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Games Played in 2023

Since 2014 I've been documenting every time I play a game and what I thought about it during that session. You can see all the previous lists here.

A session can be anywhere from a few minutes to many hours. Sessions that last longer than one block of time (illustrated below) are counted for each block individually. Sessions that cross over a block (like from 2:30 to 4) count towards the one that more time was spent in.

This will be unedited and likely full of typos and misspellings. The descriptions of my sessions may include story spoilers. Any spoilers will NOT be marked.

Here's the break down of the time of day:

Time	Term	Time	Term
12am to 3am	Midnight	Noon to 3pm	Afternoon
3am to 6am	Early Morning	3pm to 6pm	Early Evening
6am to 9am	Morning	6pm to 9pm	Evening
9am to Noon	Late Morning	9pm to 12am	Late Evening

List items

Indie

This is for all the various indie games that are not in the wiki yet.
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Witchcraft TD
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Played: 1/24. Late Morning. Enjoyed. Mobile.
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Played: 2/1. Evening. PC Browser.
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Played: 2/4. Early Morning.
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Played: 2/5. Late Evening.
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Whackerball
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Played: 2/8. Late Evening. Neutral. PC Stream.
This game is an interesting match up but I found the controls difficult to wrap my brain around. I wonder if it has gamepad support. I'll probably play it again sometime. It'll be a good podcast game.
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Played: 2/9. Late Evening.
I'm just not sure how to play this game well. Like I don't know what the strategy is.
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Ocean Axe
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Played: 2/10. Midnight. PC Stream. Mixed.
The steam page said this game was a Metroidvania, but it's level based. Also the gamepad controls make you use the analog stick so the movement doesn't feel great. Nice graphics though, but definitely rough around the edges. I'll probably not play it again.
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Dire Decks
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Played: 2/13. Midnight. PC Browser. Enjoyed.
I saw this game going around twitter. It's alright. Really cool proof of concept if nothing else.
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Played: 2/15. Midnight. Mixed.
This game is OK but it really lack variety. Like there is set of cards that works the best.
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Tower Tactics: Liberation
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Played: 2/13. Evening. PC Stream. Neutral.
This is a Tower Defense mixed with a rogue-like. It seems very easy, but like I got a game breaking bug while I tried to place a tower and it persisted after reloaded my save. So I had to end my run. That sucks.
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Played: 2/14. Afternoon.
So I didn't have a game breaking bug this time and I completed a run. The game is very easy but it has some cool things going for it.
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Played: 2/14. Late Evening.
I just don't know how you could lose in this game...
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Played: 2/17. Early Evening.
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Played: 2/18. Midnight.
I keep playing this and am waiting for it to get difficult. It's just such an easy game to veg out to while listening to a podcast.
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Played: 2/23. Late Evening.
I actually lost one! WOW. I tried the ascension level 1 for the basic deck. It's mostly came down to luck though.
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Played: 2/28. Late Evening.
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Ardein.Fall
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Played: 4/1. Afternoon. PC Steam. Mixed.
This game has a cool premise but controls really poorly and seems really difficult. I didn't really like it.
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Custodian: Beginning of the End
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Played: 4/1. Afternoon. PC Steam. Negative.
This game seems to be trying to be a 2D dark souls type with very specific movement/etc, but it plays like shit and is largely annoying. I didn't like it.
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Wizard's Way Out
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Started: 6/11. Late Evening. PC Itch. Enjoyed.
This is a really cool and cute little block pushing puzzle game that is very clever.
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Played: 6/12. Late Evening.
I hit a wall last session and I don't think I can figure it out. Couldn't this time around.
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Non-Stop Raiders
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Played: 6/14. Evening. PC Itch. Enjoyed.
This is a fun little endless runner. It has some progression, but I think with it's scope and controls it maybe should have been a free game. It is fun for what it is though.
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Played: 6/15. Late Evening.
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Shadows of Forbidden Gods
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Played: 7/15. Early Evening.
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Played: 7/15. Evening.
Saw this game on Cohost and it's extremely cool. Gonna be playing a lot of it!
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Played: 7/15. Late Evening.
Restarted on a small map and WON. just by making the world covered in Darkness. The game is pretty cool but I wish there was a bit more too it. Definitely a good time sink though.
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Played: 7/16. Midnight.
Won another run with the first god. Never got to summon her, but did have a really cool Baroness that was just a hero Hunter, even killed the Chosen One. The game was over once I had the Monarch found the Dark Empire. Also the First Daughter is terrifying. I'll have to try to build towards her better.
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Played: 7/16. Late Morning.
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Played: 7/16. Afternoon.
Lost because they killed the World Serpent. I did manage to make the Chosen One insane though.
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Played: 7/16. Early Evening.
I won one with the Laughing Tome, but I don't think I really understand victory conditions.
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Played: 7/16. Late Evening.
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Played: 7/17. Midnight.
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Played: 7/17. Early Evening.
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Played: 7/17. Evening.
This massive map game is going surprisingly well.
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Played: 7/17. Late Evening.
Nope. Lost that one. haha.
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Played: 7/21. Early Evening.
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Played: 7/21. Evening.
Played as the plant goddess. Her mechanics are interesting, but I don't really understand how they're supposed to work in the late game since they're effected by world panic and awareness. Also the game crashed. Ah well, I basically won that game anyway.
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Played: 7/22. Late Morning.
Finished up my game with the plant goddess and then played one as Mammon on a small map and it was SUPER EASY. I'll definitely play as him again on a much larger map.
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Played: 7/22. Late Morning.
Played a short game with the Hive Mind. They seem interesting. Took a while to get going, but once it did it really went fast.
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Played: 7/22. Afternoon.
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Played: 7/22. Early Evening.
Won a game with Mammon on a 64x64 map. It was interesting and pretty easy.
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The Wratch's Den
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Played: 11/25. Early Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
Picked this up during the Steam sale. It's interesting but just kinda throws you into it. It's weird how you can only control one minion at a time. I wonder if I'm missing something.
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Otherwar
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Played: 11/25. Early Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
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Played: 11/25. Evening.
This is an interesting if difficult/grindy TD/bullethell game. Seems pretty good so far.
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Played: 11/26. Midnight. Mixed.
I beat Normal and unlocked endless mode, but I think I'm done with this game. It actually became pretty easy (maybe hard is different) and the main challenge was just repeating the same exact waves over and over again. It wasn't very interesting in the end. I don't think I'll play it again.
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Bosorka
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Played: 11/26. Late Morning. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
This is a twin stick action roguelite sort of deal. It seems pretty good so far. I like the pretty witch lady and the music is real good. I do find some of the animations hard to read particularly for the boss of the first area but I suspect the game expects you to just be dashing away from an enemy if you're near one. I haven't really been doing that.
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Played: 11/26. Afternoon.
Beat the boss of the first area. The second area seems rough? I don't know what to do about those tornadoes.
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Played: 11/26. Late Evening.
Got to the Third Area! It turns out Souls are the universal currency but there's a lot you can spend on them during runs, which is interesting I guess. It does make reviving the familiars really costly.
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Penny Blood: Hellbound
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Played: 12/14. Late Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
This is in closed beta right now. It's an action roguelite, vaguely similar to Hades, but doesn't control as well. It's obviously drawing a lot of inspiration from Hades though. It's a side game to Penny Blood, which is a Shadow Hearts spiritual successor. I played about 2 hours of it. It's still pretty rough, but I think there is a lot of potential. I like the characters, art, and music (especially the music!!)
The game calls the cast a group of "anarchists" and that made me cautious as I was wondering how they defined it. They do start the game with them bombing Wall Street, which is a thing anarchists at the time might have done and it is sick as hell. I am curious how much inspiration from historical anarchists they'll be drawing from if any or if they'll just be using the word is the more common way. So far the cast is pretty typical for this kind of fiction. They're bunch of weirdo murderer and criminals of various sorts.
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Played: 12/16. Early Evening.
Didn't come close to beating the first area yet. The metaprogression is very slow and not super well guided in this game as of yet. The main gameplay is pretty fun though.
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Played: 12/16. Evening.
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Played: 12/16. Late Evening.
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Played: 12/17. Midnight.
Beat the 2nd Area and thus the completed the current content. This game is A LOT of fun. Once you get stuff going you become very powerful. Unfortunately that takes a lot of runs right now.
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Played: 12/23. Early Evening.
Just wanted to do one run and had some fun. Once you get stuff upgraded this game becomes very easy with the melee characters.
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Slay the Spire

