image. Can be completed in about 10 minutes and finding the last few birds will make you lose your mind. All of these games are pretty simple and pretty quick and net you tons of achievements on steam, though most of the games are profile limited so they don't actually count towards anything until eventually maybe the game is no longer limited, I don't know, I don't really know how that stuff works. Games can be got for like well now 50 cents now that steam has introduced shenanigans to prevent games from being sold for less than 50 cents
Actually pretty mad about that because I was waiting to buy a specific game when it hit its historical low (28 cents) and the game went back on sale for 28 cents the day after steam put the new rule in place, so when you try to buy it steam tells you no, so now I have no choice but to pay 50 cents or more for this game, which sucks.
Rating: Soft recommendation
86.
Vampire Survivors (XS)
The main reverse bullet hell game or bullet heaven, I have no clue. I'm not a fan of bullet hell games, this game is pretty interesting, but very quickly this game can become a situation of legitimately just set the controller down and wait out the timer because your character is OP. Also with the 30 minute timers per level, this game can eat up a fuck ton of time. I eventually hit the point where I'd start a level, get 5-10 minutes in and be OP, and then fall asleep because I had nothing to do in game and was that bored. Really interesting game and mechanics, but holy fuck does this game have pacing issues. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy that I can plan out a build and become strong enough that it's trivial, and it's nice that I can essentially just set the controller down rather than spending the full 30 minutes per run, but the long 30 minute runs can become painful to sit through, almost like a situation of early mobile games where you have to sit and wait out a timer before you can play the next level. Despite all of that, I do really enjoy the game and do intend on 100% completing the game eventually.
Rating: Soft recommendation
87.
Duke Nukem Forever (PC)
Thanks to tripredacus for the steam key for this.
I played this game at launch on 360 way back in the day, I recall the game being mid, but then I also had this mindset that the game wasn't that bad. Unfortunately it's been a while since I replayed this at this point that I again don't really recall. Gunplay was fine enough, humor is aged and stupid but it's Duke Nukem what can ya do. I got a bunch of the achievements but I don't think there was any chance I was going to aim for 100%, I don't even think I got nearly as many as I did on the 360 release. I think my entire playthrough was on Steam Deck, played pretty great there. I might have played for a few minutes on PC, but I think the mouse and keyboard controls just didn't feel good, almost like the game was legitimately designed to be played with a controller, which is hella weird. My primary reason for revisiting this game was to finally play the DLC, I never bought the DLC for 360 back in the day and with this key from trip, I also got the DLC key. So playing through the main campaign was to relearn the systems/controls and story in prep for the DLC.
Rating: Soft pass
88.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits (PS5)
I think this might have been another Backlog Dungeon roll, so my coming back to this game was thanks to that. I'm actually now back to not leveraging Playtracker, but I think playtracker will be reserved for when I'm in the rare scenario of not knowing what to play, usually I've got a game plan for what to play or things to prioritize. Anyway, I started this game a while back I think around when it launched on PS5. It was slow to start and I think something else came out around when I started playing so the game got abandoned pretty quickly between the two things. Once I hopped back in it took a very short amount of time to get reacquainted with the controls. The gameplay is enjoyable but it was slow to start, which it seems a lot of games are these days, but once I started getting into the meat of the story and gameplay loop the game was quite enjoyable. I considered going 100% on the game, but I think there is one difficulty based achievement and that's generally where I draw the line and nope out. If not, there was definitely something that I nope'd out on. Story doesn't get super interesting until the back half, and as far as I can tell, just about every character you meet throughout the game is dead, there are maybe 3 living people throughout the entire game, and even then it's still hard to tell. Game is very mid though and I want to say soft recommendation, but I just can't remember enough about this game to justify saying so.
Rating: Soft pass
89.
Duke Nukem Forever: The Doctor Who Cloned Me (PC)
Finally playing the DLC for this game... and I don't remember shit about it other than several situations of fighting clones of yourself. Obviously unmemorable. I feel like overall a lot of this game's problem is how linear it is. I get nobody liked the keys bullshit, but linearity can be bad too. Lots of jokes making fun of/parodying other FPS games like Black Ops, Doom, etc. Car based boss fight was awkard af and didn't work well. I feel like compared to the main campaign I had a lot of situations of running out of ammo and having to swap weapons way more than I did. All in all, if you're going to play DNF, you should definitely play this too, but I can't recommend either as worthy of your time.
Rating: Soft pass
90.
Dreamscaper (XS)
Another game to play because it's leaving game pass. Like Hades, in so many ways, it also includes accessibility options to streamline the playthrough. I really enjoyed the story and interacting with the characters outside of the dream world, but the game just requires way too much grinding to get all of the stories from the characters. I got the default ending, but the "true" ending is locked behind 100% completing all of the character stuff outside of the dream world, and that just would've taken too long. If the game ever comes back to game pass, maybe I'll go for it, but time constraints meant I couldn't waste my time working on it. All in all, a great game though, story isn't nearly as good as Hades, so I definitely wouldn't recommend it over Hades, but if you enjoyed Hades, you'll probably enjoy this game. Though I will complain about the graphics as I absolutely hate the faceless nature of the game. I almost feel like the waking world should have had better graphics or even different graphics without faceless characters, because at least in the dream world it makes sense, but it makes no sense in the real world. Also, I hate that the cover art for the game the character has a face and the graphics look nice, but the game itself is almost minimalistic.
Rating: Soft recommendation
91.
Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade: Episode Intermission (PS5)
Having played FF7 at some point finally, I hated Yuffie, and I had 0 interest in playing this DLC, but I did get the DLC code at some point, so I decided to finally playthrough the DLC. They really do a good job of redeeming Yuffie as a character, she's a huge dork, but she's not entirely annoying and just absolutely ruining everything for everyone. You get more FF7R gameplay, some new game stuff like the tower defense game from the original though annoying I did get through it, I didn't do any of the VR stuff because I tried one and got destroyed and was like nah, miss me with that shit. Obviously a weak expansion or whatever, but it gives you more and does redeem Yuffie as a character, so I'll give it points for that.
Rating: Soft recommendation
92.
Armored Core (PSX)
So played this via emulator to do retro-achievements, I had the problem that I couldn't unlock the achievement for unlocking all Human plus upgrades, because what the achievement actually is, is unlock all human plus upgrades and then 100% the game, I can do this still, but it'll be time consuming, I'll have to load up my 100% save, and then just fucking burn through money until I can unlock the human plus upgrades, it'll take a lot of time, and I just don't know if I can justify it just so my playthrough can be marked as 100% on RA instead of 98% complete. I'm not a completionist and maybe I'd care if I had 100% all of the other AC games, but we'll get to that in a bit. Anyway, I enjoyed my time with the game, and on an emulator I had the good fortune that I could remap the controls such that the controls aren't hot garbage... unfortunately I haven't been able to figure out remapping for PS2, which I'd say we'll get to that later, but who knows when I'll finally play the PS2 games until I can figure out remapping. Anyway, I don't have a ton to say about this game, game is enjoyable, story is hard to follow, but I think that stands for all AC games. All in all, I don't expect many AC games to be "worth your time" but we'll see.
Rating: Soft pass
93.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (XS)
I did actually buy this game for Switch, but I can't justify opening a physical copy of a game for a platform with no achievements when I can play the game with achievements for free (Thanks Game Pass). First thing to get out of the way, real fucking weird that this game is 6 player max when there are 7 playable characters, also real weird that there are 7 players and not 8, really irks me. Anyway, gameplay is fun, you've got reason to play as all the characters, make multiple runs through levels, etc. So much content. That said, I'm not the type of player to replay games like this and 100% complete them, so my playthrough was relatively short. I chose to play as April O'Neil because I figured that'd be interesting compared to playing actual action characters, it was fine, everybody has their own stats, and she's interesting enough of a character to play as. I personally don't have friends (full stop) to play this game with so I solo the game. I hope one day my kid can care enough, play well enough, and enjoy the idea of playing games like this with me. Definitely scratches that TMNT4 itch while being modern enough and accessible enough to be enjoyable.
Rating: Soft recommendation
94.
Bugsnax (PS5)
I feel like this was a launch title for PS5, I really can't recall, I recall playing it for like 10 minutes way back when and finally coming back to it. I think I came back to it because I rolled it in Playtracker's Backlog Dungeon, I really hope we get a log at some point to be able to view Backlog Dungeon history so I can for sure verify these things. Anyway, weird creature collecting game that starts out mostly harmless and goes off the rails down the line. Story is interesting if not hard af to follow. Gameplay loop reminds me of like Pokemon Snap with the weird things you've got to do to get certain creatures to appear, there is a lot of photo taking in this game too, though I guess it's scanning, not photo taking, I don't recall it's been a while and I'm not looking it up. Anyway, you collect creatures and feed them to other creatures and they turn into food, that's not fucked up in the slightest. Post game content adds a whole new area with new creatures and puzzles and what not. All in all a real good game that I enjoyed enough to go and earn the platinum trophy
Rating: Solid recommendation
95.
Immortality (XS)
Another game leaving game pass. This is another Sam Barlow game (Tellings Lies, Her Story), but instead of searching a database for words linked to videos, you click an object in the video and it finds another video with a like object (a specific actor, an apple, a painting, etc) with the goal of solving the story as usual and finding all of the videos available. Game plays pretty well, story is fairly interesting if not hard to follow as I had to google stuff afterward to make sure of things. Game sort of hides a feature behind the rewind feature which is pretty neat, I did waste a bit of time not realizing that you had to do a specific thing to activate said thing and not just happen to see it while rewinding or something. I don't remember, I just know that it didn't count as me doing the action the first like 30 times it happened because I didn't realize you had to do a certain thing to actually activate the feature. I do wish I had the patience to actually watch all of the footage like I did with Her Story and Telling Lies, but I just couldn't be arsed so I didn't actually watch a lot of the footage, just kinda skimmed it and got the gist of what was going on filming and in film.
Rating: Soft recommendation
96.
Tinykin (XS)
I hate how far off I got from keeping up with my logs. I pretty much only come to VGC at this point to update this stuff. I might look at making another place to post this stuff publicly and making it searchable so I can find reviews easier than digging year by year. Another game I played because it was leaving game pass. I'm finding that most of these indie games that leave are leaving because the physical release is right around the corner. Mind you I played this months ago, but now in November, the game is getting a physical release through the folks over at Super Rare Games. Anyway, this game looked interesting because it looked pikmin like and had an interesting art style. That said, the game really seems pikmin, you've got your little dudes you command around and you're visiting an abandoned planet for some reason that seems like it's the Earth. I will say the difference is this game is decidedly 3D platformer as supposed to whatever pikmin is, I really don't know, I only ever played Pikmin 1 on Wii for like 20 minutes and I can't remember it all that well. This game however has a certain Banjo Kazooie collectathon going for it in conjunction with the pikmin stuff. The gameplay is pretty fun, does get quite repetitive and even frustrating at moments, but the game overall is quite good. The only hard part about the game can be the races that the game added in an update, but it's optional stuff and doesn't affect achievements so I mostly skipped it. All in all, it's a pretty fun game, but I don't know that I'd play it again.
Rating:Soft recommendation
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