I consistently put off updating this blog until I have a huge backlog of content to discuss. I guess it's okay since I'm only writing this for myself, and as far as I know not a single other human has ever read any of it. With that bit of whining out of the way, let us, the editorial us, get into it.

First, a brief follow-up on the last thing I was talking about in my last post. Star Control II absolutely stinks. I don't understand what all the hype is about. The space combat is awful, and the story didn't hook me at all. It's just about unplayable, I have nothing but regret about buying it and attempting to play it.

October Horror 2021

Blameless - This was a very short game that I beat in less than an hour. It was free, I think, and not very good. Basically you were wrongly accused of a crime and had to escape the crime scene before the real killer got you.

Cayne - This was a free side story from the longer Stasis, which I played a few years ago. It had the same sci-fi setting and ultra-disgusting storyline and characters, but it wasn't as good as the main game. Lots of illogical puzzles and backtracking, and a predictable finish.

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father - This is a very old (mid-90s) Sierra adventure game that I never got around to playing at the time of its release. If I'd realized it had Tim Curry and Mark Hamill voicing characters, I would've jumped at it. Unfortunately, this was the modern remake of the game that features newer graphics and, inexplicably, an entirely new voice cast. I honestly thought the voice work stunk, so I ended up turning it off shortly after I began, and that made the game more tolerable. It had pretty sensible puzzles and a decent story. One of the better old school adventure games for sure.

Little Nightmares - This is a somewhat short puzzle platformer game in the style of Limbo and others: tiny child has to navigate huge, scary world. But it has a twist where you, the girl, end up being just as scary as anything else in the game.

Simulacra - This game is about finding a random smart phone belonging to a missing girl and trying to track her down. It's part of a newish genre of "found phone" horror games. It was so-so. Kind of better in the mid-game and then the ending was silly.

The Town of Light - This is a horror game that's more about the real-life horror of early 20th century psychiatric hospitals, which often caused as much or more damage to mentally ill people as they had coming in. It particularly focuses on the nightmare of the lobotomy, the severing of two sections of brain that "cured" people of various conditions. In fact you get to experience it first hand. Pretty depressing game, but not bad.

Extra Life 2021

I specifically went out of my way to pick games that I thought would be entertaining to watch, either because of interesting stories or beautiful art design.

Gorogoa - This is a really clever puzzle game where you shuffle through sections of images, zooming in and out on multiple levels of reality. It was quite short, only a couple hours or so, but perfect for streaming and really fun to play as a group. The graphics are simple yet captivating.

Gris - This is a fair to decent puzzle platformer that features lovely visuals and pretty solid music. It was something of an indie darling upon its release due to people viewing it as having themes about mental illness, but with no dialog or text whatsoever, I'd say it's open to interpretation. It was also pretty short, beatable in a few hours.

Nelly Cootalot and the Fowl Fleet - This is a pretty funny point-and-click adventure I'd been eyeing for a while, and decided to get, again, specifically for Extra Life. It features Tom Baker of Doctor Who as one of the characters, and it was a joy to hear his rich, redolent voice again.

I also played a little bit of Ultimate Chicken Horse with the boys, and attempted the play the Outer Wilds DLC: Echoes of the Eye, but couldn't get into it at the time. More on that later.

Christmas 2021

I got a few new games, but sadly, none of them were really worthy of a Christmas Crack Award. This if the first time I've not had anything truly grab me over the holidays in a long while.

Barotrauma - This is a pretty fun multiplayer side-scrolling horror/exploration game. You pilot a submarine through the underground oceans of Europa looking for treasures and such, while trying to avoid the horrors of the deep. I played it some with my sons and cousins, but we haven't played it much in a few months. It has something of a steep learning curve.

Dyson Sphere Program - Considering how much I enjoyed Satisfactory, I thought this would be a slam dunk. But it ended up feeling like more of a hassle than a pleasure, and I gave up on it fairly early. It's a top-down factory base builder that is almost like an RTS in presentation. I might start over from scratch at some point and see if I can get into it, but I have so many choices these days, it seems unwise to force myself to play something I don't enjoy.

SnowRunner - This is another one that I thought I'd love, but it didn't quite grab me like Spintires and MudRunner did years ago. If I've got to pick, this was the closest anything got to Christmas Crack levels, and I'll probably just give it the award to keep the streak going. But while it does add more content like quests to delivery specific combinations of supplies, which sometimes unlocks shorter routes, and lots of options for vehicle upgrades, not having access to them all at the beginning makes it tough to manage everything, and there are almost too many choices. I feel like I could get stuck micromanaging my options forever instead of just driving. And the driving doesn't feel quite as good as in previous games.