Played: 1/7. Midnight. Enjoyed. PC Steam.
Was finally feeling good enough to be awake a bit and play something. This is what I settled on. I did not do too well as the Ironclad.
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Played: 2/2. Midnight.
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Dwarf Fortress

Played: 1/7. Early Evening. Neutral. PC Steam.
Finally broke down and bought this game. I don't think the tutorial is very good.
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Played: 1/31. Midnight. Enjoyed.
Ok I tried again and actually I'm doing alright. There's a lot I don't understand and am doing wrong, but I'm getting there and figuring it out.
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Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

Started: 1/19. Late Evening. Neutral. 3DS.
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Played: 1/21. Evening. Mixed.
I think this game is maybe not so good... Beautiful art though!
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Shot2048

Played: 1/21. Early Evening. Mobile. Neutral.
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Played: 1/23. Morning.
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Played: 1/27. Late Evening.
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Played: 1/30. Midnight.
This game is not very good, I don't know why I'm playing it. I did get a new high score though. I guess that's something.
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Played: 6/6. late Morning.
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Gundam Evolution

Played: 2/4. Late Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
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Played: 2/5. Afternoon.
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Played: 2/10. Midnight.
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Played: 2/10. Afternoon.
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Played: 2/10. Evening.
I really love this game. It's so much fun. Once it matches you with people of equal skill, it's incredible. I just wish the weeklies and daylies gave me the GM because it's my favorite, but I'm enjoying the asshimar, turn A, and DOM now too.
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Played: 2/11. Afternoon.
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Played: 2/11. Evening.
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Played: 2/12. Afternoon.
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Played: 2/14. Late Evening.
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Played: 2/16. Afternoon.
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Played: 2/17. Midnight.
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Played: 2/17. Early Evening.
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Played: 2/18. Evening.
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Kavel

Played: 2/7. Afternoon. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
This is a totally decent little matching game. It'll be a fine podcast game.
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Played: 2/9. Late Evening.
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Beholgar

Played: 2/8. Late Evening. PC Steam. Mixed.
It's not my style of game. It's very much a "retro" platformer. Like you don't have variable jumping and you take a lot of unnecessary damage from silly things. I bet folks that like this sort of game really dig it, but it is not for me. I do not think I will be playing more of it. I find this style of game too frustrating.
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Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga

Started: 2/10. Midnight. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
This game seems extremely cool so far. A sort of mix between FE and Ogre Battle. I only played the first chapter and little bit after that, but it seems like my jam considerably!!
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Played: 2/20. Late Evening.
Finally got back to this game. Only played one more mission and messed with my party a bit. It continues to be really cool.
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Played: 2/22. Late Evening.
Oh no! the main character was betrayed and the rebels were actually the good guys!! Who could have seen this coming?! Trite story setup aside, this game is still very good and starting to get a little tough. The arena match was particularly tough. I'm also not sure how to make my non-main character units gain levels faster. They are so under powered. But maybe what you're supposed to do is have your main character level guys up and then cycle them out and give them their own units instead? I should try that!!
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Played: 2/24. Midnight.
My idea didn't quite work out like I thought it would, but that's fine. I now have a lot of units and am getting them leveled up pretty good. You really just have to look out for units with high LDR to make them squad leaders.
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Played: 2/25. Late Evening.
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Played: 2/26. Midnight.
Lost my first battle because I put my hero in a bad spot. Whoops.
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Street Fighter Duel

Played: 3/1. Evening. Mobile. Neutral.
I knew this was going to be just another gacha game, but man is it one!! It even plays itself. I really like the art though. Probably won't play this much. These are not really my sort of game with how predatory they are once you get into them.
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Brotato

Played: 3/6. Late Evening, PC Steam. Enjoyed.
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Played: 3/7. Midnight.
Watched a streamer play this game and it seemed cool. Picked it up and it is very cool and good. I really like how it evolves the Vampire Survivors genre if you can even say that.
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Played: 3/7. Morning.
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Played: 3/7. Early Evening.
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Played: 3/7. Evening.
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Played: 3/7. Evening.
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Played: 3/8. Afternoon.
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Played: 3/8. Late Evening.
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Played: 3/10. Late Evening.
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Played: 3/16. Midnight.
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Played: 4/29. Afternoon.
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Played: 4/30. Morning.
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Played: 4/30. Late Evening.
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20 Minutes Until Dawn

Played: 3/7. Midnight. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
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Played: 3/7. Early Morning.
Picked this up with Brotato. At first I wasn't too sure about it, but then I got a really good run and was like "ah yes, this is that good VS feeling." It's fun!
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Played: 3/7. Early Morning.
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Played: 3/7. Early Evening.
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Played: 3/8. Late Evening.
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Played: 3/8. Late Evening.
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Played: 3/11. Afternoon.
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Played: 3/11. Early Evening.
Unlocked two more characters who are really cool and beat the game a few times.
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Played: 3/11. Early Evening.
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Played: 3/11. Late Evening.
Almost beat with every character and every gun... almost.
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Played: 3/12. Midnight.
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Played: 3/12. Early Evening.
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Played: 3/12. Evening.
Got to Darkness 10.
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Played: 3/27. Evening.
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Played: 3/28. Late Evening.
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Played: 4/1. Early Evening.
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Played: 4/1. Last Evening.
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Played: 4/2. Midnight.
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Played: 4/2. Midnight.
Beat it at Darkness 15!!
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Played: 4/2. Late Morning.
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Played: 4/2. Afternoon.
Trying to beat Darkness 15 with each character and weapon. It's tough.
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Played: 4/2. Evening.
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Played: 4/3. Late Evening.
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Played: 4/4. Afternoon.
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Played: 4/8. Evening.
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Played: 6/10. Afternoon.
V1.0 came out so I was checking it out. The new stuff seems cool but man Darkness 15 is tough with it.
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Played: 6/10. Early Evening.
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Played: 6/10. Evening.
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Played: 6/10. Late Evening.
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Played: 6/11. Early Evening.
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Played: 6/17. Late Evening.
Beat Darkness 15 with another character. It was the lightning gal.
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Played: 6/18. Afternoon.
Beat Darkness 15 with another character. This time it was the blackhole gal with the crossbow.
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Played: 6/20. Evening.
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Played: 6/20. Late Evening.
Another character and weapon down for Darkness 15. This time Abby with the Bat Gun.
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Played: 6/22. Late Evening.
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Played: 6/23. Late Evening.
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Played: 6/24. Midnight.
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Played: 7/2. Early Evening.
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Played: 7/9. Afternoon.
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Played: 7/10. Late Evening.
Trying to beat Darkness 15 with the kunai and I just can't. I got to the final boss this time at least, but I just don't know what to do with it then.
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Played: 11/11. Afternoon.
They added a new character who was very easy but man, this game is good.
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Played: 12/31. Early Evening.
Trying to get Darkness 15 on every character and weapon and it's hard. I don't understand the Kunai at all.
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Played: 12/31. Evening.
Just can't get a hang of the one gal or the kunai at all.
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Played: 12/31. Late Evening.
Dang dang dang dang!! I couldn't complete what I wanted to.
Slice & Dice

Played: 3/9. Late Morning. Mobile. Enjoyed.
Played this while waiting to get a CT Scan.
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Neodash

Started: 3/26. Early Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
This is a very pretty time-trail racing game. I don't know how much I'll play it because it's a bit intense, but it's very cool.
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Played: 3/27. Early Evening.
I hit a wall with this game and I think I'm done with it. It feels like it's very demanding of some techniques that I am just not familiar with. It's very pretty though.
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Metroid

-- Metroid Planets --
Played: 4/1. Late Evening. PC Standalone. Neutral.
This is a fan remake of the original Metroid with a bunch of other stuff. The problem is, despite being made in GameMaker, it doesn't have full gamepad support for some reason? The keyboard controls are just not to my liking. Z is shoot and X is jump and it just feels wrong to me. Those should at least be flipped. Though I'd prefer Jump being on Space. So I can't really play it. Otherwise it seems really cool.
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Soul Hackers 2

Started: 4/8. Late Morning. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
Been meaning to play this for a while. It's very front load with story as these games often are, but it seems cool. I like the characters and the style. Ringo is kinda a brat and that's fun.
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Played: 4/8. Early Evening.
I'm getting distracted by side stuff. I'm about 4 hours in and I haven't unlocked fusing yet! Bah.
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Played: 4/8. Late Evening.
Fusing was literally unlocked as soon as I went back to base.
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Played: 4/9. Afternoon.
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Played: 4/9. Early Evening.
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Played: 4/9. Late Evening.
This is kinda exactly what I want from a SMT game at the moment. It's the right mix of dungeon crawling and apocalyptic storytelling. I just can't help but do all the side stuff and be way overleveled for everything and never have any room for demons. haha
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Played: 4/15. Late Evening.
So many side quests!
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Played: 4/16. Late Morning.
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Played: 4/16. Afternoon.
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Played: 4/22. Late Morning.
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Played: 4/22. Afternoon.
processing through the story now.
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Played: 4/22. Evening.
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Played: 4/22. Late Evening.
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Played: 4/23. Late Morning.
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Played: 4/23. Afternoon.
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Played: 5/4. Evening.
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Played: 5/4. Late Evening.
Apparently where I ended off last time was right before a TON of a cutscenes. I think I'm about half way.
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Played: 5/7. Late Morning.
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Played: 5/7. Afternoon.
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Played: 5/7. Early Evening.
Definitely passed the half way point in this game. Starting to see the -dyne spells.
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Played: 5/7. Early Evening.
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Played: 5/13. Early Evening.
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Played: 5/13. Evening.
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Played: 5/14. Morning.
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Played: 5/14. Late Morning.
I'm at the point where I have to do a lot of very specific things, like fuse demons with certain skills, to deal with most of the side quests I have. There was a twist as to who really is Iron Mask and I don't quite understand how Figue didn't detect that earlier, but whatever.
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Played: 5/21. Late Morning.
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Played: 5/21. Afternoon.
Nearing the end of the game. Got the last dungeon (I'm assuming) open. I did get an answer to my question. Raven didn't have a Covenant at the time when Figue first met him. I did figure that Figue would be the final boss. The game makes it pretty obvious. Honestly the story is not that great, but I like the characters. It's a solid B-Tier game and the combat is good.
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Played: 5/21. Early Evening.
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Played: 5/21. Evening.
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Played: 5/21. Evening.
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Played: 5/21. Late Evening.
Going through the DLC dungeon. The optional boss at the top of the one tower was VERY ANNOYING, but I beat it.
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Played: 5/22. Evening.
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Played: 5/22. Late Evening.
So I basically finished the DLC but there's still a lot left to that dungeon. Debating whether I should go through it or the final dungeon or what I can in Axis first.
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Played: 5/26. Evening.
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Played: 5/26. Late Evening.
Alright, I can go and finish the game whenever I want. I've got everyone's soul level over 100, but apparently you need to be even higher than that for the 5th level of Axis. I'll have to look up how to do that. Hopefully you can do it for all party members in a single play through. Once I complete all the Axis Floor 4s I'm going to go hard into the DLC dungeon. But I might beat the game first? I don't know. I don't want the final boss to be too easy.
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Played: 5/27. Late Morning.
So I've done everything I could do outside of the DLC dungeon and the NG+ only stuff. I tried to use Cheat Engine to max out my soul levels, but I couldn't get any of the things I tried to work.
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Played: 5/27. Afternoon.
Going through the DLC dungeon babeh!! Let's see if I can complete it before I burn out on this game.
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Played: 5/27. Evening.
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Played: 5/27. Late Evening.
I am at the point where I just need to grind to 99. I also only have like 10 more demons to get to complete the compendium.
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Played: 5/28. Early Evening.
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Played: 5/29. Early Evening.
At lvl 99 and fighting the DLC final boss. It is NO JOKE. All-hit Almighty attacks every turn. It's extremely rough.
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Finished: 6/11. Afternoon.
Beat the DLC and the game. The true ending was pretty meh, but I really liked this game.
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Itorah

Started: 6/14. Evening. PC Steam. Mixed.
This game suffers from being kinda rough around the edge. Beautiful art and music (I really like the soundtrack actually), but it's gamefeel is just not quite there and the level design is pretty uninspired. I may keep with it for a bit since I hear it's only about 7 hours long, but it's kinda a slog.
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Played: 6/14. Late Evening. Negative.
I got to a point where there was a really hard instant death chase scene with extremely bad checkpointing and hazards. I'm done with this game.
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Dredge

Started: 6/22. Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
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Played: 6/22. Late Evening.
This game is cool as hell. Relaxing and tense in a way. Love the Shadow Hearts fishing mini game. Great vibes and mystery.
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Played: 6/24. Morning.
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Played: 6/24. Late Morning.
Really enjoying the vibes of this game. A whale surfaced while I was out and it was really surprising and cool. I got attacked by a monster fish that was disguised as a boat at night!
Cool Game.
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Played: 6/24. Early Evening.
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Played: 6/25. Evening.
Was a little to ambitious and got killed by a giant tentacle.
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Played: 6/30. Late Evening.
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Played: 7/1. Midnight.
Finished up the one area and am now at the Mangrove area which is terrifying so far. While approaching it I was passed by a truly massive spiny eel thing. Game's cool.
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Played: 7/1. Late Morning.
Finished up the Mangrove area. It wasn't too scary once I really explored it. I've upgraded my boat enough that I am very fast now and it was a bit of an issue in that area, but man am I zooming around.
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Finished: 7/1. Early Evening.
Finished the game! Got both endings. I think I like the "Throw it back" ending the best. It's a cool game. Only took me about 12 hours. It was pretty straight forward. I wish there was a bit more to do during the end game after you do everything in the islands. I also never got one of the powers. I'll have to look that up.
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Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Started: 6/29. Late Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
Played through the first chapter with my partner who had never played it. The opening is very tutorial and set up heavy, but she thinks it's OK.
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Played: 7/1. Evening.
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Played: 7/1. Late Evening.
Got through Chapters 2 and 3. She loves Missile because how can you not!! MISSILE!!!
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Played: 7/4. Late Evening.
My partner is a little down on it and feels that the plot is taking too long to get going for her liking. I'm really enjoying it though. I love the characters and the animation. It's so fun.
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Played: 7/24. Evening.
Got back to this and finished up the CHICKEN KITCHEN.
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Played: 8/20. Evening.
Finished up Chapter 8. I barely remember most of the stuff now.
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Played: 12/14. Evening.
We finally got back to this. Though we just finished Chapter 13, so there must have been some sessions that I didn't add to this or my sheet. Ah well.
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Played: 12/16. Evening.
Got some big revelations tonight! I completely forget the Park Guy dies but I didn't forget that Missile is playable.
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Played: 12/22. Late Evening.
We finished up the Sub part I think, but I remember it ending differently when I originally play it.
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Played: 12/23. Evening.
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Finished: 12/23. Late Evening.
Completed the game!! It does pretty much become a VN in the last few chapters. That's fine. We had a lot of fun doing voices for each character. Apparently this version has some challenge modes or puzzles so we're going to try those out some other time. My partner did guess that Sissel was the cat before it was revealed.
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Aeterna Noctis

Started: 7/1. Late Evening. PC Steam. Neutral.
This game seems alright. Certainly ambitious and nice looking. A bit too much story I feel. There's something that feels off about the controls but I can't quite place it yet. Like they're fine and work, but there's something that feels strange. It might be the shaders they use on a lot of the platforms that make the edges hard to read.
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Played: 7/2. Late Evening. Enjoyed.
~~~
Played: 7/3. Midnight.
Got a bit further into this game. Didn't find any new major abilities other than another way to heal, which seems to have made it so enemies don't drop health potions as frequently or at all anymore.
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Played: 7/3. Evening.
The platforming in this game is kinda frustrating for the reasons mentioned in the first post. It also feels like it was made with a double jump but so far I haven't gotten one. I did just get the wall jump and it's Mega Men X style. This game is perhaps a bit too much Hollow Knight, but I'll keep at it.
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Played: 7/3. Late Evening.
The wall jump really opened up the game. There feels like there's a lot of places I could go now. I choose to go down and found a forge.
~~~
Played: 7/4. Late Morning.
I feel like I'm not finding the small incremental upgrades that I would expect. Tons of mirror pieces, tons of accessories (though I still ONLY have ONE slot), tons of treasure chests, but no heart pieces. I also completed a light tower and saw a cutscene that seemed like an ending, but then it just spit me out and gave me a new ability. no idea what that's about it. I got a ranged attack and it kinda sucks. I think I should remap the controls for it.
~~~
Played: 7/4. Afternoon. Mixed.
I am at the boss of the Forge and I don't think I could beat it. I just don't have enough health and the game's controls are just awkward enough that I just don't have confidence that I will get through it. I did FINALLY find a health upgrade but having 6 hp doesn't make too much of a difference here.
I also discovered that the upgrade keys don't work the way I had hoped. Each key has a specific door rather than unlocking in a specific order. That's a bit boring and unnecessary. I don't see the point of doing that other than as padding. Very disappointed.
~~~
Jack Move

Started: 7/9. Early Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
This seems like a fun little cyberpunk RPG. the writing is a bit whatever, but everything else is nice.
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Played: 7/23. Early Evening.
I decided to get back to this. I like it, but I find the writing kinda annoying and that makes me only want to play it for about an hour at at time.
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Baldur's Gate 3

Started: 8/13. Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
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Played: 8/13. Late Evening.
Watched a lot of folks play this and in a moment of weakness I had to buy it. I don't really like DnD 5e or the setting but I really liked D:OS2 and this is scratching that itch. I made a very hot drow sorceress and am duel welding short swords when not using cantrips or a crossbow. I like Shadowheart a lot... I know there's a cool Teifling lady somewhere too. Can't wait to meet her.
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Played: 8/13. Late Evening.
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Played: 8/14. Midnight.
This game just eats time.
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Played: 8/14. Early Evening.
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Played: 8/14. Evening.
I don't have a lot to say about this game. I'm enjoying it.
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Played: 8/14. Late Evening.
Got Kalach. She rules!
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Played: 8/15. Late Evening.
Game's hard right now. I spent a lot of time just trying to do one encounter.
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Played: 8/16. Evening.
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Played: 8/16. Late Evening.
Slowly making my way through Act 1. The area is VERY dense.
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Played: 8/21. Afternoon.
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Played: 8/21. Early Evening.
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Played: 8/21. Evening.
Got out early from work and had a marathon session. Still in Act 1 though. Exploring the goblin camp now.
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Played: 8/21. Late Evening.
Gosh DnD combat fucking sucks so much. It's so uninteresting and doesn't let the cool stuff happen enough. The world and story is great, but this combat has all the problems that make DnD a boring and tedious game most of the time.
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Played: 8/22. Early Evening.
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Played: 8/22. Evening.
Trying to find the druid and I wandered into the Nightsong quest. I think I'll come back to this later though.
~~~
Played: 8/22. Late Evening.
Turns out Halsin goes back to the grove if you do a long rest in the goblin camp. I spent A LONG TIME looking for him and cleared out that camp completely before discovering this. Ah well. I now have a lot of gold and stuff to sell.
~~~
Played: 8/31. Late Evening.
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Played: 8/31. Late Evening.
Cleaning up stuff in Act 1. I did summon a beholder in the camp during the grove party though. That was very funny.
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Played: 9/1. Midnight.
Considering kicking Gale out of the camp considering I don't use him and he's a walking bomb.
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Played: 9/1. Afternoon.
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Played: 9/1. Early Evening.
fought a bunch of spiders in a well and about to go through the underdark.
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Played: 9/1. Evening.
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Played: 9/1. Late Evening.
Found a way into the Auntie's inner domain and that place seemed like it sucked so I reloaded. Then I explored a tower in the underdark.
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Played: 9/2. Late Morning.
Accidentally got on a boat and found the place I wanted to go.
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Played: 9/2. Early Evening.
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Played: 9/2. Evening.
Made my way through the forge and got equipment I cannot use. haha.
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Played: 9/2. Late Evening.
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Played: 9/3. Midnight.
Finished everything in the Underdark I think. I guess all that I need to do is take the elevator I found in the one place.
~~~
Played: 9/3. Afternoon.
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Played: 9/3. Early Evening.
Pissed off the Gith goddess and made myself an enemy to the githyanki. Seems Voss is cool though. Now I'm in Act 2, the shadow lands.
~~~
Played: 9/3. Evening.
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Played: 9/3. Late Evening.
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Played: 9/4. Midnight.
Yeah, I spent most of the day playing this. I'm pretty deep it feels like into Act 2. I'm focusing on removing the shadow curse. Seems like the most pressing thing. I'm pretty happy with my party of my MC, Karlach, Shadowheart, and Wyll. Sometimes I bring Lae with me when she would make sense. I actually really like her in combat. I did just get Halsin, but he's not really my type. I guess I can make him into a healer but I gotta have Shadowheart with me. She feels like the main character.
~~~
Played: 9/4. Afternoon.
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Played: 9/4. Early Evening.
Exploring Shar's Gauntlet now.
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Played: 9/4. Evening.
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Played: 9/4. Late Evening.
Still exploring Shar's Gauntlet.
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Played: 9/5. Midnight.
At the end of Shar's Gaunlet, but apparently that basically ends the act so I'm going through and doing everything else I want to do first. I found a whole other part to the west that I didn't know was there.
~~~
Played: 9/5. Evening.
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Played: 9/5. Late Evening.
Finished up everything else I wanted to do in Act 2 and started the assault on the tower. The first encounter was tough.
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Played: 9/6. Late Evening.
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Played: 9/7. Midnight.
Act 2 just keeps going. But I have to be right at the end.
~~~
Played: 9/7. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 9/8. Midnight.
I forgot to put in the notes when I actually played this, but I completed Act 2 and did the early bits of Act 3. Tons of worms in my head now. Was a bit disappointed by the twist.
~~~
Played: 9/8. Late Evening.
I love this circus. Orin is a bit much but I like how they're using her.
~~~
Played: 9/9. Late Evening.
So I was exploring Rivington and now I can't go back to camp or fast travel and it seems like it ate some of my saves. This is pretty frustrating. Closing and relaunching didn't fix it. I hope I don't have to go back to a much earlier save. I think that would make me stop playing the game.
~~~
Played: 9/30. Late Morning.
~~~
Played: 9/30. Afternoon.
Fixed that issue. Hadn't played this game fora few weeks waiting for bug fixes, etc. Our cat was very sick too and had passed. It didn't feel right playing something. I wasn't motivated either.
Anyway. I'm back at this game now and spent pretty much 3 hours just exploring the bridge into the city itself.
~~~
Played: 9/30. Early Evening.
Finished everything on the bridge I think. I may have some clown bits to track down though.
~~~
Played: 10/7. Late Evening.
Started to explore the lower city, but just wasn't feeling playing this game at the time. Didn't play for long.
~~~
Vampire Survivors

Played: 8/19. Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
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Played: 8/19. Late Evening.
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Played: 8/20. Midnight.
Decided to jump back into this game after watching Next Lander play through a bunch of it in co-op. It's still VS! I got to reunlock stuff and I picked up the DLC.
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Played: 8/20. Afternoon.
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Played: 8/20. Early Evening.
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Played: 8/20. Evening.
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Played: 8/20. Late Evening.
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Played: 11/18. Early Evening.
Played some of this local multiplayer with my nephew. It was a lot of fun!
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Played: 11/26. Afternoon.
Just did a run in the Milk Factory and finished it. Had a lot of fun.
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Played: 11/26. Late Evening.
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Played: 11/27. Evening.
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Played: 11/29. Early Evening.
Trying to do the one DLC map, the Japan themed on and getting destroyed by trying to be too fancy with it. Apparently tons of tough enemies spawn when you're in certain areas and I'm going to those areas too early.
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Played: 11/30. Evening.
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Played: 11/30. Late Evening.
Unlockin' train continues.
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Played: 12/4. Early Evening.
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Played: 12/4. Evening.
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Played: 12/4. Late Evening.
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Played: 12/5. Evening.
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Played: 12/5. Evening.
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Played: 12/5. Late Evening.
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Played: 12/6. Late Evening.
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Played: 12/8. Early Evening.
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Played: 12/8. Evening.
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Played: 12/8. Late Evening.
Unlocked the "final" level.
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Played: 12/9. Evening.
Beat the game?
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Played: 12/9. Late Evening.
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Played: 12/10. Evening.
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Played: 12/10. Late Evening.
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Played: 12/22. Late Evening.
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Played: 12/23. Afternoon.
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Played: 12/26. Midnight.
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Played: 12/26. Evening.
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Played: 12/26. Late Evening.
~~~
Myst

Started: 9/30. Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
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Played: 9/30. Late Evening.
Since our cat has passed, my partner wanted to do something together that she enjoyed, which is play Myst! I haven't played it since probably 1995. We got the Masterpiece edition which is the version she played. It's very much not a modern video game but is still very captivating.
~~~
Played: 10/2. Late Evening.
We finished two of the Ages. The gear one and the boat one. The Gear one was pretty good. The boat was just kinda awful. Extremely tedious and not very interesting. A lot of the puzzles in this game fill like busy work. I do think the world and narrative is interesting, though it is kinda just told in the diaries in the library and not really present in the ages themselves. The only stuff in the ages is "look how much both of these sons suck!" Apparently there are multiple endings.
~~~
Finished: 10/5. Late Evening.
We completed Myst! And looked at all the endings. Though the game just sort of stops. Like it lets you wander around more but there's nothing left to do. That's a little weird. Overall I enjoyed this game though I found a lot of its design dated and frustrating. It's got a cool world, and the true ending totally sets up a sequel hook in the most blatant
way and that's hilarious. Well, on to Riven: The Sequel to Myst.
Riven: The Sequel to Myst

Started: 10/6. Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
This game is a lot more sprawling than Myst so it hasn't really grabbed me yet. Myst was so dense with interesting mysteries right off the bat and this one doesn't really have that. Also man do they love they tracked transport.
~~~
Played: 10/8. Evening.
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Played: 10/8. Late Evening.
We've been unlocking paths around the islands. This game does use a lot of circle level design that I appreciate, but I do miss the density and focus of the original. There also was a bit of pixel hunting. This game also has some pretty laborious animations that you have to sit through before you can act, and it's very easy to misclick and then have to wait like 15 seconds before you can even correct what you've done.
But the world is pretty interesting. I did get jumpscared by a child suddenly being on screen when I wasn't expecting anyone.
~~~
Played: 10/13. Evening.
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Played: 10/13. Late Evening.
We couldn't play yesterday because we were getting audio error. Today that error is gone for some reason despite not doing anything different. Regardless we opened a door and went to the place that's on the box art, which is not Riven, but some other placed called Tey or something. To get there we had to select the five correct animals from a group of 20, but we also had to activate them in the right order. No clue how to figure out that order, we looked it up. Now we're back on Riven and not sure what exactly to do. We think we have to figure out all the symbols that correspond to each generator dome but aren't sure what to do with that information.
~~
Played: 10/20. Evening.
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Played: 10/20. Late Evening.
The weird audio error occasionally happens again. It seems like windows is resetting some audio thing. We now figured out a lot of stuff and met Gehn in person. Did use a little bit of help with some hints but did a lot of the heavy lifting ourselves.
~~~
Finished: 10/27. Late Evening.
We finished this! We thought we couldn't get the end because we didn't realize you could pull a stopper out of the star fissure viewer. We seriously were like "whelp I guess we screwed up. Let's just watch the endings on youtube" and that's how we saw the dang thing! Ah well, whatever.
The game was cool but I didn't like it as much as Myst. I think Myst has more interesting puzzles and that Riven feels very empty and sparse in comparison.
~~~
The Room

Started: 10/12. Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
Playing through Myst reminded me of this game and it turns out I own it. We actually wanted to play Riven, but there was a Windows update that seemed to break something with Riven's audio and now it won't launch. Some other games are acting a bit weird. So we decided to check this out. It's really cool so far. The puzzles are a bit simple and the narrative is very dated, but it's cool watching it all unfold.
~~~
Finished: 10/19, Evening. Mixed.
Completed it. It was kinda easy. Especially the last bit. Didn't really up the difficulty or complexity in a way that I found interesting. Kinda just kept with the same sort of puzzles over and over again. Cool aesthetic though.
~~~
The Many Pieces of Mr. Coo

Started: 10/30. Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
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Played: 10/30. Late Evening.
This game is very pretty and very silly, but it has some things my partner and I find frustrating. No Manual saves, No mouse support. We also encountered a bug where we were controlling both the head and the legs at the same time when we only wanted to control one of them and it was really annoying my partner.
All that aside, this game has a cool style.
~~~
Finished: 11/8. Evening.
We were actually right at the end of the game.
It's cool. We looked up what the story was behind it and basically the devs decided to release it unfinished after ghosting the head animator/creative lead and he wasn't very happy about that! It's a shame because, outside of the final puzzle, the game is pretty solid. Definitely the coolest looking game I've played this year.
~~~
Myst III: Exile

Started: 11/8. Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
We only played a little bit of this but it seems interesting so far. We read the bad guy's journal and we also read the exile's journal. Clearly Atrus is clearly the bad guy of the series.
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Played: 11/20. Evening.
This game is great so far. We solved a light puzzle, then an elevator puzzle, then lined up all the things, and got to the first age!! I think I'm enjoying this game more than Riven because it's main island is similarly dense to the island of Myst while also being kinda obscure. Though, the elevator puzzle's solution was pretty much just "did you read the exile's journal?" But still. It's cool.
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Played: 11/26. Afternoon.
We entered the Age and explored for a bit before my partner started to feel sick from motionsickness unfortunately.
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Played: 12/4. Evening.
We played with my partner at the wheel and she was able to play for a lot longer. We solved a puzzle but it kinda just solved itself. This Voltaic Age is a little underwhelming.
~~~
Played: 12/30. Evening.
Got back to this game. did the Four Valve puzzle and finished the Voltaic Age. This puzzle was good, except that I kept interpreting the valve and mechanism wrong so it was hard to communicate how to do the puzzle.
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Rampart

Played: 11/18. Early Evening. PC Emulation. Enjoyed.
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Viewfinder

Started: 11/19. Afternoon. PC Steam. Mixed
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Played: 11/19. Early Evening.
This game is extremely mediocre. The puzzles range from too easy to annoying with a simple solution. I am not finding it challenging in a satisfying way. The narrative is completely unnecessary and largely detracts from the experience. Particularly because the dialogue is so bland and empty. I do not care about any of these characters because all the audio logs and dialogue don't tell me anything interesting. There's a mystery about what happened to these characters but it's not presented in a way that I care about it. "Hey these people were trying to solve the environmental crisis!" but like... OK? It's just not really what I expected nor is in done in a very interesting way. Like it's trying to be about something important but it's really not. And then it does the thing I really don't like, it's self congratulatory. "Oh that was clever, wasn't it?" No. Stop. Shut up!
I'll finish it since I'm pretty sure I'm more than half way through, but unless something really picks up, I do not understand the praise.
~~~
Finished: 11/19. Evening.
Not particularly interesting over all. Reminded me a lot of games like The Pedestrian and Superliminal in that they had interesting ideas for mechanics but couldn't/didn't build interesting puzzles around them. I am glad I turned off the timed thing for the ending bit too.
Surprised this one has so much praise.
~~~
Jusant

Started: 11/24. Afternoon. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
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Played: 11/24. Early Evening.
Played a good chunk of this game. A little passed what the demo was. I'm really enjoying it so far. The climbing controls are a little awkward but that kinda enhances the experience I think.
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Played: 11/24. Evening.
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Played: 11/24. Late Evening.
On chapter 4. I'm really enjoying it. The climb mechanics have gotten a little stale but I do like exploring the world even if I'm only quickly reading the notes and stuff. It has good "Can I get there?" feelings.
~~~
Finished: 11/25. Midnight.
Completed this game! It's pretty good. Never especially difficult and the story is fine. It felt a little truncated to me towards the end. Like each section got shorter and shorter. But it's pretty, enjoyable, and under 6 hours.
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Laika: Aged Through Blood

Played: 12/13. Evening. PC Steam. Negative.
This game controls like shit. OR rather, the one hit kills make this game control like shit. Like I'm sure it controls pretty much how Trials controls but that makes the one-hit nature extremely untenable to me. I even enabled the "grace period" option and it was no different at all? Like I didn't notice any sort of grace period in anything related to crashes/deaths. I got up to where you get a pistol and have to escape I guess, but dying and being sent back to the check point after any sort of minor mistake made this completely unenjoyable for me. The auto aim also didn't seem to work and sometimes my shots would fly off in random directions after I released the button.
Shame, I think if it didn't start like or let you wipe out and have to get back on the bike or something I would enjoy it, but as it is now, it's completely unplayable.
Nice art style though.
~~~
9 Years of Shadows

Started: 12/13. Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
I heard mixed things about this game. Largely that it is extremely difficult because you only start with two hits and a recharagable shield. So far I haven't really found it especially difficult and have not lost any health. I've been playing pretty cautiously however. I wonder if I would be so cautious if I didn't hear the criticism beforehand. Regardless I'm liking what I played. All I did was defeat the first boss.
It seems cool so far!
I am worried that the upgrades for health and stuff seem to be very incremental.
~~~
Played: 12/17. Afternoon.
Really enjoying this game. I find the Energy mechanic to be mostly fine. I did die a whole lot against some bosses and that's a bit annoying, but it does add a bit of tension that you don't typically get from this sort of Castlevania-like. The music is also very good.
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Played: 12/17. Early Evening.
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Played: 12/17. Late Evening.
I'm in the fire painting now. I don't really have much to say about this game. I think it's well designed.
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Played: 12/18. Midnight.
I think the gliding is pretty awkward.
~~~
Played: 12/18. Late Evening.
Getting pretty close to the end of the game. Looks like I have all the major powerups, maxed out the four armors from what I can tell. Still have a lot of notes to find. I know I missed one in one of the paintings. I'm a bit surprised there aren't more movement abilities. Like the lightning armor doesn't get anything. Ah well.
~~~
Played: 12/21. Late Evening.
Just did a little bit of clean up.
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Played: 12/22. Afternoon.
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Played: 12/22. Early Evening.
I have almost 100%'d this game. I have the final area left to go and one blue note left somewhere.
~~~
Played: 12/22. Late Evening.
Collected everything I could and am trying the final boss but it's rude!
~~~
Finished: 12/23. Afternoon.
Was having a real hard time with the final boss. Got to a second phase a lost and then gave myself one last attempt and beat it! Even the third phase.
This game is neat. The energy mechanic gets some getting used to but it adds a sort of tension that I haven't really seen in a game before. It forces you to identify moments of rest and really pay attention to boss patterns. I think the abilities you get a pretty uninteresting but well designed around. The story is fine. It gets the job done and has some unique things going for it. I would recommend it!
~~~